Board of Works and Public Safety - Regular Meeting

All in order, our Board of Public Working Committee meeting on June the 9th will begin with our Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mayor Bonta? Member Newell? Here. Member Lewis? Here. Member Farkas? Here. Member Mileta?

Here. First up, we've got the approval of the minutes from the May 26th meeting.

I'll make a motion we approve the minutes from the May 26th meeting.

And I'll second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? And call the roll, please.

All right, thank you. Member Newell?

Yes.

Member Lewis?

Yes.

Member Farkas? Yes. Member Mileta?

Yes. Don't have any unfinished business under new business. We have the IT independent contractor agreement with Bill Moran. Bill here?

No, he's not here.

I can speak about it if you guys want to. Yeah, just come on up to the mic. Just give him a quick overview. Explanation of what we're doing.

So Bill Moran, oh, wow.

Sorry, I don't do this all the time. So Bill worked with us last year, kind of helping us get away from our managed service provider for IT, so now we do all of our own IT in-house. So he's coming back this year in a reduced capacity, and he's just going to help us out with a bunch of different projects about cutting costs for our frontier bills, telecom lines that are old, kind of getting rid of those. So we have a few bills that we pay about $400, $500 a month on currently, and he's going to help us cut those costs. So it's going to pay for itself as we go on. We've got a few other different projects we want him to work with us on. So it's a reduced capacity IT kind of helping us with elevators, alarms, things of that nature.

So it looks like he's just working four days a month?

Four days a month, yeah.

The hours? Yep.

Great.

I've done a full... You reviewed the contract? Yep, I have reviewed this. In fact, one thing I want to point out is that one of the things that has been updated for this contract is that we're defining what a work day is. And so we've kind of tightened that up a little bit. So he can't come in and spend four hours working with Trevor and say, whoa, that was a tough day, and then walk away. No, it's like a full seven-hour, no less than seven-hour day.

Great, thank you. We have a motion to approve the IT independent contractor agreement with Bill Moran.

I'll make a motion to approve the independent contractor agreement with Dan.

I'll also look at that. Give the motion a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? We've got the fire department CPR machine quotes. Chief?

This must be expensive. No, it's not terrible. Good morning. I am coming to ask for permission to pursue a sole source purchase for our Lucas CPR machines. The CPR machines that we are asking for, the reason that we're asking for the sole source purpose of them is they integrate well with our, they're the only integrating of CPR machine with our current cardiac monitors. Any other manufacturer, there would be a disruption in that communication between the two. They also don't work with the same battery platform that we currently have, and so going with the same platform that we've had for a long time is the purpose for requesting the information for this whole source.

purchase and uh... all this step in for one second uh... i've already done a full legal review of this and this is what what the chief is outlined as to why we need to go with this particular machine for the ambulances another infrastructure that we have both software hardware is literally right out of indiana code exactly how so what i will end up doing is assisting the fire department with writing up a sole source justification But, you know, we do need to seek, the fire department does need to seek the permission of the Board of Works to move forward exploring this option.

I'll make a motion. We allow the fire department to move forward with a single source, a sole source, supply the CPR machines due to the interactive nature with current equipment and recommendation of our attorney.

I'll second that. We have the motion to second. Any other questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?

Before we get into the 4th of July festival, could I bring up now the upfitting for our vehicles while I'm up here? So we would like to piggyback, was it a month and a half ago maybe, the police department was up here when the approval for the vehicles was, the administrative vehicles was done also. the approval for the upfitting of the vehicles. We would like to get permission to just piggyback onto what the police department is already doing in place with Federal Signal for the upfitting of our two administrative vehicles that have already been approved.

Are these the vehicles we did in that same purchase?

Yes, sir. But they don't have the upgrades for the... Right. Mike was forthinking, and he came and asked for the upfitting at the same time that we did the approvals for the vehicles. We were lagging behind a little bit. We were still waiting for some information, and we have received that information and opted our best or chose our best option as to piggyback with the police department.

Any other questions? I just want to clarify with Attorney Barnicki. I thought we approved that all as a group, though. I was on the assumption we already approved this.

I mean, I can go back and look at that. I don't recall off the top of my head, and I don't have the minutes from that meeting. We can double check if the board already approved it.

I'll be more than happy to approve it again.

Yeah, I mean, like we... one could make a motion to, in the event that it's not already been approved, to approve this request.

So we brought to you guys the car purchases, because we did them as two separate things. We did the Durango's. As one as like patrol vehicles, and then we did the trucks as administrative vehicles, which they were also getting. So we did two different. We brought two different bids for those. You guys accepted the patrol vehicles and administrative vehicles, which included police and fire. We then came back in and because. You know, our upfitting is, we do a lot more of it, if we're being honest. We came back in and got our, all of our vehicles, the upfitting approved to go to Federal Signal. So that would have been our trucks and our Durangos. They have, the requirements in the vehicles are a little different for them than what ours are. Obviously, light colors, you know, different things, the computers, different things. They hadn't done theirs yet. So I'm 99% positive that you guys approved the car purchase as a whole, approved the police department's upfitting, and now they're coming back to just get theirs upfitted.

No, that's great background. So for the record, the police chief just clarified that his recollection was that the upfitting request was exclusively for police upfitting. The fire upfitting is a little bit different. So again, I think the suggested motion would cover both contingencies. One could say so moved.

So moved.

So seconded.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. So moved. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?

Yeah, for the record, the motion was articulated. It's just if you agree with what I said, then you can, as a member, you can suggest that motion by saying so moved, adopting my language.

As long as Carrie wrote it down.

Yeah. Oh, Carrie and I know. She's got it. All right. Thank you all very much. Appreciate it.

Okay, next up we've got the 4th of July Parade and Festival special event. Welcome, Norma.

Good morning. I am here again. It's around that time again of the year. We're going to do the parade and festival. Everything is pretty much the same outline as last year. The route is the same. We'll start at Vivian and Central, go down Central to Willow Creek, go south on Willow Creek, and end right after Gilbert Park on Sunset. The festival starts at five. We've had an initial meeting with all the groups to decide on the safety, the lineup, worked with all the city departments involved and got that all taken care of. So we just need permission to block the roads and have our parade.

Thank you. Anybody have any questions?

I'll make a motion we have the 4th of July on the 4th of July.

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Thank you.

Wouldn't want to be the group that turned down the 4th of July. Next we have a solicitor permit application for the Ascent Group Incorporated.

Good afternoon.

My name is Minerva. I'm the owner of Ascendant Group Incorporated. Now I'm just here above you guys to request a peddler's permit from you guys. We're an ICD company distributing services for Verizon. They just invested $20 billion in buying out the fiber optic lines from Frontier. So we're just looking to be able to service your folks' area here. We've been able to gain permits already from Hobart area. We did gain temporary permits from Burns Harbor as well. So we're just trying to do things accordingly to make sure that we're able to service your folks' area as well.

So your request is to go door-to-door?

Yep. Yeah, we would only be going from noon, maybe down just to sunset time. We don't push in the dark out here. We just want to make sure everyone's doing it comfortably, safely. And we do, of course, authorize background checks through a third-party company that also does get double verification process through our company called Credico as well. So that way, the safety of our reps and the people that we're knocking on is done accordingly.

I will say in the last couple of years, this board has pretty much made an unofficial decision to turn down solicitor's permits unless it's like the Girl Scouts selling their cookies or a school selling a card or something like that. I'll leave that up to the board. additional information but That's just something that we've gotten away from in the city of Portage and we've been consistent on denying these requests especially for larger companies that have many multiple other ways of advertising their services to the community and

Right, and we're not taking payments at the door either. We just set up the appointments for technicians to come service people's homes. So we're not taking any formal payment at the door. Nothing right away, even when technicians get there. We push people's payments out two, three weeks after people get installed. The overall objective with fiber, it's not just to get people cheaper, faster internet. It's really just a matter of that fiber is becoming the more secure way nationwide to receive internet in people's homes. Just to get people on a private dedicated line is becoming a pretty urgent matter nationwide, which is part of the reason why Verizon invested $20 billion in buying out the fiber from Frontier. So it's really just a matter of just trying to help people get something that's going to be a lot more secure for people's neighborhoods.

Yeah, the issue, what we've heard from the community is they just don't like random people coming knocking at their doors. So that's where we've made that decision. So I'll leave that up to the board to any further discussion.

As far as random people, we would only send a designated five people. Like I said, we would have a designated time, and it would only be for a short period of time. We wouldn't be there every day for the next year or so. We only really need at the very least a month to come help service the area and get people something that's going to be a lot more secure for people's homes.

I'll make a motion in lieu of what we've done since the beginning, and we'll deny this solicitor's permit.

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second to deny. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Sorry.

Thank you.

Next we've got a solicitor permit application for Five Guy Fries. That guy. I just don't want to say that.

Thanks for having us.

Hopefully you enjoyed the bread.

There'll be more to come.

So we're just looking for a peddler's license to park at the new location, which we plan to have a breakfast lunch spot at the former Deep Blue Seafood on Route 6. I believe the next segment is JT's. That's going to be the name of our restaurant. We have a food truck called Fat Guy's Fries. We serve fries, tater tots, burgers. like everything that you could probably think of that's American. And we just wanted to park in the parking lot of the Deep Blue Seafood to promote that we are going to be opening. We're shooting for September 1st. And yeah.

So your request is really approval for a location to park your food truck?

Pretty much, yeah.

Dan, why would this be a solicitor's proposal?

So actually, it's not. Is this the same? So you are... Yeah, you are JTs.

Yes, that's correct.

Okay, so it's really E and F are kind of combined on the agenda.

I know at one point we were at Ace Hardware and code enforcement came and told us that we had to get a solicitor's permit. We had to go in front of the board and we had to get it approved. That's why I took the same route.

Totally get it.

We don't want to make any mistakes.

This really isn't what you're proposing now has changed. You're going to park where- Where we're going to be opening. Where you're going to be opening. This is really just like a- Yeah, this is just temporary operators. So it's not really a solicitor's permit, so we'll... That's really not the duty of the Board of Works to approve, right?

That'd be the planning department?

Well, planning approved for the actual restaurant already for the JTs. So I don't know if that made it faster.

Yeah. Tom, why don't you come up? Because this is kind of like a hybrid request, really. Let's... Let's talk this one out.

First off, the solicitor permit is really not valid. Is that something we can ignore that on the agenda?

I would say just ignore it. It's all the same request. They're not going door to door to try to get business.

I thought maybe your truck was going to pull up in front of my house.

We'll be here next Wednesday.

We'll be here next Wednesday. On the 17th, we'll be here. So are you looking to serve food out of this too? Yeah. Temporarily? Yes.

For the food truck, yes.

Right. So this would go under typically For food trucks, it's more of a day by day type thing. It's a day only. So I believe this would be a Board of Work action to allow them to do this until the business is opened on a temporary basis.

We've never done that for other food trucks that park anywhere. Right, but again, they're asking for basically a, it sounds to me like they're asking for a series of days.

Well, majority during the week because pretty much every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we're booked with events. Right. So it'd be like probably Monday through Wednesday or even Tuesday through Thursday. That's pretty much majority of when.

It kind of gives us a chance for awareness to our followers that we're going to open this breakfast, lunch event. Kind of deli bakery mix and then it also helps us with funding because it's a lot going on I understand that so I think we're looking for a time frame.

Maybe not a Per se, you know this state this state. It's probably just the time frame between now and next

September 1st.

September 1st, target opening date. I do know that the Porter County Board of Health will be inspecting this as part of the food truck.

Antonio came to inspect the restaurant yesterday. Or give us a consultation, tell us what we need. But he's inspected our food truck, so has John. Both of them are from Porter County. Yes. So I guess this would be a... And I have my yearly permit as well.

So what are we asked to approve here or just do we?

I'm figuring that out. I'm trying to write this down. Yeah, because this is different.

Okay.

Everything is different. That's right.

I second that. Yeah. All right.

So you want, like, basically June 10th and you said September 1st? Yeah.

Yes. Okay.

code enforcement told me you needed a peddler's license and then other food trucks have told me like the ace um the advanced auto parks they had to get a peddler's license do we have a peddler's license for food trucks yeah

We have one, but I'm not sure if it's specifically for food trucks or not. Do you want me to go grab one, a blank one?

I've never heard of one. So, yeah.

That's an incentive. I mean, is that a park? It can't be a park function. I mean, not off-premises of a park.

It's private property. It feels to me more it's a... The occupancy permit type of thing.

It would almost be more of a Porter County, as long as they are aware of it and are inspecting it.

Well, we have the yearly already, the 2026 permit.

I understand that. We're just trying to see what the function of our approval would be.

I get it.

An approval that maybe is not valid.

Right.

Or not needed. I mean, I would view it almost falling under the Contemporary construction vehicle, but they're serving food out of there.

So yes, it feels like that's a board of hell I mean that they have the business they're parking the truck on their own property with their business They're using it to serve food out of that's a board of health I would agree with that but you've had bars who didn't have kitchens who were Using a food truck for a period of time.

I guess the question, Kerry, is when food trucks go to other areas, not parks or not City Hall, do they apply for anything?

I don't. That would be Diane. I asked her to come in here, but she might be out to lunch. Let me go grab her.

I was told I had to leave when we were parked at Ace Hardware because they said you needed some type of license, a peddler's license or... That was, I don't know, a couple years ago.

I mean, I see one that's over in advanced auto parts all the time. I don't think we've ever approved that.

She said that was a couple years ago, though, so maybe there was something else in place at that point. That might have been different then. I mean, they were enforcing something that would... Well, do you want to...

I mean, I guess we can give an approval, right? But it might not be valid. It might be somewhere else they've got to go get that approval.

You want to gather some of this info or let them do that and skip on to claims and bulk appeals?

Let's go through claims and bulk appeals. Let me keep looking. Because, again, I'm just trying to figure out what is the right thing to tell you to vote on because this is something new to me, too. I'm just not familiar with this.

Yeah, so if you don't mind just being patient, we'll just go through the rest of our agenda until they can figure that out. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to the Board of Works claims for June the 9th.

Yeah. Yeah, and the updated, I left both of them, but they're both listed in the drop box and everything. The final one, yeah. The APV number 85356 was made for like 121.14, but when we printed it, it was 121.44.

I'll make a motion we approve the claims, the June 6 claims, in the amount of $983,579.91. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Okay, next we have Bulk Appeals 6527, Jason Court.

Good afternoon, members. I just have one before you. It's a $40 dispute. The owner lives on a cul-de-sac, and when you have a cul-de-sac in various homes on that cul-de-sac, the front lineage is difficult and smaller. So I'm asking the board to consider reversing this in this type of situation.

I'll make a motion to reverse the charge, the bulk appeal charge for 6527 Jason Court on recommendation of staff.

I'll second that. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? If not, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. Is there any other business that's not on the agenda? Go ahead. Fire chief was up here. I mean, you've got to come up now, too.

Your turn.

This is like becoming a weird meeting. This one's weird, too. I don't know exactly where to go with this, but I was told I needed to be here. So a couple months ago, we were told that there was still money left in a bond that needed to be used by a certain point this year. We had inquired about getting new SWAT vests for our SWAT team, because they're about to expire. A couple weeks ago, I reached out to City Hall and inquired about the money. They said there was still some money. So we had gotten quotes for those vests. So then the other day I was told to come in here and I guess seek approval from you guys to purchase it. Where the money's coming from, somebody from the clerk charges office probably have to explain that a little better. I just am under the impression that there is money.

So just real. Maybe we can approve it contingent upon the availability of the funds.

There you go. Just so you guys know what you're looking at. So we've got our SWAT team. We have 14 police officers, and when we're fully staffed, six medics, so a 20-person team. Their vests expire every five years, and they are an enhanced level of protection from what regular officers were. It would be great if we had the money for all of that, but unfortunately the VEST grant that we apply for only covers a certain kind. Regardless, we like to get these every five years. We update the SWAT team. The last couple years, our SWAT call-outs are definitely on the rise. We're not only using them for you know, hostage negotiating type things, but high level warrants, things that we can slow down, take a little bit more time on and execute in a more safe manner. We use our SWAT team. There's two SWAT teams in the county. There's Porter County SWAT team and there's our team. Um, Porter County team is awesome. Having our own team though, you know, the response time, our officers are on scene. We have complete control over that team. Um, We don't want to lose that. We have worked with Ogden Dunes. We've been called out to Burns Harbor, Porter. So we do kind of the northern end of the county, kind of our little end. We're the SWAT team that generally they call. So all that being said, that's why we need them. If you guys approve this, this will be the first time that I can remember in the last year you know, X number of years going back that we actually got vests before they expired. We've had a problem funding them because it's not really in a budget. There is no budget for our SWAT team. It's kind of like our canine. We just gotta raise money unless we come across some funds like this. So all that long-winded talk there. We got three quotes. One was for nearly 65,000. One was for just under 57,000. And then we got another one which is what we would like to go with, which is 43,750. So here's the caveat, and I'm not sure how to do this. So because this kind of went so fast and we got the approval to go, we had the gentleman come in yesterday. So that's the quote, but he came in yesterday and did fitting. If we have some larger officers and the vest sizes are a little bigger, it could fluctuate by a couple hundred dollars here and there. So I If it's prudent, I don't know how to ask for it. The quote was $43,750 with them saying that there might be some higher or lower, if it's possible. And I don't know, Mr. Attorney, to approve.

Do you think it'll exceed $45,000?

I was told that it could go up $3,000 at the most.

Not to exceed $47,000.

That would be outstanding if you guys could do that. And then I will have an invoice. I asked them for an invoice in the next couple of days. But we kind of put this... We fast-tracked this whole thing and we were up against the time of the bond.

So this is the lowest responsive bidder, right?

By far. 65,000-ish, 57,000-ish, and then mid-40s, so it's not even close.

Yeah, so to the members of the board, a motion to approve this purchase not to exceed 47,000 keeps it well below anything else, so it's still the lowest responsive bid, so...

Would someone like to make the motion to approve the purchase of the SWAT team vests not to exceed $47,000 contingent upon the availability of funds? I like it.

I'll make that motion.

I'll second.

Is the motion second? Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye.

Thank you, Mr. Attorney, for your help there.

It's what I do. Okay. Okay, are we back to JTs? Yeah, so circling back to JTs. After talking with staff, a motion that could be made is someone could move to approve Fat Guy's Fries doing business as JT's to operate their food truck at their own property from June 9th through September 1st from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. using the license deemed necessary by staff and legal review.

We have a so moved.

So moved.

Second.

Okay, the motion is second. Any other questions or discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Any other business to be brought before the board? Okay, if not, entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you.