City Council

AMENDED MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL JUNE 8, 2015 The regular meeting of the Hammond Common Council of the City of Hammond, Lake County, Indiana was held on June 8, 2015 in the Hammond City Council Chambers. Council President Michael Opinker presided. City Clerk Robert J. Golec facilitated. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE was recited by all. Invocation by Councilman Higgs. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Markovich, Spitale, Venecz, Kalwinski, Higgs, Emerson, Hinojosa ABSENT: Uylacki, Opinker TOTAL: 7 READING OF THE MINUTES Councilwoman Venecz, supported by Councilman Kalwinski, moved to approve the minutes of May 21, 2015 and place on file. APPROVAL OF CLAIMS Councilman Markovich, supported by Councilman Higgs, moved to approve the claims from May 15, 2015 through June 3, 2015. Claim #2978 through claim #3250 , inclusive. ROLL CALL VOTE AYES: Markovich, Spitale, Venecz, Kalwinski, Higgs, Emerson, Hinojosa NAYS: None ABSENT: Uylacki, Opinker Motion carried 7/0/2 CLAIMS APPROVED PUBLIC HEARING 15-19 Vacating a 300 Foot Length of Circle Court Perpendicular to Flagstone Drive No one spoke COMMUNICATIONS Councilman Higgs read correspondence from the Dent family thanking him. Councilman Higgs read correspondence from All Saints Church inviting everyone to their parish festival. COMMITTEE REPORTS Prepared by Robert J. Golec Hammond City Clerk 1 AMENDED MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL cont. JUNE 8, 2015 Council as a Whole Committee - Councilman Emerson - Brought out 15-19. Community and Crime Watch Committee - Councilwoman Venecz - Tues., June 17; East Hammond Pullman C.W.; Ophelia Steen Center; 6:30 p.m. Thur., June 18; Hessville C.W.; Jean Shepherd Center; 7:00 p.m. Thur., June 18; South Hammond C.W.; Hammond Housing Authority; 7:00 p.m. Whiting-Robertsdale C.W.; Thur., June 11; Calumet College; 6:30 p.m. ORDINANCE 3rd READING - FINAL PASSAGE 15-19 An Ordinance Vacating a 300 Foot Length of Circle Court Perpendicular to Flagstone Drive in the city of Hammond, Lake County, Indiana Councilman Emerson, supported by Councilman Higgs, moved for final passage. Councilman Emerson, supported by Councilman Higgs, moved to amend in 15-19A in its entirety. Councilman Emerson - Specifically in the amended ordinance, line 15 on page four, to read, “but it is not subject to any easement for water, electric, sewer, gas, utilities in place”. ROLL CALL VOTE (amendment) AYES: Markovich, Spitale, Venecz, Kalwinski, Higgs, Emerson, Hinojosa NAYS: None ABSENT: Uylacki, Opinker Motion carried Motion carried 7/0/2 AMENDMENT ADOPTED ROLL CALL VOTE (as amended) AYES: Markovich, Spitale, Venecz, Kalwinski, Higgs, Emerson, Hinojosa NAYS: None ABSENT: Uylacki, Opinker Motion carried 7/0/2 ORDINANCE NO. 9298 PASSED (as amended) INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES 15-22 Zoning - Petition of JAMR, LLC to reclassify property at 710 Michigan Street/5228-5238 Calumet Avenue from C-4 General Commercial to I-1 Light Industrial Councilwoman Venecz, supported by Councilman Emerson, moved the proposed ordinance to 1st and 2nd reading by title and referred it to the Council as a Whole Committee. AYES: ALL INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES cont. Prepared by Robert J. Golec Hammond City Clerk 2 AMENDED MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL cont. JUNE 8, 2015 Councilwoman Venecz - If there is someone in the audience who would like to speak to this, Phil Taillon or Brian Poland. As I understand this is Tri-state Automotion and Robotic Automation. It’s a design and repair facility. The business has been very successful and they’re looking to expand to this property and it needs to be reclassified from C-4, which is General Commercial, to I-1, which is Light Industrial. Phil Taillon - Executive Director of Planning & Development - Good evening. Yes, and we have a representative from Tri-state here, Don Keller, who is the owner. So if you want him to come up he’ll be happy to answer any questions. Tri-state is a very successful business in the city. Has done very well. They are located at Columbia Avenue. This is a potential expansion and I don’t want to steal Mr. Keller’s thunder but a few years back, several years back, they started working on robots in the facility and the robots basically can build anything that they need to build. So if you want to place an order and you have specific specs, the robots can be programmed to create a lot of different types of things and I’ll have Mr. Keller speak more about that, obviously that will be more in his comfort zone. This is an expansion at a property that is now vacant. It used to be Engineered Companies, they moved to downtown Hammond so it’s been for sale for awhile. Engineered Companies was using the property in a Light Industrial fashion, so this is not new to the site. Obviously, we are supportive of this. It’s investment in the 2nd District which we are excited about, it’s also the possible creation of, I believe the estimates are somewhere between 10 and 15, new jobs over the next several years. With your bidding I’ll have Mr. Keller come and just speak to you briefly. Don Keller - Yes, we’ve outgrown our building on Columbia Avenue. We moved in there about twelve years ago. We are a light industrial operation. We are in a residential area. To the best of my knowledge we have never had a problem, even though we have residential within thirty five foot of the building. We’ve outgrown it. We are looking to expand. It’s a beautiful piece of property. We love being here in Hammond. Have enjoyed it. Looking forward to putting not only redeveloping the existing building but we have a plan down the road to put up an additional building should this enterprise continue to grow. Robotics is the mainstay. We take in old robots usually sold by the large corporations as they get seven eight, nine years old. We refurbish them. We sell them to smaller operations like our own that can’t afford to buy new robotic equipment. So, a lot of good jobs, high tech. We’re excited. We’ve been doing this for six, seven years internally. It’s been very good for Tri- state. Our growth has been phenomenal. So we’re looking forward to setting up another operation here in Hammond. Councilman Spitale - How many people are employed with you? Don Keller - We have 65 people at our current facility we started in 2002 with 25. We’ve expanded, we have two operations. One here in Hammond, which is the corporate headquarters. Our second operation is Alexandria, Louisiana. Union Tank is our largest customer. Has been for almost ten years now. We are a contract manufacturer. So we make a lot of component parts for people like Union Tank, Miller Electric, Lincoln Electric. Most of our customer base, from our manufacturing standpoint are large corporations that outsource that work. This new enterprise is all about robotics. We will do a lot of robotic integration, design, build, tooling, we do training, we do programming. So, most of the jobs it will be creating will be high tech at this facility. INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES cont. Prepared by Robert J. Golec Hammond City Clerk 3 AMENDED MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL cont. JUNE 8, 2015 Councilwoman Venecz - Thank you for staying in Hammond and investing in Hammond. I had an opportunity a couple of years ago to attend an open house that you had and I was quite impressed. My grandson happens to be involved in robotics at school and I was telling him about your business. So someday I may call you and ask for a tour for him. So thank you again. Councilman Emerson - Somewhat ironic that you are creating jobs and we used to always criticize the robotics, like in the auto industry, for putting people out of work. But nevertheless, I’m glad that you’re staying in Hammond. Don Keller - Well, thank you. We have not lost a job at Tri-state industries as a result of our automation. Actually creating a lot better higher paying jobs. We need programmers, you know, people that can repair robots. So it’s a phenomenal opportunity for us to expand our base. 15-23 Ordinance Authorizing the City of Hammond, Indiana, to Issue it’s Economic Development Revenue Bonds, Series 2015 (Thruport Intermodal Project) and approving other actions in respect thereto Councilman Hinojosa, supported by Councilman Higgs, moved the proposed ordinance to 1st and 2nd reading by title and referred it to the Council as a Whole Committee. AYES: ALL 15-24 Vacating a 276.68 Foot Portion of 110th St. lying between 5th Ave. and Indianapolis Blvd. Councilman Kalwinski, supported by Councilman Emerson, moved the proposed ordinance to 1st and 2nd reading by title, referred it to the Council as a Whole Committee with a public hearing on June 22, 2015. AYES: ALL 15-25 Vacating a 164.27 Foot Portion of Public Alley located between 114th St. and Stanton Ave. Councilman Kalwinski, supported by Councilman Higgs, moved the proposed ordinance to 1st and 2nd reading by title, referred it to the Council as a Whole Committee with a public hearing on June 22, 2015. AYES: ALL 15-26 Vacating a 859 Foot Portion of 5th Ave. lying between 112th St. And Indianapolis Blvd. Councilman Kalwinski, supported by Councilman Emerson, moved the proposed ordinance to 1st and 2nd reading by title, referred it to the Council as a Whole Committee with a public hearing on June 22, 2015. AYES: ALL RESOLUTIONS Prepared by Robert J. Golec Hammond City Clerk 4 AMENDED MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL cont. JUNE 8, 2015 City Clerk Golec - The Clerk was given a resolution tonight which would require a suspension of the rules to be accepted for the council to take action. Councilman Higgs, supported by Councilman Kalwinski, moved to suspend the rules. ROLL CALL VOTE (suspend rules) AYES: Markovich, Spitale, Venecz, Kalwinski, Higgs, Emerson, Hinojosa NAYS: None ABSENT: Uylacki, Opinker Motion carried 7/0/2 RULES SUSPENDED 15R-13 A Resolution of the Hammond Common Council Approving a Written Order of the Hammond Plan Commission as it pertains to Plan Commission Resolution No. 2015-01 that Approved Amending Declaratory Resolution No. 02-2015 of the Hammond Redevelopment Commission Councilwoman Venecz, supported by Councilman Higgs, moved for adoption. Councilwoman Venecz - I do know that this is a little bit confusing. The Plan Commission met just before we did this evening in order to pass their resolution for us to pass this evening. So, Phil, if you wouldn’t mind explaining the situation I’d appreciate it. Phil Taillon - Sure. This is a change to the Hammond Central Redevelopment Plan as detailed in caucus. In regards to the Thruport Intermodal site which obviously is located in the Hammond Central Redevelopment area. What I’d like to do is have Brian Poland come up, the City Planner, explain to you what the change is for the Redevelopment plan. Brian Poland - Director of City Planning - Just a little background. Anytime the Redevelopment Commission wants to amend a Redevelopment Plan it has to go through the same process in which a redevelopment plan is created and that is to have a declaratory resolution by the Redevelopment Commission. It’s then referred to the Plan Commission for determination as to whether or not that plan is in conformity with the comprehensive plan. The Plan Commission is then the body that sends it to the City Council for the Council to confirm what the Plan Commission has determined. Then it goes back to the Redevelopment Commission for a confirmatory resolution. So this is the process that we are at. The Redevelopment Commission has acted on the declaratory, the Plan Commission, just this evening, made its determination that the amendments do conform to the comprehensive plan and its now before the Council to go to the next step. In essence the Plan was originally written in 2012 when the Woodmar Pullman area was expanded to include, basically, the Gibson yards area, and then the plan was renamed as Hammond Central Plan. Throughout the document it refers to some of the proposed land uses and development opportunities that could be in the redevelopment area. At the time, of course in 2012, nobody contemplated this Thruport project and in order to update the plan to include references to the Thruport project there’s about three or four places in which the document has been amended to add that language as one of the land use opportunities for that redevelopment area. RESOLUTIONS cont. Prepared by Robert J. Golec Hammond City Clerk 5 AMENDED MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL cont. JUNE 8, 2015 Councilman Higgs - I have a question for Brian. Exactly what are the benefits from passing it tonight versus passing it in a couple weeks. What makes it have to happen tonight? Brian Poland - I’m gonna have to defer to somebody else to answer that question of the timing. Atty. David W. Westland - Redevelopment Attorney - You have a time line of trying to get it done by the end of the month, okay. So, it’s got to go back to the Redevelopment for confirming resolution which is happening next Tuesday. That’s their last meeting this month and then the following Monday is when you’ll have 3rd & Final reading of your ordinance that you passed on 1st & 2nd and referred to Committee as a Whole. So if you waited, you wouldn’t have time to have your Redevelopment Commission meeting. The idea is that this bond, if approved, in two weeks from tonight, which would be the 22nd, would have to then be sold by the end of the month. So you’re given a one week window, you wouldn’t have time to have everything happen as it statutorily needs to happen unless you pass this tonight. Councilman Higgs - In all due respect I understand your willingness to want to get this passed, but in the future, as a courtesy, we would appreciate, I know I would, that these types of documents, they’re so huge, that I be given an opportunity to review them. These were handed to us tonight. There’s no way in the world I could read all these documents that quickly. You know, out of respect, I mean, I’m not in opposition of it but the reality of it is that it gives me an opportunity to review the documents and also do the research that’s necessary so I can make a very logical decision in voting on this. Councilwoman Venecz - David, it’s my understand that there is a state law that situations such as this must be handled by July 1st. Am I correct in my understanding? Atty. Westland - Yes. Councilwoman Venecz - So, that is the urgency. Atty. Westland - But to Councilman Higgs’ point, I certainly apologize and you are correct. You should be handed this stuff before and I think in most instances, at least since I’ve represented the Redevelopment Commission, you have been. The problem in this instance was that it just so happened that the time line of when the Development Agreement was actually signed with the Redevelopment Commission and the time line of July 1st when we sat down and put together the time line of when this was all going to transpire to have it done by July 1st the only time to get this special meeting of the Plan Commission was tonight. So, well, I certainly understand your point. I agree with you to an extent and my apologies that it didn’t happen sooner in this instance. I can assure you to your point that, you know, the extent possible it will certainly happen in the future. Councilman Higgs - I appreciate your efforts. Councilman Markovich - What state law is it that says we have to have it done by July 1st? What state law is that? Or is there such a thing? RESOLUTIONS cont. Prepared by Robert J. Golec Hammond City Clerk 6 AMENDED MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL cont. JUNE 8, 2015 Phil Taillon - Can I clarify? There’s a thing out there called a Legacy TIF. So this is in the Hammond Central Redevelopment area. It’s also in the Hammond Central TIF. If a TIF was created prior to 1995 then by July 1st this year if the obligation is not in place the TIF can then be dissolved as soon as whatever current obligations are currently already in place are done, the TIF will then be removed and they will no longer have access to it. So, when he’s saying state law what he is referring to is the Legacy TIF. That means if we don’t sell this bond by July 1st, the complicated part of this is the TIF is created, it’s a combined TIF, because Woodmar used to be separate, Pullman used to be separate, the Gibson Yard used to be separate. They’re combined in one TIF. If we don’t sell this bond by July 1st the TIF will be dissolved after the Potash bond is paid off and therefore we can not move forward with the Thruport project. You lose the 50 new jobs. You lose the potential 150 new jobs when phase two occurs and that’s why the bond has to be sold before July 1st. Councilman Markovich - Are we gonna get any paperwork that describes the job with the job description and the hourly wages? Phil Taillon - Sure. It’s actually, well the hourly wage is not in the Development Agreement, but the Thruport Intermodal gentlemen that are here, the representatives would be happy to speak to you about that. If you want specific paperwork from them, keep in mind that by passing this resolution we still have to come in front of the council two weeks from now and get final passage for the Thruport Intermodal bond. Councilman Markovich - I understand that. But it’s like, David Westland apologized and I know where he’s coming from, I mean everything’s got to move quick. But don’t wait two weeks from now to hand us a piece of paper that shows us the jobs and hourly wages and so forth and all of that. I mean, in the meantime we want to know the jobs. How many jobs? What’s the hourly pay? And job descriptions. Because are they just gonna be labors jobs? Is it gonna be robotics jobs like Tri-State has? Is he gonna be making equipment for them and so forth? That’s all. Phil Taillon - If you like we could probably have the gentleman put something together for the council and get it to you very quickly. I know they have all the information in place already. So we can probably have that to you in the next couple of days. Councilman Markovich - Yes, I’d appreciate that. I’m sure the whole council would appreciate that. Phil Taillon - Absolutely. Councilman Higgs - I guess maybe you can answer the question, I mean, certainly I’m for economic development and I’m hoping that this won’t be deleted out of the paper and its publicized. Economic development is greatly needed in the city of Hammond. It allows the community to grow. But the reality of it is, what’s the total investment of this project? Phil Taillon - It’s a minimum of $15 million for phase 1. Which is what was approved through the Development Agreement today. So it’s a minimum of 15, I believe it’s gonna be more than that and that’s where the fifty jobs also are created. I think that’s answer to your question. RESOLUTIONS cont. Prepared by Robert J. Golec Hammond City Clerk 7 AMENDED MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL cont. JUNE 8, 2015 Councilman Higgs - I’ll just say this, certainly there are areas in my district that certainly, and you’re here this evening, and I understand we’re talking about this particular area but Columbia Avenue there’s an opportunity to develop there. There are a number of areas within my district that I would like to see developed. I would greatly appreciate it if you could concentrate, and your staff could concentrate on trying to get these properties developed within my district. That has been my ploy and my question of something to come to fruition since I’ve been on the council. So certainly if you can do something in regards to those properties I would be greatly appreciated. Phil Taillon - Absolutely. If I can just point out, two of our better announcements over the past year, which have been Root Brothers, which moved into the old 651 Conkey which is in the 3rd District and also JJS Recycling, which is right next to 649 Conkey. I don’t know the exact address. They created a lot of jobs that you are referring to but I will tell you this. We’re constantly looking for opportunities throughout the entire city and specifically in the 3rd District because there are a lot of people that are looking for work right now. There’s no doubt about it. Councilman Hinojosa - Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the, so everybody can get refreshed, this is the area where the old Biogreen Compost site used to be like thirteen plus years ago that’s no longer there. Is there any land clean up that has to be done before it’s done and can we let everybody know where the entrance to this plant is going to be? I believe I seen in the paper that it’s not gonna be on Kennedy Avenue to interfere with Kennedy Avenue. That it was gonna be all 20 and Cline Avenue, most of the traffic. Is that correct? Atty. Justin Murphy - President and CEO of Thruport Intermodal - Councilman Hinojosa the entryway to the unitrain repair will be on Kennedy Avenue. The Development Agreement that we’ve presented to you that I understand is already been passed called for a red light to be put on 20. That’s in phase 2 of our project where we will put warehouses on the property. As you may know we purchased 155 acres between Kennedy, 20 and Cline and the railroad tracks. Both through port and related entity. On our phase 1 we’re putting in a unit train repair. Once you come over the Kennedy Avenue overpass northbound passing IHB, as you come down where Central Rent a Crane is, where the Central Rent a Crane entrance is, you would turn east, and that’s where the entryway for the new unit train facility will be. All the warehousing will be up on 20. The entryway to the warehouses will be up on 20. That’s why we asked the city to put the red light there. The traffic is moving too quickly for semi trucks to pull out from the warehouses onto 20. We as a group have already agreed to pay for the passing lane to turn out onto 20. But the actual entryway for the unit train will be on 20. The actual entryway for the unit train will be on Kennedy. Councilman Hinojosa - You said the warehouse entry will be on 20 by where? By the curve? Atty. Murphy - Yes. Just east of the curve. Where the current entryway now is approximately where the exit/entryway for the warehouses will be. We have some designs. We have a proposal signed with regards to building three spec warehouses on the site but it hasn’t turned into a contract yet. That is phase 2. Come back to you again more likely than not with a second development agreement when we come forth with the warehouses but today we’re here before you in phase 1 for the unit train repair. RESOLUTIONS cont. Councilman Hinojosa - One more thing, what kind of rail products are gonna be going in and out of there? Prepared by Robert J. Golec Hammond City Clerk 8 AMENDED MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL cont. JUNE 8, 2015 Atty. Murphy - Trains. Councilman Hinojosa - Are they just for storage or are they gonna be loading and unloading? Or that will be in phase 2 or? Atty. Murphy - We’re not gonna load or unload. It’s a unit train repair facility. It’s gonna be two operations underneath one roof. We’re gonna take in unit trains. We’re one of only two facilities that have been designed in the country to have a loop. We’ll take an entire train off the main line. We’ll bring it in and park it. We’ll fix it and we’ll send it back out. It takes about three days to fix an entire train. We change approximately 70 wheel sets per train. So it’s federal maintenance that’s required. That’s what we’re doing on the unit trains. There’s two businesses under one roof. One is to fix coal and grain unit trains. The second is to fix general box cars. We have a ladder system to repair those. It’s a facility that’s 5100 square feet and houses five tracks that run through the facility and that’s how we intend to fix trains. We won’t load or unload. In fact the trains that come to us will always be empty. The railroads won’t want to be sending us stuff with product in it. Councilman Markovich - Do you plan on doing railroad tank cars in the future? Atty. Murphy - No. Our business plan explicitly excludes tank cars. We don’t want to have hazardous concerns. Councilman Markovich - No hazardous waste at all. Any kind of things? Atty. Murphy - We’re not gonna fix any tank cars. We’re gonna fix coal and grain unit trains and we’re gonna fix general freight box cars. That’s what our business plan is. Councilman Higgs - I guess my question would be who currently owns the property? Atty. Murphy - We do. Thruport Intermodal. We purchased the property a year ago. We purchased the remainder of the property this year. And both titled to us under the county in the Recorder’s Office. Atty. Murphy - Otherwise, just as a concern that I would think that the council would have is about trains. As you know we had this thing called the four city consortium where we were trying to reroute trains around the city and not cause any problems with more traffic into the area. We are specifically targeting and wanting to bring more trains into the area. But this is in a grade separated corridor where none of the traffic will ever touch any of the streets. This is the area that the Mayor fought for before for the communities and the trains to use. It will bring absolutely no trains new to the crossings whatsoever. These are all grade separated crossings from the state line all the way through Cline Avenue. So we will not be bringing more train traffic to the streets. Councilman Higgs - I certainly appreciate that because for some reason or another on 165th just before Kennedy, those trains are horrible. I don’t know why they haven’t been ticketed. They sit there for hours and traffic RESOLUTIONS cont. Councilman Higgs cont. - literally has to go around. I forbid if someone is injured or sick, I don’t know how Prepared by Robert J. Golec Hammond City Clerk 9 AMENDED MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL cont. JUNE 8, 2015 they’re going to get to the hospital because it’s ridiculous. They just sit there for hours. Atty. Murphy - I heard that the tickets are being settled for less than what they used to be through the court. Councilman Higgs - I’m not a judge but the reality of it is something needs to be done. Atty. Murphy - I agree. I live in Hessville, so I agree with you Councilman Higgs. Councilman Hinojosa - So none of these trains are going to be coming into the yard, they’re gonna be coming through the Hessville area. Not the (unclear). Atty. Murphy - They’re coming through Hessville but they’ll come through a grade separated corridor. They’ll come underneath Cline Avenue so there’s no track, you know, right there. They’ll come all the way, you know the next one is Kennedy, so we’re not there, the next one is Indianapolis Blvd & Columbia, so that stretch of track you’ll never have another train on a street crossing. That was deliberate. Our group specifically wanted to target what the four cities plan was before and we tried to go ahead and model and pursue what was the Mayor’s plans before of the four communities. ROLL CALL VOTE (adoption) AYES: Markovich, Spitale, Venecz, Kalwinski, Higgs, Emerson, Hinojosa NAYS: None ABSENT: Uylacki, Opinker Motion carried 7/0/2 RESOLUTION R13 ADOPTED NEW AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS Councilman Higgs announced the 11th Annual 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament at Martin Luther King Park on Saturday, June 27, 2015 at 8:00 a.m. All Participants will receive a t-shirt and trophy. There will be a bike giveaway. Councilman Higgs, supported by Councilman Hinojosa, moved to send a letter sent to the Board of Works and to all the departments in retro to having the railroad tracks removed from Blaine & Waltham, Blaine & Highland, and Blaine & Conkey. You have a bike trail over there that’s been beautified and placed there but yet still you have those railroad tracks still placed there and there’s no more trains that go through there. AYES: ALL LETTER SENT: JUNE 9, 2015 Councilman Higgs - Just for a point of clarity so that the public generally knows and hopefully it won’t be edited. That I did have a meeting with Phil Taillon, the Executive Director of Planning & Development, in regards to the property where Charter Fitness was supposed to be placed at trying to come up with a strategic NEW AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS cont. Councilman Higgs cont. - plan in trying to get it placed. I think the financing is the main issue at the current Prepared by Robert J. Golec Hammond City Clerk 10 AMENDED MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL cont. JUNE 8, 2015 time but certainly we are doing what we can in regards to trying to address the owners need and trying to make that become a reality. So I just want to point that out. Councilwoman Venecz disagreed that the council meetings or any other meetings were ever edited and a disagreement ensued. PUBLIC EXPRESSION Sandy Koartge - Grateful for the new park which was donated in the Jacob Square Community. Thanks select council members for attending the ribbon cutting ceremony. Council should not be disrespectful to each other at meetings. Councilman Higgs, supported by Councilman Hinojosa, moved to return to New and Unfinished Business. AYES: ALL Councilman Higgs - I have always been accessible to my district. Sandy, you never invited me to your function of this park. Since I’ve been on the council there are streets have been developed and lighting. There are a couple of other streets that need to be developed that I’m in the process of doing. Never have I did anything but try to be accessible and work with you. Now those are your friends and that’s fine. I have no problem with it. But come to a council meeting and put a perception as though I have never reached out to you. Not true because I have and I’ve tried to work with you and for some other reason the very ones that you named area all of the ones that seem to be on the other side of the table, and it’s okay. I have no problem with that. But, personally, if there’s something I can do, feel free to give me a call. Call the office or you can call my home. You can send a letter. But, again, I wasn’t invited so I wouldn’t know anything about a park, you know, and that’s not the first time that incidents have occurred within my district where things have taken place in Jacob’s Square. I know I’m not someone that’s not aware of what goes on. A lot of nights when there are crimes that are committed just adjacent to Jacob’s Square, a man was shot by the liquor store, I was there. Okay. There are other incidents that have occurred in Jacob Square, you know, there are other things that need to be attended to in Jacob’s Square. There are lights that are out that need to be addressed. But the reality is I just wanted to make you aware that, you know, I understand, and I’ve been on this council for twelve years. So, in the twelve years I don’t think you’ve called me like maybe once. But the reality of it is I’ve been to your house on several occasions whether it be to drop off bags, drop off checks, or I may have even dropped off a turkey or a ham. So, you know, I have a good relationship with a number of people in Jacob’s Square and I will continue to have one. If you so choose to not want to work with the councilman that’s your choice. Councilman Hinojosa, supported by Councilman Markovich, moved to return to the regular order of business. AYES: ALL PUBLIC EXPRESSION cont. Carlotta Blake-King - Thanked select Council Members for supporting the Hammond High School PTS Prepared by Robert J. Golec Hammond City Clerk 11 AMENDED MINUTES OF THE COMMON COUNCIL cont. JUNE 8, 2015 Council efforts. Regarding the investments to this city, these people need to be held accountable on the how many jobs were actually created and how many were Hammond residents. Councilman Hinojosa, supported by Councilman Higgs, moved to adjourn. AYES: ALL Dan Spitale, Vice President ATTEST: Hammond Common Council Robert J. Golec, City Clerk Time: 7:40 pm cb Minutes approved at the Common Council Meeting of June 27, 2015 Prepared by Robert J. Golec Hammond City Clerk 12