HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-22-18 Community Relations U 5,
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OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK
KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK
COMMUNITY RELATIONS OCTOBER 22, 2018 4:25 P.M.
Committee Members Present: Regina Williams-Preston, Sharon L. McBride, Jake Teshka,
Karen White
Committee Members Absent: None
Other Council Present: John Voorde, Jo M. Broden, Oliver Davis, Gavin Ferlic,
Tim Scott
Other Council Absent: None
Others Present: Bianca Tirado, Graham Sparks, Bob Palmer
Presenters: Regina Williams-Preston
Agenda: Committee Update(15 minutes)
Committee Chair Regina Williams-Preston called to order the Community Relations Committee
meeting at 4:25 p.m. She introduced members of the Committee and proceeded with the meeting.
Committee Update (15 minutes)
Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated, Today is a quick overview of the meeting we had a
couple of weeks ago. Many Council Members were not able to make that date so we thought we
would bring it here just to give the information. This really came out of, if you remember during
the budget hearings, when Code Enforcement was giving their presentation. They proposed a
position to have someone specifically to look at collections and, most specifically, the process of
special assessments. They are looking to stream-line that process and I had a lot of concerns about
that. Councilmember White, in her wisdom, suggested we have a meeting offline to shake out
some of those issues and then bring that back to a Committee meeting,and then the whole Council.
That is kind of where we are now and that this process is about.
She continued, So we had the meeting on Tuesday October 9th. We had some speakers including
Judy Fox, Tracy Skibins, and Tyria Bailey who is a business owner in the second (2w') District.
She owns the restaurant The Kick Back. I'm just going to do an overview just to get this
information out here. This is part of a process. I think there are going to be some things we are
going to look at. We will continue to investigate this over the course of however long. So,we kind
of started out with an overview of why we were here and talked about the racial wealth divide
report that was given to us. That report is evidence of what we suspected and that is that, most
specifically African Americans, but, people of color in South Bend are disproportionately not
wealthy in the community. So there is a racial wealth divide and it basically shows that people of
color hold significantly less liquid assets. So it was good to have that report for empirical
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confirmation but that is basically where we are. The question that we are asking is how did we get
here? We know many factors contribute to the problem like educations and jobs and things like
that, but, what we want to do is look specifically at the government policies that actually may
impact our residents locally.
She went on, So, kind of overall, what we have been doing with the Community Relations
Committee is looking at the different departments that might contribute to these issues and evaluate
some of these policies. We've had, over the past couple of years, some issues on housing and
forums on that. We've made quite a lot of progress by looking at three (3) departments. The first
(1st) department was the Department of Community Investment. We've made a lot of progress I
think in connecting with the community and learning what some of the barriers are. Two (2)
programs of housing repair have come about and so we've done some work on that. The second
(2nd) department is the Department of Code Enforcement and that was what we were addressing
that night. We had a third (3rd) department, maybe in the spring sometime, and that is the Police
Department. So just looking at those three (3), what are those policies and practices? We want to
get information from residents. The approach is trying to figure out how and what we do and how
it impacts residents. We need to hear from them, gather those stories, and then improve our
practice.
She continued,With regard to Code Enforcement, what we did was look at the evidence that there
is a problem and then we talked about some of the solutions. We've already made quite a lot of
changes in the Department of Code Enforcement and we wanted to see where we are. So this
(referencing the GIS Map Civil Penalty Data website:
http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=3 87e3 8eb 1 f8b4005aef8dOb 1 cd87b
ef7&extent=-86.3901,41.6214,-86.1366,41.729)is some data that Judy Fox shared with us. Every
little dot on this map is a Civil Penalty given in a specific set of time. This was acquired via an
APRA Request and received this information. She took it to one (1) of her students and she GIS
mapped it. They overlaid that with Census Tract Data to get a sense of how our City
Neighborhoods are populated based on race. So one(1)of the things we noticed here,for example,
this is the Hispanic population and the darker red color is the higher concentration of where they
reside. What you will notice are a lot of those little dots in those areas. We also had a chance to
look at the African American population. Again, the darker areas are a higher concentration of
African American households and you'll see there are quite a number of dots.
She went on, I think one (1) of the interesting things about this is it also helps us understand just
how segregated our City is.Did you notice that? How the darker red matches up almost like puzzle
pieces with the darker blue. But anyway, you'll notice there are a lot of dots in those areas. The
White population, again, the darker areas are farther out. So there are less concentration of
households that are White in the City. Again, this is the data that Judy Fox presented. We had this
conversation back in the spring with the City. We know this is one (1) piece of data. This is only
civil penalties and it is not about every single violation but it is an indicator. So she had some
questions about how we could use this information to improve our practices. We notice that most
of the civil penalties are in the black and brown communities but we also know that those happen
to be the communities where there is the most blight. It is low income and has the most blight. So
the question is not so much whether this should be an area we should be targeting but how we
should target it. We know we need to improve blight, right? The question becomes how do we
respond?
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She continued,The Vacant and Abandoned Task Force report way back says that aggressive Code
Enforcement is a legitimate tool to use when you're addressing vacant and abandoned properties.
But it also warrants that it should only be used in areas with market strength. So the stronger
markets are with the homes that have less blight where someone would most likely have the money
to fix up their homes. So to me,the discussion is that maybe civil penalties weren't the correct tool
to use in this area but we certainly have to respond. So this is where I believe we have begun
making changes within Code Enforcement. We've been moving from fining people to servicing
people. The real goal is not necessarily raising money as the goal is actually improving the
neighborhood. So that was data she shared. That was one(1)piece of evidence that encourages us
to look at our practice to figure out to do something different.
She went on, The second (2nd) piece of information, and we were unable to get the recording to
actually hear it so I just read part of it. This is a transcript of a recording of the previous Director
of Code Enforcement. She then handed out copies of the transcript to all Committee and Council
Members and it is available in the City Clerk's Office. She continued, I had talked to him and this
is before I was on the Council in September of 2015. I had a conversation with him to try and
understand special assessments and all the different things. I was recording him so I could get all
the technical language I was unaware of. Starting in the middle there, he was talking about how
they go after certain properties. He was saying, `Yeah, the police asked me about a bar the other
day that's operating.' He couldn't remember the name and he was talking about my District, my
area, and I asked, 'The Kickback?' He said, `Yeah.' And so he was saying how, and I won't read
the whole thing, but he was saying they work with the Police Department to figure out problem
properties to see how many violations they have and how to move it toward a nuisance property
to actually get something done about this. So, specifically, later on in the last paragraph there,he
specifically said, you know, when there is a problem property, and this is me just saying that and
I'll read some of it, but when there is a problem property, this is what they will do. Basically he
talked about one (1) particular person, I won't say the name, but basically he is one (1) that is on
the hit-list. He'll move to a different house, and they'll go out that day.
Councilmember Tim Scott interjected, Committee Chair, I have a problem with this.
Committee Chair Williams-Preston replied, You have a problem with what?
Councilmember Scott followed up,You citing an individual who no longer works for the City and
there is very slanderous information in this to be handing out publically.
Councilmember Oliver Davis interjected, It is on tape.
Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated,It is on tape. I talked to the lawyer and it is not an illegal
recording.
Councilmember Scott interjected, No, I'm not saying that.
Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated, Well,you know, I think that is part of the issue, right?
Like, I think we have to be honest about what is happening.
Councilmember Scott interjected, No, I understand that. I have an issue with the person being
mentioned in here.
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Committee Chair Williams-Preston replied, Well we can redact the name.
Councilmember Scott replied, Well you can't, it's already out there.
Committee Chair Williams-Preston replied, Your concern is noted. This isn't about shame and
blame. I think that is kind of the point here because I've had these conversations with other Council
Members. I believe people have seen this transcript before. I had conversations with Randy so it's
about pulling the curtain back and understanding what is happening because part of talking about
this is validating people's experience. So, ok, maybe we should or shouldn't have said the name
but I think the key is here is he was actually directing, he says for example, `We'll go out one (1)
day and cite [a property] for tall grass. We used to go cite it for tall grass and litter. Well, we'll hit
it for tall grass one (1) day and come back the next day and hit it for litter and that's two (2)
violations. If you do it in the same day it's one(1)violation. So people like that,that's why we are
actually going after them aggressively,using the law—they use the law against us so we'll use the
law against them. And that's who we target is those landlords that we can go after in that manner.'
She went on, So, I think it's important we share that information especially since the next few
pieces of evidence we talked about actually came from the owner of The Kick Back. Tyria Bailey
spoke and she had shared her story with me. Again, she is in my District. She talked about how
she had been targeted where she was being citied for illegal, well not illegal, but uncontrolled
dumping that was not even on her property that was somewhere else. All of this started at once
after she had a hearing of some kind. She wasn't even sure what the hearing was. So she told her
story and it was quite compelling in my mind but, I guess, again, it is about recognizing how our
practices affect our residents. I think I understand the idea behind aggressive Code Enforcement
to force people to take responsibly and fix up their properties and things. As I understand it, our
policies are written lawfully and legally, there are no illegal policies or anything like that. It is
about practice. It is about understanding what we are doing in the field and making sure we are
consistent.
She continued, So these were some of the things and there are lots and lots of stories. We just had
one(1)being shared that night but there are lots of stories about issues with Code Enforcement at
that time. Again, what we wanted to do was really focus on how we make a shift. Now that we've
been learning about these things, what can we do differently and what have we been doing
differently? So one (1) of the problems was, as we mentioned with this data, the civil penalties
were something that could roll into special assessments. A civil penalty is different from an
ordinance violation. An ordinance violation is, for instance, if someone doesn't mow their lawn
and the City mows it,they have to pay the City back for those costs and then some. A civil penalty
is when, for instance, the City cites the property to fix the roof by a specific date and if it is not
fixed by that date, the hearing judge can decide if a penalty is assessed. So there is no outlay of
funds by the City but it is basically they were bad and you have to pay a fine.
She went on, So what happened, in this particular area, was there was a time when civil penalties
were around two hundred and fifty dollars ($250). But somewhere in there when we wanted to
really address these issues to improve this particular area, there was a decision to change those
civil penalties to more like $1,000, $2,000 or $3,000 a piece. It is not illegal. The unsafe building
law says that you can fix a civil penalty through a hearing process, determined by a judge, for any
amount between zero dollars($0) and $5,000. So what was being done was not illegal, to be clear
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about that. The question that came up when talking to City Legal was, who determines or how do
you determine whether someone is fined what amount? That is where the subjectivity came in and
that is where the City Attorney at the time said we have to do something different. At that time she
put a moratorium on giving civil penalties, they went back and created some guidelines, and they
now have, and I haven't seen it, but as I understand it they now have more of a guideline for the
hearing judge and inspectors to decide who gets what rate. I think that makes a lot of sense. This
is what it is about. It is about uncovering what can be wrong or what might be harmful to residents
and then improve that practice so that we can all justify what those issues are. So that was one (1)
thing and that happened in February of 2017.
She continued, So the problem with the special assessments, as I was explaining with the civil
penalties, is, those could be, if they've not been paid, they can be put on your tax bill and it would
be called a special assessment. So what happens sometimes is that someone's property taxes might
be about$1,900 over the course of two (2)years. But there could be a special assessment for about
$6,000. So that being put onto the taxes, someone might have been able to pay the $2,000 but not
able to pay the $6,000. So then they could put the property on tax sale and it would actually sell
for about $10,000. So those are some of the things and that is why when they said they want to
streamline the process for special assessments I wanted to make sure that if we are going to be
doing special assessments more frequently, we need to do them in a way to justify it and in ways
that it make sense. Again, part of the issue is we have some issues with absentee landlords and
nuisance properties, but then we also have people that just don't have the money to fix up their
homes. So how do we distinguish between the two (2)? So there were times where more of a broad
brush was used and so some of the people who didn't have the money were being caught up in this
process and then eventually losing their homes. The new Director, Tracy, is now sitting in on the
hearings and listens to the stories. Just by her presence, she would connect with the person
afterwards and offer assistance and help. This started when she was still Deputy Director but she
wanted to start teasing out the people who needed actual assistance from the people who are being
neglectful.
She went on, In recent years, we've gone even further. We have monies now and we are figuring
out how to connect people who are in need to the resources that we have available. So we are
actually helping people fix up their homes. President Scott actually had an idea that if Code
Enforcement sees a property in need, before they ticket them, they should refer them to some of
these programs available. Again, the idea behind this is when we work with neighborhoods, we
have a much better connection. One(1)thing I just love that Code Enforcement is now doing, and
it came naturally, there is a neighborhood association and there is a man who is retired and has a
truck and loves to go out and cut people's lawns and clean up the brush. The inspector sees
someone who has an issue, handicapped, old, whatever, and calls the neighborhood association,
and they come out and clean up the property for them. So I think that is a success story. I think
even though it may be hard to talk about what has happened in the past, that it is also something
to be celebrated that we are really moving in a different direction. So that is my presentation, any
questions?
Councilmember Scott stated, I truly believe there needs to be improvement in Code. We will talk
more about this. I think you went a little fast over this all. Every person that goes through this
process has due process and has a chance to come before a hearing. Even Randy and people for
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®CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
him, if anyone was in contact with them, they would work with them and they still do that. I think
that is important to say that this isn't just step one (1), two (2), three (3) and four(4) without any
process or communication. There is communication. We are late on time but we will talk more.
Committee Chair Williams-Preston stated, I will just wrap it up and say that, yes, this isn't about
one(1)person. This is about our process and improving our process. Exactly right, there is a legal
process that goes on but what we have to recognize is our citizens are very intimidated by that.
That is part of the conversation is how can we make it more user-friendly.
With no further discussion, Committee Chair Williams-Preston adjourned the Community
Relations Committee meeting at 4:48 p.m.
' •.ectfullySub1 itte
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Re. Williams-Preston, Committee Chair
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