05-24-71 Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING - RECONVENED Be it remembered that the Common Council of the City of South Bend, Indiana, reconvened in the Council Chambers in the County City Building on Monday, May 24, 1971, at 9:01 P. M. The meeting was called to order by Council President Robert 0. Laven, who presided. REPORT FROM COMMITTEE ON MINUTES To the Common Council of the City of South Bend: Your Committee on the inspection and supervision of the minutes would respectfully report that they have inspected the minutes of May 10, 1971 meeting of the Council and found them correct. They therefore recommend that the same be approved. /s/ Robert 0. Laven Isl Janet S. Allen Isl Albert E. Palmer There being no objections, the report was accepted as read and placed on file. CITIZENS REQUESTS - MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS Council President Laven introduced County Councilmen Richard Larrison and Al E. Paszek. In,re- sponse to Mr. Laven's statements regarding the County Council's position to withhold additional appropriations, Mr. Larrison read the following letter: "Miss Allen and Gentlemen of the Council: I am Richard Larrison, member of the St. Joe County Council. In reviewing the statement made by Mr. Robert Laven on May 0, 1971 regarding MACOG, I am here to defend our position in the decision to withhold additional appropriations. If Mr. Laven had investigated the County Council's action on MACOG he.would have noted that we did in fact have many reasons for denying MACOG additional funds at that time. On several occassions the County Council sat in meetings with some of the leading citizens of South Bend., The first was when Mayor Allen appeared before the County Council. He was asked to look into the budget. We received his promise. But that was all -- No action. The area Chamber of Commerce asked for and received a meeting with the Council. They agreed that the budget was out of line and promised to see if it was possible to get one that everyone could live with. Again promises -- No action. The Area Man Comm. in a meeting with the County Council again agreed, but this time the Council did receive a so- called revised budget. The only difference being the planner was dropped for the re- maining 8 months and the rest of the budget was pro rated to the end of the year. Is this what you call a completely revised budget, when in fact nothing in the budget was altered in any way? HUD has stated many times that MACOG could be operated very effectively with a part time director. With this statement, why do we have to go all the way to Grand Rapids to pay a man $16,500 for a part time job? Many feel that an elected official from one or more of the member counties should run MACOG. Attorney fees are also an unnecessary item in the budget. If MACOG would be operated the way it is supposed to be set up, the plans will have been formulated by each county's Area Plan Comm., who already have their own attorney. These two jobs alone could save the taxpayers over $20,000. As for transportation -- $2,700.00 for a car, $450.00 for gasoline and $250.00 for maintain- ing this car is bad enough, but to add $1,200.00 for travel expense is something else. This adds up to $4,600.00 for transportation for a part time job. The County Council is not opposed to MACOG, just the way it is being set up. It's orig- inal intent was to be ? co ordinating agency, but it is developing into a master planning agency. Elected officials in several communities which are members of MACOG have stated that MACOG should be reorganized to best serve everyone. Mr. Laven, you stated on T.V. that the city of South Bend has a surplus of money and if the County Council did not pay MACOG, the city would. Well, Mr. Laven, it seems to me that if the city has such a surplus of money you would be looking for a way to cut the tax rate in the city instead of working so hard to spend it. As to the statement that the County Council failed to pay its share to MACOG. We have already paid $7,695.00 and have supplied the working staff for MACOG through the Area Plan Comm. After all who pays their salary if it's not St. Joe County.