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SpUTa g,� ., C .,,; .e YV� 18653 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK UTILITIES JUNE 24, 2019 4:25 P.M. Committee Members Present: Jake Teshka, Dr. Oliver Davis, Sharon L. McBride, Regina Williams-Preston Committee Members Absent: None Other Council Present: Tim Scott, Jo M. Broden, John Voorde, Karen White, Gavin Ferlic Other Council Absent: None Others Present: Graham Sparks, Bob Palmer, Ryan Wrobleski, Morgan Gonsoski, David Moses, Shanita Hunt Presenters: Eric Horvath, Kim Thompson Agenda: Update- Public Works Response to HB1347- Eric Horvath, Director of Public Works Committee Chair Jake Teshka called to order the Utilities Committee meeting at 4:25 p.m. He introduced members of the Committee and proceeded to give the floor to the presenters. Update- Public Works Response to HB1347- Eric Horvath, Director of Public Works Eric Horvath, Director of Public Works for the City of South Bend with offices located on the 13th floor of the County-City Building, stated, Thank you Councilmember Teshka and members of the Council. I'm here to talk to you about House Bill 1347 which did a couple of things. Specifically, I want to talk about the provisions that are relevant to the Water Department because I think that's what is most relevant to our Utilities Committee here.This House Bill did a couple different things. First(1st) and foremost, it established a Policy Review Committee to receive customer complaints and established a process through which those complaints would be handled. It also allowed the Attorney General's Office to provide mediation of unresolved disputes. That was a portion of the bill.Another portion of the bill was preventing local units from placing liens for unpaid water bills. That is what's relevant here. It prevents us from filing a lien on a property for an unpaid water bill. He continued, Furthermore, it also prevents local entities and other utilities from requiring that the owner pays the utility bills. This is for water, gas and electric only. If you have water, gas or electric service in the tenant's name, we cannotrequire the owner to pay those unpaid portions. This was in the last legislative session, so, we've been scrambling to try and figure out how to put together a program to handle this because currently, we do have a requirement that they are in the INTEGRITYI SERVICE' ACCESSIBILITY JENNIFER M.Corns N BIANCA L.TIRADO JOSEPH R.MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Blvd.I South Bend,Indiana 46601 I p 574.235.9221 I f 574.235.9173 I www.southbendin.gov