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REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 24. 2016 Mr. Schmidt responded it is a multitude of statutes that come together. There is the power to appoint an executive director, appraisers, real estate experts, engineers, architects, surveyors, and attorneys which is under Indiana Code Thirty -Six (36). There is also some authority there to appoint clerks, guards, laborers and other employees advisable. If you read any communication which talks about supervisory level employees, that is why we have yet to give our full vote of confidence that it extends beyond the traditional professional services. Councilmember Davis asked who gives that full vote of confidence, the Administration or the Council. Mr. Schmidt stated his guess is that it should be a combination of all parties working together. There should also be consultations with State Board of Accounts. Councilmember Davis asked that when the Legal Department does that research to keep the Council Attorney in the loop with this. Again, this is a much wider scope of professional services that we could use for our fiscal curb issues. Councilmember Williams- Preston stated her concern is where does this end. We can either look at this to increase salaries for some of our folks who make less but TIFs do end eventually. She asked what happens when we are funding something exclusive from TIF but then the TIF is disbanded. We could just keep doing TIFs forever but they do take away from other things when the tax money is set aside. It sounds like this maybe hasn't been vetted to the point it should be even though she does believe in attracting top talent. We are being asked to pass this now without a policy around it. Mr. Schmidt stated he would like to reiterate that the City is very comfortable with its position that professional services are reimbursable through TIF funds. What we are not certain about yet is whether that power extends beyond traditional professional services. That is the aspect we are still looking into but we don't want to give the Council any pause that this is not legal. We do have the absolute full authority to do this for professional services and we have done so since dating back to 2008 to fund professional services and that is all we are funding in this ordinance. Council Attorney Cekanski - Farrand stated she concurs with the Legal Department that there are five (5) positions that are of record of being fully funded or partially funded through TIF dollars and all of them fall under that professional category. The second test is when you broaden it because you have to have a merit system in place. That is when the Administration would need to discuss with the Council. Until that happens you should take that narrower path and that is the position that the Administration has taken which she concurs with. No one from the public spoke in favor of the bill. Those from the public wishing to speak in opposition to the bill: Jesse Davis, P.O. Box 10205 South Bend IN, stated the big issue here with the public isn't where the funding is coming from because you always find ways to fund it. Our concern is the amount of some of these ridiculous raises. We heard several years ago when the Mayor was first elected that he wanted to give enormous raises, many to the same exact positions we are discussing now, and we got the same excuse from the Mayor that we got back then. We haven't seen this retainment at all, the Community Investment Department had an exodus of people not long ago and the same with the IT Department. We have seen multiple Chiefs of Staff in the Mayor's Office. We have not seen any retention, we have seen what is supposed to be top talent but bottom line they keep leaving so we keep raising these salaries up. Every time we hire in someone new we keep paying these top salaries but we are not retaining. We are not seeing any results for the excuses we are given. We have people living under the bridge down the street but the City wants to dole out huge raises. If any Councilmember can vote this through, he promised them the people would make sure they will not get reelected. Steve Francis, 54174 Juday Lake Drive South Bend IN, stated he has questions about this. Back in 2008 when the LOIT was approved, he stated he spoke on behalf of a large organization in favor of that tax and he did so because he wanted to emphasize that the City was facing property tax caps and would have issues keeping up with the maintenance of the parks and other City functions. He stated he did not support it in order to approve raises of these amounts in one (1) 14