Common Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Good evening, it's six o'clock. We'll call to order the meeting of the Auburn Common Council. We'll begin with a moment of silent meditation or reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Move on to roll call. Councilman Fincham? Here. Councilman Braun? Here. Councilman Webb? Here. Councilwoman DeWitt?

Here.

Councilman Williams? Here. Councilman Bundy? Here. Councilwoman Prosser? Here. Council, in front of you, you have the meeting minutes from the July 21st regular meeting.

Move to approve as presented.

Second. And we have a motion and a second to approve the minutes. Any questions or discussions? Hearing none, I'll call for a question. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

Opposed? Motion carried.

Recognition of visitors. Kim Ward, Jim Catarat, Martha, is it Rubroke? Rubrake, my apologies. Valerie Simmons, Christine Lyons, Melissa McCown, Barb Morrow, and only because I know who this is, Austin Macy, welcome. I work on your penmanship, sir. Okay. We'll move on to communications. We have a couple of presentations this evening. First we have Valerie Simmons and some representatives from the Yakar Public Library.

Do I need to hit the microphone? I guess I'm on. I don't know if my presentation will be a go or not, but the good news is I can talk a lot, so we'll be okay regardless. Sorry about that. Although I do feel like the mayor is extra happy that this presentation might not run because the very first slide has a picture of him with Strawberry Shortcake, a.k.a. myself, at the Strawberries Around the Fountain event. that took place this year. So you ditch that bullet, Mayor. My name is Valerie Simmons. I'm the Executive Director of the Eckhart Public Library, and I want to thank you all for allowing time for me to come and speak and present about my favorite topic, the Eckhart Public Library. I first want to highlight our staff and their dedication to the community. We're really fortunate at the library to have such a highly dedicated, well-credentialed staff. All of our front-facing staff, the staff that interact directly with patrons, are all certified appropriately per state guidelines, and many of our staff have master's degrees in library science so very well credentialed staff stay up to date on best practices so that they can do everything they can to best meet the needs and wants of the community that we serve but I don't think you should just take my word for it So patron Norma says of the library quote, best library in Indiana by far staff is absolutely amazing. I love this library. And what I wanted to do is kind of an overarching theme tonight on this presentation is just to look at a lot of numbers, which I know, exciting. I see you all are on the edge of your seats there. I just wanted to illustrate how public libraries provide materials, resources, and opportunities that hold more value than what many people may understand. I hope that the statistics that I share demonstrate that fact. So first of all, I wanted to talk about usually the first thing that comes to people's minds when they think of a library, and that is books. So from the year prior, so June 2025 to June 2026, we were able to plug in the circulation of adult and teen books specifically. that were checked out by our patrons at the Eckhart Library. We plug those into a tool called the Library Use Value Calculator. That's something that the American Library Association put together to assign a dollar value to each material type that checked out. And for the period of time I mentioned, we circulated $726,000 worth of teen and adult books just at the Eckhart Public Library. We also have a strong focus, as you know, on youth, including early literacy and opportunities. So things like story time or special events like a touch a truck event that we held. We also have a celebration of sorts for milestones that children reach as they build their literacy skills in preparation for school. So we have a number of children participating in a program called A Thousand Books Before Kindergarten and also 300 by Third Grade to just encourage children to keep reading and be school ready. So the kids reading a thousand books before kindergarten, the storytime kids, the 300 by third grade and everyone else, um, they don't always have the ability to go out and buy those books themselves. Okay. So again, looking at that same timeframe, the library circulated, um, a total value of children's books at over $685,000. Okay. Again, those are things that the public library supplies just an endless wealth of materials, not just what you have on your shelf at home. So here's another quote. Here's Josh. He says about the library, I love this place. Same, Josh. I do too. The librarians are very kind, and the foreign language section of the nonfiction library had a wider selection than my library back home. So we're not the only fans of Eckhart Public Library. But we have much more than print, as you well know. We have movies, TV shows, music, those kinds of things. And again, the value or the dollar amount associated with the times those kinds of materials checked out of our library was almost $96,000 for that timeframe.

I'm building up to something, so wait for it.

We also have a lot of online resources, things like e-books, e-audiobooks, movies and other things to stream. Mayor Clark knows about that. He's been boosting our statistics, which we appreciate.

I assume you have.

You better have been. Yes. Okay. Thank you. And so that is a growing collection for us, the things that we enjoy, but we can't necessarily touch the e-books, e-audio. 1.2 million in circulation of audio books, e-books, and e-audio books utilized by our patrons. We also bring our materials outside of the library. We bring the library to you as much as we can. We do offer home deliveries for people who otherwise might not be able to get into the library. We also make deliveries to organizations, facilities, and schools. So another number I wanted to share with you that I don't believe I have over the last couple of years when I've come to present, we brought a little less than 3,000 library materials to local schools and early childhood education centers to support their curricula. And the value provided to those schools, education centers and educators was a little over $22,500. Again, to brag on our staff, the library again is more than books and movies. It's the special collections and the people who make those possible. Another plug for our staff, we have three staff members who are American Red Cross CPR certified trainers. You don't usually think about that as being a librarian task. But what we find is that if there's a need and staff talent, we will make use of that to best serve our communities. So if anyone needs CPR certified training, you can reach out to the library. We're not the only ones who do it, but we're there if you need us. We also put kits together, which you may have seen as part of our, not just our library of things, but the larger collection and also partner and promote the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which we're really fortunate to have in Indiana. Those unusual things, the special things, museum passes, the library of things where you could check out a tent for your backyard party or some oversized board games or a crock pot or a pair of crutches, those kinds of things that you might find yourself in need of momentarily but not forever, you can make use of those at the library. check those out to people. The value of that for the same time period is over $64,000. That's $64,000 worth of opportunities and materials and resources that our community may not otherwise have access to if they had to buy them all themselves. So here's another quote from Jenny. Jenny says, such an amazing library. They do a wonderful job having a wide variety of items and programs for everyone. A couple other stats I wanted to highlight is the number of Wi-Fi sessions that we had at the library. So people bringing in their own device and making use of the free access to the public library's Wi-Fi. We saw over 40,000 sessions on our public Wi-Fi. That's up almost 3,000 sessions from last year of the same reporting period. So we're really glad to see that. If you haven't been to the library recently, you should go, first of all. The other thing is when you're there, take a look. We've got some new outdoor seating options and new seating options for people. And we're hoping that those additional seating options tables and some new benches. We'll just bring more people to the park. And yesterday there was someone with their laptop working with a student outside on one of the circle tables under an umbrella.

And I'm sure they were making use of our Wi-Fi there as well.

Same reporting period, we had 915 new library card registrations. So that's up from last year. Your public library is not dead. We are still actively signing up new borrowers. We also offer value to the community through free faxing. So for many of us, sending a fax is kind of an antiquated thing. Why would anyone need to do that? But we do. We have a lot of people who still need to have that service, and we are able to fax at no cost to our patrons. comes in handy. Because if you have to fax something, it's usually not for a happy thing, right? We also printed over almost 36,000 pages printed by patrons at the library. So those are people either sending a print job to our printers or making use of our public computers to print. Just fun fact, the first 10 pages are free of printing for every patron who comes in. The bonus here is not just the printing and the faxing, but the people who help you do those things. So if you're not sure how something works or you're not quite sure how to print something or you just need a little bit of moral support, we have staff there to help you out. And all of that is not to mention the wealth of programs. that we offer, the tours, the outreach events, and just more that the library provides. We're a busy place. We had a little less than 2,700 bookings for our meeting room space across our library campus. That's busy. We had a little less than 10,000 attendees for our programs and outreach events. and a total patron count visit of a little more than 68,000. So a lot of feet coming in and out of the building. We're happy for it. We're happy to be that busy. We're also really fortunate at Eckhart Public Library because we do feel the support from the community. Even you all welcoming me here to speak, it just shows a lot of support. And we appreciate that. You know, whether people donate materials for the Friends Book Sale or they go to a Dine to Donate, like today at the Brown House, get some ice cream. If you want to, totally up to you, but Dine to Donate for the Friends of the Library. Maybe you come to events. Maybe you come in to use our Wi-Fi. It doesn't matter. Every interaction and action is appreciated. And... not to mention the tremendous support that we have through the Eckhart Library Foundation as well as the DeKalb Community Foundation and the Friends of the Eckhart Public Library. I think many of you probably went to the Strawberries Around the Fountain event this year and hopefully saw in the paper that we were able to receive a check donation for $18,000. That supports 100% of our programming. So no tax dollars are used for the programming component of what we do at the library. So who can say that? We're really, really fortunate to have that opportunity. And then with the library foundation, those funds helping us keep up the library campus facilities. So here it is, here it is, the big number that I hope you've been waiting for that hasn't gotten lost in all the other messaging I'm trying to convey. In 2025, the library's tax funded budget was a little under 1.8 million, okay? When you add up all of the things that I listed here, in addition to some other things that I cut out for time's sake, The value provided to our community from making use of the resources, materials, the talents of staff, the programming offered was over $3.2 million. So to be able to report that kind of return on investment for taxpayer dollars I think is really phenomenal. I just want to commit openly at this platform that the library will continue to pursue the best materials and resources and opportunities for the community. I'll leave you with one more exchange. Parent says, are you ready to go home? And the child says, no, I want to stay at the library. Same kid. So let's keep talking. Um, I invite you to come out. I'll give you a tour of the library campus. I might even give you a behind the scenes tour of the library campus. That's very interesting. Um, stop by, call me, email, let's talk. Um, I also want to invite you to our budget hearing that we'll have on Wednesday, August 12th at 6 p.m. That's at our regular library board meeting at the Williner Genealogy Center. And then the budget adoption meeting will take place on September 9th at 6 p.m., same location. So with that, again, thank you. But did you have any questions for me before I end my time? All right, I will take that as a no. Thank you so much.

Thank you Valerie and the rest of the staff. And then we also have a couple of representatives from Habitat for Humanity, Melissa McCown, the CEO, and then Christy Lyons, who I had the opportunity to meet a few months ago. I don't know how long it's been, at least a year and a half, maybe two years. Habitat kind of dissolved here in DeKalb County, and they're looking to bring that service back in some way. So this time I'll turn it over to Melissa.

Good evening. Thank you for that introduction. My name is Melissa McCowan. We are passing out some information. I am with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Fort Wayne, and I am the newer CEO. I'm about 10 months on the job, and probably we are serving Allen County, Huntington, and Wells County currently, and wanted to approach you today just to share that we have interest in exploring serving DeKalb County again. As Mayor mentioned, we... Habitat International is the governing body of Habitat for Humanity across the country and globally. And local affiliates actually are governed by a local board. And you did have a local affiliate serving your county as well as Dubin and Noble County up until just recently. And so as the new CEO, I was just exploring and well, my personal goal is to not have any counties in our region that are unserved. And so I've been chatting with people and Christine also has been just talking about what it would look like for us to explore serving your county again. So that's why we're here just to share a little bit about what we're currently doing and then maybe get some feedback about if you're interested in us coming back. So again, we believe that every family deserves a safe, affordable place to live, learn, work, and play. And right now, our region is just experiencing difficulty with people affording rent, let alone building equity in their homes. And so Habitat is all about a hand up, not a hand out. And we do teach people how to be great homeowners and great neighbors. We ask them to save money and do financial classes and put in sweat equity towards their home. And we are proud to be building 34 homes in the three counties that we're currently serving. And then also proud to be announcing that we are expanding into Whitley and Adams County this year to We just got approval from Habitat International to do that and went through the process that would be similar to us exploring approval to go north as well. So families are just spending more and more on rent, and we would rather see them investing that in their futures and changing the trajectory of their kids' lives. So we're really proud of the work we do. We also... have a brand new program that we are rolling out in the counties we serve. It's a critical repair program. I'm aware that that is something that was happening in this area, at least minor repairs and ramps and things like that. There was also about 25 or so mortgages for homes that had been built in the last 30 years? I don't really know exactly the amount of time that the habitat was in existence here, but my habitat took over or assumed those mortgages and are now servicing those residents that are in your three-county area as well, many of them here in DeKalb County. So I wanted to make you aware of that and let you know that we are committed to those families that are currently carrying out their commitment to their mortgages and hope, again, to move into this area and serve more and more families over time. So I wanted to just mention that in order for us to be successful, it does take the support starting here in this room, as well as land is always great. I'm not really sure how the previous director was acquiring land exactly, but that is something that we'd be interested in exploring with you as it's much easier for us to partner with the local government and, and have a strategy around, um, that partnership. And we have a very successful partnership currently in Fort Wayne with their infill and redevelopment plans. And some of that looks like cheaper land, but, um, also could just be like discounts on utility hookups or water taps or things like that. So those would all be things that we would be interested in exploring with you over time. Is there any other information that I could share that would be helpful in this conversation? Okay. Well, I appreciate you allowing me to speak. Thank you for allowing me to introduce us.

Thank you.

Have a great evening.

You too. Thank you so much. And is there anyone in the public that would like to address the council? Anyone in the public that would like to address the council? Hearing none, we'll move on. Clerk Treasurer?

Good evening. Of the current vouchers for $2,444,555.22. Move to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the vouchers. Any questions, discussion, or comments?

I'll abstain from 99524 in the amount of $33 as my place of employment. Any others? Hearing none, I'll call for a question. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. Thank you.

Brings us to ordinances and resolutions.

ORDINANCE NUMBER 2026-22, AN ORDINANCE FOR THE ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS. SUMMARY. AN ORDINANCE APPROPRIATING MONIES INTO CERTAIN ACCOUNTS FOR THE 2026 BUDGET OF VARIOUS FUNDS AND DEPARTMENTS OF THE CITY OF AUBURN, REDUCING THE UNAPPROPRIATED AND UNOBLIGATED BALANCE OF THE PARTICULAR FUND INVOLVED AS REQUIRED TO MEET OBLIGATIONS FOR THE REMAINDER OF 2026. I MOVE THAT WE PASS ORDINANCE NUMBER 2026-22 ON FIRST READING.

Second. Okay, we have a motion to second to pass ordinance 2026-22 on first reading. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a question. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried.

Ordinance number 2026-23, an ordinance to amend the zoning map of the city of Auburn, Indiana. Summary, an ordinance to reclassify the zoning of 608 South Main Street from traditional residential to institutional district. I move that we pass ordinance number 2026-23 on first reading. Second. Second.

We have a motion and a second to pass ordinance number 2026-23 on first reading. Any questions, discussion by the council?

I have a comment here real quick because I did mention this at the last meeting that this would be coming forward and I did talk about the difficulties that some of the plan commission members had with this. Seeing the new plan and the design of the parking spaces, I think that those discussions would have been alleviated a little bit. I don't know if... Jim wants to speak on that or anything. But I think with that new image and the way the setbacks are and everything, I think it probably would have been unanimous. So that's where I'll leave it. And I know some other people have questions.

Yeah. Jim, would you like anything you'd like to add to that?

Thank you, sir. Yes, so the applicant after the hearing, they had initially just a concept plan, and I, upon looking at it, knew that it wouldn't quite work, but typically we reserve parking to when know the the use is coming forward for actual permits and approvals that's what i really deal with the parking the planning commission has some concerns we have the applicant their engineer go through a couple of revisions modifications to get us the plan that we currently show the use the real estate use of that house would require three parking spaces they show three One of the three has to be not only ADA accessible, but ADA van accessible. And they show that. So you see the ADA space is wider. Since it's 11 foot wide, they only need a five foot access aisle, which they also show. So they meet all the ADA requirements as far as the parking lot area and that. So we were happy to see that plan come forward.

I have a question. Yes. Yeah, the... I was at the plant commission meeting, which I appreciate all of their concern and the fact that if this didn't fly and they rezoned it, they would have to go back and do a rezoning. So I appreciate their doing the due diligence, but. She commented about the back door not having handicap access. Does she say anything about what they're going to do different there?

We haven't really inquired about that or seen any plan. They do, of course, have to submit for approval to convert the house to a business. And part of that will be ADA accessibility to the house and to the restroom. So we will see that, but we haven't gotten to that detail yet. They haven't. Perhaps until they can secure the property and know they can do the use there, they may not have hired somebody to draw on a design for that yet. But it will be a requirement for us to see the ADA ramp and access.

Okay. And then the...

parking lot can be two foot from the property line it cannot so they have filed for a variance to allow that so there are parking lots have to be 10 foot for property lines which is that's for any commercial or institutional law and this is just the only way to get three spaces because the way the back porch extends into the property etc they do have to request a various they have filed for that for the august board of zoning appeals meeting

So what happens if they get denied?

If they get denied, then unless they can come up with a different configuration for the parking that would meet the 10 foot. The 10 foot has to be not only from the east, also has to be from the north property line, which of course they meet at this point. So if they get denied, they do have to come forward with a compliant plan. So I don't know if they can reorganize the spaces and what they could do, but Yeah, we don't know what the board will do with that request. They have authorized in some other instances, especially an even new construction, reducing it to five, as long as we can still get screening and landscaping in the area. Here we kind of have some natural barrier. Fortunately, the property to the east is actually a driveway going to a garage. So it's not like there's a residence right there where the parking would be right up against the residence. It's going to be against the driveway for the the property to the east. There's some things I think that, and that smallness of the lot, but it's definitely small for any city lot. I think that kind of helps support a various request, but ultimately the board will have to decide that.

Okay, thank you. Yeah. What are they planning on putting there?

A real estate office. Okay. Yes. I never heard what sort of event was there. Yes, yes, that's the intent.

And again, the other thing I mentioned at the other meeting that I failed to when I was going over that to begin with, the other three corners of that intersection are also zoned institutional, one being the Weber one we just got done doing.

Any other questions for Jim?

Thanks, Jim.

Thank you. Would the applicant like to come forward or not?

I mean, I can't thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Um, we are going to be past our timeframe for, um, the purchase agreement that we currently had in place anyway. So we're, you know, the seller has agreed to keep, keep moving through this process is as best we can. Um, and you know, I don't want to buy the property if I can't get the parking that you guys approve of. So we'll make any acquisition, you know, subject to not only the rezoning, but the, but the BCA approval, um, So I'm just happy that you guys are still entertaining it. We want to make it look great. We want to be great community partners with you. And again, I don't know if it was mentioned here, but our intent is to keep it very residential looking so that it will fit in right there on Main Street. So any questions for me?

Yes.

Thank you.

Of course. Would it be beneficial for you to table this until the BZA meets and gets you find out if you can get the parking figured out or not?

Either way, my purchase is going to be contingent upon getting BZA waiver and your rezoning approval. So I'm fine either way.

So then back to the original plan commission concern, if we rezone it and you can't get your parking to fit in, then you got to go back and rezone it again, like to residential or something.

Which I would be willing to go through the process. I could make that commitment to you.

It's worth it.

We've had a bunch of inspections and investigations and a lot of investment in it already. And I would be willing to commit that to you, that we would go back through the process and be willing to pay the fees that it takes to do that.

No matter whether it's real estate or anything else, we're still going to have three spots.

You're going to have to have three spots because it's because of the square footage as opposed to the usage. So if it's ever going to be rezoned for industrial use, we're going to have to have those three spots. You're correct.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, comments, discussion by the council? Hearing none, I'll call for a question. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried.

Ordinance number 2026-24, an ordinance of the City of Auburn, Indiana, imposing a municipal wheel tax and motor vehicle license excise tax and creating the City of Auburn Wheel Tax Fund and Motor Vehicle License Excise Surtax Fund. Summary. This ordinance proposes to impose an annual wheel tax, an annual motor vehicle license excise tax on certain motor vehicles registered in the city of Auburn, Indiana, and create a wheel tax fund and a motor vehicle license excise surtax fund. I move that we pass ordinance number 2026-24 on first reading.

Second.

Okay, we have a motion to second to pass ordinance number 2026-24 on first reading. Any questions or discussion by the council?

Yeah, I have a question, and actually it's more of a direction possibly to you. If you could go back through kind of what you said during your video that you shared today on Facebook, which is out there, but can you kind of go over that again just to let the citizens know that this is not going to increase anything. It's just moving it from the county to the city for the residential cars.

Correct. Again, thank you to Councilman Braun. He was actually walking up and participated. But yeah, currently all city residents pay a wheel tax and the vehicle license surtax through the county. The surtax is the $7.50. The wheel tax is $5, which is your commercial vehicles. That is due to legislation change in 25. We also had some change in that same legislation which removed the stacking mechanism when it came to the wheel tax and the vehicle surtax. So with that, also we had where we have the ability to seek some additional funding as long as it's available, as long as we as a city are collecting that tax directly instead of it being collected by the county. And so that is the reason for withdrawing from the county, collecting it directly through the city so that we have that ability to APPLY IF YOU WILL FOR THAT ADDITIONAL ROAD FUNDING WHICH THEY CALL THE LANE MILES DISTRIBUTION.

NEW SPEAKER THAT WOULD BE LIKE A MATCHING FUND IF WE WOULD PUT UP SO MUCH THEY WOULD MATCH WHAT WE PUT IN.

NEW SPEAKER IT'S ALL DETERMINED BY LANE MILES. I HAVE NOT RECEIVED DATA NOR DO I BELIEVE OTHER COMMUNITIES HAVE. I THINK THE STATE IS STILL WORKING ON THAT PIECE. BUT IF WE DO NOT WITHDRAW FROM THE COUNTY, WE ARE ONLY ELIGIBLE FOR THE current community crossings matching grant and not the additional funding that would be available on that. The residential vehicles, trailers under 9,000, trucks under 11,000 remain 750. That changes nothing from what we're paying now. So if you've renewed your registration at the BMV, you'll see that on there. On the commercial side, when it comes to trailers over that 9,000 pounds, trucks over 11,000, RVs, buses, you know, municipals, there are exemptions. Municipals, school corporations, nonprofits, I believe churches is one of the exemptions as well. That has gone, that would go from the $5 county tax to 25. Those pieces of apparatus do put more wear and tear on our roads, and it only makes sense. And this is in line with other communities. And one important thing to know, as much as we love our neighbors in Garrett, Butler, Waterloo, and out in the county, this will also ensure that the money that's received from city residents stay within the city of Albany versus being a portion of that being distributed outside the city limits. Amen. Council President, anything to add? You got it.

I was reading through it. A lot of information. Yep.

Any other comments or questions by the council? Hearing none, I'll call for a question. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion carried.

Thank you. Public comment was at the beginning of the meeting, but would you like to come up? You're more than welcome. Please state your name.

Blake Boffman from Auburn. Overall, I've kind of seen a downgrade in the direction this town takes sometimes. This is part of it. I have a question for the attorney. You know, we are the home of antique vehicles, but we have seemed to have lost touch in the last 20 years of that. Is one of the exemptions you could do is where the antique vehicles and historic vehicle registrations are exempt from that tax? Because it really doesn't seem fair to a person who has maybe a collection of five vehicles paying five times and attributing a tenth of the percent of wear on the roads as a regular passenger family vehicle. Do you know if that's an exemption?

It is not. The exemptions are set out in the statute.

It could not be added with the buses and the church vehicles?

The state has identified which vehicles can be exempted.

The other thing is, if this really is about getting the state money, why would you guys not take the stance that the county took that we're not trying to milk as much out of the public We're just gonna do the bare minimum and be good to our citizens in order to get the funds and have this be at the bare minimum all the way around. The biggest hangup I have with it, the way that ordinance is written, every single semi-trailer has to be attributed at $25. There's a lot of operations that have four, five, 10 times the amount of trailers as they do trucks. At the state level, the fees are paid by the truck pulling the trailer, not the trailer. You can do an annual registration on a semi-trailer for $7 because it's only the excise tax. That's a big hangup here with this. You're gonna be compounding that cost tremendously. Doing it at the bare minimum like the county would help that situation. You guys just put me in a situation. I'm going to pay $400 more a year now for my license plates, unless I move things out of town. I thought you guys were pro business.

Do you have Blake or I don't know how many, how many trucks and trailers do you have?

Uh, right now there would be. I believe seven trailers registered, three semi-tractors, and four dump trucks.

And what address are they registered to?

It varies. It depends on what name it's in.

Okay. Would they all be registered within city limits?

Not all of them, but I could move these, but it's a big hassle for me.

Yeah. So what they're... what they just voted on and approved for first reading is only vehicles plated within the city limits of all.

I understand that. Okay. But like I said, unless I change everything and get it in a, in a business name outside the city limits, which I could do, get the address outside the city limits, then I'm subject to this tax. There's ways around it, but should everybody have to go through that? The other thing is it's not a use tax. Somebody that's only driving 100 miles is getting charged the same as somebody who's driving 100,000. And that just is just backwards.

And you're referring to the antique vehicles?

Anything. Anything. It should be, realistically, I wish they went to a mile tax. You pay so many cents a mile. Only. No license plate fees.

Yeah, that would be definitely something to talk with legislators on. for sure, but we don't have any control over that piece.

If it's, if it's not a money grab in this situation, why did you even run the numbers on if you did at the bare minimum? I know at the, at the commissioner's meeting, they had the numbers and it was like 300,000 compared to a hundred and something or a million down to 300,000 based on the different free structures. Have you guys ran the numbers at doing the bare minimum versus what you're proposing?

I've seen the county numbers, and I don't, city attorney, you don't have numbers, correct? No. Okay. I don't have the actual numbers in front of me, but I can provide them. So I don't have that in front of me today, no.

I just wonder if it's really worth it.

Well, also, we're also waiting on the state to distribute the numbers on how much of that lane mile distribution funding is going to be available for the different communities around the state. We don't have that either. However, if this is not passed prior to September 1st and filed with the BMV, then that would be another year that we're not eligible once those numbers do, whatever that looks like. But we are, I believe we're waiting on, Councilwoman DeWitt, I don't know if you can confirm this, I believe we're waiting on the Indiana Department of Revenue for some of those things, or the B&V. So we do not have the number from the state itself, no. And I'm not sure when we'll have access to that. But this is being proactive. Garrett, I know, just passed theirs, was it 34... the surtax.

I know it was higher. Let's see if I can find it.

I will say, in the meantime, while the city attorney is looking that up, that the difference in the fees is the amount of wear and tear. You know, we have semi-trucks that come down Main Street or even some of our side streets that weigh, you know, the truck itself, you know, Net weight of the truck is, what, probably 50,000, 40,000? And then, you know, coming from the steel mill, you get some that come in with, which I don't know how they do this permitting-wise, but they may have two 35,000-pound coils on there. Well, even if they're only traveling through there once, I feel that they're putting more wear and tear on that main street versus you or I driving a pickup truck down it, correct? And that's the reason you do see that difference in the cost. I'll say, I'll be honest, I disagree with the county doing $5. I don't think it's right for commercial vehicles to be less than passenger vehicles when more of the wear and tear is coming from those.

That logic goes back to a farmer using a truck for four weeks versus all year long. Sure.

And that would be something that if the state would change the statute, we would definitely adhere to that. Right. We don't have the ability to change statute, correct?

Correct. And Garrett did the maximum, 25 and 40. Okay.

But I definitely understand. I just think the eye on the price should be get the state money, not really worry about a little extra money here within the city limits, out of the townsfolk.

Anybody have anything? Thanks, sir. Move on to reports. Under mayor, I just have one item for the council. Hannah Foley, which was on the county economic development, has resigned just due to family obligations. And Rick Collins has accepted that appointment and his term will end December 31st, 2028. And that's all I have under Mayor, Council, President. No report. Land Commission.

Yeah, we have a meeting next week, and the main thing on there will be the Unified Development Ordinance public hearing. Again, that was a new state law mandated that we review through a public hearing the UDO every year, and it needs to be done by the end of the year. So that's the main thing on the agenda. Okay.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Committees.

Nothing for tax phase-ins.

Nothing currently in the works for ordinance and resolution, but the city attorney and the clerk and I were talking a little bit before the meeting. I don't know if the city attorney would like to discuss this, but some of the open records requests that get received are for commercial distribution. Like they'll do a general, like to me, if you're going to do a FOIA or something, you should have a specific reason why you're requesting things. They're casting a wide net just to get information to put out to the public for public information. Like give me all your purchasing records for the last five years and just put it out there. And there's a way to narrow that down. And I think that's something potentially we might want to take a look at. I don't know if Zach wants to talk a little more specifically about it. I think I summarized it pretty well.

Yeah, you did. So what a lot of cities have and what the statute for public records allows us to pass is an ordinance that prohibits public records requests for commercial use. So what we get a lot of, Lori can attest to this, it's companies out of California, New York, you name it, who they are, it's data scrapings. They are just trying to get as much information they can and then they sell it. I don't know what they do with it, but we get a lot of those that are, we want all your purchase orders for the last five years. We can deny those already. It's not, it doesn't have the reasonable particularity that is required, but we still have to respond. We still have to, and I'm dealing with one. I've been fighting with the guy for eight months. Keep telling him your request doesn't work. IF WE PASS AN ORDINANCE THAT JUST SAYS THAT WE DON'T HAVE TO COMPLY WITH THESE COMMERCIAL REQUESTS OF A COMMERCIAL NATURE, THEN WE CAN JUST DENY IT BECAUSE IT IS OF A COMMERCIAL NATURE AND LORI AND I AND HER STAFF DON'T HAVE TO WASTE OUR TIME DEALING WITH IT. many cities it's specifically written into the statute that if we pass an ordinance we can follow that ordinance and no longer entertain those requests so it would be uh my recommendation and i i hope backed up by the clerk treasurer that we pursue an ordinance that allows us to do that

Please. Pretty please.

I was at the Municipal Law Conference a month ago, and I think almost everyone I talked to there, they have passed one in their city. So this is not new or unusual. And it would definitely save the clerk's office a whole lot of time.

I'm okay seeing something like that as long as it doesn't prohibit or limit or make it more difficult for somebody with a valid reason to come forward and request something. Yeah, this does not.

A resident of the city has a request and they, you know, residents still have to meet the reasonable particularity and follow the rules that are set forth. But this has nothing to do with any of those requests. These are just those that WHEN WE GET THESE IN, WE CAN TELL WHEN THEY'RE A COMMERCIAL ENTITY THAT IS JUST LOOKING FOR DATA, NOT A RESIDENT ASKING FOR, I WANT TO SEE THE PLANS FOR THE WATER DEPARTMENT EXPANSION PROJECT. THOSE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS ORDINANCE IF THE COUNCIL PASSES IT. SO THOSE ARE STILL FULLY ALLOWED we can't use this ordinance to reject anything other than a commercial type request. Well, it's kind of a fishing expedition by some of these companies.

It's a fishing expedition by some of these companies, and there's no reason to... submit to it.

It is. And that's the reason they added that language to that statute is it was taking tons of time with clerk's offices and attorneys and everything to go through these requests and try to determine if we have to comply with them. And Sometimes it's an easy, okay, your request doesn't meet it. But then, like I said, I mean, there's a guy, it's been eight months and he will not go away. Keeps modifying it, trying to. So this would be very helpful if we can pass one. So if my plan would be, I've already got one drafted. I can get it filed here in the near future. And then we can have more discussion. along the way if anyone has any other questions. And we can go from there.

Finance Committee meeting on August 26th at 9 a.m. And we should we've received the utility budgets back. We're reviewing those right now, making any changes. Baker Tilly is wrapping up the A FEW CHANGES TO THE CIVIL BUDGETS. WE SHOULD HAVE THOSE BACK HERE FAIRLY SOON FROM THEM, AND THEN THEY'LL UPDATE THE CFP AND GET THAT OUT SO WE CAN GET IT DISTRIBUTED. WE SHOULD HAVE THAT SEVERAL WEEKS PRIOR TO THAT MEETING AT THE END OF AUGUST. NEW SPEAKER What was the date again? NEW SPEAKER 26th.

NEW SPEAKER 9 a.m., RIGHT?

NEW SPEAKER 6th. NEW SPEAKER SO WELL AHEAD OF THE GAME THIS YEAR. any unfinished business to come before the council? Any new business? I would just like to update council. Typically every year we'll look at the Chapter 42 and 43, which is the fire police policies. There are some minor revisions that we've worked with both departments on. I believe we've got them to a point that we'll be ready to send to ordinances, resolutions on those, or we can distribute them out individually just for some comments. Those two policies had very minimal changes. They're pretty straightforward. had to do with paternity leave and some things that they've asked to be put in and also working with the president of the firefighters union during our meet and confer. The other thing we've done is previously we've had a chapter 40 and 41. So you've had a personnel policy, a civilian personnel policy, and a handbook. So you had three documents that we would change one, but it'd be missed in the other two. We found a lot of... yeah discrepancies and um so in june of 24 or so we we engaged with focus hr which i know the city of angola's use them they're used widely across the state they're professional firm what they've done is for the last two years we've been working with them they have combined all three so the policies are the same There's a handful of updates that we've identified and laid out so that when you're looking at that, you can see it. But it's also bringing the pieces like when it comes to the FMLA, workman's comp and the regulations to those up to most up-to-date regulations on those. There was a lot of things that were out of date. It's a 70 page document, but again, the majority of it is exactly what's in those policies. That's why it took us two years. I mean, we went back and forth like, okay, you forgot to put this in or you overlooked this section. And then I think we have eight or 10 actual changes that we've listed out so it'd be easy to reference. Anything to do with police and fire, we have the same issue. We'd change that policy or update it. Well, then it wouldn't be updated in the other chapters. So anything to do with police and fire that's not general, but it's specific to that department, it references you to go to their specific policy number. to look at, uh, for example, holiday, how holidays work, um, how their overtime works. Um, so that way when their policy is updated, there's, there's no discrepancy in any other chapter. Um, it's basically, I think the plan is, is to repeal chapter 41 in its entirety. And this will be, um, basically strike all of Chapter 40, be the new Chapter 40 personal policy across the board. SLASH HANDHOOK. WE DID RELY ON THE PROFESSIONAL FIRM TO HANDLE THIS, AND IT WAS TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING, BUT I THINK WE'RE ALMOST TO THE POINT WHERE WE'RE READY TO ROLL IT OUT SO COUNCIL CAN TAKE A LOOK. SO IF YOU'D LIKE TO SET A MEETING FOR THAT OR WE CAN DISTRIBUTE IT INDEPENDENTLY TO KIND OF LOOK THROUGH IT. WE WOULDN'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING WITH IT UNTIL NOVEMBER, BUT I'D LIKE TO GET IT OUT EARLY BECAUSE It's a lot of information.

Is that separate from the fire and the police part you were talking about? Correct. Okay. So for that one, I think you could probably just push that to just submit it and file it. And then if we feel the need, because it doesn't sound like there's too much there, we could send it to ordinance and resolution. This one, with it being bigger, I think you should probably distribute it to everyone.

yeah yeah give you some time to review it and you can go back and reference those other chapters and see that those some of those things or the majority of that information hasn't changed it was a tedious process let's yeah well we started going through that before and it was not going to be I'm glad we hired someone yeah yeah and they've done a great job and it's still in ordinance style but it's also doubles as the employee handbook as well so okay we'll make sure we get that distributed ANY OTHER NEW BUSINESS? GENERAL GOOD AND WELFARE OF THE COMMUNITY? NEXT REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING IS TUESDAY, AUGUST 18th, 2026 AT 6 P.M. MOVED, ADJOURNED. SECOND. WE HAVE A MOTION, SECOND, ADJOURNED. ALL IN FAVOR SIGNIFY BY SAYING AYE.

AYE.