09-24-12 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 address as many of those as they possibly can. A motion by the Council to continue all three bills to October 8, 2012 for purposes of further discussions by Council only and at that time the Council will have the opportunity to either pass the bills or continue those once again to the October 22, 2012 meeting. It was legally advertised for this evening for the public hearing. Councilmember Oliver Davis made a motion to combine Bill Nos. 42-12; 43-12 and 44-12 for purposes of Public Hearing. Councilmember Dieter seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of nine (9) ayes. Councilmember White, Chairperson, Personnel & Finance Committee, reported that this committee held a Public Hearing on these bills this afternoon and voted to send it to the full Council with a favorable recommendation for the purpose of public hearing only. th Mayor Buttigieg, 14 Floor County-City Building, 227 W. Jefferson Blvd., South Bend, Indiana asked City Clerk John Voorde to pass out copies of the power point presentation that is going to be given tonight by City Controller Mark Neal. Mayor Buttigieg advised that they would like to go over principals and strategies that guide the vision for the budget. He stated that he felt it important to express to the Council and the public the highest level of motivations that they have for making the choices that they have made the proposed budget. The overall goal is to insure that our City is a strong and connected city for everyone. He stated that delivering on that goal requires three types of activity. The first is activity to ensure that what he would call the basics are easy for citizens. That citizens rarely have to worry themselves about public safety, about whether or not there is critical infrastructure, streets, clean water, and the like. The second is good government, ensuring that the government is a resource that is efficient, transparent, and cost-effective, that it is a good steward of tax payer dollars and the problems are quickly and cleanly resolved whenever there is an opportunity to take care of something for a constituent. Thirdly, that our City is doing everything possible to grow and create prosperity for everyone. Economic Development including the creation of good jobs, the promotion of strong neighborhoods and a quality of life that is desirable and makes us a city of choice no matter what part of the city you live in. He stated that those are very high level aspirations but important to state as they guide us into detailed day to day work in establishing the budget. He stated that some strategic elements on how we try to deliver on that, in the short and long term. The first is to make sure that we keep score, to better what we are doing and hold ourselves accountable for how well we do it. He stated that it is similar to the idea of not only committing to targets, but rewarding performance. Either with recognition or other forms of the words as a guiding principle thought this administration approaches the delivery of the vision elements that he shared earlier. He stated that he believes in streamlining the city processes for customers and citizens. Making sure that anytime something takes three steps we ask whether it could take two instead. The fourth principle is to break down bureaucratic walls that sometime stand either between units within our governments or between different local government entities to make sure that citizens see us as acting with one accord and there is no better example of where we can do that, city, county and other governmental units that can tackle the problems that our city is faced when it comes to vacant and abandoned housing. Next is the matter of cultural in the City government to ensure that the overall environment throughout the City of South Bend government is one that welcomes innovation and questions habit, which poses the questions why we do things a certain way, rather than simply accepting the way we do thing as we always have. Lastly, to make sure that we are forming diverse connections and partnerships throughout, across and even outside our community anytime that would benefit goals like economic growth job creation, education, public safety, quality of life for our citizens. He stated that you will see these strategic approaches encoded in various ways into the budget and in particular some of the changes that will be seen in this budget from prior budgets. He stated a 4