Common Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Thank you. Well, welcome everyone. Today is Tuesday, April 21st. Uh, welcome to city council meeting. We are streaming live on city mass and YouTube channel and archiving our meeting and other meetings there. Um, we have a great agenda tonight and like with uh our prior meetings, I invite you to stand for the Lord's Prayer followed by the pledge of allegiance. Father who art in heaven, be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thanks all. Clerk, may we have a roll call, please? Sure. Patrick Teavana here. Carla Krebs here. Lucy Dillo here. Josh Schaefer here. Joel Storm absent. And Jim Bartlett here. Josh Wilbur here. Thank you. Uh council, have you had an opportunity to review the minutes from the last meeting dated April the 7th? If so, we'll entertain a motion to approve. I'll make the motion to approve the minutes. I'll second the motion. Any discussion? Sorry. Any discussion? Hear none. All in favor, please say I. Any oppos? Thank you.

Moving on with our agenda. Um, today I'd like to uh read a proclamation for donate life month. And in a moment I will uh invite Jared Anderson who is a member of our historic district board review to come up and accept the proclamation on behalf of all those who are uh in need or considering donating life in the form of uh some form of u organ donation. And I'd like to read this proclamation in honor of my sister Jackie Oir. Um in 1989 I donated a kidney to my sister Jackie and uh she did really well. She suffered from chronic kidney disease her as a child and through her adult life and um that gift of life was very important to her and very meaningful. Uh unfortunately she passed away a few years ago after contracting COVID. So, we've all gone through our experiences with our families and it certainly is a uh a blessing to have been able to uh help her. So, okay. uh proclamation from city mass in recognizing donate life month whereas April's recognized as donate life month dedicated to raising awareness of life-saving impact of organ eye and tissue donation and honoring both those who have donated and those who have received a donation more than 100,000 Americans including over 1400 hooers are currently waiting for a life-saving transplant and tragically an average of 17 people die each day while waiting whereas Whereas the generosity of donors and their families have resulted in over 170 million registered donors nationwide and more than 4 and a.5 million donors listed in Indiana. Yet the need for donors continues to exceed the number available. A single organ donation can save up to eight lives and enhance many more through tissue and cornea donation, offering hope, healing, and renewed life

to individuals and families. The decision to to become an organ donor reflects the highest ideals of compassion, service, and community, transforming loss into a lasting legacy. I, Mayor Bob G. Courtourtney, um do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 to be donate life month in Madison. And I call upon all residents to recognize the profound importance of organ, eye, and tissue donation. I do want to mention also my sister Tina who passed away at 39 years old and she was an organ donor and because of her generous donation there were many many lives who were that were transformed from both of that. So from a personal experience uh I couldn't be more honored to uh read this proclamation and present it and invite Jared here uh to also say some words. Thank you. Thank you. Uh thank you, Mayor Courtney. Uh my life has been defined by organ donation. At just 10 years old, when I was in the fifth grade, I had my first kidney transplant. Uh that journey would result in a hospitalization of nearly 80 days, 66 of which were in the intensive care unit. Later during my senior year of high school, I began dialysis and work up for a second kidney transplant. The schedule for festivities related to my senior prom and graduation revolved around my dial dialysis treatment schedule. At 18, summer 2016, I received my second transplant. I was up uh up walking following the surgery in less than 24 hours and discharged in less than 5 days. Now at 28, I'm in need of a third transplant. I'm currently going through the process of getting listed on the national transplant list and will

begin searching for a living donor soon thereafter. I want to thank you all for recognizing donate life month tonight. I'm just one of over 1,000 hooers waiting for that gift of life. I would encourage everyone to explore becoming an organ donor. You never know when you might be able to save the life of one of your neighbors. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Jared. And uh again, thanks for your involvement in raising awareness of such an important issue. Moving on, we do have uh three ordinances on first reading. So, I'll turn it over to Rob for for this. The first one is ordinance number uh 2026-8C an ordinance of the common council of city of Madison, Indiana transferring certain appropriations and revenue between different funds. Okay. And I I'm think maybe Shirley was the author or of

Oh, I know that I know Jim is the sponsor. Is there any background information? Brian, you're here. I can help you out if you need. Okay. Yeah. However, however you want to tackle it. Yeah, you can go ahead.

Yeah. So, uh, basically we're just transferring well, we're adjusting some claims that required moving money from one fund to another. Perfect. He did great. So, basically, he's got um grant funds that are available and we had paid some things last year, if I remember right, we had paid some things last year for one of his projects and they rolled into again this year and we were pulling them out of a fund where we have not we didn't have the funds for. So, we're going to pull them out of the grant fund where they originally should have come out of, but since they are two separate funds, fund to fund transfers have to go in front of you. Okay, this on first reading, so we'll move that to second reading unless there's additional discussion or questions that the board or anyone from the audience would like to ask or council on, excuse me. Okay, we'll move to ordinance number 2026-9C, an ordinance of the common council of the city of Madison, Indiana, establishing the non-reverting hanger cumulative fund for the Madison regional airport. And that was sponsored by Councilman Krebs and it's self-explanatory.

Yeah, exactly. It's just setting up an account for them to put their grant money in when they get it so that they can watch the fun this first reading so we can accept any comments or questions on this proposed bill. that one. Y this is the one where you title. Y

Okay. The uh next one on first reading is ordinance number 2026-10C and ordinance of the common council of the city of Madison, Indiana, amending section 150.24 of the city of Madison building regulations. And that is uh simply updating the scheduled for planning and zoning applications and it's sponsored by Councilman Wil.

Good evening, uh, councilors. Uh, Tony Steinhart, uh, deputy mayor. I wanted to just give you a brief overview of of this ordinance that's in front of you. Um, first, as you know, we've completed the UDO update. Thank you again for that support. It is not uh it is very common to at that point to review fees uh in that department. Uh we also had Senate Bill One come through uh over the last 12 months. The last time our fees in this department uh for these specific uh um tasks were updated in 2022. Um this is a unanimous uh recommendation from the plan commission which you uh several of you serve on. Um and I wanted to just give you the update on how uh we approached it. We felt that as in the past that the services that are being recommended here with the fee increases are services that people use, developers use and those fees uh should be largely borne uh by those users. Um I we have reviewed uh other communities of our similar size uh and local uh and have that in a chart that we'll prepare for you at the public hearing in in April 6. We also reviewed time that it took uh and our costs uh to prepare and review uh those those permits as well. And then we also looked at the Jefferson County fee structure that they had passed. And many of these fees are in line with with those uh as well. Um one of the fees that I want to highlight is the short-term rental uh permit fee. uh that is set by us the state of Indiana as a maximum. It's a one-time fee uh as a part of the UDO. We are requiring short-term rentals to register yearly uh with the department. Uh and the first first time that they will um register,

they will be required to pay the $150 state uh maximum fee to our department. But the state does control, as you well know, a lot of the leniencies and rules around uh short-term rentals. And so this fee is set by state statute. Um we will be having a public hearing uh on May 6th. Uh Amy Williams, our consultant, will be here uh to run through a number of those uh analysis. um basically presenting to those of you who were on the plan commission the similar presentation that we presented uh to the plan commission uh that resulted in the unanimous support for this. Um so if anybody has any questions on

do you have any estimates for what revenue this will result in and how how that compares to prior year revenue? Um, I do not have that with me tonight, but we can certainly get that and prepare that for you with the help of previous revenues coming in from that and what what increase if we had the same amount of permits. Perfect. We can do that. The other thing Tony might want to bring up is how often we can actually change these rates, which is also state regulated, which is part of our why why it got passed.

Yeah. One of the things that was the state has just enacted is that we can only review our rates every um five years. And so we'll be doing that. This will be the the first time that we'll be able to do that again. So we'll be getting on the cycle uh that the state uh legislature just passed in this past bill, this past session, sorry. Um and we will be doing that. So this we're getting on cycle too with with that that I think it's a really good point. Our last uh amendment for the fees and our building regulations were in late 2022. So going on four years by the time we get to September October of this year. Yeah.

I I'll give you a couple quick updates on the progress of the UDO. As you well know that that um you you passed that that unanimously and I certainly appreciated that. There was a lot of hard work. Uh we are currently working on the next steps. Um the next steps both for the plan commission and BCA was to approve new rules uh and procedures uh both passed unanimously at the BCA and at plan commission. We're working now and updating the website and the various applications to work through and try to streamline some things so that it's easier for our constituents and developers coming to town. And so be looking for those changes here in the next quarter. So hopefully by the end of second quarter we'll have everything updated and um moving forth with the UDO. Certainly the applications are being currently reviewed under the new UDO but we'll try to update those and and make those a little more streamlined.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions? Any comments or questions from the audience? Okay,

thank you. Now we'll recess a regular council meeting and call to order public hearing. Do we have a sign in sheet? And please sign sign in for the public hearing. This is for ordinance. The public hearing uh is for ordinance 2025-7C additional appropriations sponsor Jim Bartlett. This appropriates opioid settle fund settlement funds and bond debt service council. Um the companion to the appropriation ordinance was in last council meetings packet. Uh there was a a memo uh from myself to common council dated April 7th that explained the background of both the opioid uh additional appropriations that are needed for unrestricted and restricted funds as well as uh the correction we need to make relative to the u general obligation bond that would permit a payment made in December so that we can comply with the state's uh statutory maximum in the debt service fund. back over Rob.

This is the second reading. So, okay. Okay. Um, but we're Any Do we have signin sheet? Any comments or questions during the public hearing? Waiting for the comments. Well, I know any any questions. I can read it now. If not, we'll we'll adjourn the public hearing and go to uh let's stay on. Let's go and do this. First caption I've ever read. Additional appropriation ordinance 2026-7 C. That's second read.

Any questions from council? Cops or questions from anyone in the audience? We have a motion to approve ordinance 2026-7 C. No motion to be required, right? Just roll call. I'll go ahead and make a motion. So moved. Thank you. Any second? Second. Any discussion? Roll call. Patrick Tabano. Yes. Carla Krebs. Yes. Lucy Dillo. Yes. Josh Schaefer. Yes. Joel Storms Hapsson. Jim Bartlett. Yes. Josh Wilbur. Yes.

Thank you, council. Thank you, Rob. Moving on. Uh, I'd like to invite Dewey O'Neal, our code enforcement officer, to come and give a presentation. This was a presentation that was uh delivered to the board of public works and safety yesterday and as we discussed during the adoption of the vacant and abandoned ordinance. Oh, I thought I did uh close public. Thought I did that. Uh but we did that before we went to the second meeting. Yeah. Okay.

Yep. Good evening or late afternoon, I guess it is. Uh good to be back with you, council. Yeah, we're going to go through I bring you good news. Um we are moving in the right direction with the vacant and abandoned ordinance. Uh very proud of what we're doing there, but we're going to go through some numbers and then of course uh um some pictures of some things. M's going to help me along again. Okay. There are some additions to your packet and we'll talk about those in a second. Um but uh Okay, Minnie, go ahead. Um, so currently to date, uh, 48 cases have been opened, uh, the vacant and abandoned registry. We're going to break that down for you here. 23 of those cases have voluntarily registered, i.e. they've come in, the owners have come in and voluntarily um, decided to register on the on the registry. Um, and and as such, they are not subject to the registration fees. 25 of those cases have been registered by myself or staff and are subject to a registration fee. Of the 23 voluntary cases, 16 have submitted abatement plans to take care of the properties. Five of them currently have no plans and then two currently now meet our building standards. So, that's a good that's a good thing. Of the 25 cases that I have I have registered, um 20 have now been sent notification being subject to the registration fee. Uh two cases actually challenged our determination uh whether it was vacant or abandoned and uh three have actually had change of ownership and those new owners um are being notified of the property or the the vacant advantage registry goes by the property not the ownership. So, they're being notified that that that property is on on the registry. Um, also I'm currently reviewing

abatement plans um for non-compliance and those who are not complying uh will be subject uh to penalties being assessed. On the voluntary cases, the five that have no plans, are those a work in progress still or Yes. Yes, they are. They are still trying to get their abatement plans put in place and submitted. Yep. What's the time window for that? What's a timeline? Yeah. Is there there's a is there a date or there's a range that we allow, right? Or not.

Well, without penalty. Yeah. I mean, there there's are multiple timelines. Um without penalties, uh really it's a 90-day time frame. Um you've got to, you know, if you're not registering. So, we're I mean, we're past that to be honest with you. Um, and there's a lot to this ordinance as you folks know, so I'm not making an excuse, but but yes, there I don't have an exact time frame on when I'll get those. So, uh, so when it's attached to a property, if someone buys that property, are they notified of that upon when they they're getting their title that that's this this house is on that list? Is there a way for that to happen?

They are not notified. I mean, once I learn of the transfer of ownership, then I do notify them, but I don't know prior to purchase. If there if there are leans filed, they'll see it in the title work. True. Yeah. Only if there's leans filed on it, right? And then the hard part about the managing of this is watching activity and if you've got a property that is dormant and then you all of a sudden but you're pursuing it, right? they've been not notified and you see a different owner then Dewey is Dwey is tracking that to to uh identify the new owner and honestly those have been good results for us because then we have really positive discussions with the new owners and can start getting resolution. Okay. Yeah. Thanks.

I would expect that the new owners would want that to be part of the disclosures civil matter if they if not but that's why I'm asking not a city issue but right directly anyway. Right. It it would be the same thing if a a property was and an owner was subject to a continuous order because of nuisances, for example. Yeah. Uh some of those things aren't yet recorded and and it's creates a lot of labor to uh track what the status of a property is all the time and on a portfolio like this. Okay. True.

Okay, Minnie, let's look at some some pictures. This is uh 631 Broadway uh down at the foot of Broadway Broadway Street. Um some statistics here, some some data. This was first put on the registry in July of 2025. Uh that's 280 plus days that it's been on the registry. Um I had no cooperation from there's good news here from the previous owners. We do have a new owner here who is just as of this afternoon submitted plans, timelines. Um, and the following two pictures, these are pictures that he took from inside. Um, so yeah, we

he just acquired the property, too, by the way. What's that? He just acquired the property. I mean, it was it's in Yeah. Do we not inevitable? When a property does change ownership, I don't think our ordinance addresses that. There's not really a way to change it from a voluntary to nonvoluntary registration status, is there? So those new owners are still subject to the nonvoluntary registration and PE fees. True. Yes.

If there is a if you have an involuntary registration, uh we give them time to pay the registration fee and then we can lean the property. So there are a couple ways that a new owner would be notified that of this. I mean, maybe that's something we might want to look at in the future. If there is a change in ownership in order to start off on the best foot with those new owners and get the best uh cooperation, perhaps we want to consider resetting that registration status in some way in the future.

Well, yeah, one approach that's working or would work is to weigh fees that may be have been assessed because the new owner is actually cooperating and delivering a plan. So there's some velocity with regards to progress on the property. So we have the tools to address that. Yeah, the mayor's right. We I do have that ability to wave wave fees. So this is in the ordinance already. Yes, which I've I have done. Okay.

So okay. Uh next one, 420. We're we're all familiar with this on Broadway Street. Um this was first put on the registry in September of 2025. Um that's 220 plus days that that has been on the registry. The owners here did challenge our um findings of whether it was a vacant or abandoned property. Um we have had um to date no cooperation here at this point. So okay, Minnie this is 608 West Third. We mentioned yesterday, this picture probably doesn't do the entire structure justice, but this is the front facade put on the registry in November of 2025. Um, it's an oxymoron. They they did register. They did submit an abatement plan. Uh, by the way, that's 154 days plus, but there's been no follow through with their abatement plan at this point. So, Mindy, Walnut Street, um, just before getting to the 421 area, this was put on the registry in October of 2025. Uh, 175 plus days. Also, ownership registered here. Um, submitted an abatement plan, but we have had no no follow through at this point. All right, Mindy 413 Popler, not far far from where we are. August of 2025, 236 days this has been on the registry. Again, they have registered. They have not, one of the five submitted an abatement plan. Um, so there is

frustration. I was in contact with the owner. Uh, but then it just cut off. So all right, some successes. 1800 Craigmont Street. This is uh this is what it looked like. Um earlier this year, we did get cooperation and currently it is gone. So the unsafe, dilapitated uh vacant and abandoned structure has been resolved. We are happy with that. Indy 319 Craigmont Street uh down just south of Main Street on the west end. Um this is where we're currently at. Um this is good news too. It was a change of ownership maybe a year nine months ago. Um these folks have uh pace pace grant if I'm not mistaken. So we are making progress here. And I think I've shown this this structure probably each each um presentation I've given to you. Busy intersection. Um the first first letter that it went out, first one on the registry, first one to register, first one to abate and and we're happy with the way that looks. So and finally, this is um at the uh near the entrance to the state hospital. This used to be a trailer. Um I think the mayor knows a bit more history than I do about it, but it sat there for quite some time.

And um these folks were very cooperative with us. Own the is it DSI that's up there, right? Uh very cooperative with us. Uh in fact, they felt guilty about taking as long as they did to to demo the the property. So and that's that's where we're at today.

Yeah. I just want to mention too that you saw a glimpse of the portfolio. There's, you know, maybe probably less than a 25% of the portfolio we're kind of displaying tonight. There's a lot of active work on this portfolio. And as Dwey was recounting the days on the on our list with regard to the termination, uh what preceded that in many instances was decades of neglect and vacant and abandoned activity at that property. And those are unsafe structures. Uh those cause harm to our community. From a public policy perspective, this is one of the most important things we do uh which is eliminate blight and uh work with property owners on an abatement plan. There's so many either public safety or property values or um quality of life uh public health all related to this particular initiative. But these properties are chronic problems and the only way that uh we've been able to address it was through the hard work and then the adoption of the ordinance a year ago and now the implementation and where we are now with this portfolio is the penalty phase for those property owners where you know asking them begging them do something with your properties asking them to register uh asking them to do a debatement plan asking them to maintain it to minimum standards minimum. We're not raising the bar too high. We're now in the p penalty phase on a a good amount of these properties and we'll just continue with that. Uh just remind everybody the penalty is up to $5,000 per structure per year. And um we have several who are, you know, in that probably 2500 to $3,000 range now approaching 5,000. And

then after you hit 5,000, it's $2,000 every quarter uh until you hit 5,000. So it's going to be a it's going to have a cumulative effect which will be recorded as a lean on the title. Um and then it will be subject to a property tax lean and uh un it's I hope that we don't have to do that in very many instances because all we need is some collaboration from the property owner and uh we have we're getting I'm very pleased that you know half of the portfolio voluntarily registered. That's a good sign. Yeah. And uh we just need to keep uh really really actively managing portfolio

and there's been velocity just velocity we talk about that word they I've seen more folks you know in the last 10 days. Um so that's good news coming out and saying okay I'll register and those things. So so uh again I think all good news. I'll keep up the good work. Do we I assume you have a full listing summary of all the open cases somewhere? Sure. Um is that they're on open.gov open are they all out there? They're accessible. They're community. Well, if you need information, he can get it for you. It's not like a public report that's ran and then posted somewhere. It's in our system. Yeah.

And we can run a report anytime you want one. Nice to have see all all the the cases just by address so we can kind of drive through our districts and see where the problem cases are. Sure. How about I I'll have that for you. Um I'll get it next meeting or I can get it sooner. Certainly. But no big rush, but just have something available. You can send it out. It' be great. And if you have any summary notes or anything, whatever you have available, not I don't want to create a lot of extra work, but Sure. Thank you for that.

Also, I just want to applaud you for what you do. I know it's not an easy job, but as a property owner who just suffered thousands of dollars of damage because of a property that was not kept up on West Third and caught fire, completely ruined another lady's property, and I'm paying big dollars to fix mine up. I think it's really important that we stay on top of this because of the way our town is built with the houses so close together and it does begin to affect your neighbors. Sure. And um so anyway, thank you and keep up the good work. We'll do. Thanks. Thank you.

U Councilman Barlet, are there any public speakers speakers per the signup sheet? We do have a couple of folks on the signup sheet. Uh Debbie Beaman,

just a couple of things real fast. Thanks for going after these houses, y'all. And Dewey State of course. I will volunteer and help you. And I'm serious. Um because there's still some on Walnut that are a dang mess. And they just draw the drug addicts and they draw the homeless because these people go in these buildings. I see people though in buildings that are abandoned. They're just dangerous. They're just no good for this town at all. Um, second thing, I I walked down on the trail, the new trail that they're making, and there's a deer trail there in the woods and a couple weeks ago went down there and it was like a bomb went off down there and I'm like, and I text him right away and said, "What is going on down here?" And so he explained to me blah blah blah. And then um I I went down there to walk another last week and he and Tony were there. So I'm going, you know, the way I do with him and then he's explaining it to me. So I go down there again today at a different time and there's he and Tony and Chris and I think might be someone else. I don't know. But it was all like the bridge work you all is so beautiful cuz I was really concerned about that bridge. I didn't want anything to change like that and I didn't want the deer trail to change and I really don't want golf carts on that trail because he said it was for accessible for all people. So I don't you know abilities abilities

wheelchairs not abilities. Yeah. Um not for motorized vehicles. So that is one thing. But it's so nice y'all. It is so nice. If you haven't been down there you need to go down there. Next thing, um, the town got awarded that 350,000 to help homeowners like me. And I'm so excited because I don't know if I'm going to get it, but I am sure going to try. And I don't know who's involved with that, who made that happen, but thank you. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. And to for anybody else that is able to get it, I know they'll be grateful, too. So, good job, y'all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Debbie.

You're welcome. Karen Skilman.

Good afternoon, council. Here's for the camera. Um, Saturday is Arbor Day in Madison and the tree board is having a tree sapling giveaway for Jefferson County, I would assume, and Madison residents. We have four trees available. So, please come down to the farmers market at nine o'clock Saturday while supplies last and hopefully we'll see the mayor to give you will see me. I love that event and thank you guys for all the work you do and for um sharing your love of trees with everybody that comes to the farmers market and anyway it's beautiful to be there on a Saturday morning.

Anyway, buy your flowers and your vegetables, get some coffee, mingle with friends and get walk away with a tree. How many did you say you had? They're saplings. We have four. We have 100 of each of the varieties. Okay. Cuz it came out like you had four. I'm like, you have four trees. Four varieties. I knew I knew that wasn't right. Get there early. And I just want to tell the public that they go fast. So get there at 9. They go really fast. Last year they were gone within an hour. Yeah. We had 400 trees. Is it true that you can make like a tree and leaf? It's all I It's all It's all I got. Blah blah blah. As Debbie said, blah blah blah.

Follow-ups, but I won't say it. Thank you very much. See y'all soon. Thank you, Karen. Appreciate it. Curtis, I think you could arrest him for a bad joke, right? That's all.

Yeah. Well, uh, I just want to echo what Debbie said about the owner occupied rehab. And as we talked about last week when, uh, Tate Arnold from the Office of Community Rural Affairs was here. Uh, I think council, you all might have received a letter from Lieutenant Governor Beckwith. We certainly appreciate uh, the program uh, our partnership with Serpsy. Uh, that was one of our priorities uh, relative to the types of grants that we want to go after. And we combine that with our PACE program, our Paul Brun award, uh our Paul Brun historic preservation grant program. And in 2026, we have $1.1 million that will benefit rehabilitation and preservation. Uh about twothirds of that is going to be targeted towards low to moderate income households, and that will generate around $3 million of new investment for us. So the multiplier on those dollars is significant and uh the uh you know the the non-quantitative impact is pretty huge as well. So, thanks for bringing that up. And um the board of public works at its meeting yesterday did adopt the crooked creek storm water master plan. So, we're very excited to get moving on that. And we've already had a pretty successful meeting with INDOT for their collaboration on the Crooked Creek Storm Water Master Plan and the work that we need to do through per meeting with INDOT. More to come on on that. And uh we were enjoying some fantastic weather. We're gearing up for the 2026 paving season. I'll stop there. Our next council meeting is Wednesday, May 6. Council, anything to add.

Hearing none, I have a motion to Oh, did you have something? Yes. Can I get each of you to stick behind because each of you have to sign this form. So, thank you. And we'll submit the that to uh DLGF and uh I know that they'll approve it very quickly because they're very good about that. Uh hearing hearing none. Um motion to adjurnn. I move to adjourn the meeting. Seconded. All in favor, please say I. I. Any post? Thank you. Thanks everybody. Thanks for being here, too.