09-28-15 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING September 28, 2015 to spend the bulk of his or her time on public safety, given the heightened interest in the public and on the Council in making sure that our next generation of public safety officers are as diverse and reflective of the community as possible. This will also be a strategic advisor for the administration and will be asked to engage in professional service as necessary. I also want to draw attention to the creation of an HR position with a focus on public safety. This position while it is about more than diversity certainly it is our expectation that it is going create processes that better establish and document the merit basis or promotion and personnel decisions in the Police and Fire Departments, which we believe will help to ensure and demonstrate the basis for those decisions. Expanding opportunity is also a reason we are asking that Municipal IDs be included in this budget. I just want to be clear about where we are in the process. We believe that every resident will be better off if it is possible to be a card carrying resident of South Bend. We are still designing the details of the program. We are encountering a lot of aspects of this program that need to be thought through. We are sufficiently committed to the process and the concept that we are budgeting for now. In other words it’s necessary to have those funds in the budget in order to be able to roll out the process when the time comes. It’s budgeted for conservatively as you’ll see in the presentation. And we think it’s going to be the right thing to do. I probably should just restate that for a number of people who are here specifically on that issue. (In audible spoken in Spanish) This is not a vote on the ID cards this would lead when the budget is acted on to having the resources to do it when the time comes. I know there are a lot of people here interested in that. Overall as was stated when I first came before Council earlier this year to discuss the budget the single biggest category of expense is public safety, followed by economic development. Including continuing to plan for vibrant neighborhoods, with investment in vacant properties, Light Up South Bend and Curbs and Sidewalks. Also, trying to increase our ability to connect residents to the economic opportunities that are taking place including increasing labor force participation. I also want to reemphasize what we are trying to do with compensation. Raising the minimum wage for our City employees to $10.10 over the next three (3) years and using efficiency gains increase and at the same time having an across the board increase in the salary maximum for non-bargaining positions. We are continuing to invest in quality of life in our parks and we’re trying to be more efficient through innovation which is why we’ll continue robust funding for innovation and technology. Last but not least I do want to emphasize our determination to sustain South Bend’s superior AA credit rating. That happens as a result of the tough decisions that this Council and the previous Administration have made. We are continuing to make the choices that we believe put us on a sustainable path through the long run. I will leave to John and colleagues to offer the detail presentation. Before I step away from the Chamber I wanted to see if there are any questions about the strategy or philosophy of the budget that is on the councilmembers’ minds at this time before proceeding. Committee of the Whole Chairperson- I will go straight down the roll Councilmember Henry Davis Jr. Councilmember Henry Davis Jr. - Mayor so glad to see you today and I appreciate your presence today at this meeting. I have been paying attention and I have been at all but one (1) budget hearing. I was in the back earlier asking some of my colleagues about their feelings about the budget process. I have come to understand, just for me, that it has been a very difficult realization for the lack of vision that has been put forth as to the reason or the requests of many departments. I was reluctant to hear the vision to why each department was asking for X-amount of dollars for the next year. In conclusion to what my colleagues and I were talking about it just sounds like that it’s going to be the same thing that happened last year that will occur this year, so business as usual. My question because you continue to talk about diversity each year the numbers in diversity have fallen as a total City workforce, year one (1), year two (2), and year three (3) as well. If we’re going to be looking to create a fund or create a position as it relates to diversity will you allow the Council when it comes to the decision to be a part of the process when it comes to choosing who that person is? I ask that because you’re numbers have not proven to match up to what you say you want to do. It is undeniable it’s in the numbers. I am asking because we get the questions, I don’t particularly know if you get questions like we get them. We tend to get pointed as the fault of the City and I find that to be unfair because we don’t have it. Then people say we need a more diversified workforce, we need to see people that look 19