Common Council - Special Meeting

Heat. Heat. Oh, oh. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

If you're supposed to be up at the council area, um, please make your way. Not to put anybody on the spot. We had lots of people all over the the place. All right, I'm going to call the meeting the special meeting to order. Will you please stand and join me for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Councilman Parnell, could you lead us in prayer?

Our gracious heavenly father, we thank you for this evening the opportunity to assemble and take care of the city's business. And so, Father, we pray for wisdom. We pray for guidance of your Holy Spirit. And then once again this evening, Father, we pray for uh the residents of porters, their families, our firefighters, Lord, our police officers. bless them, keep them safe, and thank you again for the opportunity and the privilege uh Lord it is to help take care of the city's business. And we thank you for the gift of your son. This we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for being here today. If we could do the roll call.

Councilman Alvarez, Councilwoman Widenbach, Councilwoman Hurst here, Council Member or Councilwoman Parnell here. Councilwoman Vazquez here. Councilwoman Amler, Councilman Zilly here. All right, that'll get us to um introduction of ordinances. Um, we'll have a first reading for ordinance 2603, Port Authority Matters. Um, Councilman Parnell, would you mind reading that one for us?

Certainly. Ordinance number 26-03, an ordinance of the city of Portage, Indiana, dissolving the Portage Port Authority. Let the record reflect that the ordinance has been read in its entirety.

So, uh, this is one where because of the number of people here, we can't suspend the rules. And I'm not claiming that that's something we would want to do in this matter anyway, but this is an important first reading. Um, this is our first step in being able to dissolve the port authority. Um, just to give a little bit of history on that, um, Portage has had a port authority for some time. In practice, what the port authority does is it owns the city's marina and then it also collects port authority fees that are used. Barb is here and our harbor master. If I need you, Barb, feel free to correct me. But um when there's something obstructing the water that's actually in the water, they are currently the entity that pays for someone to come out and take that thing out of the water. Um we have the ability to do that from different mechanisms from the city. And it's something that uh Superintendent Commmenda and I have talked about from the element of uh the storm team being able to not necessarily do that as a team, but take over the authority of having the storm board approve claims to have things moved out of the waterway. So we're covered there. the marina itself by dissolving this and you'll see it in the body of the ordinance. It would be given um from an ownership perspective to the city's park department. Um our park team maintenance team is already handling all of the maintenance at the marina and in fact the harbor master is now the uh well I was going to say head of maintenance but is now the superintendent for the parks as well. And so we've begun the process of putting the parks and the marina together. And to put it really simply, if we have it where the storm board can handle getting things out of the waterway, and if we have the parks owning and taking over the marina, we really don't have a purpose for the port authority at this time. Um, there are municipalities with very robust port authorities, either because they've got more marinas or because they have a casino. a lot of the communities along Lake Michigan that have a water-based casino. The money um that the municipality gets is really money that

goes through the port authority for better or worse. And I won't engage in the debate today. Um Portage does not have a casino and it's not likely we're ever going to have one of that sort. Um if the opportunity came and we wanted it, we could certainly bring back the port authority. That's no trouble. So, uh, what this measure really does is it clears some, uh, extra lever levers, layers of government, and allows us to put that focus into the park system. It also allows us to move, I believe it's about $130,000, would you say, is in the Port Authority fund, Barb? Yes, that's correct.

That $130,000 will move from the Port Authority fund into the park fund. And that does a long way to help the park financially at this time. And so I something where if you guys have questions about it between now and when we vote on it for the second reading, please uh feel free to reach out to me. Feel free to talk to Barb. But for us, this is a step that we're finally it's been in the works for some time and we've now got it on paper to be read as an ordinance.

Thank you for explaining that. And I'm excited myself just for the parks. What this also does is we've needed to do serious upgrades to our marina for some time and the marina brings in some revenue. The port authority brings in some revenue, but when it comes to the cost of truly upgrading the marina the way that our marina needs to be, there really aren't a lot of resources that our port authority has access to to be able to pay for certainly in the short term the big upgrades the marina needs. I'm by no means claiming that the park has those resources already, but the park system has a lot more access to different opportunities that can be applied to get the marina fixed up and upgraded over time. And so we're excited about that part of the process, too, assuming that this passes. Unless there's any other questions, um I'll move to um the introduction of resolutions um resolution 2604 allowing the clerk treasurer to clear stale checks. Um, Victoria, would you mind reading that for us?

Of course. And I'm gonna let Liz say something after it's read or not read, but is that okay? Yes. Okay. Resolution number 26-04, a resolution to void stale dated checks outstanding and unpaid for a period of two or more years and all matters related thereto. Let the record reflect that the resolution has been read in its entirety. Motion to adopt. Second. So, we have a motion and a second. Um, any discussion? Or Liz, do you want to say anything?

Yes. Okay. What this does is it allows me to clear checks that have been written by the city that that have not been cashed since 2023. So, it's a total of 8,275.30. It go that will go back into the funds that it the checks were written out of. Um, as soon as you guys approve this, then we will get these checks, the money put back into the funds, and I would appreciate you voting on it. Thank you. If anybody's watching this meeting and you were like rushing through your drawers trying to find a check for from the city, I believe it'll officially be too late after this vote. So, we have a motion to adopt and a second. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I.

Any opposed? Thank you. Thank you. And then that gets us to other matters to be considered and that is our public works addendum. Um I don't want to give a spoiler alert, but checking with our attorney, I don't believe that we would actually be able to pass this today. Um and unfortunately, and this is not Gina, you've done nothing wrong. In fact, it's because you're doing something right. We have the issue. We are at quorum and we have just enough council members unable to make it tonight. two unexpectedly. One was planned and then two had to call off tonight. Not beating up on them by any means, but uh Gina Oh, did you want to give your statement anyway?

Um I feel this addendum poses the appearance of a conflict of interest. For that reason, I'm going to abstain from voting on this agenda.

But that said, what this is is this an addendum, an agreement between the union and the city. It's not a complete close to the negotiation process that we're going through right now, but it is a significant step for us to be able to be working together to reform some of the structure of the city in a way that allows for funds to be made in a if not flexible, more useful way for both of our needs. It also is the beginning of the creation of a true public works department. So, what this addendum does is it moves the maintenance team in the park department and the laborers in the street department over to what we've previously been calling the utilities department of which Tracy is the general superintendent of utilities. One group will be the parks division and one group will be the street division of the new public works department with Tracy formerly becoming the general superintendent of public works. She's already the general superintendent of utilities, but this would be public works. If passed, um this allows for a negotiated raise uh to go through with the um both the street and sanitation as well as the people who are coming over, completing a part of the negotiation process that we've been working on steadily. But really what goes into the next part of this is going to be our negotiations towards uh well finishing up the contract and ultimately moving towards a public works department. Um, I'm happy to take questions, but given that we're not going to be able to pass this tonight, it's also okay if you guys want to save it for next week when I believe we'll be over quorum.

Do we need to table this then, Stan? Uh, yes. I I do recommend a motion to table. I'll make a motion to table. Second. So, we have a motion and we have a second. All in favor? Uh, please feel free to signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. That comes to an end for our meeting. Um, is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. And I second that. So, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Thank you.