City Council - Regular Meeting

If you would remain standing for the prayer, please.

Amen. Let's go. Let's roll call vote. Roll call, please.

Rakos? Here. Danez? Here. Let the record show eight present, one by Zoom, and one absent.

uh... it has there been any update from nipsco you didn't mention nipsco at all i suppose they don't want to be mentioned neither i have not heard any updates that you probably haven't seen online or in the paper i can tell you that

Sure, you're welcome. Any other questions?

Yes, yes. Scott, you mentioned about the church there in Michigan. Yes, sir. How you met. When did Nipsco shut that power off? The power is shut off. Yeah, when did they do that?

There hasn't been any activity there since the initial activity.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Any other questions? Thank you, Scott. You're welcome. Thanks. Have a good evening. That's it.

Next is approval of minutes. I make a motion that we approve the minutes from the September 14th, 2026 meeting and place them on file.

Motion by Councilman Salinas, second by Councilwoman Alexander to approve the minutes of September 14th. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next is approval of claims.

Madam President. Yes, Councilman Rakos. Make a motion to pay register claims beginning with claims dated. on 9-9-26 and ending the claims data 9-23-26. Claim number 7290 through the claim number 7701 inclusive in the amount of $7,341,716.80. Second.

Motion by Councilman Rako, second by Councilman Emerson. Any discussion on the claims? Any discussion? Any discussion? Clerk Golick, roll call vote, please.

Yes. Rakels. Yes. Vanes. Yes. Motion carries. Eight in favor, seven in chambers, one virtual and one absent. Moving on to public hearings. Clerk Golick, if you would just read all three of them and whomever chooses to speak can address all three of them. Thank you.

Thank you, Clerk. Anyone wishing to address any of those three items, please approach the podium. Anyone wishing to address 2623, 2624, or 2626? Final call. Anyone wishing to address any of those items, please approach the podium. Public hearings is now closed. Moving on to communications. Madam President. Yes, Councilman.

Thank you for that information. Thank you. Any other communications? Any other communications? Any other communications? Communications is now closed. Moving on to committee reports. Councilman Tyler is not here, so we will not have an economic development report. Councilman Spitali, Planning Commission? No planning report. Thank you. Councilman Warpo, Finance?

No finance report, but 2625 will be brought out for final passage.

Capital Improvement Board? Yes, thank you. Capital Improvement Board met on September 21st, and there were four funding allocations, all of which I'll cover at this moment.

Community and Crime Watch meetings on Tuesday, October 20th. Hammond Pullman Crime Watch will meet at the Ophelia Steen Center at 6 PM. Edison Community Watch will meet Wednesday, October 7th, 6.30 PM at Edison School. Harrison Park will meet Tuesday, October 6th at the VFW on Holman Avenue at 6 p.m. Hessville Crime Watch will meet Thursday, October 14th, 6 p.m. at the HC3 Community Center. Irving Community Watch, now this is one to make note of because we usually meet Tuesdays, 9.30 in the morning. Because school has their fall break, We had to do some juggling and we were also going to chang

I called out 25, but nobody called out the other ones.

Okay, okay, I'm sorry. So. 23, 25, 26. Okay, so for third reading final passage, we will have 2623, 2624, 2625 and 2626, is that correct? Alrighty, thank you. Okay, so we will start off with 2623.

I move for final passage and adoption of 2623. Second. Second.

Motion by Councilman Werpel, second by Councilman Spitali for final passage of 2623. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? Clerk Ollick, roll call vote, please.

Yes, motion carries. Now I lost my count, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Okay, seven in chambers, one virtually, and one absent. Motion carries.

I move for final passage and adoption of 2624. Second.

Motion by Councilman Whirple, second by Councilman Salinas. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? Click, Olic, roll call vote, please.

Yes. Motion carries, seven in favor, one virtually and one absent.

I move for final passage and adoption of 2625. Second.

Motion by Councilman Werpel, second by Councilman Spitali for final passage of 2625. Any discussion?

As we discussed in caucus, these create 3 funds. For the city of Hammond to appropriate monies to last week when I introduced it, I misspoke and said there is no. money allocated to any fund yet and I was incorrect because $5.15 million has been allocated by the PD for the radios and the fire department for a fire engine.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Click-a-lick roll call vote, please.

Yes. Motion carries, seven in favor, one virtually, and one absent.

Thank you. Who would like to carry this?

I move for final passage and adoption of 26-26. Second.

Motion by Councilman Morpel, second by Councilwoman Alexander. Any discussion?

Yes, Madam President. Yes, Councilman Rakos. I would like one to come up and discuss a little bit, because we had questions our last meeting about how this is done with our bonds and stuff. And I also talked to somebody after the meeting. And if you could explain it a little bit more, because we had the committee meeting on it, but some people weren't there for that.

So this is Juan J. Moreno from Economic Development, and he's going to fill us in in light of the fact that Councilman Tyler is not here this evening.

And these bonds are redevelopment bonds or just regular? From, yes, the central allocation area. The central allocation. From our TIF district. Correct. Yeah, okay.

Any other questions? Any other questions?

For the record, this property is formerly Petro's Restaurant, who was in business for over 40 years before they decided to retire and sell the property. I spent a lot of time in there. Over the years, great restaurant, that's just time that they retired. And I know my grandkids can't wait for the new businesses coming.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Thank you, Juan. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you. Clerk Golick, roll call vote, please.

Yes. Motion carries. Seven in favor, one virtually, and one absent.

Thank you. Moving on to introduction of ordinances. There are none. Resolutions.

I move for passage of resolution 26R18. Second.

Motion by Councilman Morpo, second by Councilwoman Alexander for final passage of 26R18. Any discussion?

This, as everyone knows, the storm of August 11th was declared not only a state emergency by the governor, but a federal emergency by the President of the United States. What that basically means is we are eligible for funds made available by both entities. But the catch is we have to pay for the services as they're provided, and then we will be reimbursed by FEMA for 75%. Of the remaining 25%, the governor has agreed to reimburse 75% of that. So what this actually is, is an inter-government inter-government agreement, cooperation agreement with the Little Cal River Basin Development Commissio

Thank you. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Click-o-lick roll call vote, please.

Yes. 26 R18 passes, seven in favor, one virtually, and one absent.

Thank you, Clerk Golick. Moving on to new and unfinished business.

Any other new and unfinished business? I would like to remind everyone that our next scheduled meeting would be October 12th, which is Columbus Day. City Hall is closed on that day, so we moved our meeting to the 13th. So don't come here on Monday. Nobody's going to be here. Any other new and unfinished business? Any other new and unfinished business? Any other new and unfinished business? New and unfinished business is now closed. Special zoning action adopted under Indiana Code 36-7, there is nothing. And next is public expression. I would like to, before we get started, acknowledge the stud

Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you. Next is Esteban Lopez.

Well, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. Thank you. Next time, tell your teacher to come with you. We'd like to meet him. Okay, Lauren Boyd. And if you would give us your address, not the specific address.

Okay, so this is a period for public expression and we do not engage. You don't have to engage. No, no, but what I do want to say is do not leave. Somebody will speak to you after the meeting and give you some direction.

Right. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much.

I'm just speaking from experience. I know this is the public's time, but... Insurance, and I found this all out recently. Insurance companies, you have up to two years to make a claim once a claim is opened and fight with them. I do know that a lot of these contractors these days are coming out and they want you to sign this sheet that gives them the right to negotiate with your insurance company. I caution to read the fine print because what you do when you sign that is you allow them to keep up to 30%. And the only other thing I will say is I do know of some residents that were turned down b

Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Our final speaker of the evening is Mary Shones.

Thank you. That concludes, yes, sir. Yes, of course, you may.

Yes, it says first sign in. Okay, thank you. Yes, because I had given mine away. Okay, thank you, thank you. All righty, that concludes our public expression. And kickoff is in about 20 minutes, so. Do we have a motion to adjourn? Yeah. Second. There we go. All those in favor? Who's dying? No. I'm sorry, George. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, George. I didn't, I saw your name and I forgot. George Stoya, are you interested in speaking?

We have a motion on the table. Is there a motion on the table?

You said all in favor. All in favor. All in favor.

Okay, but what do I do? Okay, George, go ahead. No, I was just saying I had nothing to say.