City Council - Regular Meeting

for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [snorts] Eternal God our father we thank you for this day. Lord we just ask that you continue to keep our residents safe. Continue to cover our police and fire and continue to cover every person that is out in the cold. We thank you for everything that you continue to do in this season. Continue to cover us as we continue to do your work in Jesus name. Amen. All righty. Roll call vote, please. CL Alexander present. Spatelli here. Kowinsky here.

Selenus here. Tyler here. Emerson here. Warpel here. Reikos [snorts] here. Vanz here. Uh, nine present. Thank you. Mayor's address.

Good evening, President Venezer Council. Uh, I'll be presenting on behalf of the mayor tonight. I'm going to first hit the meeting log. We met with Wes Lose and Marie Herring about the future of the Hammond Sports Hall of Fame. Uh, this year's program. They should have some exciting announcements coming up that I can't spoil tonight. We did have a meeting with uh Purdue and internally about Gavit. I know frequently people ask me about the status of the old school buildings in Hammond. Um we're working on a strategy that Purdue could turn that into athletic complex that really would be [snorts] nice for the city. We had a meeting on Veterans Park. That's up where the data center's at. Uh, I have also had an individual meeting with a Purdue student whose senior project is to actually help design better accessibility and green spaces up at Veterans Park. Uh, Councilman Klinsky, I sent her your her contact information to you. She wanted to talk to you specifically. Okay. That's her senior project and she's um we're excited to support and see what she comes up with. The data center folks are willing to help sponsor improvements. So, uh, we'll see where that where that goes. Um, I am president of the Hammond Development Corporation. We had a meeting over the past two weeks and one exciting announcement we have is we will have a farmers market going every single week this spring. We contracted with a company that does it through um, Chesterton, a couple other municipalities if you ever been to their farmers market, but it's really going to be done well. It'll be at the Dan Raven Plaza. Um, so we're working on improvements with that, but this spring, uh, every we haven't picked the day of the week yet, but that'll be coming soon. Another opportunity to drive people to downtown. Another cool thing about it, too, for any of our residents that are struggling with this particular farmers market, they're going to be able to have opportunities. They have two to

one and three to one match for their dollars if they have public assistance. So, if they have a $100 on their card, um they could be able to purchase $200 worth of produce at our farmers market, potentially even 300. We had a planning meeting for Mayor's State of the City, uh presented by Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce. A reminder, that's this Thursday, the 29th. Uh it is a ticketed event. The event starts at 11:00 with lunch served at 11:30. Mayor's going to come on at noon. and we have sold over 400 tickets for this event. We moved it to the sports flex this year and part of that is for increased capacity because last year we had to turn people away. So, we have a larger capacity. It's going to be in the new soccer field section. Uh it's our first try hosting an event there, but we want to kind of show off our facilities and it's going to allow for more people to attend. Um, if you're interested in an update on a certain professional sports team coming to our city, you will definitely want to be there Thursday. So, there's a little tease for everybody on coming to the event. [clears throat] We had a meeting about imple implementing some downtown Hammond parking rules. You know, uh, having a lot of residents downtown also sometimes brings challenges with it. So, if you hear feedback from residents about that, we're working on it. We're working on getting better signage so when we need to plow like over the next couple days people aren't blocking up the areas we need to plow. Uh so all of that's in process. We're working on it. We had a meeting with Pastor Pulk about the senior living center at Memorial Park. Um I'm not sure we've updated the council on this but essentially the group that was trying to get funding from the state did not score high enough to secure funding for the senior living center. So, Pastor Pulk is exploring HUD and some alternative ways to acquire funding for that. That still is the plan. That is separate from the 28 or so

residential lots. We do anticipate those will go up for a excuse me, up for auction this spring. Uh those two timelines are independent of each other. We held our quarterly inspections meeting. We pack about 40 people into mayor's conference room. every single district supervisor and code enforcement comes in and reports back on what's going on in their district. No major news report. Just want to let you know that that is a reoccurring meeting that we that we do to make sure things are moving the right direction. I met with uh Bev Hermovic about our AARP age friendly city designation. You might recall the council about six months ago approved an application for us to be an age friendly city. So we are moving forward that process. We have a separate intern who's working 20 hours a week for us in city hall who is going to help us get this off the ground. That's her her project this spring semester. And I'll just say we had several different meetings on potential developments across the city. Interest is at an all-time high in our city. All of that continues to progress. I look forward to sharing that with you in the future. Few more event announcements. We have our first mayor's night of the year in the first. This Wednesday, the 28th, 6:30 at Lost Marsh. This Friday, the 30th, we have our fourth annual mayor's commission on disabilities retreat from 9 to noon at the Sportslex. Had very good uh we're expecting twice as many people as last year. So, have a lot of support for that. [clears throat] And then next week, we have our annual Black History Month celebration from 10 to 11:30. This year, it's at the Civic Center. So, not the Sports Plus, it's at the Civic Center. And we will be honoring African-Americans who have been serving the community in the nonprofit organization space. All right, that concludes all of my updates. Open any questions,

Scott? Yes, sir. Access to the vet park. How will we handle that? It's It's gated now. It is gated. Um, but part of what we're trying to work through is is that the best solution long term or not? Um, the Illinois border is obviously not gated on the Illinois side. There's a little gate right now that even if you call in, because anybody can call in. I don't know if everyone knows this, but if you pull up to the to the gate, you can call in and they will open it for you if they answer.

If they true, if they answer, but then if you try to drive all the way to the flag pole, there's just a there's like a little gate and sometimes it's padlocked, sometimes it's not. But we want to make sure that there's access and we've done some of that ground work already that when the the lots were divided up, there are pathways on even closer to the lake that are redevelopment owned um that are not part of any data center property. So that's part of what her project is and and being sensitive to the community. This was raised by some of our community members that they wanted to ensure we maintained access and that that property could be greened up some look better. I I I don't um I've seen a concept that she can email you of what she's looked at and but I'd love your feedback on whether you think it's practical or not or any other ideas. But we've we've talked about having appropriate plant life and species out there that would be, you know, somewhat indigenous to that area.

Are the roads that go in there now, are they are city roads or are they belong to data center or it's a great question. I I don't want to miss you guys remember the access are what

on HRC. Yeah, there was some they've been receptive to a few things. I went up there with my family to see the flag and I noticed on the HRC property they had put up some no no admittance signs and I let them know very quickly and they took them all down. So, some of it may be some some due diligence on our part to make sure that those things don't happen again, but they they've all been removed. Any other questions? Yes. Yes. Yes, sir.

This has been a rough week for the Palaski Park neighborhood. We had outages like three times. Has that been the case across the city? What can you tell us about any of that?

Um, I can tell you that has not been across the city, that has been primarily in the North Hammond area. and that my understanding of of two of the situations were transformers blowing up at the NIPCO substation just south of Wolf Lake Pavilion. Um the third one I'm not aware of, but two of them I understand were transformers. Um that's that's what I know about it. I know people were, you know, NIPCO is not everybody's favorite right now and there's there's a people were were pointing out that hey, we make complaints and all of a sudden our power goes out. I don't think anything like that happened, but I certainly saw the postings online.

And since we're talking NIPCO and data center, anything new about powering up and getting construction started on the data center? We're we're holding firm to our 60-day deadline. I think it we have noticed some good movement on it but nothing nothing no signed deal to announce with the power agreement. Thank you. Anyone else? Any other questions? Thank you. All righty. Thank you, Scott. Uh followed by approval of minutes. Yes, Madam President. ask that we approve the January 12th meeting minutes and place them on file. Please

second. Motion by Councilman Selena, second by Councilman Emerson. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? All those in favor? I I opposed. Nine in favor, zero opposed. Moving on to claims. Madame President. Yes, Councilman Rayos.

Make a motion we approve registered claims from January 7th, 2026 through January 21st, 2026 for claim number 199 through 788 in the amount of 20,512,96089. Second motion by Councilman Reiko, second by Councilman Warple. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? [clears throat] Cleric, roll call vote, please. Alexander, yes. Spatelli,

yes. Gowinski, yes. Selenus, yes. Tyler, yes. Emerson, yes. Warpo, yes. Rikos, yes. Vanz, yes. Um, claims approved, nine in favor, zero post. There are no public hearings. Communications. Madame President. Yes, Councilman Kowinsky.

Thank you. I've been notified that due to extreme weather and power outages, uh, the Plasky Park Neighborhood Association is cancelling their meeting for tomorrow at the Mohawk Club. Uh, so if you know anybody going, please let them know. It won't happen tomorrow. The reschedule is probably in March. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Any other communications? Any other communications? Any other communications? Communications are closed. Moving on to committee reports, Madame President. Yes, Councilman Selenus.

The capital improvement board met on January 21st and there were a total of five funding allocations. I'll go through them now. Funding allocation number 298 uh to the uh little this was for the little cay river pedestrian bridge was a retainage uh fee to Gary up construction in the amount of $227.99 funding allocation number 299 Robertsdale emergency siren supplemental electrical work this was to Hassie construction this was in the amount of 54 $49,4.50 that dealt with the emergency siren uh circuit connection at the new fire station. Funding allocation number 300, summer street construction supplemental engineering in the amount of $50,000. This was uh due to utility delays and contaminated soils. The contract was extended by an extra seven months. Um, so that's that's where that fee came into play. Um, our fourth funding allocation 301 was a Sheffield storm sewer modeling to Danghue and Associates in the amount of $49,890. The fifth and final funding allocation number 302 is a General Electric Services contract to Midwestern Electric in the amount of $50,000. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilman. And uh as usual, I would like to read the uh list of upcoming community and crime watch uh meetings. Uh Community Watch at Mount Zion Pleasant View Plaza will not meet until March. We meet there every other month. Edison Community

Watch will meet Wednesday, February 4th, 6:30 p.m. at Edison School. Harrison Park Crime Watch will meet Tuesday, February 3rd, 6 PM at the VFW on Home and Avenue across from Harrison Park. Jefferson Crime Watch will meet Wednesday, February 11th, 6:00 p.m. at Jefferson School. ESville Crime Watch will meet Thursday, February 19th, 6 PM at the HC3 Community Center on Martha Street. Irving Community Watch will meet Tuesday, February 10th, 9:30 a.m. at Irving School. and the Whiting Robertsdale Crime Watch will meet Thursday, February 12th, 6:30 p.m. at Calimett College. Um, as usual, I [cough and clears throat] excuse me. I urge everyone to uh go to [clears throat] I'm sorry uh to a crime watch meeting, find out what's going on in your neighborhood, meet some of your neighbors because neighborhood safety and community safety is what we're all about. So, please come out uh listen to some tips and uh and learn something new because community is not just about me, it's about us. Alrighty. Community committee reports is now closed. Ordinance third and final passage. There are none. [clears throat] Introduction of ordinances.

President Venez, the clerk will read the introductions for item A and B and item C on the agenda will be moved down to the new listing under 13 which comes under noon unfinished business. Thank you clerk. Item A, 2602, sponsored by Councilman Reikos, an ordinance of the city of Hammond establishing fees for non-emergency lift assist services provided by the Hammond Fire Department. Madame President, Councilman Reikos.

Yes. Like to make a motion pass that first and second reading ordinance number 26-02. Do I have a second? Second. Motion by Councilman Reiko, second by Councilman Spatali. Uh for first and second reading of 2602. Any discussion? Yes, Madame President.

Yes, Councilman. We had a lively discussion before the meeting today, but um this is something that's uh I was approached by one of by uh captain on truck 4 last May. [clears throat] Uh they're running across uh situations where residential care facilities and private ambulance services are abusing or overusing uh the fire department. uh vehicles for lift assist, non-emergency lift assist as it's called in this ordinance. Um and non-emergency lift assist is described as no reported observed medical emergency, no immediate threat to life, limb, or property, and no medical treatment, transport, or emergency intervention is required or provided. And specifically, like I said, this is about the residential care facilities and private ambulance service. Regular residents who need that kind of assistance will still be uh will still be taken care of without any kind of uh pricing or or with like they always have. Um, and also I in the caucus I didn't say anything about we we could uh do uh have a council as a whole on 29 5:15.

I think that's wise. 5:15. Mhm. Thank you. Okay. Um, so any other discussion on that? Any other discussion, Madame President? Yes, Councilwoman Alexander. [clears throat]

I know we asked a lot of lot of questions during caucus time. And I'm glad Councilman Rickos is now putting this into committee. Um, and I see Kevin is not out there, but just to put that on the record, just for point of clarification that this is for facilities that call, not the residents that call them. Um, in terms of the resident may be in the facility, um, maybe they may make that call. So, just trying to get some clarification on that. If the resident calls versus the facility that calls.

Okay. I think that's something that we'll discuss in committee and [clears throat] get clarification on that. I'm my thought is that if it's residential then that is certainly a point of need but uh uh for instance we have a couple of senior buildings that are independent living and they don't supply uh or uh uh have medical service at one of those buildings and I think that may be where but we'll discuss that in committee. Thank you for bringing that up.

President Venez um Miller [laughter] um just to clarify your question, you're saying that perhaps if a resident um themselves initiated the call that would they be responsible for the financial burden? Is that what we're passing? um that that is absolutely not the intention of of what we're asking the council to consider. It's situations where there are for-profit organizations that rather than use their own staff or pay their own staff are calling HFD to come to their place of business and ask us to transport patients. That's that's what's happening and we will get you that data of how many times that that occurred.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Yes, Councilman Kwinsky. This [snorts] can probably come up under console as a whole, but uh if if somebody's wearing their alert around their neck and they fall and it goes off and they're in the facility, that little nuance, what happens there?

They there would not be an issue. Um if because as as Councilman Reikos it's only situations where there's no life and limb, no risk to the patient. Those are the situations we're talking about. So someone actually has a medical emergency even if they have staff. Yes, that's what we want them to call 911 if that's the kind of thing if that helps save their life. So that's not the sit that is not a situation that would be a concern to us. Okay. Councilwoman Vanz. Thank you. Any other discussion? Councilwoman Venez.

Yes, Councilwoman Morley. I want to thank the council person for putting this in committee first of all because I had a lot of reservations on just first and second reading and then voting on at the next meeting. Number one. Number two, I know several people that work in [snorts] assisted living facilities and or nursing homes, whatever you want to call them. And part of the problem is these midnight shifts at these places, and I'm not talking about the ones in Hammond. I'm talking about the ones I specifically know about. They staff them with one or two people. And my question is, is do we have the option of having some requirements? I mean, I know we can't tell a private business what to do, but I do know some CNAs and some RNAs that are in charge of 30 35 people on midnights and it's I don't know what else to say about we can talk about it in committee. Thank you. I I can just mention this that I do have a little bit of experience with this is that those all those institutions have to have a license from the state and if we feel that they're not say staffing appropriately there's a process where we can notify the state about those institutions and then staffing levels is absolutely one of the things they look at.

I'm not specifically talking about any in Hammond. I just other places I know that's a common complaint. Thank you. in general. Any other discussion, Madame President? Yes, Councilman. So, just for clarification, uh Scott mentioned this, but we're going to work to get the list of how many times in 24 and 25. Can we also get a list of all the facilities in Hammond that this would um correlate to? Is that possible? We discussed that in the caucus and Kevin is going to uh get that list together. Great. Thank you.

Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Clerk Ol, do I need a roll call vote on this? No. Okay. All those in favor? I opposed. Uh 2602 passes on first and second reading. Item B, ordinance 26-03, sponsored by Councilman Salonus, an ordinance of the city of Hammond authorizing and establishing a municipal riverfront district project area pursuant to Indiana code. Madame President. Yes. Councilman Selenus.

I ask for approval on first and second reading and uh please refer this to council as a whole on February 9th at 5:15. Is there a second? Second. Motion by Councilman Selenus, second by Councilman Spatali on 2603. Any discussion? Yes, Madam President.

Yes, Councilman. So, as uh as clerk um announced, um this is uh there's been a higher demand and supply for residential, I'm sorry, for uh restaurant liquor licenses, especially in the downtown area since more new residents are moving downtown and commercial activity has increased. The state has a quota system for each city and liquor licenses. There are currently no three-way liquor licenses available in the city of Hammond for uh ret for retail from the state. That leaves restaurants to search for licenses and having to purchase them on the open market for tens of thousands of dollars. The riverfront district ordinance takes advantage of a state statute that allows cities and towns across Indiana to create a district and to manage liquor licenses in that area for restaurants, not bars. The ordinance allows redevelopment commission to create an application procedure to review the application to ensure compliance with desired hours, days open, and other items that may be important. And it also allows them to control the number of licenses downtown. [clears throat] All of this is within the boundaries of the district only. The boundaries would be Willow Court to the north, Douglas and Ogden on the south, state line on the west, and Oakley on the east. This district allows other licenses that come available to be used in other parts of the city, eliminating the need for competition downtown for a limited supply. Already, we know of three establishments that are waiting for this ordinance to pass so that they can apply. Other cities around the state and area, including Crown Point, have successfully established a district. Thank you, Madam

President. Thank you. Uh any other discussion? Councilman Kowinsky, I don't know you know this council. Councilman, will you speak into your microphone there? I'm not sure this is directed at you or somebody out there, but is the H city right now or H redevelopment holding on any liquor licenses?

No, not at this time. We're not We just didn't Well, we just did an RFP. You may have seen it in like November, December. We awarded that one. We haven't actually transferred it yet, but it's been awarded. But there were multiple people who applied for that. That's part of the reason the genesis for this idea is to move this forward. Really doesn't have to be a very substantial body of water. Crown Point did like a creek out there that I mean it's it's it's really where where your commerce is. So um there there will be an application fee but it'll be significantly cheaper than the amount of a license uh for for the for these organizations but at the end of the day we can control it all just because there's a capacity of 20. We we have full control on on what we can say yes or no to.

So the city would have to approve it or the liquor board the the through the redevelopment would have to approve it. Yeah. Just redevelopment doesn't have to go on county. and they still have to go. We don't issue the license. We just uh we approve that it's a valid application in the riverfront district. They take that approval from us and then go to ATC and then they make the actual application and then they allow you they they will issue them one if they qualify through their process. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? All those in favor? I

opposed. 2603 passes on first and second reading. President Vanzac concludes introduction of ordinances.

Moving on to resolutions. Item A, resolution 26R-02, a resolution of the common council of the city of Hammond, Indiana, approving plan commission resolution 2026-01 as a written order in finding effect approving redevelopment commission resolution number 2025-8 as a declaratory resolution that expanded the boundaries of the North Hammond development area and approved the 2025 amendment to the North Hammond redevelopment plan for the North Hammond Redal area 2025 expansion area pursuant to Indiana code 36-7-14 and the administrative code 50 IA AC8.

Madame President. Yes, Councilman. I move for adoption of 26 RO2 02. Second. Motion by Councilman Selena, second by Councilman Emerson on uh uh resolution 26R-02. Any discussion? Yes, Madam President. Yes, Councilman. The West Point uh allocation area is being expanded west towards the commercial area of Kell Avenue for future economic development. The planning and development department are just uh doing their job here by planning and then looking for future development in this area. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Clerk, go roll call vote, please. Alexander, yes. Spatelli, yes. Kowinsky, yes. Selenus, yes. Tyler, yes. Emerson, yes. Warpole, yes. Reikos, yes. Venez 26R-2 passes. Nine in favor, zero opposed.

Thank you. Item B, resolution 26R-03, sponsored by the uh by Councilman Selenus and Councilman Tyler. A resolution of the common council of the city of Hammond, Indiana, approving plan commission resolution 2026-02 as a written order and finding effect approving redevelopment commission resolution number 2025-9 as a declaratory resolution that approved the Jacob Square residential housing development program pursuant to Indiana code 36-7-14 and the administrative code 508.

Madam President, yes, Councilman Selenus, I ask for approval of 26R03. Second. Second. Motion by Councilman Selenus, second by Councilman Tyler. Uh, Councilman Selenus, any Yes. discussion. All right.

Um, this is the Jacob Square residential housing development program. Uh, some refer to it as a residential tiff. This is the first one in Hammond. It will capture new assessed value within the boundaries of Jacob Square. These funds can then be used within the Jacob Square square boundaries only for capital improvements such as sidewalks, lighting, parks, and improvements, and even future land acquisitions. Thank you. Yes. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? Clerk Olic, roll call vote. Alexander, yes. Spatelli, yes. Kowinski, yes.

Selenus, yes. Tyler, yes. Emerson, yes. Warpel, yes. Reikos, yes. VenezR3 passes. Nine in favor, zero opposed. Thank you, President Vanz. That concludes the reading of the resolutions.

All righty. Moving on to new unfinished business. Any new and unfinished business? Any new and unfinished business? Any new and unfinished business? New and unfinished business is now closed. Alrighty. Uh, item number 13, special zoning action adopted under Indiana Code 36-7. Ordinance 26-04, sponsored by Councilman Selenus, an ordinance reclassifying certain lands in the city of Hammond for zoning purposes and amending ordinance number 8514, an ordinance establishing a zoning plan for the city of Hammond, including the regulations and maps to administer the zoning plan in order to provide for orderly growth and development. Velment within the city. All in accordance with the comprehensive land use plan as amended for property commonly known as 1175 State Street, 1146 through 11 Willow Court and 1149 through 11 State Street, Hammond Lake County, Indiana. Madame President.

Yes, Councilman. I'm asking for approval on final passage and adoption of 2604. Second. Motion by Councilman Selena, second by Councilman Emerson for final passage of 2604. Any discussion? Yes, Madam President.

Yes, Councilman. This is a long vacant property that has functioned as an illegal dumping site um that will be transformed into a beautiful modern facility with professional landscaping and long-term maintenance, eliminating blight and improving [snorts] the surrounding area. This site was subdivided for residential use nearly 100 years ago, but never developed due to its proximity to active rail yards. This zoning change enables a realistic productive use of land that has been unusable for decades. The project will bring new Davies thermoplastic manufacturing facility to Hammond, creating 40 plus quality local jobs with meaningful long-term economic impact. A modern pre-cast building is intentionally designed to serve as a buffer to rail noise, lighting, and sight lines while remaining an asset the community can be proud of. Significant on-site parking and coordinated storm water management will reduce runoff and lower future flooding risk in the surrounding neighborhood. Truck circulation has been redesigned to avoid residential streets and the plan was developed in coordination with city engineers and myself. This project delivers job creation, new tax revenue, and lasting community value for the city of Hammond. Um I I do know that the developer Jack Fino is here as well with I think an illustration of the planned building. Maybe you can share that with us.

Come on up. Who's calling up? Let's take a look. Yes. Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is Jack Fino with 209 Development. I'm the developer consultant for Davies Imperial Coatings and their new thermoplastics plant. So, what's pictured here is it's a roughly 50,000 square foot pre-cast building. Uh you can't really see it. It's kind of hidden behind the building, which is the intent. the rail yard that is currently uh an eyesore for the neighbors across the street uh on the south side of the the state street. So, this will act as a nice beautiful point of order. Point of order. I'm sorry.

Point of order. Um we can't take further testimony on this. Sorry. Um Councilman, uh I disagree. It's my understanding that we can listen to what the gentleman has to say. We cannot make any amendments, but his comments are going to be on the public record and the public record on this issue has already been established. All righty. Very

I I would think that we're pretty liberal in letting people talk and I think that the council has the authority to hear anybody it wants to. Okay. Okay. Well, I do appreciate the opportunity to share the image and we're very excited about the Okay. So, thank you. Uh, I'm sorry, but this this procedure is a little bit different than what we're accustomed to. So, um, I apologize. Uh, come back to the next meeting if you would. Very nice image, though. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, the the council the con the concern is is that we had to provide legal notice at the lower the lower board when they evaluated this. Nobody else got provided legal notice that this was going to be reopened for discussion with the public. So only you guys can talk about it. None of us can talk about it. That's that's that's why. Thank you for the clarification. My apologies. Okay. Question. I stand corrected. Councilman Kwinsky. Is it allowable for

somebody from that group to talk at a committee meeting? M madame president I'll skip on that. Uh Councilman, this is for final passage. I know. So there is uh but people wanted more information. Can you come back? Is that legal? Uh it's my understanding that uh this w this went through the BZA and Madame President

um uh residents had an opportunity at that time to ask whatever questions they needed to answer. That is my understanding. Yes, Councilman Warple. This went in front of the planning commission and a record was established. We just had this discussion the last meeting. So I guess the question is [clears throat] do we move forward on passage on I mean yes or no vote. Do we on this tonight?

Why wouldn't we? Why wouldn't the city's recommendation would be to move forward with it? We don't have we have had zero people protest against this. This is a safe one to learn through the process so to speak. So my recommendation would be to still pass it.

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you um raising the question, Councilman Warple, given the discussion we had at the last meeting. Uh so is there any other discussion amongst us regarding 2604? Any other discussion?

Madame President, yes, I I I do want to add something because I don't want no misunderstanding on this. Any We're not hiding anything from anybody. This was discussed at a planning commission meeting where We as well as the public can come and say whatever we want to as far as establishing a record. Once it comes from them to us, we are [snorts] just taking a yes or no vote on whether we agree with their recommendation or not. That's it. [cough] [clears throat] It's not it's nothing's being hidden. Those discussions were at the planning commission meeting. I I understand what you're saying, Councilman Warple, and we had this discussion at the last council meeting, and I had a conversation prior to this meeting, and it was my understanding as long as we did not amend anything that we were okay. If we amended something in this uh ordinance, then we would have to refer it back to the plan commission. So that's it's very confusing. It's very confusing and we've never encountered it this way before. So I apologize for the confusion. So, is there any other discussion on this? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? All righty. Clerk Go, roll call vote, please.

Alexander, yes. Spatelli, yes. Kinsky, yes. Selenus, yes. Tyler, yes. Emerson, yes. Warp, yes. Reos, yes. Vanz.

Yes. 2604 passes. Nine in favor, zero opposed. Okay. Uh moving on to public expression. Okay. Mary Shown, you will have three minutes and uh if you would give your uh name and address. I'll give you my name. Okay. Okay. I'm just think

this last time. Just tell me what street you live on for the record. I would think that somebody that talks Crime Watch as much as you do would understand why I wouldn't want to say my home address into a live video feed. All righty, Mary, go ahead. Move on.

Thank you. All right. So, uh, so I I wanted to ask you a question to, um, so just so this doesn't get lost that, you know, when we're talking about business and everything like that, that do we have uh, $8 million to put a pedestrian bridge in the long wrong location in Hammond? Okay. All right. Well, we could talk earlier, but you can't you can't talk.

As we've discussed before, this is your opportunity to say what's on your mind. Okay? We do not rebut what you have to say, but we will be happy to have a conversation with you after the meeting. So maybe you can uh explain to me after the meeting how the city has $8 million to put a pedestrian bridge in the wrong location. If we're talking again about safety for our children, then we should put the pedestrian bridge where that they are what they're crossing. If we put a pedestrian bridge a mile away from where we say from where the kids are crossing, then the pedestrian bridge is not about safety. And Brier and the Brier East Woods project is not about safety and it's about the mayor's real estate ambitions. And I wanted to also just remind the city council that the mayor is not your boss. you don't work for him and he can't fire you. So if whenever these things come up and you know you have to ask your you have to ask yourself is this is this something that will be good for my constituents? Whatever decision you have and you know if if it's good for if it's good for the people that you represent then we should go ahead with that. But if we're talking about spending millions of dollars on something that doesn't address the larger safety issue, then maybe it's not such a great project to go ahead with. So just reminder, you know, to keep our to keep our eyes focused on what's important and it's not to satisfy the mayor's wishes, but to represent

the people in your district. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, Ken Rosk. Greetings, council. Um, I'm going to go back because I haven't been able to be around lately at the last mayor's night out in the sixth district. Um the said the mayor said he would not discuss the Brier East Woods says it has been litigated. The state has currently postponed the decision again as far as we know because no information is coming out to the public. It's been three years since the pause of this project. Not quite a ringing endorsement we were promised, is it? The mayor has been saying and posting a lot that he's all for free speech, that he's a free speech man, a big advocate for free speech and and transparency. At last mayor's night out, guess how many residents from the sixth district got to ask a question. Zero. Zero people got to ask a question from the sixth district. The mayor only supports free speech as long as he agrees with the people that they're talking about and what they're talking about. Does that sound like someone who supports free speech? Residents wrote questions about the Brier East Woods because it will change their lives the most. The mayor said, "We are not allowed to talk about that. Does that sound like free speech?" After the written questions were asked or not asked, residents hands were

raised but were completely ignored by the staff. One guy from Highland got to ask four questions. A woman from downstate got two. We got zero. Zero. We are the taxpayers. We pay for these events. We should be able to speak and we aren't. That is taxation without representation. [sighs and gasps] The questions we asked that were asked were cherrypicked. One piercing question, "Mayor, will you be handing out full-size candy bars for Halloween?" The event was embarrassing. We are the taxpayers. Mayor's Night Out has become an insult and a fiasco to the community. Last year was a very bad year for free speech in Hammond. recorded footage was destroyed after the chief of staff, Scott Miller, who just left, said he would um edit and and then post the footage from a a a meeting that had over 70 people and 20 speakers. The biggest display of public community participation in Hammond's history. They were all silenced. So, I'm tired of people talking about community, community, community when they don't. It's just all words. It's just all words. It doesn't mean anything. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I really want to stop this. There we go. All righty. Public expression is now closed.

Motion to adjurnn. Second. Wait a minute. Pardon? You want If you want Jack to speak in public expression, he can come up. Oh, okay. Yes. If you so choose, I just wanted to show off the the rendering and what what this beautiful building's going to be. So, it is beautiful. Come show it again, please.

Again, my name is Jack Fino with 209 Development. Uh, I just wanted to show this off. So, we're going to have plenty of parking for 40 uh new jobs coming to our community uh that are going to be local and well-paying. So, we've actually started talking to some of the neighbors across the street on the south side of State Street, and many of those neighbors have have actually asked once the building is built uh to submit resumes and look for jobs in this new facility. And it's just going to be very good for the community. provide a buffer uh from the train, all the noise, the lights, the pollution, and and really have something nice and clean and something to be proud of on their streets. So, we're really excited about it for the surrounding community, and I appreciate you letting me take the time to come up and share that. Thank you. So, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your understanding. Thank you. Motion to adjurnn. Make the motion to adjurnn. Second. Are those