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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC AUGUST 5, 2019 COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA AUGUST 5, 2019 The Common Council of the City of Jeffersonville, Indiana met in regular session in Room 101, 500 Quartermaster Court,Jeffersonville, Indiana at 7:00 pm, on August 5, 2019. Council President Ed Zastawny along with City Clerk Conlin called the meeting to order at 7:02 pm. Mr. Bobby Campbell gave the invocation. Council President Zastawny asked those in attendance to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL:The roll call was conducted and those present were Councilperson White, Councilperson Maples, Councilperson Paris, Councilperson Gill, Councilperson Hawkins, Councilperson Owen, Councilperson Ellis, Councilperson Samuel and Council President Zastawny. MINUTES TO BE APPROVED: July 15, 2019 Regular Proceedings—Councilperson Owen made a motion to APPROVE the minutes with Councilperson Samuel seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA: Council President Zastawny noted that number 14 would need to be removed. Councilperson Owen made a motion to APPROVE the agenda removing number 14 with Councilperson Gill seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. CLAIMS TO BE APPROVED: City Controller Heather Metcalf presented the Civil Claims. Councilperson Gill noted that there is a transfer out for fuel. We need to be mindful of that when thinking about the budget. Additionally on page 6 there is a claim for a leadership training and travel for the training and as of right now that position is posted. Should we be approving that when there may not be anyone to do the training? Please check to see if this is a mandated training. Councilperson Samuel noted there was a claim for over$19,000 for tuition for the Police Department. It was discussed and decided to table the Civil Claims until the end of the meeting. Councilperson Samuel made a motion to TABLE the Civil Claims until the claim for tuition could be retrieved to review by the Council with Councilperson Owen seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. At the end of the meeting the Council discussed that the Claim was for tuition. Councilperson Samuel made a motion to APPRVOVE the claims contingent on the Safety Claims being required. Councilperson Hawkins seconded the motion. Chief Kavanaugh was present and advised the Council that they money used for the tuition was from Federal funding for that specific reason. They are in compliance with the DOJ and there was not an issue with the last audit for utilizing those funds. They are more than welcome to come look at those records. General Claims PASSED on a vote, 9-0. City Controller Heather Metcalf presented the Parks Claims. Councilperson Maples mentioned that there was a claim for a cell phone stipend out of professional services. Controller Metcalf stated that was incorrect and would be changed. There is an additional claim in the amount of$1749.10. This brings the new total to $236,051.09. Councilperson Gill made a motion to APPROVE the Parks Claims with Councilperson Hawkins seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. REPORT OF THE CLERK: 1 Nothing at this time. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: 1. Ed Zastawny/Heather Metcalf—2019-OR-34An Ordinance Amending 2017-OR-49 and Ordinance Establishing Departmental Petty Cash And/Or Cash Change Fund—City Controller Heather Metcalf presented 2019-OR-34. There have been no changes since the last meeting. Councilperson Gill made a motion to APPROVE 2019-OR-34 on the third and final reading with Councilperson Maples seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. 2. Ed Zastawny/ Les Merkley—2019-OR-35 An Ordinance Nullify Ordinance 2019-OR-12 Pursuant to I.C. 36-7-4-610.5—City Attorney Les Merkley Presented 2019-OR-35. This was briefly discussed at the last meeting. This is to nullify a prior ordinance 2019-OR-12 that rezoned a property and this is being done pursuant to I.C. 36-7-4-610.5. Attached to the ordinance are various minutes from both City Council Meetings and Planning Commission Meetings in reference to the property. This property is commonly known as the Optimus Club and was rezoned back in March by the City Council upon a favorable recommendation of the Planning Commission to rezone that property from Residential to Multi Family. Pursuant to the previously stated statute if the City Council determines that this adopted as the result of an intentional misrepresentation of material facts you may adopt an ordinance to nullify. Individuals testified and spoke under oath that they were misled or certain material facts were omitted. This will take a 3 quarters vote. Councilperson Gill made a motion to remove from the table with Councilperson Maples seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. John Kraft—126 W. Spring Street New Albany, Indiana—He is appearing on behalf of BWI. At the last meeting the question was raised as to why BWI did not appear to address the issues of the rezoning. Part of that had to deal with issues with the Mayor's Office. There was communications from the Mayor that if we let this go back to Residential and move to the Jesse Ballew site which you will see concern items 15 & 16 on the agenda that at that point in time it would go back to Residential Zoning. That did not occur. They do have communications directly from the Mayor advising that everything was worked out as long as they moved to the Jesse Ballew site. At that point in time there would be no opposition to the Jesse Ballew site and likewise there would be no opposition by his client to this issue. That did not turn out to be the case. At the last Plan Commission meeting the Jesse Ballew site was discussed. It is important to note that you are voting on an item that you are saying there was intentional misrepresentations. Keep that in mind. You're alleging fraud. There are a lot of things that have to be addressed by this. This doesn't come to you as a self-generated ordinance. It was generated by the Plan Commission. He is asking that they deny this ordinance. Ryan Mitchell—5902 E. 34th Street Indianapolis, IN —He is the Vice President of BWI Development. He got to know a lot of the Council over the last year and he appreciates all of the assistance from each one over the last year. His company has never worked harder to locate a home for a project. They do a lot of these. They have tried and done everything they know to do. There is not a lot of fight left. This is a project that is to help the most vulnerable people in the City. There have been rough, slanderous comments about their company and they are frustrating. These are legitimate community projects. They take a lot of pride in what they do and feel they do it well. He would like to be able to go back to their company and team and say he understands the misrepresentation. He would like to understand what the exact information that they stated that really carried the vote and then it became that it was not true. He would like to know those actual facts. 2 City Attorney Merkley stated it doesn't matter who generates the ordinance. It was generated by BWI. Keep in mind this is your decision to determine whether there was a misrepresentation of the facts. 3. Ed Zastawny/ Nathan Samuel—2019-OR-36 An Ordinance Funding Local Not-for-Profit,for Specific Projects Addressing Needs and Services for Jeffersonville Homeless—Councilperson Samuel made a motion to remove the matter from the table with Councilperson Owen seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. Councilperson Samuel advised that what this ordinance does is to set aside 2%of future EDIT dollars for this specific purpose. The money will be put in a non-reverting fund and then twice a year the Council will open up an opportunity for not for profits to come in and request the funds. In terms of the amount this currently would set aside approximately$50,000 for this needs. This money would only be able to be put towards concrete needs and would not be able to be used for administrative costs. This would only be able to be used for Jeffersonville homeless needs. This is an ongoing issue and this will need to be tweaked as it progresses. The Council discussed that even though this money would be earmarked in the budget, they are unable to enforce what future Council does and they may not appropriate the money during the budget. Council Attorney Larry Wilder confirmed that they could not force a future Council to fund a budget. Councilperson Samuel made a motion to APPROVE 2019-OR-36 on the first reading with Councilperson Gill seconding. A roll call vote was requested. Councilperson White—No Councilperson Paris—Yes Councilperson Maples—No Councilperson Gill—Yes Councilperson Hawkins—Yes Council President Zastawny—Yes Councilperson Owen—No Councilperson Ellis—Yes Councilperson Samuel—Yes Motion to APPROVE 2019-OR-36 on the first reading PASSED on a vote, 6-3 with Councilperson White, Councilperson Maples, and Councilperson Owen voting against. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Ed Zastawny/ Ron Ellis—John Ashton Dolly Parton "Imagination Library"—Mr.John Ashton returned to discuss the current numbers for Clark County. They need to have a year and a half of funds in order to move forward with this project. Councilperson Ellis made a motion to take $13,000 out of Special Projects for this matter with Councilperson White seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. Council President Zastawny asked that Mr. Ashton return around the end of the year to provide an update on the project. Mr. Ashton is to send Clerk Conlin the information to process the invoice. 2. Ed Zastawny/Curt Peters—2019-R-9 A Resolution in Support the "VFM"Safety and Inspiration Center—Curt Peters was present to discuss the Resolution. This is a time sensitive issue. Mr. Peters is the board chair of the Vintage Fire Museum. They have been in Jeffersonville for a little over 5 years and it has worked out very well. They are also very pleased to be involved with the Arts and Culture District and their relationship with the people involved with that has been very good. What has happened is that something very positive for Jeffersonville has happened. It won't cos the City any money. The Vintage Fire Museum and Safety Center has 3 three main purposes. The first is preservation of firefighting. The second is to offer fire safety education and third to inspire. They use the example of what firefighters have done and still do as an inspiration to the community. They host the 911 Memorial every year. They are currently a little short on space. There is a piece of property that is available on 7th Street. This is the building that is between 7th and Federal. The building itself is in bad condition. There are environmental issues and it is an eyesore. They are willing to undergo a Capital Campaign to develop this into a beautiful site. The idea is to do something beautiful in this area and with the wellbeing of the community in mind. SoIN Tourism has been very helpful to lots of tourist attractions in Southern Indiana. They have supported the Vintage Fire Museum in the past. Our experience with tourism has been great but have also been successful with local community. This grant comes as money from SoIN Tourism. It is in the amount of$125,000. The intention was an expansion because the current space works so well for the history exhibits that they have. They are open to discussing what is going to be at which site. If something like this doesn't happen in that building he is concerned that this site will remain an eyesore. Jim Epperson from SoIN Tourism is present to answer any questions about the bonding. Mr. Peters does not want to leave the $125,000 on the table especially since it does not cost the City any money. They have enjoyed with working with the City and the downtown area. Councilperson Hawkins asked Mr. Peters what the current square footage is in the facility they are in now. It's about 6000 square feet. Councilperson Hawkins asked what the square footage will be for the new facility. On the first floor it will be about 16,000 square feet. Councilperson Hawkins asked what the full budget needed will be. Mr. Peters said that the capital campaign that begins in the fall will be for 1 million dollars. The money from the SoIN Tourism would go towards a new roof. The whole complex is in need of a new roof. Councilperson Paris asked how many visitors there were on a yearly basis. In 2018 there were 4,898 visitors. They are expecting a number to exceed that this year. The current lease with Redevelopment is for 25 years. The new building is owned by Bales Auto Company and it has been for sale since 2017. There is an agreed upon bid and bank funding to purchase that property. They are also now in the process of the environmental study. Council President Zastawny asked City Attorney Les Merkley if the Administration was in support of this. Mr. Merkley stated he believes that Rob Waiz sent out an email earlier this afternoon and his position was correctly stated that he would support this to the extent that it would allow that the existing location would be relocated. This is ultimately a City Council decision. The Administration would like to see the $125,000 go to the Depot project. Council President Zastawny asked if the $125,000 isn't approved if the money would go to another project in Jeffersonville. Mr. Epperson said the board would have to decide that. This is part of a request that was due May 31st. It wasn't until the final vote that they realized the required Council Resolution attached. This has been tabled until this could be addressed. If the Resolution is passed tonight it will be voted on the next meeting. If there is no Resolution the money will go back into the pot. The board has some flexibility here. They could split it up to the other projects, revert it back and not commit the funds, they have a number of options. Attorney Jack Vissing discussed the safe guards in the place. We have a unique SoIN Tourisms bureau. It collects a room tax. We take 4%tax money and we are trying to get in increase to 6%. They can't issue the bonds but they can make payments on them and the cost setting it up. The RiverStage wouldn't exist without this. They are putting $500,000 in the Depot. If you turn down the $125,000 for the Fire Museum it will not automatically go to the Depot. It goes back to the pot. If they do not take ownership of the property they will not get the money. They will not spend the money and if the project doesn't happen they will call the money back and pay down the bond. We want to see the project done. Council Attorney Larry Wilder said it doesn't cost anything to vote on this Resolution and they get the $125,000. Mr. Peters discussed the 4 pressing timeline for this matter. They submitted the proposal without the Resolution and they found out that the grant has been awarded to them. That's why they are here requesting the Resolution. They were told it would not have any baring at all on the Depot Project. Councilperson White stated he wanted to make sure it was known that he did not express a preference for either project and what he advised them is that based on his experience was that the requests for Resolutions came from the Administration. Councilperson Ellis asked if there would be a future request for funding to assist with this project. It is a possibility but it is not in the works now. The Capital Campaign is not focused on money from the City of Jeffersonville. Councilperson Owen said is seems we are going about the incorrect way of doing this. The application was due in May and here we are in August requesting the required documentation. He does not appreciate the circumstance but he wants to see the Vintage Fire Museum have a place of their own. Councilperson Owen made a motion to APPROVE 2019-R-9 with Councilperson Maples seconding, PASSING on a vote, 7-2. 3. Ed Zastawny/ Brad Benson- PUBLIC HEARING 2019-OR- Petition for Partial Vacation of an Unimproved Platted Alley Connected to Southern Indiana Avenue,A Public Way In The City of Jeffersonville, Indiana—REMOVED during approval of the agenda. 4. Ed Zastawny/2019-OR-37 An Ordinance Changing the Zoning Designation 3712 Holmans Lane and Fully Described in Attached Exhibit A from R1 to OC—The applicant, Mr.Jeff Hartfield was present to answer any questions. This is for Denim and Diamonds. Councilperson Maples asked how many employees there are and currently it is four. Councilperson Maples stated he believes this fits with the area of Holmans Lane. Council President Zastawny opened the Public Hearing at 8:55 PM and as no members of the community came forward to speak for or against the matter the Public Hearing was closed. Councilperson Maples made a motion to APPROVE 2019-OR-37 with Councilperson Gill seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. 5. Ed Zastawny/ PUBLIC HEARING-2019-OR-38 An Ordinance Changing the Zoning Map at 241 Eastern Blvd (Parcel 10-19-00-800-025.000-010)and Fully Described in Exhibit A from C2 to M3 —City Attorney Les Merkley presented 2019-OR-38. The next two docket matters are reference to the same property. There are two parcels. One is to zone property that is currently zoned C2 to M3 and the next property is to go from C3 to Neighborhood Commercial. This application is from the Jesse Ballew Fund in reference to being a potential location for BWI. This is the third location that BWI has targeted for this development. BWI indicated to the Administration that they were interested in the property instead of the Louse Street property. What the City agreed to do was to hold a special meeting for the Planning Commission to hear this matter. That special meeting occurred. There is a commercial component to this project. As a result to the commercial component that would propose a medical office, grocery store, and laundromat. The Administration cannot commit to anything being rezoned. The resident's voices need to be heard. Any development where residents have concerns or oppositions they need to be heard. Mr. Kraft is here to present on behalf of the applicant. Mr. Merkley stated the Planning Commission was unanimously unfavorable recommendation on both rezonings. Mr. Kraft said he is appearing on behalf of the Jesse Ballew Gift Fund. This is a zoning change, not a project approval. This is for land use. Mr. Kraft discussed an email sent from Mr. Merkley discussing the change of the location. It outlines the stipulations that BWI would not oppose the rezoning of 61 Louise Street as they were planning on moving forward with the property from the Jesse Ballew Fund. The administration was to hold a plan commission meeting and the City would cooperate and expedite the process to obtain the needed rezoning. This included calling a 5 special meeting in the Plan commission prior to the Council Meeting that evening. The Jeffersonville Housing Authority would work with BWI for the transitional housing property at the Eastern Blvd location. In the event of the rezoning the City would work to provided needed infrastructure to accommodate the plans not to exceed $250,000. The funding that was earmarked for this project is now gone. From the standpoint he believed it in important to give the background information. This is the third location for this project and they are asking that the rezonings be passed. It comes with an unfavorable recommendation but they are asking for it to be passed regardless. Council President Zastawny opened the Public Hearing at 9:19 PM. Carol Moon—1711 National Ave. -She is the President of the Claysburg Neighborhood and they are asking that the Council take the recommendation of the Plan Commission and do not pass this Zoning. Do not put anything else at the back door of the Claysburg area. They have services in place already. They have a homeless shelter and a soup kitchen. They have a men's shelter. The Serenity House is at their back door. They hear that Jeffersonville is on the move. They have seen a little bit of progress in Claysburg. It has been overlooked by the City. It's not good for Claysburg. They are fixing up what has been messed up. She heard this is the last location to be selected and she hopes this is not the location of the project. LaVerne Vaughn—203 Luther Circle—She is here opposing the rezoning of these properties for the reason that has been mentioned before. It is not a good fit for our neighborhood. They cannot handle any other type of low income housing for their neighborhood. She feels like this is not a place because there are small children and senior citizens in their neighborhood. They are just as good as any other neighborhood in the City. They are taxpayers and vote. Claysburg is not a good fit for this type of situation. They have too much going on in their neighborhood and this will just bring more problems. Claysburg cannot solve all the problems in the County. We do not want a transitional care housing in our neighborhood. Bruce Newharth - He is here representing Sodrel Truck Lines. They are in opposition of this. Mr. Sodrel wanted to go on record for that. He feels there is adequate transitional housing in the area and he does not support this at this time. Anthony Lionell—1808 North Spring Street. They cannot let their grandchild play in their own yard because of the homeless people. He is not opposed to homeless people, he has even tried renting to a few but it didn't work out. He is constantly picking up garbage and syringes and it will be worse with this. They are going to transition from one homeless shelter to another. They cannot get any peace. The cops are out there all of the time. The police and fire department are out there all of the time. If you let that thing go out there it will just get worse. Please go out there and look in that area. They live out there. His family came here in 1878 and if it wasn't for that he would be gone. Pauline Shanklin—204 King Circle—She is strongly opposed to what BWI is trying to approve. She cannot see how they can put a band aid on a cut this size. They have so much out there. She is not in the core of Claysburg and she has walked out and had people sleeping under her carport. They can no longer walk in the park. People are having sex and asking for things. They don't care about throwing trash on the grass when there is a trashcan available. They have so much to deal with already. Their neighborhood cannot take anymore. John Goodman—He is the president of Louisville and Indiana Railroad.-Their railyard backs up to this property. The biggest problem they have is trespassing. He can assure that they will be walking through the rail yard and something catastrophic will happen. They do not support this. Yamin Vot—He has four adjoining parcels. About two weeks ago the hotel in Clarksville was closed for many issues and reasons. There was a homeless camp that the City has removed already. His family strongly opposes this. It will bring additional problems to the community. 6 Ryan Mitchell—There is a lot of irony. They have looked at a lot of sites in the City. They've talked to everyone who would listen. They have heard this is a really good project just not at this site. Help him find a site. They tried to have these conversations. This is not transitional housing. It is called permanent support housing. It is the brainchild of federal government. It's a federal program. They have never not been able to find a home for a project. They have spent two years on this process. Obviously what we are doing is not working. This is how you make it better. Most of the comments have said that there is a problem. They are hurting and don't want another bad project. This is the program to fix the issues we are talking about. This is wraparound services. We are looking at 13+ million dollars for this project. That's the plan and project. He hopes it works. If it goes back it will go to a different community. Victoria James—204 Martin Circle—She used to walk but now they cannot. There is no telling what is in the park. People are lying all around on drugs. She shouldn't have to walk over there and see this. It was a school area and that is a safety hazard for those children. They sleep anywhere they want to. She has to be home at a certain hour because she is afraid to live in the neighborhood. She pays taxes. We do have a problem and it needs to be fixed. Vanessa Brown—209 Martin Circle—She is raising three granddaughters and she has had a homeless person try to grab her granddaughters. She calls the police all of the time. She has little girls. She has to monitor what they see. They have had enough. Public Hearing was closed at 9:39 PM. City Attorney Merkley passed out the email referenced earlier for clarification. It was intended to resolve any potential legal issues between the City and his client. Put that in context. It was an email from one attorney to another attorney. The Mayor did not sign that. There's three items there. One item the City complied with, they did have a special meeting with the Plan Commission. The other two items were contingent upon the rezoning of that property. They Mayor has said all along that the residents need to be heard and listened to. Councilperson Ellis said he has already made up his mind about this coming to Claysburg. He has met with BWI. They had a meeting two weeks ago and right before that meeting he asked the Mayor what his position was and the Mayor was not in support of the project. He spoke with Gary Hobbs and Jesse Ballew and they tried to persuade him to support the project. He's going to support the desires of the people of the neighborhood. Councilperson Ellis made a motion to PASS 2019-OR-38 with the intent to fail with Councilperson Owen seconding. Councilperson Gill said she would like to see a meeting take place to help resolve some of the issues discussed in the Public Hearing. We have got to get something done. A roll call vote was requested: Councilperson White—No Councilperson Paris—No Councilperson Maples—No Councilperson Gill—No Councilperson Hawkins—No Council President Zastawny—No Councilperson Owen—No Councilperson Ellis—No Councilperson Samuel—No Motion to APPROVE 2019-OR-40 FAILED on a final vote, 0-9. 6. Ed Zastawny/ Les Merkley—PUBLIC HEARING-2019-OR-39 An Ordinance Changing the Zoning Map at 241 Eastern Blvd (Parcel 10-19-00-800-030.000-010) and Fully Described in Attached Exhibit A From C2 to NC—This was discussed during 2019-OR-39. Councilperson Gill made a 7 motion to APPROVE 2019-OR-39 with the intent that the motion will fail. A roll call vote was requested: Councilperson White—No Councilperson Paris—No Councilperson Maples—No Councilperson Gill—No Councilperson Hawkins—No Council President Zastawny—No Councilperson Owen—No Councilperson Ellis—No Councilperson Samuel—No Motion to APPROVE 2019-OR-39 FAILED on a final vote, 0-9. 7. Ed Zastawny/ Heather Metcalf—2019-OR-40 An Ordinance Transferring Certain Funds Within The Same Department—City Controller Heather Metcalf presented 2019-OR-40. This is to fund the utilities for the last four months of the year for the Envision Center that was recently opened. Councilperson Gill made a motion to APPROVE 2019-OR-40 on the first and second reading with Councilperson Owen seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. 8. Ed Zastawny/ Heather Metcalf—2019-OR-41 An Ordinance of Additional Appropriation—City Controller Heather Metcalf presented 2019-OR-41. Councilperson Owen made a motion to APPROVE 2019-OR-41 on the first and second reading with Councilperson Hawkins seconding, PASSING on a vote, 8-1 with Councilperson Ellis voting against the matter. REPORT OF THE COUNCIL ATTORNEY Nothing at this time. PUBLIC COMMENTS: Jason Slater—440 Thompson Lane—He has had some difficulty finding public documents. He would like to see the process mainstreamed on the website. He would like to see information from the different Commissions in a mainstream place. There are all of these different places to find the information but no way to know how to do that. You might want to review that to make it easier to review that information. DEPARTMENT HEAD REPORTS: Nothing at this time. COUNCIL COMMENTS: Councilperson White—Nothing at this time. Councilperson Paris—Nothing at this time. Councilperson Maples—Nothing at this time. Councilperson Gill—National night out is tomorrow from 6-8. Councilperson Gill made a motion to make it retroactive for Andy's employee to be paid with Councilperson Owen seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. 8 Councilperson Hawkins—The Jeffersonville Redevelopment has submitted a TIF report. It shows the TIFs and when they are going to fall off. We have many rolling off in the not so distant future. If you have questions this can help. He's happy to find out the answer to questions. Councilperson Owen—Nothing at this time. Councilperson Ellis—They purchased a table for the Samaritans Award table and they would like to know who is coming. There is a table for 8. Please let him or Clerk Conlin know. It's 8/15 at Hubers. Councilperson Samuel—Nothing at this time. Council President Zastawny—Nothing at this time. ADJOURNMENT: Councilperson Owen made the motion to ADJOURN and the meeting adjourned at 9:59 P.M. AP• 'I ED BY: • astawny, 'r-sident ATTEST: Vicki Conlin, Clerk 9