CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
NOVEMBER 24, 2003
The Honorable Council of the City of Evansville met on regular session at 6:30 pm on Monday, November 24, 2003 in the City Council Chambers, Room 301 Civic Center Complex, Evansville, Indiana with Vice-President Bagbey, presiding. The following business was conducted.
These minutes are not intended to be a verbatim transcript. Audiotapes of this meeting are on file in the City Clerk’s Office.
Absent: John
There being eight (8) members present and one (1) member absent and eight (8) members representing a quorum, the Vice-President declared this session of the Common Council officially opened.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Vikram Goyle led the pledge of allegiance this evening.
COUNCIL ATTORNEY
John Hamilton is Council Attorney this evening.
TEEN ADVISORY COUNCIL
Vikram Goyle Lizzie Whobrey
Jessalyn Julian Michelle Reitman
RECOGNITION OF SCHOOLS
Memorial High School
Natalie Williams
Jenny Jochim
SERGEANT AT ARMS
This evening there was no Officer as our Sergeant at Arms.
READING AND AMENDMENT OF MINUTES OF PRECEDING MEETING
Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the November 17, 2003 meeting of the Common Council as written?
Councilwoman Robinson moved and Councilman Kiefer seconded the motion that the minutes of the regular meeting of the Common Council held November 17, 2003 be approved as written. Voice vote. So ordered.
REPORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS
IN YOUR NOVEMBER 21ST PACKET:
*Committee Meeting Schedule.
*Agenda for November 24, 2003 City Council Meeting.
*Minutes from City Council Meeting held November 17, 2003.
*Resolution C-2003-28.
*Addendum to Ordinance F-2003-21.
*Report from Weights and Measures.
*A memo and spreadsheet from Rob Schaefer, Economic Development Specialist
Regarding Tax Phase-in Compliance.
*911 Ambulance Call Summary for October 2003.
*A Notice of Claim against the City of Evansville.
*U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Ohio River Mainstem System Study.
*2004 Proposed Budget Book.
*A memo from Mayor Lloyd regarding Tax Reform.
ON YOUR DESK THIS EVENING:
*News Release regarding Neighborhood Associations win awards.
*A letter from the Evansville Police Department regarding Ordinance F-2003-21.
Councilwoman Robinson moved and Councilman Kniese seconded the motion to receive, file and make these reports and communications a part of the minutes of the meeting. Voice vote. So ordered.
CONSENT AGENDA
FIRST READING OF ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS
NOTHING FILED FOR FIRST READING.
CONSENT AGENDA
SECOND READING OF ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS
ORDINANCE F-2003-21 FINANCE (ROBINSON) KNIESE
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AUTHORIZING TRANSFER OF APPROPRIATIONS WITHIN VARIOUS CITY DEPARTMENTS AND FOR ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS FROM VARIOUS CITY FUNDS
ORDINANCE F-2003-22 FINANCE (ROBINSON) JOHN
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AUTHORIZING APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS WITHIN A CITY DEPARTMENT
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
FINANCE CHAIRWOMAN ROBINSON:
Yes Mr. President. Ordinance F-2003-21 was held in Committee until December 8th, at 5:45.
Ordinance F-2003-22 comes before you tonight with a recommendation for a do-pass.
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilman Angermeier second the motion to adopt the Committee Reports and move these Ordinances to Third Reading. Voice vote. So ordered.
There being no further motions, these Ordinances are hereby moved to Third Reading.
REGULAR AGENDA
THIRD READING OF ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS:
ORDINANCE F-2003-22 FINANCE (ROBINSON) JOHN
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AUTHORIZING APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS WITHIN A CITY DEPARTMENT
Ordinance F-2003-22 and call the roll.
ROLL CALL:
Ayes: Kniese, Melcher, Robinson, Koehler Walden, Watts, Angermeier Kiefer, Bagbey.
Absent: John.
There being eight (8) ayes and zero (0) nays, Ordinance F-2003-22 is hereby declared ADOPTED.
RESOLUTION DOCKET
RESOLUTION C-2003-28 (DOCKET) INTRODUCED BY KIEFER
A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AND RATIFYING THE ESTABLISHMENT AND FORMATION OF THE EVANSVILLE-VANDERBURGH UNIFICATION STUDY COMMITTEE
DISCUSSION:
Vice-President Bagbey: Councilman Kiefer.
Councilman Kiefer: Thank you. On the…I’d like to make one change on the exhibit A on a name. Mistakenly had Robert Reed’s name on when it should be Michael Lockhard. It was….apologize for that. So do I need to make an amendment John? Okay, then I’d like to amend this to have Michael Lockhard’s name on there instead of Robert Reed’s.
Motion by Councilman Kiefer seconded by Councilwoman Walden to amend Resolution C-2003-28 and removed the name Michael Lockhard and replace it with Robert Reed. All those in favor give the sign of aye. Voice vote. So ordered.
Vice-President Bagbey: Resolution C-2003-28 as amended, continue.
Councilman Kiefer: Thank you. Basically this is just merely putting it in a more formal manner. The Study Committee and I asked Dr. Phil Fisher and Jeff Henning to come and give a very brief five-minute presentation on what the committee has done to date.
Vice-President Bagbey: Welcome Dr. Fisher. Mr. Henning do you want to come up?
Mr. Henning: No, let Doctor Fisher.
Vice-President Bagbey: Doctor Fisher for the record just state your name.
Doctor Fisher: My name is Phillip Fisher. The full unification Study Committee has met several times. Collected information from outside sources. We had former Mayor Hudnutt of Indianapolis. We’ve had people from the Chamber…State Chamber of Commerce talk about the Compete Study. We’ve had Martin Marcus come in and inform us and amuse us, both. And the Committee has organized itself into four committees. Each with four members from the overall committee, and then we put out a call for volunteers. And we have at least four community volunteers, and in some case’s more, on each of those Committees. One of the Committee’s will look at government structure. Another one is going to look at the economy, or the economic development, and taxation. Another is going to look at broad range of government services. The fourth is going to look at health and safety issues. All of those…well, all three of those Committee’s have met once or twice. Are just getting organized in their plan of study. The Board also adopted a mission statement and a set of guiding principles. And I think it might good to state those guiding principles. The Committee is on record as saying they are going to commit; they are going to conduct a very thorough and objective study. That is people are approaching this with an open mind. Probably some people leaning toward unification now, some certainly leaning against, but I think everybody has an open mind. We are going to try to open…make this as open and do it with as much honesty and integrity as we can. That’s the second principle, honesty and then integrity. The third guiding principle is that we’re going to first educate ourselves, and I think that we’re finding out that City, County, and Township government are a lot more complex than probably most people think. I’m sure you all are aware of this after your service on City Council, but there are lots of pieces and those pieces in the relationships will take us some time to understand. We also want to look at what other communities have done, and try to look at some models that might fit and to try to reject those that don’t. We will also seek widespread community involvement. So we’ll be talking to a lot of City and County officials. We are also going to have some open hearings for citizens to come in and talk about issues that concern them. We are also making every effort to keep the public informed throughout this process. We have a website. It is not yet quite complete, but when it is we’ll be announcing that, and we’ll be having the minutes of our meetings and other documents, and the committee members, and contact information so that people not only can know what’s going on but they can let us know what they think as we go along. And then finally, if we decide to make a recommendation for unification we will insist that, that legislation require a referendum by all the citizens of the City and County on that topic. I’d be glad to answer any questions you might have.
Vice-President Bagbey: Dr. Fisher, do you have any sort of timetable?
Dr. Phillip Fisher: Oh yes. Maybe a very optimistic timetable. I was looking on the Lexington Kentucky website. Their unification came after a four-year study. I don’t think anybody on our committee wants to be at this for four years. We hope to have the four Study Committees ready to report back to the full committee sometime this summer, maybe July 31st. Then the whole committee will…we have to meet and put together some recommendations. And then if the whole committee does recommend unification legislation would have to be drafted. That would take some time. And so we hope to be ready with that sometime perhaps in August or September so legislation, if necessary, could be introduced in the 2005 legislature.
Vice-President Bagbey: Are you going to the other governmental entities and making this same presentation?
Dr. Phillip Fisher: We haven’t been asked, but I’d be glad to talk to the County Council and the County Commissioners.
Vice-President Bagbey: And the Vanderburgh County School Board as well.
Dr. Phillip Fisher: All right.
Vice-President Bagbey: Since they are the taxing authority.
Dr. Phillip Fisher: Well and the Library Board I guess is too. I found that out today. I guess I knew that, but I did talk to both Glen Barnes today and to Bill Fluty just to get some background on it…things like that. Who has taxing authority?
Vice-President Bagbey: Does anyone on the Council have anything they would like to say? Joe you kind of….thrown this out at us.
Councilman Kiefer: Yeah, just that I would….if you read, I’m sure everybody had an opportunity to read this. This is nothing binding to the City Council, but with all the involvement of the Citizen Committee and the number of people involved, I believe they felt like it would solidify the legitimacy of their study by having us pass a Resolution.
Vice-President Bagbey: Dr. Fisher I’d like to give you one editorial comment.
Dr. Phillip Fisher: Yes sir.
Vice-President Bagbey: Throughout the political campaign various members of the media…I’m sure they did it with the rest of the Council Members and candidates that were running for office. Everybody wanted to know our position. And I steadfastly said: “I will wait for the results of your Committee, you and Mr. Dunn’s Committee”, and I still will hold to that. But lets say it goes forward and it’s…your decision is for change. Okay and sometimes change isn’t a bad thing. One of the things I would hope that we would do, and I’ve seen this in my lifetime in this community when decisions are made sometimes it’s rushed. And I think another thing we need to educate the voters who will be making their decision because I think this is a critical decision for our community. And I would hope that you would keep that in mind as you help guide the other members of the educational component, as well as taking the time to do it correctly.
Dr. Phillip Fisher: Thank you, I think that’s probably very good advice and we’ll take that seriously.
Vice-President Bagbey: Thank you. Councilman Melcher.
Councilman Melcher: The only thing I have….I was talking to other people that’s done this is that after they voted it in, they didn’t know where to start. You know if there wasn’t….and you just mentioned one of them while ago. And I know the Louisville area. They don’t know which way is up right now. So right now it’s not a good thing, but it could be a good thing. But I think what we need to understand, too, is if it does pass, we need to have some kind of new study probably thought to say how we’re going to do it.
Dr. Phillip Fisher: Yeah.
Councilman Melcher: Not just say we’re doing it, because if we don’t say how we are going to do it and the steps that it’s going to take to do it, then nobody knows… the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
Dr. Phillip Fisher: Well that’s why we wanted to study various entities. In Louisville they unified the Executive and Legislative branches and then left it up to them to decide over what’s a five-year period, with some exceptions. I think Police and Fire were exempted. What else is going to be unified? I don’t know how they got people to vote that in but they did. But I would think that the voters in Evansville and Vanderburgh County would want a more complete package.
Councilman Melcher: And even when this year when the Mayor of Indianapolis talked about cutting $11,000,000 of only the budget that he controlled, and only the budget he controlled is exactly what we have now, there wasn’t any changes. So that was interesting to me… that question.
Dr. Phillip Fisher: Yeah, the different places have done this in all different ways. Indianapolis is a very minimal unification. Not much money was saved for sure.
Councilman Melcher: Well I understand what they ended up doing there is what we already have. They joined Area Plan, you remember, which we already did that at our last study.
Dr. Phillip Fisher: Well that’s what I want to study different models and see how they work.
Vice-President Bagbey: I guess the last question before we take the Resolution. Will elected leaders have an opportunity, and I had this discussion with Councilman Kiefer, will elected representatives of government have an opportunity to meet with your Committee and so to speak put our two-cents in?
Dr. Phillip Fisher: Absolutely, I’ll make a commitment to that.
Vice-President Bagbey: I’ll make sure of that. Okay, at this time if there is no other questions, or any questions in the audience, the Chair would entertain a motion.
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilman Kiefer seconded the motion to adopt Resolution
C-2003-28, as amended. Voice vote. So ordered.
MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS:
Vice-President Bagbey: Okay, Miscellaneous Business. First of all Rob let me take Mr. Amsler because his will be real brief. Martin, thank you for coming tonight. It’s nice seeing you again Marty.
Marty Amsler: Good to see you all. Marty Amsler, I appreciate the Council recognizing me this evening. Back on the 28th-29th of October I sent four letters out in regards to a pedestrian crossover at US 41 and Washington Avenue. Those went out to the Governor Joseph Kernan, Brian Nichol, Commissioner of the Indiana Transportation Department of Transportation, Mayor Russell Lloyd, and Executive Director of Urban Transportation Rose Zigenfus. And hadn’t received any follow through on this so when I was in Indianapolis two weeks ago I stopped by the Department of Transportation. And they’d made a response back on October 6th, which I didn’t as normal. Nobody ever sends you anything back so I take the ball and run with it. But I would like to just bring your attention to this and see if there’s anyway the City Council might be able to assist in it. It says here on the note that came back from the Director of the Vincennes District, Director Jerry Russell. Attached hereto is a copy of the correspondence sent to the local television station in 1997. Nothing to my knowledge has changed since this letter has been sent. I did change statement form to the conclusion to make it current. Well I can’t read it and that was the copy I got so I apologize. But I think it’s something we need to follow through on. There’s about three hundred students that cross that daily, and it would be nice to eliminate a problem, a safety hazard. And I think that’s the States responsibility, but as yet it’s someway of providing some kind of assistance to the school district. You know, I sure would appreciate it if there is anything that the Council can do, sending a letter or whatever, to kind of follow through on this to see if we might be able to get some action on it.
Vice-President Bagbey: I appreciate that Marty. What I will do is touch base with Randy Heidorn of the EVSC. Randy and I sit on the School Safety Commission, which is here in Vanderburgh County set by statute. And we have discussed this and Randy and the Administrative team of EVSC we are going to explore some of the recommendation that law enforcement put together in a meeting that we have and I will incorporate this and find out where they are at. And I really appreciate your diligence on this.
Marty Amsler: One of the things I noticed when I was in Indianapolis. If we are not able to get a pedestrian walkover I’ve noticed that the new walk and wait lights are different up there where they show walk and then they start with a countdown.
Vice-President Bagbey: Right.
Marty Amsler: And a lot of them that’s a 30 second countdown that actually shows on the message sign that’s there that tells, you know, would tell a person you need to hurry on and get on across the, you know, the intersection or the street. You know, if we can’t do a crosswalk, maybe we can look at something like that to kind of improve the safety there.
Vice-President Bagbey: Right. We have discussed that. I know that President Mike Duckworth was trying to network with some folks, but as you well know sometimes in Southwestern Indiana we might be better of being the Commonwealth of Kentucky at times. But I appreciate that.
Marty Amsler: Well I appreciate your consideration. Thank you.
Vice-President John: Thank you. Rob, thank you for your patience.
Rob Schaefer: Hi, you have to be nice to me because today’s my birthday.
Vice-President Bagbey: Oh, well happy birthday Rob.
Rob Schaefer: Just don’t sing it.
Vice-President Bagbey: Are you sweet sixteen?
Rob Schaefer: Yeah.
Vice-President Bagbey: Okay.
Rob Schaefer: I prepared this spreadsheet for you and it shows all the tax-phase in that’s currently in effect. And it shows….where it shows projected that is what the applicant put on their statement of benefits. And then actual is the numbers that they gave us when they filled out the compliance forms that they are required to fill out every year. Basically the State requires that the compliance forms are approved by the body that designated the phase-in by the Council President and the City Clerk signing each CF-1 form, which I have them in my office, because they are a stack and I didn’t want to carry them in here. But this summarizes every CF-1 form that I have. And basically what I need from you is an okay on these, or if there are some that you don’t feel are in compliance then I’ll pull those out and I’ll contact the company and ask them for an explanation. Probably in writing. I’ll bring that information to you if your satisfied great, if you’re not then we have to have a public meeting and invite them to come here and explain why they feel that their in compliance with their application.
Vice-President Bagbey: Jeff, I’m sorry, Councilman Kniese.
Councilman Kniese: Jeff’s fine. What has been the procedure for those that do not fall in compliance? And I assume that to be in compliance, they have to be at 100 percent or higher. Or what is the level that shows they are not in compliance?
Rob Schaefer: There is no level. It’s left open to the local body.
Councilman Kniese: Would that be at the discretion of the City Council? Have we…..I’m sorry. Have we….I think we should set some type of level of compliance otherwise it would be hard for me to chastise any company for not meeting those levels when we don’t have a level for them really to adhere to.
Rob Schaefer: That would establish some….a good guideline for the future too. So you could say we’ve set this, and…..
Councilman Kniese: And something else I think to consider. If we found a company that’s not in compliance, you know, what’s the next step as far as either asking them to obtain compliance level, or is there a possibility of reducing the tax phase in number or years or the amount?
Rob Schaefer: Well, I’m not sure about that, but the law allows the fact that there might be mitigating circumstances. For instance, the economy might turn down and the businesses lost sales for whatever….because the economy was weak. So there are some, you know, excuses that they…valid excuses that they have. I think they would probably this whole thing was set up so that, you know, applicants couldn’t promise one-hundred jobs when they knew well that they were only get fifty. There’s some leeway here so that if they promise 100 and they only produce 95, you know, you could still say they are in compliance.
Councilman Kniese: I guess it would be my recommendation that we look into establishing a minimum threshold. I don’t know off the top of my head what that would be, but something for us to consider. Otherwise, again it’s hard to hold their feet to the fire when you have no really measurement out there that’s been established.
Vice-President Bagbey: Well, if we’re going to set standards, we need to know what the standards are.
Councilman Kniese: Exactly.
Vice-President Bagbey: And I don’t know that. I mean do you?
Councilman Kniese: No, all I have right now is what you have in front of you.
Vice-President Bagbey: Right, right.
Councilman Kniese: And I can read through here and see which ones on the far right are at 100 percent or above or below. And I think this is good information to start from, but at the same time I think we need to really look a bit further to see if there’s anything that we can do to make sure that by granting these tax phase-ins they are adhering to that agreement.
Rob Schaefer: I wish I could tell you that the State says 90 percent or above is compliance, but they don’t.
Vice-President Bagbey: They don’t?
Rob Schaefer: Yeah, so it’s up to the….it’s up to you.
Vice-President Bagbey: So we would have to set the curve?
Rob Schaefer: Right
Councilwoman Robinson: So right now it’s just on a good faith effort?
Vice-President Bagbey: And what would we do to base that on?
Councilwoman Robinson: A few are below 100 percent.
Vice-President Bagbey: Yeah I mean if you’re going to use let’s say in the academic curve 100 is an A. Okay, then you got three businesses here on page 2 that are below that. And I don’t know if that’s good or if that the best they can do with what they found out in their process. I mean I’m kind of lost here Joe.
Councilman Kiefer: Thank you. I wonder if we could give them their tax abatement based at the same percentage. So if they are 92-percent compliant then they get 92 percent of their tax abatement. And their abatement is based upon the level of compliance not to exceed 100 percent. I mean is that something that we could do?
Rob Schaefer: Yeah, we could do that. We’d have to change the way the Resolution is right now, because right now we do the scoring sheet and then how they score is a recommendation to you on how many years….
Councilman Kiefer: But the reason I say that is because that would be an incentive to the company’s to hit 100-percent mark if they thought…okay, I’ll get 100 percent if I do 100 percent. If I do 92 percent, I only get 92 percent of the abatement.
Rob Schaefer: Yeah, the original Resolution….a tax abatement Resolution could leave blank how many years and then we can wait to see how well they fulfilled their promise and then come back and do another Resolution and say, you know, 90% whatever.
Councilman Kiefer: That way if they fail miserably, then they are not getting any abatement. It’s just an idea.
Councilman Kniese: Rob how often are…is this data run?
Rob Schaefer: Once a year.
Councilman Kniese: Are you the one that does the auditing of them? As the specialist?
Rob Schaefer: There’s no auditing done. There’s a compliance form that they’re…that they must fill out and sign and I receive it. I don’t go out to each company and make sure that they are telling the truth. We’ve never done that.
Councilman Kiefer: So it’s an honor system
Rob Schaefer: Right.
Councilman Kniese: I would think at a minimum if they fell below, just pick 60 percent, they ought to come before Council and lets have some discussion with that. I mean if nothing else we need to talk with that group and find out what’s going on there. There may be some legitimate reasons why they fall below that, but….
Vice-President Bagbey: Should we be sitting on the Council floor negotiating this? I mean this is entirely different.
Councilwoman Robinson: (INAUDIBLE) should call him…..
Councilman Kiefer: Or Rob could give us some recommendations on what we need to do to amend our current Resolution to make it better.
Councilman Watts: I like that.
Councilman Kniese: Councilman Watts obviously I think they have to keep it at 100 percent for the goal. Otherwise we are encouraging people to come in and tell us they are going to do more than they are going to do. But I think it’s impossible, and then you correct me if I’m wrong here, to make a blanket statement because every circumstance on that sheets going to be different.
Councilman Watts: But I agree with Councilman Kniese if they are falling below 90 percent either yourself or someone from that organization needs to come in and let us know why they are so low. And there may be circumstances that justify them doing that.
Rob Schaefer: And if there are justifiable circumstances then you can say….
Councilman Kniese: Then you can touch them with their abatement.
Vice-President Bagbey: Councilman Melcher.
Councilman Melcher: Ever since Steve and I have sat on this Council we’ve had three or four (INAUDICLE). And it started out where it was all confidentiality.
Vice-President Bagbey: Right.
Councilman Melcher: So it went to DMD and they were the ones that went through it and looked at it and took the forms. And then anytime that they felt like there was two or three that needed to come in they called the people. The other got changed to where we got them and it was still confidentiality if you remember at the beginning, and you were on that (INAUDIBLE). We numbered them A-Z or 1 through something. Number eight came in, number six to come in, and then came public knowledge of those names only. Then we came back I think we’re getting to the point in what Jeff said tonight, we came back when we forced them to sign their name to say that they know if they don’t get their 100-percent number, that we have the option of deleting their tax abatement. I mean can’t believe what’s already happened, but you can believe, you know, you don’t have to pass it on.
Vice-President Bagbey: Right, the future.
Councilman Melcher: Or we could modify it for the future. And then you came along with asking for these sheets that we could all sign. If you’ll remember we were talking about Whirlpool last year, whatever, that’s when I called to see who all’s on your Board because we’ve done this and we need to start looking at this. The (INAUDIBLE)of Whirlpool when they came in and explained it the second week if you remember. So this probably is…you probably do need to set some kind of agenda…a number. It would probably be better if they can’t hit that number that they came in and talked to DMD first. Or DMD go out and talk to them first, then come to us.
Vice-President Bagbey: Well Rob let’s do it this way. Let’s take the input that you’ve heard tonight. Let’s…why don’t you draft up something, a document that will address the concerns of Council. One of the things I think that needs to be in that is exactly what Councilman Melcher says, I think they need to come to you first and then us.
Rob Schaefer: Okay.
Vice-President Bagbey: Or your office needs to be communicating to us that Bagbey INC. is having some difficulties and they are at 22 percent. And the problem I’m going to have right now is I would think your effort would be 100 percent and giving 101, but I don’t know what the percentage would be for passing or for failure.
Councilman Melcher: Another thing I forgot to mention. We also did a scoring. We redid a tax phase-in, and we went to the scoring thing which is better controlled now then what it was on some of these old ones. So I think it’s going to turn out to be okay in the long run.
Vice-President Bagbey: So can you do that for us?
Rob Schaefer: Sure.
Vice-President Bagbey: So what do we have to do tonight?
Rob Schaefer: Yeah. You need to tell me which ones that you want to hear from so that I know that you…..
Vice-President Bagbey: You were okay on the record?
Rob Schaefer: That you are okay with all the rest.
John Hamilton: Do they have to do that tonight?
Rob Schaefer: Well if they would tell me who to contact it would move things along I suppose, but no I guess they don’t have to do that tonight.
John Hamilton: Right, until you can come up with your guidelines that you’re talking about.
Vice-President Bagbey: How about let’s put anyone under 85 percent.
John Hamilton: See then you are already setting your guidelines.
Vice-President Bagbey: The reason being is because I’m looking at the statistical.
Rob Schaefer: I have to move on this, this here to get those CR Funds signed and…..
I don’t mean to rush you I just….
Councilman Kiefer: How difficult is it for you Rob to contact everybody below 100 percent and do that if they are below 100 percent. I mean is this a monumental task that you could not achieve?
Rob Schaefer: It’s not… no. I just need to have those CF-1’s the ones you are okay with approved. So sometime fairly soon.
Councilman Kiefer: So it’s not too difficult for you for anybody over 100 percent to do that and under 100 percent for them to contact you?
Rob Schaefer: Well it looks like it’s probably 15 or 20 of them that I’d want to contact.
Councilman Kiefer: Well that’s what I’m asking. Is that too difficult of a task for you?
Rob Schaefer: No it’s not too difficult.
Councilman Kiefer: Then 100 percent is that okay with everybody else?
Rob Schaefer: Unless if you wanted to change it to 90 percent or 80 percent that would make things less difficult.
Councilman Watts: If we change our mind and do 85 and it comes back and said: “Look at this one John”. Is that going to set a precedent?
John Hamilton: Well I would like an opportunity to talk with Rob about the consequences of non compliance and looking at that as part of what he’s doing so that you can have a comprehensive policy that you adopt. But I’m wondering if you want to take this action before you….
Councilman Watts: What would you recommend us to do with this?
John Hamilton: If he has any time to defer it until we can get together and come back with some information.
Rob Schaefer: I just have until…well….until the end of the year. Then I mean, you know, it’s already almost December.
Vice-President Bagbey: Councilman Angermeier.
Councilman Angermeier: I move that we allow the Council Attorney to meet with him and to follow through his suggestions that he talked about and bring it back. I don’t think you ought to do anything without having full knowledge and the approval of our action less than the Counsel’s approval.
Vice-President Bagbey: Could you guys meet the first week in December?
Rob Schaefer: Okay, and will I be able to come back here before the end of the year?
Vice-President Bagbey: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Rob Schaefer: And I’ll be able to come back and get okays and….
John Hamilton: There’s no publication requirement on this was there?
Rob Schaefer: If you decide that you need someone to come in here and speak and explain their position then that will be a public meeting and will have to be advertised but not until then.
John Hamilton: As long as they make that decision to do that by the end of year is what you need.
Rob Schaefer: I need action by the end of the year. We need CF-1’s signed so I can send them off by the end of the year. So I don’t know how many more times you guys will meet this year.
Vice-President Bagbey: Mr. Hamilton and you can get together the first full week of December. Get…you know, December 1st, 2nd. You know if we could sneak it in as early as December 8th we will do it. Okay, if not we’ll do it, you know, by the 15th at least.
Councilman Watts: John for time sake could we go ahead and do the ones that are over 100 to get those, someone could be doing that.
Vice-President Bagbey: No, I think we’ll do it one stop shop.
Rob Schaefer: It doesn’t matter, I could take the ones that are over 100 and….
Vice-President Bagbey: Let’s just do it at one time.
Rob Schaefer: Okay.
Vice-President Bagbey: Let’s just do it at one time. Anyone else have any questions? Do we need to vote on Councilman Angermeier’s motion? I mean he put a motion out there. I mean
we’re going to do it.
John Hamilton: I would go ahead just for the record.
Councilman Angermeier moved and Councilman Kiefer seconded the motion that we allow the Council Attorney to meet with Rob Schaefer (DMD) and to follow through on his suggestion that he talk about and bring it back. Voice vote. So ordered.
Vice-President Bagbey: Thank you Councilman Angermeier I appreciate that.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
FINANCE CHAIRWOMAN ROBINSON
Ordinance F-2003-21 is scheduled for December 8th at 5:45.
ASD CHAIRMAN________________________________________________ANGERMEIER
PUBLIC WORKS CHAIRMAN_________________________________________BAGBEY
December 1st we will hear G-2003-27 and history was made boys and girls. The Cab Company came in before the end of the year and we will hear G-2003-28 and G-2003-29 on December 15th.
Vice-President Bagbey: Anything else to come before the Council?
Councilman Kiefer: Yes, thank you. I wanted to ask the rest of the Council if they are familiar with what I read in the paper, and I don’t know enough about it but I thought it might be worthwhile asking. Something about the State Legislature passing, or doing some kind of legislature on budget’s and not exceeding 5 percent or something. I didn’t know if that was going to affect us, and what we’ve done for 2004, but I just wanted to see what the rest of the Council Members.
Vice-President Bagbey: I was talking to a Representative today in Indianapolis and I was reassured that it will be totally different by the time the Senate gets finished with it, but as of right now yes it could do this City great harm. So we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
And I think the Governor still could veto it.
Councilman Melcher: As of right now we already have a 5 percent cap. What they are stopping is the roll over. And that could be (INAUDIBLE).
Councilman Kiefer: I just didn’t read the article but I heard about it.
Vice-President Bagbey: That’s a reality and that’s why I was reaching out trying to find out something. Anything else? I want to wish everybody on Council a safe and good Thanksgiving. At this time we will entertain a motion.
ADJOURNMENT
Councilman Kniese moved and Councilman Watts seconded the motion to adjourn. Voice Vote. So Ordered. Meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.
PRESIDING OFFICER
CITY CLERK