08-27-12 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 27, 2012 Whereas, the South Bend Common Council would further like to acknowledge that the Indiana Department of Education announced that Dickinson Fine Arts Academy “…showed greater gains than any other middle school in the state, with 26 percent more of its students passing both the E/LA and Math portions of the ISTEP+”; with Dr. Schmidt noting that “What Dickinson did was focus on developing relationships with their kids and setting the bar very high….then they supported them in getting there and not bringing the bar down”. Now, Therefore, be it resolved, by the Common Council of the City of South Bend Indiana, as follows: Section I. On behalf of the citizens of the City of South Bend, Indiana, the Common Council congratulates Dickinson Intermediate Fine Arts Academy, its dedicated administrators, teachers, and students for their recent academic accomplishments. Section II. The Common Council wishes everyone at Dickinson Intermediate Fine Arts Academy an even better 2012-2013 academic year, and wishes all of its students, parents, teachers, and administrators the very best in the year ahead. Section III. This Resolution shall be in full force and effect from and after its adoption by the Council and approval by the Mayor. Councilmember Henry Davis, 5117 Idlewood Drive, South Bend, Indiana, made the presentation for this Resolution by first offering his comments and then reading the Resolution in its entirety and presenting it to faculty of Dickinson Intermediate Fine Arts Academy. There was no one present wishing to speak to the Council either in favor of or in opposition to this Resolution. Councilmember Varner made a motion to adopt this Resolution by acclamation. Councilmember White seconded the motion which carried. REPORTS OF CITY OFFICES MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG Mayor Pete Buttigieg gave an update on recent activity in the administration. He stated that this was a week with a lot of public activity which will be open to citizens which is great. Regular budget meetings are of course underway and took this opportunity to reiterate his thanks for leadership to Councilmember White and for partnership with City Controller Mark Neal as they work on getting the shared priorities into place for next years budget. He wanted to remind everyone that there is a public information session scheduled tomorrow evening at the Robinson Community Learning Center, which is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. He stated that he hopes it will be well attended. He stated that he is doing his next Mayor’s night in here in the lobby of the County-City Building and in his office. He wanted to remind Councilmember’s that he thinks citizens really appreciate the opportunity to interact whenever they are free to come participate in those events. The illegal dumping crew has now collected its five millionth pound of trash from our city streets and counting, improving the aspect of our neighborhoods. He stated as is the ongoing effort of the vacant and abandoned housing task force which will have its next public hearing this week. He stated that he looks forward to receiving a report from that task force later on this early fall, late summer, probably by the end of September. He stated that the task force keeps up-to-date on the day-to-day, but he looks forward to having the opportunity to circulate that draft report when there is an opportunity. Mayor Buttigieg hoped that everyone was able to notice the turbine installation which helps to demonstrate that we are on the cutting edge when it comes to energy as a city. He stated 500,000 kilowatt hours a year is going to come out of that and going to save about $40,000 a year in taxpayer cost from the energy that we are going to be able divert to the city and not have to buy from the power company. He stated that it was built almost entirely with Federal Stimulus dollars. The Mayor advised that since he 2