10-28-13 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING OCTOBERT 28, 2013 Councilmember Henry Davis Jr.: I think that there is a happy medium between both of them. I agree, you know, I think that there is a happy medium between both of them, but I am not asking for perfect, believe me, I’m not. That would be requiring too much out of any human being on the earth. But what I am asking for is not dialogue, based upon my 34 years of experience on this earth, but what I am asking or is that I have a vision a picture that takes me from point A to point Z. When we are spending this type of dollars, when we are affecting these many people, when we are changing the way that we do business, it needs to be plotted down and in such a way that we can understand it. I have received like a lengthy e-mail from a business owner and it, had these things been talked about and directed in sort of a plan, like the one that you are doing with vacant & abandoned housing, right? Then we would not have this conversation. It’s difficult to say yes this amount of money affecting all the folks that live in this community and it’s not just the business owner’s downtown, it’s everybody. Because if this money is spent here it can’t be spent on Johnson Street, so we have to look at it in such a way that we can almost prove by some measurements that this is what is going to happen in the end. And I have not gotten any of that, no one has, no one can say that they have, it’s almost like we are going to spend big and hope for the best. Maybe we spend big and we lose or the worse, I don’t know, I don’t know that, so is there any pause in your level of readiness to give the South Bend taxpayers and even the Common Council more of an understanding on what is going on before we jump out there? Because again, if we jump out there, and it doesn’t work what do we do? Do we reverse it back another 11 million dollars, 7 million dollars, I mean what do we do? What the contingency plan? Henry needs to see Point A to Point Z. Henry needs to see a direct vision, analytical and numbers, maybe we can get there. Another thing that and the last thing that I am going to get on, you can get mad if you want to, but Chairperson White: Your questions are to the Mayor. Councilmember Henry Davis Jr.: I am. Chairperson White: So we can move forward. Councilmember Henry Davis Jr.: Here is over there commenting. Chairperson White: Councilmember Davis ask your other question, please. Councilmember Henry Davis Jr.: Thank You. Small business owners and grants, is there anything associated with small business owners and grants for the Smart Street Project, given the fact that they need to work with the small business owners? Mayor Buttigieg: So the infrastructure funding would not include a grant program for small businesses. But we do have of course other activities that go on, especially in the downtown area through DTSB to support small business. I believe that the broader policy of our Community Investment Department reflects the fact that we know most new jobs created in our city are created by small businesses. Councilmember Henry Davis Jr.: Thank you. Councilmember Dr. Fred Ferlic: Is part of your overall plan a corridor project also? Could you explain please? Mayor Buttigieg: Yes, that’s right. So within the Smart Streets package there is funding. There is funding set aside for addressing the corridors. The thought here is that the condition of those corridors not only concerns the people who live, work and travel on it, but really the whole city. You don’t have to spend one day on Lincoln Way West to be affected by the conditions on Lincoln Way West, because that is the first impression that thousands of people get as they make their way between the airport and another part of the community. So with the view for the need to do that, I think that we need to invest in the corridors and we made sure that this funding package includes approximately, and I will invite my colleague’s to correct me it I trip over any of the numbers, but approximately $2 million dollars to go towards that purpose. Now, I do want 8