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CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> are the Council, that kind of vis versa that you mentioned. I appreciate that. I don't want to lose
<br /> that and that gets down to while I know that the Plan Commission composition and the BZA
<br /> composition,is all regulated by law in terms of who serves and who appoints, I really do think the
<br /> piece about who we ask to serve on this, their qualifications, the acknowledgement of their
<br /> conflicts they can bring,recusing themselves from decisions, I mean, I think it really gets down to
<br /> that but also the training that would go in place. Because, what comes to us, I've appreciated the
<br /> sorting out that happens at the Commission levels, but the information we get, and even though
<br /> it's a recommendation, I take those seriously and I review them and kind of junk in, junk out,
<br /> right?The quality of the people who serve on that and who serves on it, and qualifications, I think,
<br /> really does matter in terms of kind of previewing sort of the tough decisions that we have to
<br /> consider as a Council. So, I guess a long way of saying is, in some regards with the composition,
<br /> while it is directed by Indiana Law, qualifications of those appointed individuals, whether it is
<br /> ours,the Mayors or they are coming from a department, and their training, is so important to their
<br /> ability to act independently and to also consider public input at that stage and that level before it
<br /> even comes to Council, you know, as well as staff, right? And the overall plan as a City, to me,
<br /> it's that convergence of all those things that go on. It's a preview.What are the sticky issues?What
<br /> are the easy issues? And I appreciate the level of expertise that we do get from somebody who has
<br /> been a surveyor for thirty (30) years. There are all those levels of expertise that I know I don't
<br /> have, but I do appreciate that combination where staff input comes and then you have sort of this
<br /> really public process that enables members with different levels of expertise that I would never
<br /> have or pretend to have. So,how they're trained and their qualifications,that's big,in my opinion,
<br /> as to whether or not we will actually get the benefit that we think we will get with regard to this
<br /> change.
<br /> Committee Chair Davis stated, I think one (1) thing you shared that Councilmember Voorde
<br /> alluded to, in terms of this overall partnership we have with the County having some insight in, if
<br /> we go this way and we have it on our own, I hope we don't go this way for MACOG. I hope we
<br /> don't go this way with other things and then we start pulling out of every single thing. We could
<br /> put out of MACOG and we could do that, too, because MACOG, we have people from four (4)
<br /> different counties sharing ideas that come on different issues. The Western Avenue viaduct, that
<br /> was stuff from MACOG and we had people from all over the county weighing in on that decision
<br /> too. And then I weigh in on all the things over there from all these other little towns, some of them
<br /> I've never been to. Then, I kind of have to go visit them so I can make a halfway decent decision.
<br /> But, it does force you to get out and see how life is around the whole area because of those
<br /> meetings. And I was on MACOG for that too, and know you're on that,too, so, I don't want us to
<br /> have this trend of moving away from all of that when that has been an asset in some ways. At the
<br /> same time, I do like the idea of South Bend. So, I'm not rushing to that. So, when I saw that time
<br /> schedule, that has been my biggest hold up. You saw me at the budget time pull this out, kind of
<br /> thing, because I felt we were rushing too fast to start it in June. There is a whole bunch of change
<br /> around this table and to throw this into a new Council kind of concept, we have to be real with
<br /> each other with that, ok? And so, it gives us some chance to look at it. The Council is going to
<br /> change,the Mayor thing is going to change, whoever it's going to be and all that and then put this
<br /> into that,is this the best time?Or,should we look at having all those changes in the current system?
<br /> Is that safer for the benefit of our City given the amount of change we are dealing with at this time
<br /> in our life? That is something I want everyone to be real with and think about.
<br /> Councilmember Jake Teshka asked, Mr. Corcoran, do you have,readily available or could you get
<br /> rather quickly, what the City has paid in terms of fees to the APC over the last year? That would
<br /> EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT
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