Laserfiche WebLink
®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK <br /> Committee Chair White stated, I would like to echo what Councilmember Davis stated about <br /> membership in professional organizations. On our budget,where would that be placed?And if we <br /> are going to do that, we probably need to be looking at additional dollars or reallocating that. <br /> President Scott replied, We can look at that. It is under, I think there is a line item titled <br /> subscriptions. But I will look at that. I want to clean up a couple things within this. One (1)thing <br /> that we have done, and Clerk Fowler please correct me if I'm wrong, but we have given back and <br /> we don't really burn through our entire budget. We've given back about$10,000 or$20,000 every <br /> year so we can be creative with it. <br /> Councilmember Davis interjected,Because I know depending on different people's schedules,last <br /> ygar I was able to use my travel budget but this year my schedule didn't allow me to go to some <br /> of the things I wanted. I know not every year we have used that. <br /> President Scott replied, Travel is at$5,000 and we have kept that the same every year. <br /> Councilmember Davis followed up,I was asked this over at Southmore,and we were talking about <br /> having a meeting with Council Members there. When we go to meetings like that, do we have in <br /> our budget to provide refreshments? Is that already in our budget or have we put that in there? <br /> President Scott replied, Yeah, we do have a portion under PR and we have done that. We have <br /> been creative with that. <br /> Councilmember Davis followed up, When you were talking about promotional activities like <br /> Mayor's Night Out and things like that, how do we get that out to neighborhoods? Are we just <br /> using TV?Do we use mailers? What do we do? <br /> President Scott replied, We put it on social media and send press releases and,honestly,the media <br /> has been doing a good job of picking up what we are doing and when we are doing it. We can look <br /> at that. <br /> Councilmember Davis interjected, I think with, that's twenty-one percent (21%) that you said of <br /> people knowing who their member is, and then considering the fact that we have new Council and <br /> we are really new and since that and so twofold and so, I think we need to do more to beef that up. <br /> President Scott replied, And that is kind of the theme is awareness. We need people to know who <br /> we are and get the information out about what we are doing, accurately and often. We can look at <br /> that. We have room in the budget to look at that. I do want to mention, though, with Residential <br /> Neighborhoods and the bus tours, that, I think, has been a very good highlight. We try to do as <br /> much bang for the buck as we can. That is where Clerk Fowler and I sit down from time to time <br /> to see where we can allocate. You've seen the make overs for the office over the years but now it <br /> is the cameras and the quality so people can see what we are doing in here. For instance when the <br /> Women's Care Center thing came up,the speakers weren't really working out there. It is a County <br /> thing but what I really like is Clerk Fowler and others have taken a lead and the County follows <br /> suit. We work out a deal with them but they kind of defer to us on improving the technology. We <br /> do need to go to some higher resolution cameras. We will continue being creative. If you have <br /> ideas we need to talk about that. <br /> EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT <br /> 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 1 www.southbendin.gov <br /> 12 <br />