Council members Bunny Williams and Karla Webber were absent from the assembly, but Assistant Fire Chief Tim McGee was on hand, along with five members of the community sitting in the public gallery.
With the approval of $49,071.84 in vendor checks, the Consent Agenda and previous meeting minutes was put on record.
The meeting rapidly hit the midpoint of the published agenda with no correspondence to report, they moved onto City Ordinances.
The second reading to amend chapter 2.10, City Attorney, of Ordinance #1494 was quickly dispensed with and approved to move forward by the city council. The amendment is a language change in current Ordinance 1494 to allow the city to call for a special attorney, when needed, and not have to wait to for a regular scheduled council meeting, thus expedites the process for critical and timely issues.
During Items from the Public, resident Paul DeMeo rose to ask questions about water and sewer rates. It was his hope that something could be done for what he believed to be the average earner in the city, those with minimum wage jobs. The council had a few perplexed looks at the remarks about the current annual income for the city, but did understand that for some the rates people are paying are a little hard to manage at times.
Washington State median income is roughly $57,000 with the City of South Bend coming in at around $31,500. Those working minimum wage jobs have an annual income around $19,700, a couple over $39,000.
DeMeo was attempting to see if there was any way that the city could stretch the loans that they had taken for the new water and sewer faculties or add automation to give ratepayers a bit of a break.
It was explained that the facilities are currently state of the art and are only a year old, and the loans were at their maximum length of time allowed. And that the city is up against a wall on water and sewer rates, there is little that can be done in way of reducing the rates.
There was further discussion on the history of how the city arrived at where they are at today, and it was explained that the situation could have been worse for everybody if action had not been taken when they did.
The meeting moved into Department Head reports with little to be reported except that Assistant Fire Chief McGee did relay that the Fire Department was waiting on the results of a recent survey that looked at the Fire Readiness of the city. With a good rating, it may positively influence homeowner insurance rates. The city had not taken a like survey in the past 30 years.
Council member Pat Neve brought up the fact that she had received a complaint about the public restroom and their dire condition during Council Comments.
It was discussed that it was a sore spot for the city, in which City Supervisor Dennis Houk stated that city crews tend to the facility daily.
The next South Bend City Council meeting is scheduled for March 9, 5:30 pm at the South Bend City Hall.