The South Bend City Council met with a full attendance on Monday, November 24. They amended the agenda by deleting the executive session and adding a discussion on the Central Avenue Project Change Order. The council approved the amendment and got on with the approval of the agenda as amended as well as the minutes from the previous meeting of November 9.
For their first order of business the council opened a public hearing for the 2016 final budget. The time for public comment was given, when South Bend Citizen Tom Giacoma spoke. Giacoma first asked the Mayor about the budget, and how there was no allowance for wage negotiations that are going on right now, "I didn't see it in the budget, it's like you didn't address it; there will be an added revenue expense I take it from these negotiations?" said Giacoma. Struck answered by saying that the council will find out what the allowance is when they are done negotiating, and that they can't comment on it until they are done. Giacoma next addressed the insurance on the 2016 budget, "I noticed our insurance rates all went up, is that because we changed carriers? Our rates went up because it's costing us $11,700 more this year than last year, so what's the justification?" Struck explained to Giacoma that with the previous insurer, the dams and reservoirs in South Bend were not covered by insurance, and that they are now covered in the 2016 budget. Giacoma had one last item to address: "I noticed we're proposing to increase the law enforcement budget by over $40,000 and the public works department maybe $10,000 for contractors and more gravel. This is lopsided to me because it doesn't really address our priority, which is not crime. We are spending too much on law enforcement," said Giacoma, "So why is it so much in favor of law enforcement?"
After the council reminded Giacoma of the 3 minute maximum rule, Giacoma's question was not addressed and Mayor Struck moved the meeting along, asking if anybody else had any additional questions. South Bend Citizen Jan Davis spoke at this time, "My name is Jan Davis and I've lived here for 39 and a half years. I looked at a copy of the budget and I just wanted to say that I would like to see more money put into our city and making it look nice." Davis went on to talk about how more money should be going into fixing streets and promoting jobs within the city for those who are unemployed. Davis talked more about the image of South Bend, saying that she has read reviews of South Bend on the internet that describe the town as a speed trap, with a heavy police presence along the 101. After Davis concluded her first point, she then asked about the insurance on the 2016 final budget. Clerk/Treasurer Roberts answered, "It's impossible to know exactly what it will be for 2016 because our last insurance carrier did not insure our reservoirs or dams. So they are insured now, which is a blessing." Davis went on to ask if we know what our annual premium is to which Roberts answered: "They couldn't tell me because they hadn't done an evaluation of the city yet when I was putting the budget together. I am not going to quote any figure in a public meeting because I don't know, if you want to come in to the city hall outside of the meeting I can tell you."
Struck commented that it was not too late to discuss the budget outside of the meeting, and that it was not too late to make changes if problems were found. Struck closed the public hearing for the 2016 final budget hearing at 5:52pm and moved to the first reading of Ordinance #1509, which was the first reading of the 2016 budget. Struck called for a motion to be made by the council and the first reading was approved.
The next item on the agenda was that Central Avenue Project. Mayor Struck read a letter from Eric Noah of Nova Contracting that detailed what the project involved and Struck concluded that the company wasn't going to pave the road because the ground at the Central Avenue site is not finished settling.
The next item on the agenda was the department head reports, City Supervisor Houk was the only department head with a report, and reported on a Central Street project, "We took down two trees down the alleyway, the silt and sand was going out of the trench line and there were a couple trees that were not in our right of way; they were on private property. So we talked to the people living there and they wanted the trees taken down in fear that they would fall down eventually," said Houk.
After the department head reports Mayor Struck adjourned the meeting. The next South Bend City Council meeting will be held Monday, December 7 at 5:30pm.