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•CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> to reiterate a couple of them, but I am glad to see that we are doing this earlier and I appreciate
<br /> you taking those suggestions seriously. One(1)of the things I found was a Ted Talk regarding the
<br /> Fire Department in West Virginia, they reduced their opioid recurrences by forty percent (40%),
<br /> which is really significant, and I want us to look at what they are doing to see if we could do this
<br /> here. One(1)of the main things is that they just didn't show up,revive the person, and leave.They
<br /> showed up with wrap around services. They made sure that a safety net was there for there them.
<br /> You're welcome to watch that. I'd like to reiterate, I think I have been bringing this up the last
<br /> three(3) years I've been doing this. Milwaukee did a true cost of a shooting. They figured out that
<br /> it is $700,000, when someone is shot. Responders, ER, all the investigating, jails, prosecutors,
<br /> everything. I really would like to know our true cost of violence in our City. Primarily because if
<br /> s.
<br /> we know the true cost, we can also justify the prevention and we can look at where some of those
<br /> costs that are happening. And I also said, we don't have a morgue anymore, so we are tying up
<br /> officers accompanying bodies to either Kalamazoo or Ft. Wayne and then we are paying them. We
<br /> have travel time and then we break the chain of custody for evidence and that doesn't get
<br /> prosecuted correctly. I still want to know the cost of a shooting. I still want to know if having a
<br /> morgue locally is a more cost-effective solution. Being with a family that has had someone shot
<br /> and killed, that delay of having the body in Kalamazoo or Ft. Wayne is very excruciating to a
<br /> family that's already in crisis. So, that's another emotional toll that happens.
<br /> She continued, Based on the last Public Works update, only twenty percent (20%) of sewers are
<br /> done, we have eighty percent (80%) still sitting on our plate according to Eric Horvath. That's
<br /> significant. We are on an eighty-five (85) year plan for the streets, only eight (8) to twenty-five
<br /> (25) miles are being done every year. We have 2200 miles of streets. We can't be on an eighty-
<br /> five (85) year plan. Those things need to be looked at up front, and our water. I am concerned
<br /> about the heavy metal discharge. I want to know where the percentage is on the updates for the
<br /> water treatment. Although we have had good water reports, it's always something that has to be
<br /> kept up because it's so vitally important. Lastly, we seem to have a lot of consulting expenses, I
<br /> think, I have to look this is from memory, I think it's like one(1) year there was 18 million dollars
<br /> spent on consulting. Study for this, study for that. $50,000 for this, $150,000 for this study and I
<br /> think that needs to be reined in. I understand that sometimes you have to have a specific consultant,
<br /> but I think it's been a little too generous. You know we keep redoing studies for the South Shore,
<br /> how many studies, upon studies, upon studies—before you guys approve another study, look at
<br /> the ones that have been already done. Look at maybe paring the costs back. Maybe look at hiring
<br /> people in our region so that we keep that money in that economy close rather than hiring someone
<br /> from California. Those are a few of my thoughts and I appreciate your time.
<br /> Jason Banicki, 3822 Ford Street stated, First (1St), thank you for doing this on both sides. I
<br /> appreciate the Mayor's Office and the City in general for their time. I have just a few general
<br /> thoughts, and maybe a few statements. When it comes to the salary and benefit break ups, maybe
<br /> one(1)way is to do it in three(3)tiers, executive tier,management tier and regular employee tier.
<br /> When you see $87,000 altogether, that's kind of a high number and if you can kind of see where
<br /> those tiers are, you can see where those dollars are being allocated. Centralized purchasing is a
<br /> good first (1') step, but have we looked at bringing all of our City departments together and
<br /> partnering with the County and Mishawaka? Again, the bigger our economy of scale is,the bigger
<br /> our savings will be. Let's just not look at our own self but let's look at our neighboring
<br /> governments who are trying to save the same dollars.And possibly expand that with our healthcare
<br /> as well. The County has seen savings with their healthcare clinic. If we partner again with
<br /> Mishawaka and County,the savings should go even higher. One(1) of the things we could look at
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