03-24-14 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING MARCH 24, 2014 publically post the job parameters in order to receive as many as evaluations as possible. Thank you. Councilmember Scott- I just want to thank Great Lakes for the investment in taking in a dormant building in our downtown and turning it in to something and revitalizing and taking it off the cities responsibility. Councilmember Henry Davis - Thank you for providing that piece of information that I was asking for, I was not trying to be extremely critical of it, but when we are using tax payers dollars, when we are supporting tax abatement and primarily using those incentives, I think it highly encumbering upon us to make sure that there is a public benefit, that sometimes comes back in a way or form of minority contracts, donations to certain organizations in the city and etc... One thing that I'm really nervous about it and I've supported all the way up to this point, so you are going to have my support but as we move further on this matter. I want to make sure that this becomes part of a policy. Obviously, we have not been very good at defining exactly what we are looking for. That's why there seems to be a lot of, the level of clarity that we are looking for is not there and doesn't exist. So as we are moving forward, and I've been on this conversation since I've been on council that these things begin to take root and obviously they have with this particular development and hope that we see something different while the folks are working on the structure of this building but maybe all the project that we have that are assisted with government subsidies, because that's what we are giving out government subsidies to help support of project development. So I will say thank you for your time and I'm looking forward to seeing something on the comer of LaSalle on Michigan Street. Councilmember Schey- We have had several discussions obviously on economic development and the multi -prong approach. So we are all very excited about this development, I think it will bring a lot to downtown. But to address the concern that Mr. Shabazz brought forward, do you feel that true efforts, collaborative efforts giving some job training and apprenticeship programs and maybe the initiatives that we have now in place as well as anything that we can develop in the fixture that we can get to a point, where when we are talking about diversity and exclusivity that we will have a level playing field when we talk about making sure that everyone has the chance to participate? Do you think we are there yet or is there still work to be done? Great Lakes Capital Development (Co- presenter) - The absolutely work still that needs to be done, and we are looking at programs as we mentioned at previous council meeting the smart workforce initiative which is underway created 48 scholarships with new counsel action, helped those to find jobs, jobs that already exist. So a big part of this is define that problem understanding what are those barriers to economic opportunities, and then creating the work program to help people to get in place. There's absolutely work to be done. We will have to take a look at that. Obviously, a big part of that is job creation, job creation helps create those opportunities but we look at the other side and expand on the window of concern. Councilmember Schey- Thank you. I think that approximately now and in the fixture we can hopefully bring more people in so that everyone has that opportunity to practice with you. Dr. Ferlic- Thanks to Great Lakes, I will be saying thanks a number of time tonight. To trusting in South Bend and bringing the jobs to South Bend, I know you could've gone east to Elkhart or Mishawaka or Middlebury and all those cities. Thank you for taking an interest in South Bend and thank you very much. 13