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OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK
DAWN M.JONES, CITY CLERK
PERSONNEL& FINANCE SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 5:00 P.M.
Committee Members Present: Karen White, Jo M. Broden, John Voorde, Regina
Williams-Preston (late)
Committee Members Absent: None
Other Council Present: Tim Scott,Jake Teshka, Dr. Oliver Davis
Other Council Absent: Sharon L. McBride, Gavin Ferlic
Others Present: Dawn M. Jones, Jennifer Coffman, Bianca Tirado, Bob
Palmer
Presenters: Dan Parker, Dawn Jones, Tim Scott, Eric Horvath,
Christina Brooks
Agenda: City Clerk
Common Council
Mayor's Office
Special Initiatives (Public Works)
Committee Chair Karen White called to order the Personnel and Finance Committee meeting at
5:06 p.m. She introduced members of the Committee and proceeded to give the floor to the
presenters.
Dan Parker, City Controller for the City of South Bend with offices located on the 12th floor of the
County-City Building, stated, Thank you, Councilmember White. Thank you, Council Members,
for being here. We are nearing the end of this process. This is budget hearing nine(9) of ten (10).
This is the one (1) in which the only remaining departments that have not yet presented any part
of their budget will be finished and they are the Mayor's Office,the Clerk's Office and the Common
Council. I appreciate the flexibility with the order as the Mayor gets here, but I think going to the
Clerk's Office would be a good start. I'm happy to answer any questions on the budgets that are
going today or on the process going forward for the next week as well.
Committee Chair White announced,I just received an email that the Mayor is on his way,but we're
going to go directly to the City Clerk's presentation and, after which, Mayor Pete will be in the
building and then we'll go directly to the Mayor's presentation.
INTEGRITY' SERVICE'ACCESSIBILITY
JENNIFER M.CoFFMAN BIAVCA L.TIRA)O GRAHAM D.SPARKS
CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY OEULV,L\CE VIOLA'ION CLERK
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•CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
Mr. Parker stated,Thank you very much. I also want to thank Eric Horvath and his team for coming
back for round two (2). I appreciate that as well as Christina and her team for coming back for
round two (2). Thank you.
City Clerk
Dawn Jones, City Clerk for the City of South Bend with offices located on the 4th floor of the
County-City Building, stated, Good evening, Council Members. First (1st), I want to say that so
far, it has been a great experience in this role. I've inherited an awesome staff who is both
experienced and dedicated and it has made the transition smooth. I have a great appreciation for
the Clerk's Office when I see the level of significance that we have. So, in participating in all the
budget meetings, I can say that the members of the Administration as well as the Council work
hard to keep our City running smooth. Both the accomplishments and the goals of the
Administration and the Council are tremendous. With that being said, I would be remiss if I didn't
mention that none of the work could be completed without the Clerk's Office.
She continued, So,this (referencing a slide in a presentation which is available in the City Clerk's
Office) is year-to-date, this is not for the whole year. So far, we've had one-hundred forty-seven
(147)meetings,which included legal notices, staffing, and minutes recorded. And then in the next
line you'll see that 7,014 minutes of meetings have been documented or are in the process of being
documented, which equals to one-hundred seventeen (117) hours of meeting minutes. We've had
ninety (90) ordinances and resolutions processed, recorded and preserved. Fifty-nine (59) oaths
have been administered. There have been forty-one (41) resolutions, proclamations, and press
releases. Eight (8) interns have been trained and coached. 1,135 parking tickets have been
processed along with 1,097 tickets having been referred by OBV. Fifty-one (51) lawn parking
permits have been issued and we still have six (6) games left. Eight (8) scrap metal permits were
issued and three-hundred nineteen (319) appeals were processed. Two-hundred and fifty (250)
Amnesty Day tickets were processed. So, this is just what we do on a regular basis. You should
have a handout(which is available in the City Clerk's Office), and this is just the amount of work,
how we work together, who's responsible, and how we work with the Council.
She went on, Our 2020 department goals are more inclusive transparency to increase community
awareness and participation. This means a new camera system to ensure citizens have access to
our Council meetings and have the ability to understand fully what their representatives are doing
on their behalf. That means that we want our camera system to be able to interact with the meeting.
When I say interact with the meeting, I mean for example if Councilmember Broden is speaking,
we want the camera to go to Councilmember Broden so people can see that she's speaking. You
can see they understand what district she's from and what's the issue.
She continued, We want to make sure that our cameras are able to do that for transparency. We
want to continue efforts to move toward a paperless office,transitioning all the forms to SharePoint
rather than filling out paper copies, scanning in our annual reports and making them available
online. We want to continue promoting the online application process for boards and commissions
and the Youth Advisory Council. We want to continue upgrading the technology, finding the
innovative cost efficient and energy saving solutions through streamlining and integrating between
departments and other governmental entities. We want to work with the County to upgrade
cameras and implement an electronic filing and document management system. We want to ensure
the Open Door Law and ADA compliance of all meetings of the Council. Continue to maintain an
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excellent record of Open Door Laws and ADA compliance. We also want to build upon a
comprehensive internship program which means that we want to be able to go to the State Student
Commission and ask for, or request, or do the application process for fifty percent (50%)
reimbursement for the students that serve as interns.
She went on, We also want to contact the local colleges to see if students can also do work study
in addition to internships.And what that means is that the school itself,or the Federal Government,
will pay the students to work in the office,but hopefully they will still be able to get credit as well.
We also want to have specific job descriptions based on a few needs of each Council Member. We
want to be able to link the interns with the Council Members so that they can participate with you,
go to meetings with you, provide a little documentation, just help you with your work, and we
don't know exactly what that's going to look like right now because we know we have more
Council Members coming in. We also want to ensure a smooth transition through training and
support for myself as I'm going to the Clerk school in October,and I'm excited about that. We have
at least five(5)new Council Members coming in that we have to provide training for,which would
include mock meetings and also information from AIM and what their processes are for
onboarding new Council Members.
She continued, The operating budget highlights the changes. We will have new responsibilities
with the Youth Advisory Council and so this is just a list of extra or added duties that the Clerk's
Office will have. We will be the communication liaison between the Council, and the
Administration regarding all Youth Council needs. We will assist with communication and
marketing material, manage communication with the South Bend School Corporation
Administration regarding student selection, visit schools to meet with students and staff, manage
the application process, manage the selection committee, attend Youth Council meetings, assist
and facilitate Youth Council curriculum and assist with advanced programming between the
Council and the Clerk's Office.
She went on, Some more highlights of our operating budget include our interdepartmental public
electronic filings and the document management system, which will make life better for
everybody. We want to increase transparency and accessibility through the new camera system,
digital government tours, dictation software to improve the office ergonomics as well as the five
percent (5%) increase for deputies to reflect the increased duties that we just named because it's
almost as if we have another person doing another job with the Youth Council. That is a lot of
work.
She continued,A few things will actually offset some of those added expenses and one(1)of those
things is the decrease in IT allocation by $26,000. We will increase the legal services, however,
due to having a new Administration and five (5) new Council Members. That increase is $1,000.
We will increase the collection costs to offset charges through the new process and contract with
Krisor and Associates.We also have increased other professional services for the dictation services
from $10,000 to $12,000.
She went on, Our goals in the Ordinance Violation Bureau include the incorporation of a new
parking ticket system, which we hope to be completed by the end of October. We want to expand
Amnesty Day from one (1) day to two (2) days a year. We look to continue expanding the Lawn
Parking Permit program for the growing list of Notre Dame special events, which would include
the concerts that they're having and also the hockey games. We will continue the efforts to work
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with the City Administration on the new ERP system with options for online payments for all city
invoices. We are also working toward a seamless transition to a new Animal Care and Control
ticket processing system, as well as continue working with IT to develop more complete reports
allowing the analytical review and continue education on the parking program.
Committee Chair White then opened the floor to questions or comments from Committee and
Council Members.
Committeemember John Voorde stated, I think that this enhanced recording system, that's great.
Especially if it can be interactive so that it can go from one(1) speaker to another to enhance the
viewing experience of those at home. I go back to the time where we paid a guy $150 for a VHS
recording, which may or may not be seen on Channel 34. So, it's much better and improved, and I
hope that can happen as soon as possible.
Clerk Jones replied, I hope so, too. It's actually called Production Software, so there is a term for
it. So, I'm looking forward to adding that.
Committeemember Jo M. Broden stated, I have two (2) quick ones. With that interactive camera
capability, I get a lot of complaints about not being able to see the actual PowerPoints from home.
So, we get content- audio, visual of the presenter, some of Council-but I think one(1) of the most
critical things, as people routinely come before us with PowerPoints, is for one (1), for the
information to be available as early and as soon as possible, so people can actually access that
while they're sitting in their seats or at home by their computer. But two (2), and at the very least,
it would be great to have some type of screen in screen capability to actually go to those
PowerPoints live as they're being presented, and then given the overall pivoting, if you would, of
Council priority and Administrative priority to neighborhoods and activation of residents within
their neighborhoods and interfacing with local government and with elected officials, do you see
anything in terms of department goals, expanding the role of the Clerk's Office, I'm sorry, in trying
to be a part of that whole kind of transition and activation?
Clerk Jones replied, I do. Actually, that's one (1) of the reasons why we want to expand the intern
program because once we can assign an intern to each member,then they can provide more insight
from their perspective. They, perhaps, could live in a neighborhood, we don't know, they could
provide more of a perspective. The Clerk's Office would have more of a presence, although we're
present, we would have more of a presence in the individual meetings or notes and questions, and
things like that. So, I do anticipate being able to do that more.
Committeemember Broden followed up,So almost like a Page or Legislative service?Good. I love
that vision. Thanks.
Committeemember Voorde stated, The Association of Cities and Towns, now called AIM,
provides elected officials, newly elected officials, workshops in Indianapolis. What I found
invaluable is the Elected Officials Handbook that they put out every four(4) years. It would be my
suggestion to see that the Clerk's Office or the Council,it would probably come out of our budget,
get that book because its duties, responsibilities, limitations, protocols and everything. It's all in
there, and it's just a wonderful resource for new people, especially, as well as people who are
carrying over.
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Clerk Jones replied, Right, that's a good idea. The Clerk's Office has that responsibility to make
sure that they have as much information as possible so they can be as successful as possible.
Councilmember Jake Teshka asked, On the dictation piece of it, the additional $12,000, that's a
software, correct?
Clerk Jones replied, Well, it's a software. It's an additional $2000 because it is a software that we
use for particularly long meetings.
Councilmember Teshka replied, Sure.
Clerk Jones stated, The IT Department says they have more accurate programs than even what
we're using now. What we're using now is REV and it's very accurate,but we are looking for even
more accurate because we want to cut down on the time that everybody has to do minutes,
particularly our Administrative Assistant and we want to cut that down.
Councilmember Teshka stated, Sure. Thank you.
Committee Chair White stated, Thank you for your presentation. The next presentation will be
from Mayor Pete Buttigieg and the Mayor's Office.
Mayor's Office
Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of the City of South Bend with offices located on the 14th floor of the
County-City Building, stated, Good afternoon. Thanks for the opportunity to be here. I know that
my invitation is specific to the Mayor's Office, but I also just want to speak to all the work that's
been going on and acknowledge and thank the Council for the work that's going on to make sure
that we're getting as much community input and good deliberation as possible in the process, and
I'm very thankful for all the hard work going into this. We've been talking for a good three (3)
years now about what we do when we get to the 2020 budget,making sure we're being responsive
to the fiscal constraints that are coming our way and, at the same time now,we're making sure that
as we do that we're also lifting up the things that are so important in the community, including
heightened interest and sensitivity on supporting neighborhoods that need support, and on making
sure that we're setting ourselves up for success on public safety. I think we're on track to deliver
something that we can be proud of, and I just want to thank everybody who's been part of the
process to date. So, having said that, let me specifically go over the major highlights and the new
news when it comes to what we're putting forward for the budget so that the next Mayor will be
off to a great start.
He continued, What you'll see in the overall scheme of things is a relatively modest expense
increase, five percent (5%), but I want to get into some of the details of that because there's a
bigger increase than you might think in what we're trying to do staff-wise. It is offset by some
improvements just based on accounting through allocation, so I'll make sure I'm being as
transparent about that as possible. There's one (1) position where we contemplate a salary cap
increase and that is the Chief of Staff to the Mayor.
He went on,You will recall that when this Administration first(1st) came in, in 2012, we went for
a mid-year appropriation in order to adjust salaries to help us with recruiting and retaining the right
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people in many key positions in the Administration. Of course, I can't rule out that the new Mayor
might find it necessary to do any number of adjustments, but we want to try to do as much as we
can by way of the salary ordinance to set up for future success. And one (1) thing in our internal
conversations that we've observed is that there really is a disparity when you relate responsibilities
to compensation, when it comes to the maximum compensation that's been set for the Chief of
Staff We're talking about a position that is functionally a department head, and so that's been the
rationale for setting a salary that is within the range of the salaries that you will see for department
heads in the City.
He continued, Recognizing that this is a position that's unusually visible, obviously, highly
consequential, managing a team as far as the Mayor's Office team, but also interacting at the very
least as a peer with the department heads and it seems that this is more reflective of the
responsibilities. As always, I want to note that this is a cap, not a salary level, and it's up to the
Mayor to determine what the level would be,but it made a lot of sense for us to increase the amount
of room for the new Mayor there. That's the only existing position you'll see that has a raise
proposed different than the two percent(2%) we're proposing for all the other positions including
the Mayor position itself, a two percent (2%) increase.
He went on, I want to acknowledge that health insurance rose quickly this year.We had some good
years where we were able to keep it in low single digits. I think that was largely thanks to the
implementation of the Wellness Clinic, but this seems to be catching up to the City now in terms
of the overall insurance premiums and liability, so we're seeing that in the budget. Also, we're
trying to make sure there's a healthy line item for professional services and for promotions. This
is where often there's no clear budget in any of the individual departments to do something like
make sure that the City is represented with a table at an event that's being hosted somewhere in the
community, as well as some modest spending on things like making sure when there's a parade or
event like that there are supplies for that. Another example would be when we have visiting
diplomats, sometimes an ambassador who comes, we want to make sure that we're able to offer
something that reflects well on South Bend, nothing extravagant, it's usually some coasters, and a
coffee cup, something like that. These are the kinds of things that we have in mind when we talk
about the promotion stuff So, you see that reflected here in the number as far as the positions that
we are most accustomed to talking about. Again,obviously,the vast majority of the Mayor's Office
budget is driven by salaries and benefits because that's really the bulk of what is required in order
to run a Mayor's Office.
He continued, Now,here's the part that is new. This relates to the work and the conversations that
have been going on in the community about making sure that we have the right kind of top-level
support for public safety. And both realigning and organizing things that we have been doing, and
making sure that we have a centralized budget to fund some of the priorities that Council Members
and community members have proposed that we take on. We think it makes sense to include this
and consolidate this in the Mayor's Office as part of a division of initiatives that relate to public
safety. So, some examples of this is where we would concentrate the funding for something like
the GVI program,or the SAVE programs that have been distributed in the past.You will remember
this position in Innovation that was responsible, formerly held by Danielle Fulmer, for example,
that was responsible for the project management of GVI. We thought it made sense to bring that
under one (1) roof The other thing that we've been talking about is when it comes to violence
prevention, which I imagine will be the central role at least in the year 2020 for this part of the
office, that we need to be able to responsibly distribute funds that are being added. This includes,
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and I don't want to limit it to just these,but things such as proposals for things like the Peacemakers
program, which is getting a lot of traction, I think from both the Council and with the
Administration. Other worthy community efforts, like Peer to Peer and Mommas Against
Violence, that may apply or have applied for a pool of grant funding that really doesn't exist right
now, but we think it should. This is to make sure that we have a responsible mechanism for
managing those requests. Some of them might be smaller line items. I could envision, perhaps, if
somebody is, for example, earlier this year we saw some incidents of gun violence were met with
somebody proposing to have a community event in a park, a picnic, or even something like that.
That might be a very modest request, but there wouldn't be an obvious place to fund that on the
City side. This is where that request could live.
He went on, So, what you would see is no change to the familiar titles and functions that we have.
I think a lot of people in the City are surprised when they learn the number of people who are in
the Mayor's Office. A lot of people seem to think there's more than a dozen of us. You have, of
course, the Chief of Staff, Director of Communications, Community Outreach, a Deputy Chief of
Staff, which is, functionally, a policy director, the Executive Assistant and Director of Special
Projects who, among other things, coordinates all scheduling and oversees the front. The
Administrative Assistant, in the front, and we've been doing well. We weren't sure we could pull
this off, but as we were pairing down the budget, we got to where there's one (1) full time paid
position in the front and then the rest is covered by interns and fellows and that's actually something
that, it's not been a small thing to ask of Shay up there,but it's something that we find has worked.
And then the Project Manager position that is really executing on some of the strategic projects
we've taken on lately. You will recall that's things like the partnership of the schools, and the
Department of Health on lead testing, making sure we have the added hands-on effort like
homelessness, things like that we know are major priorities but don't automatically live in a
department or, even if it is departmental work, require hands on day-to-day management from the
Mayor's Office.
He continued, So, what we're proposing here is that alongside that now we bring these positions
into play.Again,the GVI Program Manager includes a number of responsibilities that have already
existed within the Administration. We're just realigning those from the Innovation positions into
the office that actually oversees GVI, which is the Mayor's Office. And then establishing this
public safety initiatives position partly to support and manage what I think will be an increased
demand on the GVI Program Manager, partly to oversee the various partnerships from existing
ones with the National Network for Safe Communities to emerging ones like the dialogues that
have been going on with everyone from police representation to community activists to
organizations like Faith in Indiana to potential future ones like Peacemakers or other organizations
in town concerned with violence and safety. So, the budget is straight forward. Basically, what
you're seeing here is the personnel side and then you're seeing the line here under grants and
subsidies. When it gets rolled up, sometimes it shows up as other expenses, which I don't love
because it makes it sound very loose or fluid. So,just to be clear, when you double-click on that,
other expenses, it brings you into this grants and subsidies line and that's what we're looking at
there. That, I think, is everything I wanted to convey or communicate. So, I'm happy to take any
questions about what we envision here.
Committee Chair White asked,Mayor,have you created a job description for the Director of Public
Safety? If so, could you send us a copy of that?
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Mayor Buttigieg replied, Yes, we'd be happy to. Yeah, we've been chiseling one (1) out now.
Because, again, this is a newly envisioned position, and I know there will be interest from the
Council on that, so we should be able to forward that to you this week.
Committee Chair White followed up, And so the Director of Public Safety initiatives and all those
other initiatives that are currently being implemented, and possibly new ones- this person would
have administrative responsibility for coordination?
Mayor Buttigieg replied, I would say coordination and communication as well as an advisory
function. So,one(1)thing that would make this somewhat distinct from what we've entertained in
the past is I don't envision this being in the chain of command, so to speak,with respect to agencies
like the Police Department, the Legal Department or the Fire Department, that have their day-to-
day functions. But, I do envision this position bridging a lot of the different community
relationships that touch that function. So, whether it's ongoing efforts to do policy work with the
Board of Public Safety, that could use some staff support from the Mayor's Office. Whether it's
tracking the literally dozens of reforms, ideas, and requests that have come in from different
community groups that are now just one(1) more added duty for the Chief of Staff. It really goes
beyond what I think can reasonably be asked of the Chief of Staff position as well as being in the
saddle to really direct the different grant disbursements that we talked about from things that might
wind up becoming a multi-year, six (6) figure programmatic locked in fund to being able to
respond for a$2,000 request here or there from the community proposing to do something specific
for the community.These are the kinds of things that we envision,but we'll get that documentation
to you shortly.
Committee Chair White then asked, And the salary that you have listed, in terms of the public
safety initiative, includes the director as well as the GVI program manager?
Mayor Buttigieg replied, That's right. So, it breaks out to $98,500 for the director of public safety
initiatives and then$50,000 is the cap for the GVI program manager.
Committee Chair White then opened the floor to questions from Committee and Council Members.
Committeemember Broden stated,Thank you. With regard to this public safety, two(2)positions,
correct?
Mayor Buttigieg replied,Yeah, one(1) of them is really a move.
Committeemember Broden followed up, Have you contemplated in the job description or in the
scope of responsibilities, sort of EMA, a response at a City level?
Mayor Buttigieg replied, I'm glad you raised that. I think, yeah, we need more Mayor's Office
capacity to support EMA. Also, as you know, there are some inter-governmental conversations
going on now related both to our participation and joint units with the County and related to PSAP.
I would view this position as a real resource in helping navigate that.
Committeemember Broden followed up, That was my other, to bind in the 911 PSAP as part of
that.
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Mayor Buttigieg stated, Yes. So again, I don't envision this having responsibility in the sort of
chain of command so to speak,but I think this could be a huge resource in navigating those because
I think they are going to require more personnel hours of policy work in the year 2020.
Committeemember Broden stated, Okay. And then with regard to operational or division goals,
responsibilities, I would like an understanding of the 2020 special initiatives and things that have
either been typically out of the Mayor's Office or are just being continued into 2020,as well as any
new initiatives. I guess I'm not getting a picture of that in here relative to the individual response.
You know, your staff connected to those.
Mayor Buttigieg replied, Yeah, we're trying our best to kind of establish the right boundaries for
that,but not knowing, I'm not able to speak to the priorities of the new Mayor. Our goal is to make
it as flexible as possible.Normally,I'd be telling you about all the things I feel like I need resources
to support, but there's some things that I fully expect to continue regardless, but we also want to
make sure we're not being presumptive about what the new Mayor will need.
Committeemember Broden followed up, I guess just one (1) question related to the green and
healthy homes initiative. That's multi-year, correct? So, are we going to still continue to see that
seeded out of the Mayor's Office?
Mayor Buttigieg replied, Yes. So, I would envision the staff support for that work would lie here
with the project manager position, although depending on the configuration really, I would
recommend to the new Mayor that any combination of the deputy and the project manager could
take that up.
Committeemember Broden followed up, And is there any way that those could be delineated? If
there are some things that are multi-year funded at this point, we would at least have some
placeholders in our mind in terms of who's connected to what project or what special initiative that
has a carryover and then of course the next Mayor in can make those decisions but at least for us
to have a placeholder and a person identified I think would be really helpful across the community
as the transition goes forward.
Mayor Buttigieg replied, Sure. No, we'd be happy to provide that of course, subject to the Mayor
decision.
Committeemember Broden stated, Okay. I think that would be helpful. I appreciate it.
Councilmember Teshka stated, I think Councilmember Broden touched on some of my questions.
I do want to be clear though because you mentioned that you don't envision this new public safety
initiatives director or director of public safety initiatives to have chain of command or direct
oversight of the Chief of Police or the Fire Department. However, if we fund this position
theoretically, it's within the next Mayor's power to elevate that position.
Mayor Buttigieg replied, Well it wouldn't be in the position description. I suppose on some level
a Mayor always leans on Mayor's Office staff to help guide some of the relationships with
department heads, but the reporting relationships should be clear with any department head that it
comes in directly to the Mayor.
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Councilmember Teshka followed up, Okay, I just wanted to be clear on that and then just for the
record and I've said this before when we talked about the Police Department budget, but, and I
know we can't do anything about it this year, but hopefully for anybody who's around next year,
hopefully I will be as well and participating in the negotiations, but I'd just like to point out that
the cap on this public safety initiatives director is within spitting distance of our current Police
Chief and Fire Chief salary, so I'd like just see that during next year when we open negotiations,
take a real hard look at those chiefs' salary reflecting the value that our community puts on public
safety. That's all, thank you.
Councilmember Dr. Oliver Davis stated, Good evening, Mayor. When you look at the position for
the director of our public safety that you're looking at here, other cities like Fort Wayne have had
them. How do you think that those cities who have a position like that,how does that position help
to decrease the shootings, to build diversity and promote trust within their cities that they have?
When you looked at getting that kind of, or what city or what cities did you base this kind of
position on?
Mayor Buttigieg stated, So,unlike the director of public safety position that we've proposed earlier,
this is not one (1) that is really modeled on a template of an existing city because it is more
connected to the programmatic balance that we think the Mayor's Office needs to be guiding. I
suppose the best analogy would be the many Mayor's Offices I know that would have a staff
member who specializes in these things relative to those that might not as we have not exactly in
recent years. Another way to think of it would be if you look at any major initiative that are among
those we would want to emulate that other cities have taken on from some of the things in Tucson,
that Faith in Indiana has mentioned to the different cities that might've done something along the
lines of Peacemakers or even doing what we do now with the national network on something like
GVI. It always has a sponsor somewhere in the organization, in the Administration, and the one
(1) thing that you will see in common is that they tend to succeed when there's a sponsorship that
is either aligned with or housed in the Mayor's Office or a senior executive function. You know,
some cities, there'd be a deputy mayor for public safety, we're not really going down that route,
whether it's that or something like we're proposing that seems to be associated with most
successful implementations.
Councilmember Dr. Davis followed up, So if there is a public safety crisis in a city, shootings,
major fire or whatever that it is impacted, found the individual or whatever things that we have
gone through in the past. Would it be more of the Mayor speaking out for this, or do you think that
this would be a role where the person who is public safety would be the one(1)that will speak out
first(1st) and be guiding those kinds of meetings with the Chief of Police and all of that? Will that
person be guided or would the Mayor be guided who would be guiding anytime if this is really
enacted, who takes over in the times of need?
Mayor Buttigieg replied, If it were my office, I would envision the Mayor remaining the public
voice and providing the public leadership. I would envision this position being, for example, at
that moment in the meeting where you have the key people in the room including external players
and somebody says, who's going to take this for action and follow up or have the meetings in
between the meetings that the Mayor is present for, that it would be more obvious how to answer
that question with this position established.
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Councilmember Dr. Davis followed up, And given the nature of it being in public safety, do you
envision that the position would have to be a former police officer or County officer or from my
standpoint or somebody who was a firefighter, would it be limited to those professions or would
you look at somebody who's been a crisis intervention specialist, social worker or whatever?What
kind of backgrounds do you envision?
Mayor Buttigieg replied, I suppose any of those backgrounds could be useful. But the main skills
that I think would be most relevant are in the outreach, communication and policy space. So, I'm
really thinking about somebody who's got a background that could help for example,manage those
grant disbursements we were talking about, provide advice to the Mayor as well as perhaps
important or interesting examples for a Police Chief or a Police Department, a Fire Chief to
consider.
Councilmember Dr. Davis asked, So even like an MBA who has the management skills and those
kinds of backgrounds could be considered for that person?
Mayor Buttigieg replied, Conceivably, yeah. I think a lot of it will be about management and about
policy and again also about coordination. You would want somebody who has a good touch with
the community too because a lot of this is making sure that external players who come to the table
knows that their follow up will be guided by somebody in the position to touch all of those different
moving pieces.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, And the only thing I would add to that role, I think that they
need to also be from a background in transportation, have a link with transit because when you
think about crisis's in community, I always go back to New Orleans with the weather disaster,
those who were on public transit couldn't get out of the city with the problem. So often in times of
crisis people forget to think about transit in terms of public safety, but transit does play a role in
that so I would put that in that job description if it hasn't been already completely developed.
Mayor Buttigieg stated, Great point. Well taken. We'll make sure that that's reflected in the
positions forthcoming.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, I appreciate that, I'm done.
Committeemember Voorde stated, I like the initiative's focus and its flexibility too for whoever
might be there to implement all that. Yeah. Thank you.
Committee Chair White asked,Mayor,are you going to be remaining until the end?I want to make
sure that the public has the opportunity to ask any questions in regards to your presentation and
then we'll go directly back to the Council and after which we'll open it up for questions to the
public in terms of a Council presentation, the City Clerk and then we'll go to Eric Horvath in
regards to giving him the opportunity to complete this presentation.Okay. So should we go directly
to questions?
Mayor Buttigieg replied, Let's do that.
Committee Chair White opened the floor to questions and comments from members of the public.
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Eli Cantu, 1813 Goodland, stated, I want to thank the Council for setting up the meetings that
eventually led to this budget. I want to say that I attended the majority of these meetings and I did
it without self-including the things that I'm personally doing cause I wanted to really listen to what
the community had to say. I want to come up with solutions that everybody can understand, that
could apply to everybody in an efficient manner. And I wanted to see what the neighborhood and
the City had to say so therefore I didn't really state what my efforts were. After the nine (9)
meetings and after we've seen the budget, I want to say that I would like to help this motion, this
incentive for the sole reason that I think that if it's not broke, don't fix it. But if it's not working in
the past,why fund the same things that we've already tried? I think if you want to, I think we ended
up beginning here, the paperwork that goes over a few things like for being inclusive, being
accountable, being just inclusive of everybody. So I think to be truly inclusive of everyone, you
know, I remember when Eric Logan first (1st) got shot and we began all that activism and the
marches and everything. I believe I, and people that I know,put in a lot of work for this to actually
take place. And at the end of it all, I just don't think that we're being acknowledged and I just want
to be here to propose, if the Council will listen, if they could accept a proposal from my behalf.
I've been working with the neighborhood for about eight(8)or nine(9) years. I've been doing this
for free. I want to see if the Council would accept my proposal and my proposal based on my
numbers on the things that I've done to see if I could be part of this help.
He continued, Like I said, I'm looking at this budget and it's just, it's unclear to me on where it's
actually going to go and it's unclear to me what these associations, groups or like the SAVE
program and the other ones like Mothers Against Violence. I support all of these groups. I would
like to know what is in store, what they have planned to implement with this money. That's really
like what really got me curious about where we are heading from this. We had a great tragedy here
in South Bend,we stood up for it and I'm thankful for the Council for setting up those meetings to
listen to the public. But now that we have been heard, I would like for the people that rose and
spoke to also be understood and be included in this and I just don't see too much inclusion of new
programs. I know Mothers Against Violence. I think that has been around for a long time and I
know that hasn't been helped. What was the other one (1)?
Committee Chair White stated, Peacemakers.
Mr. Cantu stated, Peacemakers is something that I think resembles the GVI, it's a little different.
I am doing something that also resembles the same program. I've been trying to get ahold of Isaac
to kind of see how we can work on it. I haven't been successful on having a meeting, but I really
want to just suggest to the Council and ask that I am heard and my proposal is considered.
Committee Chair White stated,Yes, Mr. Cantu,this is the Mayor's budget and his presentation, so
I know the Mayor probably would come back to the podium after others have addressed questions,
but that's where you would need to touch base with because we are only responding to his budget
presentation, so we did not create that.
Mr. Cantu stated, Right, I just wanted to get it on the record.
Committee Chair White stated, Yes, but I'm glad it's on the record. Yes. And still make sure that
that happens. Okay?
Mr. Cantu stated, Yes ma'am. Appreciate it.
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Committeemember Regina Williams-Preston arrived at the meeting at 6:16 p.m.
Harvey Mills, South Bend President of the Fraternal Order of Police with offices located at 2518
Benedict Avenue, stated, I along with Eli have some issues with this proposal with the public
safety initiative. It's been tried and has failed before. Fort Wayne's had it, tried and failed. Other
cities have had it, tried and failed. I think it's a waste of money. It's another almost six (6) digit
director we're adding to the Mayor's Office, where we can spend that half a million dollars on the
communities that are suffering from all these violent acts we've been seeing lately.A half a million
dollars would certainly go a long way toward those communities. So as far as I'm concerned, that
public safety director is a poor idea. Thank you.
Committee Chair White stated, All your questions will be answered and they will also be placed
on the website as well. I ask that you continue to look through all the budget presentations and we
will be receiving input as we move forward. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Committeemember Broden stated, So just for clarification, additional information. I made an
assumption that with the$350,000 I think that was tucked in here on the special initiatives, I made
the assumption that there would be a formal grant process with that,that applicants would have an
ability to propose their program, the cost over time goals, etcetera. If we could get some
clarification if that's the intent or not. And that might be to Mr. Cantu's concepts. My last question
is conceptually I would like to know if we are centralizing some past functions and then project
management is kind of what I'm thinking in my mind in terms of this position and I've heard words
like coordination, communication, helping with prioritization, you know, going forward on
homeless initiatives and probably as new things come along kind of being that filter. But if we're
pulling that off and separating it from the existing capabilities that are occurring within the office,
I guess I'd like to know sort of what gets freed up or what gets more attention with the balance of
time, you know with the new goals and objectives for the balance of the office. I know that's
probably tough to quantify or to answer given the transition that we know will be coming. But I
want to have a sense of what gets elevated of either the current programs or what else, what kind
of time is freed up with any of these point persons that are and have historically been in charge of
projects. You know, does this create fifteen percent (15%) vacancy? You know, to take on new
things or to do current things better, build capacity, etcetera. I think I'd like to wrap my brain
around that.
Councilmember Dr. Davis asked, How does this position with the coordination differ from some
of the things that Miss Cherri Peate has done? Because I thought a lot of the coordination Miss
Pete's been doing in the community regarding those kinds of programs. And then she didn't have
all the Police and Fire issues but then back to what the FOP president just stated,what were helping
clarify, what's the difference of what she's done?
Committee Chair White stated,There are some questions that we need to have in writing,but there
are some you could clarify right now. But I guess the one(1)that deals with especially that question
that Committeemember Broden asked in regards to what will be shifting within the office, if you
know, additional work is going towards the new position. What does that free up and what does
that look like?But in terms of the question that Councilmember Dr. Oliver Davis asked,you know,
looking at the new proposed position and the current position that Cherri Peate holds, I mean it
looks like that there is some overlapping.
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Mayor Buttigieg replied, So, to get to Councilmember Broden's question, I do envision that part
of the funds would go toward a defined grant process and that does get to some of what Mr. Cantu
is talking about in terms of how community initiatives could have a place to apply. I wouldn't put
all of it in the same pot. So for example, if the Administration decides to embark on a major
initiative with a group like Peacemakers,that's not necessarily part of the same, you know, call for
applications that would lead to a neighborhood oriented thing,but it does, as you correctly intuited
that's how we envision part of those funds being spent.
He continued,To Dr. Davis's question,a good example would be the difference between a function
of following up on a Mayor's Night Out event, which is a typical function of the community
outreach position and a function like helping the office run the numbers on what a different PSAP
funding mechanism would look like or helping to advise during processes related to the future and
the inter-local agreements with the joint units with the County Prosecutor or ensuring that we've
been responsive to some of the community input relative to policy changes in the Board of Public
Safety. So they certainly both involve community touch, but the specific function would be quite
different.
Councilmember Dr. Davis followed up, Okay. And you don't feel the Chief of Staff with the
increase would have to do some of that more. Could that not be covered under the Chief of Staffs
kind of work? Or do you envision that to be shifting some of the responsibility to the Chief of Staff
like PSAP and other things? Does the PSAP still have to have a Mayor? Or in that role, is that
something y'all created?
Mayor Buttigieg replied, I'm glad you asked. One(1)thing that I think might be worth considering
is a future board structure that doesn't require the two(2)mayors and a commissioner sitting in the
room every time there is a discussion. But, that requires a new inter-local and this is one (1)more
example of a certain person who might fill that seat. In the event that the inter-local created a little
more room to designate a proxy or an Administration representative versus having elected officials
together.
Councilmember Dr. Davis followed up, Because it does seem to me like either a Chief of Staff or
somebody within the Administration or yourself would do it like we do on other boards.
Mayor Buttigieg replied, I think we've learned that would make a lot more sense, so we're on the
same page with you with that. We'll try and get written responses to some of the other things.
Thanks very much.
Committee Chair White stated, We'll now move to the Common Council budget presentation.
Common Council
Tim Scott, 711 Forest Avenue, President of South Bend Common Council stated, Thank you all
for being here. So,the Council budget. Our mission is to make certain that our City government is
always responsible to the needs of the residents and the betterment of South Bend is always the
highest priority. And you all fine people have done a great job for this for the past four (4) years.
I do want to recognize Kareemah Fowler and Dawn Jones and their staff for all the hard work
they've done in support of this Common Council. We couldn't be where we're at without them. So
thank you so much. Bianca, Jennifer, Graham or actually Joe, so we appreciate all the work that
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you guys do. So, goals and challenges. Right now, we're going to have a majority Council that is
brand new, or almost brand new. We have four (4) out of five (5) that have not served on the
Common Council before, so the key to this budget is to implement training and committee
assignments with new Council Members.
He continued, Our goals and challenges for 2020 include partnering with the Administration and
Police and Teamsters on the collective bargaining negotiations, which I'm sure will be a little bit
complicated with having new members that will need to be brought up to speed if they're going to
serve on those subcommittees. We've got to look at voting on a vote of confidence for the tapes
and legal action,which will probably come up again next year and could be significant within that.
We'll continue neighborhood meetings,walks,and tours. I think that's been very effective this past
year in the past term. Thanks to everybody who's been involved with that. We need to focus on
infrastructure, quality of life, and public safety. That's been heard by this Council and I hear it
from everybody who's running for Council about this stuff right now. So, we'll have that in mind
and in our focus.
He went on, We need to fill every board and commission with citizen appointees and do training
for them. Of course, improved technology can better serve citizens. Anything that we can do,
whether it's partner with the County, with the Clerk's Office on cameras, any other technologies,
we'll look at that for the opportunity to make sure that we can get information out more than what
we've been doing. I think going Facebook live has helped a lot with meetings. Any other
opportunities that we have within that. We haven't had minutes approved for the last couple of
meetings because we've had long meetings. The Clerk's Office does a tremendous job of almost
verbatim minutes, I think better than a lot of Councils that I've seen across the country. That's a
high standard and anything we can do to help support that, I think we need to do that. So, one(1)
thing that we'll be looking at, and it's been on the list, is legislative support through electronic
signatures and filing.This is something Kareemah Fowler and Dawn Jones and I have talked about
and we'll look to getting that implemented and then we'll continue to search for opportunities to
reduce costs wherever we can.
He continued, So just to give you a preview, in pink(referencing a slide in a presentation which is
available in the City Clerk's Office)is the little sliver and that is the Common Council budget. So,
if you look it's point three nine percent (0.39%) of the total City budget. I just wanted to put that
in perspective. And if you look at our budget, eighty percent(80%)of our budget is salary,wages,
fringe benefits and professional services. So, it is truly the wages and the staff and everything that
we're doing here for it. There is an increase and I'll get into some of those. The increases for the
2020 budget over the 2019, Council salaries are getting a raise by two percent (2%) which is in
line with most normal people within the City employment. The Council attorney salary increased
by two percent (2%). The total intern allocation that we have right now that is not nine percent
(9%) on each individual salary, it's the total of that whole department is nine percent (9%). The
interns have been working out great. I'll have a slide on that, but you'll see a ninety-two percent
(92%) increase on education and training. That's a big jump within that small sliver and that's
because we will have five(5)new members or four(4)new members,one(1)returning and it goes
to what Councilmember Voorde was saying about going to AIM. AIM was such a great learning
tool for myself. That's where we can send people for training and do in house training, we will
within that.
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He went on, Travel is increased as well because we will have new Council Members traveling.
Health insurance has increased. Print shop is up as well,we'll have new stationary,business cards,
and those types of things, and office supplies as well. And then additional legal services we've
earmarked for the union negotiations for the tapes nineteen percent(19%). There's a little mistake.
It's off byabout $2,000 in the overall budget. It's an eightpercent (8%)percent increase over the
g �
2019 budget. We did see a $10,000 reduction in allocations for IT and $18,000 down in
professional services.
He continued, So with that, just some numbers real quick. We've had no violations of public
meetings or any laws or other public violations broken. You guys have done a great job of that.
No rules violations, which is awesome. No lawsuits, which is great again. So, year to date, the
number of Council meetings held is seventeen (17). Attendance of those Council meetings is
ninety-one percent (91%). Number of committees is seventy-five (75) with eighty-four percent
(84%) year to date attendance. Just for the public, not all Council Members need to attend the
Committee Meetings. If you're not on those committees, you do not need to attend. But I love this
Council for the eight(8)years,most people attend them because they want to understand and hear
what's going on.
He went on, A number of public meetings on off night Council meetings, thirty-seven (37).
Number of bills voted on, thirty(30). Resolutions voted upon, forty-nine (49), and press releases,
thirty-one (31). So, Council accomplishments, neighborhood listening meetings, eleven (11).
Public hearings on the budget, well we're getting to eleven (11). Rental Safety Verification
program passage was a main topic for this Council. Streaming meetings with WNIT continues.
Public access counselor training that we do for not only Council Members but also for our citizens
that are on boards and commissions, I think is really good. Not In Our Community deals with
synthetic drugs and we'll continue those and they have been doing a good job with that. Light Up
South Bend, Curbs and Sidewalks, and we continue to publish our meeting agendas in Spanish.
And if we can expand on that, I'd like to do that next year. Any other way we can get more of our
information out in Spanish, I want to do that. And then as you all know, we've had Council interns.
We had four (4) that went back to college, one (1) in Notre Dame, two (2) at IU, and one (1) at
Ball State. We have three (3) new interns right now. They've been a great assistance in research
on projects and helping out with the social media platform,helping us tell our story. So, with that.
Any questions?
Committeemember Broden stated, The Council accomplishments. Climate action plan by the end
of the year. So, we're going to add that to the list. Then just to recognize other Council Members
who have been instrumental on TRANSPO, MACOG, small business, all those, I think those are
important. They're not our normal function meetings or committees,but they're above and beyond
appointments, the Redevelopment Commission.
Council Tim President Scott interjected, DTSB, Solid Waste.
Committeemember Broden stated, Yeah, I think we need to acknowledge that because there are a
lot of partnerships that occur. And then the internship portion of this budget, what is that level at?
I'm sorry.
Council President Scott replied, I believe it's $44,000. One (1) thing I'll say about the interns, so
two (2) of our three (3) first interns, actually got jobs, and was based on the work that they did
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here, and recommendations from here. The other ones have gone back to school, and as you all
know, what we want to do, is we want them to move on. We want them to learn something, take
something from their experience that will help them in their career.
Committeemember Broden stated, With this going into a transitional year with the new Council,
any anticipation of any structural changes, in terms of committee structure and the way we do
work? Is there any look at examining our current structure at the committee level? I think we've
talked about some combining,reassigning, sort of goals,mission function, at the committee level.
Does this budget contemplate any of that?
Council President Scott replied, No. What this budget is to me, doing this for five (5) years as
President and being on Council eight(8), is, to me, it's a heavy budget. It's a little more weighted
than I would normally do because I think what it is, is you have five(5)new members coming on
board. So, the dynamic of this Council is going to change tremendously. And what I like to do is
kind of pad it a little bit and see what they really want to do. And then we can look at allocations,
transfers, and then their priorities too.
He continued, It's not really easy to speak for nine(9)people,let alone five(5)that you don't know
what their agendas are and what they're going to do. One (1) other thing in here was the health
insurance is at the highest level because what we do is we budget in like anything, it's a budget.
You don't have to spend it. You don't need to. But what we do is we budget for the highest amount,
and we know that not every Council Member is going to take that insurance. So that number will
come down. It depends on how people get into the groove of Council,whether it's training, travel,
to be able to see things. Some might have a learning curve with that. Some might need a little more
than others, and then come back in. You know that dollar amount might come back down to us.
Committeemember Broden followed up,The reason I asked the question is I know that there have
been, not active, you know,just conversations, sort of strategy-wise as Council. And as a one (1)
and done member, four(4) years albeit,just try to get to greater efficiency and less kind of a nine
(9) headed monster in terms of our committee structure. If there's a way to simplify it, I think it
would lead to better communication, better interface with the Administration, less responsibility
across the board for how this whole City government works, and maybe drive more specialization
within the Council. Individuals by way of committee leadership and just a structure that supports
higher efficiency, less body.
Council President Scott stated, Yeah. You can look at it any way you want and whatever the form
the committees are. As you all know, your destiny or your committee's destiny is in your hands,
of what you want to do with that, what you want to drive with it. And that's owed to the people
that have put us in this position. So,thank you though.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, When it comes down to the issue of additional legal services,
nineteen percent(19%) for the tapes, Police and Teamsters. Fire is the year after?
Council President Scott replied, Fire, yeah, that has another year.
Councilmember Dr. Davis followed up, Now with the tapes, as we look at, there was another
position you said they would have until next year, we'll have to decide whether or not they want
to continue. How does that affect the fact that we will be voting on monies for that part of it now,
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•CITY OFSOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
to legal and everything else, that we put all that, and they say, okay, forget it. What would they
do?
Council President Scott replied, Again, that's budgeted. That money then would not be spent. It
would either be another opportunity found with it,within our budget,or it goes back to the General
Fund.
He continued, In that number, Dr. Davis, I know you and I talked about this almost every year on
what that number looks like, and where we would be. You never know what's going to happen
with legal matters. I did confer with our attorney on kind of what that educated estimate would be
on that dollar amount. And then it's plus or minus. You never know on that.
Councilmember Dr. Davis then asked, Is there anything,not that this Council has to be political in
a sense in terms of what I'm about to say,but I do think that there should be,in the State legislative
branch, you see things that come from the State legislature from, I'm in district seven (7) and
everything, and there's monies that is put aside for each candidate, or each politician, each person,
that they can inform their district about what's going on. And that does not have to come out of
their political funds.
He continued, Currently, if I have to inform everybody in the sixth(6th)district about what's going
on, I have to raise the money, and then I have to pay for the stamps myself, and send that out to
everybody in the sixth (6th) district. And I really believe in, and if anything, I regret having not
tried to,it sounds self-serving to be doing. So,since I'm off,it's not self-serving.But I really believe
that everybody up here, every Council Member, should be able to, at least once a year if not twice
a year,be able to have a mailing to everybody in their district that is literally telling them, not vote
for me, but telling them what's going on in their district and what they have done to advocate for
them in their district. This is what we've done, beginning of the year. These are the kind of things
that we have looked at, all the funerals attended,because we have to do the funerals,the weddings,
the baby blessings, and everything else that we do, besides even sitting up here. And to give a
summary,because I see it coming from my Senate, I see it coming from our House Representative,
and I've always said, when I get those things in my mail, wow. It would've been really nice to be
able to inform everybody in the sixth (6th) district, of the work we do. If we don't put it on our
Facebook website, or create our own to tell everybody, toot our own horn. With all due respect,
you saw when the Mayor's gone,media walks out. Save for that one(1)camera. So basically,how
do we tell, and then everything that we do up here, it's been till one o'clock at night. Everyone left
when the Mayor was done, and this Council has worked like crazy for years, and each one (1) of
us, in our own districts, are doing certain things and trying to get that message out, and we hear,
the Council's not doing anything. Y'all don't do nothing. And all that making up kinds of things,
when if you really add up everything that we have done over the years, it's amazing.
He went on, And that's why I think that at least once to twice a year, there should be something in
this budget that covers at least with one(1)mailing per district. Now, of course the At-Large, they
get the whole City, but they're representing the whole City. But every district, and you know that
I talked about that early when you first (1st) came on, and I really think that would be, not only
helpful for people, because we did do one (1) last piece last year. You did, the Mayor did. How
many people know the City Council program? Remember we passed that out? Something that was
sent out, was some kind of survey. This will clear that kind of situation up, because every party
who's on a mailing list, gets to know their City Council person. And they get to know where to go,
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how to call,how to do all the kind of things.And we can't just rely on social media to communicate.
There's still something about the US mail that I think is really important. So that's the only thing
that I would look at adding to this budget and for future use.
Council President Scott stated, Well, I appreciate that Dr. Davis. I'm sorry that the sun is setting.
But that's a good point, and that's something that we can utilize the interns for, and we can look at
that. I did increase our print and advertising budget,which that would fall under that,and we could
definitely do that.
Committee Chair White stated, I would like to say that, before we go to Mr. Horvath, that I
understand what you were saying, Councilmember Broden,as we, and again I think that that could
be part of the budget process, in regards to looking at preparing for 2020, but to really pull from
the experiences and to get your input and your suggestions, as we look at structure, as we look at
format, I think that's going to be important. So again, I think that we need to make sure that we
have that level of discussion, but also that we have your input as well, or anyone who is going to
be seated here. Because we learn from each other,we learn from our experiences. And I think that
that would be invaluable for whoever's seated in these nine(9) chairs.
Committeemember Broden stated, If I might just follow up on that and thank you. At the State
level, there is basically an election, and then there's an organizational day, and it's focused on
getting new members up to speed, current members, former members, inputting on kind of the
process and then year going forward, setting goals. So that's one (1) way to get at it, timing wise.
And then another way is at 2020, a mid-year kind of a strategic plan, by way of a retreat process,
something that is open to the public,where we look at structure,we look at functions and basically
do a top down reorganization. You know, are we doing things the best,most functional way, that
serves the public, but also our interface with staff and Administration? I think that's maybe as
significant, too, in a lot of ways.
Committee Chair White stated, Thank you. Thank you for that, and that's something that we need
to ensure that it happens.
Committeemember Voorde stated, At least three (3) things come to mind that I think deserve
congratulations. One(1),the work Karen has done with the budget. She has opened up the process
and has made every attempt to listen to the public, what their priorities are, and then has tried to
coordinate that with individual Council Member priorities and has worked with the
Administration. I can't imagine anyone doing a better job than you've done. It takes hours and
hours and hours. And everybody, I mean Jo Broden spent countless hours on something as
unglamorous as Solid Waste. And Councilmember Broden and I did negotiations with the Fire
Department. That takes a lot of hours. Everybody has interests that take hours and hours. Regina
has done all kinds of work with housing and things like that. So, what I'm trying to illustrate is,
there's a lot more to this job than most people realize. And I'm glad that potential new Council
Members,who have been coming to meetings lately, are doing that,because I think just being here
informs them and maybe opens their eyes to what they're getting into. I don't think I'm wrong in
saying that when some of the potential new people have walked out of this room after a meeting,
it's like a deer in the headlights kind of thing. My gosh, I didn't know that. So all of that's good.
And another thing I'd like to congratulate on is this electronic,like I said,forty(40)years ago when
I started,it was a guy with a VHS tape, that may or may not ever be seen. Now people can actually
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see, and the kinds of things you and Dawn are talking about, I think would be great. We started to
talk about that a long time ago and then, I don't think the technology was there to do it right.
He continued, Oh the intern program. I think that's been wonderful. I mean the potential that these
kids bring to the work that's done for the Clerk, and for the Council, is just amazing. And it's been
a delight to work with them, and actually learn from them. And there's one (1) more important
point I'm going to make here, and I'm going to make it quick. I don't think the Council gets paid
enough. And I know people say, well, you know, it's not politically popular to raise elected
officials' salaries. Or, I'm not going to take my salary. I'm going to give it to something else in the
City. That's all well and good, and more power to you. But when I started forty(40) years ago as
a City Councilman,we made$14,000 a year. In forty(40)years,going to$20,000 is not excessive.
And the job now, as compared to what we were asked to do forty(40) years ago is just a ton more
of involvement and work. So I think,before this budget gets voted on, I think we ought to consider
some kind of raise for the Council. And what a better time to do it,when five(5)people don't have
to incur the wrath of the voters in the voting booth. What I personally would propose is a $5,000
raise to bring everybody up to a $25,000 a year. And I if you really think about it, I don't think
that's excessive, because like I say, forty(40) years ago in 1980, we were at $14,000 now we're at
$20,000. Going to $25,000 is kind of making up, and if you don't want it, don't take it.
Committee Chair White stated,Thank you Mr.Voorde,I'm going to have to move forward because
I want to make sure that we give time for Eric because we invited him to come back.
Committeemember Regina Williams-Preston stated, Just to follow up on what Council Member
Voorde said,very seriously,it's something I've mentioned to some Council people too. I think that
it's something worth thinking about, in terms of issues of equity. In my role here in the last four
(4) years, I realized like you said, how much work this actually is. And if we're really interested,
and I don't imagine we're going to get that done now, but I think it's worth putting on record and
thinking about, if we're interested in having a body of people that's truly representative of the
people,people who don't make a whole lot of money but may have a lot of talents and gifts to give
an insight to a body like this, may not be able to work just for$20,000 or something to that effect.
You see what I'm saying? So it's just something to think about as we're moving forward, is that it
may be an issue of, how can we truly be representative of the people? Would there be a structure
that we could put in place? I know some Council Members have not taken their salary in the past,
that there'd be actually an option. Either you can have a salary that's maybe AMI, you know what
I'm saying? That's just the annual median income, and you can do that. But it's expected to be
essentially a full-time position, because the work is full-time. And then maybe you can either
choose to take a salary or not take a salary or something like that. But I think that again, thinking
forward and thinking about diversity and inclusion, it might be worth thinking about having a real
full-time salary for people to be able to do this work well. It's hard sharing full-time work and also
being on the Council. I'm done.
Council President Scott stated, I want to thank all of you. I thank you and respect you. You're all
doing this out of the love in your heart, not for the money. I understand what you're saying, and I
respect what you're saying on this, and Mr. Voorde as well. That is something to definitely
consider. But I know, and everybody that I've served on Council with,they've done it because out
of love in their heart for this City. And I appreciate it, and I thank everyone of you for doing that.
Committeemember Voorde stated, It's rewarding work.
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Committee Chair White then opened the floor to members of the public wishing to speak.
Sue Kesim,4022 Kennedy Drive, stated, I'd like to suggest that you put in the budget,videotaping
all the meetings,the committees as well,to reach out,to make us more ADA compliant, for people
who I can think of Mr. Dunn in particular who can't be here,but he does watch from home. I think
it's important if you want to be really inclusive, you don't forget people with disabilities, people
that are not mobile, that cannot get here, and who may want to watch it later. I think the meetings
need to be in the evenings, and not at 5:00 p.m. People get off at 5:00 p.m. People need to get here,
find parking, and come up here. So, I think you need to be mindful of moving meetings to when
they're appropriate for citizens to come. I would like to see something passed where you really
hold fast to having things two (2) weeks in advance. Citizens and Council Members cannot
research things that are at the last minute,that come out on Sunday evening for a Monday meeting,
or Tuesday to be for a Wednesday meeting. I'm really, quite frankly,tired of it. I do think you need
to give longer citizen time. I think if someone's willing to come down here, three (3) minutes is
not respectful. It's not inclusive. I think if you really wanted to hear people's voices, three (3)
minutes is not enough. And also, I agree with Councilmember Voorde. Obviously, you know me
as being here a lot. I'm not even paid a dime as an advocate, but you do a lot of work and I agree,
you should be paid more. I really think$25,000 or more would be appropriate. Thank you.
Eli Cantu, 1813 Douglas,stated,First(1St)of all,most of us come up here because there's a problem
that we want to raise, we want to present, and we want to see changed. And then when we
embarked with this system, we noticed actually how much work you guys are already doing. The
suggestions that we put forth and you're like, oh, they already thought of that. It's already, and
sometimes it's just harder to implement than we think. So, I do appreciate, especially the work
that's been done this year that normally wouldn't have been done any other year is something like
all the different meetings that you guys attended. With the going live, that is an idea I had so long
ago, whoever came up with it, was it you Tim?
Council President Scott replied, It was Kareemah.
Mr. Cantu stated, Okay. So that's awesome that it's being done. I'm excited about this last one(1)
here, that it's presented in Spanish. Most of my constituents, most of the people that I've gained
respect and trust from, would never understand this process, if it wasn't for this. So I really, I
haven't ever seen one (1) in Spanish, I don't know what it is, entirely, but I'm glad it's there and
that it's available. The one (1) thing you do know, you guys are already working very hard, and I
don't want to make your job harder,but I will propose this just as a suggestion. When people come
up here, and if you want to be inclusive, when people come up here to the podium and you're kind
of being inclusive only to activists, public speakers, people that, I mean people that they're not
scared of public speaking, but we all know that speaking is something that American's, that are
the world's worst fears. So a lot of people that might want to say something might not ever get a
chance because they're scared to come up here.
He continued, Another thing is, like I said, accessibility. So my suggestion is, would the Council
ever consider maybe holding forums or rooms or certain neighborhood association places, that'd
be aside from this Council room, that maybe they could watch us live, and maybe under three(3)
minutes, they could present their, whether it's live or not, and maybe you guys can review it later
and, but it'd be on record nonetheless? I just wanted to say that on record. If the Council could
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consider placing or making certain locations for people that can't make it all the way over here or
it's hard for them to attend different places and still be able to get their voice on the record.
Harvey Mills, President of FOP 36 with offices located at 2518 Benedict Avenue, stated, I would
also like to say that I agree with Dr. Davis and his idea of mailing your accomplishments, maybe
even twice a year or something like that because it would be beneficial to a lot of us. I know that
as well as Committeemember Voorde's idea of a raise for the Council honestly I didn't know it
was only at $20,000. So, I think it's well deserved. But what I'm up here for is, I know there's
another five (5) members coming to the Council next year, but maybe in your education portion,
you could add a section where, like you're aware we do a Citizens Police Academy every year. We
could even do a special one(1)for the Common Council. We could do it for your current members
as well. We would really, really like to do that, and also have you on ride alongs. I'm sure the Fire
Department would be just as accepting. Thank you.
Committee Chair White stated, Okay, great suggestions and recommendations and as a Council, I
know that we will be looking at all of those and really making sure that they will be addressed,
some of which will be addressed now, but others preparing for the new Council. And I know that
the transition, and the training, and suggestion in terms of the Academy, I they're right on top. So
we appreciate that.
Committee Chair White then gave the floor to Public Works for presentation on their Special
Initiatives.
Special Initiatives (Public Works)
Eric Horvath,Director of Public Works for the City of South Bend with offices located on the 13th
floor of the County-City Building, stated, I apologize, I know brevity is not my strong suit, but in
the interest of time, we also have my colleagues from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, who
are here tonight to finish their presentation. So, I'll try to move this along as quickly as I can, but
also giving diligence to the special initiatives that we have going on. I think they're important ones
that the Council should know about. Yeah, if we could go to the special initiatives page
(referencing a presentation which is available in the City Clerk's Office).
Committeemember Broden stated, We just got briefed pretty extensively on the Long-Term
Control Plan. So maybe as you go into that, Eric,if there's anything that fits the budget,that might
be helpful, but other than that.
Mr. Horvath stated, The first (1st) one (1) I'm going to start with is our Customer Assistance
Program, which we've talked a little bit with the Council about. I'm very excited about that
initiative. It's an initiative to help some of the most struggling residents with assistance on their
waste water bills. The State Legislature had opened up the opportunity for cities to do differential
rates for the first(1St) time last year in the State's history. We're taking advantage of that ability by
putting together a program where we can provide assistance for some of those in most need in our
community. I want to thank Kara Boyles,Alicia Czarnecki, Karen White,and Sharon McBride for
their help in putting this program together. I think we had a committee that put this together and
worked really hard on making sure that this was going to be impactful. And that also, one (1) of
our goals is making sure that the money that went into the program didn't go to the program, but
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went to the people. We're trying to do this as efficiently as possible, making sure that the money
stays where it should.
He continued, With that, we've partnered with Real Services who's already doing an energy
assistance program, they're already doing enrollment and qualification, establishing qualification
below income. We're going to have help with Real Services as part of the program so that some of
those, so we won't have the overhead costs that would normally go into a program such as this. To
fund this program, it'll take the Council agreeing to increase the average waste water repairs
monthly bill by$1.75. That$1.75,this is all cost of service-based, then will be utilized and will be
put in a special fund and will be utilized to help offset eligible program participants that are low
income customers.
He went on, We have a three (3) tiered program and the way that it is currently, Real Services
currently looks at this program and they use sixty percent (60%) of the State of Indiana median
household income. That's dependent on household size and if you fall within one hundred(100%)
of that, you will see a net ten-dollar($10) deduction on your waste water bill. Just for purposes of
understanding, they're going to be charged $1.75 as well. Everyone will on their bill. And then
they will have an eleven dollar and seventy-five cent ($11.75) deduction, so net off ten dollars
($10). If you are seventy-five percent(75%) of that sixty percent (60%) MHI, then you will have
a fourteen dollar ($14) deduction per month. If you're fifty percent (50%) you'll have a nineteen
dollar($19) per month deduction on your waste water bill. I'm really excited about this program.
I look forward to bringing it to Council. We will have the ordinance ready for first(1st)reading on
October 14th. We anticipate that we would be rolling this out summer of 2020 after we have our
new billing software up and running and time for Real Services to put the program in place.
He went on,The next initiative is the Long-Term Control Plan. Councilmember Broden mentioned
that we did just recently update you on this. I don't think I need to update you any further other
than we've got ongoing negotiations and those negotiations are going well right now and we're still
hopeful that we'll have something by the end of this year. We have included in our 2020 budget
some of the costs of that program. Primarily in regard to some waste water treatment plan upgrades
that we're looking at, that would need to be done even if we didn't do the Long Term Control Plan
by way of having that Consent Decree. It's work that we know the City's going to need to do
anyway. That's what we put in the budget for 2020 and the Long-Term Control Plan.
He continued, The next one (1) is the Westside Quiet Zone. Again, we have had updates on this. •
Just to let you know where we are. The first(1st) component of this was Canadian National Grand
Trunk Western, or I'm sorry, the Norfolk Southern piece, which was the majority of the trains.
That has been completed. We were getting complaints early on that they were still blowing
whistles. I think that's gotten better. We did have somebody from FRA come out, one (1) of the
grade crossing inspectors, and he agreed that he would fine Norfolk Southern if they didn't stop
blowing their horns and had warned them and I think after that we were able to get some
compliance.There are still sets of tracks that do not have the quiet zone in place.Canadian National
Grand Trunk Western, we're currently working on. There are still a couple supplemental safety
measures that we need to put in place and some issues with constant warning we need to deal with.
That is going to be still fall this year. We plan on implementing that, so we'll have that piece and
quiet again. Then the final piece is the NICTD piece which actually is going to be about a year
away because that's an alternative safety measure and because we're looking to have a waiver,
those reviews typically take about a year with the FRA. We'll get that in as quickly as we can and
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get that review done but it probably will be about a year away, but that's just a South Shore train
at the Grand View's Crossing.That'll be the remaining one(1). We're excited about this. It's finally
giving some peace and quiet to the westside as well and we appreciate your participation in this.
There are no new monies for 2020 in the budget that you have. 2019 meets the needs of the
program.
He went on, And update real quick on the 2018 February flood for residential impact and
infrastructure impact. As you know,the thousand-year flood event,it was a historic record, I don't
need to go into that. We've been continuing to look at resiliency and adaptation and part of our
Climate Action Plan will be funding the vulnerability assessment. We'll continue the Downspout
Disconnection Program. I'm going to lay this out there for members who will be continuing. If you
recall, we were doing that program for free and that ended at the end of last year and so now we
have until the end of 2020 for people to get off of that system and then at that point it's illegal to
be on the system. We'll have to determine what compliance we're going to do and what that means.
If there are going to be fines or we're going to do some other program to help people get their
downspouts off the system, we still have a fair number of downspouts on the system.
He continued, The Basement Valve program, this is the backup valve program. It's a fifty-fifty
(50/50) match program. We pay half the cost up to $1,500. Today, we've got two hundred thirty-
one(231) applications, one hundred fifty-three(153)people have installed backup valves, and our
average reimbursement is a little over $1,000 per backfill valve. In addition to that, as part of the
flood,we realized the storm sewers were flooding back into the area when the river got up so high.
We're looking at putting some backflow valves on the storm sewers themselves to the tune of about
a $150,000 investment and that will happen spring of 2020, those will be installed. Those are
currently about done with design and will be installed next year.
He went on, And then the final thing I'll mention is that we have put in a real-time gauge now for
the river level. We're working with the US Army Corps of Engineers. We've got a grant that will
eventually be a flood indicator map where you can do a slider and figure out at what levels it'll
start flooding certain areas so that it helps people understand what the impacts will be. Actually,
my answers to the questions, I put a link, I can send this link out. There's water alert on there as
well. You can set it for whatever you want. I've got mine set at five (5) feet, so anytime the river
level gets above five feet, it starts texting my phone and it will continue to do that until it gets
down below.And you can set it to whatever level you want and however often you want. It's taking
readings every five(5)minutes and it can update pretty quickly. It's a nice thing to have. Anybody
from the community could put their number in there or their email and get those alerts.
He continued, I won't go into detail on these. Just to let you know that we are continuing to work
on all the areas that were public infrastructure that were impacted. We recovered about $200,000
from FEMA. We're still working with our insurance company to recover significantly more dollars
on damages. We have not settled on an amount yet, but we're currently, all of these are under
design. A couple of them bid out and we're redesigning because I see the prices came in high and
we're trying to reevaluate some of these, re-engineer them so you bring the cost down. The idea is
that we're going to try to take care of these impacts between the monies that we receive from
FEMA and our insurance settlement.
He went on, On the Solid Waste side, forgot to say,part of the 2020 budget is a new route camera
system. It's a software and hardware system and this will allow the trucks to know exactly where
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they're going turn by turn and where they should be picking up. They'll help us optimize our routes
and make sure that we're preventing missed pickups. It should be much improved customer service.
It also has a camera on it so you can see that picture on the left (referencing a slide in the
presentation).You pull up and somebody's gone crazy and not kept stuff inside their bin.They will
take a picture so that when 311 gets a call, we can make sure we're educating folks and we can
send them a picture with the actual address on it so they understand why their trash wasn't picked
up. The one (1) on the right would indicate that the trash wasn't out. You can see it's 9:08 a.m.
when the driver was going by and wasn't out so they'll take a picture just so people you know,hey,
you might've forgotten to put your trash out. We'll get it the following week. It helps us make sure
people understand that we were there and that we are trying to pick up every single customer and
never have a miss. But in the event that we do, we'll know that because we'll have proof one (1)
way or another, whether or not we were there and whether we made the miss and it'll help us
eliminate some of these and going back for pickups as well.
Councilmember Dr. Davis asked, Do you track how many pickups were missed throughout the
year?
Mr. Horvath replied,We do. That's one(1)of our KPIs. I don't remember the number,but I'm sure
you probably have good numbers on those. Yeah, we do track. We track a lot of stuff on that, but
missed pickups is one(1). Yep.
He continued, On Solid Waste and Yard Waste, one(1) of the things we shared in the budget was
that at the end of 2020, we will be in a deficit if we don't change something in the budget. We're
currently looking at different ways to look at the rates, both on trash and yard waste as well as
anything we can do on the expense side. We will be bringing a proposal back to the Council in the
near future on this and we'll have continued dialogue. It's going to be something we're going to
work together on.All in all,our revenue has stayed pretty consistent. It's not a revenue issue.We've
had our expenses go up. Primarily if you look at the budget, there's three (3) areas. There's zero
(0) fund allocations, there are maintenance repairs on our trucks and then the debt service. Those
are the three(3)big ones that have increased the cost. We're bringing you some options there.
He went on, I did want to point out some of the ways we are, for our new trucks, we'll start a new
branding program to recognize all the good work they are doing. You can see the arm there. We're
now to a system that's automated. It's a much safer system. You don't have guys in the back of
trucks in harm's way and also hurting their backs picking up heavy bins.This has greatly decreased
our workers' comp claims, Solid Waste drivers are in the top five(5)most dangerous positions, or
professions,for years because they're out in harm's way all the time and they're hurting themselves.
We're happy to say that we're all automated. We also talked about the route-ware and the
innovation that we're bringing there. And then finally, we're going to be one hundred percent
(100%) renewable gas as well. The bio gas that we're creating from our anaerobic digesters at our
treatment plant is being pumped through compressors into our vehicles, and then used in those
vehicles. And then we will be able to get credit for that. Not only will we recycle that gas and get
it free, but we'll be able to sell those credits on the market as renewable credits.
He continued,Alright. Streets.Two(2)quick pilots. We're doing road temperature sensors. Again,
I think you may have heard about that. Frost control systems. We're trying to make sure that we're
looking at the actual pavement conditions and understanding that even though it's twenty (20)
degrees out, the road may be over thirty-five (35), and maybe we don't need to use any salt or as
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much salt as we were anticipating. Hopefully it could save us on that end create a safer situation
for our roads. And secondly, we're trying to, of course,patch potholes. That is always an issue for
us. We have crews that do this on a consistent basis. We're trying a pilot program to find a better
method to maybe have these pothole patches last a little longer. We're going to try to use some hot
patch material and see if we can't get a better material that will last a lot longer.
He went on, Sustainability. Thank you, Jo, for mentioning the Climate Action Pan. We will be
bringing something to the Council here in a month along with Councilmember Broden. I would
appreciate your support on that. It's an important part of being a more resilient City but also looking
out for future generations. Again, we budgeted for two (2) strategies in this budget for 2020 and
we'll be rolling out what those strategies are in the Climate Action Plan. In addition, we'll have
some goals that are in there. We've also budgeted for a vulnerability assessment as preparation for
our Adaptation Plan, and then we will be updating the Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
He continued, We'll continue to grow and strengthen the South Bend Green Corps program and
expand our electrical vehicle charging network. Obviously,transportation is one third(1/3) of our
greenhouse gas emissions. We need to start out figuring out a way to eliminate some of those. In
addition to doing things like renewable gases, we need to look at electric vehicles. Streetlight
modernization, we're working with AEP both on their lights and our lights to try to convert them
to LED. We would love to have every light in the City be LED. It would help us not only with
energy and greenhouse gas emissions, but also with just operation maintenance so we're not
replacing lights as frequently. And then finally partnering with folks, just continuing to be a
catalyst for change and to help the environment.
He went on, Finally, the last initiative I'm going to go over is monitoring utilities that we've been
working with our Fire Department on. A significant part of making sure that we have fire
protection in the City and we have a strong ISO rating is making sure you have adequate fire
hydrants and flow in those fire hydrants. We recently have inspected every single one of our
hydrants in our system,public hydrants. We've made over three hundred (300)repairs to hydrants
and we replaced fifty-one (51) hydrants. We have about thirty-five (35) more that need to be
replaced and about two (2) more in need of repair. That will be done in the next a month and a
half. Big shout out to our construction and maintenance work group at Water Works who has just
done a fabulous job on this. In addition to that, we're looking at flow testing hydrants as well. We
ensure not only that the hydrants work but that they can provide adequate flow when we need it
when we have fires. Then finally, a huge lift that also needs a shout out is the implementation of
the new customer service and billing software we've been working on, for, what it feels like
multiple years, but after twenty(20) years of the software, it was well past it's time. Not only will
it help with our operations, but it will improve the customer experience. We'll have a much better
web portal. You'll be able to pay on that. You'll also be able to use the phone and do IVR to pay,
but we will also include this system, a number of retail locations that you can go and pay at. We
won't be open just eight(8)to five(5).You'll be able to go at night to retail locations and pay your
water bill. This will all post real time. By posting real time, we make sure that people don't get
shut off then. If they come at midnight or on a weekend and they pay their bill and it's set for shut
off,let's say,Monday morning,our crews will know that bill was paid before they go to shut it off.
Committee Chair White stated, That's good. Excellent. Thank you so much for the update on the
special initiatives and all the work that you and your staff and others, that you're doing and we
appreciate that.
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Committee Chair White continued, Mrs. Christina Brooks is going to complete her presentation
and then we will hopefully go to public and take it from there and see.
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility
Christina Brooks, Diversity Inclusion Officer for the City of South Bend with offices located on
the 14th floor of the County-City Building, stated, I actually was able to get through the
presentation at the last budget hearing. It was my understanding that this time would be used to
answer questions.
Committee Chair White then opened the floor to questions from Committee and Council Members.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated,My question,well,it wasn't so much of a question. I just thought
that some of the funding was on some of the parts where it's a little low. I remember one (1) was
$30,000 for the minority. I know we cannot raise them, but I need to send that email so we can
suggest that some parts of it be increased and so that was what I was hearing from the floor that
day, it was that more money is needed to be increased and so, which is, again, out of your realm
in a sense is us to send that upstairs to advocate for that. That's what I remember, more or less. Is
that something where we all have a similar thought with that?
Ms. Brooks replied, Yes. I'm very appreciative of a supportive Council and the Administration in
reviewing the need for more funding.
Committee Chair White asked,In regard to clarifying the relationship between the work that you're
doing and the work that is coming out of Community Investment and the engagement piece, what
does that look like? You don't have to respond now, but just having clarity.
Councilmember Dr. Davis asked, What role do you foresee playing in terms of this public safety
officer? In terms of diversity, what role will your office, or have there been any discussions
regarding how your office and the proposed new person would come together? I think you're
talking about the community organizing and all the other kinds of things and many of those groups
that I hear in the back of my brain being talked about, it almost directs some things towards you.
Not that it's only a diversity issue and all that or only an African American issue when it comes
down to this, it's a City-wide issue,however, we recognize where we are and what is going on. In
that light, what types of conversations have gone on between the Administration? If nothing has,
what do you foresee in those kinds of conversations?
Ms. Brooks replied, What I envision is that my position would definitely be in conversation with
both the existing Administration but also the incoming Administration as to what they envision
and how we would interact and clearly define the role that diversity, inclusion, equity, and access
would have in those conversations and in the projects that they would take on. I agree that a lot of
it,there's always a lot of overlap. Especially in positions at that level that deal with the community.
I think it's going to be really important for us to clearly define the roles so that we can be effective
in making sure that we accomplish everything that the community expects of us. I don't think those
conversations can take place without the voice of the people in the community and gathering their
input, especially the input from the last conversation with the community advisory groups and
making sure that we take that into account when we specify the actual role or position description
that was described earlier today from the Mayor's Office presentation.
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Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, Thank you, and Ms. O'Sullivan, please relay that kind of a
question to the Mayor and as they present the job description to the Council, they can have that
consideration of what kind of role that position, if passed, would have with the office that Ms.
Brooks holds because I see a lot of similarities. Not that that's a bad thing, but there needs to be
some serious coordination with that issue because I see her out in the community. Again, it goes
back to my question and I didn't not think about you when I said it. I asked about Ms. Cherri Peate
to the Mayor, but also from Ms. Cherri Peate's position to your position to that position. You see
where all that comes in?Again,when that position was sent to the Council for review,just to have
that concept in mind and see how that plays into all of our public safety, given both sides of the
need for it are those who said there may not be a need for it. All those put in together. I would
appreciate it.
Committeemember Broden stated, You presented your budget over three (3) weeks ago, and it's
been online for some time. Are there any changes that we should be aware of?And I'm asking that
specifically because, one (1), I think the takeaway from Council, my peers, and then also from
those in attendance and those that I have heard from that were not in attendance that night was that
you had developed a pretty comprehensive multifaceted smart proposal here for 2020 and of course
it's long range in its rollout. However, that's one(1) takeaway, but then on the other side of it was
that there's a whole lot packed in here and it's a lot of plates to juggle and a lot of things that need
high priority and attention. Three (3) weeks ago, I think that was what I heard resoundingly and
I'm just wondering if there have been any discussions about increases and whether you answer that
or if anyone else would answer that, I would really like to hear that before I go into my vote. The
other piece is just regardless of any staffing or proposed changes in your budget,just relative to
getting hands and minds on deck, implementing the broadness of this program that you've laid out
is what you might envision in terms of fellows, interns, committee structures that would actually
be, through a convening authority through your department, that could help advance these things
and get to outcomes in a smart, fast,but expedited way.
Ms. Brooks replied, All of the initiatives that were presented during my budget hearing really
require a lot of cross collaboration between departments, Council, community members, and
organizations. I wouldn't say that any of this could happen with just an increase in funding or just
additional staff or funding for staff. It's going to take a concerted effort across all departments and
Council Members, across districts and community organizations, to accomplish it. And for it to
actually become the way that we do business and integrate it into the way the City functions, I
don't want us to think that we can just throw money at this and let that be the answer. This is
something that if we are going to be true to what we say and the values that we espouse, then it's
going to be necessary for everybody to pitch in and push this forward and not let any of these
initiatives drift by the wayside because something else is more shiny next year. That's my hope is
that everybody will continue to work together to make sure that these initiatives move forward.
And with that I'll turn it over to Dan Parker and he can address more specifically the budget
question.
Mr. Parker stated, Yes, Councilmember Broden, specifically on the question of the conversations
that we are having right now on what changes we want to make to propose based on the feedback
we received through the budget hearings, both from the public and as well as from Council
Members. As of right now, because Council did not get the chance to provide feedback on
Christina's budget back during her budget hearing, the goal was to present it as it was presented
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initially,receive feedback from the Council, and then we will present all of the proposed changes
that we are going to make to the budget at next week's budget hearing on October 2nd, 2019.
Committeemember Broden replied, Okay. So, can this be a follow up?
Mr. Parker replied,Yes.
Committeemember Broden followed up, So,just basic analysis on, if you take the whole inclusive
procurement grants, that's a lot of work: the timeframe and just the individual doing that. How
much time would be just sucked up with that very, very important next step that we need to take
that?That alone was several pages and several sub-goals. And then on top of that, I participated in
the CDFI Friendly Community Workshop. There's a tremendous opportunity relative to that
initiative alone, and the trauma-informed City and restorative justice.
Mr. Parker agreed, There's a lot there.
Committeemember Broden continued, So I just really concur with the public that greater higher
funding of many folks that, twice as much, and I'm not talking about throwing money. I'm saying
that we hit smart goals, objective programs that we can deliver on, and here's kind of my thing, in
my four(4) years that I've been here, we have been catching up on infrastructure. We have said so
many times, well we haven't done a rate change for fifteen(15)to twenty(20) years. One(1) was
thirty(30) years. Park's was almost four(4) decades. So I'm like, let's catch up on the people side
of these things. And so relative to those changes that we made in things, and that this Council was
bold enough to catch up on deferred maintenance and just things that had to be done that were
requirements in order to deliver essential services, this is substantive. It's critical to where we go
in the next two (2), three (3), five (5) years. And right now I don't see the priority overall in the
budget in order to deliver it and get it done. And, frankly, I'd rather get it done sooner than later. I
don't want a ten(10) year rollout plan. We can't afford that as a community.
Mr. Parker replied, Thank you for the comments. I think nobody who was at that budget hearing
where this budget was presented could deny that there was an outpouring of support for exactly
what you're saying. So, thank you for adding your voice to that. And, as I said, the Administration
hears it and we're having conversations around what we can do to respond to that and that will be
presented at next week's budget.
Committeemember Broden stated, Okay. And if I might just add on one (1) more thing. We can't
just look at the program delivery, we have to look at cost savings and just widely the benefits that
would accrue to us as a City if we were able to really move on this and expedite the deliverables.
Mr. Parker replied, Well, yeah. And I think the points have been made, so I won't go over it. The
interplay between the different initiatives, right? What Community Investment is doing, what
Christina's department is doing, and what the new public safety initiatives department would be
doing all interplay and interact with the community.
Committee Chair White the opened the floor to member of the public wishing to speak.
Sue Kesim, 4022 Kennedy Drive, stated, I've been coming to these budget hearings for, I want to
say, four (4) or five (5) years now. And pre-Christina Brooks, the discussion that I recall was the
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reasoning for her position and the justification for her salary was to bring diversity to the Police
Department. That's what I recall as being the key focus. That was the Council before you were on,
Ms. Broden. When I asked Chief Scott if he felt that she had brought him enough women and
minority candidates, he said he couldn't quantify it. So what I'd like to know metric-wise is, how
many women and minorities have been hired at the Police Department? I'd like to know how they
got there.What was effective? Was it her department or was it something else? So I'd like to know
those metrics. I'd like to note that I actually went to the minority and women business committee,
it didn't even meet for two and a half(2.5)years. I mean there wasn't any citizen input. It just plain
didn't meet. There was no outreach at all. So I kind of wonder on that.
She continued, I was one(1) of the people that was at the survey that we're going to get the results
on. Quite frankly, we could have looked at the contract thing and seen that it was less than one
percent(1%). We didn't need to pay$265,000 to find out we're doing less than one percent (1%).
We just didn't. You can just open up the budget, open up procurement and see that. What I would
have preferred for $265,000 would be to divide that money up into $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000
grants that went to actual women and minority businesses in our community and give them a boost
up. Instead, you guys gave $265,000 to an out-of-town consultant to tell us something we already
knew. So, I find that a huge waste of tax payer dollars that went out of our community instead of
being invested in our community with our actual people.
She went on, So I brought up this cost saving idea before, but I wanted to bring it up again. And
with this new billing software for our water and sewer,when I get my bill in the mail, I pay online,
but every month I'm getting an envelope. So if there could be something attached to the indication
of that bill being paid,how it was paid, was it paid online, was it paid at a kiosk, whatever. If that
person for the next three (3)times pays online like I do, then don't insert an envelope in the billing
because that saves paper, that saves postage, and those could go out as thinner, lighter envelopes
and we could help the environment, because all people are going to do is just pitch that envelope.
I'm talking about the return envelope to insert a check and pay the bill. I'm guessing that an awful
lot of people are paying online now, we don't need that extra envelope. So, my little tiny
contribution to climate change is, I'd like to see that as one (1) of the things that's tracked in the
new billing software that we're paying over a half a million dollars for.
Committee Chair White stated,Thank you so much. We appreciate your comments.Again, all the
comments, questions will be submitted to the various departments and we will be receiving
responses to those and they will be posted.
Councilmember Dr. Davis asked, Mr. Horvath, have you checked in with that EcoPatch? You
know,the gentleman that talked about that and as a way of saving? He's always saying that he tries
to reached out to the City. Where are we with that? He says that he's working with the City of
Indianapolis. He has a contract with the City of Indianapolis that is saving monies and that their
patches last longer than what we are doing, and not to eliminate what we are doing, but to add on,
because the City of Indianapolis they said, and his explanation, if I can get it right,they, of course,
can't do all the patches. No one can. So the patches that they cannot do, he can do, which adds to
what they're doing. What are your thoughts on where we are with that? And, that's the key thing.
Mr. Horvath replied, So the EcoPatch is a piece of equipment, actually a brand of equipment. We
have a similar piece of equipment that does the same thing. So it's a unit that does it all from that
one(1)thing. So it blows the hole out,it puts in a little agent,and then there's like a gravel or some
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kind of substantive agent on it. And so the problem is that they're very expensive. We only have
one (1) of those. And then we also do a lot of problem patching with the hot boxes and the walk
behind. And those don't last nearly as long as the one (1) that is very similar to the EcoPatch. I
believe we have one of those in budget for a second(2nd) unit.
Councilmember Dr. Davis followed up, Is it better in terms of having some of the services
contracted out with that? Because my understanding, and you probably may know this, but the
Indianapolis model hired on others to facilitate that other part of it. So it wasn't just buying the
individual equipment and having current people work it, but it was the current people who
continued to do what they did,but then having another supplier to finish that,which in some sense
could save in the cost of benefits and everything else. There was union and non-union kind of
issues we had to deal with from that standpoint. But I think they were able to work out something
to that understanding. Is that where you know about that or something similar?
Mr. Horvath replied, Sure, we could look at that. So we've got our staffing levels set to meet some
of our needs with snow plowing,leaf operations, and things like that. And so when we add one(1)
of these patchers, it will be more efficient than what we have with the hot boxes. And so I think
you're going to outsource that piece. We can definitely look at it,but it may be more expensive to
outsource it because you have the existing staff able to use that machine and do it that were already
using the hot boxes, if that makes sense.
Councilmember Dr. Davis followed up, Yeah, it makes sense. If your team could just look at the
numbers, because I see all the funding, as she mentioned. I mean we see on a lot of social media
this thing that our City is not saving the money that we could because of this, because of that. It
may be true, it may not be true. I don't know. So I rely on you to be able to say how it impacts
South Bend more than anybody else with all of that.And then the last thing I'll say,with the monies
that go for the City Council people,oftentimes the challenge that we face is when that money runs
out, for the streets, then people are told, well you can call another City and you can get half the
price and half of your block done and they say well,my neighbor down here,they got all this done
and now why are you offering me a half deal when my neighbor got that? You see some of the
conflicts that the new Council Members are going to have to face on those kinds of things, any
suggestions into any of those kind of things that can be dealt with?
Mr. Horvath replied,We continue to look at our sidewalk program and,honestly, I don't know that
we've gotten to the correct scenario yet. The reimbursement program, which I think is a good
program, is not highly utilized. And even this year we reduced, well, so we did a pilot program
this year. We added businesses to the mix and we also added target areas with low-income
populations and we increased this. We doubled the reimbursement rates in those areas. We had a
handful of people apply, but we only had two (2)people do the program. Actually,we didn't have
anyone, maybe two (2)businesses. I don't know that it was anybody in the target areas.
Councilmember Dr. Davis followed up, When you do those kinds of things, or maybe I just
completely missed it because I had an interestingly busy year, but if you could make sure that the
Council people know that, so if there's some businesses within our districts, that we see that, even
for homeowners,we could go back to the whole thing. Like I was saying a little earlier,let us know
what we can do in our own flyers to take care of the district so that business owners could call a
John Voorde and say, I got this. And he can say, Yeah, we just increased that. You can call.
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Mr. Horvath replied, Yeah. And I've got a brochure I'll get out to you guys.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, I appreciate it, Sir.
Mr. Horvath stated, But I hear you one hundred percent(100%), like there's, unfortunately, we all
know the demands here. And there's only so much. Each allocation you have, I'm sure you have
ten(10)times the amount of requests than you have funding.
Councilmember Dr. Davis stated, I'm at peace. I'm good.
Committee Chair White stated, I'm going to ask for an additional five (5) minutes. We've gone
over on our time, but I'm going to ask Mrs. Brooks to come and speak with regard to the disparity
study, the purpose, the value, and the overall role of the study, but also in regard to your role in
terms of recruitment and the relationship with the Police Department.
Ms. Brooks stated, Yes, thank you Council. One (1) of the challenges to diversity and inclusion
work is that many, when they embark on this journey, have a very specific idea of what success
looks like for diversity and inclusion and that in many cases it's very visual. And without really
looking at some of the underlying issues that create disparities in diverse workforces and,not only
in the recruitment of ethnically and racially diverse candidates,but also the retention of such.
She continued, So what I'd like to do is address the fact that as one (1) part of my role with the
City of South Bend that covered not only workplace, workforce, community purchasing,
contracting, small, local, minority, women, Section Three (3) HUD Zone, Business of Veteran,
disabled business, enterprise development, and also oversight of the Human Rights Commission.
When I began working with the South Bend Police Department,there had been a thorough review
of the department itself and I did my own review and spoke with officers about some of the
underlying issues to recruitment for ethnically and racially diverse candidates and the retention of
such. And so based on those conversations, as a diversity and inclusion and equity practitioner, I
set about creating a strategic plan that would first(1st)address the underlying issues and the internal
environment issues before we embarked on trying to do the quick and, what some people would
coin, the sexy in activity, which is just fill up the seats, fill up the cars, with people with color,
without addressing the real issues that were underlying it.
She went on, And so, as part of that process, it started with the Climate Survey and we took the
temperature internally of the officers that were currently on staff. And based on their feedback,
there was a lack of transparency on promotions and how officers became eligible for open
positions, and also how officers would be eligible to move up or into different departments. And
so to address that, we created a staff performance evaluation system, which is really not normal
for public safety offices. Generally if they do exist, they're very basic. But to address the needs of
the officers here in the City of South Bend, we really took our time in developing and asking for
their input as to what they needed and what they wanted to see in a staff performance evaluation
system, and we designed that staff performance evaluation system. Additionally, we created a
career path development system, and all of this was created in-house. We didn't buy an off-the-
shelf system which would have cost the City hundreds of thousands of dollars.This was something
that was created on a laptop in my office. And so that system now serves as the City's staff
performance evaluation system, with the Police Department being the pilot department that
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actuallystarted usingit, and now again serves as the City staff performance evaluation system and
g
career path development.
She continued, Now that we have addressed being able to identify problems internally and look at
them on a case-by-case basis and coaching officers that are supervising other officers on how to
do that more regularly instead of waiting until the end of the year. Now we can start looking at
bringing new people into the department. That's what the homegrown project is. And so I
understand completely that most people think that this is something that can happen overnight.
Sometimes people think that it takes a matter of months to make this turnaround,but when you're
trying to change and shift a culture that has been in place for decades, it is not going to happen
overnight. It takes time. It takes being able to use that time to talk to the people and the officers
that are actually living that day-to-day experience and talking to the community that they serve.
And so I will not apologize for taking my time and doing both of those things and creating the
system that I believe this community needed. And so that's the answer to the question about ethnic
and racial diversity within the Police Department in the City of South Bend.
She went on, On the issue of the disparity study, this City, possibly in this chamber, thirty-two
(32) years ago at the instruction and the leadership of Eugenia Bradley, wrote an ordinance, and
all that the community was asking at that time was that minority businesses have a fair shot at
getting City dollars in contracting and procurement. And in 1987 that was a hope that was really
dashed in 1989 because of a Supreme Court case, the City of Richmond versus Croson, and that
case scared a lot of cities into doing away with their minority and women business programs.
In that court case, the court did not say that you could not have a program. It said that you had to
have a narrowly tailored program and that you couldn't use the general discrimination of a
population to create a program that was affirmative for minority businesses. It said that you had to
have very specific evidence in your city, in your marketplace, that showed that discrimination was
taking place. And so because of that case, the City of South Bend, no different from other cities
all across the nation, stepped back from the program that the community wanted because at the
time we did not have a legal standing to hold people accountable to the ordinance that was
originally written.
She continued,This City came back in 2011 and amended that ordinance, with again the hope that
we would, as a City, make good on the promise that we had made in 1987 and, again,because we
did not have a disparity study which was spelled out in very specific terms, that we had cause to
take affirmative action towards targeting minority and women businesses for special consideration.
It wasn't until 2018 that this Council, with their leadership and the Mayor of this City, with the
community support, said, we are going to do what is necessary to actually hold people accountable
to a promise that we made in this community thirty-two(32)years ago.And that is why on October
3'd, 2019 at 5:00 p.m., we will be presenting findings that will allow this City to hold people
accountable and to hold ourselves accountable for the City funds that we spend in making sure that
we are doing right by minority and women businesses.
She went on, So I hope everyone who is in attendance tonight, and people out in the community
that may be watching this online, will be there on October 3`d, 2019 so that you can hear what we
have already started to do to address the disparities in our processes and our policies and what we
plan to do in the future. Thank you.
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CITY OFSOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
Committee Chair White stated, Thank you. I appreciate not only the Council Members, but the
Clerk's Office and our Attorney for staying beyond the time that we had scheduled, but also the
public and the Administration and others for staying until the extended time. So, I appreciate that.
It's been a good discussion, a lot of good recommendations, and we will be moving forward. So
thank you so much. The next budget meeting is going to be on October 2nd, 2019. You can send
questions that were not articulated to the Clerk's Office and to Dan Parker.
With no further business,Committee Chair White adjourned the Personnel and Finance Committee
meeting at 8:00 p.m.
Respect 11 Submitted,
Kare White, Committee Chair
EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT
455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 vvvvw.southbendin.gov
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