07-13-15 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING JULY 13, 2015 into some lawsuits that we've done and then wonder why we get into lawsuits, oh that wasn't the right way to do it. Now we can do it correctly. Which leads us to the moral issues, if we have people who can go to these places and get $10/hr. Let's be very careful for setting salaries for our season workers and setting up a program based on two (2) companies already applying for this gives them the unfair advantage. If you set up a job based on someone's resume. Whoever has the resume has the greatest chance of getting the job, that's when we get into discriminatory issues in the past. Not everything in Chicago has worked, so we need to look at that too. I don't get caught up with the names of bigger cities as we do a lot of things right, right here in South Bend that Chicago needs to learn. For us to do this as a Council we have to make sure that we are doing this right. When we talk about grass let's look at some roots. So if the roots aren't' right then everything dies. (Councilmember Schey returned to the meeting) Councilmember Mr. Ferlic — I think this is great. Thank you for your work. Thank you Karen, thank you Dr. Ferlic, and thank you Tim. Councilmember White — I would like to say this is a resolution, like all of the resolutions that we have had, it is a beginning, and it is a conversation. Each councilmember has been invited to sit down and draw up the RFQs, again we would establish the guidelines, the process will be handled through the office of code. We do have a capacity issue and has been that way for years, since I've been on this council, we always talked about the needs for the yards to be cut. This is just one step to begin to address a bigger issue. I would hope that other councilmembers would work with other councilmembers to begin to establish what the standards would look like. It is an opportunity for us to work together to move forward and as Dr. Varner had indicated it will soon be August and we will be out of this particular season and we will be talking about the next issue which will be snow removal. Council President Scott —Thank you all for listening. I appreciate your comments. Councilmember Dieter —Thank you to the sponsors for this bill. It is very an interesting subject matter that a lot of people had input. Dr. Ferlic eludes that it is a program but it's not a program it's an idea. The issues that I have with the idea so far, who's going to be the person in charge as to what other councilmembers refer to as the criteria. If we are going to talk about the youth, again I know it's a resolution when I am asking people in committee meetings and people are pointing to different people. I am very concerned that once it gets out of our hands and it turns over to a different entity that we are out of the picture. Having rules in place, I can see half a dozen if not more companies that have come under the window of mentoring youth that have taken money that was supposed to go towards youth. I didn't see anything so far for when company A comes in. Are they going to guarantee that 70% of the money goes to the kids that are actually doing the work? Let's say we have a company that does great at cutting grass but there's no mentorship program or another company that does great at mentoring but terrible when it comes to grass cutting, they leave the sidewalk a mess and the trimmings out there. Are we looking for low - income kids, or parents that just want their kids to have something to do? That's the concern that I'm going to have. If this is a process like our attorney says once it's a resolution and it goes farther, it goes to a whole different department to run this, I want to make sure when we have the questions we are asking. I would be concerned having a young group of boys with a 16 year old girl cutting grass without any female leadership to make sure everything is ok. That is one of the questions, the intent. The idea, Dr. Ferlic, is awesome to get the lawns cut. But if we are talking about 895 lawns getting cut five (5) times that is very close to 5,000 cuts. Then if we are going to roll company a, b, and c, if the bidding process is such are we going with the lowest bidder are we going with everybody that bids. I want to support this and I probably will there are just a lot of questions that I have The community has the right to know, what's going. As I mentioned half a dozen entities that are supposed to help youth take 75% of funds for administration cost. So again I like the idea and I hope the process will be ongoing. But I am certainly leery of this moving 33