Common Council - Regular Meeting

Whatever you [Music] are. The amended the amended 35 31 35 and 36 in your packet. So, we're live. Yeah. We're good, right? cuz you're recording and I'm recording. We don't have a voice of God. [Music] Turn your mic on. I think my mic is on. Can everybody hear me?

Oh, move your mic up. Good evening everyone. Pull it up. Turn it up. That's it. Can you hear me? Yes. Good evening and welcome to the June 3rd, 2025 Gary Common Council meeting. As is our custom, we will begin with prayer led by Councilman at large Darren Washington. Here we go. Thank you. Dear heavenly father, We thank you and praise you for this meeting this evening. Allow the words of our mouths, the meditations of our hearts. Lord, let them be acceptable in your sight. Allow us to conduct business with power, with anointing, with clarity and understanding to help revitalize to this great city of Gary, Indiana. In the precious name of our Lord and Savior, we pray. Amen. Amen. Please stand with me for the pledge of allegiance. [Music] for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Roll call. Madam clerk. Councilwoman Brown. Present. Councilwoman Cwell present. Council Hallebertton present. Councilwoman Ivy present. Councilman Toiver present. Councilman Washington present. Council Wington present. And President Le

present. Nine present. Nine present. Zero absent. Thank you. With uh with nine present and zero absent, the Gary Common Council has appeared to do business for the city of Gary. Colleagues, there was a correction to the May 6th minutes. I'm asking at this time for a motion to accept the minutes of the May 6th meeting as corrected. Second. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded and second. I will The correction was under Oh, you did the base for me already. Yeah. Oh, for CPR 2025-4 roll call in the original minutes had nine zero, but it was actually eight A's, eight yays and one nay for CPR 20254. So, we just corrected the roll call vote number at this time. Roll call, madam clerk. Councilwoman Brown, yes. Councilwoman Cwell, yes. Councilman Hallebertton, yes. Councilwoman Ivy, yes. Council Tolliver, yes. Council Washington, yes. Council Wisson, yes. Council Williams, yes. President Le, yes. Madam President, the vote is 9 to zero. With a vote of 9 to zero, the minutes of our May 6th meeting have been accepted as corrected. Um, I'll now entertain a motion to accept the minutes of our May 20th meeting. been moved. Second and second. Roll

call. Madam clerk. Councilwoman Brown. Yes. Councilwoman Cwell. Yes. Councilman Hallebert. Yes. Councilwoman Ivy. Yes. Councilman Toiver. Yes. Councilman Washington. Yes. Councilman Wington? Yes. Councilman Williams? Yes. And President Le? Yes. Madam President, the vote is 9 to zero. Thank you, Madam Clerk. With a vote of 9 to zero, the minutes from our May 20th, 2025 meeting have been accepted and approved. Assignment of council pending ordinance and resolutions. for first reading. CPL 202537, an ordinance reviewing a special use permit for property located at 2658 East 21st Place to be used as a home daycare by petitioner Betty Cole Cummings, sponsored by the Gary Zoning Department. The petitioner should be Betty Cole Cummings, 2658 East 21st Place. Planning and Development CPO 2025 and 38, an ordinance reviewing a special use permit for property located at 4900 West 5th Avenue, Gar, Indiana to be used as a auto dealership by Petitioner Armani Musla. Sponsored by the Gary Zoning Department, petitioner Armani Musla, 4900 West 5th Avenue, Gary, Indiana. Planning and development CPL 2025-39. An or notice establishing weapons used and discharge regulations in the city of Gary Lake County, Indiana, prescribing penalties for violations hereof as well as procedures and policies for saying and all matter related thereto sponsored by Lori Leam, president of Gary County Council Public Safety. Sign with penny ordinances and resolutions. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Councilman Washington. Thank you.

Um, thank you. Um, Madame President, the planning and development committee has before 37 and CBO 2025-38. For the record, I approve these ordinances for reporting out to the council. Councilman West, yes. Councilwoman Leam, yes. For the record, the majority of the planning and development committee has approved ordinances 202537 and 202538 for reporting out to the council. Thank you, Councilman Washington. Councilman Hallebertton. Madam President, the public safety committee has before CPO 202539. For the record, I approve this ordinance for the reporting out to the council. Councilwoman Linda B. Coway. Yes. Councilwoman Mary and Ivy. Yes. Madam President, the majority of the committee has approved CPL 2025. That's 39 for reporting out to the council. Thank you, Councilman Hallebertton. Councilman Washington. Thank you, Madam President. and the planning and development committee would like to report out um CPO 2025-37 and CPO 2025-38. Thank you, Councilman Washington. Councilman Albert, Madam President, the public sector committee would like to report out CPO 2025-39. Thank you, Councilman Hallebertton. At this time, we'll have special. Councilman Washington. Oh, I'm sorry. Councilman Williams. Thank you. Uh, I would like to announce to the city as well as the rest of the sixth district, the sixth district, we will have our first June 25th career. Excuse me, Councilman Williams. Can you turn your mic on? Get close to your face. That's the testimony.

[Music] As I said, I would like to announce I would like to announce to the sixth district uh as well as the residents of the city of Gary. The sixth district will be hosting its first uh community forum. Uh that date will be Wednesday, June 25th at 6:00 p.m. at the Gary Career Center, which is located at 1800 East 35th Avenue, uh Gary 46409. Our guest will be uh Leah Lewis, which is president of the Lewis Construction and Development. Uh also William Allen, which is our engineer, city engineer. We will be discussing the old scatter site off of 49th and Broadway, I'm sorry, off of East 49th uh Avenue, which used to be known as Colonial Gardens, which is now owned uh by the Lewis Construction Development Company. he will be um showing you a um and presenting the housing project that he has planned for that area. So, I'm asking all residents in that area, which is the old Colonial Gardens area uh and other residents from this district, they should please come out so we can see our first look at uh what this housing project will be about. And then later this summer, I will announce our second housing project uh that I'm trying to uh prepare us for for the city and with the mayor's uh with the mayor's hand. So again, sixth district community forum, Wednesday, June 25th at 6:00 Gary area center. Second thing I would like to announce is going to be the farmers market that we will have in the sixth district for the first time uh at the Christ Temple

Church located on 42nd and Broadway. The dates for that is August 17th, I'm sorry, August 7th, August 28th, and September 18th. So there's three dates for that. Uh the time for each day will be from 4 to 7 p.m. And this is uh hosted by Christ Church, excuse me, in the northwest. They have farmers markets, farmer produce, and a variety of food trucks. I also want to say that I believe that the PU Food Exchange is taking a hand, too. So, this is a farmers market on Broadway, 42nd and Broadway, uh hosted by Christ Temple Church in the parking lot. August 7th, August 28th, September 18th, and the time for each date will be 4:00 to 7:00. If you have any uh concerns or any more information, please call the church at 884 1837 2198. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Williams. Any other members for special and select? Councilwoman Lindar Stwell and then Councilman Talib Health Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of health and wellbeing. This month encourages men to prioritize their physical and mental health with a focus on screenings, care, and healthy lifestyle choices. Key focus areas, early detection and treatment. Men are encouraged to schedule regular checkups with their primary care provider and mental health. Men's mental well-being is emphasized encouraging them to seek help for issues

like lifestyle choices. Men are encouraged to adopt healthy habits such as eating a balanced diet and and quit quitting tobacco. Social support. Men are urged to connect with others and build strong social support networks as social connections are important for overall well-being specific health issues. The month often highlights to secular cancer and cardiovascular disease. I tried it several times. Action encouraged during men's health month. Schedule an appointment with your doctor. This is a crucial step in taking proactive control of your health. Consider your personal health history and family history. This helps determine your individual risk factors for your age group. This ensures you're catching potential health problems early. Make healthy lifestyle choices. Focus on nutrition, exercise, and stress management. Talk to others about your mental health. seeking support from friends, family or therapist can make a big difference. Thank you, Councilman. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I really want to take a moment to wish the Westside Cougars and young ladies, they're going to the state track meet this weekend and I just want to tell them that Gary is behind you. Um, they are the only Gary school to be. Special shout out to Priscilla Burton, which is the regional champion in 400 meters. She'll be um having Gary across her chest as she competes this weekend. And I also want to give a shout

out to their 4x1 um Michaela Williams, Kira Kase, Michaela Bird, and Kaya Maxi and Coach Proto Gder. Just know that our prayers are with you. You all have put in the work all season and I cannot wait to see what the outcome is this weekend. So, hope everybody can send prayers out and wish them the best as they will be traveling to Indianapolis this weekend to compete. Thank you. Any other members for special and select? Councilwoman Ivy. Good evening everyone. There will be a honorary street designation Monday, June 16th in the fourth district at the intersection of 1500 Maryland Street, honoring Miss Dorothy King, the life, legacy, and the impact that Dorothy King had. A lifelong committed Gary resident who transformed the lives of those in her community. You are cordially invited to join as we honor the late Dory King at the intersection 1500 Maryland. There will be a proclamation and an honorary street renaming ceremony. On June 14th, which is a Saturday, Sirja Truth House asks everyone to join them as they take steps to end homelessness and hunger. There will be a walk. Registration opens at 8:00 a.m. The walk begins at 900 a.m. There will be several activities. Also, fourth district community forum will be hosted by myself, Maryanne Ivy, Councilwoman for the fourth district at the

YWCA, 150 West 15th Avenue at 5:30 p.m. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Ivy. Any other council members for special select? Councilman Hallebert. Thank you, Madam President. I just got this information from our Lake County clerk Mike Brown. This is very limited information, but it's very important. This is going to be having the expungement that's going to take place on June 12th at the Gary Cadman Township from 12 to 3. So those who have misdemeanor and see if we can get it removed. Once again, our Lake County clerk Mike Brown will be hosting the expungement. It's going to take place at the Gary Came Township from 12 to 3. So please pass the word. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Hallebertton. Any other members for special? Madam Chair, Councilman Williams, it slipped my mind and uh hope forgive me, but the uh cleanup is taking place throughout every district uh for this summer. That cleanup starts at Glenn Park started uh yesterday. So, I'm I'm telling them to just inform my residents to have a a lookout for Yeah, that's Sorry. Can I Can you Can I get you? It's working. No, it's not. It's working now. Um, sorry about that. I want to let the residents of the sixth district know that the farmers market uh which is uh taking place, of course, we discussed that. I want everyone to come out for that. I did forget to say and speak on the fact that the cleanup throughout the city has started Monday and that cleanup started in the sixth district. So, uh they are cleaning up residents for sixth district. The we will have the pleasure of having all services in our district for 2 weeks for

cleanups. Um we're looking at starting this thing put some items out. We're not putting out any any any um any any vendors anything like that. What we can do is if you put it out, you coordinate with uh call uh city hall, ask for Sherry Smith, ask for Miss Brooks, if you coordinate with them, uh we can have our new trucks that we purchased, the trash trucks come by and we'll pick those things up for you. Um again, it's it started yesterday on Monday, uh and it's going to stay in the district for two weeks. So, uh, again, getting no items, put them out in front of the house, but please call city hall so we can come pick them up. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Williams. Any other members for special select? Yes, Madam Chair. Councilman. Thank you. Um I I in conversation with our um president um sometime in the future near future we're going to hold a legislative committee. One of the reasons is um and I want to speak directly to my current board members too. um Councilman um during the Indiana legislative session um House Bill 1001 was passed and the part of that budget bill it was put in that budget bill that the Gary Common Council um do away with and cancelled the compact that we have with the city of Chicago. So this compact has been existing for years and it was a compact that was put in place by the Gary Common Council and the Chicago City Council and it can only be broken by either the Gary Common Council or the Chicago City Council. And there has been speculation and also praise and criticism on what has been the best use for the Gary Chicago airport. Many of you that have

been residents for years have seen over the years um some of the dismal um fights that have come in. We had Hooters, we had others, and then it stopped and then it came again. And so there are questions about um the validity of the compact and is this compact actually benefiting um the residents of the city of Gary. Um, one thing that has been said that the introduction of this compact was merely to prevent competition um, coming from Gary airport to Chicago. And one of the reasons, one of the things I would say, the reason why this we went into this compact that um, we midway did not want any competition. And this is just information that we hear from over the years. But unfortunately, the Indiana legislature during this past session um mandated through law for the Gary Common Council to end this compact. Um we as a council um we don't know um we will discuss that with our legal counsel. Um the compact is due to end by us in 5 years, but we know that 5 years will be here before you know it. So, as a council, we need to get as much education as we can on the benefits and our liabilities of this compact. And when that date comes and before then, we will need to consult with our legal counsel about um what has been done during this Indiana legislative session because I personally believe that the legislature does not have the right to mandate this council to break a compact that we're receiving federally funded monies from in connection with the um Chicago airport. So again, we don't know all the particulars, but what I will tell you is that we have been mandated

by state law as of this legislative session in 5 years to end the Gary Chicago compact. President Leam and myself, we currently sit on the compact board. And so we will be having discussions, but we also need to look at what is going to be the best use um for the Gary Airport. What that is, we don't know. But I think we've been given pressure by the legislature in the next five years to begin to begin to figure it out and work with the airport board and administration on what is going to be the best use for the Gary airport. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilman Washington, and for your leadership on that issue. Any other members for specialist select? Um if not, just to piggyback on your comment, Councilman Washington, um when you say the state of Indiana, you know, doesn't have a right to to to mandate us in or out of any contract. I want to be clear about something. You know, during the session, there was just some very cursory valuation done of the airport. And I mean, without getting too deep into detail, about $75 million is the money that you paid. I'm looking into the I'm looking into the eyes and the faces. Thank you, Mr. West. of the of the residents of Gary have put in close to $75 million into that airport. So for anyone from Indianapolis to come in and tell us what to do without even a conversation without a conversation with this body or with any of our people who have invested that money into that

airport. Um that's something that we really need to we need to talk about. we need to stay strong on and again I just commend you for your leadership on that issue. Um I also want to emphasize Councilman Toiver's announcement about Gary Westside and our track team. You all do know that Gary is the winningest track city in the state of Indiana. And there is a gentleman here and and there is a gentleman here that is largely responsible for that and that is Mr. John Campbell. He is here. I'm going to embarrass him by asking him to stand at this time. [Applause] And so all of us, all of those ladies are standing on your shoulders. It just so happens that you're here. So we're grateful for you and everything that you've achieved for our city. Um while we're celebrating, we landed the convention center. [Applause] in the fifth district. In the fifth district, congratulations, city of Gary. We were at the um county we were at the count county commissioners meeting and they talked about the thousands of emails that they receive from residents. So, I do want to thank this body for everything that they did to rally us around the convention center. I want to thank the mayor and his staff for uh leading in this effort even as senator again the convention center was his idea. So um which is very grateful that

that has uh that that has happened and that has come to fruition and we're excited about the upward trajectory of our city. Um, I am having a community forum with my colleague, Councilman Toiver, who's our newest member of the council serving at large at Market Park Pavilion on June 10th from 5 to 7:00 p.m. Please come out, meet Councilman um, at Large Mouse Toiver. We'll also talk about some things happening in the first district. We'll be doing a business spotlight. Um, also have updates on our recent traffic study given by our city engineer, William Allen, and we'll be joined by our development and planning advisor, Corey Sharp. I'm asking that if you bring a receipt from any local first district business, you'll that receipt will be entered into a raffle to win a gift card or something else nice, probably a gift card. So, please bring a receipt from a local First District business. And if you don't have one, go shop at a local First District business. No, we definitely want to make sure I want to make sure that I mention our commissioner Cal Allen on the Lake County um commissioners who also helped to make sure that the convention center All [Applause] right. Now that everybody is in a good mood, we'll have public comment. Um, please. Sure. Before we move on to public comment, Councilman Wington. Uh, yes. Thank you so much. Roosevelt, I want to go for you along. Roosevelt needs boxes. Uh, so before we can discuss what's

going to happen next to Roosevelt, before we can submit an RFP, they're packing as we speak. Uh, the faster we get Roosevelt packed up, the faster we can have the conversation as to what happens next. Uh, I got a call early Monday morning that they ran out within like an hour. So, if we could a community come together, volunteer our time, efforts, even just sending some boxes via Door Dash or cases of water will be helpful. But to keep this momentum going, I I love the fact we got convention center, but that's just tip of the iceberg. We got to keep on moving. So with that, let's use momentum. Let's rally behind Roosevelt. Let's work together. Boxes, water, bodies. Let's get to work. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Wington. Any other members, special and select? If not, we'll begin with public comment. Please remember, you have two minutes to speak. Um, please state your name and address for the record. Our time will be kept by our parliamentarian, Councilwoman Linda Barnes Cwell. Um, the podium is this way. Make sure the green light on the mic is on. And we'll start with Miss Donna Jack. Please state your name and address for the record. After Miss J, we'll have Dr. Michaela Stangenberg, followed by Mr. Robert Bug. Hello everyone. Hello. I am here representing the Gary Food Council and the compost grant. And what the grant is really briefly is a grant to show people how to compost in their homes. Why is this important? Because our 40% of our landfills are filled with food we throw

away. And what the compost does is there's a difference between soil and dirt. When you add compost to dirt, it becomes soil. It has organic materials to help everything grow. With these uh new tariffs, it'll be more difficult to get vegetables and fruits into our community, which is a shortage already. And the thing that's so beautiful about this is having right inside the house where the babies are and the children. What are you doing, mommy? I'm going to get soil so we can we can plant beautiful things in our community. So, it's important to our community. It's important to our state, but more importantly, it's important to our families. So, please pass this ordinance so we can get our people growing. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Michaela Sangleberg. Followed by Mr. Robert Bugs. Good evening. I hope this isn't being counted against me. Sorry to put things in my pocket. Um I'm really glad that the issue of the state budget was raised tonight with the airport because uh frankly the budget included a lot of inappropriate things. There's already other bodies that are suing the state including IU I guess is pursuing a lawsuit at this point because they decided somehow that the proposition the board of governors had something to do with the budget. So for them their their action is based in it was far outside the scope of the budget bill and that it was included in there to compel people

to have to push it through. um we have an even better uh precedent there. And I'm just a labor person. I'm not attorney. I'm a clinical psychologist. But given the federal nature of the airport, I really do hope that we pursue some kind of legal action here because we're not going to consider another budget in this state for 2 years. But a federal injunction can happen the minute you actually start any kind of legal action, as I understand it. and that's what will stop the momentum of the very illegal and unethical action they're trying to take. I also really hope I'm really glad we're also talking about Roosevelt. There's a lot of people in our community, even people who attended the listening session, I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to do so, who have no idea where things are at now. And we need more transparency around those kinds of processes because people want to be engaged, they want to be involved, they want to help, and they're just not receiving the information. And that's a issue we've had again and again in this community. We don't really have a centralized base of information. There's like for instance two city council websites. That is really crazy to me. One of them never works. One of them works sometimes. Then there's the Facebook and then there's nothing about city council on the city website. So it's like good luck trying to figure out when anything is happening. Does that seem for me? Okay. Bye. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Spangber. Thank you. Good evening, President Le Council. My name is Robert El Bug. I live at 402 Rhode Island speed in Gary. Now, I know I can get all this in in two minutes, but I want to give a shout out to Miss Matthew, Mr. Harden Smith, uh, Miss Michelle Wood, uh, Sean and D'Angelo Jones, who are the tree cutters. Very

little attention is given to the act employees of the city of Gary. Finally, after 15 or 20 years, the park department, How Park, was getting some attention. However, I did find out that there was a contractor paid by the city of Gary to maintain Hall Park. and all they did was cut the grass and allow the pavilion to go basically to hell. It looked worse. Now you got the city employees doing work that's already been paid to be done and they're doing an excellent job. So I would suggest that the city employees, the park department employees and general services be paid a substantial raise so they can take care of that park, all the parks and the city of G and the streets and the potholes and the pave. There's one other thing I want to say real briefly. This was not under the mayor Melson's administration. I found out today has been allocated at least $600,000 for how park improvements and I have some pictures of the city council wants to see them to find out where the money went. I did a foyer request back in March and it was still laying on the desk in the lawyer's office as of two weeks ago. So, I'm not trying to start anything, but that's my taxpayer money. I'd like to know where the money went because how far was in bad shape and still is. They tore up a tennis court about 20 years ago and that debris over concrete and the fencing is still there. And I've been trying for 5 years of the preaching committment to get removed. So, I don't think I'm asking too much. Uh that little swing set that they put out there, uh this is not being used. Just for entrance basically the children out there I did video and they said what they wanted. Thank you Mr. Bugs. Thank you. Next we have Charius Anderson. No Edward Anderson. Sharon

[Music] Haney. Carol Hill. Greg Fleming. Um, following Mr. Fleming, we'll have Erling Campbell and then Alfred Brown. Good evening, Gary. Common Council. Two minutes though. Two minutes. Right. Okay. Actually, uh, once again, good evening, Gary Common Council. My name is Greg Fleming. I reside in the third district at 1744 Wake Street and I have a lot of my residents in the uh on Wake Street and the surrounding community with us uh today. Uh this is not on your agenda, but we are petitioning to make sure that uh this steel city builders construction of the legacy uh project would not take place, which is a commercial, my understanding is a commercial type uh building and we are a residents that uh we love the peace and quiet that we have in our neighborhood and we do not want it disturbed. So we here in opposition to that. Um, and I just wanted to leave this uh with you uh so some copies can be made and given to all the council people. The petition, I'm sorry. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Next, we'll have Erlene Campbell and then Alfred Brown, followed by Bruce McKenzie.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I will council ladies and I'll council men. I'm here to I just, you know, I'll be here to talk about a project being built in my community in fact on my block. Uh the project is called the legacy project and in the I I guess it's a proposal that he that whoever is responsible for that project he talked about legacy and legacy wealth and I live in a community where it's quiet it's mostly single dwelling homes and I just and when I looked at the part of the diagram that he has presented to the I guess the zoning department, it's like a large structure and he talked about having daycare workers on the second floor of this project and the elderly down on the second floor. So that led me to believe that his twins he's and he also said not only my belief that he's looking he said he's looking for generational wealth and on my block we just have a single dwelling. We don't have that type of kind of commercial uh healthc care kind of facility. So, I'm here to just

to let you know that if there's any way possible, maybe we can all give this some type of consideration and maybe we can find a better place to build that type of facility instead [Music] of listening. Thank you. Mr. Brown is next. Mr. Alfred Brown. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Mr. Bruce McKenzie. No. Followed by a L. Is it L? Tindale. L. Follow. Miss Tindle. No. John Allen is next followed by Anthony Alexander and then Raymond Wesley. Good evening. Uh for those of you president that is not aware um there is a financial instrument called tax increment financing and it's commonly called tiff and we have multiple tips in Gary recently I did a foyer request number 572 and I did get an answer from it and basically the request asks the number of tax increment fund districts we have in Gary the locations of any of of all of them the date each tax increment fund district was created the date each increment fund district was renewed if they expired under state law was normally 20 years. The project or purpose each tax increment fund district was created. The the amount of funds currently held in each of the tax increment uh district. The name of the persons, boards and girly municipal employees, appointees or elected officials managing, receiving or distributing or approving the spending of funds for each tax increment fund official. So basically how tax increment

work let's say it's this homes of these people here sitting on this side and what they do is uh say it's a project like a grocery store comes and the grocery store cost 4.3 million to maybe buy it but the developer say no I do a save a lot you say no we want a higher quality store and and the developer say okay I'll pay $3.3 and we get a million dollars from the tip so the citizens say okay they suspend the increased value of their properties over the next 20 years to supplement the million dollar to get the grocery store. It might be a different type of project. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter. So tip in a way could be a good thing. The bad thing is the the increase in property taxes from that block of properties is being put over into the tiff. So we don't get used to that or the city council don't get used to that use that money in the general budget. This segus to the airport and you guys is $75 million. The airport is a 10m square tip. That's 20% of our city where the taxes are suspended and set aside to feed this monster we call the Gary airport. And that would be a good thing if we're getting return. We should not let the state take our airport from us. [Applause] After Anthony Alexander, we'll have Raymond Wesley and then Jeffrey Edwards. I'm Anthony Alexander. Uh, I believe I'm at the sixth district. That's uh 42nd 4275 Martin Luther King Drive. I just want to touch uh piggyback off of what Mr. Bugs was speaking about. I have a tree service and uh I'm licensed with the city and he was uh just so happened yesterday I was down there. I had driven past and uh they were out there cleaning it up. But uh what I would like to just recommend to you all that uh when the time come that if you decide that uh you want to have a reputable tree service to to manage some of the vegetation around

here. I am licensed with the city of Gary. Uh I me personally I think it's a uh the tree growth in Gary is is out of control. Uh you have trees they're covering stop signs. They're they're they're they can harbor crime. I mean, you have some trees literally going over the streets and connecting. Uh, I see dead branches all the time, and we all know what the storms are doing as far as trees falling on home. So, I would seriously uh recommend and ask the council that uh winter time comes, if you all decide that you want to do something about these trees, one tree at a time. Alexander Enterprise, I am registered with the city. Uh, I would be more than happy for you all to consider me. And uh as he said, Mr. Bug said that uh a tree service was paid to clean up or cut trees or maintenance the vegetation in how Park a lot of them they get paid and they don't do what they're supposed to do. But uh I'm from here rally school, baby school. So uh I love my city and uh if you're looking for somebody who wants to show some love to the city, I'm one of those guys. All I ask is for the opportunity. Sir, I'm your counselor. Uh, I just I've been talking to different people. I've talked to the mayor. I've talked to uh our chief of staff. I've talked to Miss Brooks. Is this the gentleman you were speaking of? Yes, sir. Okay, great. Um, I want to get your information because right now in the district, they are cleaning up the district. Those tree limbs you're talking about. I've spoken to the mayor and the um chief of staff about that. We want to take those limbs back as well. They shouldn't be hanging over the street that way. the city will pick them up, but we need to get together after whatever the city misses. I don't care after after talk to me afterwards.

Thank you so much. Hey, sir. Thank you, sir. The number out to the public one. Oh, okay. U my number is uh 219 2391961. I'll leave a couple cards up here. These are some business cards. So 2192391961. Thank you, Mr. Alexander, for doing business with the city. We won't even hold it against you that Wallace at this time. At this time, Madame Clerk, council pending ordinances and resolutions on third and final. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Mr. Raymond Wesley and then Mr. Jeffrey Edwards. Please excuse me. Hello everyone. I like to find out I I talked with uh Darren Washington uh before the meeting started today and I wanted to find out some information on code enforcement absentee landlords. I live on a tric at least a couple of them there. As I drive around the city, I see beds thrown outside in the alleys and they continuously are there. How does that work as far as getting that cleaned up besides, you know, calling the city? You know, I I'm retired. I would like to do volunteer work as far as seeing things get done, but I've been living together for 5 years and some of these houses I see the same thing happen again and again and again. What how does that work? Can you tell me how does that work if I'm getting things done? I'm going to try to help you if I can. So, are those residents are they tenants? Hold on, Councilman Williams. Because we want to make sure we don't take care take from the gentleman's time of two minutes. And then yeah, our hold on everybody. Hold on everybody. And I I need to I need to remind the

public. I need to remind the public and council members that public comment is not question answer. It's not Q&A. We usually don't understand to no totally understand. This is meeting in the public and you know This is a meeting in the public. So, usually it's just not question and answer. If you do have questions, especially for code enforcement, our code enforcement director is is here. This is just a time for you to comment on any particular issue and you only have two minutes. Um, usually council people do not respond or or interject. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. So, we appreciate Thank you so much, Mr. Edwards. Good evening, council members, community members. My name is Jeffrey Edwards. I'm the executive director of Gary Community Partnership. We're a 501c3. We've been working in the city for the last 8 years and we work with youth. We invest in restoring the environment. Um I know I have two minutes. So our kids basically we go through we do clean up projects. These kids are very intentional. They at 7 in the morning. They're done by 9:30 in the morning. They learn um they they learn responsibility. They learn a skill. They also earn money. I'm standing before you today because we want to ensure that there is awareness. We've been doing this for quite some time now and we still I still run across and a lot of people don't know about our organization. So, if you know of young adults between the ages of 13 and 18 years old who are interested uh in job opportunities, please have them go to our website gary community partnership.com and they can register for this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Edwards and for all your hard

work. All right. At this time, at this time, ordinances and resolutions on third and final CPL 2025-31, an orance to accepting a grant award from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and establishing a budget in the green urbanism fund sponsored by Mayor Eddie Melton, Mayor Eddie Melton, city of Y Green, city controlling Department of Council members, I understand that there is amendment. Can we have a motion to amend by substitution CPO 2025-31? So move. It's been moved and second. Any discussion on the amendment? If not, roll call. Madam clerk, Councilwoman Brown. Councilwoman Cwell. Council Hallebertton. Yes. Councilwoman Ivy. Council Council Talbert. Council Washington. Yes. Council Lington. Yes. Council Williams. Yes. President. Yes. Yes. President vote is 9 to zero. Thank you. With the vote of 9 to zero. CPO 2025 2025-31 has has been amended. Now council members, is there a motion for passage? So move of CP. Thank you. Overview.

Welcome, Miss Henry. Good evening, council. Good evening. Um, my name is Brenda Scott Henry. I'm the director for the Office of Sustainability and Environmental Affairs. And what you have before you is a or um is the ordinance requesting approval for a grant that we received to demonstrate composting of food waste in the city of Gary. and it's a partnership initiative not only with the USDA the Sierra program but uh the city of Gary the Gary food council and one of our leading partners is the Hilltop Farmers Co-op. So um this is a $317,000 grant over two years um to work with residents who would like to learn how to compost. So we'll have a training program to that we will go through. Um I thought it was 75 but the the number is 100 households will go through this program and receive compost beans and then we will find uses for this um compost by working with the Gary food count if there's any questions. Thank you Miss Henry colleagues any questions or comments? If none. Roll call. Madam clerk. Councilwoman Graham. Yes. Councilwoman Cwell. Yes. Council Hallebertton. Yes. Councilwoman Ivy. Yes. Councilman Toiver. Yes. Councilman Washington. Yes. Council Wington. Yes. Councilman Williams. Yes. President Leo. Yes. Madam President, the vote is 9 to 0. With the vote of 9 to zero, CPO 2025-31 has been passed in this order. Thank you. Thank you. CPO

2025-32 in order to view any special use permit for property located at 2557 Kofax Street, Gary, Indiana to be used to allow mechanical and auto body work. sponsored by Gary Zoning Department petition John Kub 2557 codef fact Gary thank you is there a motion for passage of CPO 2025-32 madam chair madam chair council amend yes uh I would like to um speak on um CPO 2025-323 and 34 because at our planning and development committee Attorney Molina stated because two petitioners didn't show and one petitioner needed additional time. So he recommended all three of these ordinances go back to committee. Okay. I um yeah I know 33 and 34 we knew that they wouldn't be here but I thought the petitioner was there for 32. Yeah he was there for 32 but he wasn't prepared. There was some questions that was asked. Okay. And attorney Molina asked if we could take it back to the planning committee. So thank you, Councilman Washington. If there are any objections from council members, I would entertain a motion at this time that we defer um 32, 33, and 34 at the same time and send those back to the planning and development committee. Okay. Madame Cler, can you read out um CPO 2025-33 and 34? CPL 2025-33 and orders of reviewing special

use permit for property located at 2601 East 15th Avenue here in Hannah to be used to allow light manufacturing activities related to auto body mounting equipment upfit and repaired sponsored by Arizona department petition vision 2601 East 15 Giana uh CPO 2025-34 in order a special use permit for property located at 3930 West 5th Avenue here in Indiana Vienna to be used as a auto dealership sponsor is Eric Tony Smith 3930 West 5th Avenue here in Indiana Councilman Washington Madam Chair I'll make a motion um for CPO 2025-32 CPO 2025-33 CPO 2025-34 for to be taken back to the planning and development committee with a public hearing scheduled for Thursday, June 12th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. with a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, June 17th at 6 p.m. Councilman Washington, I think about the 11. Did you 11? Yes. Okay. So, let me change that. Um, Wednesday, June 11th at 5:30 p.m. with a public hearing scheduled for Thursday, June 17th at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday. Yeah. Tuesday, June 17th at 6:00 p.m. Thank you, Madam Chair and Mr. Sean. Thank you. [Music] It's been moved and second. Roll call, Madam Cler. Councilwoman Brown, yes. Councilwoman

Cwell, yes. Councilman Hallebertton, yes. Councilwoman Ivy, yes. Councilman Toiver, yes. Councilman Washington, yes. Council Lington, yes. Councilman Williams, yes. President, yes. Yes. Madam President, vote is 9 to zero. Thank you. With a vote of 9 to 0, CPO 2025-32-33 and -34 have been referred back to the planning and development committee. CPO 2025-35, an ordinance of the city of Gary, Indiana regulating parking meters within the city of Gary and establishment parking meter fund. Spons by Mayor Eddie M. City of Gary. Colleagues, there's an amendment for CPO 2025-35. Is there I'm sorry. Oh, we can pass it. As amended. Oh, is there a motion to pass? So move. Second. Now, is there a motion to pass? Um, is there a motion to amend by sub by substitution CPO 2025-35? Thank you. It's been moved and second overview. Hey, Attorney Morgan, welcome. Thank you. Uh, at your committee meeting, uh, there are some changes requested and, uh, some format issues that we need to fix that. So, I'll try to quickly run through those if I may. For one, we fix the table of contents so that it now reads uh versus A purpose intent. B definitions um I'm sorry, A is intent, B is meter

parking, C definition, B is fun, E is designated areas, F is enforcement, and G is serability. So, um, purpose and intent, um, the text of that section stayed the same. Um, the meter parking section. Um, there were no significant changes in that. We fix the numbering whereas you had the the sections B and then we had sub paragraphs and the numbering property and definitions. Um we added we initially had the definition of a charging station but we added the definition of a meter parking and the definition of a parking meter which may seem redundant but I thought it was necessary. Um so for me parking um we define it as um meter parking is hereby designated to include the parking spaces along any street within the city of Gary and or any parking lot which the city has designated or marked as meter parking um with which require payment for the stopping standing or parking of any vehicle include trailer, dumpsters, boats or other equipment which may be attached or hitched to a vehicle. the vehicle along with any equipment occupies more than one marked space. An additional fee may be charged with additional spaces that the vehicle this equipment occupies. And then we find the parking meter um to include machines sizes for equipment placed at or near parking spaces or in around meter parking lots which are intended to accept payment for parking and or vehicle charging or refueling or facilitate payment of the same in such metered spaces or lots. Um then in the next section parking meter fund and purpose we added language

about um charging stations. We want to declare that you know in every section we wanted to declare that we are including charging stations in definition what the city install we can charge for. Um then to move on um really quick. Yes sir. How much are we charging? That's in the um the fee schedule order since passed about two months ago. I don't have on my screen right now. And be before we before we have discussion, you want to complete the overview and then we'll pass the amendment and then we'll have discussion. Okay. Um the other things were we um fixed the formatting and did spell check those kind of things. So, I covered the significant changes. Everything else is just, you know, forgive me if I had titles. Thank you for the overview of the amendment. We'll now um move for passage on the amendment. Call Councilwoman Brown. This is on the amendment, right? On the amendment. Yes. Councilwoman Cwell. Yes. Council Hallebert. Yes. Councilwoman Ivy. Yes. Council Toiver. Yes. Councilman Washington. Yes. Council Wington. Yes. Council Williams. Yes. President Le. Yes. Madam President. The vote is 9 to zero. Thank you. With a vote of 9 to 0. CPO25-35 has been amended. Thank you very much. And now I'll entertain any questions, comments from my colleagues. Councilman Williams. Beginning with Councilman Williams. Thank you. I just want to know what was the charge. What's going to be the charge for parking? And I'm going to

have to pull that up. Um the disadvantages my iPad has very bad connection here. I know, but um Mr. D. So, $3 per hour um for regular vehicles and then for the annual pass if you're a Gary resident 75 per year and if you're not a Gary resident is it 100 could you all mind emailing the fee schedule to all of the council members? Be glad to. Thank you. Mr. D, is there a fee difference? motorcycle and car. No, you think we should try that? The idea I believe was that they're both occupied. Yes. Um and again, we passed the fee schedule, but we treat at least again I would say for the most part they treat all passenger vehicles the same. the out at the beach they really only charge when we have large vehicles that are carrying uh trailers that are offloading boats, jet skis, things of that sort. That's a difference in pricing. Um RVs because they're parking and they're considered trailer parking. So that's the really the only difference in the two. Uh everything has a end time and a start time. So 7 a.m. start time, 10 p.m. is the end time. Um and it goes from there. Are we still using an app that we discussed? Yes, the app is up. We tried it and it's been going great so far. Um, we had small kink the first day, but that's trying new things, but it worked out just fine. Um, and we are on schedule to have them going into the program. So, it's really excited about that. So, we should, and again, we're seeing some excitement behind it. That's good. Thank you. No problem.

Any other questions about council? Yes. And who's who's going to be enforcing the uh the parking meters? Yes. So, what we do is it's a a collaborative approach between beef patrol as well as our what was our parking attendance. Our parking attendants are there to assist. They will have access via the app um to see when a plate is not registered. And it is our beach patrol, our actual officers who are writing the tickets. We just want to make sure we're protecting them in regards to that possible uh endangerment or entanglement that sometimes happens with and then we're going to be towing those cars if they are past that time. Right. So we only told So they issue a ticket. There's a ticket in accordance to the fee ordinance that in which they can be issued for a parking violation. However, if they are in a no parking zone or parked on a curb or parked on the park area or obstruction structured traffic, that's the those are the vehicles that they tow. Also, if they have habitual parking um violator, then that person can be towed according to what the laws are in orders. Cool. And we going to have a lot of signage out there state and all that too, right? We doubled up on signage. That was one of the pieces. Again, we know people are going to adapt. Um so, the very first weekend the beef patrol chief can put out there show a lot of grace. So we show grace to some people getting an understanding um in regards to it even this past weekend um had a very successful event out there uh that we were still trying to extend grace reminding people the person who was holding the event reminding their attendees to do it. So we're trying to slope off before we should jump out there but we expect by this summer to be full-fledged just like every other community who's using the same type of program. Seems like you have it covered. Great job. Thank you. Any other colleagues questions, comments? I just had one question. Um, is there a reason the special fund will be under the control orders and directions of the board of public works instead of the board of

park commissioners? That language came straight from the state statute. Okay. So, I just have to say statute. Okay. But you again, we covered this at the committee meeting. Nothing can be respect until you appropriate. And then the use of the funds which is go off the law is basically for more equipment that pertains to this and after that we do more to expand parking and repair streets. All right. Thank you. Um just been getting a lot of chatter online. Um, I got a text message from the president of the MCC Shoreline Committee and there's been chatter on next door. So, we did propose an approach and we haven't decided on the final approach for MCC president Mark people who are frequently out there volunteering. I don't know. Yeah. So, uh, as a chief operating officer, Mr. subs met with uh the MCC leadership as well as friends of market park and some of the other stakeholders in the uh first district to kind of talk about that. So when uh volunteers are out there uh working helping keep our beautify our beach and keeping the area clean, they would have the ability to put that pass uh what we saying the pass in their windshield so that we know it's their vehicle. Um because they're volunteering um and those are the compromises that we can work through um with volunteers. The piece of it is is also working through that u sometimes with you abusing that, right? So if they are there enjoying the beach um verifying that and so again those are all things that we told them just talk to us. We can work through um and have conversations about as well as uh the law department can have conversations with the judge should someone receive a citation and is doing something. I I appreciate that. Mhm. I was actually speaking more to just communicating to

our community stakeholders, making sure that you know the fee schedule that information is shared on some of those social media channels and with those organizations. Absolutely. uh we talked about putting out communication in regards to it and so the comm's team I reminded them yesterday and following a conversation that we need to get that information out but out of respect for the council process we're going to wait till after the phone is approved thank you any other questions or comments roll call m sorry councilwoman brown yeah I just want to know I'm sorry what is the plan for making sure that these parking meters are are established, that people know that they they care if they park there, they're going to be fine. And I don't know how we plan to establish that. And did I or did I miss something? Well, um, Councilwoman Brown, we put up signs and chief of staff do miss um double the signs the first day. How are they supposed to know? So there's signage um when you enter the parking lot. There's signage throughout the parking lot and signage every place that we've established an area where we're going to charge for parking. Okay. As well as as well as council woman as president just said additional communication those social media channels as well as putting out that communication in our email newsletter. Uh but also in working with chief of staff Brooks, we talked about uh when the council puts out their newsletter or their community forums, um these are all the platforms we have to continue to deal in. Again, that's why we stressed uh the police chiefs have stressed trying to show some grace in the initial

phases of it, but um we only adopted this process kind of mirroring some of the other communities. So they're doing Yeah. and what they're doing. So, we didn't try to make the price point any more. Um, we're still trying to be attractive, but we're also trying to use some of the same platforms that they're doing. Um, and also it helps us with some of the uh state board of account findings that we've had in regards to receiving issues and things of that sort. So, now we are truly a cashless system um out at the park, which is the full intention. Okay. Oh, yes. And then the hours, you asked about the hours. We It's It's 7:00 a.m. which is that dust to dawn. 10:00 p.m. is what kind of what I'm throwing out there as a number. Please don't take that. It really is about where the sun goes down. The police start clearing the beach roughly about 9 9:30. Um and um patrol as the police patrol committee or group goes out when they're going out late at night. Um anything pretty much after 10:00 p.m. you're out there. You're not supposed to be out there at the dealers. So they won't mistakenly pay for Texas, they get out there at 8:30. They can't pay past 10:00. So, we wanted to make sure that it was turned off so they're not being taken advantage of. And that's a piece where they're paying for 4 hours and they only get an hour and a half left. There there were a few occasions last summer when we didn't have staff at Marquette and so the gate was down, you couldn't go in. Um, so we want to make sure that people have maximum if it's a beautiful Saturday, we want you to be able to go and enjoy the beach. and then um Chief Staff Dumis and our um chief operations officer Sugs have done a lot to address um Lake Street and making sure both sides of the parking lot are open and the boat ramp is open and available to launch votes. And so this helps because we can do what we've done before but more effectively. Um and it

does not hinge on whether or not everybody showed up on a sunny Saturday to open up the parking lot. It'll be open. we can collect the fees and we'll also have enough staff to patrol it so people way overstay or whatever we can issue such fees. So maximizing access to the beach. You talked about Mark Park but what about some of the other areas? So we we first wanted to like anything else when you learn something new you want to make sure you're getting it right. um as we grow and with council support as we develop in other areas we can hope to bring it to downtown we can hope to bring it to other areas this establishes at least the foundation and framework should we expound but should we expound that communication has to go in more methods and facets but it's definitely our opportunity to now be able to expand across the city but again only in the right areas where development is happening where we are seeing the tourism and this is helping generate that uh infrastructure. There's some areas in my district where I'd like to see park. Okay. [Music] Thank you, Councilwoman Brown. Roll call. Madam clerk. Councilwoman Brown. Yes. Councilwoman Cwell. Yes. Council Hallebert. Yes. Councilwoman Ivy, yes. Councilman Toiver, yes. Council Washington, yes. Councilman Wington, yes. Councilman Williams, yes. And President, yes. President V. Thank you. With a vote, with a vote of 9 to 0, CPO 2025-35 has been passed and is so ordered. CPL 2025-36 in ordinance approving the 2025

to 2026 Department of Services grant budget and revisions to the 2025 local health maintenance budget for the city of Gary Health Department sponsored by Mayor Eddie Nelson City of Gary Lind city controller and the Gary Health Department. Colleagues, is there a motion for passage of 2025-36? So move been moved. Is there a second? Second. Second. Now, do we amend that amendment? Colleagues, there is an amendment for CBO 2025-36. Is there a motion to amend by substitution CBO 2025-36? So, move. Is there a second? It's been moved and second. Yes, we have the overview just on the amendment the changes. I'm sorry. We have two copies of 36 copies. Madam President, not the excuse for change. Absolutely. Thank you. Welcome. Madame President, the revision that I'm asking is for um to for contractual maintenance um to add to take from contractual machinery um to purchase two um trucks for the Gary um for the health inspectors. Thank you, Miss Collins Ellis. At this time, we'll have a roll call

vote. Councilman Hallebert. Yes. Councilwoman, yes. Councilman Wington, yes. Councilman Williams, yes. With the vote of 8 to Z, CPO 2025-36 has been amended by substitution. Any questions, comments on CBO 2025-36. We have the motion on the floor. I mean, is for passage. I got a question bar this week. Yes. Um the email that I sent over about the vehicles. No, I didn't add it in here. I didn't know that I needed to. remember I said go ahead and change it. I did send it via email but I didn't know it needed to go in the packet. Yes. So the revised budget reflects a new number. Um it just she didn't attach the email. Is that what you're asking? She didn't physically ordinance that you I believe it was counciloman Ivy asked

specifically making model of the vehicles and that cost but it's in the budget under machinery and equipment. Uh you see it go from 75 or 76 to 90,000. We took 14,000 from the traction maintenance and put it in machinery. And these are for trucks for your health inspectors. Correct. Correct. All right. If there are no questions or comments, council. Yes. Madam, Madam Cler, there has been a motion for passage. Correct. Yes. Yes. And a second. Yes. and we've amended by substitution. Sure. Councilman Oliver and then Councilwoman Ivy. Yeah, I just had a quick question. So, what are the F-150s going to be used for? Like for the for mosquito spraying um in the summer? Right now, we have four inspectors and only two trucks. Okay. We do. I sure will. Yes. Councilwoman Ivy. Thank you for clarifying. I thought it might have been for mobile clinics or something like that. Oh, no. Thank you for clarifying. All right, no problem. Thank you. Any other questions, comments, colleagues? Roll call. Madam Clerk, Councilwoman Brown. Councilwoman Cwell. Yes. Council Burton. Yes. Councilwoman Ivy, yes. Council Talbert, yes. Councilman Washington, yes. Councilman Lington,

yes. Council Williams, yes. President Le, yes. Madam President, the vote is 9 to Thank you. With a vote of 9 to 0, CPO 2025-36 is passed and is so ordered. Madam President, thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Any reports or questions of city officials? Sure. Madam President Counciloman. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Council pending ordinances and resolutions on second reading CPL 2025-37 and owners of special use permit for property located at 2658 East 21st place to be used as a home daycare by the Cole Cummings sponsored by the Gary Department petitioner Bay Cole Cummings 2658 East 21st Place Councilman Washington I'm sorry mam CPO 2020 25-38 in notice of gender a special use permit for property located at 4900 Weston family Gary in Indiana to be used as a auto dealership by petitioner Amani Musla sponsored by Arizona department petitioner Amani Musla 4900 West 5th Avenue here Madam President I move for passage of the following common pending orders on second reading CPO 2025-37 and CPO 2025-38 for the planning and development committee hearing scheduled for Wednesday, June 11th at 5:30 p.m. with a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, June 17th at 6:00 p.m. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded.

Roll call. Council Hallebertton. Yes. Councilwoman Ivy, yes. Councilman Toiver, yes. Councilman Washington, yes. Councilman Wington, yes. Council Williams, Council Williams. President, yes. Madam President, the vote is 8 to Z. Thank you. with the vote of 8 to 0 CPO 2025-37 and CPO 2025-38 as passed on second reading with our planning and development committee meeting CPO 2025-39 and or notice establishing weapon use and discharge regulations in the city of Gary Lake County Indiana describing penalties for violations hereof as well as procedures and policies for saying and all matter related there to sponsor by Lord Le County Council. Councilman Hallebertton. Madam President, I move for passage of CPO 2025-39 on second reading with the public safety committee hearing set for Wednesday, June 11th at 5:45 with the public hearing on Tuesday, June 17th at 6:00 p.m. Second. Is it been moved and second? Roll call. Madam clerk, Councilwoman Brown, yes. Councilwoman Cowwell, yes. Council Hallebertton, yes. Councilwoman Ivy, yes. Councilman Toiver, yes. Councilman Washington, yes. Councilman Wington, yes. Councilman Williams, President Leon, yes. Madam President, the vote is 8 to Z. With a vote of 8 to zero, CPO 2025-39 is passed on second reading with a public safety committee meeting on Wednesday, June 11th at 5:45 p.m. President orders and resolutions on second.

[Music] Okay, we just need like a five minute recess. Is there um maybe other business that we have to handle that needs to be added to the agenda? [Music] [Music] reset. Yeah.

our meeting the June 3rd meeting of the Gary County Council back to order. Thanks everyone for your patience. We left off at reports/quest mentioned but just want to make sure we mention them for the general public. We kicked off our 16 weeks of summer. It's an initiative to make sure every Gary with almost in the sense of a deep cleaning and a collaborative effort so that people feel and see the services that are supposed to be there to serve. We're asking the public if you want every Wednesday we will be uh get that information. So on tomorrow we will be meeting at how park with uh some of our community partners such as United some of our city departments um there and then some of the weeks you will be able to sit down and talk with your council person and we appreciate with this and so those dates will be also shared on those Wednesdays which council person will be present uh and they are also even sometimes are going to bring you don't want to miss some of the snacks that they're going to bring. So, uh, but please come and meet your council person and talk to them about all of the things going on in your community. See, it is it is out in public. Uh, we're partnering, the city of Gary is partnering with our Gary Community Schools. Uh, for our Junth cune 21st, June 21st at 300 p.m., we will have none other than the Charlie Caesar, our Westside uh auditorium. uh we will be there to celebrate and uh hear some great music on that day. So all our physically pick them up um at one of the locations and you can see those locations on all of the internet and um our city website and

um we will have our citywide health and resource fair on June 28th from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at IU. We're asking everyone that wants to come out to enjoy those resources. They will have medical services um there. Um and again, that's from 11 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on June 28th. Um also, if you are interested in marching or participating in the July 3rd, our Fourth of July parade on July 3rd in the evening, please go and sign up. You can also sign up by calling 2198811311. uh back for participants. For those that just want to come and have a good time, we will be there on July 3rd and we're trying to make it just as long as the last one last year. Um we are really excited because thanks to the council and passing the uh work big initiative. Uh we are close to graduating our first set of cohort graduates. If you have not seen them, they've been out working. They're in all of our corridors. You can see them. They had the big work bid on the back of their vest, their safety vest. They're also receiving those certifications and uh we are right now if all of them graduate, we'll have almost a 90% success rate of graduates that are ready for the workforce. So the program is working. Um, again, it's not uh something that Mayor Melton necessarily came up with, but we married from another community, but thanks to the council for partnership partnering with that. And for those that did come out and pay tribute for our fallen soldier memorial services, we thank for the council members that were able to make it and we are always remembering those who have gone before us. Um, and then, um, last two things. Any Saturday, any Saturday from now until it gets really, really cold, we will be out there volunteering. Every Saturday at 8:00 a.m., all of our volunteers meet up for our uh, big initiative where we

volunteer every Saturday to clean up initiatives. If you know of a group that's looking for volunteer opportunities, please have them contact uh, Marquel Watkins in order to make sure we're helping with that opportunity. Um, we want to clean up every single thing we can. And the last final announce announcement is our bingo. Um, this is our one of our age friendly initiatives from our age friendly council. This bingo is free. It will be at Roosevelt Pavilion in fifth district. The first date is June 6th. There will be prizes. It is the special guest will be Oak uh Oak Street Health at this event. We want all of those that wish to come out and play bingo. Again, it is age friendly. That does not mean seniors. That means anybody who is age friendly can come out and enjoy a game of bingo. So we want everybody to come out. That is a another free event. There are a lot of free events this summer. There's no reason to not have anything to do in the city of Gary that is positive and constructive. Um thank you. Thank you chief council. I would uh tell all the council people to go over there on 42nd in Maryland. Um, I went out there on Saturday. If you all see the before and after pictures of Mayor 42nd in Maryland, it's immaculate. Um, Josh's uh tree service and I forgot the young man that's uh work with general services. He's a young the younger guy Sean. Sean and I mean when they were out there working and I I went out there to try to help out and they told me they had it. So they the baseball field the baseball field looks immaculate. So, keep up the good work and uh I definitely want to give him some time cuz he's out there really working and get things done. So, I salute general services for that. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Oliver. Chief, I saw the code enforcement director here and I'm wondering if he's available to I'm sorry, Councilwoman, he did leave. There he is. Oh, there he is.

Pastor Edwards, you mind just giving us the update on code enforcement? Hi, how are you all? Hello. Uh, code enforcement is doing a great job. uh my team our team is doing a great job and um we're in need of um computers because what we do uh we write citations but our citations um our team writes them on their phone and then we have to come all the way back to city hall and print them out um to put them on and we need stickers um for stop work orders um since we've been in We probably have put over three or 4 hund stop work orders and we ran out of stickers. Um the police department gave us their old 2015 cars. We have uh we started off with six code enforcement officers. Now we have two that we added to which were eight. And then we have four volunteers from our reserve that we have packed on to that. And also um as of we had arrest today um for illegal dumpers. Um so we have probably about 13 to 14 this year already. So we're we're doing what we need to do. Hours. Oh hours. All right. Um it's 8 to 4 for our day term, 4 to 12 for our uh evening, and then weekends we have uh Saturday and Sunday from 6:00 to 2. Is that 6:00 a.m.? 6:00 a.m. Yes. 6 p.m. And the reason why 6:00 a.m. because we know that they start early because we don't really um no one's supposed to be working on a Sunday anyway because no uh

building department is out and uh we recog that people are trying to work um before uh Monday. So, we try to get them before they lose. And and can I say this too? Code enforcement is one of the departments that reaches every department in the city of Gary, whether it be health department, whether it be police department, whether it be uh fire department, it touches every part of the city. So, we just need more. Thank you. Thank you. Where was the legal dog? So, I don't want to get myself messed up. Yeah. Councilman W. Councilman Williams. Yeah. Councilwoman Brown. Are are you assigned to a specific district or can we just call and you go to any district? Me? Yeah, I can go to any district. Yes. And but we have all the other um uh officers that are assigned to each district. And the officers that in the evening uh we're trying to get them properly trained, but they have been um toring cars and going through and getting illegal dumpers. Thank you. Councilman Wizington, thank you so much. I appreciate your hard work. Thank you. Uh, chief of staff, excuse me, chief needs that pastor Edwards has requested, that's going to be in the ordinance. Correct. Yes, that was in that ordinance that um already said will be addressed. Perfect. Thank you so much. I really want to make sure that you have the proper tools to continue to do the great work you're doing. So, thank you. Thank

you. And also, can I say this? We are uh also connecting with uh different code enforcement agency uh whether it be Hbert Marville just trying to bring our staff up to what they're doing because some of the stuff that they're doing, we want to enhance that also. Thank you. All right. If there are any other questions of city officials, I will entertain [Music]