06-10-13 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING JUNE 10, 2013 Councilmember Dieter made a motion to continue this bill at the request of the petitioner until the July 8, 2013 meeting of the Council. Councilmember Oliver Davis seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of nine (9) ayes. BILL NO. 09-13 PUBLIC HEARING ON A BILL OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, AMENDING CHAPTER 13 OF THE SOUTH BEND MUNICIPAL CODE BY THE INCLUSION OF NEW ARTICLE 12 ENTITLED CHRONIC PROBLEM PROPERTY REGULATIONS Councilmember Oliver Davis made a motion to accept the substitute version of this bill as on file in the Office of the City Clerk. Councilmember Varner seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of nine ayes. Councilmember White, Chairperson, Health & Public Safety Committee, reported that this committee held a public hearing on this bill and it was the consensus of the committee to send this substitute bill to the full Council with a favorable recommendation. Councilmember Tim Scott, 711 Forest Avenue, South Bend, Indiana, made the presentation for this bill. Councilmember Scott thanked his co-sponsors Councilmember’s Dieter and White. He stated that they worked closely together with the administration to arrive at this bill. Councilmember Scott stated that he gave a more comprehensive presentation this afternoon in Committee and that he would briefly reiterate the highlights of the bill. He stated that the main reason for this bill is to deal with excessive calls for service and putting an undue burden on public safety services. Councilmember Scott used Seattle, WA as an example that has a population of roughly 608,000 with roughly 750 calls for service and compared to South Bend which has a population of roughly 100,000 and with just one apartment complex Courtyard Place Apartments had over 550 calls for service. He stated that he went through the numbers to get a perspective of those calls for service and why there is a need for a chronic nuisance bill in South Bend. He stated that they took a sample of 60 days from April to June 2013 that would fall under the chronic nuisance bill and looked at the criteria for calls for service based on the chronic nuisance criteria. Within those calls for service in 60 days 3849 calls and there were 774 properties that were involved with these. He stated that it is not all the large complexes that are an issue in South Bend it is also the single owner properties as well. He looked at the cost to taxpayers for that 60 day period it cost almost 1 million dollars. He noted that if you amortize that over 12 months it could possible cost over 11.5 million dollars just dealing with repeat calls for service. He stated that in Portage Twp. (Civil City of South Bend) there are over 48,000 parcels and of all of that only 2% are dealing with chronic nuisance, but it is consuming over 39% of the police budget. Councilmember Scott noted that if you look at the criteria for 50 units or less which would fall under the 5 calls within 60 days, there were 266 properties in the sampling for calls for service were 2,222 and the number of properties that were 51 units or above had twelve calls or more which would be part of the chronic nuisance bill 51 properties or more which would get twelve calls for service and would get 90 days and that there would only be 8 properties. The number of calls for service for those 8 properties would be 163 which would be roughly $40,000 taxpayer cost. He compared large apartment complex versus single properties. He stated that there were 46 large apartment complexes within the sampling, 372 calls, $93,000. Out of those 46 only eight would fall under the criteria for chronic nuisance properties. But if you look at the single unit dwellings within the city there were 771 calls of properties that would fall under the chronic nuisance properties resulting in 3,477 calls and over $800,000 dollars. Councilmember Scott stated that he uses Courtyard Apartments as an example but 622 Portage Avenue which is close to his home has had 13 calls for service within a 60 day period. He reiterated that single units are an issue in our city and we need to address them and the chronic nuisance property bill would do just that. He stated that there is remediation in the bill to work with the city administration and these larger apartment complexes to remedy these calls for service. Councilmember Scott went over the fines and penalties for this bill. 3