Common Council - Regular Meeting

and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. The next agenda item is roll call of members and the determination of quorum. Let the record reflect that we have nine councilors present and that there is a quorum. This meeting has been properly addressed in accordance with ANA's open door law. Copies of the agenda are located at the back of the room. For citizens wishing to speak during citizens' comments, please use the sign-in sheet also located at the back of the room. The next agenda item is comments of council members and special recognitions. Do we have any this evening? Yes, I do. Mr. Chair. Councilor Johnson.

I would like to give a shout out to our DPW department. Sunday morning, we had a tree, big branch fell down and across the road on 48th Street. Neighbors were very concerned and got a call, the gym out, and his crew came out and got it done. I mean, they got out there in less than an hour, probably seemed like a half hour or so. great, great job to those guys. Now there is a but. The tree that broke is the same dead tree I've been complaining about that I've been wanting to get done throughout the city. We have dead trees throughout the older part of District 1 and 2 that are not the responsibility of the homeowners that are in the median. And, you know, I ain't the strongest guy in the world anymore, but you should see how big that tree was that I was able to move it because it's dead. And so I want to encourage, you know, the Lawrence counselors here as we go into budget season to support the DPW, look at possibly adding some dollars to make sure. Because if that would have occurred, you know, it was nine something. That could have been a real danger. And it wasn't during the twirling of the storm either, so it could have easily fell on someone's vehicle. So thanks for cleaning it up, but we want to make sure we're preventative in the future. Thank you.

Do we have any other? Yes. Councillor Crone?

Thank you, President. I also just wanted to give a shout-out to DPW. I was out knocking on doors with a candidate two Saturdays ago and talked with a person who lives in the neighborhood, and he pointed out some potholes since I was there. And I reached out to DPW, and they were on it the next morning. So great job. Thank you.

Any other comments? Mr. President. Councilor Wells.

Yeah, I would personally like to thank Mr. Goodnight for helping me with this email issue that I had and getting it resolved. And also, I've got the list of all the scheduled meetings, but what I didn't get is the times or the places. So will we be getting an update on that?

Thank you.

Do you have any idea of what kind of a notice we may be getting? Will it be, you know, a week? All right. Thank you. Any other comments?

I just wanted to make a comment that I had received an email this afternoon from a constituent about a deceased cat that was in the road near their house. He had requested some information to be applied to the removal of that cat, and he was reading the current statute for Lawrence, and it had us as the responsible party. That has now changed. The City of Indianapolis is responsible for the removal of the deceased cats. So I want to make a point that we will be revamping and changing that city ordinance to match that so in the future we don't have any confusion with our constituents. Any other comments? Thank you for that. Any other comments? Oh, I do. Yes, Councillor Jones.

want to make mention I had a constituent call and I went and reviewed I wanted to also give a shout out to Rene because he was very happy with Rene we have some code violations in my district and so I want to give a shout out to Rene that the our constituent is not happy with Indianapolis but they're very happy with us. And so we're hoping that something gets done. So I wanted to make sure that I gave a shout out to Renee for the job that she's doing as well.

Did you have a comment as well, Councilor Wells?

Yeah, he mentioned Renee. I did have a concern She had told me a few months ago that the Kingsborough area, south of 46th Street, between Post and Midhoffer, that that area is going to be getting new streets sometime. maybe in August. And I had the gentleman call me up the other day and ask me if that was still a go. And so anyway, if someone from DPW could give me an acknowledgment what the time frame of that might be, I would grandly appreciate it. And thank you. Thank you.

Any other comments? All right. We will continue with the next agenda item, which is the approval of minutes of the mid-month meeting of July 15, 2026. Are there any questions or corrections to the minutes? I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes of mid-month meeting of July 15th, 2026. Thank you, Councillor Freeman, and thank you for the second, Councillor Jennings. I know that Councillor Mazur is having issues with her voting machine, so we will proceed with a roll call vote. Actually, we'll just vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, signify by saying nay. Let the record reflect that we have a 9 to 0 to approve the mid-month meeting of July 15 to approve the minutes. The next agenda item is the signing of vouchers, approval of claims, and authorizations of payment. Do we have any discussion? I would entertain a motion to approve the vouchers, approval of claims, and authorizations of payment. So moved. Thank you, Councillor Jennings. Do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you, Councillor Freeman. We'll now proceed with the vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, signify by saying nay.

Nay.

All right, we will proceed with the roll call vote. Councillor Giles? Aye. Councillor Wells? Nay. Councillor Boyd?

Aye.

Councillor Robinson?

Councillor Kramer, aye. Councillor Jennings? Aye. Councillor Freeman? Aye. Councillor Krohn?

Aye.

Councillor Mazur?

Aye.

Let the record reflect that we have an 8 to 1 to approve the vouchers approval of claims and authorizations of payment. The next agenda item is reports of committees. Do we have any reports from our committees this evening? We will proceed with unfinished business. The next agenda item is unfinished business proposal number 1, 2026. Madam Clerk, could you please read the title of that ordinance into the record?

Proposal number 1, 2026, an ordinance of the Common Council of the City of Lawrence, Indiana, amending Title 1, Article 1, Chapter 2, Section 12 of the Municipal Code regarding Common Council approval on expenditures of professional service contracts.

That proposal remains before the Committee of the Whole for consideration and recommendation to the council and will be brought back when appropriate. The next agenda item is New Business Proposal Number 3, 2026. Madam Clerk, could you please read the title of that ordinance into the record?

Proposal Number 3, 2026, an ordinance of the Common Council of the City of Lawrence, Indiana, adopting Title 1, Article 3 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Lawrence, Indiana.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Is there any discussion regarding this proposal? I would entertain a motion to refer this proposal to the Committee of the Whole for further discussion.

So moved. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Giles.

And I have a second. Councillor Jennings? All right. We will proceed with the vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, signify by saying nay. Let the record reflect that we have unanimous decision to refer proposal number three to the Committee of the Whole. The next agenda item is comments from the administration. Do we have any comments this evening?

Good evening. Greg, good night. Chief Staff, City of Lawrence. Periodically, you have questions from asking about lobbyists or state lobbyists and interactions going on at the Statehouse. So I ask both of them to come here tonight. And if you have any questions or updates you want, some are study committees. They can give you a briefing. And then if you have any questions, feel free to ask them. Do you have any questions for me?

I have questions.

For me?

No, for the lobbyists.

Not for you today. That's good. Get out of here.

Can you please approach the podium and state your name and address for the record?

Good evening. Scott Carr. Did you say my address?

Yeah, or wherever your business address.

catalyst i'm vice president uh catalyst public affairs group one north capitol avenue indianapolis thank you amy lavander with craig devault and i'm executive director of government affairs at the firm and we are at one indiana square suite 2800 in indianapolis thank you i will be brief as much as i can i wouldn't spend as much time to answer questions that members of the body may have Just as a short, very, very high-level recap, this last legislative session started two weeks early. As you may recall, redistricting was front and center in the state of Indiana. What the legislature decided to do so that the taxpayers were not burdened with additional weeks of session is they shortened what was already the short session this year as a non-budget year at the General Assembly. and they tacked that on so we started in december we did two weeks in december we ended and sine died on february the 27th by law we must die by march the 14th in a non-budget year so about two weeks early is what we did this year most pertinent to the city of lawrence among many things was the conversation that continued to evolve around Senate Enrolled Act 1 from 2025. That is the change in business personal property taxes and property taxes, the governor's property tax relief signature package from his first budget. In the DLGF bill, which this year was House Enrolled Act 1210, you will find that all of the dates for the implementation of Senate Enrolled Act 1 were paused. They were moved back for another year, one year. This is to continue ongoing conversations as it relates to how those are impacting different units of government. Some units were relieved to see this paused. Others said, well, we've spent a ton of time and energy trying to figure out exactly how we're going to navigate this world. Included in the DLGF bill was language called MUST. This is called the Municipal Unit Strategic Task Force. It was a May provision. but everyone has been encouraged to do this the vast majority of counties to my understanding have done it what it does is for a municipality with a population above 3 500 they are asked to come together the council and in the cities will come together with a county council and they will have a conversation and see if they can figure out essentially what is the floor in the ceiling for lit in their community The objective from the legislature was, could we potentially have four or five different models around the state that everybody could just pick to go into? So they've asked everyone to do this. Many communities around the state have done it. We continue to have conversations in Marion County about that process here. It's important to note that while we're thinking about Senate Enrolled Act 1 from 2025, we're talking about property taxes. There was legislation filed last year and already highly being discussed, which is why not fully repeal all property taxes and move completely to a lit-based tax system. There are only one, two states in the nation that have done that. There is a proposal on the table. Currently that proposal is a full repeal and elimination of your property taxes and replaced with a 10% income flat tax around the state. So with that, we will be going into the 2027 legislative session. Again, it is a budget year. Indiana is in tremendous financial shape. We have somewhere near four, maybe even five billion dollars available. And that is before you factor in the growth quotient of a new state biennium budget. there will be many many conversations on the table as it relates property taxes as it relates to dollars for economic development as it relates to road funding dollars as it relates to The interactions of a consolidated city with this excluded city So there will be a lot moving forward and it will be moving forward in a very different way and what I mean by that is sent just this week or late last Friday and the president of the indiana senate roderick bray has announced that he will not seek that post again he is not stepping down he is not not running for re-election he's not made that announcement yet if he will or will not but he will not seek his current post just today the majority floor leader announced that he will be seeking that position if there ends up sort of a battle for leadership in the Indiana Senate, it's hard to say who will end up in what position and how that may affect outcomes as we move into a new budget year. So anyway, a lot of moving parts to take into consideration. That's my recap. I'm going to turn it over now to Amy, who's going to provide some updates on a few other pieces of legislation.

Thanks, Scott. And in addition to that, I think just we do know that there'll be a new local government chair in the Senate in the upcoming session as the incumbent Republican who held that seat lost their primary. And so what we've seen in the General Assembly is really a shift to a lot of preference to county based financing and economic development proposals and policies. And so what the new incoming chairs preferences and priorities will be will change in some ways though we do still think there'll be this push-pull based on the makeup of the General Assembly around city centers economic development engines and counties and how that is balanced by some of the more rural areas less probably impactful in Marion County potentially, but some of those policies applied statewide can have some impact in Indianapolis and to the cities within the county as well. In addition to that, House Bill 1001 from this past session was the House Republicans Priority Agenda Bill. What that did was it looked at addressing affordable housing or the available housing stock, but within that really had language that would have severely limited a municipality's ability to set zoning standards and regulations within its city limits. We worked, had a lot of conversations around that. Most of that language was ultimately removed from that bill and preserves the local municipality's ability to continue to regulate and direct zoning and regulations as it relates to housing. So that was a big win. I think there's continued discussion certainly with the affordability crisis that most Hoosiers are facing. will housing be back on the table will there be additional attempts to further limit city authority in those areas and so we'll be watching those issues very closely as we come into the next legislative session and then the other piece that's out there you may have seen senate bill 285 which is a homeless bill really limits the ability of municipalities to engage really set the course for how they want to engage with the unhoused population and address homelessness issues in their communities. Most significantly, within 48 hours, it directs law enforcement to issue a ticket to an individual who is sleeping on public grounds. And so as part two of that, as we go into the budget session, The Senate author of the bill has indicated that there is a desire to create some funding for some wraparound services and supports. What that looks like, we don't know yet, but we are involved in conversations around that so that there is a potential for cities then to be able to go to seek some resources potentially from the state to help address local issues in ways that make sense for the individual communities. And so we'll be working and staying very close on that topic as well to ensure that there are opportunities available so that each community has different needs, but we know that unhoused are impacted statewide whether you're rural or urban and so making sure that there are tools available so that a city of lawrence can really address those particular to our needs and other communities can address them will be important and priorities for us thank you thank you did we have any questions i do council wells um first off

What is your tenure with the city of Lawrence or with this administration? Have you been doing your lobbying for some time?

So I was engaged last year for the first time, and then this year we have a contract that was at the same terms as last year. We did not have any increase in that contract, but at the existing term, that was renewed for this calendar year, yes.

Well, I know. Back in I think it was the first year of this administration. They retained, I think two lobbyists. And apparently you guys weren't one of them.

But I was a little reluctant to support that.

But I was told, because one of the one of the biggest problems in my district is zoning. And because of unigo and because of Indianapolis, you know, overseeing our zoning, it always seems like whenever I have an issue with zoning, it always comes back to, well, Indianapolis won't let us do it, or Indianapolis oversees this, or Indianapolis trumps this. And so I was told when they hired the lobbyists that that was one of the things they were going to address with General Assembly was to try to get large to have its own control and to basically dissolve Unigo. But obviously that's never happened. And so is that something that you have heard from this administration that is something on your radar or no?

Uh, counselor, just for the record, uh, Amy and I were at that meeting two years ago. Um, and I actually, and I recall that specifically cause I reached out to the department of transportation and end on behalf of an issue you had with a road barrier and a cross cut that you were looking to get for a division in your council district. Uh, um, as it relates to the zoning matters, uh, those conversations on go are ongoing. We have made progress actually at the legislature a few years ago. In the interim, we've continued to try to define exactly where that boundary ends and where it begins as it relates with the consolidated state statute. All of the zoning powers in Marion County by state statute have been more or less granted to the Consolidated City some of those have been brought back and they've been new mechanisms put in place. I think there's a desire It's been expressed to us to take that further.

And so that's something that we've certainly Been looking so what's the time frame for something like this? Could we you know, I've been waiting on there for three years To be another three years five years ten years.

I mean I

How long does this take? I mean, I don't know. I don't know anything about state legislature or anything like that. So I would think you'd be more familiar than I. I will say some things happen by catalyst.

And that means in extenuating circumstances, rapidly moves it quicker. Other things are more deliberate. It's like blocking and tackling one piece at a time.

All right. Thank you. I had a question for you. Some of the things that you guys were discussing, we were talking about cities and the rules in Indianapolis. I haven't watched, I haven't seen all the governor's speeches, but when he does speak, he doesn't speak about Indianapolis much and he speaks about Jasper, Indiana being the model a lot. And so I sat in the room and I thought as a Marion County resident of the most populated city, I mean, you know, county, but I do live in a city, I represent a city of 50,000. So I sat there and I was listening and I thought, well, how can Lawrence benefit to me there's more push towards rule cities than I've ever heard since I've been paying attention to state government and I I'm in a city I'm a council for a city that represents 50,000 people even though I'm in the most populated County and so when you were saying I know they're second-class cities in the first class city right Indianapolis is only first class and so I would want to make sure that if there's a push for local that I know we can't, well I'm not gonna say can't, but it's a long road to dissolve UNIGOV. But it's kind of on the same line that if they're doing things to strengthen cities that are not in a county like ours with UNIGOV, I wanna make sure that Lawrence doesn't get lost in that shuffle to make sure that we get included in that benefit because we really are a city of 50 000 people if that you know and and that and i want that across the board i also am assuming that um you represent the republican side of the aisle and i know what my good work because okay all right wasn't sure because so both of you democrats

we need to get a republican lobbyist in here because these guys came here i'm sorry but you get what i'm going i work up with 150 of my best friends by by the way that these maps have been drawn this is the most rural legislature in many many decades it's been like that now for for um 15 years or so since the maps were redrawn in 2010 so i mean that's the natural tilt of of the elected body i will say though to your conversation about cities i think the lit conversation is most paramount especially for an excluded city within a consolidated city because the way that that lit and public safety lit conversation is going to take place how that is implemented and ultimately adopted will directly impact the services and the revenue in which you have to make decisions with.

I want to keep my fire department and stuff. That's my concern is to make sure that we don't get pushed into a consolidation move So that's my concern. Every time you guys are at the table, just remember that Lawrence is in Speedway, but we're here for Lawrence. We're sitting in a little different selection than those other folks.

And, Councilor, you're right about that. I think that's one of the things that we try to remind legislators of is that there are cities within Marion County that are not the city of Indianapolis. We need to make sure that you're getting the resources that you need as part of any of those statutory changes. And so we do have to look at the statute particular to Marion County to make sure that those changes are being made in the same way so that we can benefit from those same changes that other communities are seeing. Right.

So that's what I'm always looking at that I'm always going, man, are they thinking about us? Yes.

It is constant education. Right. There will be a minimum of nine new members to the Indiana Senate, which is nearly 20 percent of that body in one single election. Then you add in all the new members of the House. Then you have changes in leadership. They all have to be brought up to speed on. basically the consolidate city statute with the excluded city histories the services that are what is or is not provided and then the impacts of the decisions that they're considering and that takes constant education takes two of us at a minimum and it's a hundred and fifty members who have to be brought up to speed on all of that and they're always changing well thank you because what I don't want to utilities two things with the utilities

concern for constituents and citizens of lawrence for the utility rates related to them as people but i'm also very concerned one of the problems from a city level is that we have a a sewage issue here in lawrence um we have some plans to fix it but we need some money to help right and so um we know the okra opportunities and stuff like that but uh we also want to make sure that you guys are continuing to fight for us um when it comes to our utility and also helping us become more the more independent that we can become from indianapolis um in every way But sewer, you know, those basic things, so public safety for our taxing, getting money to help us with our sewers so that our citizens don't all have to take on that and hopefully get some help from the state. And I'm hoping that there are other cities, right, that are also faced with some of those same challenges with the cost of providing those services to the citizens without exorbitant rates upon them. something else because we got to go we're about to go up on our water rate our rate is due to go up here well you know so we got to make sure that we get help and that we discuss that i hope that we have help so thank you for that all right thank you guys so much for your time appreciate it thank you thank you

The next agenda item is citizens' comments. Citizens' comments shall be limited to three minutes. If any citizen wishes to speak, please approach the podium, state your name. We will start with Brad and Sheila Klopfenstein.

Mr. President, Common Counselors, thank you. Just Brad Klopfenstein this week, and this is mostly just an announcement. On August 25th, the Greater Lawrence Chamber, we're going to be hosting an economic development luncheon. Mayor Whitfield will be there speaking. We're going to talk about Lawrence's natural opportunities, advantages, and challenges, and that's going to be open to the public. Registration is available on the Greater Lawrence Chamber webpage. Hopefully you all can make it if you're free that day. So that's three weeks from tomorrow. Where are you holding that, Brad? It's going to be at the Lawrence Education and Community Center, the LECC, just around the block.

And the date again was?

August 25th, Tuesday, until lunch.

And that's the new LECC, not the old? It is, correct.

Right across from Civic Plaza.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Fred. I will call Charles Turner.

Charles Turner, 5822 Wheeler Road. If I may, I have a copy of what we're talking about. I think I have it up here. I was here last month, and the base of that conversation I had to share with you was our concerns with the Purple Line and traffic on Weaver Road. It continues to be a problem, and we can tell that nothing has changed. We've spoken to the mayor, not spoken to the mayor, but sent a couple messages to the mayor. We've talked to Indigo. We've been last week to the board of Indigo and shared the same information with them. And they did seem receptive and were interested in what we had to say. Needless to say, I'm not going to get through all this in three minutes, so I'll just try to give you some highlights. It seems to be accelerating, and the base of the whole problem seems to be the schedule and the fact that that is the end of the line over there, and the fact that it's routed down Wheeler other than some other route not going right through residential neighborhood. The fact is the end of the run is 1 o'clock in the morning. Why is that bus coming out here at 1 o'clock in the morning? And if you're on that bus, you're intoxicated, you fell asleep.

You might have worked. You might have worked.

I can personally say that I have ridden the Purple Line that late at night to come back from working downtown, and I'm not intoxicated. Okay. Okay.

How many people was that and how often? It's very few, very, very few. 3.43 this morning, they were over there. And that's very common, getting charged up. People live all along the street. So anyway, so we come in here at 1 o'clock in the morning, and there's some people on there that kind of lost their way. They're told to get off the bus, so what do they do? They wander through the neighborhood, try to find a place to sleep, try to find a place to get in, knock on doors at 1 o'clock, ask for money, get in people's garages, steal things. It's a problem, and it could be very easily solved, that part of it, is let's quit at 10.

Thank you.

and not make this end of the line. There's lots of places that could be end of the line on back towards town or someplace that makes more sense. The bus goes all the way back out to the west side, if I'm correct. And I'm sure all those people would like to be back where they came from. I just had a little thought while I was talking about the homeless situation. Think if we'd spent that $170 million to help the homeless, to help the addicted. Made good bus stops for everybody. Was that my ding already? I think so.

Yeah, that was it.

All right. Well, I appreciate your time. And we're here really. I know you don't have a lot of control of a lot of these things, but your voice is carried. And any time you get a chance to talk about these problems for us, for your community, we would appreciate it a great deal. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Terry Russell.

Hi, Sherry Russell.

And I think I live in the same community as this gentleman. So my concern is not so much directed towards the Purple Line, but it's part of the the issue i wanted to raise so we live in lawrence villages and we sit at the intersection of wheeler and hawkins road and across from us are the fort apartments and then there's a row of homes so we are the second house in from the stop sign and our concern The Purple Line buses do this too, but people run those stop signs probably 30 times a day, including the buses. So there's a bus stop there for Lawrence schools that looks like high school people. because our front living room window faces that stop sign, so we see it all the time. And I just don't know if that's been brought up here, but someone's gonna get hit or somebody, because people walk their dogs, right? There sometimes are kids that probably shouldn't be by themselves riding or whatever. We walk our dogs as well. People don't even like slow down to go through that stop sign. So that's just the concern. We wanted to race Thank you so much Would anyone else like to speak?

All right meeting is adjourned