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®CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> establishment is great, it makes them feel safe. I'm here to tell you that in other communities,
<br /> communities of color, it decreases your business and it is very intimidating, and customers stop
<br /> coming around. She had other issues and problems, and I won't go into all of the details,but what
<br /> she described was harassment. It was stressful. She was paying fines that she didn't believe she
<br /> owed,but that was because she didn't have time to fight it. She was running a business. The other
<br /> piece of this is that she was also told she couldn't have a liquor license. Again, there are a lot of
<br /> things we don't know about this situation, and maybe there are reasons. But what is disappointing
<br /> is that as a business owner in this community, she didn't have support. It felt like, based on the
<br /> circumstances,she was being targeted. Hearing what we heard about the previous Director of Code
<br /> Enforcement, we know now that she was, in fact, being targeted. This is just an example of the
<br /> practices that happen when we're redeveloping a community. Cities decide who they want there,
<br /> who they don't want there, and that subjective practice can be problematic to say the least. So, we
<br /> talk about, not just homeowners, but African American business owners. She is a black business
<br /> owner trying to make her way in her community, but these kinds of practices have created a
<br /> problem and a barrier for her to thrive. This is just one (1) story that we were able to bring out
<br /> because it is directly connected to something that we, as the City of South Bend,have control over,
<br /> and that's what we want to focus on tonight. It doesn't look pretty, but we're ok with that. We're
<br /> going to address it, and we're going to validate it. Then we're going to ask now what are we going
<br /> to do different? Again, these stories are not unique. I have had several people tell me stories. We
<br /> decided that tonight is not going to be the time to hear all of these stories, but this is just one (1)
<br /> of the more egregious ones. We are looking at creating another time separate from tonight, where
<br /> people can come if they have stories to tell. Those stories can be data. We don't know how, as City
<br /> officials, our actions and determinations affect residents unless we hear from them. So there will
<br /> be another time to hear all of the stories. I'm really excited to have the new Director of Code
<br /> Enforcement here, and over the course of the last two (2) years, I've really seen the change. That
<br /> is largely because of the advocacy of many of you that are here tonight. It is because of the
<br /> willingness and bravery of the people like you who come forward and inform your elected officials
<br /> of what's going on so we can challenge ourselves to look at the practices. We've made a lot of
<br /> progress. Personally, I've seen our City Department of Code Enforcement interacting differently
<br /> with the residents of South Bend, and Tracy is here to talk about some of the things that they've
<br /> learned and that they are doing now.
<br /> Tracy Skibins, Director of Code Enforcement with offices on the 13th floor of the County-City
<br /> Building, stated, I started in Code Enforcement about eighteen (18) months ago. I am going to
<br /> share with you my initial experiences with Code Enforcement, and we can proceed from there. I
<br /> didn't know what to expect, and I knew it would be important for me to be a part of the Code
<br /> Enforcement hearings. We have Code Enforcement hearings every Tuesday and Thursday, and
<br /> when at all possible, I attend every hearing so I can hear people's stories, their struggles, and the
<br /> issues that they face. What became immediately apparent to me is that it really doesn't serve us
<br /> well to add on civil penalties to someone who needs to repair their home if they don't have money
<br /> in the first (1St) place to repair their home. We know that in Code Enforcement, again, we can't
<br /> speak to past policies and procedures, however, that puts us in a very difficult situation. Just as
<br /> Regina said earlier when she was quoting Randy, we do have people upset with us because we're
<br /> not doing enough. But, we also have people upset with us because we are trying to do, in their
<br /> eyes,too much. That puts us in a very difficult situation. So as I sat in the back of the room during
<br /> the hearing process,which can be very confusing to somebody who does not know what to expect,
<br /> I realized that many of the people who come to see us need resources. They need a contact sheet
<br /> of information of people they can reach out to for assistance with utilities, roof repair, or Real
<br /> EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
<br /> 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend.Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 I I D574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov
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