04-25-2022 Common Council Meeting Minutes (Signed)

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REGULAR MEETING April 25, 2022 Councilmember Lee made a motion to call for passage of Bill No. 222217. Vice President Niezgodski seconded the motion. President McBride states it has been moved and seconded. Requests roll call from City Clerk Jones. Clerk Jones responds with roll call of nine (9) ayes. President McBride states, Bill No. 22-17 has been adopted. Councilmember Troy Warner made a motion to reject Bill No. 222217. Councilmember Hamann, Seconded. President McBride requests that Clerk Jones call the roll point of order. Councilmember Warner requests to call for a discussion on the motion. President McBride opens the bill up for discussion. Councilmember Warner states the Housing Authority showed up and spoke against that bill. It was tabled two weeks ago and asked for a two-week extension to make modifications. Those modifications have not happened. We think that the Housing Authority is on board come in opposition to this bill again. This has not been done efficiently or effectively. We should just be done with the bill. Councilmember Hamann reiterates Council Warner. We had this discussion before on council. If we are bringing bills before one another, there's a level of due diligence and conversation that needs to happen with entities that are named on the resolution. That level of due diligence didn't occur with this particular bill. Councilmember Davis responds, this particular piece of legislation, this bill, or resolution was a continuation of what this Council had passed over a year ago. It wasn't aimed to discredit any one entity, including the people at the Housing Authority. It was something to progress the discussion that all of you unanimously voted for. I don't know where the change of understanding of what this is came in. This Council voted unanimously for a resolution to do work with the South Bend Housing Authority. The mayor still appoints the board over there; it is still city driven. The ordinance that was put forth back in the 1970's came from this City Council. Your job is for one, to support. Two, the South Bend Housing Authority, the city of South Bend has already given the South Bend Housing Authority eight hundred thousand dollars ($800,000.00) American Cares Act money to support the redevelopment. Maybe it is the presenter, maybe something personal is going on here. It is only to further along the discussion about the need for affordable housing. No one said anything when Mayor Pete came knocking down seven hundred (700) homes mostly in the second (2"d) district. No one said anything about what this is going to look like in the second (2nd) district when it's redeveloped on Western Ave, if or when it does happen. Whatever you have with me personally, I'm sorry, I don't understand it and I don't like it. This is becoming part of the culture of this Council. We're wrecking the opportunity to develop. Wrecking the opportunity to support this community properly or wrecking the opportunity of having great personal relationships and working relationships with each other. If I have offended any of you by trying to represent my district properly to bring something to the table that makes sense for this community, that's my job. Councilmember Lee responds with the issue has been that when the organization comes and says that this bill is not going to help anything, we've already had something in place. We had neighborhood meeting and the city talked about their collaboration with the housing Authority. The two-week extension was given, and the work didn't develop. We must pass good bills and that is the work that we must do. You must look at all the factors of the people that are involved in it. If something is going to work, that is when you get the votes. Do good bills so that it doesn't have to be a mess on the floor. We are looking for a level of service to allow these bills to be good bills. If we have people who are affected the most say this is not going to help us or will hinder us, we must take that into consideration.