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0 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK He went on, The team has done a fantastic job of taking us to the next level, not just technically, but in terms of having the right legal formation and the right support professionally so that we're able to get an advantage. Councilmember Tim Scott arrived at the meeting at 5:08 p.m. Mayor Buttigieg continued, Reading between the lines with the EPA, we found that they also like the idea of using this as a case to showcase the problem solving of how to get to a better way. They don't want to be perceived as the kind of inflexible bureaucracy, but they also have their own mandate that they have to follow. For the City, this really is a policy question. It is important for the public to understand how this gets negotiated. We have a balance between compliance and affordability. There is some sum of money, where we can make sure that not one (1) drop ever goes into the river, and the cost of that would make it impossible for South Bend.We are still tilted too far away from affordability in order to get compliance in terms of the percentage that households would be paying a major chunk of their income in their sewer bills under the plan that was locked in before. It's way too high. The great news is that we have had a third (3rd) way out where we can get improvements in compliance and improvements in affordability. The Council can play a really important role in helping the public understand that this is not about going back and having a more polluted river in order to save money, but we went back and found a plan that would get the kind of compliance we want and save money, but they have to let us do it. I wanted to be here to let you know there may be moments when we need to enlist the Council Members as advocates of the residents to help add your voice that the sense of the Council is that the City really would be better off if and when the EPA allows us to do what we know is a better answer to this problem. Committee Chair Teshka thanked the Mayor for his comments and opened the floor to Committee and Council Members for questions. Councilmember Karen White stated, You made mention of the plan and the level of negotiations that we have to have with the EPA. At what point will we have the sense of where the negotiations will have to take place, and what we need to do? Have we or will we be submitting a new plan and what is that timeframe? You may have that in your presentation, and I don't think that you will have any difficulties with the Council Members being advocates. We know at this point, we want to be in compliance, but it has to be affordable and we have to be concerned for our citizens too. Eric Horvath, Director of Public Works with offices on the 13th floor of the County-City Building stated, Kieran will answer some of those, but I'll add to the Mayor's comments. We have given them a stage plan, which we are going to talk about again today. We've gotten really good reception from some of the folks, in particular, from the Regional Administrator and staff. Some of the folks who were part of the original plan are pushing back a bit,so we don't know fully where we're going to be yet.We're going to push hard so we can get something done this year. Sometimes these things take five (5) years, and it may go into litigation if it has to. We don't anticipate that and we don't hope for that, but we are hopeful that because we do have a plan that provides environmental benefit but also for lesser dollars, it seems to us on its face to be a win win for everybody. Hopefully it is something they can ultimately embrace and get excited about,but we'll have to get them there. We'll be meeting with them in about three (3) weeks, and then we'll just continue to meet on a regular basis until we get the solution ironed out. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 2