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REGULAR MEETING October 10, 2016 <br />Councilmember Oliver Davis made a motion to send Bill 55 -16 to the full Council with a <br />favorable recommendation. Councilmember John Voorde seconded the motion which carried by <br />a voice vote of nine (9) ayes <br />57 -16 PUBLIC HEARING ON AN ORDINANCE OF <br />THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF <br />SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, SETTING THE <br />ANNUAL SALARY FOR THE SOUTH BEND <br />CITY CLERK FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2017 <br />Councilmember Regina Williams- Preston made a motion to continue Bill 57 -16 until October <br />24th, 2016. Councilmember Oliver Davis seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of <br />nine (9) ayes. <br />58 -16 PUBLIC HEARING ON AN ORDINANCE OF <br />THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF <br />SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, AMENDING <br />CHAPTER 20, ARTICLE 1, SECTION 20 -18 AND <br />CHAPTER 2, ARTICLE 19, SECTION 2 -213 OF <br />THE SOUTH BEND MUNICIPAL CODE TO <br />INCREASE PARKING FINES, AND TO ADD A <br />NEW SECTION 20 -23.1 TO PROVIDE FOR <br />DISCRETIONARY AMNESTY BY CITY CLERK <br />Councilmember Karen White, Committee Chair of the Personnel and Finance, reported that they <br />met and send this forward with a favorable recommendation. <br />Aaron Perri, Director of the Parks Department, served as the petitioner and presenter of this bill. <br />He stated he will be discussing in this presentation not only this ordinance but also things that <br />pertain to Bill 16 -81 which the Council will hear later tonight. The Power Point presentation <br />used by Mr. Perri is on file with the City Clerk's Office. Last summer, the Department of <br />Community Investment and DTSB went under a six (6) month parking study where they hired a <br />group to evaluate our entire parking program downtown. We looked at our current supply, future <br />demand, turnover rates, occupancy rates, and benchmarked what other cities are doing. It was <br />heavily weighted with stakeholder engagement throughout. We heard from the parkers, <br />businesses, and a public survey was distributed. In late February and early March of this year the <br />findings were presented at a public meeting at the Century Center and was shortly thereafter <br />posted on the City website. Throughout the summer we made sure we met individually with <br />stakeholder groups that are going to be impacted by these findings whether they be rate changes <br />or other changes. We went through a tremendous amount of input to ensure we are bringing the <br />Council the best possible legislation. We also did some legal and technical preparation, there are <br />some really new and creative things we are introducing to South Bend and we are making sure <br />we have the technology available to execute those ideas. That brings us here today to approve <br />these changes and embed them in the 2017 budget. There are a large amount of deferred <br />maintenance projects in the garages and the need for new signage as well. We will have some <br />new automation that helps us accept credit cards and automatic payments. <br />Mr. Perri continued by explaining the three (3) large findings: First, there is a sufficient parking <br />supply to keep up with increasing demand. There are some blocks that are deficient but there are <br />many blocks that have more than enough supply so there are some programmatic changes we <br />need to put in place to ensure that proper parking is allocated. The average stay in DTSB is just <br />under two (2) hours so it comes to show that the one (1) hour spaces are really not being used <br />and we intend to change all of those to two (2) hours. We will keep the fifteen (15) minute <br />spaces. We also plan to make all grace periods in the garages consistent at two (2) hours free at <br />all three (3) garages. Second, parking garage rates are too low to sustain operational and capital <br />needs. Our rates are however significantly lower than other municipalities. We hope to <br />implement some creative alternate rate structures and introduce some things we have never seen <br />