HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-17-19 Personnel and Finance fid ..
I �~
W ' a
�PEACE���
`, a2>
x x �'
�'..„ 1865
OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK
KAREENIAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK
PERSONNEL & FINANCE JULY 17, 2019 5:00 P.M.
Committee Members Present: Karen White, Jo M. Broden, Regina Williams-Preston,
John Voorde
Committee Members Absent: None
Other Council Present: Sharon L. McBride, Jake Teshka(late)
Other Council Absent: Tim Scott, Dr. Oliver Davis, Gavin Ferlic
Others Present: Graham Sparks, Bob Palmer
Presenters: Daniel Parker, Laura O'Sullivan, Stephanie Steele, Eric
Horvath, Aaron Perri, Steve Cox, Scott Ruszkowski, Tracy
Skibins, Jen Gobel, Chuck Bulot,Jitin Kain, Christina
Brooks, Denise Riedl, Kyra Clark
Agenda: Budget Overview from Department Heads
Committee Chair Karen White called to order the Personnel and Finance Committee meeting at
5:00 p.m. She introduced members of the Committee and stated, In terms of just giving a brief
overview, the meeting today is an update that will be coming directly to the Council Members.
Throughout the 2019 budget hearing process, we held fourteen (14) budget hearings. Through
those budget hearings, a number of recommendations were made in regard to starting the process
earlier to talk about issues such as debt and other related issues or concerns prior to the actual
budget kickoff. The first(1st) educational budget topic was Tax Incremental Financing,that's TIF.
That was held in December of 2018. The minutes and PowerPoint presentations of that meeting
are available on the City Clerk's website.The second(2nd) educational budget topic was preparing
for the 2020 Fiscal Curb impact as well as preparation. That was held on March 4th, 2019. The
third (3`1) educational budget topic was the overview of the City's debt and our current reserves.
That was held on June 17th
She continued,A number of recommendations grew out of the 2019 budget hearings.We did listen
and what you see before you is the fourth(4th)meeting prior to the actual budget kickoff for 2019.
It was recommended that we would start out the budget process looking at the 2019
accomplishments, and that as we prepare for the actual budget process, we'll be focusing on
numbers and looking at projections for 2020. So, I wish to thank the Council Members here today.
I would like to personally thank the department heads because this was a meeting that I added on,
and I'm really very appreciative of the department heads as well as Mr. Dan Parker really making
adjustments so that we can have this level of conversation.Again,this meeting is an update for the
INTEGRITY' SERVICE'ACCESSIBILITY
JENNIFER M.COTIMAN BIANCA L.TIRADo JOSEPH R MOLNAR
CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Blvd.I South Bend,Indiana 46601 I p 574.235.9221 I f 574.235.9173 I www.southbendin.gov
CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
Council Members. We will have some questions, but I ask that you be very mindful that we have
a number of department heads, and that if you have any additional questions that you write those
out and we can give them to our City Clerk and also to the department heads. So, this meeting is
only informational, and it's an update for the Council Members.
Budget Overview from Department Heads
Daniel Parker, City Controller for the City of South Bend with offices located on the 12th floor of
the County-City Building, stated, Thank you, Council Members for being here and thank you for
giving us this opportunity. I think all the department heads are excited to share their
accomplishments and progress on our 2019 budget in advance of the 2020 budget. As you've said,
Councilmember White, this is trying to make sure that we, as we get into the actual 2020 budget
process, that we focus on 2020, and we focus on the numbers for the future and give the updates
related to the current year at this meeting so that we can focus on the future in future meetings. I'm
not going to talk very much because as you said, we have a limited time and a lot of departments.
But I appreciate your suggestion that if there are additional questions, that those be submitted in
writing and we can get the departments to respond to Council in writing as well.
Committee Chair White announced, I'd like to mention that Council Members should have
received the PowerPoint and this PowerPoint will be available on the website as well.
Laura O'Sullivan, Chief of Staff to the Mayor of the City of South Bend with offices located on
the 14th floor of the County-City Building, stated, Good evening. I just wanted to kick things off
and note that this year, the Mayor's Office has worked to complete a number of the Mayor's
priorities. We certainly want to thank all the department heads for being here and for all the hard
work that they do to drive many of those priorities. I did want to highlight a few of the projects
and initiatives that we've supported and kick it off before everyone else got underway. Back in
February, we worked with Council and Code Enforcement to pass the Rental Safety Verification
Program. Code will have many more details in their section, but we've already assisted several
families that have found themselves in bad situations. We've also continued our partnership with
the St. Joseph County Health Department to provide access to school-aged children through a
series of lead screenings, the next of which is Saturday, July 27th at Living Stones Church from
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. during its back to school event. We're continuing our work on
homelessness and providing updates to Council throughout the year. Currently, in the news, is a
second (2nd) permanent supportive housing partnership with South Bend Heritage. We hope to
help twenty(20)more chronically homeless individuals enter housing through this project.We are
also moving forward on a number of fronts following the officer-involved shooting of Eric Logan
on June 16th, including opening up the Board of Public Safety positions to a public application,
and redoubling down on our recruiting efforts to make sure that the South Bend Police Department
reflects the community that it serves. The 2020 budget will help carry forward these projects, and
the ones you'll hear about throughout tonight. We look forward to working with you during these
budget sessions, and to deliver on Council and Administration priorities. Thank you.
Stephanie Steele, Corporation Counsel for the City of South Bend with offices located on the 12th
floor of the County-City Building, stated, Good evening. This year, the City Legal Department is
taking a proactive approach to handling environmental matters, which we look at as an
environmental justice issue. We are identifying and mitigating risks as soon as we can identify
them. We've engaged in litigation with insurance companies to help us recover costs and we plan
EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building!227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601;p 574.235.92211 f574.235.9173 I I I D574.235.5567!wwwsouthbendin.gov
2
c.„
q CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
to help the City by providing these funds so that those funds can be used in the future to remediate
some of these issues. So far this year, we've recovered almost a half a million dollars. Actually, a
little over half a million dollars. As well this year, we have not paid any settlements as of today.
Now that said, we currently have seventeen (17)pending suits in which the City is the defendant.
We always seek to resolve these matters before they go to court. So,this is settlements(referencing
a slide in a presentation which is available in the City Clerk's Office). This means these are cases
that are currently going. We haven't settled any of those. I just want to make sure that's clear. We'll
seek to resolve the seventeen (17) pending cases throughout the remainder of this year and into
2020. As always, we seek to do this in a fiscally responsible manner. We do that with every case.
Our team has referred over 2,100 accounts to our collection's agency, including a large project of
unreferred, unpaid judgements that was left over from the previous Administration. This meant
over $800,000 in uncollected judgements have now been referred. To date, we have collected
$239,913.
She continued, Our claims strategy, which would be the next bullet point (referencing a slide in
the presentation),is that we pay what we owe. We treat each claim the same. So,we look at it with
an eye toward being very fiscally responsible with other people's money. So, we try to take our
time with these, and make sure that we are paying what we owe if we owe something. To date,
we've paid $32,000 in claims, and we've recovered $55,000 in subrogation. APRAs have been
unusually high. We don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with what's happening in our
community and in our nation, but as of today, we have 1,871 APRAs. To give you a little bit of
perspective, last year, which also was a record year, at this point, we had 1,625 APRAs. So, that
is a fifteen percent(15%) increase. We also have joined the National Opioid Litigation, and we're
part of a nationwide lawsuit against distributors and manufacturers of opioids. We felt that this
was important for our community to join this lawsuit against manufacturers and distributors who
have failed to monitor or report suspicious orders and disseminated false information to our
community. We are seeking damages and recovery of funds that we hope then to provide to the
City to address future recovery efforts.
She went on, We have our goals for the remainder of the year. 2019 has been a very challenging
and exciting year, but we remain committed to equitable and just resolutions of all matters, which
includes our goal of obtaining record of decision in the Beck's Lake matter. We continue to work
with the EPA,and we are trying to obtain a record of decision. If we did receive a record of decision
in the matter before the end of the year,the case would still likely be open,and not closed until the
following year.But that is our goal. I should pause here and remind everybody that the EPA,online
and publicly,has repeatedly said that they find the park to be safe, and they've not found anything
that made it unsafe for people to go to that park. So, I just want to reiterate that.We plan to continue
resolving our pending claims and litigation in a fiscally responsible manner. Our Claims
Administrator is conducting planned claims avoidance trainings throughout the remainder of the
year to aid in this effort. We are also looking ahead at a plan for attorney representation for next
year for the Board of Public Safety,Diversity and Inclusion,Human Rights Commission,and Area
Planning Commission. You'll notice in our budget presentation that we are going to be asking for
an additional attorney to make sure that we are representing the City government well in all
aspects. Until then, we are looking for more APRAs, and we'll continue to address those as they
come in. Thank you.
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building'227W Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601;p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 I TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov
3
Y
a CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
Ev..
Committee Chair White stated, Thank you. And what I will do, probably after every fifth (5th)
presentation, I will ask the Council if they have any general questions. But again,then we'll move
forward.
Eric Horvath, Director of Public Works with offices located on the 13th floor of the County-City
Building, stated, Good afternoon, I'll jump into 2019 accomplishments. So far, as part of the
Council allocation program for sidewalks, we've bid out $500,000 for curbs and sidewalks to
contractors. That work is starting. In addition to that, City crews have been installing sidewalks as
well. They're about halfway through the portion that they do, which is they're on track for fifty
percent (50%) more than they've done in the years past. So, again, thank you to the Council for
supporting those additional staff members to make that possible.Without that,that would not have
been possible, nor would have, if you jump one (1) down there (referencing a slide in the
presentation),the crack sealing.That was another part of that deal was we hadn't been doing crack
sealing. The crews are twenty(20) lane miles in on crack sealing. They will finish probably, well
over forty(40) lane miles this year,by the end of the year the way they're currently tracking it.
He continued, In addition to that, we revamped our reimbursement program on sidewalks. So,
there's three (3) different categories of reimbursement. There's the traditional one (1) that we've
had all along,which is the homeowner-occupied reimbursement program where they sign up,they
get a licensed contractor, they put it in, and then we reimburse per lineal foot of sidewalk in front
of their home. In addition to that, at a reduced rate, we've now allowed for non-homeowners to do
that as well. The idea is that this serves a public purpose. We want to get as many people
participating in upgrading sidewalks as possible. Their reimbursement rate isn't as high as the
homeowners, but that's available for non-residential or commercial or non-owner-occupied
properties. In addition to that,we also picked out some target areas. We've got two(2)target areas.
Hopefully, you've seen the brochure. And if you do it in those target areas, we have a higher rate
of reimbursement so that they actually get a greater reimbursement. These are areas where the
Census tracts had a high proportion of economically disadvantaged residents as well as areas where
we had a particularly high incident of bad sidewalk. So, we targeted those areas as areas that we
would really like to see more investment in sidewalks. For paving, we've paved about eight (8)
lane miles,and they are on track to meet their twenty(20)lane miles this year.Their goal is twenty
(20) lane miles. They had a little wet start in June, but have had some good weather, although it's
very hot now, to get some pavement down, and they're doing a great job keeping up with that. In
addition, on the roads side, we applied for and secured a grant with Community Crossings. That's
$600,000 in additional paving funding that the City will be receiving, which is going to allow us
to do another four-point-eight (4.8) lane miles of road. That's Corby, Jefferson, Linden, and
Riverside Drive will all be recipients of the crossings grant that we've secured.
He went on,We've completed the first(1st)phase of the Quiet Zone on the west side.We're excited
about that. So, the Norfolk Southern Line is in place. So, the crossings there, we've been able to
reduce the risk index there so that we now have a Quiet Zone on those particular crossings. As you
know,we've updated you with the Canadian National Line,we still need to work on the west side,
and the NICTD Line. So,we still have a couple of things that we need to do by the end of the year
to complete the west side Quiet Zone, but it's on its way. We launched the Lamppost Lighting
Program. Again, we changed this up. The standard program was a two hundred and fifty dollars
($250) cost share. So, the homeowner would pay two hundred and fifty dollars ($250) and we'd
give them a lamppost to install in their front yard. This year, we set two (2) target areas, again,
looking at the economically disadvantaged areas. We have a cost share on that program of fifty
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building]227W Jefferson Bvld!South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221;(574.235.9173:1 11_7574 235.5567,www.southbendin.gov
4
(--)CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
dollars ($50). So, it's a reduced cost share program. We're receiving applications until August 9th
.
So, if you know people who are looking for those, we still have some available.
He continued, We installed a number of traffic calming measures, including speed humps on
Longfellow Avenue and then the two (2) that are going in on Riverside Drive right now. I'm not
sure if they got in today or not, but I know they're out there working on them. The yard waste
program participation has increased this year. We've gone from about fifty-one percent (51%)
participation last year to about sixty percent (60%) this year. On Solid Waste, part of our costs
going up was due to truck maintenance. We had a significant increase in our truck maintenance
costs, and part of that was due to going out to the landfill and the conditions at the landfill. So, we
made a deal with Green Tech to take trash there, and it's been able to get our costs down quite a
bit on the maintenance side. So, about $90,000 this year compared to last year on our truck
maintenance, which is good news. We're also doing some rebranding on the Solid Waste trucks.
Solid Waste is one (1) of those departments where you think that it probably wouldn't be that
innovative, but in actuality, with the computers they have in the trucks, and the arms, and the fact
that all of our trucks are actually fueled by South Bend poop. We take the wastewater and digest
it in the digester and create methane, and then that's cleaned and put right back into the trucks. So,
they're driving around on a renewable, cleaner burning fuel. So, we're going to do some branding
on the side of those trucks that you should see later this year.
Councilmember Jake Teshka arrived at the meeting at 5:19 p.m.
Mr. Horvath went on, Then we continue to make a number of capital investments on both the
Waste Water and Water Works side. Again,thank you to the Council for your support in the water
rate increase which has allowed us to do some very badly needed upgrades in capital where we've
been able to refurbish some high-service pumps, and replace motors and pumps at booster stations
and other locations. So, in addition to quite a bit of work that we're doing on well fields with TIF
dollars, we're getting quite a bit done through that capital program with the rate increase. We
improved gates out at the Waste Water Treatment Plant. On the Water side, we also started a
comprehensive fire hydrant inspection program.We're about 4,000 through of our 5,000 hydrants.
So, they go through and they're testing every hydrant to make sure they're going to work so that
when a fire truck pulls up,we're sure that thing is going to turn on.And this will help tremendously
with our fire insurance rating. So, we're hoping to get the highest fire insurance rating, which will
lower everyone's insurance premiums on the fire side.
He continued, The new customer service and billing software was purchased, and we're in the
midst of working through that.That's through Quest SNS. So,that will be enhanced ability for our
customer service and billing operations for all of our enterprise funds. We're moving forward with
the greenhouse gas inventories submitted to Global Covenant of Mayors, and the Climate Action
Plan reports that were due. The AmeriCorps Grant is continuing to move forward. Our Green
Corps Program has been very successful. We're very excited to say, we were funded for a second
(2nd)year.And we've got a twenty percent(20%)increase in State funding in the second(2nd)year.
So,they were happy with what our program is doing. They've served fifty(50)homes since April.
They'll be out doing a number of additional homes this summer,doing energy efficiency and water
efficiency stuff in homes. In addition to that, we've got members serving at Unity Gardens and
another City department is helping them out with needs as well. With that program,we brought in
an additional $15,000 in home repair grant funds. We've been offering support for community
events. The final thing we've done is completed the design and location of way-finding signage in
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601,p 574.235.9221.f 574 235.9173 1 1 1 D574.235 5567 www.southbendin.gov
5
CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
downtown South Bend. Well, throughout South Bend, but you'll see the first (1St) phase starting
up in downtown later this year.
He went on, Goals for the rest of the year, we'll be delivering our Climate Action Plan to the
Council, and in that, you'll see a handful of strategies for implementation, on a moving forward
basis, to help us reduce our overall impact to the environment by reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. In addition, we're going to install an EV charger to continue to try to encourage use of
electric vehicles and zero-emission vehicles. We're going to be selecting a vendor for the new
software program that will go on our trash trucks. So,the routing and the GPS, and whether or not
it's picking up a bin, the readers, all that stuff, the equipment we're using is out of date. And, it's
supported from a company overseas. So, we're going to be looking at most likely having a new
vendor for that equipment. We continue to work on reducing truck maintenance costs. We're
implementing the first (1st) phase of way-finding, you'll see it on Michigan when we start getting
that street done. We will be selecting a new shared mobility vendor. So, Lime Bike, the contract
is up at the end of August, and we've got four (4) different vendors who've submitted proposals.
So, we'll be looking at how they meet the goals that we're looking for on shared mobility. We're
going to implement the new branding of solid waste trucks. We continue to implement traffic
calming measures.We're going to update our Well Head Protection Plan,which is required by law
every five (5) years. That's establishing where we get our water from since we get ground water
and making sure we're protecting those areas environmentally so that we keep a good source of
clean water for our residents. We're also starting up a new water meter revenue loss study with
Valor Analytics. It's a sister company to EmNet.They'll go in and they'll look at water meters, and
do some data mining, and try to find areas where we may be losing revenue. So, we're looking
forward to that in the third (3`1) and fourth (4th) quarter. We're going to complete the work on
production of Well One (1)A, which is a huge well for us. It gives quite a bit of water out of our
north station. We'll be completing the infrastructure rehab projects on Western Avenue as well as
Michigan Street downtown. We will be bidding out Bendix Drive. It's been long-awaited. It's a
Federal project. That will be bid this year for construction in 2020. Then finally, we're going to be
applying for an additional $400,000 in road funding to do the Community Crossings Grant. That's
it, thanks.
Aaron Perri, Executive Director of Venues, Parks and Arts with offices located at 301 South St.
Louis Boulevard, stated, Good evening, Council. I'll start on the Venues side of things and provide
some updates there on the Century Center. We're about seventy-five percent (75%) of the way
through $1.25 million worth of capital improvements this year. You've noted through the years
that we've done a lot of"under the hood" work at Century Center,replacing the boilers,the roofs,
the tuckpointing.Now,it's a lot of the really visible things that you'll see. So,you'll go into Century
Center today and see new way-finding and softscape furniture. You're going to see some new
signage go on above the Skyway, and also in front of Century Center, as well as some upgraded
parking options there. So,that work is well underway. We had our busiest weekend ever on record
in late April. Every room in the building turned at least twice that weekend. That's what's putting
us on par to break a record in terms of hotel room nights. As we all know, Century Center is here
to produce an economic impact for the City. Last year, we saw about $14 million worth of
economic impact returned to the community. We anticipate breaking that record this year.
He continued, At the Morris, we had a record-breaking year last year, speaking of records, at one
hundred and two (102)events.We won't quite get there this year,but we'll be really close with one
hundred(100) events. So,we're excited about that. And we're preparing for our one hundred(100)
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION ( INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011p 574.235.9221 11574 235.9173ITTD 574.235.5567,www.southbendin.goy
6
CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
year celebration.You'll start to hear about the Morris Centennial Celebration,which will take place
in 2022. We're going to lead some campaigns and have some milestones heading up to that. And
then in the golf world,a lot of you,I know,are aware that we launched our Kids Golf Free initiative
in coordination with First(1St)Tee of Michiana. That's off to a great start. On the coattails of that,
we're celebrating one hundred(100) years at Studebaker Golf this weekend, on the 21St, Sunday. I
believe that's from 1:00 p.m.to 5:00 p.m. I'm told at 3:00 p.m. is when you want to be there to sing
Happy Birthday to the golf course. One hundred (100) years of golf in our community, that's a
pretty neat milestone. We'll also be renovating the Erskine Clubhouse. We know, and we've had
conversations even in this chamber about golf being somewhat of a declining sport.We're on track
to break even for golf in 2020.We'll be pretty darn close this year,at the end of 2019,and I'll show
you those numbers when we get to the numbers side of things in budget season. Part of what we
need to do is ensure that our golf courses are doing things other than just producing rounds. So,
restoring Erskine Clubhouse back to community space,it's going to be really popular.The numbers
of stories we've heard from people that had their weddings there and otherwise. We're excited to
be able to offer that again and provide an additional revenue stream.
He went on, Over on the facilities and grounds side,the physical things. Eric was just up here from
Public Works. The first (1St) two (2) bullets (referencing a slide in the presentation) were great
partnerships with Public Works in terms of the upgrades around Ravina Park, or some of you call
it Honeymoon Park, I know. If you haven't been out there to see the work and the accessible path,
and the bank restoration work that happened there, that's a really nice addition there. Then curbs
and sidewalks around Fremont Park to improve not only accessibility, but also safety around the
park. So,Fremont continues to grow. We kicked off the Neighborhood Park Improvement Project,
which is a series of upgrades that primarily include playground, modernizing all the playground
equipment, bringing it up to safety standards and accessibility standards, as well as all the
restrooms in every single park. So,to date,those are the ones we've completed(referencing a slide
in the presentation). A couple that didn't make the list, I've just finished up Riverside Manor and
also Riverside Trail. You'll notice some new workout equipment there up towards the north side
of town. Then the restrooms that are complete so far. The bulk of that work will be done by the
end of August. So, we appreciate everybody's patience. We know taking things offline is not
always easy but getting them back online is something to celebrate.
He continued,We continue to go along the Tree City Route,twenty-two (22)years in the running.
Part of that effort is just continuing to be innovative with the way we treat some of our vacant lots.
You can see there that we had a neat success story over on Allen Street with our second(2nd)urban
tree nursery.Then some work around the Martin Luther King Center, some new front doors which
were much needed there. We've got about thirty (30) to (35) active project sites happening right
now throughout the City. These are major projects, not just minor little things here and there like
fixing a door. I'd be remiss to say, that's the result of not only your support, but the efforts of all
my colleagues behind me. It takes a lot of work from Engineering, and Legal, and IT, and
Purchasing and otherwise to get those things off the ground. So, we're pretty proud of what we're
able to accomplish with all that support. Just a couple of looks. The most popular one(1), I think,
to date has been this zip line at Brownfield Park(referencing a slide in the presentation). I haven't
gone on it yet myself,but I'm told by John that there's a five hundred(500)pound limit. So, I think
all of us can try it out, even adults. Over on Recreation, Marketing, Events and the Development
side of things, we've brought in over$300,000 worth of grants this year, so the team continues to
work hard on that with the support of the Venues, Parks, &Arts Foundation. It kind of got sleepy
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson BvldiSouth Bend,Indiana 46601Ip574.235.9221;f574.235.9173ITTD574.235.5567;www.southbendin.gov
7
CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
for a while, and we've reinvested in that, and have a good group of volunteers, about twenty-five
(25)board members,helping the fundraising and advocacy for the Parks Department.
He went on, We had two (2) fundraising events to kickstart what I call the final round of
fundraising for Howard Park. Yes, it's under construction and it's scheduled to open late this year,
but we need to buy our Zamboni and our ice skates, and all of the furniture, fixtures, and
equipment, those little touches, landscaping and otherwise, holiday decor. So, we're on track to
raise about$900,000 before the end of the year for all those things.You can buy your brick pavers,
your benches and whatnot. We've got a website set up for that. We launched a new website. We
continue to work with volunteer initiatives. Best. Week. Ever. was a huge success. I know I saw
many of you out and around. 50,000 people this year. We really focused on having events in
various neighborhoods, and I think that recipe will be one(1)that we'll repeat in the future. Many
people know we unveiled Boomer. Jonathan Jones and his team continue to work with that. It's
scheduled for twelve (12) full appearances. Those are when we work with our partners like the
Music Village or the Police Department, or otherwise, arts organizations. Those are the full
programmatic,what I would call curriculum-type appearances or events. Then we have,when you
add in the appearances, like we did our Popsicle Tour this past Friday, and just kind of one(1)-off
things,it'll be out over thirty(30)times before the end of the year. It's been a neat tool to re-engage
some of these parks that haven't seen activity in recent history.
He continued, We developed a new teen leadership program at the Martin Luther King Center.
This is a really neat partnership that developed out of the My Brother's Keeper Initiative. Beacon
Health is investing in this program where we have college students working at MLK. Typically,
we've hired some throughout the summer, but they've just been summer jobs. With the extra
funding, we've been able to provide training for them to really invest and mentor the teens that
they're working with. So,it's kind of neat that the curriculum that's involved in that every Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday at the Martin Luther King Center. It kind of goes in line with something
like our Youth Mowing Program. I know I shared the video. Thanks for the feedback I had on it.
This is an idea that we're not only providing jobs,but we can also change lives through those kinds
of things. So, we want to continue to do more of that in the future. The final thing on this slide
(referencing the presentation)is the NAI Conference that we hosted earlier this year. It was a heavy
lift by Gary and Hannah to host the one hundred and eighty(180) or so folks that we had,regional
experts. There were really talented folks here and they were impressed with what's going on in
South Bend.
He went on, Then to conclude, what we're going to be doing for the rest of the year. We're going
to host our first self-promotion fund concert at Morris.The Council approved one dollar($1) from
every ticket going into a fund, whereby we can recruit artists and acts that might not normally
come to a market of our size. So, we're working on booking that. I can't tell you what it is, but
you'll be one of the first to know as soon as we have that booked. We'll have the biggest show and
the longest run ever come to Morris next spring. I see Councilmember Williams-Preston looking,
I know you're the most excited about it. It's a three (3) week run of Lion King. We'll have a big
celebration in September when individual tickets go on sale and otherwise, but that'll be quite a
production,particularly for a City of our size to have that Broadway show here. I mentioned we'll
approach to break even for golf this year, and we'll hit that next year. I mentioned the Century
Center already. Welcome Back Howard Park, put the date in for Black Friday, the day after
Thanksgiving. November 29th is when we'll be ice skating. So, we look forward to that major
celebration on that Friday. We're going to compete with the mall, and we're going to win.
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld!South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221;(574.235.9173 110574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov
8
CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
He continued, We're going to finish up Leeper Park Phase One(1). If you want to drive by and get
a sneak peek of the Studebaker Fountain, it is up. It's not functioning. We'll celebrate that next
month, but it is up, and it is something special. And then Pulaski Park will kick off here pretty
quick as well. I think we have a groundbreaking scheduled in about two(2)weeks.We're going to
advance work on Pinhook, O'Brien, and continue the neighborhood park work, and even investing
in new parks and partnerships. We've identified a couple of project sites where we're going to
expand our efforts. Finally, we're making significant progress on our five (5) year strategic plan.
We're about halfway through it, and those are the things that really move our impact drivers,social
equity, ecological impact, stewardship, neighborhood and economic development, public safety,
those types of things forward. Some of the ones that I'm really excited about involve continuing
education for the staff and our Park Health Dashboard, which will be previewed to you soon so
you can see how productive each of the parks are via various metrics. Thank you.
Steve Cox, Fire Chief for the City of South Bend with offices located at 1222 South Michigan
Street, stated, Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the Council. Accomplishments here to
date, obviously, I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up the new Fire Station Number Nine (9) ribbon
cutting that we held on Monday. Several of you were there. It was an amazing event, and I have
to say, it was a solution to a community issue.We had multiple people in multiple public meetings
over the last, probably, six (6) or seven (7) years. We actually had gone out to multiple
neighborhood organizations,business associations, et cetera. And as you all know,there's a lot of
hub-bub about the location of that new fire station being located in the park. I feel like we came to
a fantastic solution. I know we spoke with Council about this when we proposed the funding for
the new fire station,and we proposed the location of the current station. So,we're incredibly happy
that station is online now. We have an ambulance station there, which is something that we've
never had located on the east side of the City,just due to space issues that we've had in our fire
stations. We had two (2) ambulances stationed at Station Four(4)over on Olive Street previously,
just because we had the space there for that.This allows us to be able to respond in a more efficient
manner to emergency medical calls throughout the City. So, it was a win-win. And I also might
add that we moved our Swiftwater boat truck from the Central Fire Station to the new Station Nine
(9) because the Memorial Boat Launch is right there, about four (4) blocks away. It used to be
about a six (6) minute response time from the Central Fire Station when we had the river
emergency to get a boat in the water and be able to affect a rescue. At this point, it's less than a
minute for that crew to now get the boat in the water and launch at the Memorial Boat Launch. So,
it is fantastic. The feedback that we received on Monday from all of the neighbors, and again, the
neighborhood associations,the River Park Business Association,et cetera was absolutely fantastic.
I know several of you were there, so you probably received some of that feedback directly.
He continued, We completed a pilot program for the Community Paramedicine Program and
budgeted for the current year to make this a permanent program with the potential to expand. In
next year's budget,we're proposing an additional community paramedic because of the amount of
success that we've had with this program. Just to remind Council Members, this was a program
instituted to effect getting individuals into a medical home who are using the 9-1-1 EMS system
as, in essence, their primary medical provider. When, in fact, other ways in which we might be
able to direct them to the appropriate care will reduce the stress on our EMS system, but also get
those people into a medical home that's much more appropriate for their needs. What's interesting
about this program that we've come to realize,is that our Community Paramedic,Suzie Krill,who's
been doing this program now for about a year, most of these individuals that she has effected
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601'1 p 574.235.9221;f574.235.9173TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov
9
C)cITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
change for are not necessarily medical problems. A lot of these are social issues. A lot of them are
just issues dealing with an elderly person that doesn't know how to get on the Medicare roles and
things along those lines. So, she's trained to be able to assist those people to get those services that
they need, to be able to direct them to the appropriate care. It's been a phenomenal program so far.
Suzie has impacted roughly two hundred and sixty (260) patients over the course of a year. We
anticipate working with the St. Joseph County Health Department to perhaps expand the services
provided by this program to help, hopefully, impact a high mortality rate and the fetal death rate
in St. Joseph County as well, by hopefully looking at at-risk mothers or newly pregnant women
who don't have the services that they need, and hopefully direct them to prenatal care, post-natal
care that then would, hopefully, have a positive impact on that problem.
He went on, We've already been working through the My Brother's Keeper program, the Mayor's
Office, and the Health Department to begin those discussions to see what that might look like
moving forward.We've also talked to other partners in the community,specifically Beacon Health,
in identifying ways in which they might help us make that program more sustainable, knowing
that they've also received a benefit from us reducing the amount of hospital beds that are being
used in the Emergency Room, and directing those patients to more appropriate care, even within
their system. So,those discussions are ongoing as well.This year,we implemented the South Bend
Fire Department Drone Team, which is leveraging technology to be able to help us better perform
our jobs. We have, I believe, twelve (12) individuals now within our Department on our drone
team that are FAA Certified Part 107 Pilots to be able to fly our drones, which have infrared
cameras. We have high-def cameras on these drones, as well, to be able to assist in incident
command overwatch, search and rescue activities, investigations, and risk assessments. On the
south side of downtown, when we had the building collapse earlier in the year, our drone team
folks were able to launch a drone to be able to inspect the building, without putting firefighters at
risk in the collapsed building, to be able to assess the damage. We anticipate actually utilizing that
more and more as it comes online.
He continued,We also as a department,received the Partners for Clean Air Award from MACOG.
This is in conjunction with us building Fire Station Number Four(4)as a LEED certified building.
We actually achieved LEED Gold status for that building. And Fire Station Number Nine (9) is
also a LEED project. We anticipate that being a LEED Silver building when that certification is
given to us, hopefully here in the next month or two (2). We anticipate that happening as well.
We're incredibly proud. As I mentioned, at our ribbon cutting on Monday, we are the first (1st)
department in the City that actually has a LEED certified building. And, we have two (2) of them
now. So, it's wonderful and we like the idea that we're actually pushing forward in sustainable
programming. I also have to apologize, I left one (1) item off here that I really need to talk about.
We implemented a Chase Car Program for our EMS services. In essence, what this does, it allows
us to be able to more appropriately respond to the certain levels of care that are needed when an
individual calls 9-1-1. So, it used to be that we'd send a lead paramedic ambulance to every single
EMS call, regardless of the acuity of the call. One (1) of the bonuses with us building the new
PSAP over on Mishawaka,and being a county-wide PSAP,is that we implemented a triage system
that the dispatcher basically will input information in a computer,it'll spit out a certain triage level,
and then we'll be able to send the more appropriate resources that we have on hand, on a daily
basis. What we've come to realize is that we don't need to send a lead paramedic ambulance on
every single call. In fact, we don't need to send a paramedic-level certified individual to probably
sixty percent(60%)of the EMS calls that we go on. So,this has a financial impact for us, as a lead
paramedic is the most expensive employee that we have in our department. Additionally, the
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson BvId South Bend,Indiana 46601;p574.235.922111574.235.9173 110574.235.5567;www.southbendin.gov
10
0 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
amount of time that it takes to have an individual trained to that level of certification takes years.
So, for us, this was an unbelievably excellent thing that we were able to implement. The PSAP
made that possible, and we've made that happen. The feedback from our employees has been
tremendous. In our strategic plan that we did, that we wrote up in 2014 and submitted to Council,
and was approved by Council, goal number four (4) was for us to be able to revise the way we
provided service within the EMS system itself. This was one (1) of the bigger pieces to that part
of our strategic plan. So,we really feel wonderful that we were able to make that happen.
He went on, Under goals and plans for Q3 and Q4 of this year, we want to continue to prepare for
the ISO audit expected at year's end. Eric spoke to the fact that they're doing hydrant inspections.
ISO is the Insurance Services Office who comes in roughly every fourth (4th) year to inspect the
City and identify risk associated with fire in the City. They utilize those scores to be able to set
insurance rates,specifically with commercial properties,in the City.We actually,in 2015,we were
audited. And in 2016, the report came back and we bumped up from a three (3) to a two (2). So,
the levels are one (1)through ten(10), with one(1)being the best and ten(10)being the worst, in
essence, no fire service at all. The three (3) areas in which we're evaluated are fire service, the
water supply system or the water distribution system within the municipality, and the dispatch
center. We attempted to identify those areas in which we could gain some additional points in our
next audit to be able to put focus on that. The Water Works is doing their part. They're doing a
wonderful job with this in regard to the hydrant inspections and flow testing associated with the
hydrants. We are also looking at different training aspects in service delivery pieces in which we
believe we can access additional points in order for us to be able to score a level one (1) on the
ISO, which is the highest score you can achieve, in order to drive insurance rates as low as we
possibly can. So, that's one(1) of our main goals remaining for the remainder of this year.
He continued, We want to leverage the South Bend Fire Department Community Paramedicine
Program to assist the State in developing this into a sustainable service delivery. So, what I mean
by that is the State legislature, earlier this year,passed a law for us to be able to be reimbursed for
community paramedicine visits to individuals through FSSA and Medicaid. The issue right now
is that, although the law was passed, the mechanism has not been created within the State to be
able to provide those reimbursements yet.Part of that is summer study and additional votes through
the EMS Commission through the State of Indiana,which we're trying to make sure that we're part
of that discussion at the State level to make sure that our community paramedicine program is,
more or less,the one(1)that the State wants to utilize as the premiere program. That way, we get
maximum reimbursement from that program.The idea being,we want that to become a sustainable
program for us, and to be able to get reimbursement through Medicare and Medicaid for the
program.
He went on, Obviously, we want to celebrate obtaining LEED Gold certification for Station
Number Four (4) and we anticipate also LEED Silver certification for Fire Station Number Nine
(9). Then lastly, obviously, we've got a lot more going on at the Fire Department as a 30,000-foot
approach here. We're applying for an Assistance to Firefighters Federal Grant to commission a
study to identify cancer risk to our personnel in order to employ a focus, prevention, and early
detection program. As you all probably know, one (1) of our firefighters passed away earlier this
year from a brain tumor. We have a couple of other individuals within our department who do
have cancer currently.They're in various states of the disease. It's really important for us to be able
to make sure that we are focusing a prevention program, and an early detection program to not
only reduce the amount of pain and suffering associated with cancer in the fire service because
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY ( INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building;227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601!p 574.235.9221'f 574.235.9173 ITTD574.235.5567;www.southbendin.gov
11
CN)CITY OF SOUTH BEND 1 OFFICE OF THE CLERK
that disease is actually on the rise due to different things that buildings are made out of this day
and age. It used to be carpets were made out of cotton and wool. They're made out of basically
gasoline now. Those things are carcinogenic when they burn, as are pretty much all of your desks,
the chairs, et cetera. So, when these things burn, our firefighters are subjected to those
contaminants. So, what we want to do is identify what the highest risk is to our firefighters to be
able to focus that prevention program and early detection program to minimize that risk to our
firefighters.
Scott Ruszkowski,Police Chief for the City of South Bend with offices located at 701 West Sample
Street, stated, Thank you for the time, Council. I know you've already received this in advance. I
can read this to you, or I can allot the ten (10) minutes of time to you guys to ask questions. I'd
like to yield any remainder of my time to Code Enforcement Director Skibins, for her time. She
probably has a lot more.
Committee Chair White stated, If you could give a summary that is before us. I do know that the
PowerPoint was submitted,but it'd be very beneficial to just give a summary.
Chief Ruszkowski replied, Yes, ma'am. So, with that, obviously within the past couple weeks,
you've seen a lot of the stuff that we,as the Police Department,have been doing. Some of the stuff
that people may not know about is some of the stuff that we put in for our accomplishments. I
know that members of the Health and Public Safety Committee, and many, if not all Council
Members, have asked me either directly or indirectly, the things that we've been doing. With that
being said, some of the things that we'd like to highlight, obviously, the Detective Bureau. We
organized that this year. We actually implemented and started using it in December of 2018, but
full implementation occurred in 2019, our Shooting Response Team. The Shooting Response
Team goes to all shooting calls, again, based on severity. Some are accidental that we do know
right away, or maybe intentional self-inflicted that we do know right away, and that would not
require our Shooting Response Team. However, they respond to those. That's immediate
engagement, immediate advocacy if necessary, immediate witness statements and things of that
nature. So,it's dealing with the trauma right then and there,instead of typically,what would happen
before is, for example, we had a shooting on a Friday, and our detectives would not get the case
assigned to them until at least Monday, sometimes Monday afternoon. So, use your imagination.
If that was you and one(1)of your family members that happened to, and you didn't hear anything
from the Police other than the reporting officer at the time for two (2), three (3), sometimes four
(4) days after an incident. That is a disservice to our community. That is a disservice to the victim
and everybody else that's involved. That's why we implemented the Shooting Response Team.
He continued,Also,with that,a lot of people don't know that it's immediate contact with our SAFE
Team, our Street Outreach Team, which could potentially, hopefully, and it has worked in
preventing potential or likely retaliation in many of these incidents that we've had. So, we have
had, thus far, sixty(60) criminal assault shootings in our city this year alone. The implementation
of our Shooting Response Team and our Street Outreach Team has been effective. I can't give you
numbers because I don't know how many we have prevented retaliatory-wise. We also began a
testing and evaluation period for ten (10) hour shifts within our Detective Bureau. We're looking
at a huge, hopefully a huge decrease in overtime costs. Where we had before, where detectives
were called in, especially on violent crimes,not just shootings,but other violent crimes,robberies,
et cetera. If we're able to overlap those shifts, maybe in the latter hours of the afternoon, which is,
by data, we have those occurring, they're able to respond to them while still working instead of
EXCELLENCE j ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson BvId South Bend,Indi3na 46601 p574.235.9221If574.235.9173;11D574.235.5567;www.southbendin.goy
12
n CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
soliciting overtime to attend to those calls. So, this is still only like two (2) and a half, three (3)
months into the testing and evaluation phase. I did talk with our finance people today, and there
has been, well actually, we have not spent, compared to last year at this time, the amount of
overtime money that we did. So, that's so far, so good. And we hope that maintains. We will look
further into the rest of the department, maybe some things here in the future. But as for now, with
a smaller venue, as you will, with detectives, that's our incentive.
He went on, We also replaced iRecord system in 2019. That is a huge, and obviously key,
component in evidence preservation for our investigations. When we come in and interview
people, that's immediate. The prosecutor has access to that, so they don't have to come to us, get
copies, find it, put it on a disk and all that kind of stuff. They would be able to access the iRecord
system themselves. So, we use that throughout the Police Department. That was an upgrade to the
antiquated iRecord system that we previously had. But again, a lot of people may think that we
still sit there with a VHS camera and do the recording. That is not the case. I'm proud of all these
things,but one(1) of the things I couldn't be any more proud of, and you all are familiar with this,
is the Police Athletic League. Right now, we have four hundred and sixty-four (464) kids in our
Police Athletic League. That's not counting the boxing program that is still being done and has
been done. This is over twenty (20) years. Darryl Boykins started this a long time ago. He's been
doing it ever since. He still continues to do it. Again, four hundred and sixty-four(464) kids, all
sports primarily, but we actually incorporated swimming this year, and we have sixty-four (64)
kids,I believe,that are learning to swim for the first(1St)time. I know the Council had asked before
about the demographics, the breakdown. I know it took me a couple days, but I wanted it in chart
fashion. I had to take kids'names out and stuff like that for their protection, for legal reasons. But
I could not be any more proud of the way that program has gone. I still have some scars from
learning to try to play tennis myself.That didn't work out so well. I think me and the other division
chiefs are going next week to make another attempt at it. I don't know how that's going to play out,
but it is what it is.
He continued, We're also replacing Detective Bureau vehicles with fuel-efficient hybrid Ford
Focuses. Sorry, let me get to that next one (1). So, right now, we have Tauruses, fifteen (15) of
them, that are going to be transferred to the Patrol Division. We're going to use the fuel-efficient
hybrids now to replace those. So,anybody who's not in patrol will be having a hybrid vehicle from
here on out. That's going to be a huge cost saving measure. I know Dan has the fuel consumption
gallons and things like that, but there's absolutely no way that you cannot get better gas mileage
from a hybrid vehicle. We're also in the process of restructuring records to eliminate the third(3`d)
shift. That's hopefully going to be a cost savings. We have projected costs within two (2) years
right around$250,000 by those. We are not terminating anybody's position.Those will be through
attrition. We have one (1) person that, next month, I think it's next month or maybe the month
after,the end of August or September, will be retiring from our department, from our records, and
another one (1) that is likely either retiring, or maybe has found a different job, but there is no
termination of any employees. I want to be clear on that. We still continue, obviously, with the
community's input, to explore outreach events to establish stronger relationships. People call it
"community policing", we don't call it that. It's relationship policing and that's what we've been
trying for the last several years to do. So, we welcome any input that there is, and how do we do
what we're doing better, what are we missing, and what shouldn't we be doing are the most
important questions. And we still look for that, whether it's from the Council, the Board of Public
Safety, our patrol officers, everybody in between.
EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 466011p 574.235.9221,f 574.235.9173;TTD574.235.5567 ivnsw.southbendin.gov
13
CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
He went on, And obviously, we continue to try to recruit and strengthen the force, or our
department, I don't like the word force, with strong officer candidates. We want the best of the
best. And we specifically want the best of the best and here,in our community. We have an event
coming up, it's at the fire station. It's Saturday. We'd love to have some Council Members there.
As a matter of fact, I saw, I don't remember who it was,but it was an invitation given out, I believe
it was somebody from the Mayor's Office, to some of our high school athletes to help participate
and show people what the physical agility test is. So, we have people that apply to the department,
then we give them a date when this agility test is. On our website,we have videos showing exactly
what it entails, the vertical jump, the push-ups, the sit-ups, and the two (2)runs that are involved,
what the times are,what the expectations are. Not only do we have that,but we're hopefully going
to have many of our officers there and maybe some high school athletes that will be able to do this
as well to show them what it looks like. We tend to lose a lot of people who apply and say they
want to do it, and then when it comes time for the physical agility, they don't show up. So, we're
working on that. So, any help from anyone, we're getting pushes out now through all of our social
media, through all of the contacts we have, personal contacts with through the Mayor's Office.
We'd love to see Council. We'd love to see anybody. As a matter of fact, I think one (1) of the
neighborhood associations, Pam, actually put something out near the IUSB area. So, she pushed
that out through her neighborhood network as well. So, if we can get everybody and their
neighborhood network to do that and you all are the most influential we have in South Bend to
help push that out, too, that would be phenomenal. We'd love to have like five hundred (500)
people there.
Committeemember Regina Williams-Preston asked, What is time and location?
Chief Ruszkowski replied, It's at the Fire Training Center on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00
a.m.
Committee Chair White stated, I know we're going to have some questions, and I wanted to get
through all the departments, and then we'll hopefully have some time for some questions. But I
have asked the Council Members to write the questions, and I do have some as well. Those
questions will also be posted on our website, and any community individuals who will have
questions, they can submit those as well.
Committeemember Sharon L. McBride and Williams-Preston left the meeting at 6:03 p.m.
Tracy Skibins, Director of Code Enforcement for the City of South Bend with offices located on
the 13th floor of the County-City Building, stated, I'm going to cover the Code Enforcement piece
and let Jen Gobel cover the Animal Care and Control piece because I don't think I could adequately
highlight all the amazing things her staff does.As Laura mentioned earlier,we launched the Rental
Safety Verification Program in April of this year. So,from April 15t through July 1st,our inspectors
have been busy, busy, busy. They've completed approximately two hundred and fifty-eight (258)
inspections from April 15t to July 1St.We are primarily dealing with known problem houses, so the
inspections are a bit time consuming, to say the least. However, the information and the feedback
that we get from the tenants has absolutely been amazing. Great feedback from the tenants, and
not horrible feedback from the landlords, believe it or not, overall. I think it's because we've done
a pretty good job and we're continuing to try to improve the process of letting the landlords know
what is expected of them. So,we try to send out the information in advance, so the landlords know
what it is that the inspectors will be looking at, so they can improve any issues that might exist
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building;227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 i p 574 235.92211f574.235.9173I 111)574.235.5567;www.southbendin.gov
14
(Th CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
before the inspectors even go out to the residence. So, overall, I can't say enough about how great
I think the program is, and the feedback that I'm hearing from the program.
She continued, We've accomplished fourteen (14) neighborhood cleanups working with
community members. So, together, working with community members, primarily on Saturday
mornings from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., we've cleaned up, from the streets of South Bend and
properties,47,325 pounds of trash,litter,and debris. So,again,that's community members working
together with Code Enforcement. If you should hear of anybody who wants to organize a
neighborhood cleanup,just have them reach out to 3-1-1, and we're happy to organize one(1).The
community cooperation has been amazing. In 2018, we have sixty percent(60%)of CBOs, which
means cleaned by owner. So, when we reach out to someone and say you need to address this
issue, environmental-wise, so trash, grass, weeds, things like that, we had sixty percent (60%)
cooperation in 2019,that's actually increased to sixty-seven-point-six percent(67.6%),and I credit
our inspectors for that, in part, because they have been tirelessly going out to any neighborhood
organization, any meeting that you could possibly imagine. We try to have an inspector at every
one (1) of them. And we also are pretty big into door hangers as well. So, that's the way for our
inspectors to put hangers on a door of a property and say these are the issues that you need to
address. If you have any questions, reach out to us. So, our cleaned by owner numbers have
increased, which I'm very happy about. We've also initiated steps toward implementation of a
software solution that we think will definitely improve overall effectiveness, which will result in
overall better service to the community. We're super excited about that, and happy to be working
with IT to make that happen.
Jen Gobel, Shelter Manager for South Bend Animal Care and Control with offices located at 521
Eclipse Place, stated, Good evening. So, the first (1St) thing, or one (1) of the major things that
we've done so far this year is add a volunteer coordinator. While that, in and of itself, may not
seem like a huge thing, it does multiple things not only for staff, but also our animals. Staff is
really bogged down with a lot of the day to day stuff, so there's things that we really want to do in
working with the animals, rehabilitating animals, extra care for the animals, and enrichment that
we just aren't able to do on a more regular basis. The volunteer coordinator has implemented a
program, and volunteers, and a schedule, and has been instrumental in organizing a basic
enrichment for animals to help basically their stay not be as horrible as it could be, I guess, being
in a shelter. Imagine an animal being in a kennel almost twenty-four (24) hours a day. So, by
having a volunteer coordinator, we're able to get those animals out, get them walked more, more
enrichments, and more mentally stimulated, making them happy, healthy, and much more
adoptable. So, that's a big thing that we were able to add this year, and it will continue to enrich
our animals.
She continued, Our adoption numbers continue to increase. Since 2016, since I've taken over, we
average about two hundred and eighty-nine (289) adoptions. We're well over six hundred (600)
for last year, and we're on course to stay on track for about the same numbers. That is in light of
our intake numbers increasing continually. But, the more adoptions and the more rescues we get
out, the length of stay for those animals tends to decrease. We did complete and renovate our
Community Cat Room. So, we have one (1) room in our shelter where we house a large number
of cats, where they all cohabitate. We added some more enrichment things for them to make their
lives a little bit nicer during their stay with us. We only thought we had one (1) slide (referencing
a slide in the presentation), so I'm going to add a couple things that we couldn't squeeze on there.
Also, we've increased our licensing for animals within the community by thirteen percent (13%)
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 I p 574.235.9221 If574.235.9173;TTD 574.235.5567;www.southbendin.gov
15
CITY OF SOUTH BEND 1 OFFICE OF THE CLERK
so far this year,which ensures that more animals are up to date on their rabies vaccinations,which
is State law. And so far, year to date, we're averaging about a ninety percent (90%) live release
rate, which means that once you attain that and maintain it, you are considered a no-kill shelter.
So, we are continuing to strive towards that.
Ms. Skibins stated,For Q3 and Q4,we're going to continue to fine tune the policies and procedures
for RSVP.With any new program,you're going to have hiccups and hurdles,and we are navigating
those right now, and again, continue to fine tune the program. RSVP letters will be translated into
Spanish. College students are helping with this. We're just about finished. Our inspectors met with
college students doing an internship with the West Side Educational Ecosystem. There's the goal
of building relationships with community members so that they have the resources to identify and
advocate for themselves. So,there's this young lady who we gave her the information and said this
is what we need done. It'd be great if you could translate this to Spanish for us.And I'm not joking,
like two (2) days later, it looked perfect. So, sometime soon, all of our letters that will be going
out for the RSVP program,on one(1)side,will have the Spanish version as well. So,we definitely
think that is a great goal for us, and we're going to continue to move forward with hopefully our
other letters and cards that are sent out. We're going to continue to build partnerships with the
community. We have an amazing partnership with St. Vincent de Paul. As you know,they help us
out when we have to condemn a property and tenants have no place to go. So, St. Vincent de Paul
has been amazing with that. We have an informal relationship with the Notre Dame Law Clinic as
well. So, if our inspectors see people who are suffering in a bad situation, and we feel that maybe
they're being taken advantage of, we refer them informally to Notre Dame Legal Clinic. Judith
Fox and her group have been absolutely amazing with that. And, Builders of Hope. Builders of
Hope,they reached out to me because they took part in one(1)of our Code Enforcement Hearings,
and their words were basically that they like South Bend Code Enforcement because it seems like
we really care about the people. The Code Enforcement Hearings can be very scary, and they
witnessed that we try to make it not so scary for the people who are called in for the Code
Enforcement Hearings. And because of that,we have a relationship with them now where they are
actively helping repair about four (4) or five (5) houses in the City of South Bend because these
are people that we've identified for them that truly have no other means, no other resources, no
other family or friends who can help them make these repairs. So, the groups that I've mentioned,
St. Vincent de Paul, Notre Dame Legal Clinic, and Builders of Hope, those are groups that we
meet with on a regular basis so that we can make sure that we are fine tuning this process and
getting people the help that they need.
Ms. Gobel stated, Some of the goals for Animal Care and Control, we are still continually,
steadfastly working on the Animal Control Ordinance. We did file paperwork for the rebranding
of the shelter, which we hope will pass. The goal of that is to take the control portion out of our
name and make it more of a resource center because that's essentially what we are. We are a
resource for our community members for their animals. We work with many different agencies
throughout the City and in the county as far as resources for them. But we will continue to work
on the ordinance. We will still seek public input from the Animal Control Commission, and as
well as any stakeholders in the community to ensure that we have one (1) of the strongest animal
welfare ordinances in the State, if not the nation. Our goal is to maintain that ninety percent(90%)
live release rate,which is difficult as our intake numbers continue to rise.But in working hopefully
with more specials with our adoptions and working with more rescues within the area and out of
State,we transport animals as far as Wisconsin just to get them out of the shelter to reach this no-
kill status. So, it's a pretty hefty goal for the remainder of the year. One (1) of the other things is
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld!South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221;f 574.235.917311TD 574.235.55671www.southbendin.goy
16
CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
I'm meeting with the Best Friends Society, which is nationally renowned animal welfare agency.
So, I have a meeting with them in August to discuss things that we can still continue to do to
improve within the shelter so we can maintain and achieve that ultimate goal. We will continue to
hopefully build a more robust volunteer base,which will help not only our animals,but the burden
on staff as well.
Chuck Bulot,Building Commissioner for the City of South Bend with offices located at 125 South
Lafayette Boulevard, stated, Good afternoon. First (1st) of all, I'd like to say that our primary
objective at the Building Department is to be invisible. And by that I mean, I don't want you to
ever hear about the Building Department in any negative aspect. I don't want to be on the news. I
don't want to be in a lawsuit. I don't want you to have any reason to contact me for anything other
than to find out information about building or building projects that are going on in the community.
With that being said, we try to maintain the highest caliber of education and professionalism in
our department. That's our primary objective. We like to take the complexities of the built
environment and make sure that it is in its simplest form both for our ability to enforce it, and also
for the community to understand it.That being said, I'm going to leave you with some simple ideas
or accomplishments that we've had for 2019 so far. First(1st)of all,we have issued 1,487 building
permits. All inspectors and front office positions are now filled. We had problems over the years
with budget, and people retiring, and illnesses and things of this sort. We finally are at full speed.
In this day and age, this time in the building community, we need that because right now, South
Bend is at full speed in terms of building projects. Eighty-eight percent(88%)of all inspectors are
now certified through the ICC. The ICC is the International Code Council. They are the
organization that actually writes all of the building code books.Once you're certified through them,
you are qualified, in a certain sense,to be an expert based on the testing that you qualify for.
He continued, Our goals and plans for Q3, Q4 is to go from that eighty-eight percent(88%) to one
hundred percent(100%) certified inspectors by the end of this year. Also, we want to improve our
committee membership in IABO and other industry associations from the current twenty percent
(20%) to forty percent (40%). We think it's important to reach out and be in contact with other
organizations who might have a different point of view or have different abilities that we don't
currently possess. Anything that we can learn that will help us benefit the built environment for
the benefit of the health,safety, and welfare of the community is a benefit to us, and we'll continue
to pursue that. I know it seems pretty simple. Although these are simple ideas or simple aspects,
what we do is extremely complex. It takes a lot of years of dedication just to get up to speed to
inspect buildings proficiently. We pride ourselves in being able to keep the complexities of the
industry very simple. Thank you.
Jitin Kain,Director of Community Investment with offices located on the 14th floor of the County-
City Building, stated, Good evening, I'd like to briefly share some of our key accomplishments.
One (1) of the first (1st) is the launch of the South Bend Home Repair Program. This really began
in 2018, and our team's been working closely with the community and are accepting applications.
We received close to three hundred (300) applications for the program. I think by the time we've
gone through some of those applications, it's about one hundred(100) individuals right now going
through the program. A few of those grants have been awarded. We expect to award some more
by the end of the year. The other key accomplishment in the department has been the TIF
realignment. Again, this realignment adds certain areas to the overall TIF areas. We have certain
corridors now added, certain areas were reduced or removed from the overall TIF area. So, the
airport and certain portions of the northwest part of the River West District were removed. It still
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 I f574.235.9173 I 11)574235 5567 www.southbendin.gov
17
0 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
is a net reduction in the TIF areas overall. This realignment will allow DCI to now invest in
corridors like Miami, Mishawaka Avenue, Portage, and Elwood. Another key accomplishment
was the initiation of NNN planning process. This created a neighborhood plan that our team is
working on,but we had a number of public engagement meetings and invited neighbors to start to
envision what the NNN neighborhood might look like. So, this process, again, is underway, but
the meetings have been completed. The stabilization of the Lafayette Building, again, this is an
historic asset in the downtown. In earnest,the conversations regarding the property began a couple
of years ago. Some work was done last year. Then this year, it's been mostly work on the exterior
of the building with brick work and tuckpointing. And then work on the skylight of the building
will, I believe, occur in the next couple of weeks. So, that'll help stabilize the building, making it
ready for future development and future investment.
He continued, Our team's also been actively working with the Neighborhood Resources
Connection,the NRC.They have a new director and our team is working closely on their programs,
including the Youth Council, working on the Neighbors Council Conference, and then some
summer series.The other initiative is CDFI.This is Community Development Finance Institutions.
Our team is working to identify opportunities in distressed, low-income areas for individuals to
take advantage of micro loans. So, a kickoff or forum occurred in June, and that was the first(1st)
phase of this initiative. Now, we expect to get into more details about identifying what kinds of
opportunities our residents can take advantage of. Opportunity Zones,this is another key initiative
for the City. This allows investment in certain parts of the City.The City has certain Census Tracts
now identified as opportunity zones. Those include certain areas southwest of downtown, the
downtown, and then northeast part of the City. So, it's an opportunity for investors to take some
certain tax incentives in those areas by investing their capital gains. The other program I want to
talk about is the Pathways Program.This is a workforce development program that our team's been
actively working on. It allows individuals in our community who are looking to gain employment,
or to further their education to gain better employment to take advantage of workforce
opportunities and training, such as in the trucking industry, CDLs, working in the hospitality
industry, or nursing. So, we have several individuals who've taken advantage of that program
already, about one hundred and sixty-five (165) so far, and we expect more in the third (3d) and
fourth (4th) quarters. Some landmark development projects that have occurred in our community
are the Cascades Project. You can see the construction underway. That's been one of the first(1st)
high-end condominium projects in the downtown. That's on a site that sat vacant for several years.
Construction is also underway on the City's first (1st) Class-A office space on the corner of Main
and Jefferson built in the downtown in decades.Again,that's a major investment in the downtown.
Then we have some spec buildings underway on the City's northwest side, and that's the growing
Ameritech area where we're seeing investment in distribution. So, that's two (2) more buildings
going up there. We've seen about $76 million in private investment in the City so far, and we
expect more by the end of the year. That equates to about one hundred and twenty(120)new jobs.
He went on, In terms of some of our goals,owner-occupied rehabs,we expect in the third(3'')and
fourth (4th) quarters, about thirty-eight (38) more of those to occur. We have a zoning reformat
underway. That's expected to come to the Council really in the next couple of months, but we
expect it to be done by the end of the year. We have a few streetscape projects identified that we'd
like to initiate in the third (3'd) quarter. And a land value analysis, some of you may have
participated in the Urban3 Land Value Analysis. That is where we look at the value of land per
acre. A retouch of that analysis will occur. Then in private investment,here (referencing a slide in
the presentation) are some of our investment numbers. We expect another $24 million in private
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 i P 574.235.9221 I f 574.235.9173;I I1)574.235.5567I eNw.southbendin.gov
18
CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
investment by the end of the year, another eighty-one(81)jobs by the end of the year, and another
eighty-five (85) grants in workforce given by the end of the year. That concludes my brief
presentation.
Christina Brooks, Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the City of South Bend with offices here on
the 14th floor, stated, Good evening, Council. I want to quickly go over some of the
accomplishments for this year, 2019. One (1) of the major accomplishments is the completion of
the MBE/WBE Disparity Study. This was a project that started last year with the hire of the
consultant,Colette Holt&Associates.We've made sure that in this process,we collected over four
hundred(400)individual procurements and contracting data sets that were used in the analysis for
the Disparity Study.We held several stakeholder meetings.The final two(2)stakeholder meetings
happened this year with an MBE stakeholder meeting in person at the West Side Small Business
Resource Center for project impact at the CUC. We've been able to implement some of the race
and gender-neutral initiatives that were introduced in 2018. We're starting to work through those
this year. CHA, as a part of the Disparity Study, received copies of our amended ordinance from
2011 as part of the Disparity Study, and an update on the ADA transition plan of 2013, the Title
Six (VI) Plan, and current internal procurement policies and contracting policies, and Board of
Public Works contracting approval processes, and current ODI purchasing organizational charts.
All of that was submitted as a part of the Disparity Study. We've amended the final draft for
delivery to the public for August of 2019, and we expect to actually host a community meeting
after that is delivered as well.
She continued,The second(2nd)accomplishment this year for our office has been the Living Cities
Inclusive Procurement Grant, which was a $50,000 award in cash to be delivered this year. We
also received technical assistance from Griffin & Strong Law Firm out of Atlanta, Georgia who
has over twenty (20) years of experience in managing procurement projects throughout the
country. We established a Committee that's going to help us actually move forward with our
proposal. The proposal that we submitted that actually won was to bring together and leverage
about a little over a billion dollars in procurement and contracting dollars from the top ten (10)
employers here in the City of South Bend to actually help support and create minority businesses
through CBAs. So,we'll be working with Griffin&Strong.We actually had a call today with them
to help us see that project through to fruition.The third(3rd)major project for our office is working
with the South Bend Police Department and Innovation on a Homegrown Project, which is a
community nomination process for ethnically diverse candidates and referrals from the
community.There will be multiple entry points for that program,the first(1St)of which is a middle
school program,and then a high school program,and then also a post-secondary entry point.Those
post-secondary entry points could actually culminate in a full-time position with a partnership with
the St.Joseph County Police Department as a Corrections Officer, earning about$35,000 right out
of high school, but with the support and training for parallel programs in diversity and inclusion
education, as well as mental wellness, in addition to public safety education over a three (3) year
period to prepare them to apply and be a competitive applicant for the South Bend Police
Department.
She went on, Some of the goals that we have for our office include continuing policy and process
changes in procurement and contracting that were recommended by the Disparity Study. We also
want to make sure that we're moving forward and keeping our timeline for the Inclusive
Procurement Grant Proposal. We also are going to continue to roll out the Homegrown Project
with the Local Law Enforcement Diversity Recruitment Plan and move into Phase Two (2) with
EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574 235 92211f574.235.9173 TD 574.235.55671 www.southbendin.gov
19
rr CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
that. We'll also be assisting with reviewing the South Bend Police Department hiring policy and
requirements. We will also be moving forward with the Trauma-Informed Community Plan to
proactively address racial disparities and access in healthcare,mental wellness,housing,education,
justice, both juvenile and criminal, inclusive economic development and MBE development and
support. Then we're also working closely with Innovation and IT Business Analytics Department
to continue the work that was started in Engagement and Economic Empowerment with the CDFI
friendly community plans. For the Human Rights Commission, which actually I don't think it's a
part of your slides (referencing the presentation), but the accomplishments for the Human Rights
Commission, we indefinitely extended the contract between St. Joseph County and the
Commission to continue to enforce the County's Human Rights Ordinance. We've successfully
maintained Federal contracts with the EEOC and HUD by meeting contractual obligations.
They've trained over one hundred (100)persons in the community on HUD laws, and the training
was provided by a HUD attorney. They provided three (3) academic scholarships totaling $6,500
to students in St. Joseph County. They partnered with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission in
providing COE training in the Fair Housing Act and land contracts in South Bend. They partnered
with the Volunteer Lawyer Network in providing equal access to justice. And also partnered with
the EEOC in providing civility training for City managers.
She continued, The goals and plans for Q3 to Q4 for the Human Rights Commission, they'll
continue to work with St. Joseph County to ensure that all the residents are ensured equal
opportunity and access. They continue to work in the community with the Diversity and Inclusion
Officer and continue to inform residents that diversity strengthens and benefits our community
through inclusion of all people. The Commission will also continue the policy that all cases filed
be completed within one hundred and eighty(180) days or less, with the exception of those cases
that require legal intervention.We'll also make sure that we maintain Federal contracts with EEOC
and HUD, and local contracts with Community Investment, and also continue to seek other forms
of revenue through grants to supplement the General Fund.
Denise Linn Riedl, Chief Innovation Officer for the City of South Bend with offices located on
the 12th floor of the County-City Building, stated, Good evening. I'll start by talking about our
accomplishments. We brought in $500,000 from the Lilly Endowment Grant that was awarded to
the University of Notre Dame. That endowment grant is meant for economic development,
workforce development, and general innovation in the region. That money awarded to the City, a
sub-awardee, will be used for data analytics training at the Technology Resource Center, which is
to be opened in October of 2019. We are looking forward to leveraging those funds to fill capacity
not only with City staff, but with residents in the region, and managing challenges around future
of work and workforce development challenges in the region. Our department also manages 3-1-
1, as many of you know. I just wanted some of the stats with you this evening. So far this year,
we've taken over 75,000 calls out of the 3-1-1 Call Center. As a result, inputted over 10,000
requests for service. Actually, 3-1-1 stayed open during the polar vortex this year,which I thought
was a nice story to add. We continue to take those requests and work with City departments to
deliver services to residents and respond to any issues that people have.
She continued, The third (3rd) accomplishment I wanted to highlight this evening was the launch
of the transparency and performance page of the City. So, this webpage centralizes all of the open
information resources that the City manages, including the Open Data Portal, Police Data
Transparency, and our open records. It's a one (1)-stop shop for residents to access that
information. Of course,just launching it is the first (1St) step. We're looking for opportunities to
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.92211f 574 235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567;www.southbendin.gov
20
C)CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
improve that tool, including making it more user friendly, and of course, adding content, making
more information open, always looking for opportunities for that. This year, we began a cross-
departmental push around data governance and inventory. That's exactly like it sounds. We
actually are working across all departments, and with every department to take inventory of all the
data the City has. What Works Cities and Bloomberg actually has surveyed cities to find out about
how many cities do this. It's less than one-quarter (1/4). So, even though it sounds like a simple
process, it's actually incredibly important to identify how the data in the City is managed,
improvements that we can make to see where City services can be improved, and then also find
pathways for transparency and inclusion on the open data portal. So,we're continuing that process
this year. Ten (10) new City facilities have been connected to the MetroNet. That's the regional
dark fiber network here and in the area. We estimate that about$400,000 annually is saved just by
using this local asset.That's the marginal savings from what we would pay, say, a private provider
to connect the City facilities. So, now there are about forty-two (42) City facilities connected to
the network. The last accomplishment I want to highlight is the next phase of the Bloomberg
Mayors Challenge. So, the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge is part of a push. We received a $1
million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, as several of you know, to test the idea of
transportation as a benefit here in South Bend. So, what that means is we're working with local
employers, and specifically with our hourly wage workers, and taking away the issue of
transportation insecurity to see, one (1), how much employers saved as a result, how much more
employees can work as a result, and other efficiencies that come out of taking away that daily life
insecurity. So, we're launching the next phase of that, now that we've received the $1 million,
including hiring our founding director, Aaron Steiner, and doing another pilot this year. So, that's
a good segue into our plans for this year.
She went on, We'll be opening the Technology Resource Center in October of 2019. And again,
that Center is going to be a platform for public/private collaboration in beta City work, as well as
in workforce development, and tech and data related training. So, the second (2nd) major goal for
2019 will be to complete the beta version of our 3-1-1 Service Portal. You can order a pizza on
your phone and track its status delivery, I think you should be able to do that with 3-1-1, too. So,
we've been building that in our department, and we're going to be working more with other
departments to get that completed. Our goal is to get that to civic user testing by the end of the
year in Q4. So, speaking of civic user testing, the third (3`1) goal for this year, in tandem with the
3-1-1 Service Portal, is to launch a new process that we undertake whenever we deploy a resident
facing technology or process, which is to actually build with residents. So, engage with residents,
put prototypes in front of them, make them better, then re-release them. So, we're looking to start
that process with the 3-1-1 Service Portal, seeing how critical that is to all residents in South Bend.
Next, as I mentioned before, we're going to complete that South Bend data inventory across City
departments and find those pathways to the Open Data Portal for other data across the City. We
will complete the second (2nd) Bloomberg Mayors Challenge pilot. This pilot will actually be in
partnership with the previous employers from the first(Pt)pilot that we undertook,including Notre
Dame and Beacon Health, but we'll also include additional modes of transportation. Before, we
used Rideshare. Now, we're also going to be adding TRANSPO, and hopefully scooters and other
modes of transportation.
She continued, Our department continues to do software implementations with other City
departments.The three(3)that are priorities for the second(2n1)half of this year are Kronos,which
is being undertaken by Human Resources, DFO, that stands for Dynamics for Financials and
Operations, and that's for our finance team here. And then the last,of course, is CityWorks,which
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building;227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601]p 574 235.92211 f 574.235.9173 I I U574.235.55671 www.southbendin.gov
21
n CITY OF SOUTH BEND 1 OFFICE OF THE CLERK
the first (1st) department to fully have CityWorks implemented will be Code Enforcement, and
that's an asset management platform for the City, an enterprise solution that will help us collect
data on everything from potholes to vacant lots to fire hydrants. Second (2nd) to last, we would
love to expand free Wi-fi. We've identified expansions on Lincolnway, possibly also on
Mishawaka Avenue and Miami. And then, of course, as we always do, we want to continue core
support programming for services and infrastructure, keeping the networks up, keeping them
secure, and also continue our Business Analytics office hours, which are for technology
troubleshooting and training, SBA Academy, the internal training program here at the City, and
SB staff, the performance management program.
Councilmember Jake Teshka left the meeting at 6:39 p.m.
Kyra Clark, Director of Human Resources for the City of South Bend with offices located on the
12th floor of the County-City Building, stated, I will be fast, and there's only one (1) after me. So
far this year,there have been four hundred(400)new hires with the City of South Bend. There are
three hundred and thirty (330) that were part-time seasonal, and seventy (70) that are full-time.
The three hundred and thirty(330), as you can imagine, are a lot of people mowing lawns, a lot of
lifeguards, a lot our seasonal folks that help us during the summers in particular. All of those four
hundred (400) new hires and all of our existing employees, with very few exceptions, have gone
through the City's new harassment training program. That was something that was initiated in
partnership with Council last summer. So, we've gotten good feedback, and frankly, I think a lot
of people have been well-educated through that program. We will continue doing that into the
• future. That is an annual training that everyone will take. One (1) of the most significant impacts,
especially with those new hires,is electronic new hire paperwork. So,if you were a new employee
previously,you had to find a place to park outside of the County-City Building, come upstairs, get
your packet, fill out all your information, sometimes having to come up to the 12th floor a couple
of times. So, this really prevents that from having to happen. You get a call from your supervisor
congratulating you on the job. You get an email. On that email, even on your phone, you're able
to fill out new hire paperwork, and that also gives you directions about being able to take drug
tests and having to go for new hire orientation. So, it's a much more efficient process.
She continued, A project we have been continuing to work on with Admin and Finance and IT's
support is the new human resources information system, which is Kronos. What we have been
doing for the last ten(10)months is entering all four hundred(400)of those new hires into two(2)
different systems. We think that will end here very shortly, and we're really excited about the
prospects of the efficiencies that will be created by it. So, that should be happening on September
14th actually.
We continue to have our employee recognition program. This year so far, there have been eleven
(11)employee awards issued,and one(1)team recognition award.A few more are coming shortly.
Our goals for the remainder of this year include evaluating our benefits structure. We currently
offer a PPO and an HRA. We'd like to explore transitioning the HRA to an HSA. That allows
employees to be able to keep that money with them, and it helps encourage employees to make
wise healthcare dollar spending decisions. Even if they transition away from the City,they're able
to keep those dollars and be able to spend those on other healthcare costs in the future. I had
mentioned previously, we are moving towards a go live for the Kronos HRIS so that the go live is
September 14th with the first (1st) paycheck being issued out of Kronos on October 4th. Dan, I
apologize. I didn't mean to steal your thunder. We do hope to hold additional volunteer
opportunities for the new volunteer time off policy that allows employees paid time to be able to
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building!227 W.Jefferson Bvld'South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.922111574.235.91731 I I D574 235.5567 we w.southbendin.gov
22
(`I CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
do things that are great for our community and our City. And lastly, we'd like to work with you,
and we've talked preliminarily with Karen, and I assume we'll have the opportunity to talk with
other Council Members to try and make sure that the City vacation policies square with what is in
our ordinance, and to the extent there are opportunities to clean those up and make sure that they
make sense. We want to try and do that the remainder of this year as well. Not on the list
(referencing the presentation),but we will be doing the EEO-Four(4),which I neglected to include.
It's an every other year requirement, and we will be completing that this fall as well.
Mr. Parker stated,You've made it all the way to the end, and I will be very,very quick. First(Pt),
let me say on behalf of myself, thank you to all the department heads, I really appreciate it. And
thank you, especially, to Council for giving us this opportunity. I just can tell there's a lot of great
stuff going on. We're very proud of it, but really, you guys should be very proud of it because
nothing happens without your support. So, thank you as well for everything that you guys do. In
terms of Admin and Finance, very quickly, the one(1)thing I do want to highlight here is that, as
Denise mentioned, we're in the process of implementing our new ERP software, which is called
DFO, Dynamics for Finance and Operations. The project is on time for an April 1st, 2020 go live.
Again,I want to thank you guys for your support in that project.We recently came for an additional
appropriation request for this. This will revolutionize the way our processes work from a financial
perspective, everything from AP, purchasing, accounts receivable, and cash management.
Everything that we do,we're re-evaluating and trying to make it as efficient as possible. So,I really
appreciate Council's support of that project. We did compile our comprehensive annual financial
report for the 2018 fiscal year. We received an unmodified audit opinion, which is the best audit
opinion we can receive. So, I want to clarify that. And not very many cities in Indiana do put
together a CAPR. I think there was only about nine(9)in 2017 that did, and we're one(1) of them,
and we have for many years. So, I do want to highlight that.
He continued,Then obviously,why we're all here is to basically start the 2020 budget process,and
that is why we'll spend quite a bit of time on that over the next six (6)months, essentially. From a
Central Services perspective, lots of things going on over there. Thirty(36) new police cars were
outfitted this year. We migrated all our public safety radios into a new radio management system.
We put two (2) additional CNG trucks into service over at Solid Waste. And then just in terms of
a preview for the next slide (referencing the presentation), we have selected a fleet management
software, which will help us not only better manage our fleet across the City, and what vehicles
we should be replacing on an annual basis, but also better manage the maintenance, and
preventative maintenance especially, of those vehicles as they need to come in and get serviced.
As we go forward into the last part of 2019 here, on the Administration and Finance side, a big
focus of ours will obviously be the budget over the next several months and working with the
Personnel and Finance Committee to present the budget, address concerns, priorities of the
Council, as well as of residents. We are continuing to focus on process and policy redesign within
the DFO project, and again,revolutionizing the way that our financial processes work in the City.
And then we are really starting to look at our financial reporting and ensure that our financial
information is both accessible and transparent to residents and to Council and provides a lot of
good information. That is something we really want to focus on.
He went on, On the Central Services side, the theme here is software implementations. We're
implementing, like I mentioned, that new fleet software, as well as looking at procuring a facility
management software. And again, the idea behind the facility management software is similar to
the fleet software, in that it will allow us to better manage the preventative maintenance of our
EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221'1574.235.91731 TTD574.235.5567;www.southbendin.gov
23
CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
facilities so that we'll know when roofs need to be replaced,we'll know when HVAC systems need
to be replaced. And those kinds of things won't be a surprise from a budgetary perspective. We're
looking at CAD drawings for City facilities so that we're aware of what types of needs each facility
has. And then looking at integrating the all software with our new DFO system that will go live in
2020.The last two(2)items on there are more related to policies and procedures.We want to make
sure that we have an emergency outage plan not only for City-wide radio communications, but
also for just overall City functions in terms of how we develop an emergency outage plan from an
HR perspective, as well as specifically Finance and Central Services. And then finally, we did put
together an idle reduction policy for City usage of vehicles that we will adopt City-wide hopefully
in the latter part of this year, which will be a cost saving measure to ensure that we're making the
best use of fuel efficiency that we can. Again, thank you guys so much for sticking through this.
Committee Chair White stated,Thank you,too. I'm going to see if any Council Members have any
comments as we move forward. If not, I will ask that you would submit your questions to the
Clerk's Office. We'll make sure that they get to the most appropriate departments, and that holds
true for the public as well. If anyone has any questions, please submit those to the Clerk's Office.
We will make sure that the most appropriate department would get those questions,and they would
be posted on our website. We'd like to thank all the department heads for spending this time with
us.We've made a conscious decision to have this meeting prior to the budget kickoff because when
you come before the Council in terms of your 2020 budget, what we're asking is that you give a
brief overview. But most importantly, to go directly to the budget numbers in terms of what is the
total budget for 2019,and what is the total budget that you're requesting for 2020.And we're asking
that you show the differences. Highlight the changes and justification, and what would be the
impact if requests are not approved. Then secondly, show the number of current positions, I'll put
this in writing,and any new request positions.Justify any new or decreases in positions.And again,
we're preparing for the 2020 Fiscal Curb. Discuss and justify any positions with salaries greater
than two percent(2%), and likewise,discuss and justify any positions with increases less than two
percent(2%)
She continued, Again, we wanted to make sure that when we start the 2020 budget hearings, that
a lot of the information that you shared, which is wonderful, and I'm going to ask the Council
Members who are still with us, with me to give you a round of applause.You've done an excellent
job, and we're very appreciative of you taking the time to really come and give us this update as
well. What I'd like for you to do in terms of your 2019 budget presentations, if you have
experienced any difficulties meeting any of your goals, please share those as well. So, on behalf
of the Personnel and Finance Committee as well as the South Bend Common Council and the
Clerk's Office, we thank you so much, and we're off to a great start. Thank you.
With no further business, the Committee Chair White adjourned the Personnel and Finance
Committee meeting at 6:49 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Karen White, Committee Chair
EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building!227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601;p 574.235.9221:(574.235.9173TTD574.235.5567,www.southbendin.gov
24