HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-05-16 Health and Public SafetyOFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK
KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK
HEALTH & PUBLIC SAFETY
Committee Members Present:
Committee Members Absent:
Other Council Present:
Other Council Absent:
Others Present:
Agenda:
OCTOBER 5, 2016 5:30 P.M.
Karen White, Jo M. Broden
John Voorde, Oliver Davis
Tim Scott
Regina Williams- Preston, Randy Kelly, Dr. David Varner
Gavin Ferlic
Kareemah Fowler, Joseph Molnar, Kathleen Cekanksi-
Farrand
PSAP Update — Brent Croymans
Vice Committee Chair Karen White called the meeting to order with one (1) item on the agenda.
This meeting was requested by our Council President Tim Scott in regards to looking at PSAP.
When we started the budget process, a number of questions were asked and it was thought that
we should pull together some of the key stakeholders along with Councilmembers to have a
better understanding as we continue with the budget process but also to make sure we address the
concerns we have. She turned the meeting over to Council President Tim Scott.
Council President Scott invited a number of people to sit with them at the table to make it more
of a conversation and not as formal. He asked everyone to go around the table and introduce
themselves. The following people did so: Jo M. Broden, Common Council Fourth District; Steve
Cox, Chief of South Bend Fire Department and a member of the Operations Board of PSAP;
Peter Agostino, Deputy County Attorney who has been assigned to work with PSAP and also
involved in negotiating the collective bargaining agreement with the employees; Carly Etter,
Administrative Officers for the PSAP; and Brent Croymans Executive Director for the 911
Center.
Council President Scott stated today the concern is the overall operation and status of PSAP and
also how it affects South Bend's Budget. Hopefully we can find out the justification for the
dollars that are being allotted for next year. It is currently put under the Police Budget and in the
past we have talked about separating it out.
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JENNIFER M. COFFMAN ALKEYNA M. ALDRIDGE JOSEPH MOLNAR
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John Murphy, City Controller, stated it is in the EDIT fund now which is where we moved it for
2017. It was under the Police Budget presentation but it is a separate line item now. That has
been a change for this year. The debt was always included in the EDIT fund. From our point of
view it is just one (1) line item and one (1) payment a month to the County for our portions. That
was the reasoning for moving it over.
Council President Scott asked for Mr. Murphy to explain how the funding works.
Mr. Murphy responded that we formerly ran our own communications center and we received an
allocation of revenue from the County which was about $215,000 a year. We paid our own
salaries and all of that. Now, it is different because we receive an allocation and we make a
monthly payment to the St. Joseph County Auditor's office. The payment is based on the
formulas set forth in the inter -local agreement. That is the accounting portion which is fairly
simple. We pay the County for the operating cost and debt service is treated as a deduction from
our EDIT revenue that we receive from the County. Mishawaka handles it the same way as we
do. All the accounting is really in the County realm of personnel and so forth.
Mr. Croymans stated that is accurate.
Mr. Agostino stated Clay Township is not a contributing entity. They as a township, and this has
been brought up for discussion several times, their contribution like all other townships is
factored into the County's. Right now under the current formula under the interlocal agreement,
they took the operating cost for PSAP and at the front end they applied seventy -five percent
(75 %) of the cost as fixed costs for the operation of the center. Those fixed costs are then
allocated among the County and the two (2) cities based on net - assessed evaluation. That is a
formula that frankly favors the cities over the County because in the net calculation the TIFs are
not included. The townships in some respect of that net assessed valuation are already
contributing to the County's assessment since they are in the unincorporated portion of the
County. Twenty -five percent (25 %) of the costs were deemed variable costs and those are
allocated based on call volume. That is subject to review and change based on the call log. The
overall formula is subject to review on a five (5) year review basis. Mr. Agostino stated the
County Council has a different viewpoint on that and he doesn't know what the answer is. It
seems the County Council viewpoint is they approved the agreement subject to a two (2) year
review. He stated he has not seen any amendment executed by the parties to the agreement which
indicates that but it is in their minutes. We are at the two (2) year point currently. As a practical
matter it's not going to happen this year but you can expect some discussions to start next year.
The agreement as he reads it says five (5) years until a review.
Vice Committee Chair White stated what she has been hearing is that South Bend has the highest
call volume. She asked if that is correct.
Chief Cox stated he would like to add a comment on the call volume, historically speaking there
was some discussion or complaint that there was call volume higher in the cities. Mr. Julian, who
did the presentation at the time, suggested you are not just receiving service on call volume but
on the entire area where potential calls could come from. You receive service based on the fact
that you have emergency services available to respond twenty -four (24) hours a day whether you
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called for it or not. In the end, that is what his reasoning on why the higher percentage was
associated with the fixed cost as opposed to call volume. Some of the County Councilmembers
did suggest we should be revising some of these numbers based on call volume. Chief Cox stated
anecdotally as a department head, the majority of our costs are associated with personnel and not
call volume. Those personnel are in place in order to make calls or be ready to make calls at all
times of the day. If we make zero (0) calls in a twenty -four hour shift or three- hundred (300)
calls in a twenty -four (24) shift we are still going to pay the same amount of money in regards to
personnel, benefits, and equipment aside from maybe some bandages or water usage. As far as
personnel costs go, it is the same no matter how many calls are made.
Mr. Agostino stated he does believe that is accurate, particularly on the front end going in. Chief
Cox is right that you have a certain amount of cost you are going to incur no matter how many
calls you take. However, your calls might change if you go from 5,000 calls a month to 6,000 a
month because then you do pick up more personnel without necessarily expanding your other
costs. If we were to follow the staffing study that was done by the City, we would be at ninety -
nine (99) employees and looking at some true variable costs. Right now, we have a certain
amount of costs that are going to occur no matter how many calls we receive. That is why the
argument was made to treat the bulk of the costs as fixed costs and allocate based on a net -
assessed value.
Vice Committee Chair White asked when that staff report was done.
Chief Cox responded it was done fairly recently, around August. The Department of Innovation
did that study.
Mr. Agostino stated that was using modeling, if he understands it correctly, for a profit driven
call- center, not government based. It was maximizing what you can do out of a call- center. That
study backed up the advice that we received from the Operations Board members about staffing
and needing a certain amount of people to cover fire, police, and other types of calls. While it is
probably more than what was being recommended, it matches the recommendation that we need
to have more people staffing based on the volume we do have and based on the population.
Mr. Croymans stated one (1) of the nice things that the study did provide is it gave us peak hour
times, so even though we were only able to ramp up our staff by four (4) members we can put
them in on peak hour times and their work goes further. It was a very good study and we need to
thank South Bend as the one (1) agency that has actually stepped up to the plate to help us going
forward.
Council President Scott asked Mr. Croymans to give a quick overview of where we were and
where we are now and the status of the PSAP center as far as operational up and running
logistics.
Mr. Croymans responded by distributing a chart that is on file with the City Clerk's Office. This
is a high level overview but the columns off to the right are the ones that could affect our ability
to move into the center in December. On the building, obviously the physical plan of the building
is up and running. We do have some large issues with our server room, the air handlers are not
de- humidifying and not properly running. Our chillers, when we first started the center we found
out they would not operate under thirty -two (32) degrees causing the server room to overheat.
We have already addressed that and placed some kits to handle that problem but it still needs to
be fixed long -term. In the original plan, they did not anticipate the amount of heat the server
room generates. So far we have addressed it except going lower than minus ten (10) degrees and
the final fix for that is about a $5,000 software upgrade. The other issue going on which is still
being addressed is that the air - handling unit coming into the dispatch center is very noisy and
will hinder phone calls and radio operations. We have talked to DLZ on these issues a few times
a week and they are going after the general contractor to get those amended before we move in.
Council President Scott asked if we have any dates on those improvements.
Mr. Croymans responded he has no dates but is confident that they will find a fix for them.
Major component -wise, obviously we have our 911 telephones which are critical and we are at
the point where they are getting installed. They have been tested and we are building new
databases on that, hopefully this week we will finish that project. The radio system, which has a
lot of intricate parts to that area, was really the first thing identified when he came into office
because there were safety concerns if we moved into the center before the radio system was
upgraded and the Operations Board agreed with that opinion. That involves every portable radio
each department uses. We are actually taking the Mishawaka system and merging it into our
system. Mishawka's infrastructure will disappear and merge into our system and everyone will
be on the same radio system. That upgrade is slated to happen right around Thanksgiving.
During that upgrade there is also eighteen (18) other Counties that will upgrade their radios
programmed in time otherwise the State won't allow them to upgrade the system.
Council President Scott asked how this affects our ability to talk with Michigan.
Mr. Croymans responded that Michigan has always been on a separate system. Michigan charges
subscribers to be on their system. We currently have a patch but that's never been a good
solution. It works for temporary emergencies but that's about it.
Chief Cox stated he can say after the twenty -four (24) years he's been at the Department, he
remembers one (1) call when we had to go into Berrien County. During that period we have not
had any Michigan departments in South Bend for any events either. It would be incredibly
infrequent. On the police side it may be different though.
Mr. Croymans responded that our radios will work a pretty good distance up into Michigan. On a
portable device, he can go all the way to Berrien Springs and still talk with our system. So far
everything is on track in regard to the radios.
Council President Scott asked him to talk about microwave towers because that is the backup
system.
Mr. Croymans responded that the microwave towers are actually used to connect the towers
together, they are your infrastructure. Mishawaka has been on microwaves for twenty (20) some
years until a month ago and they never really had any problems. Now their equipment is older
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and they are starting to incur those problems. We have a lot of failures with the current radio
system because it is controlled by telephone lines which are subject to everything from a
backhoe chopping it to a problem with a card in the central office and even bad weather. The
microwave takes out those failure points and provides us with a lot of additional redundancy. It
is a very good solution and one (1) of the very first things we purchased. This project has been
redesigned eight (8) times now because once we get into it we found out the towers couldn't
support the structure.
Council President Scott asked if he was correct in thinking that was an $800,000 change for the
additional towers.
Mr. Croymans responded it was $640,000. The Lakeville tower simply couldn't support the
structure and the only option left to us was building a new tower.
Council President Scott stated he wants everyone to know that Mr. Croymans inherited that issue
from his predecessor.
Mr. Croymans responded we dropped the ball because Motorola said we should do a study on
the structural load on the towers before the contract was signed. If we would have done that, we
would have known Lakeville would have required additional work. We actually had to do work
at three (3) other towers to strengthen them. It wasn't as big of a cost as replacing the tower.
Council President Scott asked if that came out of the reserve, or part of the budget.
Mr. Croymans responded the additional tower is going to come out of the expansion of the $12
million.
Vice Committee Chair White asked if there were any other additional costs or needs that have
been discovered moving forward besides the cell - tower.
Mr. Croymans stated nothing that hasn't already been addressed in our budget.
Council President Scott asked if they have a testing period built into the Thanksgiving to
December timeline.
Mr. Croymans responded besides us building out the infrastructure, we have to reprogram all of
the radios. We are still waiting for the state to release the IDs to us, which we hope to have this
week. As soon as that happens, all the agencies will be able to go out and reprogram their radios
to prepare to cut over to the radio system. The South Bend radio shop will do that for South
Bend. Once they have the master template, they can clone them and it takes just a couple minutes
per unit. The only issue is we have hundreds of radios. The State has also offered to review the
template for safety reasons to confirm that it was built properly.
Council President Tim Scott announced that County Council President Raphael Morton is now in
attendance.
Vice Committee Chair White stated she wants to get back to her budget questions. She asked if
the only major change in the budget was the tower.
Mr. Agostino responded there have been in terms of overtime for personnel costs. Those have
been major changes in the budget.
Mr. Croymans stated he was speaking only to the technology portion of the budget. The only
other component that we had that was of an additional cost was a change order because the
previous director did not set up every major dispatch position to have all three (3) major
communication tools. So we actually added six (6) radio positions in the dispatch center. That
was $75,000 per radio. There will be an additional cost for the metro net piece, which we
absorbed out of our lease.
Council President Scott stated overall we are beyond our timeframe, we were supposed to be in
this in 2015. That is about a year off.
Mr. Croymans stated when he took over as Director, he pointed out that it was not a feasible
timetable.
Mr. Agostino stated there was a safety concern of moving in there with operation of the
equipment without the upgrades. We physically could have located there but it would have been
a big risk.
Council President Scott asked Dan O'Conner how much time and effort South Bend IT is
spending on PSAP.
Mr. O'Conner stated they have been brought in more as a consultative role and working in the
technical group meetings. It is hard to quantify that because we have really gotten those up and
running. It is taking more of City time certainly. He stated it is not putting a significant drain on
them and all parties need to make sure they have representatives working with Brent and
contributing more than they have been to make sure we are covering our bases.
Council President Scott asked if they are going to be involved further down the road.
Mr. O'Conner responded that he has a responsibility to the City to make sure our interfaces are
working and that the South Bend portion works properly. We will be involved to whatever level
that requires.
Mr. Agostino stated they are also involved in the mobile laptop buildup because there has to be
software installed on those as well. They stepped up to the plate on that issue.
Chief Cox stated he would like to add that Mr. O'Conner's team provides IT support with pretty
much everything that we do. This is just one (1) part of the project for us, so we rely on his team
to help us out a lot.
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Council President Scott stated we should move to personnel costs. This was sold to us as a
savings because we could save money by consolidating personnel. The original agreement was
fifty -seven (57) people and that it would not be a part of our employee count.
Mr. Agostino stated he would say none of the people here were marketing it that way. The total
number of people estimated to support this combined 911 Center was totally underestimated,
whether it was deliberate or not who knows. There were issues with the way it was determined
how many dispatch officers were needed at each time and the process used lead to positions
being shorted. That problem repeated itself in multiple areas. When a recommendation was made
by a consultant hired by DLZ on staffing levels, it was probably eighteen (18) people short to
begin with. It is illogical to think we could do those call volumes with eighteen (18) less people.
Had we seen that on paper to begin with, someone would say no this doesn't make sense. You
had the same call volume with eighteen (18) less people. In fact our call volume has gone up a
bit.
County Council President Morton asked if it was DLZ's opinion given to the former director Mr.
Gears.
Mr. Agostino responded this was given to Mr. Gears. Mr. Gears did help come up with the
number but then also committed to it and doubled down on it which he shouldn't have. Mr.
Agostino stated he would be a witness that Mr. Gears was told by several Operation Board
Members that there is no way this amount of staff will cover the need.
Vice Committee Chair White stated when this was first was presented to the Council we had a
concern with the issue of staffing. We asked multiple times to make sure it was realistic.
Mr. Agostino stated from his standpoint, he was asked to get involved with the County on the
personnel side, because the belief was we were going to have to let go of twenty (20) plus
dispatchers from the combination and that was going to be an issue. He stated he went to each
entity and said let's make sure we get the right numbers. When we got done with that number,
we were looking at one and a half (1 '' /z) dispatchers more than the minimal numbers that were
given to us. Before we started combining, we were already short the people. We didn't have to
terminate anyone to fit the center. By the time we actually got combined, we were already short
about six (6) people right at the start. This is a story that maybe hasn't been told to you but it is
the reality. It is frustrating because now we are trying to staff appropriately, getting beat up on
overtime with the current staff because we have to do the coverage. That is the background on
personnel.
Chief Cox stated even in the meetings they have had, some of the numbers become skewed
because folks are talking about the total amount of people initially budgeted for PSAP versus the
amount of dispatchers. Those numbers are different. You had admin staff plus dispatchers. The
amount of dispatchers is what we are talking about here. Initially that number was fifty -seven
(57), and the Operations Board explained over and over again that it was an inadequate amount
of dispatchers for the call volume associated for the whole County in several meetings. Mr.
Gears doubled down on that number though.
Mr. Agostino stated a simple way to think about that is to say you have three (3) police
departments operating who will want probably two (2) dispatchers each which is a bare
minimum. There's six (6) dispatchers. The fire departments are not asking for quite as many but
they in total need four (4) or five (5). That puts you at ten (10). Then you have the call takers to
take the calls before they get assigned to wherever they are going. Then we are at a minimum of
fourteen (14) or fifteen (15) people per shift. If you build from the bottom up like that, it is
simple math and you are over the number they originally allocated. It is hard to tell a person in
charge of a police of fire department that they are not going to get the dispatchers they need to do
their jobs. There are some nights where the City needs ten (10) or twelve (12) at one (1) time.
Vice Committee Chair White stated she knows they were mandated by the State to have two (2)
centers and South Bend could be the backup. She stated this originally was supposed to increase
efficiency and create better service, but we don't know if that has happened yet. She asked as of
now, what have we gained. That is important for us as individuals who must take action on the
budget, but also we interact with our constituents.
Mr. Croymans responded it is no secret that the State made a mandate without giving you any
funding mechanisms. The things that you do benefit from with the combined center is the use of
the equipment. For example, if you had to buy a 911 telephone recorder it is about a quarter of a
million dollars. If you had South Bend, the Sheriff, Mishawaka, and Clay all buying (1) that is a
million dollars where the total could have just been $250,000. The money that is truly saved is
going to be on the technology side. The human element is really something that you can't get
savings from.
County Council President Rafael Morton stated he never stopped and looked at it like that.
Because of the mandate and that we had to update the equipment, he will reluctantly agree that
there is cost savings in that arena.
Mr. Agostino stated you do also have some efficiencies in terms of the administrative side
regarding personnel. You are not going to somehow answer more calls with less people, you
can't do it.
Council President Scott stated your people are always going to be the most expensive thing in the
operation.
Vice Committee Chair White asked Mr. Murphy how much is being asked for from the City.
Mr. Murphy stated he was going to ask that himself. We had an estimate back on September 2 nd
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2016 and that was a little over $2 million. We have to find out if that still is what the request is.
Mr. Agostino stated we are waiting on some financial advisor numbers to give us hard numbers
we need. The estimates range from $2.1 million to $2.4 million from the City of South Bend.
The County has $3.4 to $3.8 million.
County Council President Morton stated he has a major concern with the allocation and the
process in which it is figured out, that is no secret. From day one (1), that was an issue. It is an
extremely unfair process.
Mr. Murphy stated that was part of the interlocal agreement.
County Council President Morton stated that's what he has a problem with, from day one (1).
There is also a concern with the lack of transparency in the process. What magnifies this
frustration, is we are not even talking about all the money that Mr. Gears kept coming back to the
County asking to compensate for personnel. Now still here we are in need of more money. Every
time this was brought the Council, it was asking the County for more money.
Mr. Agostino stated there were times when he was not asking for just more money. One (1) time
we came and asked for a category to allow the on -call people to be hired so we could pay
someone up to forty (40) hours of work without benefits. We actually moved money from some
accounts to others. Mr. Gears did come for overtime money. That is true.
Ms. Etter stated the first time he came is when we realized how far we were going over because
the schedule wasn't working. He came back again because we were still not at our point.
County Council President Morton stated his point is we did that and now here we are again being
asked for $3.4 to $3.8 million. This is what the entire County Council is feeling about this, not
just him.
Mr. Croymans stated this is why we did those staffing studies so we can bring those numbers up.
The problem with the leadership beforehand was we lost so many people that we are in a
constant state of turnover. It takes six (6) months to almost nine (9) months to train a dispatcher.
Even right now at fully staffed, we have ten (10) who are still in training.
Council President Scott asked what is the difference between a call taker and dispatcher.
Mr. Croymans responded a call taker basically processes the call. Currently they have no
authority to be a dispatcher. The previous director only trained people as call takers and then we
lost too many dispatchers. We actually created the overtime monster ourselves based on
procedures.
Council President Scott asked how much overtime has been spent for this year.
Ms. Etter responded roughly $600,000.
Mr. Agostino stated he doesn't like the phrase fully staffed. We are using the spots that have
been budgeted but we are still understaffed for what we need.
Mr. Croymans responded because that staffing is not correct, we have overtime on every shift
every day. There is not a day we don't have overtime.
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Council President Scott asked what is the average work experience of the staff currently.
Mr. Croymans responded it has dropped down, we lost about forty -five percent (45 %) of the
staff before he took over. So that forty-five percent (45 %) are all under a year and a half.
Mr. Agostino stated the good news is since Mr. Croymans has taken over, the turnover rate has
dropped dramatically. We had lost thirty (30) last year and only eight (8) this year.
Council President Scott stated his big fear is the safety and concern of our citizens and our first
responders. What 911 dispatchers do, it's not just a job it's a calling, just like police and fire. The
concern is we have this turnover rate, and it's good we are making progress, but this has turned
into a boondoggle for a department that cannot fail. We have to make sure this doesn't fail,
because failure means someone could get really hurt.
Mr. Croymans stated he is completely on the same page. That is why on the spreadsheet he
marked out critical things in red. When we are ready to go live, it has to be one - hundred percent
(100 %) ready to go because that is what the police and firefighters rely on.
Council President Scott asked if with collective bargaining and all the changes, if the staff can
come and be comfortable to do their job. We are in a collective bargaining agreement for a
reason. We need to make sure these people are getting the training and quality of life that they
need to make sure they have a stable environment.
Mr. Croymans stated one (1) of the first things he did when he started was corrected a lot of the
unfairness that was going on between the staff. The collective bargaining agreement has been
ratified at the employee level and is at the County Council level. The quality of life will probably
never improve without that staffing level increase, because the turnover is always going to be
that. Before that, we struggled to give them bathroom breaks. They do not get lunch breaks, so
their quality of life is very poor but it has improved immensely over the past year. If we have the
staffing available those issues will dissipate.
Mr. Agostino stated the study done does show that if you have the proper staffing and the right
working conditions, it will lower your turnover and the numbers show that saves a huge amount
of overtime.
Mr. Croymans stated as for the general outlook of the dispatchers, we also wanted to improve the
communication between management and staff. We require quarterly meetings so the staff sits
down with management and discusses everything. We also put out a voluntary list to help out
with the new system and out of sixty (60) employees forty -five (45) signed up because they are
so enthusiastic to come and improve the system. If we had poor morale we would not have
received that many volunteers.
County Council President Morton asked didn't we at least come to a conclusion that we really
won't know the optimal level of staffing until we get into the center.
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Mr. Croymans stated that is a very valid point. With the four (4) additional staff they approved,
we are going to put them into key times which will help this situation. We are currently
combining some positions to maximize our efficiency and move people around within the
department for the best use of the numbers we have.
County Council President Morton stated he has to leave, but thanked everyone for having this
conversation.
Council President Scott asked if dispatchers are assigned to specific cities or can they cross train
and overlap between South Bend, Mishawaka, and the County.
Mr. Croymans stated currently the way we are operating is we are just co- located, everyone is
working in the South Bend Police building but they are working on their own independent
systems. It is extremely inefficient because you have South Bend who is extremely busy while
Clay Fire doesn't process as many calls in a day. Those are the benefits we are going to gain
when we move in together and are on one (1) unified phone and radio. Instead of having separate
fire dispatchers for each entity, they will all be combined together. Police dispatches will still be
jurisdictional. It would be very advantageous to do another study once we are in to see how the
calls are coming in.
Council President Scott asked Ms. Etter to explain her position.
Ms. Etter responded she mostly handles all the payroll and Human Resources questions that they
have and the County cannot answer right away for them. She stated she also does a lot of the
budget stuff for Mr. Croymans while he is handling the technical issues.
Council President Scott asked what her background is.
Ms. Etter responded she started two (2) years ago with the County in this position, before that
she was in hotel sales.
Councilmember Jo M. Broden asked how long Mr. Croymans has had this position.
Mr. Croymans responded two (2) years just like Ms. Etter. He stated he has been with the
Sherifs Department since he was eighteen (18) years old. He ran the Sherif 911 Center for the
last fifteen (15) years and has extensive radio and data background.
Mr. Murphy asked when Ms. Etter will we have the final numbers.
Ms. Etter responded that we have the numbers that make us pretty confident what it will be for
South Bend but she is not a financial advisor so they have advisors looking at it tomorrow and
we will do multiple scenarios because the County asked for different percentages. Once we get
that all figured out, everyone will get a copy of it and come October 20th, 2016 at the Executive
Board meeting, they will vote to approve how much of the reserve money we are going to use
and that will be the end of it.
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Mr. Murphy stated for everyone to know we put in our budget the estimate done on September
2nd, 2016 which is the number that uses the most reserves. It is a little over $2 million.
Ms. Etter stated in her opinion she would suggest they plan for a little more.
Vice Committee Chair White stated we need to know that as we move forward with the budget
process beyond just a place holder.
Mr. Agostino stated he does want to address that a little because it relates to the collective
bargaining. Right now the County wants to get some feedback from South Bend and Mishawaka
because there are some costs with the collective bargaining that can be funded next year out of
the budget that the County has but it will force us for 2018 to find more money to cover it. The
employees have ratified the agreement but the County is holding off their vote until we see what
the input is from South Bend and Mishawaka. The interlocal agreement allows for $200,000
assessment to come in among the parties for capital. That money did not get accurately
appropriated from 2015. There was no assessment for 2016. That $200,000 is there and the
County Council may be willing to use that money to help cover the costs of collective bargaining
for 2017 if there is support from that for the partners. That does put us in a position in 2018 to
find where the money is. The employees did back off on their salary amounts and this is not an
issue on how much money they are making but it is working conditions. In the negotiations that
was the focus. We have some very dedicated people working and their attitudes have been very
good. The concern is if we don't ratify this agreement, what does that do for morale. It may
trigger more turmoil and then you have more overtime again. Everyone wants to see the
agreement ratified for the benefit of all the residents and a message from the South Bend Council
to the County Council would go a long way. It is not necessary but it may be helpful. South Bend
has been very vocal that our employees are taken care of, especially the South Bend legal
employees.
Council President Scott sated he is invested that the quality of life for these employees is good so
that they are not burnt out and leaving. That is why this is so important and if collective
bargaining gets it done then that is great. He stated his frustration is the quality of life and the
entire financial nuts and bolts of the agreement. He stated he doesn't like the governmental
structure of it. The Operations Board trying to work together, and then the three (3) head entities
working together, and that just does not seem like an effective system.
Mr. Agostino stated that is a valid point and about twelve (12) years ago there was the attempt to
do it and they looked at Elkhart who had a different setup. We tried to get the state law changed
but it never did. There is room for discussing different types of structures that function
differently, right now we are tripping over ourselves.
Council President Scott stated it is so important because there are lives at stake here. He asked
once the center is completely up and running, is this thing a neutral revenue or will it lose money
year after year.
Mr. Croymans stated he can only speak hypothetically but the State minimum payout is the $1.7
million. The State has realized that the disbursement of the funds isn't fair and they have put a
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trapping mechanism on everyone's telephone center to analyze how many calls are truly coming
into the center. We really don't know what this will cost right now until we get in.
Vice Committee Chair White stated before we leave she wants clarity to know what we are being
asked and what is the timeframe for the ratification.
Mr. Agostino stated they would like to have it done before the end of the year. The County
Council did commit to scheduling a special meeting if they need to. On October 20th, 2016 there
is an Executive Board meeting. The sooner the better for everyone involved. He stated he would
like to draft a resolution that he would like the South Bend Council to entertain and look at
which in effect would say the Council supports the County ratifying the agreement. It would be
non - binding but would show support. That would be helpful to the County.
Mr. Murphy stated they will be able to make their budget work from a macro sense but this is
obviously a concern because we need hard numbers eventually.
Vice Committee Chair White thanked everyone for coming and the information given. With no
further items on the agenda, Vice Committee Chair White adjourned the meeting at 6:42 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Karen White, Vice Committee Chair
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