01-14-19 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING January 14, 2019 confidential,but the Council vote on acceptance or rejection of any proposed mediation settlement, must be made at a public meeting. Councilmember Jo M. Broden made a motion to reject any settlement agreement that may have been proposed at mediation in order to complete the public record on the Court's order to mediate. Councilmember Jake Teshka seconded this motion which carried by a roll call vote of nine (9) ayes. BILL NO. 19-02 A RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA CALLING FOR THE ENACTMENT OF LEGISLATION ADDRESSING HATE CRIMES IN THE STATE OF INDIANA Councilmember Jo M. Broden,201 West North Shore Drive, South Bend, IN,served as a presenter for this bill. Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated, I would like to make some preliminary remarks before I read the resolution into the record. First(1St)and foremost,with regards to this Resolution, my cosponsor Councilmember John Voorde and I would like to recognize the efforts of Marzy Bauer and Bob Feferman, who approached us initially with this idea for a Council resolution and to do it in a timely manner as the General Assembly is kicking off their legislative year. We would also like to recognize, and in their role of inviting us to put together this resolution, they also provided us with outstanding sample documents. We had the assistance of our Attorney Bob Palmer who reviewed those extensively with us and made terrific recommendations, as well as Bianca Tirado our Deputy Clerk. We want to thank you two (2) both, specifically, for your assistance in crafting what is before us. With regard to the Administration, I don't know if she is here or not but I would like to give a shout out to Christina Brooks,our Diversity Inclusion Officer, for her work in reviewing this legislation but also in her work that she does three hundred sixty- five (365) days a year that really makes our City a model with regard to some of these issues we are going to be addressing by way of this resolution. Councilmember Jo M. Broden continued, We in fact do lead in the State of Indiana in terms of our policies and the direction that we have been going. That really has been guided by, I think, an outstanding leader in Mayor Pete. I would also like to thank his office and the coordination of schedule and his presence here tonight to address this. And then I think,really, you know, how do you say most especially, exclamation mark? There are members who have served in the General Assembly, current and former members, who have been on this issue for over twenty (20) years. Two (2) decades of work has preceded what we are presenting tonight, and I think that is really fair to say. In terms of leadership on that issue, I do want to recognize the members of the Black Caucus in both the House and the Senate. We are standing on their shoulders tonight and I am particularly grateful for their leadership, tenacity and endurance. Two (2) decades is a long time and I am hoping we are on the cusp of passing this this year. Councilmember Jo M. Broden went on, So that is a little bit of origin information for you, I would like to quickly highlight and I don't want to stand in the way of the document as it is very extensive and it speaks for itself, but I do want to highlight some content points before my fellow cosponsor and I read it into the record. We are looking for clear-cut guidelines that will be set in our criminal code with passage of this legislation within the General Assembly this year. Most especially is inclusionary and comprehensive language. I will let those two (2)points,as we read the document, hopefully, stand out. The last point I want to hit is where this goes from here. You will see within the document itself, we will be asking our Clerk's Office to transmit this to all Indiana State Legislators and not just our representatives. There already have been bills proposed both in the House and Senate and you can track that online, of course. We want to make sure that this will stand as a poke, a flag, a wave, an exclamation, we are up here, and we are tracking this on the behalf of the City of South Bend and St. Joseph County. We want this done and want it done this year. That is going to be delivered to all of the legislator's email boxes. I know there are some members in the audience tonight and even Council Members who will be making their way down to the State House as part of their prerogative to speak on important issues. 2