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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Committeemember Ferlic made a motion to send Bill No. 65-18 to the full Council with a favorable recommendation. Committeemember Voorde seconded this motion which carried by a voice vote of four(4) ayes. Bill No. 66-18- Cemetery Fund-Related Ordinance Mr. Dougherty stated, If you would allow me, I will start Bill No. 66-18 by defining its purposes. Really, it is twofold. The first(1St)is that it is necessary and convenient for the maintenance of the Bowman Cemetery. The second (2nd) purpose is sort of a bonus. I will back up and give background. The Bowman Cemetery is a City-owned asset and has been since the 1950s. It was actually established a couple decades before that by a private Cemetery Association. At the time of the land being conveyed to the City's ownership,the City took over as,effectively,the custodian and the responsible party for maintaining the Cemetery. Since that time, the funds that were assembled by the original private trust association were put into the hands of a series of banks as the original trustee was absorb by one (1) bank after another, winding up with Key Bank as the trustee. When I came onboard with Administration and Finance, our former Controller Jen Hockenhull tasked me with a bit of a special project to figure out whether we could make for a movement of those funds out of Key Bank and into the City's ordinary bank accounts within the City's regular accounting structure. That was for two (2) reasons. One (1) is that we were paying, what in our view, were excessive fees for the bank to service as trustee for these funds. Secondly, as I came to learn even later in the game, we had great difficulty drawing down out of those funds with Key Bank serving as trustee. In essence, it was costly to keep the money in a private trustees hand and not very efficient for us to actually draw down funds when specific maintenance items at Bowman Cemetery were needed. He continued, With those things in mind, we set to the task of dislodging those funds from the trustee and bringing them into the City's coffers. We succeeded in doing so which included a legal process through the local court and obtained a court order dissolving the trust and ordering the trustee to pay those funds over to the City's hands for safekeeping. I would be happy to answer any questions about the background but that brings me to the first (1St) function of the ordinance. This is to establish a fund to house that money that came over from the trustee. It is appropriate to have a separate fund unlike what we just discussed in the VPA context where it makes more sense to consolidate. When it comes to protecting a specific asset for perpetuity, it makes more sense to assign it and create for it a separate fund. Just like we have a separate fund for maintenance of the City Cemetery, those two (2) will be on equal terms under the City's control. The second (2nd) which is sort of a bonus is that in the process of getting into the management of these funds, and the ordinance making a place for them to live going forward, was also discovered that the substantive terms in the Municipal Code relating to maintenance of the cemetery, who is responsible for it and the like,were confusing at best and in some areas inconsistent with State law at worst. We went to task of not changing the substance but reorienting them and making sure they are in line with code. While we set up this fund, we wanted to clean up the other terms to make sure they are meaningful going forward. We thought it to be convenient and helpful to do these at the same time. Committee Chair White opened the floor to questions from Committee and Council Members. Councilmember Oliver Davis asked, The funds won't be interchangeable between Bowman and City Cemetery, correct? EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT • 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 110574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 10