Board of Works and Public Safety - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

Welcome to the Board of Works meeting. Will you please stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance?

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.

All right, if we could do our roll call.

Mayor Bonta?

Here.

Member Newell? Member Lewis?

Here.

Member Farkas? Member Moleta?

Here. All right. Did everyone have a chance to look at the minutes? Are there any comments on the minutes or a motion to approve?

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. I'll second the motion.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye.

Aye.

All right. Now we have no unfinished business. We get to new business. We have solicitor's permit for Great Lakes Contracting, LLC. Would you like to come up? You don't have to, but it's up to you.

Good morning. I know the solicitor's permit thing has been something that's come up on some social media and stuff like that, but we are requesting a solicitor's permit. We are a portage business. We're located right here on McCool Road. I guess there's a lot of things that I can go over, but I guess the biggest thing is, are there specific questions that the board needs answered other than the application that we already provided as to what our business is and how it conducts those business practices?

I think my only question, just for clarification, because a solicitor's permit is about going just door to door. I don't know if the right word is indiscriminately, but it's basically just going to a neighborhood, knocking on every door, and offering somebody the services. I know that something that you guys do, and I mean this because it's part of what you do, is if somebody's had a fire or they've had damage to the home, You going to a house that's had a fire or damage, as you do now, just to clarify, is not in violation of anything, nor has it ever been, because you're coming to a specific property to address a specific thing. I just want to make sure that you know that, because what you're asking for is the ability to just go door-to-door offering services. Is that correct?

That is correct. Obviously, we're in a unique situation that's come upon our city right now, which makes it so that we have VAST AMOUNTS OF DAMAGES THROUGHOUT A LOT OF AREAS, RIGHT? SO WOULD I SAY GOING TO EVERY SINGLE DOOR? NO. IT WOULD BE IDENTIFYING ONES THAT APPEAR THAT SOMETHING WOULD NEED TO BE DONE. WITH THAT BEING SAID, I KNOW IT'S BEEN KIND OF BROUGHT UP ON LIKE OTHER TYPES OF SOLICITATION EFFORTS OTHER THAN GOING TO SOMEONE'S DOOR, RIGHT? So the biggest thing for us is, you know, when we're doing social media, um, advertising, it's essentially impossible to sit in front of a homeowner and explain to them, you know, what is necessary for temporary protection of a home and what kind of would be required, um, from your insurance company for that type of action. Also, it's hard to explain to them, you know, how do you explain to a homeowner on a, on a platform of like, Hey, These are the requirements to document personal property correctly. These are the requirements on how to mitigate water damages or mitigate microbial growth damages. Those things are very hard to explain to people without being in front of them. Furthermore, I brought the packet that we literally give to homeowners when we walk away from them, but about 80% of the information that we give to homeowners is actually just general information. even to the extent of one of the documents that we give homeowners is actually a document that says they're right to choose a contractor after a loss, right? So even if they don't choose our company, we don't really care as long as they're informed about this is what's going to happen afterwards. And that's kind of the biggest thing because most people don't know. And what portage is going to find out like I've been to several disaster areas What we're going to find out here in about the 60 to 90 day period is that's when? Homeowners are going to start getting frustrated, and they're not going to know what to do having information like this really helps them with that so

My problem with it is, first off, I commend you for coming in and wanting to do it legally because right now we're going through a problem. There's a lot of companies coming from all over the place that are out knocking on doors that are not doing it legally. But we've been very consistent in the last couple of years, unless it's a school organization raising money for some sports team or something. We've not allowed door-to-door solicitation because the people at Portage don't want it, which is why we've not done it. Again, I think what you're offering is a good service, but I think you're going to be mixed in there with a bunch of the others that are out there that may be, or some of them might even be unscrupulous, that are knocking on doors. I think it's just going to frustrate people. For that reason, unfortunately, I'd have to say no from my standpoint to this.

Essentially, though, what is the alternative? So that's actually where... So you have a permitting process?

You're an independent business. I'm sure you understand that you can advertise, you can, through social media, you can do mailers, and I know all those things are expensive, but, you know, we've denied this multiple times to other companies, and I think it would... I don't... It just doesn't make sense to me. I mean, we've been very consistent with it, and if we start making exceptions in there, then I'm not sure we'll be able to deny anybody legally.

I think that you can have some written standards, and that's something that I think we might want to explore. We used to have vigorous debates about sidewalk waivers, and eventually we kind of came around to a uniform policy on sidewalk waivers. When I review the idea of, like, what would it be to be a solicitor who'd be approved, I mean, to me, my first questions are, is it a local company, which you are, so that's like a checkmark, you know, for you. uh... is advertising a particular issue uh... i don't mean any offense to some of the companies we've turned down but it's been like surf internet frontier comcast companies with like million dollar everyone's familiar with the product to your point the different things offered are often something that's easier understood in person I am a bit concerned about, though, because of the nature of the business, this is not about you or the company, how many people like you that maybe aren't local could make the case of this is hard to explain, and now we've got a question of what companies within the industry are we approving and not. The other thing I've always thought about too is, is it a new company? Which I don't know if that's fair, but it's always been on the mind. That's why for me, I just wanted to kind of make sure that you guys asking for this is not based on a concern of not being able to reach people who are damaged. Because certainly if there's a damaged home in the area right now, You do, and to be fair, everyone has the ability to knock on the door and say, hey, I see that your home is damaged. My company does that. And by doing that, you're not in violation of any solicitor rules. As ironic or weird as it might sound, it's when you're knocking on door-to-door going to every place. But that's what falls under the realm of door-to-door solicitation. I guess what I'm trying to get at is individual solicitation is not against the city ordinance. Similar to, man, I don't even know. I guess hypothetically the Comcast guy could be driving around and someone could be kicking his TV or throwing it out and say, hey, I saw you throwing your TV out. Are you mad about your TV service? I happen to be the Comcast guy. He's not breaking our rules in that very not probably going to happen example because he's introducing himself and he's identifying that there's somebody needing something. That's why I wanted to ask if you felt that there was a concern that your rules don't allow you currently to go to damaged homes because they certainly do.

Well, I guess that's definitely something that I didn't perceive within the policy was that I'm not looking to go to every single house in Portage If there's places that are not damaged, I wouldn't go there.

Yeah, so that's the door to door. And again, I'm in a spot where on one hand, I absolutely get what you're saying and about some of the uniqueness of your company. And on the other hand, I get Andy's point. But that's why I want to check to make sure. let's say that it was a bright sunny day and there appear to be no homes damaged in a neighborhood you with your information knocking on doors just to tell people that your company exists and these are the services you offer that's door-to-door solicitation you going to a home that you think is in need and again I You asked me, like, whose definition is a home in need? Really, the only thing we can go by is two things, of course. One, if you're knocking on every door and somebody's concerned because you're knocking on every door, you know, going around a whole neighborhood. And to be fair, if every house has holes in it or damage on it, that's still not door-to-door solicitation. The other thing, of course, is just it allows somebody to say, hey, this person won't leave my property, or I'd like this person to go and they're not, which there's a threshold for that even without solicitation. I guess my question to you is if you're concerned that our current rules don't allow you to go to homes that are damaged after the storm, it does. You're within your right to go to homes that are damaged by the storm right now. The issue would be just going indiscriminately to homes just to let them know what you offer. And if you still want that, then you're still in the right place to apply for the petition. I just want to make sure that you understood the difference.

Okay, yeah. But it sounds like the mayor might be giving you an out here.

I think so. I just want to make sure that everyone's kind of in agreement with that.

Definitely my view. And again, just speaking as a Board of Works member, that's kind of my call. Now, again, in the event that you're... Now to be fair, I'm trying to think of a neighborhood that doesn't have damage right now, Cardinal Crossings maybe. Say you were walking around Cardinal Crossings and you're knocking on every door and every time somebody answers the door, you're just giving them information and the person says, well my house isn't damaged. And you were to say, well I know your house isn't damaged, I just want you to know that we're around. That's solicitation door to door, what we regulate. But if you're approaching a home because there's damage on it and you want them to let you know that you're a company that does the damage, that's not door-to-door solicitation that we regulate. Now, if that person still tells you to leave and you don't, then there's a separate issue. But I think you know that already.

Okay. But, Dan, he doesn't need the solicitor's permit to do what the mayor is suggesting he do.

So hearing the issue framed, I think the mayor has articulated it that well. The only other caveat I would put on is just make sure that you're not entering, like, Active disaster scenes active fire scenes active police scenes as long as it's you know As long as the pathway is clear and there's no tape around it or anything like that then yes, you're As the mayor outlined, this is a different case, so it would be okay.

You're talking about like an act of fire or like an act of something going on?

Yeah, because the fire department and the police department have the ability under law to lock down a scene while they're conducting their investigation, but once that is released, then companies can come forward and start talking to homeowners when there is a need for that service. So this is not door-to-door, this is just... being there for people to let them know what you do. As the mayor articulated, that's what we're allowed to do.

That's not what Chris Crail told me.

We're not going to get into that right now?

I'm joking. I'm joking.

But yeah, I mean, I know you, I know what you guys do. I appreciate what you do. My understanding is that what you guys do, as I've seen it, would never be a violation of our door-to-door policy. It would be if you were just going on every single door, just giving information. As long as you are, I guess the way I would say it, identifying a home that's in need and offering it, you know, it's not really a door-to-door solicitation. Again, you're welcome to apply for door-to-door. I just don't know if this board's going to pass it, or at least Andy doesn't sound like he's going to pass it, but I wanted to make sure you know what you can do regardless.

Okay. No, that makes sense. I guess that's the only reason why we applied for it, because we wanted to follow the rules, and I don't

We totally appreciate that.

I didn't realize that that's how they would be essentially interpreted, I guess.

It's a little bit weird because you've got to even ask yourself, legally speaking, what counts as anything, right? But essentially it's just if there's five houses on a street and you're just knocking on their door to let them know that you exist and here's what you offer, that's door-to-door solicitation. If there's five houses on the street and they all have a tree on the roof or they all have been burned down, going door to door, even if you are going from one to the other, that's not solicitation because you are identifying a particular need. I'm sure eventually some Comcast guy or some company is going to claim, it doesn't look like this house has cable, I better knock on the door. Across that bridge we get there.

And again, we all appreciate the fact that you're coming in to ask to do this legally because most don't.

I mean, I think If that's the case, I mean, I think at this time we can resend our request because it doesn't fit our business model if that's how it's defined.

Gotcha. And again, you've got us, you know, and if you'd like anything, like, defined, you know, by, you know, I don't even know, if you ever need something from us, just to clarify, hey, this is not the same thing, happy to do that, too.

Okay. Appreciate it.

Thank you. And that gets us to Lifeline Collection Contract Approval.

Sure, if anyone's speaking on that, or if that's just you, Dan. I'll go ahead and get started, and Roy, if you want to head up. So a month or two ago, the fire department approached me to start discussing consolidating the contract for... collecting delinquent ambulance collections and unifying it with our actual existing contract that runs the actual billing software. And so what was presented was that through the good work of the fire department, they've determined that unifying the two contracts is going to save the city a significant amount of money, be a lot smoother, and so what Roy's gonna describe a little bit more in detail is this unification of the contracts. What I have before you is something that we were thinking about. It's a resolution permitting the signing of this contract to unify the two contracts And then at some point in the future, when I can get with the fire department to do this, we're going to actually release an RFP for a combined billing and collection service. But right now, for the convenience of the city and to save significant amounts of money, we're going to unify the two contracts. So if you want to go through some of the savings that you've discovered, Roy, and all that, I think it'd be instructive to the board.

Sure, so the previous contract was under Eagle Collections, which does a lot of different government collections. They don't necessarily concentrate on medical collections per se, they can do it. But with our ambulance billing company and the separate collections contract, there were a lot of different hiccups that go along. One would be just the fact that the collections company has a 30% fee. Whatever they collect, they get 30% of it currently, where this company or the subsidiary of our billing company is only 20%. So right off the bat, that's 10% savings for that. The other thing is if somebody was to say they go by ambulance, they don't provide insurance information, they don't respond to the billing company for whatever reason, and it goes to collections and then they respond back. And they say that we're filing for a hardship because we're down our luck, we don't have the money. If we do that, to withdraw it from collections is a 15% fee against the city. So by being generous and waiving off that ambulance bill, we would actually be owing this collections company 15%, where if we do it through the ambulance billing company, we won't have that. The other challenges that you run into with the ambulance billing is people have a certain time to respond with their insurance, and they don't respond within a timely manner to the bill itself. And it goes to collections. There was no way when it was submitted to the other collections agency to pull it back and then try to resubmit it to insurance. It was like a one and done deal. This gives us an avenue to withdraw that and try to do what's best for the patients on there. and also opens up for hardship and other potential changes down the line for the community.

So again, as part of the review, Roy and I have personally been working on this for quite a while. I just absolutely have to compliment the fire department for discovering all of this, sifting through a lot of complicated collections work, identifying savings, identifying efficiency, and so a motion to approve this resolution would be a motion to allow us to transition to this new contract Unify the two contracts and then get started on a follow-on request for proposals to see if there's additional savings that we could get by doing a unified Billing and collections contract so that's that's what's going on here But again a lot of a lot of compliments going out to the fire department for figuring out all of these savings And I'll certainly make a motion to approve resolution number 26 I'll second

We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye. And for the record, Carrie, we'll have to figure out what resolution number. I just couldn't remember what number we were on, so that's my fault. I apologize.

That's fine. I just texted Liz, too, so maybe I'll get it by the end of the meeting.

Yeah, okay, great. We'll announce that when we get it.

All right. That'll get us to the FEMA reimbursable work contracts. Dan, did you want to explain this one? Yes.

All right. So you may know that a rather significant storm hit Portage recently. We are still under a city and state declared emergency. And so one of the things we're sorting out is how long these emergencies last and what our flexibility is in terms of procurement. So uh... one of the things that we have discovered is that there are there are a lot of folks out there that assist with uh... with FEMA paperwork with monitoring services with tree and debris removal services and these services kind of create a three-legged stool and so what cities, municipalities, what counties are looking to do is to put together three companies to do all three legs of the stool Our team has done a whole lot of work and collected and reviewed a lot of pamphlets. And so we have what we feel are three very qualified organizations that can do all three legs of this stool. What we're unclear right now is how the FEMA reimbursement is going to work. So what you have before you are three separate contracts that we feel if the FEMA reimbursement comes through like we think, and pending some additional research I'd like to do on some procurement procedures during emergency operations, the contracts in front of you, we are looking to discuss those and possibly approve today with a caveat. So I will state this right now. So what we're looking to do right now is have a motion to approve the awarding to the three contractors that are in front of you and those contracts pending legal review and clarification of the state and FEMA emergency purchasing procedures and pending clarification of funding reimbursement and payment schedules. So that's going to be the motion that someone can make. But right now I'd like to open up to additional questions because this is a confusing and sometimes difficult to parse through time because this is new to a whole lot of counties and cities up here in northwest Indiana.

Yeah, to put it simply, I mean, this is something I know the team spent a great deal, one, vetting the companies involved, and two, we made sure that as far as we know, like legally speaking, we got all ducks in a row. I think it makes sense that we want to do definitely a check to make sure that what we're doing is consistent with the FEMA, you know, policies. And also, I think that it's important that we have a payment schedule that works for the city, because even if we get reimbursed by FEMA, we need to make sure that we're negotiating a payment schedule that matches the cash on hand, which is where I think Dan articulated the motion perfectly there.

So Dan, just to make sure I see, you say three contracts?

Well, there will be three contracts.

This was the one that Leigh Ann just put in front of the one. The one I got here, yeah.

Hold on, I'll be right there. No, absolutely. So the motion I'm suggesting is to approve the award to the three contractors representing the three contracts in front of the Board of Works pending legal review and clarification of state and FEMA emergency purchasing procedures and pending clarification of funding reimbursement and payment schedules. Okay, full stop. So, if during additional legal review we discover that we're not within our emergency purchasing procedures, which typically last about 30 days, or depending on if these declarations had an ending date, Also what we have to consider is, is there actually a state of emergency? Because even though the streets are clear, I believe today is the first day for kids in Portage Township schools to go back to school. Well, how many limbs are still hanging and dangling from wires? How many piles of wood are drying and subject to falling down? And we've got kids walking past. I mean, there are many, many ways to define emergency. I'm not going to offer an opinion, but again, there are so many different ways to define an emergency. There is a lot of findings here that show that we may still be in such an emergency, which opens up different procedures for procurement. So again, like I'm... This stuff is fluid. We're literally debating this.

But the team of consultants involved here, they absolutely believe we are, and they are showing how we are. There's no confusion there on their part, and I don't think that there's really confusion on our part. We just want to make sure that our numbers and make sure that our language matches the one that they're providing. Because I think that as long as what they presented to us holds up completely, we're good with these contracts, but we want to have the ability to hold off if there is a problem presented by the state or the... And we also believe that... Completely understand. I just wanted to know how to word that.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, so... Oh, you could just say so moved because I've already articulated the motion. So that would be my recommendation. But again, like we... There's so much research and work going into this behind the scenes. We don't want to wait. The last thing we need is to wait two weeks to the next Board of Works meeting and having all of this debris and things dangling when we could have people starting work within the next day or two. So Dan, I think someone's about to say probably so moved or something to that effect. So moved.

Seconded. So we have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Thank you. I lost my agenda. Here it is. That gets us to the Board of Works claims for 8-25-26. Did everyone have a chance to read and was there any questions for them?

Make a motion we approve the claims in the amount of $525,011.16. Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Payroll claims for 8726.

Make a motion we approve the payroll claims for 8-7-26 in the amount of $2,706,410.01.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any other matters to come before... Oh, do we have any bulk appeals? No, Mayor. Okay. Any other matters to come before this board? Mr. Cherry, how...

Oddly enough. So this was kind of last minute because of ticket sales, but Ready to Live Entertainment, who does the Founders Square, the bigger concerts, they're doing a concert Saturday night, August 29th, this coming Saturday. Because ticket sales have gone well, they'd like to get permission from the Board of Works to close PFC Steven Serco Way just north of the fire station and just north of South Founders Square. So it'll still be accessible. The square will be accessible from Main Street north of that. So Rolly and everybody, you know, everyone's going to have access to the square. So just that little strip to the east of Founders Square. I have verified with police and fire. Police and fire have been notified everyone's okay with the plans and just need that little road closure for Saturday night.

I'll make a motion we approve the road closure for Saturday, August 29th.

Second.

All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any motion? Oh, Tracy, did you need something? Oh, yes.

Hello. So with the storm that we've all been talking about, there's been several residents who have been calling the Clerk Treasurer's Office. Their homes have been destroyed, so trees down on them, they're unlivable. They're requesting trash to be stopped and Sanitary which is not involved here. That'll be in another meeting But they're asking for their dress trash to be halted what we're kind of thinking on this it's more on the sanitary way than the trash way is if we can halt them for like the snowbirds like we what we do with the snowbirds to stop them for four months and then they come back and Request show their contractors work and what it's doing because trash is a little easier. Trash starts showing up there. We know people are living there for the sanitary. It's a little more difficult. I can't see through the wall to see if they got a toilet. So that's what I'm asking to be approved that these residents that call in and we verify that their house is destroyed. They bring in photos, that kind of stuff that we're allowed to suspend their trash fee for four months and then they have to request it again.

I think that makes sense to me, especially because, I mean, and again, they don't have to be present here, just as they're not present here right now.

Several of them I spoke to had medical emergencies and stuff they had to do today.

I think the four-month is a good policy because it gives us a way to check. Again, it's like Tracy said, it's important that we have a cut-off date, even if it's renewed, so that, you know, you want to believe, of course, that everybody, and I'm sure almost, if not everybody, is really in the situation. But in the event somebody, you know, starts, you know, coming back to the house and putting trash out, you want to make sure that we're watching that.

Is there a motion? Is one made? Is that right? I make a motion that we approve a four-month forgiveness or a delay. What do you want to call that? I think it's a vacate.

Vacate. Vacate.

I make a motion we approve a four-month vacate like we do for snowbirds so people whose homes were destroyed have a reprieve until they get back in their home.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye.

Thank you.

Any other matters to bring before the board? Hearing none, is there a motion to adjourn?

A motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.