Common Council - Regular Meeting

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[music] [music] Please uh calm down, bring all this excitement to a to a stop because we have more excitement to come. Welcome to the February city council meeting. Will you please stand and join me for the pledge of 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.

Councilman Pernell, will you uh lead us in the prayer? Certainly.

Shall we pray? Our heavenly father, we thank you for this evening and the opportunity we have to gather here to take care of the city's business. Um, Father, we pray for your guidance. We pray for the direction of your Holy Spirit. We ask, Father, for your continued hand of protection upon our residents, uh, wisdom for this council, our mayor. We ask, Father, for your blessing upon our firefighters, our police officers. We think of those new officers that will be sworn in this evening. We pray father for them for their protection and your watch care over them and their families. Thank you for the privilege we have to live in the city of portage and we thank you for the gift of your son. This we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. If I may add uh just a prayer for the family of Mr. John Royo, a longtime portage resident who passed away today. Um he was a former appointee to uh several boards and uh in the community and uh he's had an impact on many people's lives, my own included. And I just offer my condolences to his family um in this time. So if we could just do maybe like a 5-second moment of silence on his behalf. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. And I apologize. I just found out that John had passed. So, sorry for me being a bit He was wonderful. I uh Sorry, I just taken a little bit. Okay, if we could do the uh roll call. Absolutely. Councilman Alvarez here. Councilwoman Weidenbach here. Councilwoman Hurst here. Councilman Parnell here. Councilwoman Vazquez here. Councilwoman Amler here. Councilman Zilly here. Did everyone have a chance to read the minutes for the last meeting? Are there any uh comments uh or motions?

Make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Please signify by saying I. I. Thank you. I believe that passed. I think some people in the audience said I too. Um that was cool, but you know, just try not to jump in with some of these votes later. [laughter]

All right, we have I want to say also thank you to everyone who's passing Bibles down to me. I I appreciate it. We're It's going to come in handy in a few moments. Communications, correspondence, and announcements from the mayor. I'll hold for this just knowing that we have quite a bit that we need to get to. And uh we'll jump to the um Portage Moose presenting comfort stuff mouses to the city of Portage for distribution. Is someone here to speak from the Moose Lodge? I hear Oh, please come on up. Where do I go? Anywhere you like. Maybe the podium there. It's for the C-SPAN portion of this. Um

I uh I'm from the Portis Moose Lodge over there on County Line and we we do a lot of community service things and uh we try to help everybody out. We do community uh dinner every year for around Thanksgiving and so forth. And we recently, our dart ball league actually purchased uh two dozens of these. It's kind of a cute little Tommy Moo style. Okay. And the premise is that, you know, if you got a a kid that's been in an accident, he shook up fire, whatever it might be, you could give them a little something to hold on to to to help him out. So, we've got two dozen of these that we're going to donate to the city. And uh you use them as you please. Normally, some people say you put 12 in the fire department and 12 in the police department, but you put them where you need them. There's two dozen. And uh we're very glad to be in the city and give you these things.

Thank you so much. Thank you. [applause] We appreciate what you guys do. Thank you for being in our city. And um for those who don't know, the moose is on County Line Road, but on the portage side of the road. And we're very proud to have you guys here. Even if you were on the other side, we'd still love you, but we're very proud that you're the Portage Moose. So, thank you. Continue doing what you're doing. That's awesome. All right, that'll And you guys are w you guys are welcome to stay. Um, but if you like, um, you could bring them over to Liz and then maybe, uh, I don't know if you want to just put the box there like on the side there or

Thank you so much. You're welcome.

That'll get us to the swearing in of three new police officers. Um, I'm going to ask our chief of police, Mike Candandyiano, to come up. Um, Mike, what I'll do because I've been presented with um, two Bibles in case people want to use them for the swearing in, I'll come up and I'll set them on the table for people as they approach. And as I'm coming, if you'd like to introduce the officers in your usual style.

Absolutely. All right. First officer is Nolan Owensby. Go ahead and come up and bring anybody up that you'd like. So, our officers have already been working here for a couple weeks. So, um they've probably seen a lot of crazy stuff already. This may be the most nerve-wracking though because everybody's staring at them and we're going to make them take a bunch of pictures, but we'll get you through it. Okay. So anybody that you want to come up and then uh set over here I'll say awesome right

I speak your name do solemnly swear or affirmly swear or affirm that I will support the constitution that I will support the constitution and the laws of the United States of America and the laws of the United States of America. The Constitution, the Constitution, and the laws of the State of Indiana and the laws of the State of Indiana. And that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully and impartially and impartially execute the duties execute the duties of my office of my office. As a member of the City of Portage Police Department as a member of the City of Portage Police Department to the best of my ability to the best of my ability and according to the law and according to the law. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you. [applause]

There's a couple empty seats up front if any of you need to sit down. Sit down, you're welcome to open seats. And if you're comfortable in the back, that's cool. [laughter] [snorts]

Okay, now we're Anybody else wants to come up and take a picture with him? Anybody else who wants to come up? Go ahead. Anybody else come take a picture? Are you taking a picture? side. Yes, sir. Count.

It's a special day. So you guys take whatever.

Sorry. Yeah, we roll. [laughter] All right. Anybody else? We all good? We got one more. One more. Okay.

Thank you for your patience. [laughter] He's actually smiling. Wow.

All right, Mr. Cooper Jones. state there and we'll take pictures and all that too because all right state your name solely swear or affirm do you swear or that I will support the constitution that I will will support the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America

and the laws of the United States of America. The Constitution the Constitution and the laws of the State of Indiana in the laws of the state of Indiana. And that I will faithfully And I will faithfully and impartially and impartially execute the duties execute the duties of my office of my office. as a member of the city of Portage Police Department. as a member of the city of Portage Police Department to the best of my ability to the best of my ability. And according to the law and according to the law. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you. [applause] [applause]

All right. Another awkward stage photo here. All right. Anybody want to come up with [clears throat] Yes.

Wait, I want to get that.

Thank you. Yeah. Leave your camera here and I'll take it right here. Just

She needs to be in the front. You can't see her. Tell her to move up to the front. easily probably the hardest thing that's going to happen today. [clears throat] There we go. [snorts] Thank you. We good.

Yeah. Just get in. I like taking [laughter]

All right. And Mr. Bryce Huffford

[snorts]

All right. I state your name. I do solemnly swear or affirm domly swear that I support the Constitution that I support the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America. and the laws of the United States of America, the Constitution the Constitution and the laws of the state of Indiana and the laws of the state of Indiana and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully and impartially and impartially execute the duties execute the duties of my office of my office as a member of the city of Portage Police Department as a member of the city of Portage Police Department to the best of my ability to the best of my ability and according to the law and according to the law. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations [applause]

[clears throat]

Stay there. Stay there, Chief. Sorry. [clears throat] Thank you. Anybody else?

[clears throat] know when you're fine. Yeah, just fine.

All right, friends.

Ready? Click here. [snorts] Thank you. Got it.

Got it.

Yeah. Just I just want to real quick um congratulate our our new guys and say thanks to uh all the family that's out here. Um heck of a turnout. Um for those of us that have been doing this job for a long time, you'll know there's a lot of ups and downs and it's really important to have the family be supportive of the job and to be there for them. So, um you know, this is great the turnout. Um it's been a busy January for us and seeing these new officers in here and the excitement and stuff kind of got me feeling a little better about the day here today. So, um I'm very excited to have them with us. So excited that you guys got to come out. Um this is the part where I tell you unless you really are excited about city council business, [laughter] some of you may be. Uh, I have to stay, but uh, those of you who are not interested, you guys can sneak out. We'll give you a couple minutes here. Uh, go celebrate tonight. We're sending everybody home. Nobody's got to stay. So, all right.

Yep. No problem. That's awesome.

Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. I do that. And you guys are welcome to stay. For those who are staying, for those staying, you're welcome to stay in your seats. But if you like to come a little closer, you can. There's no pressure. You can stay where you are. But if you got here later and you're like, "Oh, darn. I wanted a seat closer up front." Now is also a good time, but otherwise we're good.

And now the doors are being shut. So Oh.

[clears throat]

All right. So, with that, we'll go over to the clerk treasures report. I just want to thank the mayor, council, board of works members, and department heads for being patient and understanding while we work diligently to roll over 2025's budget into 2026. As soon as we roll over the year 2025, I will be sending out an accurate appropriation report to everybody, including the board of works, mayor, council members, and department heads. And again, I just want to thank everybody for being patient and our diligent work is being uh um is going to be pay off because you're going to have an accurate very accurate um budget to work off of for 2026. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. That'll get us to petitions, remmonstrateses, and public input. What I'll do is I'll open up the period of the meeting if anybody would like to come up and speak. We ask that you keep it, you know, within kind of like about maybe a two-minute or so time period. Again, I'm not going to have like a timer out, but I'll open up if anybody'd like to come and speak. Um, we ask you come up and state your name and address and go from there. Yes, sir. I heard you say, "Is this the public comment?" Yes. My ears are working again.

Yes. Uh, forgive my ignorance. I was outside with the heroes and um so I didn't hear the that call. Um, my name is Rod Portage, Indiana. Um, wow. What an exciting event. I met your mom. She is awesome. I met and talked to your mom. She was so nice and she was so nice to my daughter and she was smiling. We started talking about I didn't know like, "Oh, that's your son." So, I just wanted to say I meant your mom. Shout out all the mamas. Uh, but what I mean this this this this this this was great. So, I'm just glad uh that I could share history uh with everyone. Speaking of um the police department, we got Chief Candiano uh who is here in the building and um Portage Portage. I mean, what a what a what a great safe city. What a great safe American city. And why is it safe? You know, I don't know what Chief does every day, but it's because of what, you know, what they do, whatever it is that they do. I mean, you go outside, it's quiet. The just beautiful Indiana air. Um, you know, I mean, maybe there's some speeders or something, but that's I'm just a resonant resident perspective. Um, that's that's how it seems. And so, something's going obviously um, right? and um you know what what this is part of the future of that that apparatus um that makes um portage you know serves to make portage what it is today. So thank you Chief uh Candiano for again your leadership because you're responsible um and uh you know so thank you um for that. You know I have never in my life I've always heard of officers

swearing to the oath. I've never seen it. Not in person, not even on YouTube. I've just never like I've never seen that. And uh Mr. Mayor, uh I wanna that's going to be my topic today. It's going to be about the oath um to the Constitution. There is a a a a global movement called First Amendment audits. And this global community gets tens of millions of views on YouTube weekly. And it's where citizens go in public and record to test the First Amendment, you know, and and and sometimes officers come and, you know, demand ID short of a crime or detain or arrest or the public workers, you know, stop recording, man. You know, there's a lot of the couple videos up our neighboring city, Gary. And you know, it makes the city look really good when um when rights are respected, when oaths are upheld. You know, no one should be arrested or detained for taking pictures in public. So, I want to share that. I want to put that topic on your mind. And if you haven't checked out some of these videos, check them out because I think just from a general portage education, um, let's let's let's, you know, be proactive and let the city employees be aware of this. They're going to come to Portage. There's going to be people that show up and record and this is how you handle that and this is how you don't handle that so that Portage can look good um on the millions of views that these videos will get. Uh, thank you again everyone for your service.

Thank you so much and blessings. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Anyone else? Hearing none, I'll close the public input part of the meeting. And that'll get us to reports from standing committees. Anything from the ordinance committee? The ordinance committee met this evening prior to our uh regularly scheduled meeting. We addressed the um issues that had not been proceeded on in 2025, including the fire ordinance result or regarding um firework scraps and uh the enforcement of said ordinance. We also discussed the proposed um we call it the reptile exotic pets store sale ordinance. Uh but there is a concerned resident that would like to start a business in Portage, but it's the sale of exotic reptiles, which currently is out uh not allowed under city ordinance. Um and now that our uh esteemed city attorney has joined us, uh that is something that may be on our um radar as we proceed. And so those are the issues we addressed today at the ordinance committee meeting. We invite the public to join us every first Tuesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. uh for our regularly scheduled city council meetings. And um I believe that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. And I just had a feeling that this could be one of the weirdest minutes or you know things people say, but just to clarify, there's a difference between the sale of such reptiles and the ownership. Those are two different categories I believe already. So, if anybody's watching this who's got like a boa constrictor in your house, we're not saying that you're necessarily breaking a rule, but the sale would be maybe an issue. I might return to the Yeah,

if I might follow up. Um, I actually got a uh a phone call and a uh I guess you would say an assignment today about exotic pets. So, um, I this does not surprise me, but number two, I'd like to just remind all the standing committees that if you do need to engage me to look things up or assist your committee in any way, please do not hesitate to reach out. So, thank you, sir. Do you think uh maybe somebody on the edge there could uh looks like we've got a police officer trying to get in the door. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Or maybe Oh, I'd be embarrassed if he wasn't trying. Oh, it looked like he was standing out there. I'm sorry. Now he's coming. Oh, that gets us to

real quick on standing committees. Um I think Liz, you need confirmation from Victoria that nothing has changed from last year in terms of committee membership because you weren't at January's meeting. Correct. Correct. Nothing has changed. Thank you. Any other standing committees with something to report? Hearing none, we'll move over to um reports from city officials. Um, I think we're gonna Oh, there's the police chief. Mike, did you want to come back or uh just want to kind of give kind of an update and then I'll call on the fire chief after. It's really important to me that I tire you out today, Mike. You know, with everything going on.

That'll be pretty quick. We already monopolized the half hour. So, um, we are putting together a end of the year report that shows some calls for service and things. So, I will send that out to all of you. Um, probably in the next couple days. I should be done with that soon. Um, looks like we had about 35,000 incidents last year. So, uh, pretty busy year. Um, around 9,000 and some traffic stops, one of the numbers I remember. uh a couple thousand disturbances or probably the calls that took up the most of our time that along with crashes. Um so for those who say we don't make enough traffic stops, we made a decent amount, but for those who think we make too many, then we probably made them mad, too. So, uh can't seem to win that one. But, um the numbers are pretty eye opening just to see the amount of stuff that's that's going on. Um so, I'll get that out to you guys. Um, other than that, uh, it's been a weird January. We've been, uh, busier than I can remember a January. Um, I guess for those that are paying attention to the types of calls we've had, we've had a swat call outs already. We've had some mental health calls. Um, you know, it's just it seems to be the trend right now. Um, mental health is just such a major problem in the world, or at least in our country. Um the majority of our serious calls have involved mental health. Um not necessarily random, you know, acts of violence, but uh mental health, substance abuse within a family or a known, you know, a known uh um person to them. So, um kind of excited about the fact that we've got our social worker because we can try to, you know, stay on top of some of this stuff, but but it is a growing trend. So, I've gotten a lot of requests lately about, you know, what's what's going on? Why are things like this? And it's just I think we're

dealing with a major um mental health and substance abuse problem in our country. And any city, any town, any community, you know, it doesn't matter where you're at, if those are those are the issues, it's you're going to have those things to deal with. So, um but yeah, no, uh I don't want to end it on a on a terribly depressing note. So, again, very excited for the three new officers. uh they're already out there learning. Um real excited about the families that came out today. Great support. Um feel kind of excited tonight. So uh with the energy that was in here. So with that, I will uh send you that info as soon as I have it unless you guys have any questions. Thank you.

Thanks,

Chief Cray. Would you mind coming up? [snorts] Good evening everyone. Uh congratulations to the three new police officers that were sworn in. Um this is very awesome. Um, I'm going to speak a little bit on u some retirements that we have and some promotions that we'll have coming up as well. I I just want to comment on how dapper uh Chief Candandyiano does look tonight with his tie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, he's he's blinging it out pretty good tonight. He does look very good.

He brings it out once a year.

Yeah. Once. Yeah. Uh we do have um a battalion chief that will be retiring uh at in the towards the end of the month after 35 years of service. I wanted to bring it up now as opposed to bringing it up in March just because 35 years of service is you know dedication to the city and his father was also a firefighter for the city of Portage that um ended up having to go out on disability because of an on the job injury. But what a legacy to carry on for the city of Portage. Um, with that, we did have several uh when he one retires, we have several moves up move ups that took place. Again, we will uh do our swearing in for those next week along with four uh new firefighters. Um, I would like to say that uh I'm proud of an opportunity we've got going on right now. Um, we were able to partner the the local unit, the local 3151 and the administration partnered um with a company called um Lucid Diagnostics. Uh they offered a a test for us to test for esophageal cancer. Um it's free to free to cost for us. Um as you know cancer runs very heavily in the fire service. um we are significantly two times higher than the average um citizen to get cancer just because of the things that we're exposed to. Uh Lucid Technologies partnered with us. They are here over the next three days um performing these tests at no cost to the firefighters, no cost to the city. Um so I wanted to give out a quick shout out to Lucid Diagnostics for that. Um, as you know, uh, also sharing Chief Candiano's sentiment, January was crazy. Uh, we've already started February doing the exact same as, uh, January, much the same as [clears throat] it was last year as well. Um, with that, we are triing a

new schedule right now and for three months and we'll be triing another schedule the next three months, but with that, we had to change some of our training tactics. Um, I'd like to thank Jordan Buucy, Rick Nikos, and Tyler Rosenbomb for their hard work and dedication in adjusting, adapting, and making our training successful for the fire department. Just because we're busy and just because we have changed schedules doesn't mean that we can lack uh on our training that we go through on a monthly basis. So, I appreciate those guys for really stepping up and doing their thing. Um, and that's really all I have for you. I did send a report earlier with our call volume. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer. Um if not, I will bode you. Good night.

Chief, I did want to say I'm sorry. Thank you. I did want to say publicly, I want to thank uh your paramedics and you and uh city of Portage firefighters, especially the paramedics. On uh January the 17th, I was visiting my aunt at the Windour Assisted Living Facility and about 5 minutes prior to me arriving, my aunt had passed away and um the paramedics came to the room there. My aunt had already gone to heaven. However, I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate the compassion, the care, the concern that was shown to me and my family and I thank you.

Thanks, sir. sorry for your loss and I'm glad we could have been of service for you. Thank you.

I said that I would come back to my mayor's um mayor's moment, my uh mayor's uh correspondence. I'll be brief and I just want to speak to a number of people, but in particular, we have our public works team here. We have Tracy Marshall. Not sure if Dan is here. It's okay if he's not. Um we've got Randy Reer here with the street department, as I like to call them when it snows, our public works team. I'll have more to say about all the great work they do together, but one of the things I'm always reminded is one of our city employees telling me that when the circumstances are needed, every one of our city employees as a public safety official and our police and our firefighters acted with bravery throughout the month of January. They acted swiftly dealing with everything from structural fires, a car fire. Um, we have had unfortunately some mental health situations that led to some led to some deaths from people who unfortunately were in a position where they took their own lives and our guys still got there as quick as they could. Um, we have had just a busy January and for one reason or another, it consistently seemed to happen when it was snowing and it always seemed to be snowing on weekends in January

and uh and holiday.

To put it simply, our utilities workers and our street department workers, they were always ready. They worked around the clock. They worked as an incredible team and we have extreme skill from both departments. We had some storms where we just needed the street department to be able to cover with the big trucks. We've had other storms where we needed all hands on deck, but it has been extraordinary. And I know that every year it snows, I kind of got to retach that reminder of for public safety reasons, we always have to do the main roads first while it's snowing. And in order to make them as safe as possible, and often that is just plain safe. Other times it's as safe as possible during a big enough storm. And our crews for our public works team, they did incredible. And I just want to commend both departments. I want to commend the men and women who are out there driving the trucks, big and small, to um not only be able to make it as passible as possible for our residents, but at the end of the day, the first big goal is making sure that if there's a medical call or a police call, our first responder vehicles, or I should say our police and fire are able to get there as quick as possible. And they succeeded in that mission every time. So, I thank them. That'll take us to Yeah. Feel free to clap if you guys would like. Yeah. For everybody. [applause]

What's that mean? Please clap or clap for that. Well, I won't say the other one. I think there was there was some bipartisan asking for claps in in American history. And all right, that'll get us to second reading of ordinance 2601, the Sweetwater Annexation. Um people are here from the developer. However, this is not a presentation. Um this is not a public hearing portion. Um this is just a well discussion if you guys want to discuss and then vote you know on the matter. So um it's on the agenda I believe. Do we have to do a second actual literal reading Dan? Uh just the uh the ordinance number and main title like usual.

I'll ask if Councilman Zilly would be willing to do that for us. Ordinance number 26-01, an ordinance of the common council of the city of Portage, Indiana, authorizing the annexation of certain contiguous area of real estate consisting of two parcels totaling approximately 46.259 259 acres and unincorporated Porter County, Indiana, Portish Township, located generally at the southwest corner of the intersection of County Road 700 North and County Road 625 West and declaring the same area to be part of the incorporated jurisdiction and within the city limits of the city of Portage, Indiana, pursuant to Indiana code 36-4-3. Let the record reflect this has been read in its entirety. I'll make a motion to adopt.

Second. So, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? I do have some questions. Questions for the that you Well, maybe if you want to ask them and then if somebody would like to come up, you can. But yeah, feel free to go ahead. Thank you for your time. Sure.

During the reading of the resolution last month, we had discussed um whether the $151,000 in excess revenue that the uh project would generate took into account sea one and it was assumed that it had. I was just wondering if there's any confirmation of that.

I did not talk specifically to the preparer of the report, but I I believe that we determined at reading the report that we saw that it was taken into account in the footnotes uh to that page uh where the the spreadsheet was listed. So, I I have great confidence that it was and the preparer of the report is a very well-qualified um municipal consultant. They're they're not going to miss that. I I'm have all the confidence in the world. And I believe we we figured out that it included the loss of income tax revenue from the county, which was part of SEA1. So,

right. That that's kind of how we knew that they had done that. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Sure. My my other question was um are there 44 paired villas or cottage paired cottage? Is that 22 22 buildings 44 homes? Okay, that that was my question. Thank you. So I I and I have a question on the the zoning because you're requesting R4. I believe the R4 minimum or um uh minimums is 50 ft 50 foot lots. Correct.

That is correct. But the development plan is not 50 foot lots. They are wider. Correct. I believe they're 50 for the single family. For the paired patio, they would be wider. Correct.

They are they're 90 for the paired patio. Okay. I I guess I had I I'm not sure if this Well, do you know if the there there's been significant growth south of Route Six residential homes? I counted um all residential homes between like Cardinal Crossings, Bower, Swanson Trails, Providence, there's some growth in Ingu, Ingram Manor right now, uh Preston Trails, and with the new Sweetwater annexation, if this were to pass, that would give us nearly 1,400 new homes. And as as um utility capacity is taken up as these developments come through um is the developer willing to um foot the bill I guess so to speak um for any kind of infrastructure upgrades that might be necessary.

So I can answer that one for you with Tracy's help if you don't mind coming up Tracy. So to start, if you guys remember in 2024 when we made reforms to the utility rates and that correlated with the plans from the utility department, we guys put in impact fees, which means that new neighborhoods pay for themselves. So in this particular matter, we don't need a I shouldn't say we don't need things. There are things that we would want to maybe request potentially from a developer, but the city council, I don't recall if it was unanimous, but the changes made lead to the neighborhoods themselves paying for their own infrastructure costs. There's no subsidy from other rateayers in the city. And also, uh, the city is doing millions of dollars to repair our storm and our, um, sanitary infrastructure, which, you know, should be noted came from 40 years of the city not keeping up with stuff. I only say that because some people think, "Oh, we've got new neighborhoods. Does that mean that that's the reason why we have some of these issues?" Well, yes, but you don't need to go back five years to see what happened with growth. It's really the last 20 years of growth and not keeping up with it. But I think Tracy can articulate what we've been doing in the cityual matters.

You said it very well. Um, and I've come up here before and spoke on this. Um, but there is capacity in the plant. I mean, there isn't an issue with that. um everything the utility workers are doing a great job and we have replaced lots of stuff. Um in fact with the SRF money that we have for the clarifier solar project we were able to save money by doing different stuff on the project. So we were able to get six new clarifiers instead of four. we were able to um do a bunch of other projects that were needed in the plant that would help us. Um scum concentrator, different projects that were able to put towards the SRF because we had extra money from it. Um so that that helped. Um it's it's a great project. I mean, we're starting to use the solar now, so we're starting to see some reduction in our NIPCO bills. Um, but we put in this the when we did the rate increases so that we could also have the new developments help with this along the way. And that's what we're doing a lot of uh lining because of this and fixing of lift stations.

Tracy, if you don't mind uh staying up there because I know that

I'm going to say something if you feel comfortable speaking for it. something that happened in the um Brook um View neighborhood and now we got Brook View and Brookside. So, it's important to remember which one is which, but Brook View, which was the original, you know, Portage neighborhood, if you will, south of six. Well, Brook View and, you know, the neighborhood to the north of it, but still south of six. So, just to give an example and to kind of explain something to it, I don't remember if it was the January side of this year or the December side of this year, but we had a resident who reached out to the city and to the utilities department about a certain corner that, as he put it accurately, always floods when it rains. And it was a huge puddle. And it's been that way for years. And there was an assertion made where he thought, oh, it's the new neighborhood across the street that could be, you know, causing that. or maybe it was Cardinal Crossings that caused that. And the answer to that is no. Based on the drainage standards that the city had when those were put in um and the timing of the flooding going back years, that really could not have been the culprit. So, we sent the utilities team out there. They went and investigated this spot that had been flooding for years and they determined the cause was actually, and some people know this already, it was a slag stone. So some of us who if you've lived in portage long enough you might remember back around 2009 2010 um I was away at college but when I came back for breaks I was aware of it because the brakes were in the winter there was a salt shortage at the time and the city's solution back in around 2009 2010 was to take a slag sand from the mill and mix it um with the salt that we did have thinking that that would extend the effectiveness of the salt. I yeah, it it didn't work. And um I will say that it wasn't popular with residents. It wasn't effective. It had a tendency to wreck your shoes if you weren't careful. But what it also did is it got in to the

storm water drains all over the city. It was slag stone from the mill. And if you're familiar with slag stone, well slag, I'm sorry, slag sand at first, gets harder as it gets wetter. and it has contributed to big drainage issues around the city. I say that because we have been starting to investigate and find that it's a culprit for a lot of drainage issues in the city and drainage issues for people where quite frankly when someone says well this street has always flooded and you ask well how long have you been here 7 years 8 years and you start you know realizing that people who moved into the city post 2010 have had an impression of oh this street has always flooded and it has for them. So, the team for utilities, they were able to get this particular slag stone out. Was this uh Baldwin and Kingman or

Yeah, I don't want to invent an intersection that doesn't exist, but it's somewhere over there. Yeah, with Kingman. They were able to successfully cut it out using a mechanical saw that's typically used to cut out roots, but it took a little while. And then they pumped so much water there, one to get the stone out. It looked gross. They brought it to a board meeting and I put it on Facebook because, you know, I wanted the world to see it. Um, if I had to see it, everyone deserved to see it.

So, that was with our vac truck. So, the vac truck has a cutter with the water and it they got it out with that. What is also what also developed from coming to the council to you guys and and presenting our need to raise the rates when we did several years ago, it brought to my attention that we needed a lot more to pay attention the GIS side. um knowing our pipes, knowing what's going on. We got a software program called Apex 10, which tells us the aging of our pipes. Were able to go in and the criticality of repair. So, it's pulling guys away now to be able to look more to the storm because we're focused on the sewer and we've done what we need to do. Now, we're looking at the storm. So, it's going to open up this summer for us to do more with the storm and GIS map that and look at that a lot more. So, that'll give us a chance to go to these areas that have been flooding and we just think they're flooding because maybe the creeks right there, but there might be another issue that we can look at.

And some of that is weather dependent because we have to wait for the asphalt to be available because as good as it is to use the mechanical saw to cut it out. Now, I'm not saying that SLG is the answer to every drainage problem in the city, but it's a bigger it's a more common answer than I think people realize. It's one example of drainage improvements we're doing over the course of this year in planning for the future. In addition, in 2024, because again, I'm not going to claim that there haven't been issues in the city's past where drainage stuff wasn't done. Let's just say that we've had drainage issues in our city that were separate from that. It was a big deal for us that we upgraded our drainage standards through the utility boards. We're very proud of that because the goal needs to be and what we have set up is that not only does every neighborhood pay for its own installation, we also need every neighborhood really to contain its water to an appropriate place, not create a burden on neighboring neighborhoods. Not saying that's never happened, but that is what we have strived to do. And I think that we've accomplished with a lot of the upgrades that we're making and a lot of the rules that we've changed. um feel free to ask to elaborate. I say that because I think that those are two factors to think about when considering any new neighborhood when the council has the ability to go over. My question and I want to be careful not to ask too many is the mayor and and Tracy, I'm sorry. I want you to be available if they've got questions for you, but

yeah, whenever there that's done, my question has to do with traffic and in particular a question of who's responsible for the road with 700 being a county road. Where does that come into play and what is the anticipated traffic impact for the city? I understand that the fiscal plan spoke to finances, you know, and I have a question that's related to that and that this might be more of a Randy question. Who currently plows 700 from Willow Creek to where the city limits end at the new neighborhood in of Swanson? Do we plow that or does the county plow that?

We're responsible from Swanson all the way to Yeah, because that's where the city limits then cut back up. Yeah. So, we already plowed that. Would How would that work? I guess it's in relation to the same question on 625 now that this would be theoretically in the city, we would go down south on 625 to a to the neighborhood. Yes, we would go all the way from US. Oh, Randy, would you mind coming up to the mic? I was I was reminded by Z that Yeah. There we go. All right.

So to confirm, we plow from we plow 700 from Willow Creek to Swanson. Yes. So on 700 we from Swanson all the way to Willow Creek. Once this development potentially the development we're going to be plowing from US6 all the way to 700 that will open that complete corridor. There's a partial on I think it's is that airport? Sorry. I'm not sure I understand what your Randy. Do you mean 7002 somewhere else? Yeah. I'm if I had a map in front of me, I'll get a map. I'm just asking like this is at the corner of 625 and 700. Currently, we plow 700. I'm assuming we would go further south on 625, which we do not plow now. It's a county road to the extent of the city limits, which would be the end of this neighborhood.

So, basically, the question is, would we be plowing 625? And certainly, I mean, in the event of snow, when they get to neighborhoods, they'd be plowing this neighborhood. But your question is 625, right? All right. Now that I got that on a map, I can see that. So, yes, we will be uh that whole corridor from US6 all the way to 700 will be blown by the street department. There is a portion of that and if you go down to uh like uh 500 northwest, that's Airport Road. Um there's a portion that the county takes over. We only go about halfway,

right? We go to those city limits. And now there is actually a new neighborhood which changed the boundaries of the city limits further. So we would go all the way to 700. I'm just trying to make sure that the entrance to this neighborhood there's one on 625 that we would be responsible for plowing 625 now that we aren't currently doing. And there's portions down there that we cooperate with the county. So if they're there first, they'll plow those areas as I think that really what used to be the most what? No, I'm sorry. What used to be the least dense zone is becoming more dense. You know, when we talk about plowing, how we currently have the five. Is that right?

Uh yes, right now we're uh working with the street department, some of the other um employees, and we're thinking to reszoning our complete uh city. Right now we have five major zones. Well, we actually have six north of 20. So, right now, we want to lengthen that and divide that up equally into 10 different zones. Uh, Thursday encompasses most of our that Thursday's trash day. So, you're everything south of central and east of Willow Creek is our Thursday zone and that is growing considerably in new homes. And, uh, are we concerned? Um, not really. We're got a plan ahead that uh will be incorporated once these uh uh changes take place, but um we're we're ahead of the game right now and being proactive in planning our strategy for future years to come.

Well, and I think that that's where the significance of the fiscal plan and the study comes in of whether this neighborhood is bringing in more revenue for the city than the city is putting into it. And I believe the fiscal plan addressed some of that. But I think to put it simply, knowing that we need to have a plan that's been in the works already, not just for the reasonzoning of the plows, I think the increasing cooperation of our public works team has really served the city well. At the same time, we ultimately need to figure out how to get more employees, more drivers, and more flexibility with that department. I say that just to clarify. We're not unaware of the challenges the city faces as you guys consider this. Anybody else for Randy?

Okay. Mayor, I' I'd also like to add um this is a a annexation petition. It's also a zoning petition. We're attaching a zoning to the property that we're asking you to to bring into the city. But we're not done with the design and development of this property, assuming you pass the ordinance. We still have to go back to the plan commission. And that means that the concept plan has to be turned into a primary plat and that is fully engineered and that's when our engineers not land planners uh but the the engineering department if you will takes over uh from our standpoint prepares the primary plat which has all of the engineering details and it's our obligation as developers to pay the cost of extending utilities, pay the cost of any improvements to the rights of way with uh entrance designs and so forth. That's very typical and that doesn't change just because of this annexation ordinance.

One last question. Thank you so much for being so patient. I know when they built uh they excavated Bower Farm, there was um there was a problem with flooding in neighbors yards and I so I just my question to you is is the developer aware of that and making plans for uh you know flooding contingencies. We are aware of it and as I just indicated we have to go and and engineer and design and because we're now aware of that there won't be any surprises if that happens on our property. Part of the engineering part of the overall um development is soil borings. So they'll they'll be if they haven't already, they'll take soil borings and and know what is the subsurface the the soil conditions um as they excavate as they prepare to do that.

Ed rectal with old homes. Thank you [clears throat] for allowing us to present tonight. Um I just wanted to make sure so we preemptively uh met with some city departments because of uh drainage and utility issues in this area. So, we met with Dan Dan Kmena and GLE and talked through uh already talked through the drainage um and the sanitary and water services out here. So, we're preemptively uh making plans to make sure that whatever we do does not impact anybody around us. So, thank you.

Thank you. And I would like to see if we're uh going to have 700 and 625 essentially be city roads that there are some improvements at that intersection that the city look at that because it I mean there is going to be significant traffic on 700. And I mean if we're going to be maintaining those roadways, it would be good for us to be able to improve that intersection to to better deal with the traffic that's going to be there. I mean, I would just state that I agree, you know, with that completely. I think the question I'd have either to our council, to the developers council, or anybody is, you know, what mechanisms the city has to enforce the need for that. As I've talked about, sometimes when land is zoned a certain way, you're able to build the standard. But that's where I want to clarify in one spot. Really important, the drainage standards. I don't mean to say they're separate from the zoning standards, but they don't go hand in hand. Let's say, and I'm just making this up for the sake of something, right? Let's say we had a huge piece of land in the city. Um, huge piece of land that was zoned for a gas station. If you could imagine such a piece of land in our city and under normal circumstances, you might not be super excited about it. But, uh, what's that one that everybody likes? The giant

what from the crowd?

I think it's called Bies. I say that because if the Bies came to the city, this is a pitch for Bies, by the way. Bies came to the city, right, and they could make it work, but maybe they needed something from the city council. Maybe they needed to annex some extra land to be able to make it work. You guys might be super excited about BIES. But if there's a drainage situation or some sort of sanitary situation, but in particular, if there was I I say it because I think that would be a commercial development that at least a lot of people be excited based on an April Fool's Day prank someone played maybe a year ago. If there was a drainage problem on it, it doesn't matter if the city council is for it and you guys like enthusiastically approved it. It's got to go to the utility boards to get approval and that approval is separate from what you're allowed to do on the land. Every piece of zoning is zoned for what you can do on it based on if the drainage works, if that makes sense. It's not a defense or or an attack here, but just to be aware that you could approve the development of your dreams and drainage can still kill it when the rules are enforced. And I can say that Tracy and Dan have been enforcing them well. I know that from the angry calls I get from certain developers. A lot of things are going faster in Portage than they used to, but drainage takes a lot to make sure that it's done right.

Thank you. I would like to say thank you for reaching out to us prior to answer any questions and so forth that we had. Thank you. You're welcome.

I I going back to the road issue. I think it would be helpful, Dan, if you could just in the future answer this question. I don't think we like 700 or 625 are actually city roads even with this annexation. That would be a conversation that would be had with the county. They m they will continue to be county roadways. We may choose to maintain them, but they're not actually city streets, right? Just because we annex property next to the roadway does we may maintain it, but it's not necessarily our roadway to improve. Visions of memoranda of understanding are now dancing in my head. So yeah, clear. Yeah, definitely.

And that's true of other roads, too. Um I'm thinking of county line by law. whatever municipality of a county line road on the on the west side, my brain says left looking at a map, but the west side's responsible. So, if we were to annex south of 700 one day, and not that that's in the works, but if we had an annexation across the street from the apple orchard, um we could not suddenly stop the traffic back up on the apple orchard. It would always be under Hobert's jurisdiction, for example. So, if we ever had something south that way, that'd be something for us to take under consideration. And so Colin, I appreciate that you're bringing that issue up cuz right off the top of my head, I mean, I could check in with Dan, but I don't know all the different ways that we either have leverage or ability to negotiate there. Does that just become something expected by all the new Portage citizens if this neighborhood goes in? But that kind of goes back to the issue of certainly there's a zoning change being asked for, but if the zoning change passes and essentially, how do I put it? What conditions can the city put on, if you will? Are there things that could be done as a contingency for this annexation? I I don't know off hand. I'm looking, of course, I've got an attorney. You're a very experienced attorney. I guess that's mind of kind of my question for the city council.

I mean, to be clear, I'm not asking for anything to be included in this. I'm just asking from a maintenance standpoint, who's going to maintain 7625? I'm assuming that's going to be us. Um, but if there were roadway improvements, that would be a conversation to be had with the county because it's a county road. No matter what happens here, it's still a county road. That's my understanding, too. And again, I think that that's something to consider, which is the fact of ultimately if you've got a neighborhood that's a portage neighborhood, but it's accessed by a county road. I mean, Portage citizens are going to expect their neighborhood to be plowed, and I'm sure that they're not going to expect us to raise the plow while going over a county road. And as noted, we don't do that, which we don't do, right? Yes. to be clear,

but it's important to know we don't do that. Yeah. People who live on 700 know, especially on the north end of 700. Thank you, Colin. That was a good question to bring up. You're welcome. Any other questions from the board council? We do have a motion and a second. Have a statement question. Go ahead, sir.

Okay. Um, so first off, sir, thank you for all of the work that you've done. I can definitely appreciate as one attorney to another that you have to um put on a song and dance for a bunch of local elected officials who may or may not vote uh the way that you would like us to. Um, from our perspective, from my perspective, there's two ways to look at it, right? There's your infrastructure and your financial perspective, but then there's a quality of life issue for the residents and their perception of quality of life issues. Um, do we really want couple of dozen uh septic tanks in the ground? Probably not. Uh, can we use the added revenue in the era of uh Senate SEA1? Right. That's going to be something that is never going to go away. maybe. Um, but from our perspective, from my perspective, you know, we also represent our constituents and we hear very often about how our constituents feel that decisions are made behind their back, without their consent, without their awareness. And thank you, mayor, and the rest of the council and all the department heads for all of the transparency throughout this. But um we do have to respect the wishes of our constituents. In my opinion um it will affect the quality of life not only for Portage residents south of six uh but residents of South Haven Portage Township. Um and I grew up south of six and so I've been able to see firsthand right the development one piece of a neighborhood one piece of a neighborhood one until it's all the way back to 700 then across the street then next door. Hey, and that's life and that's municipalities. But um I will be voting no and I would urge my council colleagues to do the same. Thank you.

And one more question then as well in the statement. So as you mentioned earlier that no matter what the decision is, if it was to move favorably, it does have to go back to the planning commission and at that point uh there's still stages and processes that would need to be done. um as far as the planning commission approving your plans and that also has an opportunity for the public to come in and speak and weigh in during their public hearings as well.

Precisely. So there's still um some public interest that can be heard, their voices heard during a planning commission process and uh if this were to move forward. So just in the event that our residents should this pass know that there is another opportunity that they can weigh in and speak in. That is absolutely true. Thank you.

Now when that happens and this is where for me being the transparent mayor and it's important you know when you go to the plan commission there are things that the plan commission can vote yes or no on in certain factors but ultimately the plan commission is often a judicial body. Ultimately, if a proposal upon review, and I know a lot of work goes into it, it meets the zoning of a piece of land, plan commission can't vote no if they personally dislike it. I'll use my gas station example. If you've got a piece of land that is zoned for a gas station, it meets all city standards. There's no variances required. Generally, it takes a lot for the plan commission members to be able to vote no because in actuality, they're denying that something matches the city's zoning. Is that correct? That's correct. Um quite frankly, our hardest um most difficult um audience at the next step is your staff. Um we we have to convince the um sanitary department. We have to, you know, go to the utility board. We have to get uh your engineering uh firm to approve all of those plans that I I mentioned with regard to uh traffic and and infrastructure with regard to the roads, the sewer extensions uh and the drainage and you know all of those things have to come together. If we don't have those approvals, we don't even get to the public hearing at the plan commission.

And certainly those things are based on the letter of the law. And by the law in this case, I mean our city's drainage codes, our sanitary ordinance, and our city's just simple, you know, code. Um, I know that you guys are planning on requesting some variances. It's mentioned in the annexation agreement. I say that because um the question I would have is I mean if there were if you guys weren't aiming to do that if this were passed and zoned R4 I mean you could build according to the R4 standard unless of course there was a problem with the drainage or a problem with the sanitary or some other issue but still a problem to the letter of the law. what variances are being sought if you could just kind of explain to this council what variances are being sought from R4 and do you guys plan on proceeding like basically what's suppose you don't get the variance for one reason or another from BZA you know plan commission

how dependent is this neighborhood on you guys [clears throat] receiving those variances

so it it's easy uh if you have a copy of the ordinance it's the last page exhibit E um so we have some sideyard setbacks uh if we don't get that um then you know potentially we would lose five lots or eight lots or something like that. Uh but it doesn't uh the the the project doesn't come to a screeching halt. Um parking is uh another one. I'm not exactly sure how that might play in or play uh with regard to the the design. landscaping is simply uh we would be planting more trees uh or bushes or shrubs whatever the ordinance is. So that u that's an issue and signage we would have a smaller sign rather than uh the gateway sign that's being proposed. So um I think it's kind of small in in the ask of of what the these um deviations or variances would be. Uh so yeah, whether we have to go to the BCA or or not, um those are things that you know we would have to hash out between now and the plan commission before we even get to that public hearing. Again,

and looking at this, I believe the variances are only in the M1 zoning, not the R4 zoning. Is that correct? I wanted to point that out as it's just on the the cottage homes to have the smaller sideyards, which for those make they are cottage homes after all. Right. Right. So this would not be the single family. That is correct. The in the title of the exhibit says that. I think in the in the narrative it says that as well. [clears throat]

I guess uh last thing I would say simply put this is truly your guys's call as a city council. It's a responsibility that you guys have. I don't ever envy it because I can't think of something worse than a dictatorship where the mayor can wave a wand and decide what the zoning should be in a piece of land or what should be there. That's something that I think makes sense that the state statute gives to you guys as a legislative body. That said, I just want to speak speaking um as an executive and what's been done over the last two years. I think we're on year three of this term in this council. There was a time in years past where I could have and often did come to the city with concerns about new neighborhoods coming in. And I still have different concerns about new neighborhoods coming in. I have situations where people have said, "Man, Portage is still approving neighborhoods." But I will tell you, there are less people trying to build a neighborhood because we've had developers come to our city, ask if um they could build a neighborhood. Not like we give direct permission, but they want to see our standards, our rules. We show them the rules and then they say, "Are you guys enforcing them?" We're like, "Yeah." And then they go away. Which is interesting to put it simply. We have other developers such as this one who have taken a look at the city's um rules for drainage, the city's rules for sanitary, our different um zoning codes for types of land, and they said, "We think that we can meet this standard. Our goal is to meet this standard." And they take it all the way here. They get through our staff and they make it to this level. In this case, an annexation request and a zoning change. Some years ago, I think our city had a number of issues when it came to drainage concerns, when it came to concerns about capacity, the direction of our utilities. Are we going to be able to sustain this growth? We're not perfect, but a lot of progress has been made in our city. Thanks to Tracy, um, thanks to her team, thanks to Randy and his team. There are still things needed. We need more plow trucks. We need more people to drive the plows. I guess what

I'm trying to say is that sometimes you're have sometimes the right thing is to say no to something because you have 10 problems. Other times you might have less than that. Between getting our utility situation under control, which I thank you guys for doing as a council, and between starting to get our drainage situations under control, we're showing that we can have sustainable growth in our city, which leaves decisions like this to you guys, the city council. As Councilman Alvarez said very well, it becomes a quality of life vote and the kind of community you want to have vote. I say that because it kind of stinks when you're facing something you like, but you got to say no because you think it's going to flood. It's different when something you can say with confidence. It's either not going to flood or Tracy's not going to let it flood. But I want to assess the quality of life that it brings in. No matter how you guys vote, I'm ready to prepare for it and adjust to it. But I just want to commend um so many people in our city, particularly on the public works side, to be able to get us to a position where that's less of a concern and the concern is actually quality of life and what type of community we want to be. So I thank you guys.

Before we vote, just commission this was a favorable recommendation. Correct. Correct. Correct. Thank you.

And I I have one last thing. I'm sorry. Um, I just want to remind the council that in this area before we have a final vote on this, that in this area in a 3/4 mile radius between Swanson and Willow Creek south of six, we've had more than 700 new homes that that you know increase the traffic here. And now with all the new homes on airport and this neighborhood, we're looking at nearly 1,400 new homes and all and I live right there. So this is very dear to me because traffic is already bad in this area. And so speaking to quality of life like Ferdinand had mentioned, it greatly affects quality that traffic greatly affects the quality of life in this area. For me, for me, I have two ways in and out. And now with Swanson Trails coming in and Bower Farms and Sweetwater, that really limits, you know, my uh access in and out of my street. That's it. Thank you. And just a point of clarification, um this is not part of the tariff because it it's beyond the deadline and this is part of the new process for the developers financially with their um bond.

It's not in the system already approved in the previous year. It could be if the developer wanted to pursue that with the redevelopment commission. However, that would be something that would need to come back to the council for approval in addition to all the steps through the RDC um if they were to pursue it. And I think it's appropriate to ask if they'd like to pursue it. Certainly, I know that the option has been talked about, but ultimately that's going to be the council's decision just like the previous turf system uh was, if that makes sense. If it were to happen this year, um it would take effect, you know, the following. It'd be based on this year's assessment, not the 2025. Mayor, I and I know um we don't have probably the right person here to answer this question. Um I thought that we weren't able to do future ones that there was a clock on this last year. Is that not correct?

So there was a clock when we began the process. The clock ended up not being a problem when we finished the process. Got it. And I don't know if that was clear um the last time around. Although the clock Oh, I'll say this. The clock certainly still mattered with the five neighborhoods last year because if we had done that vote in January, um the incremental revenue would have been based on the 2026, not what they were in 2025, which increases the amount. Right. Okay. I apologize. I was thinking of one clock and then there was a second involved too.

I apologize you've had to stand there for so long. All right. Well, not a problem. Is there any other discussion hearing? None. Uh, Liz, can you do the roll call? Absolutely. Councilman Alvarez, no. Councilwoman Weinbach, no. Councilwoman Hurst, yes. Councilman Parnell, yes. Councilwoman Vazquez, yes. Councilwoman Amler, no. Councilman Zilly, yes. I think that passed. Motion passed four to three. Very good. Thank you so much for your time and attention. Thank you. Thank you.

I know I spoke a lot, but a lot of that was hopefully to be clarifying about what factors are, in my opinion, taken care of and what factors are still at play. And I will say it's a tremendous thing to be at a position where we're not worried about as many problems and that you guys have moved on really to quality of life issues. That's kind of neat to see. I mean it's no really that's and that's where again Ferdinand like a couple years ago you might have been able to give a speech just about like you know what happens if Noah's building an ark right are we ready now it's a speech about quality of life traffic and the amount of homes I respect all opinions here because growth is complicated

yep all right that gets us to the introduction of ordinance number 262 amending 26 salary ordinance let explanation. Sure.

Okay. The harp master um maintenance director in the park department is going to um be paid 90% from the marina and 10% from the park. And then all that's the change on the salary ordinance for that um line item. And then also it's going to be it was it's effective January 1st of this year. And then the IT specialist is a new position that was um created and it's going to be uh effective 21 of 2026 and it's being paid out of the utility department 100%. So I do have a question. I think we need to read it first. Yes, you need to read it. See here. Would you like to read it, Victoria?

That's your punishment for that. [laughter] You fell right into it. That was my plan. I have a question. Can I read it? Salary ordinance. Um, salary ordinance budget year 2026. Ordinance number 26-02. An ordinance establishing the amount of salaries and compensation to be paid to all appointed employees and officers of the city of Portage, Porter County, Indiana. Porter County, Indiana for the year 2026. Be it and hereby is ordained by the common council of the city of Portage, Indiana. follows salary schedule as presented by Austin Bont mayor to the common council of the city of Portage, Porter County, Indiana that from the first pay date in January 2026 through the last pay date in December of 2025 effective date noted on attachment the pay schedule for the employees and officers of the portage Porter County, Indiana be fixed as follows. May the record reflect the ordinance has been read in its entirety.

Motion to suspend. Second. We have a motion uh and suspend and a second. Any discussion? Yes, I had a question. Okay. So, with the IT specialist uh position, um is that separate from our IT department or is that its own department?

It's within our IT department. So, it's the second person. So, we've had one IT person and this would be our second person who because it's being a cooperation between utilities and then the civil city, one reports to the other. Trevor is still our head of IT, but this would allow him to hire someone full-time to assist with the utility side, primarily utility side, so he can focus primarily on the public safety side. So, would this IT department IT person um as Tracy mentioned the GIS software, would he be using that as part of his position or what exactly will he be doing differently than what Trevor's already doing?

I could be on standby just in case. might not you might not get called up Mike but just in case you know

so cyber security that's what he will mainly be focusing on we have uh that's the main push by state right now is cyber security we have to keep our system safe we have to make sure no one can stop the us from flushing toilets and having issues like that and contamination we have lots of chemicals so it's basically we need cy cyber security and so he's going to focus on that plus um his other duties of helping us. We're expanding with with the public works coming in. We need the computers and that kind of stuff and he'll be able to assist the utilities more. We does Trevor is really focused with police and fire and so for us to get him it's I'm not going to say pulling teeth because he'll he'll jump for us too but it pulls him away from his other position. So, we do need a an IT person also.

So, since you're mentioning cyber security, will he be interacting in any way with the Indiana um the state of Indiana's office of technology department as well so that he can stay current with the trends?

And he had gone uh so they're they're going to be interviewing and that kind of stuff, but we're looking for I don't know I if they've found someone yet or I think Trevor was interviewing, wasn't he? But I the focus is cyber security and they've already connected with Indiana. It's Indiana and Purdue are working together on cyber security programs and so he will be working with them also. We've already connected with that group and in fact I have a meeting next week with them. So in addition to the um state office of technology they'll be working with local. Yep. Okay. Thank you. So to be clear though, this position is going to report to Trevor or Tracy. Trevor. Trevor.

Trevor. So if that's the case, just putting this out there, I would list it under information technology on the salary ordinance and then put a note that it is reimbured 100% by utilities. So I think the trick trick there is that within our budget, I'm comfortable either way based on the way we've structured the budget. But yeah, I mean ultimately that's just a responsibility, you know, end. Are you proposing that as like an amendment? I mean, it doesn't matter. The person's going to get paid. I'm just saying they work in the IT department. They work under the IT systems administrator who is listed there. You would naturally put that person there. But

you slipping away, Tracy? Yeah. [laughter] Any other questions for me? You've answered the question for sure. Any other discuss? We have a motion. Do we have a motion and a second to suspend? Not even get a motion to sus for or we got a motion for suspension, but we didn't vote on it. Right. Do we have a second? Yes, we did. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Well, the suspension motion to adopt.

Make a motion to approve. So, I believe we had two people that wanted to make the motion. I just Oh, no, no, that's fine. I I if it were up to me, I'd pick both of you, but I don't know if I legally can you Liz, did you pick one? I put Penny down. Is that okay? [laughter] A second. But was Victoria or Victoria I got for the

We have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Think that passed. All right. Gets us to introduction of resolutions. I don't believe we have any. That's just for agenda purposes. any matters not already considered by the council. I do have a question for Dan if there's something you could research for us. With annexations, we've now had two since we redistricted council seats and we didn't actually change anything. I'm just curious what options are available because there's been growth in two districts that didn't exist when redistricting happened in 2021. So, I'm just curious if there are any options there.

Uh, no problem. I'll take that as an action item. It's something I've actually started looking at, but uh incidentally to some earlier conversations, some legal cyber security issues have also sidelined me. I'm heavily involved in that also. So, I will get on that and uh get something out to the Just curious. I don't know if there's even I totally agree. Um heads up move and I am looking at it. Thank you. Thank you. Motion to adjurnn. Second. We have a motion and well I don't know Liz, did you hear the motions? No, we made the motion. I'm sorry. Victoria motioned to adjurnn and then someone seconded.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Thank you. [music]