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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> So,it moved back. Another note is that in terms of averaging or generalizing,at one(1)given RDC
<br /> meeting, all we might talk about is giving permission to someone using the Gridiron for an event.
<br /> At another one (1), there may be three (3) major projects on the docket. So, it's hard to average
<br /> out across those attendance and press interest and so on. Usually, when the packet goes out, I start
<br /> getting calls from certain members of the press and so on, asking me what it's about. So, they are
<br /> involved. As far as transparency goes, we are, as a governmental and City entity, absolutely and
<br /> diligently transparent. As we've noted, the packets go out. President Scott, I will address the
<br /> comment you made about going out earlier. The packets go out and everything is online.
<br /> Everything down to the minutes is absolutely and completely transparent and shared with all
<br /> Council Members. There is a huge list. If the press or anyone else wants to be on that list, all they
<br /> need to do is ask. They will get the agendas, full packets, minutes and so on all sent to them. I
<br /> think I've noted before, even for Council,the staff takes the extra step of listing which district any
<br /> given project is happening in, so you can zero (0) in on those if you would like.
<br /> He went on, One (1) of the big things on this is just the nature of the business that takes place.
<br /> Going back to the three (3) that happened right now, the Council is very directly the City
<br /> interfacing with the consumer, the citizen. The Parks Board, City to the resident. HPC is City to
<br /> the resident. With other examples like the Board of Public Works,which is where the most money
<br /> is spent than any other Board or Commission, that happens during the day because it is business
<br /> to business focused. It is contracts being made with contractors and the City. Whether it is
<br /> individual professional services or other outside entities, Redevelopment Commission is very
<br /> much the same. It is not as consumer-facing as it is business-facing. So,it makes a lot more sense,
<br /> to us, to keep that happening during business hours. We are dealing with developers and other
<br /> things TIF is used for. The majority of TIF is utilized, and a lot of it is already allocated to bond
<br /> payments,but a majority of it goes to infrastructure projects. So,it will be myself and Engineering
<br /> up there working in concert on a water project on Michigan Avenue or Western Avenue, what
<br /> have you.
<br /> He continued, There are public-facing elements of it. We have a lot of public meetings. Using
<br /> Western Avenue as an example, we had several public meetings going up to that to formulate the
<br /> program. The same is true for Michigan Avenue. We had public meetings with the businesses up
<br /> and down Michigan Avenue. So, in those projects that make sense, there are a lot of resident-
<br /> facing elements of those TIF projects that take place.We,we would argue both for the Commission
<br /> itself and the staff as well as the folks we are interacting directly with, during those meetings, to
<br /> have those during the day. In terms of process, I want to press that point. The question about the
<br /> packets going out early, beyond just who we are working with, the things we are doing in
<br /> Economic Development can't always be public right away. I'll use Amazon as an example. It was
<br /> no fault of ours, but it was leaked out that Amazon was moving into a spec building in town and
<br /> it ruffled some feathers and raised some issues. It actually could have impacted whether or not
<br /> someone came into town and employed a few hundred people. Those are the types of situations
<br /> that we have to work really closely on with builders, developers and incoming companies. They
<br /> want to control the message and what happens in terms of their entry into a market. A lot of them
<br /> demand secrecy. In many instances, we are looking at formulating deals and packages to compete
<br /> with Fort Wayne, Toledo or Battle Creek so they can make the final decision of whether or not to
<br /> invest in South Bend. So, often times when that packet doesn't come out real early or as early as
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