CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
JULY 12, 2004
The Honorable Council of the City of Evansville met on regular session at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, July 12, 2004 in the City Council Chambers, Room 301 Civic Center Complex, Evansville, Indiana with Vice President Watts 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.
ROLL CALL:
Absent: Bagbey
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
Jack Waldroup led the pledge of allegiance this evening.
COUNCIL ATTORNEY
John Hamilton is Council Attorney this evening.
RECOGNITION OF SCHOOLS
SERGEANT AT ARMS
This evening Officer Mike Sides is our Sergeant at Arms.
READING AND AMENDMENT OF MINUTES
Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the June 28, 2004 meeting of the Common council as written?
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilwoman Robinson seconded the motion that the minutes of the meeting of the Common Council held June 28, 2004 be approved as written. Voice vote. So ordered.
REPORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS
IN YOUR JULY 9TH PACKET:
*Agenda for July 12, 2004 City Council Meeting.
*Committee Meeting Schedule.
*Minutes of the June 28, 2004 City Council Meeting.
*Resolution C-2004-26.
*Board of Zoning Appeals Agenda for July 15, 2004 meeting.
*Report from IDEM.
*Schedule of Meetings in the City/County Administration Building for July 2004.
*Memo from the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau.
*Two Notices of Claim against the City of Evansville.
*Announcement of next traveling City Hall Meeting.
ON YOUR DESK THIS EVENING:
*Legal Aid Society Statistics.
*Eastview Neighborhood Assc. Newsletter.
*New Release announcing Mayor Weinzapfel creates Latin-American Community
Advisory Board.
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilwoman Robinson 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 ORDINANCE OR RESOLUTIONS
RESOLUTION C-2004-26 ASD ROBINSON
A RESOLUTION URGING THE USE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT FUNDS AND OTHER FUNDS FOR HOUSING.
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilman John seconded the motion to adopt the Consent Agenda as written. Voice vote. So ordered.
CONSENT AGENDA
SECOND READING OF ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS
ORDINANCE F-2004-10 FINANCE JOHN
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AUTHORIZING APPROPRIATIONS AND REAPPROPRIATIONS OF FUNDS WITHIN A CITY DEPARTMENT
COMMITTEE REPORTS
FINANCE CHAIRMAN JOHN
FINANCE CHAIRMAN JOHN ADVISED THAT THE FINANCE COMMITTEE MET THIS EVENING AND THIS ORDINANCE COMES FORWARD WITH A DO PASS RECOMMENDATION BY ALL MEMBERS PRESENT.
PUBLIC WORKS CHAIRMAN______________________________________MELCHER
ASD CHAIRWOMAN ROBINSON
Councilman Melcher moved and Councilwoman Robinson seconded the motion to adopt the Committee Report and move this Ordinance to Third Reading. Voice vote. So ordered.
There being no further motions, this Ordinance is hereby moved to Third Reading.
REGULAR AGENDA
THRID READING OF ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS
ORDINANCE F-2004-10 FINANCE JOHN
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE AUTHORIZING APPROPRIATIONS AND REAPPROPRIATIONS OF FUNDS WITHIN A CITY DEPARTMENT
Councilwoman Robinson moved and Councilman Jarboe seconded the motion to adopt and call the roll.
ROLL CALL:
Ayes: Kniese, Melcher, Robinson, Koehler Walden, Watts, Jarboe, Kiefer.
Absent: Bagbey
There being eight (8) ayes and zero (0) nays, Ordinance F-2004-10, is hereby declared ADOPTED.
MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS
COUNCILMAN KIEFER: I have a question. Councilman Melcher, you still serve on the EUTS board, right? I have had a couple of calls regarding Lincoln Avenue. I guess they are going to drop that down to three lanes instead of four. Do you know what they are doing out there?
COUNCILMAN MELCHER: No, they have changed that plan two or three times. So, I don’t know. I can check into that for you.
COUNCILMAN MELCHER: It’s Thursday.
COUNCILMAN KIEFER: Yeah, I mean just at the next EUTS meeting, if you don’t mind.
COUNCILMAN KIEFER: Okay. That’s it. Thank you very much.
VICE PRESIDENT WATTS: Councilwoman Koehler Walden.
COUNCILWOMAN KOEHLER WALDEN: Thank you. I just wanted to thank John Hamilton for getting the information on the Barrett Law. I’ll read through that. Looks like I may have to look up the whole darn law.
COUNCILMAN HAMILTON: If you want to tell me what else you want, I can elaborate.
COUNCILWOMAN KOEHLER WALDEN: I just didn’t know what other information was contained in that law. I guess the reason that I ask is, and we may need somebody to come and give us a report. But, my understanding from city engineers, there is some type of a sidewalk committee that has been formed with some neighborhood presidents, does anybody know anything about that? Can we get a report on that?
COUNCILWOMAN ROBINSON: You should talk to Gregg Lamar about that.
COUNCILMAN MELCHER: I think it is the United Neighborhoods. United Neighborhoods have formed a group and they have been meeting off and on now for three or four weeks. They are looking at using the Barrett Law and looking at maybe the taxpayer will participate a little bit. The City will participate. They are looking at all different kinds of ways. There is about a six page draft out right now that they are going over two or three times, along with a lot of other ordinances.
COUNCILWOMAN KOEHLER WALDEN: I’d like to request that we get some information. It can be written or they can come to council from Mr. Lamar, or like I said, I think Pat Keepus and city engineers may know something about that too. If they could just kinda send us a memo and let us know maybe just what their goals are of the sidewalk committee. If there is a draft out there, we could look at. That would be great.
COUNCILWOMAN ROBINSON: I briefly talked to Mr. Lamar, because I had received some calls about it. It is all preliminary. It’s just some suggestions. They don’t have anything. He said once united Neighborhoods are meeting and once they get some information together, they are just throwing ideas out and that he would come to council and give us a presentation.
COUNCILWOMAN KOEHLER WALDEN: Okay. That would be good. I would just request from him a timeline on what they are trying to do with this committee. If we could get that information, that would be good.
COUNCILMAN KNIESE: Connie, do you think they would have something before we go into budget hearings?
COUNCILWOMAN ROBINSON: He is hoping to.
COUNCILMAN KNIESE: Okay. Thanks.
COUNCILMAN MELCHER: That is the status that I heard too. Somewhere around August is what they are trying to do. One time it was a forty sixty split, another time it was a fifty fifty split. Some of the questions that I asked at the UNO meeting was, is the city going to still do sidewalks to people that can’t afford the split? I haven’t gotten an answer on that. That is not part of it. DMD is the one that are having the meetings and the neighbors are the ones that signed up that day for all those ordinances. That just happens to be one of them. So, there is just a lot of things out there about using the Barrett Law, maybe, on one house at a time or maybe a block at a time. I didn’t think you could use it on one house, but I guess they are saying you can.
COUNCILWOMAN ROBINSON: It’s like Steve said, my concern when I originally talked to him about it, was because a lot of low income single citizens, people on fixed incomes wouldn’t be able to participate. Therefore, their sidewalks might not be repaired. I mean, it’s just preliminary.
COUNCILMAN MELCHER: That is why I asked them if they were going to do something. Maybe it should be some kind of a split. Part of the money be for part of it, and part of the money be for the part that is going to be split. If that even passes. It could be a whole different thing by the time we get it.
VICE PRESIDENT WATTS: Anything else?
COUNCILMAN KIEFER: Yes. Thank you. Talking about budget hearings, I wonder if it might be appropriate to ask for a report, a formal presentation on the efficiency study? There might be things that the efficiency report produced that might affect the budget. Perhaps, we could have somebody give us, because I’m sure everybody has questions after reading the report. So, I don’t know, Madam Clerk, if you could, I don’t know who the appropriate person is to request, maybe the administration to see if we could get a presentation on the efficiency report, efficiency study that was done?
CLERK MATLOCK: That would probably be possible. Possibly, Lisa
Acobert or someone like that. I’ll check on that for ya.
COUNCILMAN KIEFER: Okay. Thank you very much.
VICE PRESIDENT WATTS: Anything else?
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
FINANCE CHAIRMAN___________________________________________________JOHN
MR. ACTING PRESIDENT, WE HAVE NOTHING SCHEDULED AT THIS TIME.
ASD CHAIRWOMAN_______________________________________________ ROBINSON
YES, MR. ACTING PRESIDENT, WILL HEAR RESOLUTION C-2004-26 OF JULY 19th AT 5:00 P.M.
PUBLIC WORKS CHAIRMAN______________________________________ MELCHER
YES, MR ACTING PRESIDENT, WE WILL BE BUSY THAT EVENING. WE ARE GOING TO HEAR ORDINANCE G-2004-8 ON THE 19TH 2004 JULY AT 5:10 P.M., G-2004-9, I GOT THAT ALSO AT 5:10 P.M. JULY 19th 2004, ORDINANCE 2004-10 JULY 19th 2004 AT 5:20 P.M., SO WE WILL JUST BE BUSY.
ADJOURNMENT:
Councilwoman Robinson moved and Councilman Kiefer seconded the motion to adjourn. Voice Vote. So Ordered. Meeting adjourned at 5:40 p.m.
PRESIDING OFFICER
CITY CLERK