10-08-18 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Councilmember Broden interjected, I think the location actually changed. That just went out. I want to say it is at Hope but I prefer not going on record on that. Committee Chair White stated,In terms of this substitute salary ordinance before us,Jennifer,you have made mention that the County is putting in dollars in support of the Human Right's Commission. Could you share information on that? That was an area we had advocated for when the Human Right's Commission expanded their scope and duties. Ms. Hockenhull replied, So that doesn't actually affect the salary ordinance as a whole because it will be part-time Administrative Assistant/Intake Officer. But the County has committed to give us $30,000 to fund a part-time position over at Human Rights. So we originally requested one (1) Admin Assistant/Intake Officer and now we are requesting two (2) but one (1) of those will be fully-funded by the County. Committee Chair White stated, I think that is good news and we are moving in the right direction. I think it was so important that the Human Right's Commission had the data to support the impact of the increasing scope and responsibility. I appreciate the County stepping up. Committee Chair White then opened the floor to members of the public wishing to speak in favor of or in opposition to this legislation. Jim Bognar, 807 West Washington Street, stated, Ms. White, it has been a long time since we sat together over at Ivy Tech for that presentation.At that time,I said I would attend as many meetings as I could and give you a little bit of input on that. Since this is the last part of Personnel and Finance and you will be voting tonight, I thought this would be a perfect time to talk about something. In a budget process you have both the Administration and the Council. And, interestingly enough,regarding homelessness,I think this is very telling. The Administration looks to take the money and invest. That is their first (1St) priority. They figure out where we are going use it. Roads? Public service? Streets? Sanitation? Diversity training? Then, they look to balance it. So they come with an idea of how they want to invest. That is part of what you are discussing about the particular position as a placeholder. Then they look to balance it and that is what Jennifer does. The Council starts from the idea of balance. They look at what is in the first (1St) District versus the fourth (4th), the second (2°d) and the third (3rd), and how do we balance all of this out? That is what you come at. Then, afterwards, you ask how are we going to invest it? That is where almost everything bumps up against each other. I think, and this is a terrible thing to say at this point in time, the budget is an ongoing process. Jennifer, you will admit, you will start on 2020 next week? The budget is an ongoing process and I'm not sure the way we do it here is the best way to be able to do it, even though we got the best out of it. My hope is there will be changes to this after this process passes. I hope the Administration will come back and say these things worked, these things didn't and they didn't work because of this and we want to move in this direction. And then Council will say, well, we want a little bit more information about this to get a better understanding. Because most of bumping against things comes from them wanting to invest and you want to have balance. And it is about priorities. So you ask me, what would I see through all of this? What I see is a group that is committed to being able to do the best we can with our money. And a lot of it is misconception. More work and additional work, especially as we moved toward 2020. Meeting either monthly or quarterly to know where we are at and what we are doing, I think is just critical. Maybe the Administration starts asking, well, what about that balance? And maybe the Council is asking about the investing. Maybe understanding where each EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W Jefferson Bvld(South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.92211f 574.235.91731 TTD 574.235.5567Iv ww.southbendin.gov 8