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REGULAR MEETING March 25, 2019
<br /> Councilmember Karen White, chair of the Personnel and Finance Committee, reported that they
<br /> met this afternoon and send these bills forward with favorable recommendations.
<br /> Dan Parker, City Controller for the City of South Bend with offices located on the 12th floor of the
<br /> County-City Building, South Bend, IN, served as the presenter for these bills. Mr. Parker stated,
<br /> Starting with Bill No. 07-19, this is a budget transfer bill. If you turn to the detail tab (referencing
<br /> a page in the Council Member Packet, available in the City Clerk's Office), these transfers do not
<br /> increase or decrease appropriations. They are simply moving money around, so we can better track
<br /> where these expenditures are coming from. The largest one (1) on there is for the donation we
<br /> received from the Pokagon Band for the Howard Park renovation and construction that is going
<br /> on currently. That is being moved so that we can segregate those monies and track how they are
<br /> being spent for the purposes of reporting back to them. I would be happy to answer any questions
<br /> you may have. Moving onto Bill No. 08-19, this is the additional appropriations request for Civil
<br /> City Funds. So,these are segregated out into four(4)buckets of additional appropriations requests.
<br /> The first (Pt) bucket is unanticipated expenses. So, this is what you would expect additional
<br /> appropriations requests to be which are items that have come up since the development of the 2019
<br /> budget, or, were not known since the development of the 2019 budget. The second (2nd) bucket
<br /> are items supported by new revenue. These are primarily dollars that came in the form of grants
<br /> that we did not get in time to put them into the 2019 budget. So, we are asking that the Council
<br /> approve those expenditures so that we can spend those grant dollars. The third (3rd) bucket is
<br /> Capital Projects. These are funds that are a part of a larger capital project that has already been
<br /> approved by Council. When Council approves Capital Projects, it is difficult to know whether the
<br /> funds will be spent in 2018 or 2019. So, we tend to approve the full amount of the project but,
<br /> invariably, some of those funds aren't spent just in terms of timing and construction. So, we are
<br /> coming back to you to ask the remainder of the amount that was already approved in 2018 be
<br /> approved in 2019 for additional spending. Then the last bucket is what I've titled Administrative
<br /> Items.Those are somewhat similar to Capital Projects in that these are items that were appropriated
<br /> in 2018 but were not spent. So, we are asking these items be appropriated in 2019 so that we can
<br /> complete the projects as appropriate.
<br /> Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated, I have a question and some comments. I like the clarity with
<br /> which you've added to this report with the subsections. I think that is very helpful not only for
<br /> Council but for members of the public. I am really excited about the over $3 million in grant
<br /> funding. I am wondering if Council,perhaps, could have some identification of the individuals on
<br /> staff who actually did that work because I would specifically like to thank them. I think my Council
<br /> peers would think the same way. It's extraordinary to have these types of grant dollars coming into
<br /> our City for projects we've all spoken in favor of for a long time. So, I would like to have that list
<br /> if at all possible.
<br /> Mr. Parker replied, Absolutely. We will get you a full list. I do know these specific grants were
<br /> spearheaded by Suzanna Fritzberg in the Mayor's Office as well as working with Pam Meyer in
<br /> DCI.
<br /> Councilmember Jo M. Broden followed up, Great, thank you. My last question, I'm sorry, you
<br /> answered quite a few questions in Committee. Just a reminder to the public, that is a portion of the
<br /> public record. So, thank you very much for your efforts earlier today. One (1) question though,
<br /> outstanding, the school zone flashing beacons, and I would be surprised if you know this to this
<br /> specificity, but could you follow up please on where those flashing beacons will be installed?
<br /> Mr. Parker replied, Yes. And you are correct, I do not know that but, yes, we will follow up with
<br /> you on that.
<br /> Mr. Parker continued, Bill No. 09-19 is a similar bill to 08-19 in that this is an additional
<br /> appropriation request, but this is for the enterprise funds as opposed to the civil city funds. Again,
<br /> it is broken down into subsections.The only item in the unanticipated bucket is$200,000 for clean-
<br /> up of the former Drewry's Brewery site. This will be augmented by $200,000 that will be going
<br /> before the Redevelopment Commission on Thursday. This will be the City's portion of the clean-
<br /> up. As we discussed in Committee earlier, all expenses the City incurs, related to this clean-up,
<br /> will be added to the property tax bill for the property owner. The Administrative Items bucket is
<br /> largely due to debt service payments due on January 1st, 2019. These debt service payments were
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