09-23-13 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING SEPTEMBER 23, 2013 abandoned call rate as of last month was 80% based on the benchmark that they have seen if we can keep it below 10% that’s pretty good and we are going to work to make sure we have the resources to keep it that way. In August, the average speed to answer 39 seconds, we have had other months where it has gone upwards of a minute, we really want to keep it below a minute, and ideally, we would like 45 seconds and will continue to drive for improvements. The top five subjects for calls: Solid Waste Pickup; other solid waste issues; miscellaneous information such as people calling with various kinds of questions about the city; yard waste questions; and interest in trash containers. He stated that they received a lot more calls than they expected by way of trash container calls, so that has prompted us to begin following up on houses where we think we have delivered a trash container to make sure that actually happened and we will be updating you on what we find out as we drive toward the goal of 72 hour replacement, when somebody calls in and lets us know that they are missing a trash container. So just a little bit of insight on what 311 is doing to help us with problem solving. He encouraged the Council to st spend a little time with that report. The Council’s moped ordinance takes effect October 1, that initial registration for mopeds that is required would be good until April 30, 2015, and after we stth phase that in, the registration go May 1 to April 30 every year. As the City moves to implement this Ordinance that the Council initiated is that people can come to front desk at the police station from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. and stickers as he understands will be applied directly to the moped to make sure that there is integrity in the process for that kind of licensing. He noted that tomorrow he will be doing a public update on the application of the Problem Property Nuisances Ordinance that is planned for 10:30 a.m. originally it was scheduled for 10:00 a.m., but to accommodate another press conference that is going on at that same time we moved it to 10:30 a.m. He stated that if you have a chance to be there, he stated to stay tuned for the details of that, but the bottom line is we have a change to implement as you know we have some time to get it up and running, but October is when it actually going apply and people are going to start seeing the enforcement of that ordinance. So it is important to get the word out publicly on that. The Code for America folks are in town again. There was an event yesterday with the group Hap Michiana, that’s the good kind of happening, civic happening, looking at our opening data platform to try to get more information that they can use to benefit the city. They have also begun working toward an app called City Voice. The purpose of City Voice is to draw more input from neighborhoods, residents about the most urgent priorities that they see when it comes to vacant and abandoned houses and dealing with that. He stated he looks forward to seeing them and finding out and sharing that with the Council and the public soon. He stated that he was grateful for an invitation to Councilmembers on the progress of the Anti-Violence Commission, Chief Teachman, Rev. Miller and himself spent some time in Council Committee going over that. For those that were not able to attend, he stated Councilmember White who is on the Commission has information from that briefing and he would be happy to share more of that information to anyone who is interested. For the sake of time, he stated that he wrapped up with a reminder that the next Mayor’s Night Out is going to be this week and come full circle to st the 1 District at Muessel School beginning at 5:30 p.m. and it is always great if Councilmember’s can be there with Department Heads to meet with anyone who wants a piece of my mind. Councilmember Oliver Davis stated that coming next Monday, we are going to be opening up the fire station in the Rum Village area, Station #5. He thanked the administration in helping get the new station and looking forward to celebrating Monday at 10:00. Mayor Buttigieg apologized for not mentioning it, and looks forward very much to celebrating together with the firefighters are looking forward to getting back to their place at the station. He thanked Councilmember’s for their collaboration. Councilmember Henry Davis stated that the assessed valuation of the city is going to be discussed later during the budget presentation. It will show how we get our assessed value in the city; how we set the tax rate; the amount of money that we are going to collect, in order for the city to be able to provide the kinds of services that are expected by the residents. However, he stated that his initial thought is that I think a lot of those things are going to be contingent upon the unemployment rate, our inability to attract and recruit employers to this area. As a matter of fact, it continues to go up we are around 12% right now. 6