City Council - Regular Meeting

Our goal is to ensure transparency, fairness, and thoughtful discussion as we evaluate this request and determine what recommendation, if any, should move forward to the full council. I'm going to give you a quick overview of the request. The applicant is SMO Indiana Inc., location 4,400 North Superior Drive, Muncie, Indiana. The request is for a five-year tax abatement for approximately $9.4 million in new manufacturing equipment. I'm going to list a couple of the equipments, injection molding, vibration welding, and intake manifold assembly equipment. regarding jobs, the application states 188 retained jobs and nine additional jobs, and the proposed deduction schedule year one is 100, year two 80%, year three 60%, year four 40%, and of course year five 20%. Do we have anyone to speak regarding this abatement, please?

Good evening committee, thank you. Tracy Lutton with the Economic Development Alliance in Muncie, Delaware County, here to support ASCMO's application for a payment. I've spent quite a bit of time with the company over the last several months, learning about opportunities in front of them, the current project that you're considering tonight, and it's been exciting to hear about the continued investment in Muncie that's happened over the time since they first located here in 1999. and Muncie remains stable. And so tonight's project represents the next step in that continued stability. I think it's important to share that not only do they compete with other companies against other ASTMO locations around the United States and even right here in Indiana. So as you consider this abatement, please keep in mind that this affects their overall competitiveness and how this facility is evaluated when future investments might be able to be made here and new programs are coming online company-wide. so i attached some supporting documentation to the resolution that you have in front of you are emailed if you need a copy we have this here tonight but it includes an abatement schedule and this is an estimate to support the discussion here to give you a general understanding of the potential for abatement I'm not saying that this is precise to the penny, but it's a calculation based on known factors today. And it also does take into consideration recent changes to Indiana law pertaining to business personal property exemption and depreciation. So their proposed investment in business personal property is $9.4 million. Obviously, this is a phased in abatement. That doesn't mean that they don't have to pay taxes on this investment. They certainly do. In fact, this investment will generate an estimated $304,564 in new tax increment. This is in a TIF district in the air park, so those funds will go there to be controlled by the Muncie Redevelopment Commission. And it'll provide a savings to the company of approximately $259,000. So the city receives more than the company receives in benefit. So I also want to note that they are also expanding the real estate of their property. They're expanding the building. They are not seeking an abatement on that piece of the investment, and they'll outline what that looks like during their presentation. So with that, I really thank you for your consideration and your support, in particular, Councilperson Sylvie, for coming out and taking a tour and asking really great questions of the company. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Hi, my name is Kevin Mulhern. I'm the site lead for Astimo Muncie. And on behalf of Astimo, I want to thank you guys for taking a look at the information that we sent. Really appreciate that and for having us here today. And I'd like to introduce a couple of my associates, Ms. Victoria Collier, who's our finance and accounting manager, and Mr. Toby Buchanan, who's our operations and department head. So thank you again. I'm gonna fly through this information. I understand we don't have much time. So we are a conglomerate of several companies. We were brought together just recently and I'll leave it at that. So we do a lot of different things. We are a technology company. We do have products that involve the internet of vehicles and autonomous driving. We are part of the powertrain division. We make intake manifolds, but we can make just about anything. We started out making HVAC assemblies, now we're doing HVAC intakes. All our locations are flexible. We can do just about anything anywhere, which makes us competitive, right? So that's all good. We also build chassis system products, brakes, struts, shocks, steering systems, drive shafts. We also do two-wheel motorcycle systems for all the similar products. We're selling aftermarket. under our brand names for our co-companies. And we're also a global company. And you can see the regions. We're globally all over the world. Our landmark, our presence is well known. We are a tier .5 supplier since we are partially owned by Honda. We're a subsidiary of Honda. We sell to all the major OEMs. 52% of our business is Honda, which is terrific. Honda does very well on the market. So that's all wonderful, so great customer base. You can see central Midwest United States, Southeastern United States. We have sales offices, also have locations in California. We have a location in Canada. locations in Mexico, Brazil, and you can see the layout for our Muncie, Esmo Muncie site, and some of the intake manifolds we make. When you hear intake manifold, you think we just make one intake manifold. We have multiple models to multiple customers. And we also have lots of room to expand. We have 20 acres. 100,000 square foot building currently and actually 188 associates at this time. This gives you a timeline of our product history and when we transition to intake and I'm sure you guys have already taken a look at that. So pretty significant change to go from a HVAC assembly to intake manifold to go from HVAC to powertrain to engine which has several different customers. So really good job by our folks and by our management team to bring this all to fruition. As far as our layout, we'll talk more about the expansion. We'll be, we're gonna, initially we wanna, and number one, you can see our new expansion will allow up to five injection molding machines. The second box there is the new assembly line for volume increase for our, AP3 is an engine code for hybrid engines. which is actually doubling the hybrids are. So that's great for the powertrain group. And then we're anticipating the transfer of the V6 intake manifold line from our greenfield location, which will bring additional revenue. And then this is just a layout. I won't go into that. We are expecting the, we'll be looking at the V6 intake move in the end of FY28. And then the expansion numbers, I think Tracy's talked a little bit to that. You can see the investment and the associate related issues. One thing to point out is the percentage of Muncie residents is 69.7%. And for Delaware County, it's approximately 80%. So our folks here are great. We have great associates and they do a wonderful job. And that's why we have these opportunities. We have additional opportunities. We can't really get into too much detail there, not just because of time, but we can't provide that information until those actual products and customers are landed. But one thing of note, the investment will increase significantly if given the appointment of those projects. and the headcount will increase significantly as well. So something else to keep in mind. And this goes on for several years. Model runs run five years, and that's awesome. And currently, I must say, with the changes in the geopolitical environment, We're getting expansions from current products, so this also adds to the volume and the capacity requirements for our facility. This really just shows we're thinking about additional expansion with additional prospects, so potentially additional 25,000 square feet. And then you guys have talked about economic impact and what it means to the community. We really understand that. And we're proud to be here as part of this community. And you can see the numbers as far as Delaware County payroll impact, county business impact, property tax impact, and the total impact. Of course, that's all 2025 data. Also, our associates for Delaware County, you can see Muncie, we have 152 associates. that Asimov has 150 associates that live in Delaware County, 131 which live in Muncie, and you can see that breakdown. And as far as employee engagement, Whoops, excuse me. We do have, you know, we do great things for our folks, because our folks do great things for us. You know, we're one team, and we really, we're a family, we're a work family. We have a clinic, as you can see. We have on-site temporary, on-site staffing agencies. We celebrate all the holidays with our folks. We participate in school supply drives. You can see pumpkin giveaways, Valentine's Day celebrations, December holiday seasons. Sometimes we wear funny outfits and look pretty silly, but it's for a good cause. And then also, you know, Women's History Month we celebrate. We have quarterly cookouts for our folks where the management team actually cooks for our associates. We celebrate Easter, Black History Month. We do holiday gift exchanges. You know, it goes on and on and on. Memorial Day raffles. You know, we recognize our servicemen and women. We take them to the Speedway annually, which is great. They seem to enjoy that very well. We celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Mother's Day, and we also celebrate our local interns. You know, we're lifelong learners, and we have four interns currently from Ball State, and they're doing wonderful. They're great, and hopefully we'll be able to hire those folks in the future. We also have a food pantry in-house.

I'm sorry, we have three more minutes remaining. I'm sure the committee members might have questions for you. I just want to make sure that their questions are answered.

We can probably stop right there since you guys have the information.

Mr. Green, we'll start with you. I apologize.

No, no, no, I understand. I know your original submission, the additional employees is at nine. Do you anticipate that to grow?

beyond that as as project that also satisfy current capacity requirements as These projects come to fruition if they do come to fruition we get the business more competitive. We anticipate our employment to grow to 60 Additional additional. I'm sorry.

Yes How much total tax savings over the whole five years I

I believe the estimate was, Tracy might be able to speak to that more accurately.

Yes, so the five-year abatement will, it's an estimated savings of $259,668 to the company, but the city will receive $304,564.

Could you repeat the savings for the city, please? Yes, absolutely.

So the savings to the company is $259,668 with a five-year phased-in abatement, and then it'll generate to the city $304,564. And I do have a report with the breakdown year over year, if you'd like a copy of that. Do you need a copy of that? Actually, I think it might have set one up there. You got it? Okay.

I do have a question. Okay, so I'm going to combine two questions. Would the company agree to annual compliance and wage reporting? And would the company support clawback provisions if commitments are not met?

Well, they do have an annual filing requirement, the annual CF1 form that they'll have to file, which you'll be able to line up with the statement of benefits that's provided tonight to compare to see if they've met their obligation. And then I believe the council does have the wherewithal or the call within your duties to rescind that abatement if they're not meeting their obligations.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Yes.

A couple questions real quick. Your expansion on the increase in square footage. Would you be using local labor for that? Yes. Okay. And the equipment for the new lines that you're putting in, are those already in place? Do you have the equipment? Are you gonna use local machine shops and those in the area that can help to manufacture those machines

For you or you're looking to go outside of the state, of course some of it specialized, but yeah, we are working with local Engineering firms and we we work with the look got to die in tool shops you work with right? So yes to answer question Yes, we will.

Okay. Thank you What are the expected wage ranges for the new nine positions same as what's on the application I And then one more, are the management and supervisory salaries included in the average wage calculation?

No, they're not.

They're not, okay. Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Any other questions?

No more questions.

No, no. You? No. No more, okay. Thank you. Well, I'm gonna give you guys a minute to decide if you would like to give them a favorable or unfavorable recommendation that I can let the council know about. Mr. Mason?

They've got everything in place So as we conclude this meeting and adjourn this meeting I would I am going to move forward

and let an issue of favorable recommendation from the committee to the full council regarding Estimo Indiana Inc. for their tax abatement request subject to annual compliance reporting and any requirements set by law or the council. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for your questions and for the opportunity.

Thank you. By this we conclude our tax abatement committee meeting. Thank you.

We're going before resolution 10-26, the additional appropriations resolution of the Common Council of the City of Muncie regarding relating to the fire station number five project. Is there anyone wishing to speak on this resolution? Seeing and hearing none, we'll move on to resolution 11-26, authorizing the entry by the city of Muncie into Indiana into a bought agreement, related documents for the fire station number five project, and taking certain other action related thereto. Anyone else wishing to speak on resolution 11-26?

Christopher Bilbrey. I thought I would stand and just speak on both of these resolutions as it's all related. I think the council needs to consider this evening to table both of these resolutions and continue to keep Ordinance 926 tabled. The council first was brought Ordinance 926 last month. You guys tabled it and you called for a public service committee to be held and for the public and the administration to be aware and come and answer questions before the committee, uh, the administration, meaning the mayor's office, the controller's office, the city attorneys, the bond council failed to do that. The fire department came and spoke, but they were unable to answer any of the most serious questions. I feel that this body has a duty to the citizens, to yourself, to the administration, to the firemen, to get as much information about resolution 1026, 1126, and ordinance 926 before moving forward. Tonight's meeting is going to be a long meeting, and I don't know that it's respectful to anybody for the administration and those entities to try and cram that information into this meeting tonight. I think you need to table these, keep Ordinance 926 tabled, call for a second public services committee to be held, and let the administration know if they want to move forward with this, that they will attend that meeting and answer the questions. And if they don't, then Ordinance 926, Resolution 1026, and Resolution 1126 can remain tabled. Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to speak this evening on these resolutions? Seeing and hearing none, we'll adjourn. Meeting July 6, 2026, to our regular meeting. We'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Jerry Deschman, will you lead us in the Pledge, please?

I pledge 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.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, a day that you have made. We ask that you collect our minds so that we may come to rational decisions on what we're here to discuss today. We ask that everybody act in a civil manner. In these things, Jesus, we ask in your name. Amen.

Amen.

Mr. Mason, the floor is yours. For citizen recognition. Yes. Is he here? I don't see him.

Is my man here? Yeah, he's here. I don't think he's here. Then I'll do it anyway. Good evening. Good evening. I would like to recognize a young man this evening that I had the honor to watch grow up and become a young man who carved out his own path. You know, in life sometimes we fall.

Door's locked. Door's locked. Maybe it's .

There he is again.

Okay.

We're here this evening to honor a young man who I've had the pleasure of knowing for quite some time. I watched him grow up as a kid. You know, growing up as a young man, sometimes kids grow up and they become young men. And sometimes they fall and have to pull themselves back up. This young man did just that. Along that way, we sometimes pick themselves up and some don't. But Howard Miller is one who fell, chose to pick himself up, and carve a new path in life. That path was cooking. Howard loved being in the kitchen as a child when his mother was cooking. He was her taste tester, he says. He applied for and received his food services LLC in 2019 to start what is now known as Unks Barbecue. In 2023, he married Sarah Bass. Since going into business, Mr. Miller has received several recognition awards for his barbecue, including outstanding customer service, satisfaction for online reviews, letters of recognition for best barbecue in 2026 by business rate. Howard remembers as a kid with no money, and that's why he has no problem with giving back to help others. Howard gives back to his community by providing meals to sick, elderly, and anybody who needs a good meal but don't have the means to buy one. He gives God all the glory and honor and is grateful for all he is doing in life. Please help me in welcoming the July 2026 Citizen of the Month Award to Mr. Howard Miller, owner and operator Now, Howard told me to let you guys know there's a, what's it called? A truck and tent.

I do touch the trucks every year for the city of Muncie. We'll be doing it on the 10th, this Friday coming up.

And he will be out there, so if you want to get a taste of some good barbecue, you're welcome to come on and get some.

Or if you don't get none there, you're welcome to come by my barbecue establishment, and I'll bless you. All right. All right, thank you. 1315 East Hines.

here here here here present move on to the approval of minutes

I have a motion.

Mr. President, I would like to make a motion, but I do have a, I would like to make a recommendation. Mrs. Veach's last name is misspelled. It needs to be V-A-C-H. And if we could amend that with that, I can make a motion to accept the minutes as amended.

What's the correct spelling?

V-E-A-C-H. V-A-C-H. And it's, yeah, four times, five times. Okay. Thank you. With that, I would like to motion to accept the minutes as amended. We take a motion to amend and then a motion to adopt as amended.

Do we have a second?

Second. Thank you.

Roll call.

Clarification. We're voting on the amendment.

Correct. Yes.

yes yes yes yes yes entertainer motion for approval minutes I so move as meant as amended

And we have a second. Roll call. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. So we're moving on to appointments to boards and commissions. Muncie School Board, we need Three recommendations this evening.

I would like to recommend Ms. Watasha Barnes-Griffin as being one of the three recommendations from the council.

Do we have another?

Mr. President, I have a nomination for Dr. Lena Burkhart. Dr. Burkhart currently serves on Dr. Reynolds' CEO Advisory Council, a committee comprised of a parent representing students from each school. She's also the Director of Counseling Practicum Clinic in the Department of Counseling Psychology, Social Psychology, and Counseling at Ball State University. She has two children who attend Muncie Community Schools, and both will be at Central next year.

Mr. President, I have a nomination. Yes. For Sister Ashaki Goodall. And I'm hoping she's in the audience. She said she'd be here. There she is. If she wants to speak on her background, if you allow that, sir. Yes.

Mr. President, are we seconding nominations? Because I would like to second.

We're going to vote.

Don't we need to second nominations? I would like to second your nomination, Mr. Councilman McIntosh.

Did Mike get a second?

I don't think anyone has.

We didn't yet.

I'm letting her speak.

Okay. I will second Mr. Basham's. Okay. I'll second. Yeah. Okay. So we have two seconds.

Yeah. Okay.

All right. Good evening, Council President and members of Muncie City Council. My name is Ashaki Goodall, and I am honored to be considered for a nomination to serve on the Muncie Community Schools Board of Trustees. I currently serve as the Interim Executive Director of Motivate Our Minds, and I am the founder of AG Squared Group, where I work with school districts, educators, and workforce development organizations across the country to help young people prepare for college, careers, and life. For more than 30 years, I've dedicated my career to one guiding belief. Every child deserves access to opportunities that help them discover their purpose, develop their potential, and build a future filled with possibility. My connection to Muncie is both personal and deeply rooted. Although I made Muncie my permanent home in 2023, this community has been part of my life for decades. Growing up, I spent many summers here and throughout my college years. I have long admired the resilience, the pride, and strong sense of community that makes Muncie such a special place. In many ways, moving here was not simply a relocation, but it was a homecoming for me. Muncie holds a special place in my family's story. My sister was born here. Both of my parents are Ball State University alumni who earned their master's degrees here and dedicated their careers to education. My mother went on to serve as a college history department dean on the East Coast. My uncle is also a Ball State alumni and currently serves as a sports journalist with the Associated Press. My grandmother graduated from Ball State University School of Nursing, and my grandfather, the late Hurley Goodall, was elected to the Muncie Community School Board in 1970, serving two four-year terms before continuing his public service as a state representative. Education transformed the lives of generations in my family, and those Muncie connections helped shape my own commitment to public service. They taught me that strong schools create opportunity, strengthen communities, and change the trajectory of lives. That belief has guided my career and is one of the reasons I am seeking the opportunity to serve the students, families, and community of Muncie today. If you don't know it, I am passionate about helping young people see possibilities beyond what they can currently imagine for themselves. I want every student to understand that what they are learning in school matters, not just for a test, not just for a grade, but for the life that they will build. Too often students ask, why do I need to know this? And I believe it is our responsibility to help them find that answer. Reading, writing, communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and problem solving are not just academic skills. They are career skills. They are life skills. They are transferable skills that will serve students whether they become teachers, entrepreneurs, health care professionals, skilled trades people, engineers, artists, or community leaders. When students understand the why behind their learning and they can connect that classroom experience to their dreams and their aspirations, they become much more engaged, much more motivated, and more confident in their ability to succeed. If I am selected, I will bring educational leadership experience, a collaborative spirit, and an unwavering commitment to student success. Most importantly, I will bring a passion for helping Muncie students discover who they are, embrace what they are capable of becoming, and recognize that their education is a pathway to opportunity. My grandfather believed that when you invest in young people, you invest in the future of the community. Over 50 years ago, my grandfather answered that call to serve the students of Muncie. Today, I am asking for an opportunity to continue that tradition, not out of obligation, but out of a deep belief in the promise of our young people I believe every student deserves to understand not only what they are learning, but why it matters because when young people discover that purpose in their learning, they discover the real possibilities for their future. My grandfather's legacy in Muncie was about opening doors. If selected, my commitment is to help ensure that every student in Muncie Community Schools has the knowledge, the skills, the opportunities, the access, and the sense of purpose to walk through those doors. Thank you.

good evening council watasha barnes griffin 308 north mangrove lane muncie indiana 47303 you all have my information i've sent it to you all but just wanted to come and stand before you as the current current sitting um trustee member um i am super excited to be in this space i thank you all for um in 2018 giving me the opportunity to be one of those considered for for the role and I don't take that lightly. As a woman, as a woman leader, as a black woman leader, education is important. I think you all know that. But I grew up first in Macedonia, five points, right? Just a girl with single parents. Mama was 17, daddy was 18 when they had me, so I graduated twice from Muncie Central. Did y'all, y'all didn't get that?

No.

Anyway, so my day job is that I am the executive director of the YWCA Central Indiana. You all know that we have an emergency shelter program there. And not only am I the employer, but I'm a mom, a product of Muncie Community Schools, my children, my cousins, nieces, nephews, family and friends, but the people that I serve every day, those children who find themselves unhoused, those kids who have been through neglect and just haven't had the chance. I see that, and I see what the power of education can do, and I see those mothers who are struggling to ensure that their kids have a better chance than they do. And so as I sit on this current trustee board, there are very specific specialties that we all have, and mine is simply community engagement, just to remind them of what marginalized communities look like, how the changes and the decisions that we make impact our lower resource communities, and I'm a fierce advocate for that. I don't think that every kid has to be going to college I don't think every kid has to follow one specific path but I do believe in that whatever it takes to get that kid to the next level whether that's career CTE whether that's just a solid work environment or college or the like like we just want them to be educated and I am proud of the work that we have done in the last several years I mean you know that we went from a deficit to having stabilized our financials we have increased teacher compensation. We want to recruit and retain qualified teachers. We are being very strategic about going out to find those educators that can come to the district and help it continue to grow. We have even compensated our support staff, admin team. We have done capital projects and we're doing facility infrastructures. Look at, you know, Muncie Central, look at what we're doing, not just for athletics, but for academics. We saved almost $10 million this year with kids who go to Muncie Central who got their associates from Ivy Tech, right? So we have about 150 kids already going into the workforce with an associate's degree. And I can continue to name the things that we are doing. I am a person who is a believer of the public vote, right? And so when this school, when the state was decided to take us over, I was one that was like, nope, not for it. Nope, I would not apply to be a part of this work. But then I thought, This is my community, right? This is the educational institution that raised me and my family. And so, you know, if I'm selected, I'll go and I'll serve. And when I say I serve, I will serve. I'm not afraid to say the hard thing. When I'm in the room and I'm sitting at that table, there are six males and two females. But when I'm sitting at that table, I take my whole community in there with me. And I know you all know that it's, you know, very specific types of work and you don't see all of that on display in a meeting, but you can see it in our test scores. You can see it in, you know, the awards that we win. You can see it in the cradle to career initiatives. You can see that we're really leaning deeply into having teachers and educators that look like all of us in our schools to work with the kids who need it most. And so I just beseech you on today asking that you consider me for a recommendation to Ball State University. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Are there any other nominations from the council?

Mr. President, remind us, we are voting for three candidates to go to President Mearns and the board, and one will be selected. That is correct. Is that correct?

That's correct. Okay. So all those in favor, we have another one?

No, I was just going to say, since there were only three candidates, Candidates do we need to go through the we'll just simply this by acknowledge that we?

agree with that all those in favor signify by saying aye aye those opposed I Have it so all three will be sent on We have one appointment to the Opelhead Advisory Committee. We have a nomination for that. Yes. I'm sorry.

Yes. Mr. President, I would like to nominate, re-nominate Corey Matters back onto this board. When we set this up, we had to stagger people. So he's just been on there for one year. And he is interested in continuing to serve.

I would like to.

Any other nominations?

May I ask a question? In the packet, it indicated that this committee is to be politically balanced. Do we know what political balance we're trying to achieve here? Are we selecting a Republican or a Democrat to make it politically balanced? Do we know that? It was not indicated in the packet.

Yeah, I can't speak to Mr. Matters' political affiliation, but if he was on it and it was balanced before, I would assume it was.

Yeah, kind of clarifies that.

Seven members, no more than four of any party. Mr. Baxter, he identifies as independent.

Oh. Are there any other nominations? Signify by saying aye those that agree with this. I have one for the youth center committee.

We met on June 2nd, no not 2nd, but yeah, June 29th. Um, the meeting we had, we were trying to do the best. We've got to remember we're in the infancy of, of still trying to get this committee together. Um, and things, uh, that we were trying to discuss and find out how we're going to handle this situation. Um, with the, with the, uh, current mayor not being there and the deputy mayor was, there was questions he could not answer and decided that we should get a bylaws drawn up first so we can move forward. But I do want to remind everyone that in the first meeting of May 29th, we were told that that money was going to go at the Mark Church, which was not stated in the beginning. It's what I was really passionate about because I thought it was going to be in the industry where it said, last meeting, the council unanimously voted that we put it in an industry neighborhood. How this is going to come about, I still don't know. Like I said, we're still in the infancy of it, so that's all I can really say on it at this time.

Thank you.

Mr. President the tax abatement committee met today July 6 at 630 here in City Council and it was The committee was Mr. Mason mr. Held Mason is a member and mr. Jeff Green is a member and myself and we had a short presentation from Estimo Indiana Inc and we Listen to their presentation and then we followed that by questions both of my colleagues gave a favorable Recommendation for it to come in front of the council and so do I they will have the up We are just an advisory board and they will come in front of the council who makes the whole council makes that decision and they will present their full presentations and every council member and would be able to ask questions. So we did, I want to advise my colleagues that we did as a committee give them a favorable recommendation. Thank you. Thank you.

Do you have a committee report?

No, I don't have a committee report, but I would actually like to ask a question of one of the committee chairs. Is that allowed? Finance chair, Councilman Basham. The pre-budget worksheet was completed. Do you, did you receive the information from that?

I have not.

Okay. And the budget workshop is scheduled. Do you have that date?

Yes, I do.

What is that?

Um, let me see here. Do you have that date?

Um, okay.

Okay.

Um, will you,

either email out or in the public bring a report from that meeting sure thank you I appreciate that all right thank you yes on June 26 at 6 p.m. in this auditorium the Public Services Committee met and Sarah Gullion led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. We had roll call. Jeff Green was there and Sarah Gawian and myself was there. And we started off with a presentation from Greg Martz from GM Development. He gave a pretty good, real nice presentation. which he might give it tonight if the President Green lets him do it. And Sarah Gullion asked a lot of questions about where the temporary building was going to be at and if the $400,000 is going to be reimbursed for the building that they're gonna put up, and Chief Burford says that it wasn't, it's part of the deal for them using the property. And also, she asked about the size of the building, how many people are gonna be in it, and a few other questions like that. Then we went on to Jeff Green. Jeff Green asked a couple of questions about the budget. Of course, nobody was there for the budget, so we have to wait till tonight for people to ask those questions. And I asked some questions about if there's going to be a two-story building and they said yes it was and it's going to have a stairway and he said yes and i says it's going to have the pole like the fire departments usually have when they have two storey and he says yes and uh and i think sarah asked about the the the quarters for the men and the women, and he said there's gonna be about 10 in there, and I think Sarah asked why so many, and... He told her that there would be other EMTs there staying and learning EMTs and a place where they can park their ambulances and stuff in there, in the garage and stuff. But it was a pretty productive meeting. It lasted almost two hours. And there was about 12 people in the public that showed up for it. Overall I was satisfied with other than the no one that was here for the budget part of it But they're supposed to be here tonight.

So Thank you That was committee

I'm not read it. I just got it.

We can pass it out as long as they all have copies. All right. Any other committee reports?

I don't have a committee report.

Go ahead.

I think that the opioid. Any recommendations for that?

Jerry, was there a recommendation? Was there a recommendation? Positive or negative?

No.

No recommendation? No recommendation, yes.

Just to remind you that the Ethics Committee wanted to speak. Yes.

Yes, good evening. My name is Sandra Whitaker, and I am currently serving on the Ethics Commission as Vice Chair. And we'd like to announce that the Commission will hold a public meeting this Wednesday, July 8th, at 5.30 in the Muncie Sanitary District Conference Room. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Susan Dillon. I'm serving as chair of the Muncie Ethics Commission. We're here just to remind you that you do have a Muncie Ethics Commission, and we are working hard to do what we've been commissioned to do, which is increasing transparency and trust in our local government. This is an open invitation for you to come and see us in action on Wednesday evening. But we also want to encourage you, if you don't make it to our meetings, check out the portal through the Ethics Commission portal. See what we're doing. If you have questions, approach us. If you have something that you'd like us to help you with, let us know because we're here to serve you. And finally, we just want to thank you for the opportunity to serve you all in this fashion.

Thank you. Could you remind us again the time on Wednesday?

5.30. 5.30.

Thank you. Any other commissions, committee reports?

I have no committee report. I was just going to ask if I could direct a question to our legal counsel.

Yes, go ahead.

Mr. Anderson, could you clarify for the people who are here with one of our members absent? What will happen if a vote is a tie between If something came up four to four, what would that mean for that piece of legislation?

It's failed because there's not a majority. So anything that requires a majority vote, the Muncie Ordinance says that that majority has to be of the council, not of the members that are present. So a four-four vote would be a fail. That doesn't necessarily kick that into the one-year prohibition on bringing something back, but it would be in terms of a vote for this evening fail.

Thank you.

And I would say that the minutes should reflect that the failure was due to the tied vote and not that it was not adopted.

I just want to make sure that council and that the public was aware of that situation.

Okay, moving on. Ordinance is previously introduced.

Ordinance 10-26. 9-26.

Ordinance 926.

Ordinance 9.

Yeah. It was introduced last month. It was.

Yeah, so 926, since it was in committee, it needs a majority vote to, it was voted into a committee. It needs a majority vote to come out of the committee. And then it was introduced, but it was sent to a committee. So it's gonna need a majority vote from council to come out.

So how's that stated then this evening in order to do that?

But somebody needs to make a motion to bring that out of the committee. And a second, and then a roll call vote. And then it can come back up for a vote for adoption.

May I ask a question? Yeah. Can we not discuss it until that's been done? No discussion, I would imagine, until it's been .

Well, it's still with the committee, and so to have any kind of discussion, it needs to be brought out of the committee, or the committee can continue its discussion if it doesn't have a majority vote to come out.

Mr. President, may I ask a question? Yes. Again, if a motion and a second is offered, and to bring it out of committee, and it's a four to four vote, it remains in committee. Is that correct?

That's correct. Okay. So we'll entertain a motion to bring out a committee, Ordinance 9-26.

With that said, I will request Ordinance 9-26 to be taken out of committee so we can discuss it.

Do we have a second?

I second.

Okay. Roll call.

Yes. No. No. Yes.

No.

No.

Yes.

Yes.

So it stays in committee.

Moving on to Ordinance 10-26.

Ordinance 10-26, an ordinance for additional appropriation, Muncie Police Department.

Mr. President, I make a motion that we adopt Ordinance 10-26.

We have a second.

I'll second that.

Any discussion?

Mr. President, do we need to, do we need to amend a piece, do we need to amend this ordinance noting that the first whereas needs to be amended to read Muncie Police Department instead of Muncie Fire Department?

Yes.

Correct. Okay, I make that motion.

I'll second that.

And then vote on that.

those in favor of changing the wording from the Muncie Fire Department to the Muncie Police Department roll call please yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Mr. President, I make a motion that we adopt Ordinance 10-26 as amended.

I second that.

Roll call.

Is there any discussion? No?

Did you ask for discussion? No, he did not. Comment? I don't think they're discussing or commenting. You voted on the amendment, correct? So it's amended now. You've already had a vote to adopt in a second, so it's got to be opened up.

Open for discussion. Okay. Any questions from council or anyone concerning ordinance 10-26?

Mr. President, I would just like to make the comment to the public that this is actually just the housekeeping ordinance. This was because of a kick out in Gateway Fund 105 and 106, which pertain to our local income taxes for our police and fire departments, were inadvertently kicked out of Gateway. So this is just putting the money back into those budgets that we appropriated last year. So these are housekeeping issues.

Mr. President, I do, and legal, I do have a concern. I do believe that Mr. Jagen has turned in his resignation, correct, Mr. Jagen? And I think we forgot to do that at the beginning, so I would like to bring that. Well, finish this, and then we'll do it. And then we'll do it, okay. So that's what I'm planning to do, except yours.

Maybe after the previously introduced orders, just wait to get through this class, and then, yeah. Okay, thank you so much. I'll be here all night, though. Yes.

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

Unfortunately, our legal counsel is going to be leaving us after this meeting tonight. So we have to come up with new legal counsel. And we do have opportunity to nominate legal counsel this evening for our next meeting in August. So we'd like to know if there are any nominations from counsel for legal.

I would like to nominate Mr. Brandon Murphy as our legal counsel. Mr. Murphy has served the council before for a short period of time, so that is my nomination. I would second that. Okay.

Any other nominations? Hearing and seeing none, I can signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Mr. Murphy will be our new legal counsel.

Congratulations, Mr. Murphy.

And congratulations to Attorney Arnold for his new job. Thank you.

Thank you. And you'll be in perfectly capable hands.

Thank you. Okay. Moving on. Ordinance 11-26.

Ordinance 11-26, an ordinance for additional appropriation, Muncie Fire Department.

Mr. President, I make a motion that we adopt Ordinance 11-26. Do we have a second?

I second. Okay. Any discussion? Questions from council or audience? Roll call.

Yes.

Mr. McIntosh?

Yes.

Ms. Selby?

Yes. Mr. Mason?

Yes. Ms. Powell? Yes.

Mr. Dixon? Yes. Ms. Gillian?

Yes.

And President Reed?

Yes. Moving on, it's 12-26.

Ordinance 12-26 being an ordinance to amend the city of Muncie comprehensive zoning ordinance from the R2 residence zone to the BV variety business zone on premises located at 4600 North Wheeling Avenue, Muncie, Indiana.

Mr. President, I make a motion that we adopt Ordinance 12-26. Do we have a second? I'll second.

Any discussion concerning this? Questions from council or audience? I'm all in favor of this ordinance vote and move forward but the public's asking if council president green could speak up because they're not being able to hear you thank you any other questions concerning ordinance 12-26 seeing and hearing none we've had first and second the roll call please yes

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. New ordinances. Ordinance 11, or excuse me, 13-26.

Ordinance 13-26 being an ordinance to amend the text of the City of Muncie comprehensive zoning ordinance regarding a new McKinley neighborhood overlay district.

Mr. President, I move that we introduce ordinance 13-26. I'd like to second that.

Questions?

Good evening, Council. Kylene Swackhammer from the Planning Commission. This is a consideration for an addition to the City of Muncie Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance to establish an overlay district designated as the McKinley Overlay District, outlined in the presented language with tailored regulations in an effort to guide future development. This application comes out of a grassroots-led initiative to protect, preserve, and promote the unique character and sense of place of the McKinley neighborhood. The overlay district regulations would set appropriate design standards of similar quality, require consistent yet complementary designs, and capitalize on the area's current assets. One goal is to incorporate the historic fabric of the neighborhood while setting high quality benchmarks for attracting new and exciting development. The organized group leading this consideration drew upon the existing overlay districts, the Village Review District and the White River Canal District. These current overlays have been in effect since 2013 and 2018 respectively. The McKinley live, learn redevelopment opportunities plan, comprehensive revital revitalization, vision, and design guidelines also provide strong backing to this proposal. The proposal consists of six areas with unique purpose and intense and includes regulations for street scapes, lighting, awning, signage, landscaping, building forms, design materials, fencing, parking, and mixed-use opportunities, just to name a few. These guidelines would promote a vibrant and unique mix of residential and commercial development with a strong pedestrian-friendly, village-like atmosphere. A DMMPC planner reviewed and offered suggestions on the initial draft proposal and those suggestions were incorporated into the draft prior to the plan commission meeting. The DMMPC received 21 letters of support for the proposal and no letters in opposition. The plan commission gave a favorable recommendation with a vote of eight to zero with one absence with the addition of a maximum fence height eight feet for a privacy fence and six feet for trash screening and that recommendation was incorporated into the draft that you received Rebecca Hanna one of the committee members that worked on drafting the proposal will present the presentation thank you thank you thank you

Good evening. My name is Rebecca Hannah. Thank you for the opportunity to present this evening. Before we begin, I would like to recognize the team that helped draft this ordinance we are presenting today. These individuals have dedicated countless hours over the past several months to develop a proposal that reflects the values, needs, and aspirations of the McKinley neighborhood. bruce rector is the president of the mckinley neighborhood association rachel robertson is the vice president of mckinley neighborhood association bill inman was a neighborhood association member and 20-year resident joe robertson is a neighborhood association member and 20-plus year resident bill lett is a neighborhood investor developer and owner of seven rock brew and elm street brewing company the Jonathan Chambliss of Crew Construction, neighborhood investor and developer. Phil Tevis, landscape architect, neighborhood investor and owner of Flatland Resources. And I'm Rebecca Hanna. I'm a realtor and McKinley neighborhood advocate. This ordinance was developed through collaboration among residents, business owners, developers, real estate professionals, and planning experts who share a common interest in the future of the McKinley neighborhood. We also benefited from the advice, feedback, and support of many neighbors and community stakeholders, as well as key figures throughout the process. At this time, I'd like to introduce Phil Tevis. Phil will provide a brief history on the neighborhood and discuss the investment, revitalization efforts, and community support that have helped shape McKinley's growth and success over the years.

Good evening. I have to plug this in and get everything rolling. Okay, here we go. So my job is to give a little bit of history lesson. This on the screen here is from the Muncie Action Plan in 2009. Some of us may have participated in that. It was actually one of the largest public attended community events in the city. About 3,000 people came and gave their opinion on the future of our community. And if you look at one of the exercises they did at the end of each one was to say, please take a green dot and a red dot and place it on a map and tell us where's the best place in our town and where's the not so good places. And you can see that on the map. The red dot areas came out with, in no specific order, Whiteley Industry, East Central and the Blaine area, Thomas Avondale, the Old West End, and the McKinley neighborhood, and that's the focus of our conversation. I do want to point out that we've learned over the years that Ball Brothers Foundation continues to use this map to ask if they are succeeding in their place-based initiatives or a quality place. Examples of that would go in Whiteley is the Craddock Wetland, the Kitsilman Trailhead on the east side of town, the Ross Community Center and Thomas Avondale or the whole 812 Coalition area. On the Old West End, there's the eco-rehab initiatives and some of the new work with the land bank. And in the McKinley area, it's the Y and relationships to the athletic facilities at the high school. Now back to the history lesson. This is actually a graph that shows our population in our metro area. On the left-hand side is 1998, and on the right-hand side is 2017. So I'm gonna give context to this as to what's happened and why the McKinley neighborhood and other areas in our community have suffered from decline. So 1998, Ball Corporation leaves. That takes about 200 Fortune 500 executives out of our community. In 2002, Indiana Steel and Wire left. Oops, 2005, Katrina happens, and I'm gonna explain why that matters in a minute. 2006, Chevy transmission leaves. 2008, we had the great financial crisis. 2009, BorgWarner closes. 2011, the Sanitary District's given a mandate to do sewer separations. and in 2017 we had the financial collapse of the Muncie school system. That all translates to a decline in 2021 and we've had a slight uptick in our population. The one thing that everyone asks when we make this portion is why did the population rise after Ball Corp left and why does the population rise after 2008 in the financial crisis? That is directly associated with the increase of population at Ball State University. So once you take that out we have a trend downward in population. So how does this apply to the McKinley or the Central City area? This is the White River. McKinley's there in the center. The McKinley area along everything inside or down on that screen of the red line is protected by the Muncie Flood Protection System. The Muncie flood protection system is controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers. After the Katrina incident happened, they came to cities all across the country, including Muncie, and said you have to upgrade your levees to the Katrina standard, post-Katrina. That's translated into probably almost 15 years of effort. There's a lot more to go on. But the Sanitary District did prioritize where to focus their efforts, and initially it was the area here, because the net worth of the area is about a half a billion dollars, and that includes the Central High School, some of the academy area in that side of town. Some of the things that are messed up are the railroad tracks at CSX, the railroad track at Norfolk Southern over by Phillips Pool, the pipe and the levee and some bridge over by the McCulloch Trailhead, and another pipe underneath the high school there at High Street and Wheeling Avenue. So we go now to the sewer separation obligations. And I'm sure you guys already would know this. The life cycle of a sewer is about 75 to 80 years. A lot of the sewers in the central city are older than that. When the mandate came to separate the area out inside the McKinley neighborhood, that translated to what does a sanitary district do when they typically try to make quality place improvements at the same time they're doing sewer separation. And there are many examples of that across the community. And that pipe actually right there is on Columbus Avenue. It was open this year and was still being used as a sewer. The impact of the neighborhood for McKinley in the evaluation of knowing that there had to be a levy improvements, a storm water basin, sewer separation, a whole lot of things. The sanitary district looked really hard to determine what was the impact of the neighborhood. The McKinley neighborhood about 2014 had the highest EMS runs per half block of anywhere in the community. Had extreme high demographic of 25 year old males with no high school education. 90% of the homes were rentals or in extreme disrepair, vacant or blighted. It had the highest proportional tax sales of anywhere in the community. And all of this is directly across the street from our high school. So the sanitary district, along with the community development, along with the blight elimination program, made a decision that it would be most cost-effective to see if they could eliminate homes in the neighborhood because that red dot, if you remember, is in the center. It's in the heart of the city directly across from the high school. This green represents the area of homes that have been removed. This is the number of structures in 2012, there were 240 structures. Today there's about 125. The outcome of that much loss, and here's an example of quality of place through the sanitary district, through a grant they got with the DNR, they put a levee trail on top of the levee as a part of the levee reconstruction work. So, what does that translate to? From 2014, there's a sheet in your packet. It shows that our community, including the school system, I'm sorry, schools, the blight elimination, sanitary district, private investment is about $113 million in the McKinley neighborhood proper. Now, that's affecting other areas because the sewers there affect the rest of the system, but it's still an investment that's in there. Of that, there's about $38.5 million in private investment, and to where that, you might want to know, Walnut Commons is 8.4, Crew Construction, 2 million, Elm Street's about 2 million, the commercial building stabilization's about 800,000, Home remodels, which have happened completely, are about a half a million, and the new trails edge plan project for the retirement facility is 24.8 million. Examples of what this looks like, this is prior to the homes being removed. This is what it looks like today. That is a dedicated green space for a public park. Here is the corner of Columbus and Jefferson. Today that looks like this, ready for redevelopment. This is looking south on Elm Street towards the levees. Today, that is an open area. And with that, I'm going to hand it off to the person who's actually going to explain the ordinance itself, and that is Joe Roberts.

Thank you.

Hello. My name is Joe Robertson, 608 North Elm Street. It's a pleasure to be here with you tonight. Thank you. Over the past several months, much of the conversation surrounding McKinley has focused on its future. Residents have consistently said they welcome growth and investment. What they want is growth that aligns with the long-term vision that has been shaped through decades of planning, investment, and neighborhood involvement. Throughout this process, residents have repeatedly expressed support for earlier awareness of proposed projects, better communication and transparency, and protecting existing public and private investment. In a 2022 initiative, through the next month's initiative, residents prepared participated in a master planning process led by the mayor and VanderWaal Associates. That plan was ultimately adopted by the McKinley Neighborhood Association and established a shared vision for the future of the community. That plan included many of the same principles reflected in the overlay today, walkability, mixed use, front porches, gabled roofs, and neighborhood scale design. These ideas are not new. The overlay does not create a new vision. It creates a way to implement the vision that already exists. McKinley already has several important pieces in place. We have an adopted master plan, design guidelines, community support, and both public and private investment already happening in McKinley. What's missing is the implementation tool to carry that vision forward in a consistent way. Right now, there is not a formal local review body, a structured review process, or a clear accountability measure to help ensure future projects align with the vision residents have already supported. Without that structure, the risk is that future projects may become misaligned, long-term value may be harder to protect, and the momentum built over the past decade could become lost. So the purpose of the overlay is not to start over. The purpose is to close the gap between the vision the neighborhood already has and the tools needed to implement it. To address that gap, the neighborhood began exploring an overlay district. Like other overlays already operating in Muncie, the McKinley overlay would establish standards tailored to the character and long-term vision of the neighborhood. It would also create a more transparent review process that encourages earlier communication, better project awareness, and more opportunities for collaboration between residents, developers, and city leadership. The goal is simple, clear expectations with fewer surprises for everyone involved. It's important to clarify what the overlay is and what it's not. The overlay is not anti-development. It's not an HOA or a tool to delay projects, a way to control project finances, or a requirement that every building look the same. What it does create is a clearer and more predictable process. It focuses on neighborhood compatibility, design standards, and communication. The goal is not to stop growth. The goal is to help guide growth well. One of the strengths of the overlay is that it recognizes different parts of McKinley serve different purposes. The overlay district contains six distinct areas, each aligned with underlying zoning. Area one is the river levee, and the development here is already highly restricted due to flood control and levee requirements, so no overlay review is needed in this area. Area 2 is public green space, which includes the recreational park and the retention pond. These areas require no overlay for those areas. Area 3 is education, and this supports the investments like Muncie Central High School and the YMCA. And Area 4 is mixed-use, high-density residential, encouraging compatible residential redevelopment. Area five is residential rehabilitation, focusing on protecting and stabilizing existing housing. And area six is mixed-use high-density commercial and residential, supporting redevelopment and economic activity along key corridors. Rather than treating every area the same, the overlay creates a coordinated framework that ties these areas together into a long-term redevelopment strategy. The overlay includes design principles intended to strengthen neighborhood character, walkability, and long-term value. These standards focus on neighborhood scale and compatibility, front porches and street-facing design, gabled roofs and traditional neighborhood features, durable, long-lasting materials, walkability, and pedestrian safety. These aren't intended to limit creativity. They are intended to help ensure new development contributes positively to the neighborhood and builds long-term value for residents, businesses, and property owners. This overlay benefits more than just the neighborhood. It also benefits developers, investors, and the city. One of the greatest advantages is predictability. Developers understand expectations earlier in the process, reducing uncertainty, improving communication, and helping projects move forward more efficiently. The overlay also provides practical flexibility through more adaptable setbacks and smarter parking standards. Walnut Commons, shown here, is a good example. Under the current city code, the development was required to provide roughly 80 parking spaces. Under the proposed overlay standards, that requirement would have been reduced by nearly half. In practice, the parking lot is rarely full, and a significant number of spaces remain unused on a regular basis. The additional parking requirement added cost to the project and devoted valuable land to pavement that was not ultimately needed. Under the overlay, that land could have been used more efficiently for green space, amenities, additional housing, or other community benefits. The overlay also creates consistency. Every developer works from the same set of expectations, creating a level playing field and helping protect long-term property values. Just as importantly, it helps protect the significant public and private investment already made throughout McKinley. More than $110 million in public and private investment has occurred in and around the neighborhood over the past two decades. The overlay helps build on that momentum rather than leaving it to chance. Ultimately, this proposal is about balancing quality development with practical flexibility. When expectations are clear and standards are realistic, residents, developers, investors, and the city can move forward together with confidence. When everyone is working towards the same vision, all ships rise together. The downtown facade blitz showed what happens when good design standards are encouraged. By removing blank facade materials, original windows and architectural details were restored, creating more attractive and engaging buildings. The overlay promotes these same principles along business corridors, active storefronts, more windows, and quality building design that strengthens both property values and neighborhood character. Tonight, we are asking for your partnership and support as we move an already adopted vision into implementation. Respectfully, we ask the City Council to approve and adopt the McKinley Neighborhood Overlay District, establish the McKinley Neighborhood Review Committee, and protect decades of planning, investment, and community engagement. The vision already exists. The overlay simply provides the framework needed to carry that vision forward. I would like to now have Bill Inman come up, and he'll read two letters of support.

Good evening, I'm Bill Inman and I live at 654 North Elm and I work at 652 North Elm. And I'm gonna read two of the many letters of support that we've received for this overlay. Dear Kylene, I am unable to attend your meeting on June 4th due to a medical procedure but wanted to provide a letter on the topic. I as mayor and the City of Muncie are in full support of the McKinley neighborhood overlay district. The mayor's edit account authorized and funded the McKinley district design guideline standards a few years ago. These guidelines are the development standards that provided guidance for the overlay standards. Development has already begun in the neighborhood, which is exciting. on any property we owned has required developers follow the construction guidelines for buildings to meet those goals. This development includes but is not limited to the beautiful townhouses by Crewe Construction across from Muncie Central that are nearing completion. As an important note, there has been a project management team meeting on this redevelopment for more than eight years. This PMT, which includes representatives of Minnetrista, Chamber, City, and McKinley neighborhood leadership, meets monthly. That group has been given input, which helped shape the design standards for this overlay district. We are pleased to see this move forward. And that is Mayor Dan Ridenour. This letter is from Jeffrey Howe, the president of Muncie Redevelopment Commission. As director of the Muncie Redevelopment Commission, I am writing in support of the proposed McKinley neighborhood overlay district. The redevelopment commission recently entered into an economic development agreement with a developer to construct 32 housing units in the McKinley neighborhood. including townhouses and duplexes. Throughout the planning process, the City and Redevelopment Commission have emphasized the importance of ensuring that the project reflects the character and vision established by the neighborhood. To achieve this goal, the economic development agreement incorporates applicable design and development standards directly taken from the McKinley neighborhood guidelines. By including these standards in the agreement, They become enforceable project requirements and provide a clear mechanism for ensuring compliance throughout development. The proposed overlay district represents a logical and positive next step in advancing the neighborhood's long-term mission or vision. It would provide greater clarity and predictability for residents, property owners, developers, and city officials by establishing a consistent framework for future development and redevelopment within the neighborhood. Most importantly, the overlay district would make neighborhood standards enforceable through the development review process, helping ensure that future projects remain aligned with the character and development objectives identified by the community, This added level of certainty benefits both residents and developers by creating clear expectations and a transparent review process. The overlay district also complements the current housing project by reinforcing many of the same design principles and development expectations already incorporated into the economic development agreement. Together, these tools can promote quality development, preserve neighborhood character, and support much needed housing opportunities within the community. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Jeffrey Howe. Thank you.

I'm Bruce Rector, president of the McKinley Live Learn Neighborhood Association and have been president since 2018. From a historical perspective, I was born in Muncie, started kindergarten at McKinley Elementary School, returned to the McKinley neighborhood in the late 60s while I attended Ball State. I returned to the neighborhood again in 1985 and have been here ever since. In 2018, I became a member of the McKinley neighborhood project management team of Next Muncie. The meetings were organized by Van de Wally and Associates, who have been working on revitalization of the McKinley neighborhood. including master planning. Around 2022, the neighborhood was rezoned to reflect the master planning process. In 2024, Vander Wally and Associates finalized a master plan for the neighborhood, which was presented to the PMT, which the committee endorsed. The mayor also hand hired Vander Wally and Associates create design guidelines that have been used in the new town homes and the future of Columbus Avenue. The guidelines were completed in 2025. The master plan and guidelines were adopted by the McKinley Neighborhood Association in 2026 and served as a central part of the creation of the McKinley Neighborhood Overlay District. The purpose of the overlay is to ensure design guidelines, establish architectural site and sustainability standards applicable to the development and redevelopment within the district. The McKinley neighborhood association strongly endorses the creation of the overlay district for the McKinley neighborhood. In fact, an ad hoc group of landowners, developers, homeowners, worked voluntarily together for the past few months to create the draft for the overlay design. The neighborhood was very pleased with Mayor Rittenhauer's and his administration's efforts to help revitalize the neighborhood. The mayor has endorsed the overlay district for the McKinley neighborhood.

Hi, I'm Rachel Robertson, and I'm the last one of our presentation, so, and I'll keep it short. I'm Rachel Robertson, Vice President of McKinley Neighborhood. My husband and I have lived in the neighborhood for 22 years, and this has been something very close to our passion for the last several years. You've seen and heard that there's a lot of collaboration. There's a lot of people that have been involved. There's a lot of support. But one thing I want to point out is just as important as our committee's work was ensuring that residents had a voice in this process. We held special meetings. We shared information through the neighborhood by knocking on every single door. We distributed information and we actively sought feedback from residents and property owners. And the response was clear. we collected 50 signed petitions supporting the overlay ordinance from a neighborhood of approximately 120 homes. So through the process, we welcomed questions, discussions, support remained overwhelmingly favorable, and residents consistently expressed a desire for a reasonable design standards. So given the extensive public engagement, the support from the mayor and Jeff Howe, Acting Mayor Jeff Howe, the strong neighborhood support, and the unanimous favorable recommendation from the Plan Commission, respectfully ask the council to approve the McKinley overlay ordinance and I also ask that tonight if you would suspend the rules and allow a vote this evening for a final adoption so we appreciate your time your consideration your service to the community and anybody from the committee would be happy to take any questions that you have tonight too well that was 101 how to introduce an ordinance in

let me ask specifically for you to clarify the how the overlay primarily residential standards impacts Muncie Community Schools the YMCA and then even the field houses ability to make additions without Although Dr. Reynolds did write a letter of support, I'd like you to describe for us how that is going to work.

Yeah, thanks for asking that question. We've been working with Jim Lowe for quite some time on the ordinance to make sure that the school and the Y would be satisfied with the ordinance. One of the great benefits to the ordinance for the school is the reduction of parking needed at the field house if they were to ever pull a building permit in the future. It reduces it by about 30%. The Y has already been through the ordinance, so that's not applicable there. Everything else the standard the setback is 75 feet for commercial property that would apply to the school That's the same distance at the building at any building is 75 feet would be the with the exception of the Y Who got an ordinance for that? So those are probably the two big things that would help Thank you Any from the audience

Christopher Bilbrey, I just want to say that I'm very happy and proud to see the residents of Muncie coming together and speaking out for this. I've been paying attention to this for a while in the Muncie Redevelopment Commission meetings, and I do not live in this area. However, I'm coming to you to speak in favor of this ordinance. I am not normally in favor of the council suspending rules and introducing and then passing something in the same night. However, as we know, there are certain instances where that is something that is needed. There have been many involved, either residents, stakeholders, property owners, and people from the city and elsewhere working on revitalizing this neighborhood for many, many years, and everything has seemed pretty okay. But recently, there's been some kind of a breakdown and there have been some issues and that's kind of pitted from my perspective, some of those stakeholders, residents against folks in the mayor's office or the MRC. However, This ordinance is overwhelmingly supported by both of those sides. So as a viewer, a commentator, and somebody watching from the outside, I would ask you to suspend the rules to introduce this vote and then suspend the rules to pass this evening so this can be in place. Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to speak tonight?

I just have a comment yes in general one thing that I think is amazing about Muncie are the neighborhood associations and the neighborhood they work so hard to improve I mean to improve where they live and where they work and not too many communities have that. So it is a blessing and I'm grateful for every community or neighborhood association and all the hard work that they do to improve the city as a whole. Thank you.

Any other council members with questions? I do have a question for your group tonight. what is the purpose of suspending the rules? What will you gain in 30 days that you wouldn't if we didn't? You have projects that are started or

We are just overwhelmed by the amount of support that we received from this. I think, like Christopher said, we have support from the city. We have support from our neighbors. We feel like McKinley is very ripe for development, that things are coming. And so we would really be excited to get this going as soon as possible. The process to develop a review committee is going to be part of the time that it takes. And so if we could have something in place sooner than later, we would appreciate it.

I probably could answer that because you got all this support so why not there's cases where we can do it let's just do it I agree with Mr. McIntosh I'll make a motion I'll second that See if you have unanimous consent then you're good

If not, take a roll call vote and see if you can get two thirds.

So to clarify if I may, I just need to understand what I'm voting on and I think others might appreciate that too. We are not just voting on the ordinance itself, but we're also voting on expediting it

You have to vote to suspend the rules and then vote to do that. Okay, good. If you're voting to suspend the rules, I think we can all guess what the outcome is going to be. I just wanted to be clear.

The first vote will be to suspend the rules this evening.

We have a point of order. Isn't the first vote to actually introduce the ordinance?

Yes, that's my point. but we didn't vote on it.

Thank you.

Thank you for further clarifying. All right. That was the end of that.

Introduce this evening. We've got a first and a second. Roll call, please.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

I'm sorry.

I didn't hear what you said.

Cool. Would you like to make a motion to suspend? Yes. So you wanted to say a motion for me? Yes.

Mr. McIntosh.

I'll second that. Thank you. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Congratulations. We need to make a motion to adopt.

We need to do the adoption.

Ordinance 13-26.

So moved.

Second.

We have a first and a second. Thank you. Now at that end. You get that? Yes. OK. Roll call. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Congratulations.

Next new ordinance. Ordinance 14, next 26.

Ordinance 14-26, an ordinance of the city of Muncie prohibiting department heads from serving on certain boards and commissions and establishing ethics and conflict of interest standards.

I'll make a motion that we adopt this.

Second. We have a motion for introduction. And a second. And a second. Any discussion?

Yes, sir. I'd like to... Can't hear you, ma'am.

Go ahead, can't hear you.

Being that this ordinance was sponsored by myself, this ordinance is being proposed to explicitly prevent the mayor and future mayors from appointing department heads of his or her own staff to boards and commissions in order to preserve the integrity and partiality and public trust in our city's governance. When the mayor appoints a member of his own staff, it creates a clear conflict of interest. Those staff members may feel pressured to align with the mayor's agenda rather than acting independently in the public's interest. By enacting this ordinance, it will ensure that appointments to these critical positions are made on basis of merit and independence and the broader public good. rather than personal loyalty. This step is vital to safeguarding democratic principles, fostering public confidence, and preventing undue influence in our city's governance structures. I respectfully ask for your support in voting yes for this ordinance.

Anyone else wish to speak?

Sarah? I've got a question. I'm not sure why we wouldn't. have this as all administrative staff, all staff from the, rather than just department heads. If we're talking about possible conflicts, then I don't know why somebody who worked for a department head, you know, there could still be that kind of pressure or whatever, or feelings of pressure, even if it's not really there. So I guess I would say, why don't, I'm gonna make a motion to amend it to include, I guess, what, administrative department staff also? Like, head?

I'll second it. Second. Hold on a second, let's be clear what, where your amendment would, in the eligibility?

The, on,

Where is it where it says an actual extra department?

Yeah, where it says department heads would say department heads and administration department staff administrative department staff something Just the clarification council person Gullion are you saying that?

Department heads and anyone that that is appointed by the mayor not appointed but any staff underneath those department has I guess so for instance Superintendent and then a working foreman or something along the lines Would it then include all city employees or Except where required by city ordinance

I do have a question for Councilwoman Gullion

What worries me about that is that you are taking away a lot of expertise from those positions because sometimes, like for example, with the neighborhood association today, they had many good questions and sometimes people, not necessarily department heads that work in that office, would be able to make recommendation, explain things, and speed up things for neighborhoods.

Well, and that's something, because I saw in here that it talks about ex officio, and I'm thinking maybe we need to change that a little bit, because you're right, sometimes, and it does say in here, if it's required by statute, I think, somewhere. But I would also say that maybe we can, yeah, change the ex officio a bit. Because when you do need somebody, you know, a non-voting member who has the expertise, I would be okay with non-voting.

I would like to make an amendment, too, for that. Let's keep them in order.

and clarify your amendment. Because I don't know that it really fits into section 1A, I think you would almost need to add in another subsection under eligibility, or you can fit executive administrative staff into the definition of department head if you want.

Let me say something.

But that's what you're referring to essentially as executive administrative staff?

Not just administrative, but just all of them.

Executive staff?

Not just executive, but I would say city employees. I mean, anybody, because everyone's working under one of those department heads, right, in some capacity. Would you say that, pardon me, Mr. President?

Just a minute, let's see if he answers what she asked. No, that's good.

What was the question?

She was asking that it would include everyone. Any city employees?

You want to take out all city employees from any board or commission?

No.

Except where expressly, yeah.

Yes.

Where expressly noted in statute, whether it's Indiana or municipal code.

no I was just gonna seek further clarification so the Common Council further finds the simultaneous service of any city employee except those in an ex-officio role I mean I'm going under that third whereas would that be suffice maybe except what when expressly included as an ex-officio role

do we want an answer I mean I because I want to ask ask a question do we want that answer before we go on let's do is the question whether or not you can prevent any city employee from serving on a board or Commission

outside of anything that's provided under Indiana statute, which I'm not fully aware of Indiana statute that mandates. There are ex officio positions within the city. You're talking about something that's based on a position, not the person. And so if there's, if this supersedes that authority as well, where it's able. I mean, you can add in all city employees if you, I mean, the Merit Board would be an example of quasi-judicial authority, right? So you don't want the Chief of Police sitting on the Merit Board. But do you want to allow another city official? I mean, I don't know, that's your prerogative. Or a county employee? I mean, it depends on how far you want to take it.

I guess my question is, before we get too deep into this, noting the possibility of a 4-4 vote, what does that mean to the long-term life of this particular amendment, amendments and introduction of the ordinance. What does that, how does that impact the future unless it is tabled?

Well, the amendment, if it's 4-4, the amendment fails. Right. And then you have the main motion, which is the motion to introduce the ordinance that's still available. And then if that were to have a 4-4, then it would fail for introduction at this time. Okay.

Mr. President, may I? Mr. Arnold, wouldn't this be similar to ordinance 3-26 where it failed for introduction and we brought it back the very next month? So if this were to fail, Mr. Councilman Mason can bring it right back next month. I personally would like to see how council's gonna vote on this.

There's still an amendment that needs to be voted on, so I don't want to get too far ahead and just leave this amendment hanging out here. So if the discussion's over for the amendment, I think that needs to be voted on.

Thank you. So how are we exactly wording it then? I think we're asking you how we should word this.

I should word the amendment, yeah.

Well, if you want to take out all city, employees, then you exclude, you're gonna have to add them in to the definition of, a whereas isn't gonna be a controlling definition, so you can put that anywhere as, but then I think that it needs to be added under, you can add it to the definition of department head if you want to. So then, A would read, department head means any individual appointed by the executive or on the executive staff or within the city, who's a city employee? Does that include, are there part-time city employees? Are there seasonal city employees? I mean, you're maybe wrapping up a lot of people that you may not intend by doing that.

So this would be in section one?

I would recommend that it be in a definition and not just in a whereas.

Yeah, yeah. So do we want to say, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Any individual appointed by the executive and working directly beneath that department head? I mean, would that narrow it and make it more clear? More clear, but also more, more words.

We have an amendment to vote on.

But do we yet? Don't we? I don't think there's a necessarily.

I don't think we don't yet. Okay, I know we have in a second.

No, our council is trying to formulate one.

Yes.

Yeah, it's the, yeah. I mean, and they actually should have somebody because they're the ones tagging the house.

I agree.

So, I mean, it encompasses, if you're encompassing all the boards, that's one example that I know of.

There's others.

There's others that I agree with should probably not have.

Well, and that's why I think we need to include something in here except when expressly included or something. I agree.

I agree.

Roe, you have a question? No. I'm good. You're good?

Good. So legal how is that going to be stated then as an amendment?

Well. If you want, you could say something like a department head direct report, meaning somebody that's serving directly under that department head, and then you're at least getting two layers within that department. So chief of police and the deputy chiefs. I understand what you mean. But if you add it in, I'm trying to quickly determine what the overall, when you're adding in a definition, how is that going to affect not only section one, but every other section that's in here.

I am not a lawyer, but I think it will affect section three and four, too. Can I make a suggestion and tell me if I'm wrong, Council? May I?

Yes, go ahead.

Okay, thank you. How about amend Section 3 by replacing the blanket ban with a voting membership ban where there's a direct conflict while allowing non-voting staff support? No? Okay, that's fine. It was just a suggestion. Section 3.

Section three was. Which letter under section three?

I don't have that in front of me. I just did my writing here, I'm sorry. But you know, just taking, getting rid of that blanket ban and voting.

Could it be something like department heads and administration department staff?

Yeah.

Keep it in the administration more.

Yeah, in the department staff. That's more direct. yeah I think that that could be definable I want to make sure I guess that's the keys I want to make sure that if we're adding something there's a that we're not just throwing words into a definition that we actually can define what we're saying so yeah I mean that wouldn't that would probably fit in to section 1a better so department head means any individual appointed by the executive or other executive authority to serve as head, and then you could add it in after. Director, superintendent. So right before whether full-time or part-time, and whether paid or unpaid. And so you would be moving to amend section 1A to include

and administrative department staff.

The department head, administrative staff, department head.

Administration department staff. Does that work?

Yeah, I mean, you're talking about someone that's reporting directly to a department head. I mean, that's everybody. Everyone in that department reports to the department head. So I mean.

So is the amendment clear now?

Say that again. Ask that question again.

Is it clear? Can you read it back to us so we know exactly what we're voting on, sir?

Yep, give me just a second. All right, so if I'm understanding, you're saying the administrative staff of the department head, so the department head administrative staff, so no one immediately surrounding the department head, essentially, is what you're trying to encompass? Yeah. So department head needs any individual appointed by the executive or other executive authority to serve as the head director, superintendent, or chief administrative officer of a city department division or agency, department head administrative staff, whether full-time or part-time. I think it needs to go after of a city department. or department head administrative staff. You want me to read it again? Yes, please. Under Section 1 eligibility, A, department head means any individual appointed by the executive or other executive authority to serve as the head, director, superintendent, or chief administrative officer of a city department or department head administrative staff, whether full-time or part-time, and whether paid or unpaid.

Wow. I second that motion. That's the amendment?

Yeah. I have a question.

You have a question? Yes.

To counsel. Go ahead. Does that make it like a blanket ban statement? Is that what you just read?

What do you mean?

That means, is that a complete ban? Is that a blanket prohibition for anybody? No. No, it's not? Would you explain that to me?

Mr. President. No, I don't think it's a blanket ban on all department head administrative staff. I don't think every city. I'm talking about employees. I don't think that that would encompass every city employee. Okay.

Thank you. And then Mr. President, may I?

Yes, sure.

And then also, if you look at Section 4, it talks about the ex officio and statutory, and it gives more room there, so wiggle room. So if you need something specific or some specific appointment, you have the opportunity to do so if it's specific for what the clerk was talking about or something like that.

Yeah. Section 4C.

Right. OK.

Any other questions on the amendment?

I'd like to hear it again.

Section 1 eligibility, subsection A, department head means any individual appointed by the executive or other executive authority to serve as the head director, superintendent, or chief administrative officer of a city department or department head administrative staff, division or agency, whether full-time or part-time, and whether paid or unpaid.

We will vote on the amendment. Roll call, please. Mr. McIntyre? Yes. Mr. Batson? Yes.

Mr. Mason? Yes. Mr. Dishman?

No.

Ms. Selby? No. Ms. Gorman? Yes.

Ms. Powell?

Yes. And President Green?

No.

Mr. President. Yes.

I make a motion that we introduce ordinance 14-26 as amended Any questions concerning this ordinance as amended?

Wayne Scaife April Exactly three months ago today, I addressed this about department heads serving on boards. I'm glad we're finally hearing it. But why couldn't you just say all city employees and kill everything? Because they shouldn't be working either. As the secretary that works for the mayor, as amended, is that included on this?

Mm-hmm.

As amended the communications director as amended. Is that on here? So in that meeting, if you look at your ordinance eight C it state this ordinance should not prohibit city employees who are not department head. So how are you going to change that? from serving on boards or commissions unless otherwise prohibited by law, ordinance, employment policy, or applicable ethnical standards. You're going to have to change that too. So when I addressed this, it was dealing with Ms. Cheeseman, serving on the Human Rights Commission. So I attended that meeting last month. And as it stands, we don't have, I guess, the human rights director suspended or whatever. Nobody's saying anything. But they were trying to decide who's going to answer the phones while this person is suspended. And the community development director, Ms. Cheeseman, stated, I can answer the phones. So imagine a person calling in to human rights with a complaint about community development, and she's answering the phone. She's taking a complaint on herself. How far do you think that's going to go? And Miss Sylvia, I know you tried to give her an out by bringing up executive sessions. And Miss Powell, thank you for bringing that up. She's still going to have access to the minutes, even if she recuses herself from those executive sessions. Also, just remember, this applies to future administrations. So those of you who feel in some kind of way about this Republican administration, remember sometimes there's going to be a Democrat administration, and this is going to come back to bite you. We should also include elected officials in this. No elected officials should serve on any boards or commissions. I know Mr. Green, you're on the unsafe building board. No offense to you, but elected officials should not be serving on any of these boards. Also, the last thing I want to say on section six, letter B, it says within 30 days after the effective date of the ordinance, Any department head serving on the cover board of commission should resign from such board of commission. Why are we waiting 30 days? Why isn't it effective immediately? If a person is removed for calls, they're not going to wait 30 days. So why isn't this effective immediately? Why are we waiting 30 days? I guess nobody can answer.

It's going to give them a chance to find replacements.

So if a person is removed for cause, are we going to give them a chance to find that person a replacement? There's no reason. This should state immediately, like anybody else who loses a position or somebody that resigns. I mean, it's... I don't understand some of the wording in this thing. And I read this whole thing probably three or four times. So some of this stuff in here is contradictory. And I mean, I need to do a better job reading this stuff because some of it doesn't make any sense. But last thing I want to say, I said the last thing already, but the last thing I want to say is let's use common sense. Let's not take this ordinance personal. Let's vote for what's right. Thank you.

So this affects the Human Rights Commission, like Wayne just said. Who on council has served on the Human Rights Commission before, just a show of hands? Roe, I know you left after, when was it that you left?

When... When did I left when I was won the election? Yeah, so I resigned. So when I was on council, I recused myself. Yes.

Yeah.

So what was your reasoning for leaving me because I just feel like somebody else would do a better job. And I didn't want any conflict between so when things come from the Human Rights Commission, to me, I could be more, you know, objective about that.

Well, you told me who you thought was a conflict of interest.

Yeah, it is. Yes, too.

Okay, so a conflict of interest for an elected official to be on the commission.

I felt this. For me, I did. With my moral compass or how I view things, yes, I did.

Okay, so what's your opinion on a department head being on the commission?

I have concerns and it is not basically department head. My concerns are we are removing expertise from uh... sometimes those and not necessarily department and even the employees because some employees no answers to things that i don't like the blanket statement i've never liked them ban on anything you know uh... there's there's several things that i would amend or change about it i'm not against it the idea i like the ball i know what the goal is protecting independence you know public trust but complete ban that I'm struggling with. So I'm not saying I'm right or wrong. It's something that I personally am struggling with. Yeah.

So, so I'm not telling you how to vote. I don't represent the commission by any means. I'm a, you know, uh, you know, I'm, I'm just a citizen. That's, that's all I'm saying out. But, um, yeah, I think that the commission, when it comes to access to the department, when it subpoena powers that we have through our executive director, you know, we shouldn't have more access to it just because we have expertise or we have a, you know, just because we happen to have a department head on. I think that the commission itself regardless should be able to just have access. You know what I mean?

Yes.

Okay. So Dale Basham, when did you leave the HRC?

I left to go to the fire merit commission.

Okay. So was that the time period when it was like you could only be on one commission instead of another or?

I felt that. That was my feeling. I didn't feel like I could honorably serve both in both places.

Was it conflict of interest or something else?

I just felt like it was my focus would be on the fire merit rather than, and it was nearing my term, Belinda and I served very close to each other. So it was some time ago. Gotcha.

I was just curious. Thanks for answering.

Yes.

I don't have it memorized, but some of the boards require a council member to be on them. Right.

And that's stipulated.

And that's stipulated.

Report back.

If you're going to be gone, be so to the board commission and bring back information to the rest of the council.

these should be I agree and these should be defined this doesn't affect that

we don't have to just doesn't this is not a blanket it's not a blanket ban is it no it's not a blanket ban councilwoman zombie it's just the for clarification just the department heads and then the administrative staff that report to the department head, correct?

But wouldn't that be every employee in the office that has expertise? I mean, you're not gonna, I'm sorry.

Can you answer this question, please? So the question is whether or not it is the entire department or the department head administrative staff. So the way that it's worded now would be the administrative staff of the department head. So the people that are closest to the department head that are reporting directly to the department head, but I don't think you're catching all city employees and you can strike all together with the amendment and that would remove that conflict anyway.

And this is for introduction.

That's what's on the table right now.

We have another gentleman wishing to speak. Go ahead, sir.

So would this also include contract employees that are acting as department heads?

Yeah, I believe it would.

Because you got department heads, or acting department heads that are on several boards.

Full time, part time, paid or unpaid, I'd have to.

So just clarification, that's what we were wanting to know, so thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, Rob Miller. Roe, I think I was thinking about what you were saying while I was standing there and changed what I was going to talk about. Are you guys thinking that employees of the city would just take their toys and go home and refuse to help commissions if they weren't allowed to vote? I mean, the mayor can say, go over here as an ex parte member and help them. that he can tell them to do that. I don't understand what the problem is. We just take away any influence that this administration or future administrations have being able to put their thumb on the scale and these commissions that are supposed to be run by citizens. This is government equity, not I'm in charge so I can appoint my friends and people to control so that I get my way. These commissions are supposed to be run by citizens for the citizens, not They're not for the mayor. They're not for city council to appoint. It's not for that. This is another branch of the city government that allows citizens to have a say. And I just want to make sure that you're hearing it the way I was hearing it, right? That you're saying that, just to be clear, if these people can't vote, they won't help. That's how I'm taking that as a citizen right now. So that's all I have to say.

and again I just want to remind us all that we're voting to introduce an ordinance and we'll have a month to hear comments and make final decisions about adoption correct yes that's correct okay okay anyone else

Council, should we go ahead and make an amendment to remove that section that Mr. Scaife is right? I mean, that kind of does. I mean, it would clean it up.

I would strike the entire thing.

Yeah, okay. then I will make that amendment to strike Section 8C from this ordinance. It talks about, just for the public, this ordinance shall not prohibit city employees who are not department heads from serving on boards or commissions unless otherwise prohibited. Well, we are doing that partially, so. Second.

And I'll just move that up.

Strike section.

Strike section 8C.

Okay, and that is as amended.

Could you read that? It would remove... Section 8, construction, subsection C. This ordinance shall not prohibit city employees who are not department heads from serving on boards or commissions unless otherwise prohibited by law, ordinance, employment policy, or applicable ethical standards.

Okay, that's exactly what Roe was talking about. Is that what you're talking about?

We're striking them.

So all of the, so when you're including in the department head definition, administrative staff and those departments, those are city employees, and so there is a conflict between these two sections, and I think that the.

It makes that moot, yeah.

I think the cleanest thing to do is strike that section. Okay. Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

So we have an amendment?

We have a. Second. Yeah.

Roll call.

No.

Mr. Mason?

Yes. Mr. Powell?

Yes.

Mr. McIntosh? Yes. Mr. Bastian? No. Ms. Dillion?

Yes. President Green? No.

What was the final vote?

4-4. 4-4. So what does that mean? Amendment fails.

No, amendment fails. Now we'll vote on the, oh, I'm sorry.

On introduction?

Now the introduction for the ordinance.

As amended?

Correct. As the first amendment, yes. Ms. Elgin? No.

Mr. Magnuson?

Yes. I couldn't hear. I'm sorry.

Ms. Dolan?

Yes.

Mr. Basham?

Yes.

Mr. Dishman?

No.

Ms. Powell?

Yes.

Mr. Mason?

Yes.

President Green?

No. I'm ready now resolution 9-26

Okay, resolution 9-26, the resolution of the Common Council of the City of Muncie approving deduction from assessed value of new manufacturing equipment in an already declared economic revitalization area, Estimo, Indiana, Inc. Mr. President, I move that we adopt resolution 9-26.

I second that.

No presentation for us. I'd like to speak, please. Thank you.

Good evening, Council. I'm Tracy Letton with the Economic Development Alliance of Muncie and Delaware County. I've been working with ASTMO for several months now, and I've had several opportunities to go out and visit them at their facility, take tours. Councilperson Rose Selby came with me one time. We did a tour and had a great meeting and dialogue. She was there representing the tax abatement committee. But during that time, I've had the opportunity to understand their business and learn about the opportunities that they have in front of them. And one component of that is a project that they're going to discuss tonight. The Muncie operation has undergone significant transition over the years since they initially located here in Muncie in 1999. And they've always adapted to industry trends, global pressures on their business. And today's project that they're going to talk about is another example of them adapting and continuing to thrive in a changing market. So the Muncie operation, they have some exciting investments that are potentially coming their way. And I think it's an important point to note that they're not only competing with other companies, they're competing within their own company. Astimo has locations, other locations in Indiana, across the United States, and we learned in the abatement committee meeting, they're a global company too. So when Astimo as a company is considering where to place new programs, investments, new lines, they're looking at competitive factors including affordability. And so that leads us to request this abatement here tonight. So I've provided some documentation to you to support their application, their statement of benefits, a location map and an abatement schedule and the schedule is really just intended to support your dialogue tonight give you a general understanding of the potential abatement it is not intended to be a to the penny analysis for what this savings might be but it's a great starting point for discussion and so the calculations indicate that um The $9.4 million investment in new business personal property will generate an estimated savings to the company if the abatement is granted of $259,668 to the company. But this is a phased-in abatement. It's not 100% tax-free for them. The city will realize new tax increment in the amount of $304,500 sixty four dollars and this is in the air park tiff district so that those funds will go to the tiff district so i also want to know they're also expanding their business to accommodate this expansion but they are not seeking an abatement on that piece of the investment so with that i'm going to turn it over to the company to share more about their opportunity here and give you some more insight into what they're proposing thank you thank you tracy

And thank you, Council, it's our pleasure to be here tonight, so thank you very much. We are very much appreciative of the opportunity to present our case to you guys and tell you a little bit about ASTMO, not only ASTMO, but us, the Muncie site. Tonight I brought with me Ms. Victoria Collier, Finance and Accounting Manager. and Mr. Toby Buchan, operations and department head. So they've kindly came here to support us, support me in this endeavor. So without further ado, let me explain a little bit about ASTIMO. And I promise I won't take much time. There's a lot of slides, but I'm gonna go through them pretty quick. So ASTIMO, you won't find that in the dictionary. It's a company name means Advanced Sustainable Technologies for Mobility. We get people places they sometimes don't want to be, but where they need to be or want to be. So we take a lot of pride in that. And we're a conglomerate of several different companies that have come together with varying expertises in not only powertrain, which we are in that business, but suspension, brakes, many, many different products. We also, we consider ourselves a technology company. We don't just build car parts. We are involved with products that include internet of vehicles and autonomous driving, which are some very interesting topics that I won't talk much about, because I make and take manifolds. Just to give you a little bit more idea of the products we make, we're in the powertrain business. You can see kind of to the bottom in the middle, there's a V6 intake manifold, which we're going to talk more about, but make various products in power control units, inverters, ignition coils in the powertrain side. On the chassis side, we make, ASMO makes struts, shock absorbers, brakes, steering systems, drive shafts, many, many products. And motorcycle systems for the same four-wheel vehicles we build for two-wheel as well. And also in aftermarket, we're very, very, very active in the aftermarket business for the various companies. And these are all companies, you know, we're very flexible. Any one of our plans could pretty much do what each other does given the appropriate infrastructure. So we are a very flexible organization and can build anything, anywhere. And as you can see, we are a global company. You can see all the regions we have presence in. We are not only a tier one supplier, but we are a tier .5 supplier. Our particular group, or Astima, and I'll show you more about the customer base, but we are a partially owned subsidiary of Honda. So we have a great supporting background. And you can see we supply, our customer base is very wide and varied. With Honda being 52% of our customer base, we do supply all the major OEMs. So great, great customers in our sales lineup. As you can see here, this is our presence in the Midwest and southeastern United States. We also have sales offices in California and also a location in Canada. And then also several locations in Mexico and Brazil in the Americas region. And this is, of course, this is our site, Muncie site. You can see the dotted line kind of shows you the perimeter of our location. We have about 20 acres, so we have a lot of room for expansion. This particular building is a little less than 100,000 square feet, and you can see the products we build there. So when you think about intake manifolds, we don't just build an intake manifold, we build multiple manifolds. models for various customers throughout the Honda lineup and Stellantis, of course, which was commonly known and previously known as Chrysler. When I talk about flexibility, we used to build HVAC units at this site. So we used to ship to all the frame plants, which frame plants are where all those cars are built. And now we build engine components. So it kind of further gives you an idea of what kind of flexibility we have. And we made that shift approximately in the 2000s. and we've been doing this for 21 years. It just goes to show how much flexibility we do have in our organization. As a matter of fact, I might point out, we had 90 temporary associates at the time we made the change. We gave them plenty of notice following the RIF requirements, and we asked every one of them, we'd like for you to come back when we make this change, because our headcount dropped so much. 89 out of the 90 said they would like to come back to work with us. The only person that could not was moving out of state. So we love our associates, they do great work, and we appreciate them very much. So the change points, I'll give you a little more detail about that. With the expansion, we'll be able to add up to five injection molders, and these are anywhere from 650 to 900 ton molders, injection molding intake manifolds. So that's number one, you kind of see that in that block in number one. Number two is the new assembly line location for the volume increase on the AP3 HEV, which is, AP3 is an engine code for Honda and for the hybrids, which are literally doubling, so we just do not have the capacity for that. Number three is we do want to transfer, we're intending to transfer the V6 intake manifold, which is currently in Greenfield, which further lets you know that we can move products from plant to plant. So as Tracy mentioned, we compete not only with other suppliers, we compete amongst ourselves, which keeps us all on our toes and keeps us competitive in industry. And then this is just a layout, a block diagram, kind of gives you an idea of what's going on. At the end of FY28, it's our intention to get that business from Greenfield and to bring it to Muncie for the V6, which is good volume, really good volume. It's about 1,100 units a day. That's a lot of cars. So actually, Odysseys, Pilots, and there's one other model I'm forgetting. But anyway, a lot of vehicles. And then the new assembly line, line 10, is in there, too, for the hybrid, as you can see in the upper section. You can see the investment that was previously mentioned, and we discussed a little bit with the committee, the Tax Abatement Committee, so thank you very much for listening to our information there. the associate related items. I see with this particular investment, with this particular expansion, we'll be adding nine new associates. And that will... retain 188 jobs as well. The next slide, what we're looking at now is kind of a look at where we're gonna be in FY28 with potential to break additional ground, FY29, sorry, and potential to break additional ground in FY28, given we get this new business. We can't really show the new business yet because we don't have it yet, but we're fighting to get it. And as far as being the site lead, we're gonna get it, as far as I'm concerned, because we need the capacity. But we don't yet, again, like I said, we're fighting other suppliers and fighting amongst ourselves, friendly fights, I guess. But you can see the potential new model investment total, 23.7 million, and not only that, but the additional jobs, 60 additional jobs, okay? And then this just shows the business expansion breaking ground in FY28, given we get some of this new business, potential for an additional 25,000 square feet, okay? And then this is, maybe we talked a little bit about the economic impact earlier. So you can see the impact for Delaware County payroll, county businesses and property taxes with a total of 6.3 million. And then this gives you a breakdown of our associates. Muncie has 150 associates that live in Delaware County and 131 of which live in Muncie. So we're proud of our Muncie folks. They do great work and we're expecting to do great things in the near future. And you can see the county by race table information shown in the table below. And as far as engagement, we have, whoops, sorry. We do offer an on-site clinic for our folks, which is awesome. I could call today and have an appointment for tomorrow morning first thing, it's great. And then on-site staffing agency, which Focus, they do a great job. and then some of the things we do we love the school supply drive for associates we celebrate all all the holidays thanksgiving pumpkin giveaways valentine's day december holiday sometimes we've got to wear some funny looking suits but it's all in fun and our associates love it so And then Women's History Month, we do quarterly cookouts where our management cooks for our associates, and it's actually very, very good. We can cook pretty good, so everybody loves it. So Easter egg hunts, Black History Month, holiday gift exchanges, these are great events. This is our work family, and these are the things we do together. We have the Memorial Day raffle. We do veterans, we love our veterans. For the men and women who served our country, we send them to the Speedway on us so they can enjoy the 500 and what the 500 has to offer. St. Patrick's Day, Mother's Day celebrations, Local interns we have four local interns from Ball State serving us in the materials department serving us in HR and We're you know, can't wait to get more they do a great work and we thought we would hopefully we can get them hired on as well And then we also know we recognize People struggle sometimes and we've noticed we've noticed you walk through the cafeteria sometimes and you see somebody not eating lunch That's the most horrible thing you could ever imagine when people don't eat or they can't eat. I don't care if you make a million dollars a year. People spend money on things. It's their business. We don't care. We provide a job, but we want to make sure they eat. We walk through the cafeteria and we see people that if they're not eating lunch, we're going to ask them, if you need food, we will give you food. It's confidential. We understand that. We keep a food pantry and we provide with donations from Anybody and everybody, okay? And it's not only just for us, it's for Astamo in general. If there's anybody in our organization that needs food, we'll feed them, we'll make sure they're eating. Local engagement, Habitat for Humanity, we support that and we participate in that. We also participate in the Power Up Indiana conference at Ivy Tech. So in partnership with them and with Ivy Tech College, Eastern Indiana Works, Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Department of Workforce Development, we helped launch a six-month technical training program for 18 technical associates. And it was a great program, and we're getting better for it, and we're going to be sending more folks through that program. Cardinal Greenway adoption this is great our folks love it they hit it at lunchtime and try to get in a few a few steps and we support that keep it clean and you know just just do the right thing and that's that's all I have so thank you very much thank you thank you questions from council yes I think you're in my district out there

How many products do you guys make there?

So our sole product by function is the intake manifold. But we have various, there's various models. There's various customers that have specific designs. So we do turbo intake manifolds, we do hybrid intake manifolds, we do conventional intake manifolds, which is just strictly petrol or gas powered, gas fired engines. And then those specific functional intake manifolds have various models depending on the specification of the customers.

I bought a few intake manifolds. That's what I used to do for a living as a mechanic. And I probably bought some of your product through the auto parts places. How many factories do you have around central Indiana?

So in Indiana, of course we have a location site in Greenfield, we have a site in Muncie, and then of course multiple sites in Ohio and Kentucky in the three state region.

And what are you, are you trying to produce more than manifolds there in the future?

So yes or no, we simply don't have the capacity right now. So my job as site head is to make sure we get that capacity and we get that business. And as I mentioned earlier, we were an HVAC supplier, an HVAC manufacturer, which is, as I mentioned, we ship to frame plants where they build the vehicles and install the HVAC units. Now we were able to shift gears totally and I'll never forget my boss saying that we are not gonna let this plant close. Our associates are too great. We do wonderful work and we're gonna keep this plant moving. So we shifted gears and we started building intake manifolds. But as I mentioned, we compete with our other, with our brother plants, sister plants, because we can all, pretty much, we can all do anything. We do make intake manifolds in Mexico. I believe it was for BMW at one time, and potentially Honda, maybe, I'm not sure.

We've got a couple more questions. Sure. Do you guys... plan to hire some people? How many do you plan to hire?

So we plan an additional nine associates for the current expansion that we're competing for, and if we land the business that we're, like I said, the V6 intake manifold, we're going after from a Greenfield site, and the additional business that's being quoted now would bring on an additional 60 associates.

That's good. When do you think that'll start taking, well, I'll take, let me answer this, ask you this question. How does a person get a job there? Where do they apply at?

We, well, they can apply on-site at our, the on-site staffing agency. And there's also another set, we have two staffing agencies, one on-site and one local. And then, of course, we hire, I might add, excuse me, if I may, it's after 520 hours if they meet the conditions and follow the rules and do good things, and then we do our best, given economic conditions, to hire them on permanently. Sorry.

This might be a question for you, and it might be a question for Tracy. We kind of discussed this before. How will, if at all, Senate Bill 1 and the increase in tax exempt for businesses for new equipment, will this company benefit from that new law?

Yeah. So the calculations I provided take into consideration those recent legislative changes, the depreciation floor and the $2 million exemption. So these numbers are reflective of those changes. Okay.

I noticed you was talking about how you take care of your workers and everything the benefits you have all the different programs the holidays and stuff are you unionized that's just a question no sir okay I see that you've got wages here you know just that range it looks like it says from

1680 to 2255, and you're averaging at that at 1940. With these nine jobs, where do you see those coming in at, like the pay?

It'll be comparable to those wage ranges.

Typically in case- More of them would be on the lower or the higher, I guess is my question.

Well, it's really hard to say because we would bring in new associates, so they would fall under the lower wage rate, and we would move our, typically our associates that are currently working with us that have the experience, we'd move them that way, and they would be replaced by the new associates to ensure a successful startup.

I just have a couple things to say. I have never seen anything, and I haven't visited too many companies, but I have a lot of compliments to you. And I'm going to start it where I was at a neighborhood association picnic, and some gentleman saw me in the factory, and he was very complimentary to you. He asked me what I was doing there, if I was gonna get a job there. But he mentioned that you and Mr. Buchanan, he didn't mention you, that you know that you never use the word workers, you always call them associates, and he was bragging about you, and that you both know every employee's first and last name, and you know about their families, and you ask about their families. So I'm gonna start there. Second, from my visit, there is amazing, like you can walk in and if you wanna apply to a job, there's somebody sitting at the desk with computers that will work with you, figure out what your skill set is, and provide you a direction to go back. The clinic for, your associates and their families if they're not feeling well. The nurse is there. The cleanliness of this facility and the freedom for your associates. They were listening to music, they were, I mean, it was just phenomenal. So, yeah, you set the standards high for a manufacturing company, so congratulations and thank you for treating the employees No, the associates very well. I have a question for you before I leave. Tell me about if we approve this tax abatement, tell me about how it's going to affect your being modernization investment and how competitive is it going to be? Allow you to be oh how competitive is Muncie gonna be like how other cities will view us Do you see what I'm saying? Where would it put us? Can you know in in? You know If I yeah, like where would that move us like we other cities and companies would view us as a competitive city where you can come here and and and you know i don't know what i'm trying to say i mean i think it's gonna move you guys up a notch because you are Technology-wise.

First of all, it's been a great partnership with the county, and you can tell by the number of our associates and where they come from. But we do have a great mix of manual processes and automated processes. So the technology, like I said, we make intake manifolds, and I kind of downplayed it a little bit, but we do have automation, and certain processes require automation. Certain processes require the expertise of our associates. and not only the expertise of our associates for manual activity or manual processes, but the expertise of automation know-how and technology. Yeah, does it take away from adding associates? Of course it does, but it improves our level of competitiveness and makes us a desirable employer, because engineers, they have a certain way of thinking, and no offense to anybody, I'm not an engineer, But they want to work, you call some of these robots toys. They love to work on their toys. And we love to make money off those toys. And in order to be competitive, you have to have a certain amount of technology in your facility. It's just a fact.

Yeah, I apologize. No, I hope that answers. I get tired, my English gets horrible.

No, no, no, you were spot on. I hope that answered your question.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Mr. Maxwell.

Yeah, you said you're competing for these contracts at the moment?

Yes, sir.

Okay, now, if granted, these contracts, do you intend to seek any further additional relief from property taxes on this property?

We, at this point, we're focusing on this abatement alone, and I have no other, at this point, I have no other intent or strategy for additional. We're focused on this abatement.

and this resolution is up for adoption yeah it's in an already declared economic provides that revitalization area we do have a

recommendation for adoption first and second okay roll call yes yes yes yes yes yes thank you thank you I think this is Resolution 10-26.

Okay, Resolution 10-26, Additional Appropriation Resolution of the Common Council of the City of Muncie, Indiana, relating to Fire Station Number Five Project.

I need water so bad. Do we have a table for an introduction?

Motion, need a motion.

I'll make that motion.

We have a second?

Second.

Okay.

Anyone wishing to speak?

Yes, Councillor. Again, my name is Dennis Otten with Bowes McKinney and Evans. I've been before you before a couple times in this project. Just want to make myself available to answer any questions that council may have. I was unable to attend the committee meeting that was held a week from last Friday. I was on a family vacation, but to the extent there's any questions about this resolution or the other resolution or the ordinance, happy to answer them now or accept emails.

I'm wondering if it makes sense to since we since the ordinance that this is about is still in committee if it makes sense to table this okay we'll ask legal should these two resolutions be set aside for now you can postpone them until

until the time that that ordinance comes out of committee, and so essentially you're postponing them, not necessarily tabling them, but postponing them for a certain time, and you can attach it to that ordinance coming out of committee, you can just table it, you could... Could these be sent to the committee along with that so they could all be discussed together in committee? Yeah, you can make a motion to send it to a committee.

but I have a question for you. If the sponsoring council member removes them, can you bring them back next month?