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REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 27, 2012 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />was last here, the LPGA, the road to the LPGA tour place at Blackthorn Golf Course. <br />The attendance was 7,500 for all three days. They think that is a record for that league <br />and certainly a profitable event for Blackthorn about twice as much income as was <br />projected about $40,000.00 based on the preliminary numbers which is good news. You <br />may have seen some press that the Animal Shelter is up and running it is not officially <br />open, they haven’t done an official grand-opening, that will be scheduled soon, but they <br />have gone ahead and made the move, you can think of it as a soft move, soft opening and <br />it looks like there off to a good start there. Mayor Buttigieg stated that they are seeing <br />some good activity on the jobs front, notably with this Council’s action on the tax <br />abatement supporting 30 new jobs and 396 retained jobs with the Tire Rack, which is <br />very good news. He stated that the mortgage and foreclosure and pre-purchase <br />counselors don’t get a lot of attention but he wanted to mention that they have assisted <br />134 residents to date this year out of the Community & Economic Development <br />Department, which is also very good news. He stated that he is asking the Council to <br />help him get the word out about paper waste containers to yard waste. He stated that they <br />think that will save ten of thousands of dollars, if they could just get citizens to stop using <br />plastic bags and start using paper bags, they are big, they come up to about your waist, <br />you can get them the same place you get the plastic bags. They are relatively cheap and <br />when they go into the waste stream, we don’t have to spend a lot of money separating <br />that plastic from the mulch. There is money to separate it and then it also costs money to <br />haul it and then there are tipping fees in the tens of thousands of dollars every year to get <br />rid of that plastic. So they are trying not to do it with any rules, we are just going to ask <br />people to do the right thing. It would be very helpful if Councilmember’s could help <br />them get the word out. He stated that he wanted to brag on the Fire Department for a <br />moment, they won a luminary award for their excellent work last in evacuating portions <br />of the downtown area that were affected by a gas main leak. It was great to see that they <br />were recognized by NIPSCO for that work. He also wanted everyone to stay tuned on <br />the technology front. He stated that the Council got some updates on this recently; the <br />city website is coming along as they work to overhaul that. He stated that we will soon <br />notice a change to e-mail that hopefully will make all of our lives a little bit better as we <br />go through migration from Novell GroupWise to the Microsoft Office Program. He <br />stated that the IT team is really working at lightning speed for that kind of migration; they <br />hope to have it done in a matter of weeks and are very grateful to them for the hard work. <br />They have announced the police chief search process, it is happening over the coming <br />weeks. He stated that he was grateful for the opportunity to introduce the police search <br />consultant Robert Wasserman to the members of the Council as well as the public safety <br />committee last weekend at the Board of Public Safety. He stated that they have spoke as <br />a follow-up to ideas that were expressed at that time with Mr. Wasserman and his <br />associate Robert Stewart about making sure that in addition to a town hall there are other <br />opportunities in smaller to engage in community leaders and citizens. He stated that <br />there was concern about the security of tape recordings there was a written response <br />issued to that he believes this morning if you need any more information on that you can <br />follow up with his Chief of Staff Mike Schmuhl. <br /> <br /> <br />RESOLVE INTO THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE <br />At 7:16 p.m. Councilmember Gavin Ferlic made a motion to resolve into the Committee <br />of the Whole. Councilmember Oliver Davis seconded the motion which carried by a <br />voice vote of nine (9) ayes. Councilmember White, Chairperson, presiding. <br /> <br />Councilmember White, explained the procedures to be followed for tonight’s meeting in <br />accordance with Article 1, Section 2-11 of the South Bend Municipal Code. <br /> <br />Councilmember White stated that a brochure may be found on the railing in the Council <br />Chambers explaining those procedures. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 3 <br /> <br />