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REGULAR MEETING SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />quick reminder of priorities that this administration arrived at; priorities that he feels were given <br />to him by his Board of Directors, the people of the City of South Bend. One that they heard loud <br />and clear is to address the problem of vacant and abandoned housing in our community. Another <br />that has arisen only higher on the agenda unfortunately and largely due to some high profile <br />incidents in our community is a matter of violence generally and particularly violence where <br />either the victim or the suspect or both proved to be young people. Illegal dumping is a priority <br />which shall be addressed throughout this year with help from the Council through their <br />leadership and want to put more of a permanent solution in place. Infrastructures, including <br />curbs and sidewalks, one of the things that he knows Councilmember’s have brought to their <br />attention quite often. The implementation of the 311 call center, making it as easy as possible <br />for citizens who need help with anything the City government can be support of, other than an <br />emergency which belongs with 911. He stated that they can take some steps and those steps are <br />funded by the proposals that they have in this budget. Lastly, the spirit of keeping score, holding <br />ourselves to targets, making sure that they have the tools we need to track how we are doing. <br />This is what we are talking about when we discussed key performance indicators for the city <br />government. He stated that you can’t do that without committing some resources to it, and that <br />is to part of the budget approach. In the course of the many meetings with the Personnel & <br />Finance Committee they also took every opportunity to take on board priorities of <br />Councilmember’s. He stated that he cannot do a better job than Councilmember’s as stating <br />what those priorities are, but want to try to capture some of the things that he felt that they heard <br />most often when discussing with Councilmember’s what were those top priorities. He stated that <br />he wanted to point out how much these align with priorities that he mentioned earlier and of <br />prior administration. They are economic development, creation of jobs, addressing vacant and <br />abandoned housing in our neighborhoods, ensuring that Code Enforcement is effective, reliable, <br />and fair. And public safety, the quality of our parks, making sure that they are delivering <br />everything that they can, as well as quality of life more generally. Within the infrastructure <br />category, he thinks it’s safe to say that the particular element of infrastructure that they have <br />heard the most feedback about from the Council concerns curbs and sidewalks for our citizens as <br />well as streets and the quality of streets more generally. He stated overlapping with some of <br />these priority concerns like economic development and quality of life making sure that our <br />corridors, the gateway’s to our city look good. He reiterated that Councilmember’s can best <br />identify what their priorities are, but he wanted to express some of the concerns that his <br />administration heard during the course of this process and work to incorporate in the budget. <br />th <br />Mr. Mark Neal, City Controller, 12 Floor County-City Building, 227 W. Jefferson Blvd., South <br />Bend, Indiana, made the presentation for the bills. <br /> <br />Mr. Neal went over the power point presentation. A copy is on file in the Office of the City <br />Clerk. <br /> <br />This being the time heretofore set for the Public Hearing on the above bill, proponents and <br />opponents were given an opportunity to be heard. <br /> <br />There was no one present wishing to speak in favor of these bills. <br /> <br />The following individuals spoke in opposition to these bills. <br /> <br />Jesse Davis, P.O. Box 10205, South Bend, Indiana, advised that communication is a problem. <br />He stated that there is a black list of contractors who try to do business with the City. He stated <br />that there is a problem with Youth Violence in the city. The vacant and abandoned housing is a <br />big problem in the city. He also questioned whether or not 311 is totally worth funding. <br /> <br />Henry Davis, Sr., 215 Sheridan, South Bend, Indiana, questioned how comments can be made on <br />something with no detail. He advised the Council to be transparent and specific. He stated that <br />the public doesn’t know what they are talking about. <br />5 <br /> <br /> <br />