09-24-12 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 there is a little bit of a switch when it comes to Mayor’s Night. He stated that they usually stagger Mayor’s Night In and Mayor’s Night Out. He stated that they are going to do Mayor’s Night In back to back twice in a row and that will be tomorrow from 5:30 – 7:00 in the lobby of th the County-City Building. Then they will be back to the Mayor’s Night Out and in the 6 District with Councilmember Oliver Davis. He stated that he wanted to take this opportunity to again thank Chairperson Karen White of the Personnel and Finance Committee who has been doing a tremendous amount of work with her committee and will see some of the fruits of that this evening during the 2013 Budget Presentation. He thanked every Councilmember who has been diligently working with that committee and working very hard through this budgeting process. He also recognized City Controller Mark Neal who has done some very hard work and his finance team for doing some very heavy lifting as they have been setting those priorities for the City’s future and how they are going to handle the budget in the coming year. He stated that he had some news on the search for a Police Chief. This week the City is going to post advertisements for the position of Chief. They will be posted to professional organizations; they will be posted in newspapers and will be up on the City website. You will start seeing that later on this week and they will start taking applications right away and the window for those th applications to come in will go until 19 of October. He wanted to draw attention to a week from Thursday, October 4, 2012, that is going to be their opportunity to have a town hall forum. He stated that you might recall that it was re-scheduled from a prior tentative date, but now they th do have it scheduled for the 4, it will be from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. at the Kroc Center on Western Avenue. He stated that it is very important to him that they have a diverse and broad representation from the community for them to be able to weigh in on what they consider important for the Police Chief. He stated that they will also welcome the presence of the Councilmember’s able to attend but help to get the word out so that they can have an open dialogue about the future of our police department. He advised that the Vacant and Abandoned Housing Task Force is meeting and getting closer to releasing a report and recommendations on combating vacancy and blight in our neighborhoods. He stated that he is looking forward on releasing that information to the Council and thanked Councilmember Tim Scott for his help and cooperation on that committee. He advised on the new technology that the city has undergone by the launch of a new e-mail system, a conversion from GroupWise to Microsoft Outlook 2010. st This actually represents the 1 upgrade to e-mail since the inception of e-mail. He stated that he hopes that Council agrees with him that it was very much needed and even though it remains a little bit of a challenge in getting the conversion as it is with any conversion. He stated that the team has done a great job, in particular Dr. David Varner, Chairperson, Information & Technology Committee for the partnership of this roll out. He reminded that the upgrades for information & technology will continue as they work to incorporate the 311 phone line. He highlighted the outreach and dialogue that has been happening with the City and the University of Notre Dame, later this week they will be commemorating 170 years of the University’s presence here as well as 125 years of football and it seems like a good opportunity to celebrate the partnership in neighborhood economic development. He stated that Indiana University of South Bend had a tremendous announcement late last week the biggest gift in the history of the campus $4 million dollars $3 million plus $1 million dollar challenge grant from the Judd Leighton Foundation which can only help our community. Mayor Buttigieg stated that he neglected to mention and sees that Mr. Napoli is here from Library, he wanted to advise the Council that he has been in communication with the leadership of the St. Joseph County Public Library as well as the Historic Preservation Commission. He stated that it is his belief that they can move toward a compromise that is historically sensitive but also does not frustrate the growth plans of the library. He stated that he will be sure to keep the Council up to date if they are successful, or if the parties are successful in reaching an agreement. He stated that they are doing everything they can to try to make sure that comes about before the Council needs to take final action on the decision for historic protection. Council President Dieter stated that was the consensus of this Council earlier. RESOLVE INTO THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE At 7:14 p.m. Councilmember Oliver Davis made a motion to resolve into the Committee of the Whole. Councilmember Varner seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of nine (9) ayes. Councilmember White, Chairperson, presiding. 2