2025 01-15 Board of Public Safety Meeting Minutes

Home Browse Search

5 D. Chair confirms that the portal is live. E. Adjournmment. II. SPECIAL ELECTION MEETING - at 4:00 P.M. –Hybrid Meeting – 1308 Conference room, County-City Buildling, 13th Floor, 227 W. Jefferson Blvd., South Bend, IN AND Virtually via Microsoft Teams with the link: https://tinyurl.com/2025PMBElection The Board of Public Safety called a special meeting for the purposes as specified in I.C. 36-8-3.5-8 for the election by active member of the South Bend Police Department to the Police Merit Board. A. Chair announces the voting results. B. Terms are determined. C. Adjournment. Attorney Weiss explained that there is a resolution pertaining to the Police Merit Board and then there will be a separate resolution on the fire part of the agenda for the Fire Merit Board. The two (2) resolutions are a little bit different in part because the Council ordinances that were created to decide how these are structured are a little bit different for who qualifies to be a member and some differences in the length of time that the elections are open. State law puts the onus on the Board of Public Safety to set the date and create the procedures that the membership for police and fire will follow to elect the two (2) members that they get to elect for the newly formed Boards. This resolution spells that out and also gives the notice at the end as the exhibit that will go to the respective departments. This will be closed to the public, the only people allowed in the meeting are members of the department, as stated in the statute. We have created, with the help of our IT team, an application form that will be online for people who want to apply, one for each Board, and those will remain open for a few weeks. Once that is closed, the legal department will screen and make sure they all qualify. The applicants that do qualify will go on to a ballot that the members will then vote on which would result in the two (2) appointments. There will still be the Mayor’s two (2) appointments, and the Council’s one (1) appointment for each board. We do not know what those processes will be yet, but this is for the two (2) appointed by the departments. Attorney Connell advised that the application process is the same for Fire and Police. The only difference would be the actual questions in the application are a little bit different. Fire has a little bit more eligibility requirements, including voter registration, whereas PD does not have those requirements. Essentially, it's good moral character, and that's the baseline for being elected. As for the actual process, PD is going to have a kind of opening meeting to confirm that the voting is open and then to address any questions that anyone may have. It'll be in person and online with people likely tuning in virtually for that meeting. Then the voting will be opened. It'll be Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Monday afternoon, the voting will cease at 3 p.m. EST, giving the clerk enough time from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. to tabulate the results and provide those to the chair who is selected. There will be a final meeting for PD to get those results and then confirm who will have the five (5) year term and who will have the two (2) year term. The results will then be submitted to the Clerk of the Board of Public