City Council - Regular Meeting

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. Eternal Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for everything that you're doing in the city of Hammond. Continue to cover our police and fire. Continue to keep and cover each and every resident and continue to guide us as we continue to do the will of you in Jesus name. Amen. Cler roll call vote please. Alexander present. Batelli here. Kowinsky here. Selenus here.

Tyler here. Emerson here. Warpel here. Rikos here. Lenz here. Let the record show nine present, zero absent, all in chambers. Moving on to the mayor's address. Hi, nice to see you. Hi, mayor. It's nice to see all the young people. Welcome to Ham City Council guy.

Um, usually when they come here, they're all doing a paper for their high school. So, it's good to see them all. Uh, this is my address for April 13th, 2026. Um, my schedule and then I'll talk a couple little bit about some of the ordinances you guys are introducing just to give some introductory remarks if you don't mind and available for questions if you have any. Uh I spoke in Michigan City about Hammond's economic development strategy. I was a keynote speaker with their mayor. Uh was two mayors. They actually it's something to I talked to my economic development team about. They do an annual dinner with their economic development agency and they invite leaders from all across northern Indiana. Basically Michigan City is a really cool city. I It reminds me so much of Hammond every time I go there. I've always had a good relationship with their mayors and Mayor Angie's doing great work. She's actually she's amazing. They just opened a new TOD that we're using as a model for our gateway.

It's a 11story building that just opened. Hundreds of millions of dollars it's worth. But anyway, key point in my whole uh speech was success doesn't start when projects arrive. It starts years earlier. Like for all of us, we invested early in our downtown. We showed developers we are serious and now we're seeing results with new housing, major pro projects, and the Westlake corridor coming online. Uh so if you prepare early, invest first, it pays off. um made welcoming remarks at the Hammond's Commission on Disabilities annual breakfast. I appreciate the the numerous council members that were there. It's always a nice event. We recognized individuals who support and advocate for residents with disabilities. My speech highlighted the importance of these volunteers work, especially the commission expanding their efforts to help children with autism, which is reaching more families than ever. This annual tradition in Hammond always gives us a chance to thank those making a real difference and reaffirm our commitment to a more inclusive Hammond. I was also pleased to provide welcoming remarks to our governor, our congressman, and other dignitaries, including almost every single one of you uh at the Monon Corridor grand opening. [clears throat] It's a major expansion of the Southshore line in Hammond, Indiana, and significant win for Northwest Indiana. My speech emphasized strong partnerships that made that billion dollar investment possible and the real impact we're already seeing, millions in new investment, job creation, and increased interest in our region. I'm a strong believer that this Monon expansion project positions Hammond for long-term growth and we're already seeing the momentum build. I want to thank the council's role in making that happen. This is we've been talking about this for a long time. It was easily a decade we were working on that and I know there's old and new members that were working on it. Some of them that have gone away, but we made difficult decisions and it was really great moment to watch that train line roll. Um, yeah, Councilman.

Um, I was going to say under communications, but as long as you brought it up, we have a ribbon cutting coming up, too, don't we? Yeah. For the downtown Hammond train station on the 16. Yes, sir. What time is that? Um, I think it's 10 o'clock. I don't know. 1:00. 1:00. Thank you.

Um, another announcement. I was pleased to announce the promotion of Captain Christopher God to become Hammond's assistant chief of police. Chris has been with the Hammond Police Department since 2005. He has extensive experience across multiple units and has earned numerous awards and leadership recognition along the way. I have full confidence in Chris's ability and instincts and he'll be a strong addition to Chief Long's leadership team at the Hammond Police Department. So, congratulations to Chris. Today, also, I would be remiss if I did not announce that today was former Chief Andy Short's last day on the job. and he's been with the city of Hammond for multiple decades, easily over 30 years. I think it's actually closer to 40 years. His last day on the job was today. He did his last staff meeting today. I talked to him right before I come up here and told him what an excellent job he did and how much he'll be missed. So, I want to thank Andy Short for just being a great police chief and a great person and a role model for lots of people in the city of Hammond. Um, met with Joe Meren, the executive director of the Whiting and Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce. Uh Joe introduced himself to my team and I. We had a very nice meeting. I'm looking forward to working with him over the coming months and years. Met with a consultant we hired to conduct a study of the spaces of Hammond City Hall. Um you know this is a great building. We all love it very much but we have space issues in this building and we decided to look around like what are we going to do with the old city court? uh which office staff has too little space, which office staff has too much space, and they gave us a lot of ideas about what we could do with Hammond City Hall. I will be approaching you all with ideas. Uh by the way, it does not affect the council or the clerk's office at all. We left them independent. It could include them if they want, but you know, I didn't feel comfortable making decisions on behalf of the council or on behalf of the clerk's office. So, um met with councilwoman Janz concerning a multitude of issues. she wanted to knock out with me and my staff. I thank her for setting

that up. Spoke before the Plasky Park Neighborhood Association. I want to thank Councilman Mark for lining that up in regards to questions many of their members had regarding new tiff boundaries we are drawing in their neighborhood and how that affects the Hammond Mohawks. I think that was a good meeting where we answered a lot of those questions. I appreciate Councilman Mark for lining that up instead of letting these questions linger. Uh I went myself. I thought it was a great event. So met with a student from Purdue Northwest that wanted to interview me regarding a paper he was writing for one of his courses at PNW. Conducted [clears throat] multiple interviews with potential candidates for an open battalion chief position in the Hammond Fire Department. We haven't made a decision on who is going to be promoted. Uh we've we've now finished all the interviews and we're pondering basically met with leadership of the board of directors for the Challenger Learning Center to update me on the latest developments with their search for a new location. Not good news. I don't know if you guys are interested, but it's uh they're looking outside of the city and they have a pretty strong offer outside of the city and they're they're definitely thinking. So this current situation with Challenger is they're at Purdue Northwest on the campus where they've always been, but their lease there is running out. They had an agreement with school city Hammond for Kenwood School that fell apart for a number of reasons and now they have a solid offer outside of the city and they're pretty sure they're going to take that offer. So hate to be the bearer of bad news, but just wanted to let you know what I heard. Uh met with the leadership team from First Group Engineering at Alaco Royale and Hammond. Nice to meet the leadership team of one of the engineering companies been working in the city hammer for a couple decades. I attended the picket of the United Steel Workers Local 71 on the quarter of 129th in Indianapolis Boulevard. Brought them donuts. Monster donuts by the way. Tried to lighten their load for a bit. These men and women were locked out of their jobs now pushing a month. It's repulsive what's going on with these steel workers across

the region right now. Locked out at NIPCO, locked out at BP. Um, I think we [clears throat] we have to do all we can to try to support, you know, and I've had numerous conversations with employees at the city of Hammond making sure that we know where our beds buttered and we're with the strikers and we want this to be over and we want these guys to get back to the bargaining table so that they could put these people back to work. It's not right what's going on right now. met with Hammond city engineer, Hammond Police Department and the Hammond Fire Department regarding Highland's threat city town of Highland's threat to close 177th Street in Highland. 177th Streets off Klein Avenue. It's the back entrance to Oxbow. Basically, Highland sent us a letter. It says they intend to close that permanently and they're asking the city of Hammond to just assume it ourselves and pay all the money for the upkeep of their upkeep of their street. Um, so that was interesting. Uh, it is closed right now because the county is working on a bridge, but Highland says they have no intention on reopening. So, I'm not sure if the residents of the town of Highland know that and their detour because they still need to use that area where they dump their mulch and all that stuff. And, uh, I don't know if the town of Highlands, the residents are going to like very much what their detour plans call for once they shut this road down. So, that'll be interesting how that develops, but I want you all to know what's going on. So, uh, I know we have a number of items coming before you today. I want to talk first about the public safety bond that's being introduced today. Uh this is a five-year bond. We're asking for uh $6 million. Should not exceed $6 million. We think it's going to be closer to 5.2 million. We think it's going to be about 6% interest annual payments of about 1.2 million. Uh which is less than the amount of debt that was freed from the repayment of station number two, which is where we're pulling this money from. This money is going to be used to buy new radios for all Hammond police firefighters, all Hammond police officers, and we're also going to replace engine number eight, which is Husville's engine. It's the oldest in the fleet right now. It badly needs

replacement. Uh we have the ability to do this. We're tapping into water revenue. This won't go on the general fund. I know you guys are bringing that out of committee for first and second reading today. I just wanted to throw it out there. Uh we can afford this. We definitely need this. I hope you guys give it serious consideration. Last but not least, ordinance. Oh no, two more things. Ordinance vacating 125 foot portion of the east west alley south of 175th Street. I know Councilman Emerson's bringing this out. This is the old alley for the gas station and some of the homes that were fronting 175th. This is the area we plan to build the new firehouse station number seven. So, we need to start cleaning up this land and getting it ready for the future fire station that's built there. That's why that's pending before you. And I know Megan put before you a change in the travel ordinance. I think that's also being introduced today. It's changing the PDM rate. Um moving it to a meal stipen rather than reimbursement. Just some other needed changes. We were really old-fashioned on how we do uh the travel ordinance and we set the stipen right in the middle of what all the cities around the area are doing. So I think we're real conservative. It's more modern what we're doing. Our old uh our old ordinance had separate rates for elected officials and we got rid of that. Everybody who travels on behalf of the city gets paid the same for a stipen. Um so I know that's coming out first and second and I believe the reason that Megan is pushing that is because it was pushed by the state board of accounts. Thank you, Megan. I know there's a couple other things uh on the agenda. I don't know if you have any questions for me. I appreciate it. I'm sorry about the long report, but it's been three weeks since we've been here. So,

Councilman Kowinsky. Hi, Councilman. How you doing? I'm good. How are you? Good, sir. Thanks. I want to say thank you and uh to everybody that had a part in getting the agenda, the council agenda and ordinances online. Thank you. And I think it appeared on Thursday for the first time. So, that's great news. I I suppose we might have some hiccups down the road, but I appreciate all the effort of the team that put that together so that we can have the public look at things, too. Thanks.

Thank you. And by the way, we've always been on the cutting edge. We were one of the first cities to go digital. We've always been really aggressive, so going online should have probably happened a while ago. I think we were probably a little too slow on that one. I know I was talking with c Councilwoman Venez earlier about a goal of trying to go paperless and I think that's a great goal to have and I think that's something that we should challenge it to figure out real quick so that we could stop sending reams of paper back and forth to each other and just do it electronically. So thanks for bringing that up, Councilman. Any other questions? Mayor. Yes, sir. I know a couple meetings ago we had discussed Clark and Gavit. I can't hear you, Dave. I Is my microphone on? It sounds really quiet.

I know a couple of meetings ago we discussed Clark and Gavit and what's going to happen with them buildings and I get that question nonstop about Gavit and have I know I think we gave him till March 31st to come up sir with a plan. Do you have any update on that?

Thanks Councilman. I know Councilman Mark asked me on the other end of town because I'm sure he gets questions about what's going on with Clark like you get questions about what's going on with Gavit like I get questions about all the different schools including Clark and Gavit. Uh Scott Miller, myself and my team met with school city Hammond. I want to say it was midFebruary. Thank you Scott. And in midFebruary we said to the school city what's going on with Clark and Gavit? That's all we brought up is the high schools. What's going on with Clark and Gavit is un unacceptable. Their power is turned off to both buildings. The water is turned off to both buildings. Both buildings are completely abandoned. And that's illegal to have an abandoned building and not go through the statemandated process of putting it up for sale. And they refused to put it up for sale. We met with them in February and said, "If you don't come up with some type of solution, we're going to solve this problem for you through a public process." And that was in midFebruary. The superintendent and the schoolboard leader told me in midFebruary, Councilman Warple, this will be done. I said, can you have it done by the end of March? They said, absolutely, mayor. End of March is fine. Haven't heard anything, Councilman Warple. Um, it's unacceptable. This is their plan. Their plan is to let it sit there and rot. So, I have a meeting with my team. I want to say it's Wednesday of this week and we're going to discuss next steps, Councilman, which is I'm not sure what we're going to do, but I want to move forward with this and we're not going to sit here and watch these buildings dilapidate away.

Well, the residents over there are very concerned that before you know it, there's going to be busted windows and and neglect. And I know the football and baseball field out there are really aren't that well taken care of. And I've heard complaints about that. And the last person that asked me the question, I said, "We're working on it." They said, "We heard that three years ago."

Council Warp, I know for a fact Purdue Northwest is very interested in acquiring a large portion of that area. They want they want it. And when Purdue acquires things, they put millions of dollars into the projects. And and I'm sure that we could find just as great of a use of Clark High School as well. But what's going on right now is completely unacceptable and I'm not going to tolerate it as mayor. We were playing they were playing nice with the school city. We gave him a month and a half to figure it out and they just blew us off. It's been two months. I haven't heard anything. So we're we're going to move forward. Council Morple. I promise. Do me a favor. Keep asking me this question when I come before you and I promise I'll keep applying the pressure on my end. Okay.

So mayor. Yes, ma'am. Uh you said earlier that the Challenger Erling uh learning center uh was looking at Kenwood school. How is it that that fell apart? It part of it I don't want to blame the school city only for that because part of it was funding. They need to come up with millions of dollars. And I think for a building down south, they're making it too good to say no. I don't want to identify what they're talking about, but they have interest from a not for-p profofit with millions of dollars. But they want it at a certain location. It doesn't it's not in the city of Hammond.

And was there a result from uh what is he our attorney general Todd Roita? Uh the letter that you had written him about this very issue. No result. Nothing. No ma'am. Yep. Um okay. Anybody else? Interesting. Hi Councilman. wanted to bring up the uh the 37 lots across from Wolf Lake. Yes, sir. There's 11 houses that are in some process of being built. Yes. But the others are not. The frontage you're talking I'm sorry. The houses on the frontage Yeah. are not being built.

Well, every everywhere. And in the covenants, it said that you had to start building 18 months or before from the time of the auction. So I assume a lot of people are beyond that. Yeah. And I remember you I remember you saying that uh at the auction that before your term ended all the houses would be built and I just it seems like my term's getting close to ending. Seems like we need a little help with that. Moving on. I'll follow this up. I promise.

Thank you. Yeah, there's some It's interesting, Councilman, because the if the Bears choose Hammond, it does not affect those homes. Okay. But it's interesting because there's some some of those proposed homes that we may not be interested in putting homes in anymore. And it's mostly the frontage lots. So, like if I saw somebody wanted to start their frontage lot right now, we may not want them to move forward and build a house where I could have a Ruth Chris if we play our game, right? You know, so [clears throat] I get it. Yeah. But the house is in the back. Davis and Stanton. Yes, sir. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Any other questions? Mayor. Hi, Councilman.

Uh, do we have an updated timeline of when the lots at Memorial Park will be going up for bid? I wish Kevin was here. I'm sure Scott, do you know Memorial Park, the public process for that? We're still planning to. Okay. Did you hear that? For the record for them, it's June. It sounds like uh Kevin would probably know exactly. He's not here, unfortunately. So, all right.

Thanks, Councilman. But obviously, that's an important project. I do know that the senior and I'm sure you're aware of this, but I'm saying it for the record. The senior complex is delayed because of a loss of state funding, and we're trying to rebound on that. So, that's not going to move forward, but the the lots that you're talking about will. So, thank you. Thanks. it. Mayor, before you leave, I understand that uh we have some students from Monster High School, uh their government class. It's great to see you in our audience, and I'd like to welcome them. Uh so, thank you for joining us.

I usually embarrass them when they come here and take a picture in front of Abraham Lincoln. So, yeah, I think they get extra credit for that. So, anyway, thank you guys. It's nice talking to you. I'll be back uh next council meeting to watch these ordinances move through the process. So, thank you all. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. All righty. Moving on to approval of minutes. I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes from the March 23rd meeting and place them on file. Second. Motion by Councilman Selena, second by Councilman Emerson to approve the minutes of March 23rd and place them on file. Any discussion? Any [clears throat] discussion? Any discussion? All those in favor?

I opposed. Moving on to approval of claims. Madame President. Yes, Councilman Reikos. Motion to approve claims dated at 31826 and ending with claims dated 4826. Claim number 2482 through claim 2927 inclusive the amount of 27 million 111,6234. Second

motion by Councilman Reikos, second by uh Councilman uh Warple uh to approve the claims. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? Cler roll [clears throat] call vote please. Alexander, yes. Spatelli, yes. Kowinsky, yes. Selenus, yes. Tyler, yes. Emerson, yes. Warpel, yes. Rikos, yes. Venez

Uh, claims pass. Nine in favor, zero opposed. Moving on to public hearings. Item eight, ordinance 2609 sponsored by Councilman Fatelli and ordinance appropriating the proceeds of the annual action plan and dealing with other matters pertaining to the expenditure of plan proceeds for program year 2026. Anyone wishing to speak on ordinance number 2609, please approach the podium. Anyone wishing to speak on 2609? Anyone speaking to wishing to speak on 2609? Is there someone on what is it? He just read it.

Clerk Olic just read it. Okay. All righty. Uh, anyone wishing to speak on 2609? Public hearing is now closed. Moving on to communications. [clears throat] Anyone have any communications? Any communications? President Couple. Sorry. Oh, okay. Go ahead, Councilman.

I would just like to announce that I'm hosting a community meeting next Thursday, April 23rd at the Affiliate Steen Center from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Just an opportunity for residents to come and get updates about different projects uh and status of different things within the district. Uh there will be refreshment served and once again that's next Thursday, April 23rd at 5:30 p.m. at the Affiliine Center. Thank you.

Righty. Thank you, Councilman. Um I would like to uh announce that we have a prayer breakfast coming up on Thursday, May 7th. Uh it will be at the Hammond Sportslex beginning at 800 a.m. and tickets are available in community development or you can ask any of us. This is a free uh breakfast. I would also like to announce that coming up on May 20th at 100 pm uh the Hammond FOP and the uh police department will be hosting their fallen office officer memorial service. It's always um a very moving ceremony and uh we pay respect to those who have given their lives in the line of duty. So that is uh May 20th at 100 p.m. at the Hammond Police Department. Uh, also I did pass out to uh all of the council people a uh a letter stating that we had passed the council had passed a uh an ordinance regarding AARP's network of age friendly states and communities. And we're urging any resident 45 years uh of age and over to take this uh this survey to give us an idea of what you would like to see from our community for those of us. Well, we're all aging, you know, it

doesn't matter if you're 18 uh or blah blah blah. So, uh, okay. So, um, please, Councilman, Council Lady, please, uh, pass that information along to, um, your constituents, and I will, uh, continue to pass them out at the Crime Watch meetings. Any other communication? Any other communication? Any other communications? Communications are now closed. Moving on to committee reports. Councilman Reikos.

Yes.

We have capital improvement board met on April 6th. We uh passed four funding allocations. Allocation number 315 was the summer street sewer improvement to Grimmer Construction. Um is it through a grant where we combined sewers on Sherman Street that experienced a major flood on May 23rd and 24th of 2020 where 70 residences were experiencing backups. project directs the storm water from combined sewer on Sherman to the new storm sewer on Summer Street which had the capacity to accept that flow and get it to our sanitary district and that was for $138,000. Next one was the capital improvement board for 2026 annual street resurfacing the amount of 1 million. That is not the wheel tax. That is the amount that normally every year the capital the capital improvement board does approve for reser resurfacing in all districts in the city of H. And the next one was The Marina screenwall design by Butler to Butler, Fairman, and Seertfort Seaffort. Um, [clears throat] it's very interesting one. 352,415. The screen is to be located north side of US 20 1220 and 41 which is Indianapolis Boulevard between Indiana Illinois state line and approximately 923 Indianapolis Boulevard to provide a decorative wall to block the view to the north norfolk and southern railard make it'll make our entrance look much better.

um and a community crossing match grant through the 5050 state and local fund. The local match will be for $872,44020 and that is for 165th Street from Kennedy Avenue to Grand and Reley got that. It was originally supposed to been done last year but it the state didn't have ran out of money for us to do that. They just did the Columbia Avenue one, but now they notified our engineering to let us know that they had some more money and a good job by uh engineer Dean Button to get that uh passed through. That's my report for the capital improvement bill.

All righty. Thank you, Councilman. Uh finance committee will be reporting out, correct, council? Madame President? Yes. the for the committee report for the finance committee. Yes, we will be meeting on April 27th. I misspoke in caucus. Um we'll be considering ordinances 2610 and 2612 at that time at 5:00 pm in the caucus room. Okay. When we get there, that's my committee report for finance committee. Okay. But we're also bringing out 2609. Correct.

Correct. All righty. Thank you, Councilman. Um, Councilman Tyler, do you have anything to report out for economic development? No, economic development committee does not have a report for tonight.

Thank you. Okay. And as usual, I have the uh community and crime watch meetings that are coming up. Uh the East Ham and Pullman Crime Watch is resuming uh meetings. Their next meeting will be Tuesday, April 21st, 6:00 p.m. at the Oilia Stein Center. Edison Community Watch will meet Wednesday, May 6, 6:30 p.m. at Edison School. Harrison Park Crime Watch. It was confusing last week. We didn't meet because nobody was there to open the meeting and I haven't been able to get in touch with the director to see when the next meeting is scheduled. Ordinarily, it would be it would fall on election day and I know he's not going to do that. So, uh stay posted for that update. Jefferson Crime Watch will meet uh Wednesday, May 27th, 6 PM at Jefferson School. Hesville Crime Watch will meet Thursday, May 21st, 6:00 p.m. at the HC3 Community Center on Martha Street. Irving Community Watch will meet Tuesday, April 14th, 9:30 a.m. at Irving School. The South Home and Avenue Neighborhood Watch will meet uh and I didn't write down the day. I have the date. Is it Wednesday?

Thursday.

Thursday. April 30th. Uh 6:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church on the corner of 173rd and Homeman. Whiting Robertsdale crimes will meet Thursday, uh, May 14th, 6:30 p.m. at Calamet College. Um, please take an interest in your neighborhood. Find out what's going on uh not just on your block, but uh in the block surrounding your home. Um, you always get some helpful information and you get to meet some of your neighbors and um and our police officers who patrol our streets and keep us safe because community is not just about me. It's about us. All righty. Community uh committee reports is now closed. Ordinance third reading final passage. Ordinance number 2609 sponsored by Councilman Spatelli and ordinance appropriating the proceeds of the annual action plan and dealing with other matters pertaining to the expenditure of plan proceeds for program year 2026.

President, yes, Councilman Spali final passage of 2609. Second. Uh, who was that? Councilman Selena Emerson. Point of order. A motion by Councilman Spatali. Second by Councilman Emerson. Point of order. Yes, sir. We're introducing this, aren't we? Or no. Pardon me. Is this being Never mind. I I'm not. He's right. I'm wrong. Okay. Thank you.

All righty. So motion by Councilman Spatelli, second by Councilman Emerson. Uh any discussion? Any discussion? Yes, Councilman Spinates the funds outline the budget program. Thank you. Any any other discussion? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Click roll call vote, please. Alexander, yes. Spatelli, yes. Kellwinsky, yes. Selenus, yes. Tyler, yes.

Emerson, yes. Warpole, yes. Reikos, yes. Venez favor, zero opposed. President Venez, that concludes the ordinances for final passage. Thank you, Clerk Goolic. Moving on to introduction of ordinances.

Ordinance 26- uh 10 26-10 sponsored by Councilman Spatelli. An ordinance of the common council of the city of Hammond, Indiana, authorizing the issuance and sale of bonds of the city of Hammond, Indiana to finance the cost of certain public safety equipment and related costs and the issuance and sale of bond anticipation bonds, such as the appropriation for the proceeds derived from the sale of such such bonds and bond anticipation notes and other matters related there too.

Councilman Spectali President the first and second reading we have a uh finance committee meeting set for April 27th, 2026 at 5:15. Second motion by Councilman Spatali, second by Councilman Warple. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? Cleric, roll call vote, please. Alexander, yes. Spatelli, yes. Kowinski, yes. Selenus, yes. Tyler, yes. Emerson, yes. Warpel, yes. Rikos, yes. Venez,

yes. Uh 26 uh 10 passes on first and second reading, nine in favor, zero opposed. Um clerk Olic uh we did discuss in um in caucus that that uh committee meeting on April 27th that 5:15 will be in the caucus room. Okay. So noted.

All righty. Thank you. Item B, ordinance 26-11, sponsored by Councilman Emerson, an ordinance vacating a 125 ft portion of an east west LA south of 175th Street in the 7500 block of Lynen Avenue, City of Hammond, Lake County, Indiana. Madame President. Yes, Councilman. Uh, I move for first reading of ordinance 2611. Second

motion by Councilman Emerson, second by Councilman Selenus for first and second, I'm assuming. Um, of uh 2611. Councilman Emerson. Uh, yes. Uh, Madame President, uh, there will be a closing of an alley in order to build the station and it's enclosed in the ordinance. Uh, I am very proud to sponsor this ordinance for the new fire station. Uh, Councilman, would you like to uh schedule a public hearing on April 27th?

Yes, I would. uh at 5:00 the streets and alleys will meet on uh at 5:00 p.m. on October 27th uh or I'm sorry, October, April 27th in the caucus room. In the caucus room. All righty. Wonderful. Okay. Any other discussion? Councilman Warple. There also is a public hearing on April 27th, 2026. Correct. State that. Yes. Okay. Okay. I'm going deaf tonight.

Okay. Uh any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? Click roll call vote, please. Alexander, yes. Spatelli, yes. Kellinsky, yes. Selenus, yes. Tyler, yes. Emerson, yes. Warple, yes. Reikos, yes. Vanz, yes. Oh, Vanz, sorry, [laughter] M president.

Uh 2611 passes. Nine in favor, zero post. Item C, ordinance 26-12, sponsored by Councilman Warpole, an ordinance of the city of Hammond to amend and adopt certain sections within Title 3, Chapter 37 of the Hammond Municipal Code as it pertains to travel rules and regulations. Madame President, Councilman Warpel,

I move for passage on first and second reading, and I set it for a finance committee hearing in the caucus room at on April 27th at 5:00 p.m. Okay. And finance. Okay. Second. All righty. Motion by Councilman Warple, second by Councilman Rekos. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? Cleric, roll call vote, please. Alexander, yes. Smatelli, yes. Kowinski, yes. Selenus, yes. Tyler, yes. Emerson, yes.

Warpel, yes. Rikos, yes. Venez Yes. 2612 passes. Nine in favor, zero opposed. Um, okay, President Vanz, that concludes the introduction of ordinances.

Moving on to resolutions. [snorts] Item A, resolution 26R-06, sponsored by Councilman Warp. [clears throat] A resolution of the city of Hammond common council designating the funds which distributions of the financial institutions tax or fit and commercial vehicle excise tax CVET shall be receded for the f for the 2025 fall distribution. Madame President,

Councilman Warple. I move for passage of this resolution. Second. Motion by Councilman Warple, second by Councilman Tyler. Any discussion? Madam President? Yes, Councilman.

This is a new requirement set in by the state in order to receipt commercial vehicle excise tax and financial institution tax in a fund other than the general fund. It is the wish of the controller to deposit these funds to the various levy funds based on the percentage of property taxes they receive. Um the financial institution tax totals $99,15 and the distribution goes to the general fund motor vehicle and highway fund park park bond one park part two debt service and CCD. The commercial vehicle excise tax is distributed to the general fund, motor vehicle fund, park fund, the park bond one, park bond 2, debt service and CCD and that amounts to $284,393 and0.

Thank you, Councilman. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Click roll call vote please. Alexander yes. Spatitali. Yes. Kowinski. Yes. Selenus. Yes. Taylor. Yes. Emerson. Yes. Warpole. Yes. Rake. Yes. Venez Yes. Uh 26R06 passes. Nine in favor zero opposed. President Venezol.

Thank you Clerk Ol. Moving on to new and unfinished business. Any new and unfinished business? Any new Madam President? Yes, Councilman Warp.

I noticed as part of the packet that the council has four board appointments due April 25th and that is before our next meeting. Um, one of them is to the building contractor's board and it's Rich Patali. One of them is to the electrical, two of them are to the electrical board. One is a two-year term and that one is Ron Lubis. One is a one-year term. That one is our Jorge Batista Batista. And then the HVAC contractors has a two-year staggered term that Ronnie conso are the sitting members. Um if there's no objection, I make this motion that we um reappoint all four unless we hear otherwise and they can we they can resign and we can make the changes then. But I make a motion that we reappoint all four to the respective boards. I so move.

Second. Second. And second by whom? You a motion by Councilman Warple. Second by Councilman Selenus. Oh, I'm sorry. Councilwoman Alexander. Um uh to reappoint the four members. Now, we had a discussion earlier uh with Councilman Kowinski and Councilman Spatali. Uh do you have any objections to moving forward in this fashion? As long as our clerk or council attorney doesn't object, I don't mind. Attorney Burgger, [clears throat] any objections?

No. Okay. Wonderful. Uh so motion by Councilman Warp, second by Councilwoman Alexander to move forward with the appointments. Um any discussion, Madame President? Yes, sir. Gullik, would you like the names to write down or highlighted in yellow? Those are the current appointments and and you know, unless we hear otherwise from them, we can assume they all okay like to be reappointed. Okay. That's the That's the names of the people that and the boards we're appointing them to. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Cleric, roll call vote, please. Alexander, yes. Spatelli, yes. Kowinsky, yes. Selenus, yes. Tyler, yes. Emerson, yes. Warpole, yes. Rake, yes. Lenz, yes. Motion passes. Nine in favor, zero opposed. Any other new and unfinished business? Madame President. Yes, Councilman.

I it slipped my mind during communications, but we received a press release, I guess, from Ann Taylor, the executive director of planning and development about the downtown Hammond historic property to transform into housing and vibrant retail, which is Lasale Hotel, and it was dated 4226. So, I'd just like at this time to put it in with the communications And what is your request? Speak into the microphone. To add this to the communications we received, put on file. Wonderful. That's it. Okay. All righty.

Uh, anything else? Not that I can think of. Any other new and unfinished business? Any other new and unfinished business? No unfinished business is now closed. Moving on to special zoning action. There isn't anything. Correct. Click. Correct.

Thank you. Okay. Public expression. Thank you. Uh before I call up the people who have signed up, I would like to invite the students from Monster High School to come forward and tell us why you're here. I I know your teacher forced you to come uh and uh say whatever is on your mind. [snorts] Should I just speak into the mic? Use the mic, please. Okay.

Yes.

Okay. So, hi, my name is Sophia Ramirez and I'm here with Monster High School. I'm a senior and I'm in um AP government and we're here for an assignment and we're we first went to a monster town hall meeting and we're here to compare how it's different from Hammond verse monster. We chose Hammond because our friend, she actually lives in Hammond. So, we're like, Hammond resident, if she wants to speak, she can come up. I know you have to be a resident to speak. So, um I will say that this council is larger and I feel like it's more interactive, which I thought was a lot nicer than Monster because they were very straight to the point and uh a little short, direct, if that makes sense. So they also had less attendance which I think could be worked on. So it's nice to see that there was more people at this meeting. And um the mayor was present. I wasn't expecting that. I don't think I don't think Monster has a mayor. I could be wrong about that. I don't know. That's something I have to ask Mr. Gordon. But the mayor was here and it was nice to see him talk and to like kind of like start off the meeting and give his own thoughts and everything. We weren't expecting to get a shout out, but that was nice.

I'm Isabella Maldonado. I'm here. I took government last semester. I am the ride. I drove here, but it was very nice to be here to to experience government happening in our city level. I really liked that or noticing words that pop out that I remember from government caucuses. It was really fun to use my government background to really understand what's going on here. And it was really pretty cool to be a part of government and cool to experience so young how open this is and how everyone is welcome to attend. Yeah, that's for me. Thank you.

Uh hello, my name is Amelia Jinkovski. Um I was just invited by my group of friends to come to this meeting. I am also a senior in Gov. Um I agree with Sophia where the biggest thing that shocked me was probably the fact that there was a mayor here. Um, I wasn't expecting the mayor to be here and I wasn't expecting him to be on the side of the people actually back here. Um, and I just thought it was really nice to see that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us and it's nice to hear your perspective. Alrighty. So, uh, first on our list, Mary Shones. Hi, Mary.

Hi. So, on the on the subject of government, city government transparency, I wanted to bring to your attention uh something that happened at the March 9th city council meeting. Well, first of all, backtrack a little bit. Uh the the mayor mayor McDermott uh wants to bulldoze 16 acres of old growth forest in Hammond, Indiana, and he's hoping that everyone will just kind of quietly forget about it in order to create an overpass and some town homes in there, too. So he wants to bulldoze Old Growth Forest in order to make way for in in Brier Eastwoods to make way for a condo development which will also uh negatively impact the neighborhood of Hesville and uh create um more flooding in that area. But I wanted to talk about the shifting reasons that the that the mayor and some city council members give for this. And uh let's see if I can bring this up.

I've gone over those tracks a lot during school hours and everything and you might see a kid every now and then do something like it wound up on the TV, but it's not a huge issue. I mean any one kid's a huge issue but it's not like there's 20 kids a day doing that.

Okay. So if kids I mean you know granted if if this is some not something that we need why are we spending $20 million to do it. Don't we have any other budget priorities in this city? the the schools are in trouble certainly. Let's see. Here's another one. Let's see if I can bring this up. I have different timestamps here. So, my notes. So, that's okay. I have Here we go.

So, we start doing some analysis. Is this worth $2 million of city money that's hard to come by for a bridge that's going to be used once a year maybe? And then 364 days a year sitting there unused. And I talked to Councilman Councilman Scott just I could see it already. Mayor Tom's bridge to nowhere. The bridge that nobody ever uses. We paid $2 million for. Feds paid for the other 80%. And we just made a decision. It's when Governor's Parkway is built, it will solve a lot of these problems in itself. And we made the decision that the pedestrian bridge wasn't worth it. We got all of the partners that were partnering with us bailed on us. One got fired, the other ones got amnesia. And it would have cost us $2 million for a bridge that's used maybe once a year. So, I gave up on it.

You gave up on it. So, we don't have $2 million to build a bridge in Grand uh for Grand Avenue for kids to safely cross at Morton High School, but we have 10 times that money to put in a pedestrian bridge where it's where the kids will not cross. You may not be listening to us, but we're listening to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, come on. Obviously, someone's not listening. Okay, next. George Stoya.

Hi, George. George Stoy, George Stoy, Robert. Uh, I want to thank the council for at least this initial posting of the uh uh pending or proposal proposed legislation or ordinances or whatever resolution she got going. I am curious and being the type of guy I am, I'm skeptical as to why 2609 was not also posted. It's on this agenda. I feel it should have been posted. And I mean, we have no idea of the scope of this action at all. And granted, it may be like that resolution that's only 99,000. I mean, that's not nothing, but you know what I'm saying. Comparative is relative to everything else, the millions that pass through here at every meeting. Uh uh I'd like to know why there wasn't at least an explanation of why 2609 was not uh made available to us. Thanks.

Thank you, George.

Public expression is now closed. Motion to adjurnn. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Motion by Councilman Selena, second by Councilwoman Alexander. All those in favor? Opposed. Everyone have a good evening.