03-23-15 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING MARCH 23, 2015 Indiana just has a texting ban, which is one of the reasons why it is hard to give citations here in Indiana. Indiana has increased in deaths while other states have decreased or stayed the same. Melissa Hicks, 50535 Ironwood Rd. Granger, IN – ABC News did a survey on 660,000 people and 94% agreed that there should be a texting & driving ban, where half have admitted to texting & driving within the last month, and 74% stated there should be a total cell phone ban like they have in Illinois. Our mission in doing this scholarship is to inform, convince, and change. They are doing social media blasts with at least 3 per day on statistics, quotes from drivers, and pictures. In addition, they will have videos from those affected, Public Service Announcements, and TV shows of interviews with police and shows related to texting & driving. They encouraged everyone to follow them and retweet them for public awareness. Councilmember Henry Davis, Jr. – Make sure you read it before you retweet as I got in trouble before for retweeting without re-reading. Councilmember White – I would like to thank the students and Councilmember Henry Davis, Jr. for bringing this before us. What you may want to do is poll the students to see how many are texting and that would give you additional documentation as well. Councilmember Mr. Ferlic – Thank you for the presentation, great job, Councilmember Dieter – Make sure you call me so I can give you that information. Good job. Councilmember Oliver Davis – You did a wonderful job. I encourage you to talk to the common council and other school boards around here to make this a community effort, as it will resonate around our whole area. Councilmember Dr. Varner – Nicely done organizational and presentational wise. I hope you take this state wide and good luck with your efforts in Indiana. Councilmember Dr. Ferlic – I pointed out one of the major health issues that we have now, and hope you take to the cell phone ban like they have in Illinois. Thank you and Mr. Davis for bringing this up. Councilmember Schey – Your presentation was impressive, as this is a really important issue. I ask that the family members to stand up to be recognized. It’s important that we recognize great parents and teachers. I want to thank the students, parents, and teachers for bringing them before us tonight. Council President Scott – Thank you, as this is really incredible. This hit home for me, when one might not get a ticket here because they might be surfing the web. I commute every day and use my headset. This is a great start thank you for bringing it to us. Councilmember Henry Davis, Jr. – We have some awesome youth, we will have a few more presenting to us here shortly. We should remain diligently in banning cell phones in school zones as city wide and state wide. We will be taking this to the county and the School Boards. Our hope is that they are successful but if not the course of history will still be changed. I would like to state that this is all their initiative, and they approached me. I had nothing to do with it, I’m just helping them present it. This being the time heretofore set for the Public Hearing on the above bill, proponents and opponents were given an opportunity to be heard. There being no one present wishing to speak to the Council either in favor of or in opposition to this bill, Councilmember Schey made a move for a favorable adoption of 15-15. Councilmember Oliver Davis seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of nine (9) ayes. 6