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OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK
KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK
PERSONNEL &FINANCE JULY 31, 2019 5:36 P.M.
Committee Members Present: Karen White, Jo M. Broden, Regina Williams-Preston,
John Voorde
Committee Members Absent: None
Other Council Present: Tim Scott,Jake Teshka, Dr. Oliver Davis
Other Council Absent: Sharon L. McBride, Gavin Ferlic
Others Present: Graham Sparks
Presenters: Denise Riedl, Dan Parker, Kyra Clark, Stephanie Steele,
Matt Chlebowski
Agenda: Innovation and Technology
Administration and Finance
Human Resources
Legal Department
Committee Chair Karen White called to order the Personnel and Finance Committee meeting at
5:36 p.m. She introduced members of the Committee and proceeded to give the floor to the
presenters.
Innovation and Technology
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, I will take this opportunity to give a brief
overview of the structure of our department and the different teams that are in Innovation and
Technology. There are six (6) main teams that are in Innovation and Technology. We have the
Services team and that's in charge of Help Desk functions and hardware for the City of South Bend.
Also,vendor relationships. We have our Infrastructure team that maintains our City network. That
also includes free City Wi-Fi hotspots that exist across the City. We have our Application
Development team, they're chiefly in charge of securing software solutions for the City and
customizing them and implementing with departments. We have our Business Analytics team that
works in tandem with the Applications Development team. They're in charge of process
improvements in innovation that the software is built on top of. And then they also of course help
INTEGRITY' SERVICE'ACCESSIBILITY
JENNIFER M.COFFMAN BIANCA L.TIRADO JOSEPH R.MOLNAR
CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK
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with data analytics and performance management. Especially with the SB Stat Program that helps
departments track their strategic priorities. Our fifth(5th)team is Civic Innovation. They're chiefly
in charge of strategic partnerships that are externally facing. Especially with Notre Dame and with
national partners like Bloomberg. They are in charge of bringing in external support in terms of
in-kind resources and grant dollars. And then our sixth (6th) and final team the 3-1-1 Call Center.
And they of course are the front lines of City services. And they take customer calls and issues and
service departments by fielding those calls. The overall mission of Innovation and Technology is
to empower an innovative workforce and a thriving community through technology, data and
strategic partnerships.
She continued, So, I'll just overview our 2020 departmental goals. There are four(4)main goals I
really wanted to highlight, the first(1St) two (2) being the most important (referencing a slide in a
presentation which is available in the City Clerk's Office). So, of course, given the fact that we're
Innovation and Technology, continued cost savings, time savings and then bringing in external
revenue from Innovation and Technology work is key. A few examples of this that are forward
looking into 2020 are Cityworks implementation and the other software implementations that we'll
be doing with other departments in the City. Cityworks will be our new asset management
platform. The first (1St) implementation will be done in partnership with Code Enforcement. And
then of course we have our DFO platform, Dynamics for Finance and Operations. That's our new
ERP system. And then of course we'll be doing utility billing as well. And so those software
implementations will be key for time saving and cost saving going forward for the City. Another
example of this type of work is the Metronet work. We continue to invest in the Metronet. Our
Infrastructure team partners with them to service City facilities and City networks. Using them in
comparison to a private provider we estimate saves the City about $400,000 a year. And then of
course some examples of external revenue to bring into the City that we'll hopefully continue to
bring in as well. This last year we brought in about half a million dollars from the Lily Endowment
Grant that was brought into the region. That's specifically for data training and programming
around the future of work here in the City. And of course,the Bloomberg money as well is another
example of that.
She went on, So, number two (2), the second (2nd) goal, again very important, is about
strengthening City data operations and culture. So, there are a few components to this. One (1)
providing more data support to departments. Examples would be helping legal manage APRA
requests. Helping Finance provide transparency and analytics on top of the new budget process.
And then just generally increasing our Open Data Portal. We see that as a strategic priority to build
out the transparency for the City and build trust as well. We will especially be working with
Finance to do that. Police, of course. And also, through the SB Stat Program, we'll work around
Police recruitment as well as work around the Community Paramedicine Program. Regarding data
culture as well, we're hoping to partner with Legal to stand up new data policies. And then also
work to increase security around City networks and data generally. This might be a timely topic,
especially as this is a very important issue for the City. And that certainly revolves around data
security and operations. The third(3rd) goal will be to create more feedback loops, both internally
and externally. We hope to build better technology that's user friendly both for the departments
and for residents of the City. Externally that looks like a new civic user testing group that will be
set up here in the City. The first (1st) product that will be leveraging that group will be our new
digital 3-1-1 services portal which will be launched in 2020. We will go into neighborhoods and
ask people to test the beta version of this platform, provide feedback and then we can improve so
we can build the technology with residents to make sure it's user friendly. The internally focused
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feedback loop that I am passionate about building here in the City is around building a new survey,
internal survey for department heads and for divisions heads here in the City that's actually built
into the budget process for Innovation and Technology. So that looks like fourth (4th) quarter of
every year distributing the survey internally, gauging everyone's needs around technology,
software, data management and general technology needs. Working with departments and then
building that into the strategic process around allocations and the budget creation process. And
then also just because we are an allocation department and we are a centralized department as well,
building in more reporting for those feedback loops. Just as Admin and Finance provides some of
their reports, we will start providing monthly reports for Innovation and technology as well. We
will share our portfolio with the Council,with department heads, with division heads and also just
give general high-level updates just to keep people informed about the work we're doing and some
of the main projects we're working on.
She continued, The fourth (4th) departmental goal is facilitating equitable inclusive employment
in technology to residents. So, one(1) of the key initiatives in this pillar is the Life-long Learning
Program that's been brought into the City of South Bend. So, this program is actually an
opportunity to digitize key programs here in the City, one(1)being South Bend Pathways. It's just
a nice opportunity to make sure that we're leveraging technology for departmental programs that
make a difference for residents. Another key pillar of this goal is the digital 3-1-1 service portal
again. We want to make sure, again, it's not only user friendly the fact it's deployed inclusively
with residents and that it's easy to use and that we're putting the word out. We see this project not
only as saving money but also a way for more residents to be involved in making South Bend
better. So,this(referencing a slide in the presentation)is our 2020 budget overview.There are just
a few things I wanted to bring to light. We have an increase in our supplies budget. Part of this is
a re-classification of the supplies category that I believe Admin and Finance supplied to this budget
cycle. For instance, mice and equipment were originally being classified as services and now
they're being classified as supplies.The debt service increase can really be accounted for from new
printers and HP leases that the department procured. The other expenses, that big line-item there,
just a few things to bring to light, that's in there. That includes all the software implementations
that we do, user licenses and so forth. Transfers out, the $600,000 line-item there on the transfers
out category accounts for supporting the DFO, the Dynamics for Finances and Operations for the
ERP implementation here in the City.
She went on, And just at a high level, too, under operating expenditures, we're about $7.4 million
this year compared to $8.3 million last year. As Dan mentioned before, we are approaching the
Fiscal Curb and given that our department touches all other departments,we did want to make sure
that we were decreasing allocations as much as we could. A few other things to call out in our
operating budget, in addition to calling out some of the major reductions we made in the budget,
we cut our professional services budget $240,000. We reduced travel and training. We also cut a
Wi-Fi expansion. Again, this is all just ahead of the Fiscal Curb. We need to focus chiefly on our
main four (4) departmental priorities. The new larger line-item in our budget of course is the city
works implementation. And I spoke about that briefly when we discussed goals. And I also wanted
to note that in addition to those operational cuts, we also, because of delayed implementation in
previous years, Innovation and Technology has a reserve fund that we're spending down now to
reduce allocation to departments in 2020. There are a few personnel asks in light of the reductions
in professional services and some of the specific departmental goals that we hope to accomplish
in 2020 around software implementation and support. We're proposing a raise for our Application
Director and Application Developer position. So, this salary cap increase we are hoping will give
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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
us the flexibility to retain technical talent in the wake of these software implementations. We've
actually seen software implementations, especially around the 3-1-1 service portal, delayed as a
result of turnover in that department. And we're hoping that this will help us retain technical talent
for longer. Of course,the City should never expect to pay competitive market prices for these types
of positions, but increasing these marginally will, I think at the very least one (1) goal I have in
my mind, be perhaps at the twentieth (20th) percentile of what comparable market rates in South
Bend look like. The Applications team, again, will be integral to our software implementations
and just general automation here at the City. And certainly, in the wake of the Fiscal Curb and not
wanting to increase the head count here in our department. We see this modest bump, the raise, as
a way that we can retain that talent internally. Especially in the wake of cutting professional
services.
She continued, In relation to that, the Business Analyst team is key for a lot of the software
implementations and process improvements. We are proposing that one (1) business analyst
position turn into a Manager of Business Analytics. That position would create a new mid-level
tier in that team, which actually exists in every other team in Innovation and Technology. And
again, we're hoping this creates less turnover. It will be available for retaining talent and tacit
knowledge around process improvement and tacit knowledge around software. And then we're
also proposing another Business Analyst become a Design Specialist. This, of course, will help
with our developmental priorities around user friendly technology, civic user testing and
supporting the 3-1-1 digital service portal.
Committee Chair White stated, I'm just going to ask you, because you know I'm trying to be
mindful of time, and I know there's going to be questions that we have, so if you could just
highlight the special initiatives, or we could just read through those, and then ask questions with
the latter part of the presentation. Because we have three(3)more departments to go through. And
I do know there are going to be some questions.
Ms. Riedl stated, Right, so I'll just go right to the special initiatives then. One(1) special initiative
is the Bloomberg Mayor's Challenge. I'm happy to address any questions if you have more. A
really interesting summary is on this slide(referencing a slide in the presentation). There's external
funding for this transportation benefit pilot. But we continue to build up here in South Bend. And
we have hired a director for this position. And then we're actually moving forward this year with
a pilot. And starting with employer partners here in South Bend are taking some support for these
pilots as well. I'm happy to go into more detail if you have questions but that's one (1) special
initiative to bring to light in Innovation and Technology.
Committee Chair White stated, I think an organizational chart will be very interesting and any new
positions, if they could somehow be highlighted because we have it in our power point. But when
you look at it from an organization perspective it would be a lot easier to look through.
Administration and Finance
Dan Parker, City Controller for the City of South Bend with offices located on the 12th floor of the
County-City Building, stated, All right, I will be short in the interest of time and making sure that
we give the opportunity for questions both for Council and members of the public. Department for
Administration and Finance. We want to make sure we are increasing transparency in financial
reporting in 2020. The reason for this should be fairly obvious, people who receive our reports
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right now they look something like this (referencing a slide in the presentation). They are two
hundred to three hundred (200-300) pages of this. We want to make sure our reporting is useful,
helpful to both residents and to Council Members. So that's a major build out that we're working
on with the Finance team. We want to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our financial
processes while making sure that we are strengthening our internal controls. So, with the
accounting software DFO implementation that Denise mentioned, we are revisiting all of our
processes and policies, making sure that those policies are as effective as they can be. In addition,
we are in the process of putting together, and will continue in 2020, an asset replacement schedule
plan so that we know capital assets that we have on hand, when we can expect those to come due
for replacement and maintenance so we can better budget for those capital needs on an ongoing
basis.
The last goal is to plan for long term financial stability. Part of this is making sure that we maintain
a strong level of cash reserves. One(1) metric that I think I'll look at quite a bit, we'll introduce in
a more formal way, is something called day's cash on hand. It's actually how long the City could
operate given our current level of expenditures with no additional revenue coming in. So, how
much cash do we have on hand?And we want to make sure that's over four hundred(400) days on
an ongoing basis. And that's a metric that we'll be presenting to Council and to the public, it gives
a good handle on what our true cash reserves and our ability to handle financial down turns is. And
then developing and updating five (5)-year financial plans for departments and making sure their
sustainable in the long term.
He continued, From a budget overview perspective, there's a couple slides that I have on here
because they are obviously our operations, this is our department and our department operations,
but there are a few funds that only Admin and Finance touches and I wanted to make sure that
Council saw those as well. From our operations perspective,there's actually a decrease from 2019's
budget. This is largely due to an accounting reorganization. I'll talk about it in more in a second.
What we did is we split out Diversity and Inclusion and Human Resources into their own
departments, divisions essentially, so that they have their own budgets separate from the
Administration and Finance budget. This is to improve transparency and make sure that Council
understands how much we're spending on those particular areas. And truly, operationally, they
have a different reporting structure, so it makes sense operationally as well. We also pulled into
this budget from the Central Services budget, Central Purchasing, which again is more reflective
of our actual operational reporting structure. And I want to highlight as I said,the additional funds
that only Admin and Finance tends to deal with. One (1) of those is the Liability and Insurance
Fund. Similar to what Denise was saying with the IT fund, this is another one(1)of those internal
service funds where there is targeted spend down of cash reserves. Our budget of expenditures in
this fund are assuming losses larger than those seen in recent years. So, we budget fairly
conservatively. This fund accounts for workers compensation, as well as our liability. So, if we
have liability claims that we need to pay out on, that's where this fund accounts for. The actual
losses are not close to where we budget because we budget fairly conservatively. What that means
is because we are spending out less than we are budgeting is that the cash balance of this fund
continues to grow. And we want to make sure we are not continuing that and the way to do that is
to budget for a targeted spend down in those reserve requirements. The balance projected is being
assessed at$3, almost$4 million at the beginning of 2020. The reserve requirement is closer to $2
million, so we want to make sure that we're spending that down as appropriate.
He went on, Just want to quickly go through this (referencing a slide in the presentation), this is
the debt service fund for the whole City. Largely maintaining debt service. We haven't issued any
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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
new bonds in 2019 and don't anticipate in 2020 issuing new bonds. So, debt service is largely a
maintenance kind of budget. The debt service increase you do see on there, $419,000, is because
we are going to start paying on the general obligation debt that we issued for Fire Station Number
Nine(9)in 2020. Vehicle and equipment leasing again,just so that you've seen it, this is where we
actually issue debt for capital leases for things like vehicles and equipment. And again, as I said in
the beginning in the overview this is expected to increase from 2019. But,still low within the realm
of reasonableness, lower than where we were in 2018 and roughly where we were in 2017 from a
debt issuance perspective on the capital leasing side. As I said, our highlights, we have an
accounting reorganization, we split out Diversity and Inclusion and Human Resources into their
own budgets that will be presented separately. And we have brought in, it's not on there, but we
brought in the Central Purchasing Department into Admin and Finance. We are proposing one(1)
salary increase over the two percent(2%)that is across the board. That is for our Payroll Manager.
The reason behind that is the implementation of our Kronos system has really shown that position
is key to ensuring that the most basic function of the Admin and Finance Department is fulfilled
which is making sure that our employees are paid. We've looked at comparable positions in other
cities and we're pretty significantly below that. So, we want to try to get that closer to where other
cities are paying that function,managing the payroll for the entire City. So that ask is in there,that
proposed increase is in the budget at this point.
He continued, There is also in the budget a $300,000 capital spend for the County-City Building
elevator upgrade. So, this is a project that was driven by the county. And as per our agreement
with the county we are liable for twenty-six-point-four-percent (26.4%) of the cost of that. And
that amounts to about$300,000 in 2020. And that is budgeted from our County Income Tax Fund.
I wanted to highlight that as well. As you know, financial services are part of the Admin and
Finance Department. So quickly, I will go through their budget. From a department goal
perspective, Central Services is organized into four(4)different divisions and they are Equipment
Services, Facilities Management, Radio Services and Print Shop. On the Equipment Services side,
a lot of this has to do with making sure that we are obtaining certifications to make sure that we
are increasing our services provided both internally and externally by trying to increase our outside
customer base. So, it's important to know that Equipment Services serves other municipalities and
other entities other than the City of South Bend. Other entities bring their fire trucks and other
vehicles to the City of South Bend Central Services and pay the City for the services we provide.
We are continuing to green the fleet with hybrid and CNG cars and powered vehicles whenever
possible and efficient. We are implementing a new fleet software system at the end of this year
and continuing into 2020 and then obviously continuing to make that so that our positions are filled
with skilled employees.
He went on, On the Facilities Management and Building Maintenance side, again, the goal here is
to increase customer base, add internal customers to that department of operation, and increase the
certification level and the skills of that team. We want to make sure that we are ensuring that
preventative maintenance gets done, and that gets back to that asset replacement schedule that I
talked about earlier and making sure that we are completing the first (1st) phase of our peer-rated
design standardization. This allows us to better visualize and see what assets we have on hand.
Making sure we know when that preventative maintenance will be necessary and being able to
better plan for that. Radio Services side, again, common theme, expand our customer base and
service offerings to try and bring more revenue from outside into the City. And we are trying to
develop an emergency audit plan for the radio system that we have in case that goes out we need
to know where our vehicles are located in the City. So,we will be developing that.And then finally
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CITY OFSOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
with Print Shop,we are trying to continue to ensure that printing services are remaining economical
for the City.
He continued, On the budget overview side, I touched on this earlier, I just wanted to point it out
again. If you look at charges for services and supplies on here (referencing a slide in the
presentation) you'll see what I talked about earlier. That is an accounting change where we are
now recognizing revenue and expense for items that we previously just reduced expense for. I'm
happy to talk about that further if anybody has any questions. But that $1.6 million increase in
charges for services is offset by that increase in supplies expense. It's an internal accounting change
of how we charge internal departments. This (referencing a slide in the presentation) is the
breakdown of the budget for each of those different divisions that I talked about. One (1) thing to
notice on here is the utilities. So, if you look down at the very bottom at utilities, the way that
utilities work in the City is all utilities for all departments are paid centrally from Central Services
and then reimbursed. So,Central Services is reimbursed for the payment of those utilities. In 2020,
we are eliminating an eight percent(8%) upcharge that was on that internal allocation. We used to
take what we paid out for utilities, add eight percent(8%) for administrative processing, and that's
why you see there's a surplus in that division every year. We're eliminating that in 2020 in favor
of directly allocating out the Facilities Management Department which is where that money was
used to fund in the past.
He went on, In terms of operating budget changes, again, what I just said, the allocation of the
facilities management department. We're directly allocating that out to departments which replaces
that eight percent (8%) markup on utilities. We removed Central Purchasing from the Central
Services budget and moved it into Admin and Finance which again operationally makes a bit more
sense. In terms of other personnel changes,we are replacing a financial specialist with an executive
assistant. There is actually a slight decrease in overall cost here,particularly with the removal of a
part-time administrative assistant. The goal here is more of the financial side of financial services
being handled by Central Finance with this executive assistant position being more and more
focused on operations.And then just wanted to highlight that labor rate that we charge both internal
and external customers for working on the vehicles have not changed from 2019. So, we're going
to continue with those labor rates in 2020.
Human Resources
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, Hi, good evening, Council. Human Resources, our
goal is always to be a great employer for great employees. That is our ongoing and overarching
goal but what we'd like to focus on in 2020 in particular are a couple of initiatives,building positive
workplace culture and increasing and expanding education and training opportunities for
employees. And so, what that looks like particularly for workplace culture, we currently have a
volunteer time off policy. We have done a couple of events, but I really think we have an
opportunity to capitalize on that and get more people involved. We'd also like to expand other
employee friendly policies and initiatives which helps with recruitment efforts including revising
vacation policy to allow new hires to have vacation coming in from when they start.When it comes
to employee training and education we really like to help employees wisely spend their health care
dollars. We also would like to provide general education when it comes to new supervisors,
supervisor training.
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She continued, Our budget overview, there are two (2) slides here (referencing the presentation).
One(1)relates to our operations, as Dan explained, this is our first(1St)year being separated from
the Administration and Finance budget. We are a small but mighty team of six (6) people. This is
our salary and benefits associated with our team specifically. The next slide relates to the budget
overview for three (3) of the funds, the largest is the#711, or the Health Insurance Claims Fund.
We have unemployment and parental leave. Parental leave and unemployment are allocations to
departments per employee, small fractions of salaries to fund those. Parental leave,as you'll notice
later, is funded based on anticipated births of forty (40), last year we had 38. This year in the first
(Pt) half of the year we're only at thirteen (13) but it's looking up, there are more babies coming.
That number could be closer to forty(40)by the end of the year.
She went on, So the highlights that we'd like to focus on quickly from the charts that you just saw,
the first (1St) relates to a personnel request, this is for the Senior HR Generalist that focuses on
Public Safety. So, this role really serves all aspects of human resources for both Police and Fire.
And while it handles a lot of routine, typical questions of employees, things like that, it has taken
on a much higher level of initiative. So, things like developing peer-support service policies for
the Fire Department.Things like developing a promotions policy for the Police Department. Much
higher-level initiatives, working very closely with Legal and trying to ensure legal compliance,
things like that. So that request is a six percent (6%) increase from the salary cap currently. The
Health Insurance Fund, in recent years we've been really lucky, and we've been able to keep those
costs down significantly. I think our run of luck might be over. That's not uncommon, it's very
common when it comes to employers across the board, the City is no exception. The increase is
expected to be a little less than seventeen percent (17%) next year. As Dan mentioned, the City's
done a great job of having healthy funds available for that and this year we're spending that down,
we'll continue to spend that down next year. That means that while we do have to increase
allocations for departments on a per employee basis,the current allocation is$9,960 per employee.
Just under $10,000. That will have to increase to $11,500 per employee. But even in prior years
we've been close to $15,000. I think that there were years recently where there was $16,000 per
employee. So,relatively low when it comes to that because we're able to spend down that account.
We're also evaluating an increase of employee side premiums, but we want to try to be mindful of
the costs that employees face as well and make our benefits competitive.
She continued, The next aspect, in order to help increase recruitment efforts, employee education,
make a more robust City benefit policy, we currently have in human resources, we have the PPO
policy, we have the HRA, we would like to explore transitioning that HRA to an HSA. That
basically allows you to set aside money on a pre-tax basis to pay for qualified medical expenses.
And the City does contribute to that Fund for employees who choose to participate. And that is the
employee's money it doesn't go away. They're able to save it and use it for expenses, if not this
year, in future years even if they leave the City. So, we'd like to try and explore that for 2020. And
finally, we just touched on this already, we will continue to fund parental leave. As I mentioned,
forty (40) births, we had very close to that last year, I anticipate we'll have pretty close to that.
That's the number that's being budgeted for this year.
Legal Department
Stephanie Steele, Corporation Counsel for the City of South Bend with offices on the 12th floor of
the County-City Building, stated,Thank you and good evening, Council. We appreciate your time
this evening. The City's Legal Department has undertaken a lot of meaningful initiatives this year.
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And we look forward to pursuing our 2020 goals. We appreciate your support in our efforts.
Starting out,this year in 2020,the Legal Department will continue doing what it does best and that
is mitigating risk and reducing expenditures to the City. It is our job to identify potential pitfalls,
liabilities, and legal issues. And we work to identify claims and trends in those claims and try to
provide any associated trainings that we can to mitigate those risks ahead of time. We're also
working to engage in proactive strategies to recover funds from insurance companies and other
responsible parties who could aid in our efforts to make sure that the City is not the only
responsible party and is not the only party bearing the burden of expenditures. And so, we found
that it's not enough to just and to the issues as defendants, but we want to work ahead and
J respond
ensure fiscally sound and fair results for our community.
She continued, The City continues to work with the EPA, and we are trying to obtain a record of
decision in the Beck's Lake matter before the end of the year. That is our goal, but as always, it
depends on another large party and that is the EPA. We've been happy to see that in all of the EPA
reports that they've said that the park is safe, and they've continued to say that it's safe for use. So,
we've been happy about that. And we will continue to work with them until we have a record of
decision and are able to close this matter. Our final goal for 2020 that's on your slides is to
implement a new legal support strategy to cover Diversity and Inclusion, the Board of Public
Safety, the Human Rights Commission and the Area Plan Commission. One (1) of the things is
we want to ensure that these entities are receivingthe same level of counsel and partnershipand
strategic support as all the other Administration areas of the City. And so, we're going to be
requesting an additional Assistant City Attorney. I'm going to be up front with you about that.
She went on, If you bear with me, I'm going to skip this next slide (referencing the presentation)
budgetbiggest
but come back to it. In terms of highlighting some of our changes,the change you'll
see is the request for an additional Assistant City Attorney. One(1) of the things we've heard over
and over again in that last couple of months is our community and Administration would like an
attorney to work more closely with the Board of Public Safety to address trainings and policies
and procedures with them. And what we would like to do is assign this attorney to the Office of
Diversity and Inclusion, as well, which may end up being a requirement of the upcoming disparity
study. And so, to make sure that we're covering everything, we have also learned that the City is
going to be undertaking a new Area Plan Commission. So, it makes sense to put these three (3)
with one(1)person.We want to make sure that we're covering everybody's needs. Now to be clear,
we are functioning well as it is but with these additional asks that are being asked of the City's
Legal Department, that is something we are talking about.
She continued, So, I know that you may have some questions about this slide. I do want to point
opioid that one (1) of the training dues and subscriptions, $1,000, that is due to the p ioid liti gation
which we'll talk about in a minute as well. So, back to the budget overview. The addition of the
Assistant City Attorney is included on this slide. You'll see that the salary line-item will increase
in addition to the supplies and other expenses which include the training and other resources
required for jobs such as the WestLaw subscription, bar dues and the INLaw conference. Now,
you'll also see that we have in the red there some of our other allocations and they have gone down.
So, I wanted to make sure you knew about that as well. One (1) special initiative that we wanted
to highlight is our lawsuit that we did file regarding opioid litigation. The City has joined that
national opioid litigation and it's against the distributors and manufacturers of opioids. We feel
that they have failed to report and monitor suspicious orders, and they've disseminated false and
deceptive statements about opioids which has led to this nationwide cycle of addiction crisis and
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has affected our community. So, we are seeking damages and recovery funds spent mitigating the
harms caused to our community. We have hired a co-counsel here locally to try to make sure that
all money spent is staying local. And, we are taking a very hands-on approach internally. You'll
notice this is not just an outside counsel case but a co-counsel case. Which means that I'm working
on it veryheavily. And it's takingsome time from my office. But, we think it's really important to
Y p
our community.That concludes our budget request and overview. I appreciate you considering our
and I'm happyto answer anyquestions when it's time for that.
proposal
Committee Chair White stated, I would like to state that as we begin to look at the request for new
positions, I want to make sure that this is clear that when the Mayor made the presentation he had
indicated that any new positions would be looked upon very closely. So, I want to make sure that
is occurring. We see the justification, but I would like to have a little bit more. I'll get with Dan
and, hearing from the Council Members, I think they would like to have a little bit more
justification as well.
Committee Chair White then opened the floor to questions from Committee and Council Members.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated,It was stated earlier by Denise,you're looking at the salary raises
because you want to be within the twentieth(20th)percentile of the market value in the City. Could
you provide us the percentile of where we are now? You don't have to answer that now but that
goes back to what Councilmember White was just saying.A lot of the salary requests for increases,
it would be nice to see. Another statement was looking at the different cities,based on that. Could
you email us whether it was based on other cities or based on other market values? What's the
going rate regarding that and where do we currently stand? That's what I would like to know.
Ms. Riedl replied, Yeah, I would be happy to briefly speak on that as well. I don't have the exact
numbers in front of me. I'd be happy to give those to you. Raising the application developer salary,
so the percentile refers to the curve for all of the salaries that exist in this type of job in this market
in the City of South Bend. So, if you were to line all of them up in order based on the amount, the
twentieth (20th) from the bottom that's sort of the goal. And right now, we're a little closer to
probably zero(0)to ten(10), in that range, for the application developer salary. I chose to actually
look more at the market for South Bend just because actuallyI think if I compared it to comparable
J P p
developers in other cities it would actually be too high. And I wanted it to be more of a modest
raise.
Councilmember Dr. Davis followed up, If you could show us both, what it is, it would be good for
me because if I vote on something like that, it would be able to have some data looking at what's
going on currently in South Bend, the twenty percent (20%) that you've suggested, that gives us
some understanding. And then looking at other cities that are comparable, especially within the
state of Indiana. I mean across the country, I'm not really worried about that. We're a second(2nd)
class City, so, something along the basis of Fort Wayne, South Bend, and Mishawaka. And that,
to me, is not only addressed to you but I would suggest that anybody who's getting into the salary
raises from that standpoint,that would be helpful for me. That's the only one(1) I have for IT. I'm
at peace.
Councilmember Tim Scott stated, Denise, half your budget, your expenditures, repair and
maintenance and professional services. I noticed your professional services dropped forty-two
percent (42%). With all the software you guys are bringing on, you're implementing all the new
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•CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
systems.Your decrease in professional services,can you kind of explain that?Half of it is in repairs
in maintenance, what is going on there?
Ms. Riedl replied, So, some of those cuts to professional services are not around software but
around things like Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi expansion,we wanted to concentrate on professional services
specifically on software. And another reason for the increase in professional services is that
accounting issue with supplies. The increase in supplies came out of the professional services.
There's just the accounting change as well.
Councilmember Scott followed up, Just for the rest of the Council, I'll send out an email, we're
going to have IT come and give an update on Monday. So, if you have any questions or agenda
items I'd like to have those by Friday to give you guys time to prepare.
Councilmember Regina Williams-Preston stated, I just want to thank you, I think you did a good
overview. I've been looking at this, I have a lot of questions about the Code Enforcement Software.
I just wanted to make sure that you had mentioned that this is one (1) of the things you're hoping
to bring online. Is this the program that we've been talking about that users can call 3-1-1? Is it
that particular software? Is this part of the software that they're using to issue citations?
Ms. Riedl replied, There are two (2) different software. The Cityworks software, the asset
management software, is actually as you just described. It is for issuing citations around RSVP
and environmental, and it is an internal tool that Code Enforcement uses. And then in terms of
resident reporting, that's going to be the digital 3-1-1 service platform. So, those are two (2)
different software.
Councilmember Williams-Preston followed up, And so you're anticipating that is going to come
online?
Ms. Riedl replied, Yes.
Councilmember Williams-Preston stated, Great. Next year?
Ms. Riedl replied, Yes.
Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated, Just quickly, you have several grants, and congratulations,
that your department has won and have worked on. Many of those are multi-year, I was wondering
if you could provide links to those and attachments to this. In terms of, at least at a minimum, the
executive summary and then any budgets that are associated with that and relevant timelines.
Ms. Riedl relied Absolutely.
replied,
Councilmember Broden followed up, That just helps with the general understanding of the really
cool things and the great things that you're doing. And actually, so many of these are forward
thinking initiatives that have to do with workforce. So, I think the more information that's shared
on that, the better. And with specific regard to the Bloomberg, and this next round on it, what
sectors? Are the sectors of employment changing or are they staying the same?
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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
Ms. Riedl replied, They are staying the same. We're working with the same employers that we
worked with previously. Actually, one (1) of them is the City. So, Venues, Parks & Arts will be
one (1) of the partners, and then Beacon, and the University of Notre Dame. Those are all
employers who we worked with for the first (1st) pilot for the Bloomberg Mayor's Challenge and
we're specifically going to be supporting hourly wage workers at each of those employers
Councilmember Broden followed up, Let's talk elevators just quickly. The $300,000 budgeted,
how often, you said we're liable at twenty three percent (23%), is that specific to the elevator? Or
is that just a twenty three percent(23%) whatever it's needed for?
Mr. Parker replied, It's the amount that we pay to the County for common area maintenance. So,
every year we pay common area maintenance of that, whatever amount it takes to maintain the
buildings.
Councilmember Broden followed up, Okay, so then it's specific to that project in 2020?
Mr. Parker replied, Yeah, so because this was a one (1)-time capital spend, the County actually
notified us that this project was coming down the pipe and said, "Hey, make sure that you budget
appropriately given that there will be this increased cost in 2020."
Councilmember Broden stated, And then I think Councilmember Davis hit this, but I think across
all the departments if we're asking for an increase and we're benchmarking that against other
municipalities, certainly Indiana, and I would actually look more regionally at those, if some of
that benchmarking information could be shared I think that would be helpful. I think departments
have done that in the past on a general basis and I would concur with Councilmember Davis on
that. And then the evaluation on the charge for labor rates. That's obviously revenue that's coming
in for equipment services. When was that last evaluated to market?
Mr. Parker replied, Last summer.
Councilmember Jake Tesha asked, Just to piggyback back on that, that rate, well first(1st) of all I
guess, I could be missing it,but what does that outside account for? Outside vehicles we work on,
what kind of chunk of change is that? So, that external work that we're charging an extra eighty
dollars ($80) for, what does that look like, or what has it looked like for the first half of this year
revenue wise. Are we doing a lot of that?
Matt Chlebowski, Chief Administration Officer for Central Services with offices located at 1045
West Sample Street,replied,And we reported that just a couple weeks ago when we did our update.
Normally, it's right around$220,000 to $250,000 a year that we bring in in external revenues. And
really what we do is it helps us keep the costs to our internal City departments lower because we're
bringing in that revenue to take care of our overhead and employee costs.
Councilmember Teshka followed up, And that's for the most part, that's diesel work right?
Mr. Chlebowski replied,Yeah,we do some automotive and van work,like for housing authorities,
we do all their vehicles.
Councilmember Teshka asked, Externally though, is it mostly diesel?
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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
Mr. Chlebowski replied, Majority.
Councilmember Teshka followed up, I should note there's a value in splitting those rates because
for diesel, eighty dollars ($80) an hour seems pretty cheap. So, I didn't know if there was a value
in saying for an external customer we'll charge X for something that runs on gasoline and that's
consumer related and another rate for something diesel.
Mr. Chlebowski replied, We did look at that last summer and we did raise it five dollars ($5) an
hour for our external customers. Obviously,we make sure we're covering all of our costs and then
bringing in some additional. We didn't want to price ourselves out too quickly. We have a chart
that we're looking at over the next eight(8) years to continue increasing. There's a double rate that
we're doing anything internally. We do understand that they don't have to come to us, but we do
want to make it fair to them. And they are municipalities also, and we don't want to put them out
of business.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, I had another question regarding the transportation director
regarding Bloomberg. In terms of you adding a transportation person, What correspondence have
you had with TRANSPO regarding that? Are you all working along with them?
Ms. Riedl replied, We are. We're working very closely with TRANSPO. They're actually going to
be a part of our next pilot. Providing rides to all the participants and the employers.
Councilmember Dr. Davis replied, Okay. Thank you. I'm at peace.
Councilmember Broden stated, So back to kind of the grants, obviously if you lose a grant then if
your staff is reliant as a source for funding for that, what happens?
Ms. Riedl replied, We actually have no grants right now that pay for staff.
Councilmember Broden followed up, But I'm just wondering,in terms of denoting that or flagging
that in the reports in a way, I see some significance to doing that.
Ms. Riedl replied,Yeah, I'd be happy to do that. I will say there are no operations we're doing that
are reliant on grant funding. So, for example with Bloomberg money, Aaron Steiner, the director,
he's actually a contractor for the City and that's been a way like a City seeded startup through the
Bloomberg Philanthropic Fund. And so, that's why you don't see Aaron Steiner's salary in the
presentation. That's not in our budget, it's professional services through the grant fund.
Councilmember Broden replied, Okay. Thank you.
Councilmember Dr. Davis asked, With the vacation time, if somebody starts with their vacation
time now, they have to prove time? Or is that the case or how would that be different?
Ms. Clark replied, Currently a new hire who is hired by the City has zero (0) vacation, they're not
entitled to vacation until they've been with the City for one(1)year.That becomes a really difficult
thing because people have lives.The City does a great job with sick leave and providing sick leave
to people. However, we find that it becomes a real barrier to recruitment efforts and retention
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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
efforts when you have zero (0) vacation. So, we want to make that universal. Bargained, non-
bargained, we met with the unions, the union representative,to talk about the proposal to increase
this. Because right now, especially the teamsters, they have zero (0) vacation.
Councilmember Dr. Davis asked, That's for everybody then?
Ms. Clark replied, It's for everyone.
Councilmember Dr. Davis clarified, You're talking about all the bargaining units plus the
administrative side?
Ms. Clark replied,Well I should be clear,it does not include Police and Fire as those have separate
bargaining agreements to address vacation time.
Councilmember Dr. Davis asked,You're talking about teamsters?
Ms. Clark replied, Yes, sir.
Councilmember Dr. Davis clarified, Teamsters and then those who are not represented by
anybody?
Ms. Clark replied,Yes, non-bargaining and teamsters would be included in this potential proposal
for vacation time.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, I like that. I didn't realize they were like that, I apologize.
Ms. Clark replied, Oh no, I think it's something that I think would be a great opportunity for us to
have a conversation about.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, No, I'm serious, I agree with you.
Ms. Clark stated, I'm happyto talk about it in a closed session if you'd like to do that or if you want
Y
1 itthe first1 st reading that's fine.
to talk about at ( ) ead g
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, I'm embarrassed I didn't know that. I did not know. That's huge.
We thank you for doing that.
Councilmember Dr. Davis then asked, In terms of the anticipated recovery costs for the opioids,
are there any estimates that are out there or is it still unclear?
Ms. Steele replied, It's still unclear. There's now, I think at last count, six hundred (600) different
municipalities, states and counties suing. So, we're just getting through the first(1St)few cases and
getting ready to get through the court process. So, we won't know for a while.
Councilmember Dr. Davis followed up, In terms of the issue regarding the zoning, now when you
set up the assignments you just basically, if you have somebody who zoning is their key area, but
some other area may not necessarily be their expertise,how would you come across putting those
three(3)things together? That combination may not be that person's cup of tea.
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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
Ms. Steele replied, That's a great question. So, what we're initially saying is right now we have
people functioning at capacity. As you noticed, we have been working harder and more in depth
in everything than we ever have before. What I'm saying is now that we've hit three(3), instead of
say hiring professional services or outside counsel to cover those, since I've hit three (3) different
and new departments or expanded,I'm saying that's one(1)person. But,I will probably go through,
I'm anticipating, and rearrange assignments, based on what goes together. Because you're
absolutely right, it may not be somebody who does well with zoning and does well with diversity.
It needs to be somebody who can do well and make sure that they're covering each thing well.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, Because I had asked about that thing last year, regarding the
zoning person, that was my concern. I'm glad to know that's how you're looking at keeping that in
house from that standpoint.
Ms. Steele replied,Yes, sir.
Councilmember Dr. Davis followed up, In terms of the legal question. In terms of the one (1) for
utilities, in terms of possible litigation for whether we should go into litigation for the whole thing
with our water, the Combined Sewer Overflow Consent Decree, where does that fit in in terms of
that?
Ms. Steele replied, So, we are already supporting the City's Public Works and they are already
covered by one (1) of our Assistant City Attorneys, Clara McDaniels. And she does a very good
job supporting them. We also have, if you are thinking of the Consent Decree in particular, we
have outside counsel helping us to renegotiate a certain portion of that. But in day to day support,
it's one (1) of our Assistant City Attorneys.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, Okay, all right. I know we're coming up on what's going to be
the next move with that issue.
Ms. Steele replied, Yes sir, you're correct. And I was trying to make sure I stayed very succinct on
this,to respect your time. But there are so many things that we are doing that we're not able to put
up here (referencing the presentation), so I anticipate you asking about other things. So, I
appreciate it.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, Thank you. Okay, I'm at peace.
Councilmember Scott stated,Yes, Dr. Davis kind of stole the thunder on the person. I like the idea
of the person for Public Safety, Diversity and Area Plan. Those are divided up among probably
three(3) other people now? How many people now? More than three (3)?
Ms. Steele replied, Right now, everybody's doing a little bit. I'm anticipating a little bit with what
the Disparity Study will say. As you know this has been an initiative we have supported very
strongly. And so, the Disparity Study, not knowing what the final document will say, we're
thinking that it's going to say something about making sure that diversity and inclusion is followed
in every department throughout the City with every contract. And it's going to require some initial
drafting of policies and procedures and getting in and getting everything set in a way that isn't
anticipated right now by anyone because we don't have the document. And then the Human Rights
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Commission, in the past, they didn't need as much legal support. Or they were relying primarily
on an outside counsel for a certain number of hours per month. But in talking with the new co-
directors, they would really like day to day support. So,that is something we'll be expanding,too.
Previously, we hadn't heard that message before. So, that is an additional ask. And then as you
know, the new Area Plan Commission, as well.
Councilmember Scott followed up, And honestly, those are three(3) hot topics right now because
of everything that's gone with what we're going to do or change with the Board of Public Safety.
Of course, diversity has been key to me on that expansion, so, I'm glad to see this. And Area Plan
is going to be brand new for the City. So, that's going to be a lot on one(1) person's plate and I do
have a concern with that. But I like the fact that you are trying to dedicate a full-time person to
that.
Ms. Steele replied, Yeah, I don't see a cost savings in telling we can do this if we just hire outside
people or contract people on an ongoing basis. If it's day to day support that we're going to be
asked to provide, I think, in the long term, it makes sense to have a full-time person. And I'm just
counting that all as one(1)body. I'm also glad you mentioned the Board of Public Safety. One(1)
of the things, like I said initially, that we've been hearing over and over in these community
meetings is, and I forgot who initially said it, but one (1) of the gentleman in the meeting said,
"The City shows what we care about by where we put our money."And over and over again lately,
people have been saying the Board of Public Safety, we want to know more about what they do,
and we want to be sure that they have somebody walking through each policy and procedure with
them and each initiative with them and making sure that they understand what things are. Right
now, we have an attorney who's there with them at the meetings and is at their call if they have a
question. But this would be a paradigm shift in how we treat it, kind of like a different department
where day to day, we need to be checking in on them.
Councilmember Scott stated, I like that and that's exactly what I'd say about the Diversity and
Inclusion Department too. And it really says something to the public where we do put the money
towards.
Committee Chair White then opened the floor to members of the public.
Sue Kesim, 4022 Kennedy Drive, stated, Some are more comments or suggestions. I'm revisiting
some even from past years and suggesting them again. Getting something less than forty-eight(48)
hours beforehand does not give us time to study it. Again, we ask that we get it two (2) weeks in
advance. Budgets are planned way in advance and numbers take time to go over. So,we need them
far in advance of forty-eight (48) hours. I think that we need to look at the cost of each shooting.
I'm going to bring this up again. We have no local morgue which means we are taking autopsies
to either Kalamazoo or Fort Wayne. We're tying up an officer for those trips because of chain of
evidence. I really think we need to know the cost of a shooting. The response, the detectives, the
whole works. We need to know what crime is costing. Milwaukee did a study, they said it's about
$600,000 per shooting. So, I would like, if we're doing budgeting, to what our extensive crime in
our City is costing. Again, we would like the detailed check book back. At one (1) time we could
see all the checks that were written in the City. That disappeared. That's a lack of transparency.
Those are public funds and we would like to see that come back. We'd also like to see the reports
in Excel format so those of us that are analyzing figures can do it easily without having to retype
all the numbers into Excel.
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She continued, We would like to see the EMS run costs. This pertains to the opioids, actually it
could really help with the opioid case to say how much we're spending on each opioid run and
EMS costs. Again, that goes along with the shootings as well but some of them might be related.
We'd like to see data on the EMS responses, not Fire ones, but medically what those costs are.
Again, a suggestion on the structure of personnel in the City. We have a lot of directors making
high salaries, but they don't seem to be supervising a lot of people. The suggestion was made if
you're going to get a directory salary that you at least supervise six (6) people or be a department
head. Again,this was a suggestion and at one(1)time there was money,the Council needs to have
their own budget analysts. You guys have had money scheduled for that. We think it'd be great,
just like you have Bob Palmer for legal advice, we feel like you need financial advice. We think
you should livestream these on Facebook. You certainly do it for Council meetings, it would be
easy to do for these. There's fifty (50) plus City buildings. I think it would be great to do a study
on how costs could be reduced for those in utilities. Maybe it's something the sustainability people
could do.We think the meetings should start at 5:30 p.m.A lot of people work until 5:00 p.m.That
doesn't give enough time to drive, find a parking space and get here. When you're speaking about
spending on underserved communities, I remind you to consider seniors and the handicapped.
Once again I'd like to bring up TRANSPO, looking at smaller buses, like other cities do, and if
that would reduce some of our costs. A huge area of spending is professional services. It would be
nice to see a breakdown of those professional services and where they're going because that seems
to be an awful lot of money. (Ms. Kesim's six (6) pages of notes and questions were copied and
are available in the City Clerk's Office).
Jason Banicki, 3822 West Ford Street, stated, So, one (1) question right off the top was about the
HR operations generalist increased pay for that Public Safety Specialist. That position's less than
(4) four years old, it came online in the 2016 budget. If it wasn't already at market rate then, why
are we giving it such a large increase now compared to everybody else? If you look at six (6)
people in the HR department, that already is trending towards a quarter of the HR payroll. And
that trends into my next point which is we keep hearing about competitive wages. Public service
is not something that people get into to make a competitive market wage. You get into it to serve
your community.There are other benefits that the public market does not offer that we're not taking
into account when we say, "We've got to pay a competitive salary." Well, some of the advantages
you get when you go into public service is you get a pension.There aren't many jobs left that offer
you a pension. Public service does after ten (10) years in the state of Indiana. Typically, you have
a better health care plan than most private companies offer nowadays. And at the end of the day
your job is much less sensitive to market trends in the public service. It's great to say, "We've got
to keep up with the private market." However, you're getting some other non-monetary benefits
that we have to take into consideration. And then one(1)really big point given that we spend a lot
of time from January to May talking about neighborhoods, we even have the candidate out of the
Mayor's own Administration talking a lot about neighborhoods.Yet,we're spending less than$1.4
million in additional money on these neighborhoods. I fully expect whether it's the end of this year
or early next year we are going to hear that somehow, some way, we have $100 million to bring
South Shore downtown. We only have $1.4 million more for neighborhoods? We have got to put
our money where our mouth is. We can't just say it as a campaign talking point. We can't say when
it's convenient, yet we can find $100,000 for this position, $60,000 for this, that and the other.
We've got to do more than$1.4 million more for these neighborhoods.They are still lagging behind
and that's not enough. Thank you.
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®CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
Jim Bognar, 807 West Washington, stated, Good evening, Council. I want to be brief because I
know you folks want to get out of here. The State Board of Accounts provided information to the
City on the 17th of this month and sent most of the material down for 2018. I had the opportunity
to read it and I was concerned about something here. I encourage Council to go to the State Board
of Accounts and read the material for 2018. Mr. Parker responded on June 24th, "The City
continuously strives to monitor and improve upon a system of internal controls."This was an issue
of the City or at least the State finding out that the City reconciled the bank balances to the fund
balances monthly for several months in the audit period which was for 2018. The City could not
provide audit evidence that someone performed a review of the reconciliation. My concern is that
you have an ERP system that is going in this year. And by reading this, Mr. Parker who was pretty
short on the job in 2018 and we're glad he's here, he says that this will be in full use by the spring
of 2020. That's when it will be fully implemented. And he believes that by the end of 2019, things
should look better. I do think that there's a concern that as we're working on a 2020 budget, what
effect could the implementation of this ERP system have? Is it going to be proper? Is it going to
work the way we want it to work? I understand we have to update our systems, but we have a lot
of challenges.And rather than just stating certain issues that are in here,I would encourage Council
to look at that. Part of the problem with the State Board of Accounts is it reflects on what happens
in 2018. A lot of people weren't here in 2018. We're now in 2019 and we're talking about 2020.
But history can tell us a lot. This ERP system is the foundation of everything we rely on here. So,
the fact that we are implementing it right now, and I don't believe it was discussed by Mr. Parker,
but we're implementing it right now, and it's critical. Is it going to work? Is it going to give us the
data? Is it going to provide the information we need to have? Because that's the basis for all the
decisions we make. So, I ask the Council to be mindful of that to be sure that they monitor that. I
would encourage you to go back and look at 2018 and look at the State Board of Accounts found.
You might find something interesting in there that I did. But I think it is critical to understand the
importance of IT and the importance of Administration and Finance to make sure we know what
we have and it's where it needs to be. And I thank Council for all their work. I know it's going to
be a long budget process, thank you.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, I just have one (1) question. In terms of these meetings able to
be on Facebook, what could we do to ensure that others could see the budget meetings?
Committee Chair White replied, I would say that we would need to check with the City Clerk's
office to see what that will entail and also contact with the IT office as well.
Councilmember Dr. Davis replied, I'm good. I'm at peace.
Committee Chair White stated, Again, our next budget meeting will be on August 7th. We will
only be looking at Public Works for that entire budget presentation. We do thank all of the
department heads for your presentations and for staying with us, and also for the work that you've
put in. This is just the beginning of the budget process. I, too, when I saw the percentage that was
identified for neighborhoods, I did ask that question. As we continue to work through all the
departments, we'll begin to see more of those particular focuses that will come in those particular
departments. Again, we have done a lot of work, we as the Council just on this past Monday had
a meeting and we began to talk about looking at those particular neighborhoods that have not been
properly served or even as one (1) person has stated underserved. Our commitment is to focus on
Quality of Life issues but most importantly to align our budget in terms of making sure that as we
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CITY OFSOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
develop those next steps and those priorities that we will see those in the upcoming budget, 2020,
2021, and 2022.
Councilmember Broden stated, So, in the public comment,there actually were a couple things that
came up in our past work in the budget process and one(1)was the livestream. So, I'm wondering
if there's an opportunity for us to implement that through the Clerk's Office. And then the 5:30
p.m., I actually would support that as well. And I think the check book question was asked in
previous years. I would like a direct response to that question, pros or cons of that, why it was
changed and why it no longer appears. And then we did discuss previously a financial analysis.
Committee Chair White replied, I think Council Members did receive information and were asked
to provide feedback regarding that. So, you should look through that and you give your feedback
as quickly as possible with regards to what you think that should look like. I would need to be able
to meet with the department heads because we publicize the 5:00 p.m. and I'll look into that.
Councilmember Voorde stated, Just one(1) question. We often hear that there are certain areas of
the City that are underserved and that need additional investment.But I've never seen any numbers.
How could we quantify that? What are we basing that on?
Committee Chair White replied, I can tell you, and I'm so pleased with Community Investment,
we asked them, which was part of that meeting on Monday, and it was a wonderful meeting, we
asked them to identify those areas but also to put dollar amounts to those. And they developed two
(2) major charts. And they will be in the process of continuing updating that. I did ask for us to
have the copies in our areas so that Council Members and the public can see that. Also, what was
part of the discussion was, we're moving past the talking stage. And I, clearly and others, really
supported that. We know what the issues are. We identified five (5) areas that consistently
individuals, leaders, residents themselves, are focusing on. If Council Members can go back and
look at all the information, you see that there was a template that individual neighborhood
associations and residents were asked to work through. From that,we're looking at coming up with
action items but also align that with our budget. So that's a good question but the chart was very
well done. I appreciate Community Investment for that. You can look at the dollar amount and you
can also look at the categories in terms of where those monies are really, we're targeting.
With no further business,Committee Chair White adjourned the Personnel and Finance Committee
meeting at 6:58 p.m.
Respect 11 Submitted,
Karen ite, Committee Chair
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