07-28-08 Common Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING JULY 28, 2008 On each deliver order they are required to submit a new bid. Mr. Addicott stated that they submitted pricing on this contract last October and it is a fixed price contract. He stated that they have seen a lot of increase in cost of their raw materials since October. He stated that they are not able to recover those costs, so they have to look at a variety of different cost savings and productivity improvements during the five years and then they have to bid against this other company, so there is a lot of competitive nature to this business and this is the very important reason for this abatement. Yatish J. Joshi, President, GTA Container & Foxtrot Realty, 4201 Linden Avenue, South Bend, Indiana, advised that he is from India and came to the United States, went to Ohio, moved to Tennessee, moved back to Ohio, moved to Indiana for employment, moved back to Ohio and finally decided to settle in South Bend, Indiana. He stated that he likes South Bend very much. He stated that he and his wife and family live in South Bend and go to school in Indiana. Mr. Joshi stated that he hires people who want to work; it doesn’t make a difference who they are. Council President Rouse stated that he is glad to see a company that designs fuel cells for the military. He stated that he used to work at Uniroyal and they made fuels cells for the military, so it is good to see that a local company is still making fuel cells for the military. He stated that as a Council they will do all they can with the resources that they have before them to work with this company. Councilmember Kirsits commended GTA for putting a plan together that quickly between committee and the meeting tonight. He advised that GTA should keep open the lines of communication with the Council, minority churches in the area, and the Charles Black Center to post job openings with. He stated that they should keep track of all the applications that are received. Councilmember Puzzello stated that she had discussions with other Councilmember’s after the committee meeting and was told that you can hire anyway you want to unless you are receiving money from the government. She stated that is true, of course, and she would like to make an official recommendation that in the next two weeks before the Council takes action on the confirmatory resolution that the petitioner develop more details of their targeting hiring program, including, but not limited to, 1. Working with WorkOne Indiana; 2. Working on a proactive affirmative action plan for seeking job applicants from the residences living in distressed census tracts. She stated that she further recommends that the confirmatory resolution be sent to the Community and Economic Development Committee for further discussion. She noted that the reason for that is normally the committee would not meet on a confirmatory resolution. Councilmember Varner asked if that language would be incorporated into the Resolution? Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand stated that language would not be incorporated into the resolution however; it would be a verbal recommendation. Councilmember Henry Davis stated that he spoke with representatives from GTA after the committee meeting this afternoon. He had another question about the environment that is set up for the employees at GTA that are already there. The employees are Hispanic, so that environment is conducive for them. He stated that for him, not being a bi-lingual person, and the only Spanish that he knows is hola, and going into an environment such as this set at this particular business, how would it be conducive for a person such as himself not being bi-lingual to go into an area such as this and start working? Mr. Addicott stated that it was he who made the comment at the meeting earlier. Mr. Addicott stated that they have 31 employees today, conservatively they expect to hire six more at least and one of the things about this contract is that it is pretty hard to predict how many employees will be needed. At the maximum that the government stated that they would ask for would more than likely double their employment. Mr. Addicott stated that it might be difficult for one person coming in but in this circumstance where they are 18