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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-07-19 Organizational Meeting REPORT OF SUB-COMMITTEE ON MINUTES TO THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND: THE SUB-COMMITTEE HAS INSPECTED THE MINUTES OF THE January 7,2019 MEETING OF THE COUNCIL AND FOUND THEM TO BE CORRECT. THEREFORE,WE RECOMMEND THE AME BE APPROVED: TI SCOTT / /I/ TESH APPROVED BY THE COMMON COUNCIL ON: January 1y 019 ATTEST: / A i - i KA ' EEMAH FOW ER, CITY CLERK ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING January 7, 2019 Be it remembered that the Common Council of the City of South Bend, Indiana met in the Council Chambers of the County-City Building on Monday, January 7th, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. The meeting was called to order by Council President Tim Scott and the Invocation(Oliver J. Davis, 6th District Common Council Member) and Pledge to the Flag were given. ROLL CALL COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Tim Scott 1St District Regina Williams-Preston 2nd District Sharon L. McBride 3rd District Jo M. Broden 4th District Jake Teshka 5th District Oliver J. Davis 6th District John Voorde At-Large Gavin Ferlic At-Large Karen L. White At-Large OTHERS PRESENT: Kareemah Fowler City Clerk Jennifer Coffman Chief Deputy Clerk Bianca Tirado Deputy Clerk Graham Sparks Clerk Executive Assistant Bob Palmer Council Attorney ELECTION OF COUNCIL PRESIDENT FOR 2019 City Clerk Kareemah Fowler called for nominations for the election of President. Councilmember John Voorde nominated Councilmember Tim Scott for the office of President. Councilmember Gavin Ferlic seconded the motion which carried unanimously by a roll call vote of nine (9) ayes. ELECTION OF COUNCIL VICE-PRESIDENT FOR 2019 City Clerk Kareemah Fowler called for nominations for the election of Vice-President. Councilmember Oliver Davis nominated Councilmember Karen White for the office of Vice- President. Councilmember Gavin Ferlic seconded the motion which carried unanimously by a roll call vote of nine(9) ayes. ELECTION OF CHAIRPERSON COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE FOR 2019 City Clerk Kareemah Fowler called for nominations for the election of the Chairperson, Committee of the Whole. Councilmember Regina Williams-Preston nominated Councilmember John Voorde for the office of Chairperson, Committee of the Whole. Councilmember Gavin Ferlic seconded the motion which carried unanimously by a roll call vote of nine (9) ayes. APPOINTMENT OF COUNCIL ATTORNEY FOR 2019 1 ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING January 7, 2019 Councilmember Gavin Ferlic made a motion to retain Attorney Bob Palmer as Council Attorney for 2019. Councilmember Oliver Davis seconded the motion which carried unanimously by a voice vote of nine(9) ayes. Council President Tim Scott became Chair of the meeting. Council President Tim Scott stated, First (1St) of all, I would like to say thank you to Kareemah and her staff, Bianca,Jen,Joe and Graham for all the hard work you've done. Thank you so much. And our interns, too, have done a great job. Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated, Just a reminder, tomorrow from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. noon, there is a suicide prevention workshop that Beacon Health is sponsoring. It is at the offices of Child Protective Services right on the corner of LaSalle and SR-933. If anybody needs additional information I would be happy to provide it. There has been information that has circulated through the Clerk's Office and our Health and Public Safety Committee. It is free and is two (2) hours in duration. It is being specifically hosted by Beacon Health to address the high suicide and near suicide rates that we experience in our community. It is appropriate for just about any and everyone and I think we've had pretty wide circulation on it but I just wanted to remind you of it. Councilmember Oliver Davis asked, Can we make sure we send flowers to the family on behalf of the Council and that we are all notified of the time of the funeral? Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated, I would like to thank Councilmember Davis for his service as Vice President to the Council during my tenure. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I had also spoken about the Solid Waste Management District presentation, that is not going to happen. That would violate some of the public hearing rules regarding that. If any Council Members or members of the public would like more information about upcoming votes and things under consideration by the Solid Waste Management District, I would be happy to meet. Councilmember Jake Teshka stated, The TRANSO Board was notified that Lucky Reznik will be stepping down after our first(1St)meeting in January. Lucky has been there since before there were buses. I would like to do something to honor Lucky and we will have an appointment to make as well. Councilmember Oliver Davis stated, I would also like to thank Gavin Ferlic, at this time, for being Chairperson of Committee of the Whole. Council President Tim Scott stated, By Wednesday, I would like to know which Committee you would like to be on or if there are any changes. If you have not yet turned in your annual Committee Report, you need to do that. City Clerk Kareemah Fowler stated, All have been turned in and filed. Council President Tim Scott stated, I want to officially thank Oliver Davis for Vice-President and Gavin Ferlic for Committee of the Whole. I appreciate that. Councilmember Jo M. Broden asked, Relative to Committees, is it timely to actually look at our Committee structure and the specific charges and responsibilities related to each Committee?What is the interface between the Administration and peer to peer?Also, I think there are probably some legal questions related to that in terms of our statutes and local ordinances. I just think after my three (3) years here, we've had some discussions about that. I think we had a very productive recent conversation but maybe we should take a more formal look at that. Council President Tim Scott replied, I encourage you all to look at each one(1) of your individual committees. I know there are major issues under each one (1) of them. All nine (9) of us are Committee Chairs and we should push for those major issues to get those accomplished. It is up to that Committee Chair to move that ball forward but I understand what you're talking about. We might be able to make a sub-Committee on that to see what we can do but the responsibility is with the Committee Chairs. Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated, I'm talking more about, organizationally, the numbers that we have,if there are ways to be more effective in terms of their compositions. Just a real top-down, 2 ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING January 7, 2019 bottom-up type look. Not so much the content of what is coming through us but more overall. Just because it has been the same all these years is probably not a good reason to repeat the same format. I want to look for better ways to operate. Or, perhaps not. Vice-President Karen White stated, I'm in agreement with Councilmember Broden. I would have to sit down with you to discuss more about the holistic perspective. We had our retreat and we talked about communication from the Chair's perspective and communication with Administration as well as Committee Members. The time is right to have a discussion about the whole structure we have. Council President Tim Scott stated, We will talk about that and let's see if we can get together for the meeting on January 14th and maybe get a sub-Committee on that. I have to get more details together on that before we do it. Maybe even the second (2nd)meeting in January. Councilmember Regina Williams-Preston stated, The City is looking to propose a rental safety verification program. The Community Forum is hosting a public meeting and we would love it if anyone can attend. It will be Tuesday the night after its first(1St)reading,at 6:00 p.m. at the LaSalle Branch Library. We will have testimony from landlords,renters and homeowners. Councilmember Oliver Davis interrupted, Who is sponsoring that? Councilmember Regina Williams-Preston replied, The Community Forum for Economic Justice. Councilmember Oliver Davis followed up, No, the legislation. Councilmember Tim Scott stated, That's coming from the Administration. I'm a sponsor. Councilmember Regina Williams-Preston stated, I'm looking at it. Council President Tim Scott stated, I know they are trying to meet with as many Council Members as they can. Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated,The utilization and performance review for any professional services we have, I'm thinking of that specifically relative to the budget proposal on assistance for financial insights. Maybe looking at that holistically, too. Council President Tim Scott replied, We will follow up with that. We will have a review on Bob, I'll get that request out to you all and we will go from there. I will ask the Council of their opinions on the objectives, goals and scope of that person. We have that in the budget and I want to understand that before we make a decision on that. Councilmember Oliver Davis stated, I will be offering therapy sessions for Clemson fans. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before Council, Council President Tim Scott adjourned the meeting at 5:18 p.m. 3