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South Bend Redevelopment Commission <br /> Regular Meeting—January 10. 2013 <br /> 6. NEW BUSINESS <br /> I. Other <br /> (1) continued... <br /> Funding: <br /> To fund this project, staff requests $235,000 in TIF funding. Of that, $65,000 has already <br /> been donated to the TIF from outside sources, leaving $170,000 in net TIF dollars. In <br /> addition, another $125,000 of costs is being covered by direct payment from other <br /> community partners. <br /> Mr. Kris Priemer noted that one of the main principles of Code for America is openness with <br /> software. They use open source code so that the software they develop is available for use <br /> by anyone. The software Code for America has developed for other cities is already <br /> available for our use, to adapt it to our needs. The City of South Bend wants to be more <br /> open with its data so that citizens can easily access it and to create efficiencies in <br /> government. In December Code of America met with economic stakeholders in South Bend <br /> to get their ideas of what kind of applications could benefit the City of South Bend in the <br /> future for the workforce and for economic development. <br /> Mr. Ford asked Mr. Priemer if he could share some examples of applications from other <br /> cities. Mr. Priemer responded that in 2010-2011 there have been approximately twenty <br /> cities that have gone through the Code of America program. Some of the applications <br /> produced include an open counter, a simplified business licensing process. In that example <br /> city the licensing office hours were only 8:00 a.m. to noon, 3 days a week. So, an online tool <br /> was created that answers questions about which licenses the business would need, the cost, <br /> and what the next steps are. Also with this application citizens could see what the zoning <br /> requirements are and what properties are available from the city. Another example is the <br /> City of New Orleans. After hurricane Katrina there were an enormous number of vacant <br /> and abandoned homes. A web application was created to track where a house was in the <br /> Code process, so that Code Enforcement could check on it, see what approvals they were <br /> still waiting on, look on a map to see which houses were ready to be taken down, etc. The <br /> final example has been used by two cities. It's called "adopt a hydrant." In Boston after it <br /> snowed the police and fire departments would have a difficult time locating the hydrants. So <br /> the city created an application where residents adopt a hydrant and commit to shoveling it <br /> out after a snow so it could be found and accessible. Last year, Hawaii reapplied the hydrant <br /> application. However, instead of buried hydrants they have sirens where the batteries get <br /> stolen; residents took responsibility to make sure the sirens were in working order in case of <br /> a hurricane or some other emergency. Code for America created multiple applications in <br /> each of the cities, all of which are available now for our adaptation. <br /> 9 <br />