02-09-76 Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 9, 1976 PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR (CONTINUED) The public that we have interviewed supports Mr. Kopczynski in his dedication for accountability to them. Council President Parent said that he would like her not to mention either support or non - support of any Councilman at this point. He said they were going to be ruling again on an investigation. Mrs. Mutzl said she understood this, however, at one time Council President Parent had written her a letter that she had interupted him seven times, and that if he had not interupted her now she would have been finished in a couple of sentences. She ask Council President Parent if she could continue, and he said she could finish. Mrs. Mutzl finished her statement by indicating that they could go to court if they deemed necessary, but as a Council please conduct city business. She indcated that Mr. Kopczynski could no more get an impartial review on this Council than a snowball on a hot stove. She said that for the good of the city, would the Council please forget the whole thing. Council President Parent said that first of all the public may think the Council was only occupied with the matters-of this investigation, but that was not true. He said he was taking care of the day to day matters as he normally does. Mrs. Jane Swan, 2022 Swygart, said that she was speaking now in case there would be no public discussion allowed later. She said she would like to go to Councilman Taylor's press release where there was a mention of a thorough and impartial investigation. She said that impartial means free from partiality and unbiased. She indicated there were nine men sitting there, two of them very directly involved, therefore you have 220% that are not unbiased; Councilman Serge was not in attendance, which brings it up to 33 %; Councilman Horvath has taken a stand, 44% who are not unbiased. She said she would not try to second guess Councilmen Dombrowski and Parent, but Councilwoman Adams has made it clear how she felt regarding this being a political matter. She said that Councilman Miller indicated he did not feel the Council has the jurisdiction to investigate itself. She said that so far, Councilman Szymkowiak, seemed to be completely un- biased. She asked how an impartial investigation of the situation could possibly be made. She said she would like to ask Councilman Dombrowski something regarding comments made at the last caucus meeting, where he indicated he did not intend to sit on the Council and have it act like it did the last four years. She said she had attended 800% of those meetings and she would like to know on what he based his remark. Councilman Dombrowski said there were many shouting matche and asked how many she had seen. Mrs. Swan asked Councilman Dombrowski how many he had seen, be- cause she was there. Councilman Dombrowski said he had seen quite a few, he said he had seen finagling in which Mrs. Swan was involved. Mrs. Swan asked Councilman Dombrowski to explain thi Councilman Dombrowski indicated that it was on the minutes. Council President Parent said they were not going to tolerate any debating, and asked Mrs. Swan to make her point. Mrs. Swan said she had attended the meetings and had not seen Councilman Dombrowski. She said that an impartial investigation could not be conducted by this Council. Ben Johnson, representative of the Southeast Neighborhood, said he would like to comment on the nature of the rehab work that is being done. He said it is so messed up, they feel they should not have participated in the program. He said the Southeast Side is the only area that has three Councilmen. He said the rehab program has been a disaster on the Southeast Side of town, and they think there needs to be an investigation. Council President Parent said the Council was in the process of studying various problems on Community Development funds. He said he would ask Mr. Gilkey to look into this. Mrs. Elsie Breit, 3017 W. Ford, read the following statement: It has been very noticeable for several months that five men on our City Council became a group or a so called "team ". I wish to emphasize that Councilman Miller is not one of them. If I recall correctly, they became a team of five at the time of the bicycle law. This occurred in the past administration, when former Mayor Jerry Miller and the present Mayor Peter Nemeth each proposed a law. The "team" voted to enforce, the Miller Bicycle Law. It was very obvious, to the people who attended the Council meetings, that from this time on they voted for everything that former Mayor Miller wanted or didn't want. There is one exception at the present time. We now have a new Council- man at Large, Richard Dombrowski. As the Tribune stated, he has been rewarded "with the vice presidency of the City Council for his vote in the presidency." As for the Council as a team; we wonder why Roger Parent, as president, doesn't put a stop to this action instead of acting as the leader. We now have a New Mayor and a New Administration. We strongly urge this group to disband, and start voting individually, the way they personally think would be for the good of the people of South Bend. After all, gentlemen, we are the ones who voted you in and pay your salary. You are there to work for us. Remember, at the next election, we can certainly vote you out again. Several people that I have talked to seem to think you are staying as a group to fight the present administration and vote against it, instead of with it, as you did in the past. Council President Parent said that the Council tends to go along with most things the administra- tion proposes. He said that in fact the differences were minimal. He said he would predict that this Council will work well with the administration. He said they would be an independent Council, but that is the way it was going to be. He said it was very difficult for the public to really know what was going on, and what the public heard in the media was really the tip of the iceburg. NEW BUSINESS Council President Parent said that as the chairperson of the Council he is not allowed to make a motion, and that he would ask for someone to make the motion he proposed. Councilman Taylor made a motion to ask the South Bend City Council to undertake a thorough and impartial inquiry of the incident which occurred between Councilmen Robert Taylor and Walter Kopczynski during the Council caucus held January 19,1976, seconded by Councilman Dombrowski. Council President Parent said he would entertain a motion that the discussion on this be kept to the Council, attorneys and the press. Councilman Horvath made such a motion, seconded by Councilman Taylor. Councilman Szymkowiak said he felt thepublic should be allowed to express their opinions. Councilman Adams said she felt the questions raised by the attorneys' opinions might be such that the public might want to speak, so she felt they should be allowed to speak, to the matter. Council President Parent attempted to explain the reasoning behind his motion, however, Councilman Adams called for a point of order, and said she believed the chair must