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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOCTOBER 19, 2015COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA OCTOBER 19, 2015 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 Monday, October 19, 2015. Council President Gill called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. Council President Gill asked those in attendance to stand as Councilperson Samuel gave the Invocation. Council President Gill asked those in attendance to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The roll call was conducted and those present were: Councilperson Smith, Councilperson Zastawny, Councilperson Wadsworth, Councilperson Sellers, Councilperson Webb, Council President Gill, Councilperson Julius, Councilperson Owen, and Councilperson Samuel. MINUTES TO BE APPROVED: Minutes from the Regular Council Proceedings October 5, 2015 - Councilperson Samuel made a motion to APPROVE the minutes from Regular Council Proceedings on October 5, 2015 with Councilperson Julius seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA: Councilperson Owen made a motion to APPROVE the agenda with Councilperson Zastawny seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. CLAIMS TO BE APPROVED: GENERAL - $3,914,383.35 Original amount of the Claims was $3,938,733.35. Councilperson Sellers made a motion to remove the $25,000.00 for the Norton's Donation to be voted on separately from the claims. Councilperson Owen seconded the motion. Council President Gill requested a roll call. Roll CaII: Councilperson Yes No Abstain Smith Zastawny Wadsworth Sellers Webb Gill Julius Owen Samuel X X X X X X X X X Motion PASSES to approve the donation with a final roll call vote of 6-1-2. City Controller Deering presented the new total for the claims as $3,914,383.35, which removed the $25,000 donation and added the hand carried claim for the amount of $650 for a special Judge needed for a case in the Police Merit Board. Council President Gill stated just for 1 the public's knowledge this is higher than normal because of the $3,000,000.00 for the Vissing Park Band pay off. Councilperson Zastawny made a motion to APPROVE the claims contingent upon the contracts that needed to be amended were amended. Councilperson Samuel seconded the motion, PASSING on a vote, 8-0-1 with Councilperson Julius abstaining. REPORT OF THE CLERK: City Clerk Conlin not present at the meeting. Nothing to report at this time. AGENDA ITMES: UNFINISHED BUSINESS: 1. Dennis Julius — 2015 -OR -56 Guidelines and Principles for Consideration of Property Tax Phase -In (Tax Abatement) in Jeffersonville, Indiana This is the tax abatement that was passed on the 15t reading. Councilperson Owen made a motion to APPROVE 2015 -OR -56 on the second and third reading with Councilperson Wadsworth seconding. Councilperson Samuel questioned if there was anything in this ordinance that addressed the fact that the City is granting appropriations and then the companies are not getting their paperwork completed in a timely fashion. Councilperson Julius stated there was a clause in the ordinance that handled that issue. With the motion and second being in place the Council voted, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. 2. Kim Calabro — 2015 -OR -57 AN ORDINANCE FIXING THE SLARIES OF APPOINTED OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES FOR ALL THE DEPARTMENTS OF THE CITY OF JEFFERSONVILLE, CLARK COUNTY, INDIANA FOR THE YEAR 2016 At the Council's request, City Controller Deering and Human Resources Generalist Geiser went through the ordinance department by department and worked to match it to the budget, department by department so now the titles should match. Human Resources Director Calabro went through the changes item by item. Each change was highlighted in the ordinance presented to the Council. Councilperson Owen made a motion to APPROVE 2015 -OR -57 on the third and final reading, with Councilperson Sellers seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Scott Lewis - Amendment to the Fire Union 558 Contract What's being passed around has the exact language that was emailed out. This is the exact language that was emailed to us by the Fire Union. All other terms and provisions of the contract shall remain in full effect. This only requires one vote and then has to be approved by the executive (the Mayor) and by the Firefighter's Union. Councilperson Smith made a motion to APPROVE the Amendment with Councilperson Julius seconding. Councilperson Owen asked Union representative, Mr. Hurt if he had anything to add or if Chief Hedrick had anything to add, (Neither party did). The Council proceeded to vote, PASSING the Amendment with a vote, 9-0. 2 2. Ed. Zastawny — Jeffersonville Police Resources Pre -Annexation, Post Annexation and Compared to FBI Data This is just to set the record straight, there is a lot of information floating around with the election. This Council has been very public safety oriented. Services were required to be provided by 2009. In 2006, we had 53 uniformed police officers and 10 civilian employees. Jeffersonville hired 3 new officers by end of 2007. There were two main goals, a need to hire 18 additional officers and maintain its current ratio of 2 police officers per 1000 population however there was never a ratio of 2 officers per 1000 however when you added in the 10 civilian employees it was exactly 2 per 1000. Additionally there have been many force multipliers (technology and improvements) such as: smart phones, laptops in vehicles, software with internet access, new $12 million police station, body cameras, cameras in vehicles, street cameras, increased training budget, no need to support city court, and increased K9 Units. Additionally it is being said that there is a FBI mandatory ratio for 2 officers per 1000 population and Councilperson Zastawny found no such number stating that mandate. The state of Indiana has a ratio of 1.739 officers per 1000 population and the current ratio in Jeffersonville is 1.742 so we are slightly above the state average. 3. Ed Zastawny — Redevelopment Councilperson Zastawny invited Mr. Marty Chalfant to present to the Council his concerns. In 2014, what we reported to the state was revenue of $13 million and expenses of $20 million. In 2015, the projected TIF revenue is $12 million as of September the year to date expenses were at $12.3 million. It is estimated that an additional $4-4.5 million will be paid out by the end of the year for a total estimated expense of $16.5 million for 2015. There will be a positive balance in the account at the end of the year and that is because of the debt the City took out in 2013. By the end of 2016 that fund will be exhausted. Currently there is no 2016 budget. Councilperson Zastawny asked for an update on the Marina. Mr. Chalfant stated it is currently under budget and expected to be completed ahead of time. 4. Amy Deering- 2015 -OR -59 - An Ordinance Transferring Certain Funds within the Same Department These are all in the existing budget. Most were sent out by Chief Kavanaugh except the last one was from Mr. Northam for the new nets at Woehrle Fields in the amount of $10,000.00 Councilperson Samuel made a motion to APPROVE 2015 -OR -59 on the first and second reading with Councilperson Smith seconding, PASSING on a vote, 9-0. 5. Les Merkley — Redevelopment Lease with Artist This is to lease out space in the Gray and Wells building. This was approved by the Redevelopment Commission for a 1 -year lease of approximately 12,000 square feet. The goal is to have more than one studio for this building. The rent is $400 per month and the Redevelopment Commission would pay for the utilities. This is renewable for up to 3 one- year terms. If this is needed for the Redevelopment Commission for an economic development project, the lease could be terminated upon notice to the tenant. Councilperson Samuel made a motion to APPROVE the lease with Artist Michael Whimmer with Councilperson Smith seconding. Councilperson Julius asked about the security deposit, is it $500 a piece or shared? Attorney Merkley stated it would be one deposit shared by the tenants. Additionally he asked if the 3 hours opened to the public would be set for the Jam sessions or how that would work. Mr. Whimmer spoke and stated that as long as he was there he planned on having the studio open to the public. Additionally Councilperson Samuel added that the "Jam Sessions" are when the community is invited to participate in a planned project. Councilperson Smith asked if the tenant funds to add additional utilities are we responsible to reimburse them for the updates made. Attorney Lewis stated no it would be just like a normal lease. A roll call was requested for this matter. Roll Call: Councilperson Yes No Abstain Smith X Zastawny X Wadsworth X Sellers Webb X Gill Julius Owen X Samuel X X X X The lease PASSED on a vote, 6-3. 6. Amy Deering — 2015 -OR -60 - An Ordinance of Additional Appropriation The $30,000 is for the Grant match, and the $45,000 is for the traffic signals as well. Councilperson Samuel made a motion to APPROVE 2015 -OR -60 on the first and second reading with Councilperson Zastawny seconding, PASSING on a vote 9-0. CITY COUNCIL ATTORNEY REPORT: None at this time. DEPARTMENT HEAD REPORT: None at this time. PUBLIC COMMENT: The only person signed up was Marty Chalfant. He spoke during the meeting. COUNCIL COMMENT: Councilperson Mike Smith: Nothing at this time. Councilperson Ed Zastawny: Apologies for missing the last meeting but I did watch the video and just wanted to put it on the record that I would have voted to pass the budget. A lot of time and effort went into the budget and I support it. Councilperson Wadsworth: Nothing at this time. Councilperson Sellers: Nothing at this time. 4 Councilperson Webb: Apologies for missing the last meeting, I too would have voted to approve the budget. I believe in a revenue neutral budget and I want to make it on the record that I would have voted for it. Councilperson Julius: Nothing at this time. Councilperson Owen: Since we are on the topic of the budget, I am not against a revenue neutral budget, however how we got to that revenue. The budget passed, the revenue was increased by $1-1.5 million and that is not, in my opinion a way to get to a revenue neutral budget. Councilperson Samuel: I participated in A Development Summit where we talked about the growth in our area. It was interesting and exciting to see. I want to thank Ed for his report tonight and the work that he did. Based on what I saw tonight we are meeting or exceeding where we were those years ago. And just to make one comment to add to what Matt said or maybe to counter it. In the budget meetings we were more than $2 million in the whole. So the Council put a great deal of time into balancing it and we were still not balanced. We were told by Finance that the estimate was very conservative so we asked them for a more realistic, not so conservative estimate. Council President Gill: I feel really good about what we did in this budget. 1 consulted with Dan Jones with DLGF and with Todd Caldwell with State Board of Accounts. They got the original budget we sent, the budget we sent back and the budget that we approved. I feel like we have done the right thing and actually take offense to some of the things that have been said. ADJOURNMENT: Council President Gill asked for a motion to adjourn, made by Councilperson Zastawny seconded by Councilperson Webb. Meeting adjourned at 8:24 PM. APPROVED BY: A Lisa Gill, President Vicki Conlin, Clerk 5