HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-19-18 Personnel and Finance (#10) (--. pUTH g8�,O
PEACE
1865
OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK
KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK
PERSONNEL & FINANCE SEPTEMBER 19, 2018 5:00 P.M.
Committee Members Present: Karen White, Regina Williams-Preston, John Voorde
Committee Members Absent: Gavin Ferlic, Jake Teshka, Oliver Davis
Other Council Present: Tim Scott, Jo M. Broden, Sharon L. McBride
Other Council Absent: Oliver Davis, Jake Teshka
Others Present: Jennifer Coffman, Bob Palmer
Presenters: Jennifer Hockenhull, Kyra Clark, Laura O'Sullivan,
Kareemah Fowler, Steve Cox, Jitin Kain, Aaron Perri, Scott
Ruszkowski, Tracy Skibins, Christina Brooks,James
Mueller, Santiago Garces,
Agenda: Salary Ordinance Discussion
Committee Chair Karen White called the Personnel and Finance Committee Meeting to order at
5:00 p.m. and outlined the agenda for the evening. She then asked if any of the original positions
that were presented during budget hearings have been changed or eliminated.
Jennifer Hockenhull, City Controller with offices on the 12th floor of the County-City Building,
replied,No,there are no changes from what has already been presented.
Committeemember John Voorde asked, When the Mayor made the initial presentation, he
referenced a hiring freeze, and I wondered if the new positions here are accounted for, or if it is
something that goes counter to that.
Ms. Hockenhull responded, When we were looking at a hiring freeze, it is more of a soft freeze
and we're looking at it towards 2020. While we do have new positions requested in the 2019
budget, our goal is that as people retire or leave the City, we are going to do a hard look at all of
the positions that are requesting to be refilled, prior to refilling them. It is not a freeze, but more
of a looking towards that 2020 curb to make sure that we are being fiscally responsible.
Committee Chair White stated, So for the 2019 budget, these positions are not part of that freeze
in preparation of 2020. Any positions that will be coming after the 2019 budget period will have
to go through a different budget process, and then you'll be relying on retirees and things of that
nature before refilling those positions.
INTEGRITY' SERVICE'ACCESSIBILITY
JENNIFER M.COFFMAN BLANCA L.T IRADO JOSEPH R.MOLNAR
CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK
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Ms. Hockenhull stated, That's correct. Tonight, I have with me Kyra Clark. This is a joint
presentation as it's not just Kyra and I, it is all of the departments. If there is anything you want to
see differently for next year, let us know. We've never done it this way, and we're happy to make
tweaks. Referring to the presentation (which is available in the City Clerk's Office), she stated,
This is a chart to see the different full-time positions over time, and you'll see that they go up and
down as we go back and forth with private partnerships and those sorts of things. As you can see,
we've gone up, but not drastically. She presented a chart to show where all of the positions lie
throughout the City. Public Works has two hundred sixty-seven (267), Police has two hundred
eighty-eight(288), and Venues Parks&Arts have one hundred fifteen(115). That makes up about
two-thirds (2/3) of our workforce, and most of those folks are actually under bargaining
agreements. When we're looking at this non-bargaining salary ordinance tonight,we're really only
talking about that last one-third (1/3) of the pie there. Additionally, in 2019, we are requesting
seventeen(17)new positions.
Kyra Clark, Director of Human Resources with offices on the 12th floor of the County-City
Building, stated, I give a lot of credit to Jen Hockenhull and Councilmember White for coming up
with the way to make this as transparent as possible. We are coming at this trying to get you as
much information as we can and as clearly as possible. We are open to your feedback. She then
explained the color coding of the presentation. She stated, Each department head is here to talk
about their specific presentation, and they will be presented in the order in which the budget
presentations were made to the Council.
Mayor's Office
Laura O'Sullivan, Chief of Staff for the Mayor's Office with offices on the 14th floor of the
County-City Building, stated, We would like to move our Project Manager from part-time to full-
time. It is just an increase of one point eight five percent (1.85%) over this last year.
Committeemember Voorde asked, Can you give an example of what the project manager does?
Ms. O'Sullivan replied, Yes, we'll be using this position to work on intra-department projects.
This person will report to our Deputy Chief of Staff to get more bandwidth on a full-time basis to
get those projects done. Also any projects that happen with more than one (1) department, we've
seen we have a gap in coordinating those and communicating between the departments, so that
will be the main focus of this position.
Councilmember Jo Broden asked, Project centers, or areas of responsibility across the
department, I need a little more clarification on that.
Ms. O'Sullivan replied, Myself, our Deputy Chief of Staff and our Director of Community
Engagement all have different items in their portfolio and we all work with different department
heads, and so this person would help bring those synergies together when we're working on those
projects with the different departments,mostly between myself and the Deputy Chief of Staff.
Committeemember Regina Williams-Preston and Councilmember Sharon McBride arrived at 5:09
p.m.
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City Clerk's Office
Kareemah Fowler, City Clerk with offices on the 4th floor of the County-City Building, stated, I
have two (2) positions I am currently asking for increases in, just so they are aligned with the
responsibilities and the workload. One(1)is the Chief Deputy Clerk,and the other is the Ordinance
Violations Bureau Clerk. We have reevaluated a few things in our office and we've taken on
additional projects such as Amnesty Day and our internship program as well as GIS mapping for
our Notre Dame Lawn Parking and Scrap Metal licenses and any other initiative that we need to
do that for in-house for the Clerk's Office and the Council.
Committeemember John Voorde stated, This is actually the third (3`d) step in a three (3) step
program to adjust workloads and salaries and job descriptions in your office, right? There isn't
much opportunity to compliment you on the work you've done,but I in particular,think that you've
done a much better job providing complete and timely minutes than the last Clerk. Big upgrade!
Fire Department
Steve Cox, South Bend Fire Chief with offices at 1222 S. Michigan Street, stated,As you can see,
we're just asking for a couple of things. For a department that has one quarter(1/4) of the staff of
the City, we are very light on the administrative staff of the South Bend Fire Department. We
have one (1) administrative assistant who we're asking to bump up from a one (I) to a two (II).
We're asking at this time to keep that at a two percent (2%) pay raise, but we would like to raise
the ceiling of that position. We've added some responsibilities to each of our civilian positions in
order for us not to have to add an additional position. For instance, our Financial Specialist three
(III) is handling APRA requests as a liaison to the Legal Department, which was not a
responsibility that she had in the past. Our Administrative Assistant handles purchasing issues and
such that she also didn't have as a responsibility when she was first hired in. Our Financial
Specialist two (II) is also a team leader within our EMS billing section and drives the workload
within there and is also our designated Compliance Officer in regard to HIPPA rules and other
Federal regulations within our billing office. Additionally, each of our Accounting Clerks and the
Financial Specialist have all received national certifications in EMS billing which was not a
requirement of their job when they first hired in. We are asking that those three (3) positions be
bumped up one (1) level to make their ceiling a little higher, in order for us to provide incentives
for those individuals when we do performance reviews. Additionally, the community paramedic
position is a new position, the only new position in our department. As I mentioned, this is a
community outreach position within the Fire Department to create a preventive medical position.
We know people are out there in the community in need of services,and that puts them in a position
where they are utilizing the EMS system in a way in which it was not designed to be used. They
frequently call 911 and use the emergency department as their primary care physician, and
oftentimes the underlying cause of this isn't even a medical problem. Our community paramedic
began as a pilot program in June, and we've already seen a decrease in multiple patients calling
911 using our resources, which further frees up our 911 resources for the appropriate types of
patients. Initially when I presented this, I had asked for two (2) firefighter positions, but at this
point we are asking for one (1). We'd be turning the pilot position into a permanent position.
Department of Public Works
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Jitin Kain, Deputy Director for the Department of Public Works with offices on the 13th floor of
the County-City Building, stated, The first change in Public Works is a title change. It was
originally stated as the PIO, Public Information Officer. We brought this position to you last year
in the budget process, and there was some confusion on the tasks and different responsibilities. As
we thought about it,we realized that the title did not accurately reflect the responsibilities. We are
asking for a title change from public information officer to marketing director. The second (2nd)
change is in our Division of Streets and Sewers,where we are asking for four(4)new FTE's.Three
(3) of these are concrete finishers, and one (1) is a job leader. This is the crew we've talked about
doing more curb and sidewalk work with, but they would also have additional responsibilities
throughout the season. With the additional crew, we'll be able to add fifty percent (50%) more
sidewalk work. This is a Council priority,the Administration's priority, and we also hear from the
community a lot about the need for more curb and sidewalk infrastructure. In addition, this crew
will also do patching. We have not been able to do much on pavement patching, and this crew will
initiate this program. We often have issues with the hiring of seasonal part-time workers, so this
crew will do leaf pickup and snow removal. The next change is on the Engineering Team,they are
asking for an additional inspector for the number of projects that we have in our portfolio, in
particular,the Venues Parks&Arts projects. This position is completely reimbursed through VPA.
Our office will be overseeing approximately $15 million in park projects over the next few years.
That construction requires inspection for every project, and if we were to farm this out, it would
easily be over five (5) times the cost than hiring our own personnel, so we believe this will be a
cost savings to the City. The next positions are in the Utilities Office, and these are primarily the
result of some reorganization that we've done in Utilities. These are not essentially new positions.
We've asked our crews to constantly look at creating efficiencies and opportunities to reorganize
to better serve our residents. The director of customer service in billing was a position we had a
hard time filling,because of the wide range of tasks that this position has to do. The reorganization
started with the reporting structure within that position, and that has a ripple effect on some other
management positions.In all,there are five(5)positions in Utilities within Water that we're asking
for some changes to. The last change is in Solid Waste. We're asking for a six percent (6%)
increase in the Director position,to bring the Director more in line with the other Directors in our
office. This is the lowest paid position within our leadership team, and we're asking to bring it up
slightly more in line with the other leaders.
Committee Chair White asked, In essence, you are asking for five (5) new positions? You
mentioned that the first one (1),the inspector,will be reimbursable?
Mr.Kain answered,Yes,it will be reimbursed through Parks,plus four(4)new positions in streets.
Councilmember Tim Scott stated, I have no problems with any of these changes, I think they're
really good. The PIO position, the marketing position you had before, I was really perplexed last
year,but it cut down on a lot of the questions and calls I've received over the last year due to more
information coming out of your department. It helps educate our citizens on what is going on,
especially on our streets, so I thank you for doing that.
Committeemember Regina Williams-Preston asked, for clarification, Is the PIO just getting a title
change and not an increase in salary?
Mr. Kain replied, Yes, there is no change in salary, no change in job description, it is just a title
change.
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Committeemember Williams-Preston stated, Thank you for more curbs and sidewalks. I think
that's a wonderful idea and I appreciate it.
Venues Parks and Art
Aaron Perri, Executive Director of Venues Parks & Arts with offices located at 301 South St.
Louis, stated, We're requesting one (1) new position, that is the head custodian position, and it
will be a Teamsters position. This person will care for the higher level of standard that we're
putting into our facilities, as well as the fact that the Charles Black Center is doubling in size. We
have a couple of title changes that are positions that we're changing from Director titles to Manager
titles. We didn't like the idea of Directors reporting to Directors, because it gets confusing. This
comes with no salary changes, just a title change. There are a couple things from our
reorganization, but the primary one (1) was on the venues side. The Director of Box Office and
Events Services used to be just the Director of the Box Office,but now she also oversees booking,
ushers and the whole customer experience, so we're recommending an increase there to reflect her
change in duties. At the top of the organizational chart, there is the Director of Facilities and
Grounds and the Director of Experience. In terms of their level of responsibility, the budget and
the number of staff they oversee, in particular on the facilities and grounds side, there has been a
major increase, but the other two (2) seem to be predominately underpaid from where we were in
the past. The summary slide (referring to the presentation available in the City Clerk's Office)
shows that everything considered only has a total net effect of a point seven percent(.7%)increase,
an additional $44,000 to our budget. Part of that is that we were able to get some internal
efficiencies and migrate some of the positions that were in VPA over to the Venues side of the
equation.We're reintroducing ice skating, so there is some part-time labor that we'll see at the end
of 2019 that hasn't been there in the last couple of years.
Committeemember Williams-Preston asked, Where are the supervisors located?
Mr. Perri replied, Charles Black Center and Martin Luther King Jr. Center. There are three (3)
supervisors,but only two(2)of them would be recommended for the increase,the ones that oversee
the significant centers. The third (3rd) one (1) oversees the Rum Village Nature Center, which
doesn't have any additional staffing associated with it.
Police Department
Scott Ruszkowski, South Bend Police Chief with offices located at 701 W. Sample Street, stated,
My backup is not with me because they are all tending to an officer who was wounded in the line
of duty at the moment. He is ok, he is at the hospital being treated right now and we're trying to
figure out exactly what happened. I want to give a shout out to HR for helping us with this. The
Director of Logistics is a new position. However, we currently have a vacated Captain position
that was held for many years. We are looking into positions that don't require arrest powers, a gun
and badge to do these things, and this is one (1) of those positions. As you can see, it is a lengthy
job description that includes everything from police equipment to federal grant writing. More
importantly,it involves trying to collaborate with vendors and police officers,which is not an easy
task to do, so it is going to be a quite intensive job.Next is the crime intelligence analyst, which is
the social media component. The Council had several questions about this, and this is being done
in almost every major police department in the country. We are going to customize this to fit our
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needs, it's great. I see what they're doing, and I am confident we can make it even better. The
objective of our Police Department is not to have to make arrests. One(1)of the main components
of this besides the geofencing and all of the analytical things that go into it, is that we hope to be
aware of the situation that may be happening somewhere on social media, or that might be making
its way to social media, and getting to whomever may be involved to stop that disaster from
happening, no matter what type of violent act it would be. That is our ultimate goal. Here is some
really good news that the Council did not know, we are participating in a fellowship program out
of Notre Dame called the Young Leaders of the Americas. We have a young lady from Peru who
will be working with us. It doesn't cost us anything, and she will be refining the parameters and
everything else involved in this position. She'll be working with our crime analyst, and she will
set top to bottom and side to side what is specifically needed, whether it is Instagram, Facebook,
or any other social media. She will determine how that is received, recovered, maintained, stored,
and more importantly, disseminated to officers or our outreach teams that will go out and facilitate
these stopping measures before bad things happen. The dividends will hopefully be zero (0).
Monetarily and statistically,when we don't have people shot or hurt in any other form,that optimal
number is zero(0), and we can all celebrate.Until then,we will continue our work. We moved our
Alarm Specialist to the Data Entry Specialist,they still do the alarm billings and vetting,but we've
incorporated the Data Entry Specialist. We would like to add new shift premiums for the Data
Entry Specialist and the records specialist, this came most importantly from the Council. When
you have employees at the Police Department 24/7, 365 days a year, not just police officers, who
are making things continue to work, they are away from their family and family functions they
would normally attend when they are there in afternoons and midnights. We think the fair way to
compensate them is to have shift premiums for afternoons and midnights. Through 2019, we'll
also be looking at a tier system. Right now, when someone is hired in the Police Department in a
records position or an entry position,they will make the same pay on day one(1) as someone who
has been there for thirty (30) years doing that job. We're going to look at it, and hopefully with
the Council's blessing and input,we'll be able to resolve that. The last is the Assistant Director of
Civilian Services, we want to get that closer when the Director of Records is gone, you can see all
of their responsibilities.
Committee Chair White asked, Your budget is based on how many police officers again?
Chief Ruszkowski answered, Two hundred forty(240).
Committee Chair White stated, I did receive a call, and this has nothing to do with the salaries,but
I thought I'd ask you while you're here. The boxing program has not been eliminated, has it?
Chief Ruszkowski stated, No, it has not. In fact, it had almost six hundred (600) kids go through
our summer program. It's not just physical, it is tutoring too, every aspect of mentoring.
Councilmember Sharon L. McBride stated, I got a call too,the funding decreased.
Committee Chair White asked, Did the funding decrease?
Chief Ruszkowski replied, For PAL?No,there's multiple components to PAL. There is a national
program, because we have to be involved with the name, but we still operate our boxing program
primarily on donation. The funding increase was the personnel involved in PAL when it came to
the summer, so we had tennis, boxing, soccer, swimming, football, and one (1) or two (2) others.
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But yes, there was an increase, but those were positions that we had coaches come in, not just
police officers. Daryl Boykins, who runs it is a part-time employee, gets paid a specific'amount
even though I think everyone knows he works well beyond those hours.
Councilmember Scott asked, Could it be a donation or something that has decreased? Would that
change your funding for that program?
Chief Ruszkowski stated, Yes it would, I'll get you that answer sometime tomorrow,because I am
not specifically sure.
Councilmember Scott stated, I think the tiered structure for your personnel is a very good way to
go. I think the City might need to look at that as well. That shows the commitment to the
individuals that have been there for a while, plus incentives for working and looking at merit. I
think that goes a long way.
Councilmember Jo M. Broden asked, Can you give clarity on when that tiered system will begin?
Chief Ruszkowski stated, We'll be working that through 2019. We are confident now, initially,
that we should be able to fund that tier system based on the new hire as opposed to people who
have been here for thirty (30) years. However, working with HR and Diversity and Inclusion and
everyone else concerning career path development, this also concerns performance evaluations.
Based on those evaluations of performance, we would be able to use the tier system. If you came
in at$20,000, and you could be making$30,000,based on those performance evaluations and the
work that you perform, you could make up to that level based on a certain amount of time. This is
all preliminary. I'm guessing six (6) to seven (7) months into next year we'll have something to
present to Council, but I'm not expecting it to be anything drastic where we would have to come
to Council to ask for more money for that change. If it does,you can be sure that we will have our
ducks in a row.
Committee Chair White stated, Thank you. Please let us know how that officer turns out.
. Code Enforcement
Tracy Skibins, Director of Code Enforcement with offices on the 13th floor of the County-City
Building, stated,We are requesting two (2) full-time to part-time positions. I'll be speaking on the
position in Code Enforcement.The position right now is a part-time position,and we are requesting
it to be full-time. It is for a Financial Specialist Three (III), because with the development of the
new division of Code Enforcement for the rental inspection,there will be different responsibilities
for the staff. Additional responsibilities for this person would include processing special
assessments,posting daily cash receipts to accounts receivable invoices,processing of payroll,and
assisting accounts payable. She will be helping the staff that we currently have do their
responsibilities in addition to the new program that we have,and help out with the financial aspects
of it as well.
Jen Goebel,Manager of Animal Care and Control with offices located at 521 Eclipse Place,stated,
We are looking to move a part-time position for an Animal Control Assistant to a full-time
position. During 2017, the person that was currently here as our Adoption Coordinator was
promoted to Assistant Manager. Her primary responsibility was coordinating all of our adoptions.
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In 2016, the total amount of adoptions for the year was two hundred eighty-nine (289). In 2017,
there were four hundred fifty-three (453) adoptions, which represented a fifty-six point seven
percent(56.7%) increase. Year to date for 2018, we've increased that by one hundred plus (100+)
animals, which represents a seventy-four percent (74%) increase in adoptions. Essentially, a full-
time person whose workload doubled for a part-time position. We are looking to make that a full-
time position, and that way it will allow us to have the ability to quickly adopt these animals, get
them out of the shelter faster,which cuts our costs for medical,bedding, care,cleaning,things like
that. The faster we can fast track them through the shelter,the less we have to sink money into the
care for them.
Administration and Finance
Jen Hockenhull, City Controller with offices on the 12th floor of the County-City Building, stated,
Our first (1st) request is for Administration and Finance, for a part-time Accounting Clerk. We
have a new ERP system, a new accounting system that will be installed in 2019, and we are
requesting a part-time person to come in and help backfill any needs that we have, especially in
accounts payable which will be heavily involved in the new ERP system. This will be a twenty-
five(25)to twenty-nine(29)hour per week person.Then for Central Services,we have the Director
of Equipment Services which oversees a$3 million plus budget,about twenty-five(25)employees
and about 1000 assets on wheels, so we are requesting to increase the salary to be better in line
with others in the City that perform work that manage that kind of budget, personnel and assets.
We're requesting to eliminate a Radio Technician position and replace it with a Radio Installer
position. The Radio Technician position is an older position from back when we would actually
repair a radio, and we'd need the technical assistance to really fix the radio. Now radios, like our
cell phones, do not get repaired when they break,they go back to where we purchased them from.
This is basically a downgrade of a position. We're asking to add an additional part-time
Administrative Assistant to help support in Central Services. Along the lines of gaining the new
ERP system,we are hoping over time these part-time positions won't be as necessary,but for 2019
they are very important to us as we get to the new implementation of the new software. We are
also hoping for the Superintendent Three(III)to be promoted to a Superintendent Four(IV) in the
building area, our facilities management area. We're taking on more responsibilities including
Animal Care and Control within Central Services to oversee their facilities and help them, and we
hope to bring on more right now. They also help oversee the fire stations and help with the
maintenance of those buildings. As their portfolios expand, we want to make sure we give the
necessary raises to the individual in that position.
Committee Chair White opened the floor to Council questions. There were none.
Diversity and Inclusion
Christina Brooks,Diversity and Inclusion Officer with offices on the 14th floor of the County-City
Building, stated, We have two (2) requests for positions. The Human Rights Commission is in
need of a part-time position for an Intake Officer/Investigator due to the increased caseload. In the
presentation we provided on September 5th,we talked about the increase with the expansion to the
County. We're seeing about forty-one (41)new cases that have come in since that expansion, and
it more than warrants some additional support for the EEOC Manager and the HUD manager as
we take cases from the County, and the cases that we're continuing to take from South Bend. We
need someone to help direct traffic with those cases. The other position that we're requesting is
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the Manager for Inclusion Projects. This position is a full-time position and would support all of
the efforts that are carried out of sixty-three (63) action items in the Diversity and Inclusion Plan,
maintaining programs and helping support any of the outcomes of the Disparity Study as far as
compliance is concerned, and also supporting research and policy development on a more
executive leadership level.
Committee Chair White stated, I do recall when the Commission duties were expanded to include
the County that we were going to revisit that and see what level at which we would be seeking
support from the County.Do you see that forthcoming, or do we need to go through the full year's
cycle?
Ms. Brooks stated, I believe our Director of Human Rights is in conversations with the County
Council regarding a position. We don't know what the outcome of that conversation is right now,
but it is on the table.
Community Investment
James Mueller, Executive Director for the Department of Community Investment with offices on
the 14th floor of the County-City Building stated, We have a number of changes presented here,
all of which we talked about in the budget hearing earlier this month. The first one (1) is on the
newly formed Engagement and Economic Empowerment Team, and it is for a new Engagement
Specialist Position. When we formed this team, we underappreciated the opportunity available for
the Economic Empowerment side, and so in just its first (1St) year, the staff has been able to
leverage their salaries and benefits one to one (1:1) without bringing in outside dollars, and with
many of the proposals on the table for next year, we're looking at several dollars to every dollar
we'd be spending on that team. We haven't been able to do as much as we would have liked on
the engagement and outreach side, we've had some early successes with the home repair project,
where we went door to door. That is a primary focus of the Engagement Specialist,to go out and
do direct engagement on City services, particularly those within Community Investment. We're
trying to be fiscally responsible when proposing a new position, so we were looking at a funding
cut to the NRC after a one (1) time funding increase this year. We are currently sharpening our
pencils on that issue. We had a good meeting with the Executive Director,Diana Hess, in figuring
out the responsibilities of the engagement specialist and what the NRC would be better suited to
do. We'd like to outline where the NRC would be better off, where the City would be better off,
and where the City and the NRC could partner. We are still working on that, but we hope to bring
that to you in the next week or two(2)before your vote on the budget. You have the job description
currently on the Engagement Specialist for your review.
He continued, Moving to the Neighborhood Development Team, there are increases proposed for
the Housing Counselor and the Manager of Neighborhood Grants. This is to ensure there is parity
across teams. This is the cap, or the maximum salary for structural purposes, it doesn't mean the
individual in that position would get the full increase going into next year.The presentations we've
seen today would not have been possible three (3) years ago when I arrived and asked for
organizational charts. We certainly didn't have this level of clarity across departments. A lot of
appreciation should go out to our Human Resources Director, Kyra Clark, and our Diversity and
Inclusion Officer, Christina Brooks. With all of that capacity building, there has been more
emphasis on fairness and making sure that positions are set at the proper levels, relative to other
peers and responsibilities. These two (2) are housekeeping measures. To take a broader look, it's
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not perfect.As we try to get equity,right now we don't have a good measure for seniority or tenure
in these positions, which makes it imperfect. We've talked about grades and steps. We've made a
lot of progress, but we still have a little bit to go. On the Planning Team, we're proposing a move
from the current Building Department position of the Zoning and Business Services Administrator
into the Planning Department to broaden the administration of the Zoning Ordinance with the
proposed South Bend Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals. The increase there is
for.the same reason as the previous two (2), trying to match them with comparable levels of
responsibility within the Department of Community Investment. Finally,there is the new position
of the Zoning Specialist, which is the one (1) net new position proposed to manage this new
Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals. We've determined that the current Design
and Plan Review Specialist, after a number of conversations with our Building Commissioner,
operates as the integrator. They look at the plans and work in the back office, but when you're
looking at a building permit, you have to look at the plans and get the inspectors out there, and so
they operate more as the COO of the team.The Chief Building Inspector is the lead of the Inspector
Team, whereas previously, the Design Review Specialist was above the Chief Building Inspector.
That clarifies some of the responsibilities of the team. The License and Registration Administrator
is currently the Business License Administrator within the Business Development side of
Community Investment. Here we're looking to centralize more of the license and registration
activities,and now this position is proposed to oversee the front office staff of that Building Team.
With the increase in responsibilities,we've proposed an increase in salary. Finally,there is a new
part-time position for a Licensing Auditor. It is meant to enforce and inspect to ensure people are
getting the business and contractor licensing that they need. This would be expected to be paid for
by donations or fees. This position would only be created if we are able to realize that revenue.
For the first (1st) year, we hope for up front donation support, and in the later years, we hope this
will generate revenue that will be self-sustaining.
Committee Chair White opened the floor to Committee and Council Members for questions or
comments.
Councilmember Broden stated, There are a lot of additions here from what I see. I need some help
with regard to these additions. I'll admit, I need to get deeper into the job descriptions, so that's
one (1)piece. I would like to know how one (1) interfaces with your department for business, and
how these new positions fit into that overall picture. That might just be a gap that I'm not seeing.
My other question is this is for the third (3rd) quarter for 2019, I'd like a sense of the
implementation tasks, how do we onboard all of this over time so that we aren't missing a beat in
terms of service and integration of these new positions? I'm glad that you're looking at the NRC,
and I would appreciate additional information on that. I concur that all of this information is
fabulous, this has been an ongoing request and I am so appreciative, and I know that the folks I
represent really see this as an improvement in terms of the mystery of local government and who
does what. This represents a tremendous amount of work on everybody's part that is here tonight.
Councilmember McBride asked, What is the total cost of the increase requests?
Mr. Mueller stated, I would have to add all of that up, I forget the number off hand.
Councilmember McBride stated, I'll get that. I am glad that you are working with the NRC,
because I believe that would be a missed opportunity to see that funding decrease. I appreciate that
and look forward to getting feedback on that.
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Committeemember Williams-Preston stated, I think we all appreciate that, to see the NRC
working. I've seen a lot in the last year in terms of the increase in dollars. I've seen it specifically
in the neighborhoods that I serve, so I appreciate that and thank you for recognizing that and
engaging them. I have a question about the Engagement Specialist.I know that you had the survey
going on and people knocking doors. That was initially farmed out to a separate entity. Is this
something that position would be taking over? Would we bring that kind of work in house so it
can be handled through this person in the future?
Mr. Mueller stated, Yes. This would be the person with the day to day responsibilities of this, also
with the AmeriCorps folks that we're bringing in next year, this is someone to manage and
coordinate those folks too.
Committee Chair White stated, I would like to echo some of the sentiments of the Council
Members. I appreciate the two (2) of you sitting down and talking and I look forward to your
recommendations that you mentioned you will be bringing to the Council in the next week or two
(2).
Innovation and Technology
Santiago Garces,Chief Innovation Officer for the City of South Bend with offices on the 12th floor
of the County-City Building, stated, I presented earlier this week, so I'll just go over the positions
that we're requesting changes in. The first(1st) is the Deputy Chief Technology Officer, which is
a transfer from Public Works. We're increasing the salary at the two percent (2%)rate, but we're
changing the title to reflect the increase in the mobile device usages and the data that employees
in the field are generating. This is someone the departments themselves are requesting. There is
only one(1)request for a new position,the GIS Specialist. We've offset the salary for that position
by reducing expenses in our governance line item, which is the money we budget for projects that
come throughout the year that are needed throughout the departments, so we should be net neutral
in terms of funding that position. Again, this person will be responsible for maintaining the data
that we are collecting from the field. We are responsible for maintaining information about the
addresses that we feed to PSAP and information about the linear assets that we have in all of the
parks. Having a person to help support our GIS team and make sure the information is correct so
that the department heads can make better decisions and the employees can perform their work is
critical. We had two (2) positions that did not have changes in salary nor in title, one (1) of them
is the business analyst and the other is the infrastructure specialist. The Infrastructure Specialist is
coming from the Century Center as part of the changes in management that Venues Parks and Arts
conducted, then the Business Analyst used to be budgeted from DCI, and the position is now
managed by our department.
Committee Chair White stated, I sincerely appreciate your presentation,especially that the City is
looking beyond just Administration, but going into the various neighborhoods to ensure that
citizens who cannot afford technology and Wi-Fi, will now have that available. That was very
encouraging.
Committee Chair White thanked all of the department heads and staff for the work that you've
done to bring us to this point. She stated,I would like to personally thank Jennifer because we tend
to meet on a weekly basis, trying to spend time on how to best outline the information so it is as
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clear and transparent as possible. I really appreciate the time and energy you've put into this budget
process. Each year, our goal is to make it better. Any questions that have been posed through the
public hearing process are on the website. We have all of the job descriptions, so Councilmembers,
if there is any other information you would like to have,again I did send out an email this afternoon
asking Council Members if they had any additional questions or concerns as we move towards the
completion of this year's budget process.
Councilmember Broden stated, Relative to South Bend Police, if we're looking at implementing
the tiered piece, and that looks like it will be a mid-year piece that comes before the Council, I
would like for us to reconsider something that is retroactive. Is it possible to take it back to January
1St? Since I've been here, we've seen a lot of folks, department heads with budgets correcting
inequities, and I guess I would support looking at something that, even though we put it in place
in January, makes those increases retroactive to January 1.
Chief Ruszkowski asked, Do you want a response now, or do you want me to get back to you?
Any input is obviously welcome, but that is not something we've looked at. I'll look at it and get
back to you.
Committee Chair White opened the floor to the public for questions and comments.
Sue Kesim, 4022 Kennedy Drive, I gave you a list of twelve (12) things. Before I start, I wanted
to say I think the community paramedic idea is really great.It is needed and it is a good,innovative
way of helping meet those needs. I noticed in the reports there are no grand totals, so the Council
can't see the total scope of it. I also noticed that the $16,000 for each person in benefits is not
included, nor is a phone or tablet expense. When you add a person, that is part of the expense, so
I think those also need to be included in the totals.I think it would be helpful to do a cost projection
out five (5) years with at least a two percent (2%) annual increase so we can get an idea, since it
is really a multi-year thing.I would like an explanation for the$5,000 signing bonus in the Mayor's
Office and what it is for. I think there could be some consolidation on some of the management
layers. People are getting paid to manage one (1) or two (2) other people. I think maybe you need
to look at structure and make sure a manager is actually managing more people. You also need to
take into account this family leave program. I think it is great and needed, but you also need to
take into consideration, how sometimes it will skew a budget. For example, South Bend Animal
Care and Control had two (2)people on pregnancy leave,and that resulted in$45,000 in overtime.
It's a great program, but also adjust in the budget for the fact that sometimes it makes a ripple.
Perhaps,know which ones are funded by a grant.Also,Dr. Varner had brought up having a sliding
scale for pay increases, because a two percent (2%) increase for someone making $100,000 is
$2,000. A two percent(2%) increase for someone making$35,000 is only$700,because someone
making $35,000 really needs a raise more than the others. I'm a little concerned about having
inspectors report to the bosses. I think it is important for the inspectors to be independent. I am
concerned that there might be some cutting of corners. I think there is a check and balance to
having inspectors be separate and not report to their bosses. I ran off a report from the State
Gateway, and I wanted to remind you that it looks like you're scheduled to decide to spend $383
million, but the revenues are only expected to be $331 million, so that creates a $42 million gap
where you're spending $52 million more than you're expecting to bring in. When you're looking
at these things, this can't go on forever. There needs to be tightening somewhere, so I just want
you to be mindful that according to the State of Indiana,you're on track to spend$52 million more
than you have coming in.
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Jim Bognar, 807 W. Washington Street, stated, First (1st) of all, I would like to thank
Councilmember White.Out of all of the meetings we've ever had,this discussion with the majority
of Council and everybody here from the Administration is something that this City needs,it shows
unity, it shows positivity, and it's necessary, and it has come about under your leadership. Thank
you for the hard work that you have done. I also want to mention that I took a look at where we
were in 2014 and where we are today. Not just with graphs, but in the total rebuilding of this
Administration so that it will better help support the City. One (1) of the things that hasn't been
rebuilt is the Council. One (1) of the things that I sat and thought about what the Council should
consider is,much like they have an attorney, a financial analyst.Not someone who stops you from
talking to people in Jennifer's office, but that is part of the Administration. You need someone
who can help and give you answers to questions that people have. You do have the ability to be
able to do that, and preferably, someone who understands the uniqueness of government budgets.
The questions people are asking could be minimized and streamlined. Also, we treat this budget
process as best we can. We start with all of this enthusiasm in May. By the time we get to October,
we just want to pass this thing to be done with it.But really,the budget never stops.There is always
a change in money that goes from one (1) place to another, and that leads to all kinds of rumors
and innuendos, so I think this is amazing. This never would have happened three (3) or four (4)
years ago. I think the opportunity is there for the Council to reach out across the aisle. All you
have to do is pass a budget,nothing else. I think it is important and incumbent upon all of you and
the Administration to come more than when you just have to do something. My recommendation
is that it shouldn't just stop at a vote. There has to be a better way to talk about debt, what we're
doing, and how effective we are. One (1) other thing that is critical is that department heads will
always talk about what works. Very rarely will they talk about what doesn't. I think there has to
be some connection between where we are and where we're going. If it doesn't work,that's not a
bad thing, it just means we have to do something better. We're finally to a point where we're
starting to come together. I thank the Council for taking their time, as well as the Administration.
The fact of the matter is that this is a much different community now, and we have to treat it that
way.
Sharon Banicki, 3822 Ford Street, stated, I'm not sure why the City Clerk needs two (2)people to
get a higher raise than normal. The interns are supposed to help with the workload,not increase it,
but they're supposed to decrease it. These are paid interns, so if the paid interns are causing more
work for the employees in the office,then maybe you need to look at the paid interns. But you're
just adding more money on more money. My understanding is that Code Enforcement has asked
for their own financial person to help with collecting money from the ordinances, which will
lighten the load of the ordinance person in the City Clerk's Office, but yet the justification is the
Ordinance Clerk in the City Clerk's Office will have more work. It's redundant, it doesn't work.
They can't both be picking up more work. Amnesty Day is not a special day, it's part of the job.
It's one(1)day that they work harder on in the year,but if they were doing the work all year round,
then it wouldn't fall on one (1) day. For the Fire Department, I'm sad that they're dropping their
request for the extra person for the Community Paramedic. From what I've heard from the Fire
Department and people who have been working around it, it's a great thing. I'm hoping he'll
reconsider, and if not the two (2) full people, at least one and a half(1.5). We could go through
this whole budget page by page, but it started two (2) years ago when all the directors had to be
making $90,000, then last year we had to bring up several more directors because they're only
making $75,000 but this director is making $90,000. This budget cycle, we're back to the same
thing again. You're getting these big increase requests to bring everybody up to this high scale,
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yet, the income level of the people who are supporting all of this keeps dropping. Your tax payer
base's income level is dropping. You can't just keep raising the top level. If you're going to do
two percent (2%), it's more for the people making $100,000 than it is for those making $35,000.
You're never going to close that gap, and you're not going to be able to keep supporting the upper
management; eventually it's going to collapse. Karen, thank you, fabulous job. Jen, thank you.
You two (2)women are amazing. I commend you both on your transparency and listening to us.
Committee Chair White stated, From each budget process we've done, we've learned something
new every time. We have recommended that when we kick off the 2020 budget, that we will start
out our discussions looking at debt,the TIF Districts,and other areas.We've also discussed having
quarterly meetings where we can have this type of conversation just to say where things are
moving,and to make sure we can keep the level of transparency,but also the open communication.
Our goal is to make it as clear as possible. There are so many different revenue streams that we
have, and we try to make sure that we fully understand how our City is funded, but also most
importantly that our citizens understand.
Councilmember Scott stated, I would like to thank Karen White for taking on this Committee and
this task, so thank you so much for everything that you've done. Thank you, Jen, and everybody
else out there.I've been on this for seven(7)years,and every year it has gotten better. The citizens
have asked and we've changed a lot. I've been to other Cities and seen other councils at work, and
sometimes we have to get out and look around to see how everybody else does it. We do it a lot
better than other people,and we set the tone of transparency. Mr.Bognar,you mentioned financial
experts, and you're right. Each member is a unique individual with different experiences. I handle
a budget that is only forty percent (40%) less than what this budget is. So my experience and
knowledge is different than John Voorde's. You're absolutely right. Today within the Council
budget, we made an adjustment where we increased the Professional Services fund, which would
account for that. Other Council Members have asked for that, and where it might not be a need for
me, it could be for someone else and then we'd have that available. Like anything else out of
Professional Services,that would have to be justified and come through the Council and we would
have to go through the process of picking whoever that is and going from there. But, if you look
at this City over the last seven(7) years and the previous Mayor to this Mayor and Council, there
are a lot of new faces and changes. That is just part of that peaceful revolution of government and
how it transfers power. People, administrations and teams do things differently. There are vast
improvements, there's no disrespect to previous administrations, but things do evolve. Christina
Brooks is case in point in that department here and in what we've seen in other departments.
Budgets are implemented,and money that we put in,we might not use,we might not have to spend
all of that. Until the budget is actually actualized next year,those will be the end results. Working
with Karen White and all of the rookies, compared to her and I, quality of life,neighborhoods, it's
taken a while. We want it overnight. Thank you all for working with us.
Committee Chair White asked Ms.Hockenhull to come back to the podium for closing comments.
Jennifer Hockenhull stated,Thank you again,this has been a great process.Every year it has gotten
better from my perspective as well. Thank you for your feedback and to the residents for their
feedback. If you do have questions please be sure to get them to us. Our goal is to get responses to
the lingering questions that we haven't had a chance to get back to from Council by our public
hearing on Monday the 24th. That is the goal and I think that is achievable, so we'll get those out
to you. If there is anything else, we're happy to answer anything we can answer.
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Councilmember Broden stated,I would like to recommend we live stream our committee meetings.
Committee Chair White stated, So we'll check with the Clerk's Office.Excellent recommendation.
Committee Chair White adjourned the Personnel and Finance Committee Meeting at 6:23 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Karen White, Committee Chair
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