Zionsville Town Council

Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 ZIONSVILLE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES FOR MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2021 AT 7:30 A.M. EST ONSITE MEETING 1100 West Oak Street This meeting was conducted onsite. All Councilors participated in person. Council Members Present: Josh Garrett, President; Jason Plunkett, Vice-President; Brad Burk, Alex Choi, Craig Melton, and Bryan Traylor Council Members Absent: Joe Culp Also Present: Heather Harris, Town Council Attorney; Mayor Emily Styron, Deputy Mayor Julie Johns-Cole, Liz Qua and Stacy Snively, Boone County Habitat for Humanity; Amy Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator; Lance Lantz, Director of Department of Public Works; Tammy Havard, Chief Financial Officer, and other Town Department Staff. 1. OPENING Garrett I call this meeting to order. You guys don’t even have to sit down because we will rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge. 2. APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE NOVEMBER 1, 2021 REGULAR MEETING (copy posted) Garrett All right. We have the approval of the memorandum of the November 1, 2021 regular meeting. A copy has been posted. Unless there are any questions, I’ll make a motion to approve. Burk Second. Garrett Second from Councilor Burk. All in favor? All Aye. Garrett Any opposed? [No response.] Page 1 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 Garrett The memorandum of the November 1, 2021 regular Town Council meeting is approved by a vote of 6 in favor, 0 opposed. 3. REQUEST TO SPEAK ON AGENDA ITEM Garrett We’ve got requests to speak on agenda items. I’ve got three requests to speak. First up is—well, I’ll just set the rules. You’ve got three minutes. If you come up, please give your name and address for the record. I’ll start your three minutes after that point. Bethany Narkiewicz. Probably murdered that. I apologize. Narkiewicz I’m Bethany Narkiewicz. I reside at 10005 Oak Ridge Drive. I serve on the Pedestrian Mobility Advisory Committee. On behalf of the committee, we believe that the Town Council should vote in favor of the crosswalk at 975 East and Oak Ridge Drive as well as the additional appropriation for the signage and the pavement markings. Two years ago, my son, James and I, presented right here to the Safety Board regarding that intersection. At that time, the community support was strong. We gathered over 200 signatures in two weeks and the Safety Board had approved it for further evaluation. It took some time but I’m grateful to see this be before you here today. The crosswalk will improve the safety for so many kids and adults crossing 975 for multiple reasons to commute to and from PVE, ZMS and the high school as well as many individuals and families that use Oak Ridge as their route to the Rail Trail, Turkey Foot, Azionaqua and the Village. I think the walk- and bike-ability of Zionsville is one of our greatest assets. Our streets and paths are used year-round by runners, walker and bikers of all ages. It’s amazing to drive past our schools and see so many kids, either on foot or on bike. The opportunity being presented today is just another stop in improving the safety of our community. There is more work to be done but we are confident things are moving in the right direction. On behalf of the committee, we would like to thank Mayor Styron and Mr. Lantz for their efforts up to today leading to this moment and for allowing community members like ourselves to participate and contribute to the process. Thank you for your time. Garrett Thanks, Bethany. Appreciate it. Thanks for serving on that committee as well. Next, we’ll got Pauline Coderre. Coderre Hi, good morning. My name is Pauline Coderre and I live at 872 Franklin Trace over in Colony Square. I as well, serve with Bethany on the committee and I’m very grateful for the amount of time and effort that Lance and his team and the Mayor have given us for consideration. I think you’ll see that the analysis is extremely objective. It is a difficult task to manage all of the wants and needs of the community. I think you’ve probably heard everybody wants a crosswalk, right? Well, I think you see that this committee has been very objective in defining where, when and how to crosswalk for consistency. I want to share that my son was hit by a car crossing Hal Sharpe Road. The car was going 37 miles per hour. I do not think that traffic signs alone will deter people from not paying attention. I think the things that you’ll see later are almost required in this day and age because people just—they don’t see what they don’t see, you know. You see it so many times, you don’t even pay attention anymore. And, some people don’t even realize how fast they’re going. So, I encourage you to please, to definitely consider this and fund this project. It’s extremely important to the Page 2 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 community and I concur with Bethany. Walkability and safety is really one of the things that people are looking for in a community. It increases our property values and provides safe access for all the beautiful and wonderful things that this Town provides for our citizens. So, thank you. Garrett Thanks, Pauline. Thanks for service as well on that community and I apologize I butchered your name. I’ve got an easy one last, Jordan Walters. I think I got that one right. Walters Hi, I’m Jordan Walters. I reside at 9883 Oakridge Drive. I’d like each of you to consider a vote to approve the crosswalk. I didn’t know I was speaking this morning so I didn’t prepare anything. One thing I can tell you is that myself and the father next to us, Eric Laue, stand in the middle of the street just about every morning to stop traffic. It’s gotten the attention of the local police. Sometimes, they bring a squad car there. That tells me in itself, there’s an issue. There’s an issue. If you look at, uh, Oak Ridge Drive, it’s become a drag race strip. People cut through to get to, to get to whatever. They don’t stop at the stop signs. A lot of our kids who are driving and they’re, they’re married to their phones. When I was 11 years old—I grew up in Houston, Texas—I got drilled by a truck crossing a road without a crosswalk. It’s a very important issue to me. My kids are 8 and 11. I don’t want another kid to have to deal with what I dealt with. Um, this is simple. It isn’t a political issue. The money’s there. It’s a safety issue. Let’s keep the kids safe. Let’s keep families safe. Crossing the street. It’s not difficult. Please don’t make it political. Okay? Thank you. Garrett Thanks, Jordan. Appreciate it. That is it for requests to speak. Anything else? Lacy No, that’s all we have. Garrett All right. 4. MAYOR/ADMINISTRATION UPDATE Garrett Next we’ve got Mayor and administration update. Amy, anything on there? Lacy I do not have an update today. Garrett I think, Jason, you had asked for an update last meeting. Plunkett Yes, as you know, we were told in the October meeting about a strategic plan, specific to staffing needs with the Fire Department and the Police Department and we were just asking for an update on the timeline when that’s going to be completed, hopefully at this meeting but it sounds like that’s not the case. Lacy I don’t have that information for you at this meeting. I know they are working on it and hopefully at the next meeting we’ll have more information. Plunkett Okay. Thank you. Page 3 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 5. OLD BUSINESS None 6. NEW BUSINESS A. Boone County Habitat for Humanity Presentation Garrett Next, we’ve got new business. First up, we’ve got the Boone County Habitat for Humanity presentation with Liz Qua who is the executive director of Habitat for Humanity and Stacy Snively, board member. There’s not a vote on this councilors. This is just a presentation. Qua Good morning. I’m Liz Qua, executive director of Habitat for Humanity. This is Stacy Snively, one of my amazing board members. And, I just appreciate the time to share our mission for Habitat for Humanity of Boone County. First of all, our fame is that we were the first affiliate in Indiana. We’ve been building houses since 1984 so we’ve been around for quite a while. We are just finishing our 67th house. And, if you’ve heard, Habitat for Humanity is a hand up not a handout so we are a needs-based program in the community. We build only in Boone County and we fundraise, you know, for building only in Boone County. So, when our applicants come to us at an orientation, they apply, and we verify their need by doing some kind of home inspection. Most of our people are living, probably 60 to 70 percent of them are living with family and friends because they can’t afford the rent here in Boone County or elsewhere. They don’t have to live in Boone County to get a house here. They just have to want to live here. So, they have a need. They pay us back a mortgage. So, they have a mortgage just like any of you might have a mortgage or had a mortgage. The best part about it is it’s 0 percent interest. It’s a 30-year loan and that, you know, that just is a partnership piece. And, then the biggest part is they have to do sweat equities. They do 100 hours of sweat equity, 200 total, 100 hours on the build site. They learn how to take care of their home, how their house is built. For a lot of them, they’ve never used a saw or a hammer before so it’s really good training on how to take care of the house. And, then, they do 50 hours of classes in Boone County which is like a financial and then there is also a class at The Caring Center that they take and then they can have family and friends donate 50 hours. So, it really is an amazing program. It’s run by volunteers. We have a family services team that selects the homeowners and works with them, volunteer budget coaches, volunteer mentors. It’s a very holistic, uh, holistic program, so, Stacy will share a little bit more. Snively I’ve been a part of Habitat for the last 11 years. And, right now, part of the reason we are here is because we are out of land. So, for the first time, since I have been part of this organization, we are going into winter and we have nothing to build on. So, this is the very first time we’ve been in this situation. That is due to the availability and the affordability of land right now. And, that is across Boone County so it’s not just Zionsville. We’ve never built in Zionsville. The majority of our donor base is here but we’ve never built in this community. We’ve built in Jamestown, Thorntown, Lebanon, Whitestown but across all those communities we can’t find anything to build on. So, we have the funds. For the first time ever we actually have a Zionsville resident that has donated $125,000 to fund one Page 4 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 entire house. So, we have the money; we just don’t have the land so that’s why we are here today is to see if you can consider donating a piece of property. Garrett And, that piece of property, I believe, has been identified, correct? Snively Correct. It is, let me pull the address. It is next to the Fire Department. It’s at 5929 South 700 East Whitestown. So, it’s directly next to the fire station, across the street from the Boys and Girls Club. It’s an ideal location for us. If you consider the location, the proximity to the schools, the Boys and Girls Club, yes, shopping, access to the interstate for jobs and things like that. So, it’s an ideal piece of property. It is just over 2 acres so obviously it’s a large parcel of land. Yes, it would, it would set us up for this coming spring. We generally start building in April. Like I said, we’re just in a dire situation so we are – Qua We have a line of people that really need affordable housing. Most of our families have children so we built for 11 children this year. A beautiful Syrian family was one of our—we’re excited to bring that diversity to our community. That was in Lebanon. Yes, we are desperate. There’s no other way to say it. I mean, in our time, Stacy’s been around for 11 years. I’ve been around for 7 and we’ve never not had land. It’s very scary to move into this, you know, when you’re passionate about a project and you want to see it continue and you don’t have land for that, so. We appreciate the consideration. Garrett My understanding is there could be up to two homes on the land we’re talking about. This is land I think that we had acquired for pathway—that’s not a question for you guys, more of a statement—I think, Councilors, the reason why we have the presentation today is just to make sure if there is any objection to that potential because we would have to take that land that we acquired and then turn it over or part of it over to Habitat. They wanted to find out the openness of us to having that. Traylor Just for clarity, that’s the property that we purchased so we could put the sidewalk through, right? Garrett Correct. That is correct. Any questions for the ladies here? Traylor Has that house been cleared that was there? Snively There’s a house and a garage on the property. Traylor It is currently still there? Qua It’s a beautiful piece of property. There are mature trees. It won’t look, you know, brand new. I mean, there’s going to be, you know, existing landscape around it. Garrett And, part of the discussion we had was if this body chose to donate the land to Habitat, it would be sort of as is, so there’s no financial requirement of the Town to have to bulldoze that property. They didn’t talk about potentially reusing the garage if it makes sense. So, it’s something that, it’s just the donation of the land. There’s no sort of site prep work that would have to be done. Page 5 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 Snively No additional expense to the Town. Qua Yes, we have great partnerships that can help with that. Garrett Yes, very good. Burk I’m not opposed to it in any way. I think it sounds fantastic and thank you for coming. It’s right next—I mean, is there any need, is there any need that the Fire Department would, Jamie just walked in, but is there any since it’s right next door, is there any potential thought that since it’s right there that we would be maybe giving something away that we might want in the future that would be right there. Are there any plans for use for that for the Fire Department? Are they seeing any potential use for that down the road? Garrett My understanding and certainly someone is welcome to come up and correct me if I’m wrong is there’s been no currently identified use for that land. I know the Fire Department, maybe Police, too, has used that structure for training in the past but there’s no, like expansion plans for that fire station that this would interfere. There is easements that would remain for the path and some of the infrastructure that we would not give away that wouldn’t impact this project. Burk Thank you. Qua Just a portion of the property would be absolutely wonderful, too. If something needs to be left there for the Fire Department, you know. And, I don’t know if they’ve used that—we have in the past gotten donated properties where we have allowed fire departments and police departments to come in and use for their training and then we take the house down. I don’t know if it’s been used for that purpose yet, but, you know. We really enjoy that partnership. Melton So, it’s 4 acres, its 2 acres, is that correct. So, the max is one home per acre? Qua We would follow whatever local building codes— Snively Whatever the— Melton Just wondering if there is a way to get more homes or more use out of that property if it’s, you know, since it’s altogether and I guess I’m a little concerned with the maintenance of the two acres after there’s a home on it and who’s responsible for that but other than that I think— Melton It could be a good use of property. Garrett And, we had had that discussion. The problem is per our own zoning is that once you get over two, you then become a neighborhood and that then starts becoming a lot more of a barrier to overcome for infrastructure you’ve got to put in and turn lanes and things like that which is why Habitat was looking at two given their land need. Kind of the path of least resistance was that, although I do share your concern about a new homeowner with an acre lot making sure they’ve got the tools to, to success. Page 6 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 Snively And, like you said, if we could make it less, the lot size, and if the Town kept a portion of it, then, you know. Really, I don’t know what the street frontage minimum is so we could do whatever minimum street frontage would be required to minimize, you know, the size of the lot. Garrett I mean, building any home in Zionsville starts the same process, materials, requirements that exist so it’s really just the land donation, there’s no other ask. Any concerns, I guess, Councilors, if they started this process? Okay, all right. Well, appreciate the good work you guys. Snively Thank you. Qua Appreciate your having us. Garrett Thanks for coming. B. Crosswalks Presentation and Consideration of a Resolution Establishing a Crosswalk Location in Zionsville, Indiana Resolution 2021-17 Garrett Okay, next we’ve got a crosswalks presentation and consideration of a resolution establishing a crosswalk location in Zionsville. Mr. Lantz, this is your show. This is Resolution #2021-17. Lantz Thank you and good morning, Council. Kind of excited to be here this morning and bring you the dawn of a new day here in Zionsville. I think this is going to pave the way for lots of opportunities in the future. Thank you for the comments that came from the audience this morning and as soon as we get going here, very good. I’m not showing this on my computer. I will go off of the screen. As you see on your agenda, you have a resolution establishing a crosswalk based on the DPW’s recommendation. Before we get there, I’d like to have a little bit of a discussion about crosswalks. Hopefully, this is going to ring familiar to some and this is probably new information for others. So, we have basically a three-tiered presentation this morning. First, a review of crosswalks, our evaluation and methodologies we use in-house and then specific to the resolution, a recommendation on the location on County Road 975 East. Crosswalks 101. There seems to be, I’ve encountered a lot of confusion, both by drivers and pedestrians on exactly what a crosswalk does. So, we are here talking about mid-block crosswalks and this is going to be the last of the pretty pictures. There’s going to be a lot of words after this. But, a mid-block crosswalk is a location that’s marked for pedestrians to cross where traffic is not required to stop due to existing traffic control devices. What does the law say? I’ve seen a lot of permutations of this law in websites, on websites that are specific to pedestrians and they talk about what the law is, so I thought there’s no better way to talk about the law than to take it right out of the Indiana code which says and I’m going to read this awkwardly phrased wording. Page 7 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 When traffic control signals are not in place or not in operation, a person who drives a vehicle shall yield the right of way slowing down or stopping if necessary to yield to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk when the pedestrian is upon the half of the roadway upon which the vehicle is traveling or when the pedestrian is approaching closely from the opposite half of the roadway. Leave it to the state to make a simple concept as awkwardly stated as possible. So, what this says is basically, don’t hit somebody on the road. What it doesn’t say is that pedestrian has the first right to take a step upon the roadway. So, this is saying that vehicles still have the right even at a marked crosswalk location, they still have the right of way over pedestrians who are waiting to cross. What are some of the pitfalls? Obviously, they can be a good and valuable tool in any community but these prevent or provide, you’ll see driver confusion and pedestrian confusion. You’ve probably even encountered a time when a considerate vehicle had stopped to allow someone to cross a roadway but yet the other direction of traffic has not. The pedestrian doesn’t know whether to go, whether to stop, whether to wait, to acknowledge the person who stopped. So, there is confusion on all user sides of these locations. And, remember—well, pedestrian frustration. You heard the comment of people, you know, walking out into the road trying to compel people to stop. You may have pushed a button, you may have some flashing lights and you don’t understand why people aren’t stopping for you. So, it, it leads to frustration of the pedestrian and perhaps unsafe behavior if they get frustrated enough to say, “Look, I’m just going.” Remember, that we are telling the importance of this exercise is we are assuming liability because we are telling people that you should expect a reasonable level of safety when you cross the road at this location. So, again, we’ve talked about inconsistent reactions by both drivers and pedestrians and even in the state statute, it talks about false starts, pedestrians making movements as though they’re going to cross to try to compel people to stop. And, of course, nobody really likes to think about this when we’re talking about the safety of pedestrians, adults as well as children making their way to school. But, multiple locations of these and the driver confusions and the inconsistent behaviors can really disrupt traffic flow during peak flow times. So, as we do with every situation, we have guidance documents. The Indiana Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices covers this under Chapter 4C which is addressing pedestrian signal crossing warrants. Now, this is the most often referred to section in this manual which establishes our rules and regulations by which we should follow. And there are a number of factors that go into it, posted speed limits, number of lanes, pedestrians, etcetera and even community population under some of these warrants. Now, this is a signalization warrant. There is no specific section that says, ‘marked crosswalk.’ All right, so you’ve got to find the code that best fits when you evaluate these. What it does is distill several of these factors into a very basic graph. Across the x-axis at the bottom, you have vehicles per hour and on the y-axis up the side you have the number of pedestrians. You can see to even get onto this level, this threshold, you’ve got to have in excess of 100 pedestrians per hour. So, these are really geared towards college campuses, highly urbanized areas downtown. Frankly, we’re just Page 8 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 probably never going to have the opportunity or the occasion in our community to meet these warrants. However, the methodology is sound. So, what do we do? Let’s take these principles. Let’s develop our own decision, local decision criteria so that we can justify and quantify needs at these locations. Sometime ago, I polled our peer communities, Noblesville, Carmel, the usual cast of characters, what do you guys do? And, it ran the gamut, anywhere from if it makes sense and we all kind of nod and agree, we’ll go ahead and put a crosswalk in on one end of the spectrum up to the extreme which really was Noblesville and they said, if they don’t meet the MUTCD standards, we’re not going to consider this location at all. So, there’s quite a variety of approaches across all communities. So, taking that methodology that’s contained in the MUTCD, we wanted to come up with a local decision criteria to avoid subjectivity, you know, why here, why not there and use solid data-driven decision processes. So, we came up with a three-tiered approach. The first is, very high level, a series of about 7 questions, yes/no. If it passes muster at first blush, then we say, we have a location we should take a look at in more depth. Step 2 is the data collection and finally 3 is looking specifically at this site to see what existing conditions may warrant special considerations. So, that initial high-level scoring. Again, I told you there are about seven questions and this is simple yes/no, yes being a positive trait, no being a negative trait. If you hit four of those or more, then we would take this location and advance it to a data collection. Phase 2 being data collection. How much use is there? We go out and we have to take counts and we want to make sure that we capture these counts in the prime conditions. Spring and fall basically when the weather is good, people are out actually walking. They’re not kept indoors for other reasons and that school is in session so that we can get a picture of the maximized use of these locations. Then, of course, we always have recent traffic data in-house that we can use to compare to the pedestrian volumes. Going back on the left side of that chart, it shows you the MUTCD chart, the one that I don’t think we’d ever find a location that would pass muster with that. And way down there in the lower left-hand corner is a sense of scale is where we are establishing our local criteria. Things that we think are breakpoints for our needs locally. And, of course, that on the right side, that scale there is that local threshold blown up. And, you can see we have a basic criteria of 10 pedestrians per hour. I will mention, if I have not already, that when you take pedestrian counts, it’s a generally accepted practice to count youths or students twice. Finally, the third phase of the evaluation process is what you often may hear me refer to an engineering opinion and that’s taking a look from a critical point of what specifically is at the site, what may need to be changed. Is there anything there that does not support a crosswalk that can’t be changed or modified? After we run through these three tiers of evaluation, then, as you heard the Pedestrian Mobility Advisory Committee is an ad hoc committee to advise the Mayor and integrate with staff. So, we bring these back at each phase of our evaluations and Page 9 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 have a discussion with this community. Is where we’re going making sense? Our scoring process is dynamic in that if we find some anomalies exist that may force us to tweak our process, we are, of course, prepared to do that. Assuming everything—and a location is found to be favorable, then we would develop a specific design and we would recommend to you the resolution which you will hear shortly per Section 70.29 of the Code of Ordinances which authorizes the Town Council to establish crosswalks and other safety zones and because we are going to use a more robust signage plan, we will typically come to you at the request to buy the actual flashers because those are not wildly expensive but they are outside of the typical scope of what we would purchase throughout the year under our normal operating funds. We planned this PMAC, this PMAC has identified 12-13 locations around town. Eight of those dozen or so have scored well at the initial high-level scoring so we are going to be looking at two locations a year as we proposed to do, one in the spring and one in the fall, to capture those optimal times. Each one of these locations results in at least 60 hours of staff, of video time essentially, watching videos and counting people. So, it’s not without a significant effort that goes into capturing this data. As I mentioned, we are going to establish what’s called the rapid rectangular flashing beacon or the RRFB signage at most locations. There may be occasions where this is not warranted but this is going to be for all practical purposes our baseline signage plan and the purpose or the reason that we’ll be asking for additional funding as these locations come to you—we currently have three of these around Town, one at 5th and Oak which was established in a process just like this several years ago as well as a couple out near the Hampshire subdivision which resulted from a commitment made of the developer by the Plan Commission. Finally, part III, the last part specific to this location at County Road 975, also referred to as Pleasant View Road at Oak Ridge Drive. We ran this, we have run this through our scoring process and it passed with flying colors at each stage. Here you can see we’ve plotted again, that 27 pedestrians is an adjusted count, counting youths twice so we are well above our local threshold for consideration. And, although we are doing this work in-house and should you approve this location, we will be doing this in-house, that’s what we do, come up with our specific plans to that location. It’s a sign plan. You can see there in the left in the large diagram and then, there are some sidewalk modifications because these crosswalks are appropriate for all users regardless of ability. With that, it is our recommendation at the location of County Road 975 East and its intersection with Oak Ridge Drive that this location meets all of our local evaluation criteria, it is an appropriate and justified location for the establishment of a marked crosswalk which will meet all design standards and that the community will benefit from the provision of this crosswalk. Thus ends the third and final part of my presentation this morning. I’m happy to answer any questions or having any further discussion that you would like to have. Otherwise, we can move on to the resolution as you guys see fit. Garrett Questions, councilors? Is there, Lance, is there software that can do the pedestrian counting for you versus the 60 hours of time? Page 10 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 Lantz Very expensive because you’ve got to have—it’s a recognition-type software and it does develop a metric but we can go out for essentially no cost and capture the data. All of the cost is in the processing, the post-processing so if a person does not watch it, you still have to stop check it. You don’t necessarily, can trust the software so you’ve got to do data checks and that, you can use those for any type of study but it’s in the thousands of dollars and I just don’t feel it’s justified when you can watch video at four times the speed give or take and quickly get to those areas of concentrated use. Just because we have 60 hours of video doesn’t mean we watch 60 hours. Garrett Okay, that’s I guess what I was wondering about. I, my fear with these has always been if one comes in front of us, then next meeting, they’ll be a hundred. So, I appreciate the process of quantifying what they are and saying how many we’re doing and scoring them before they get here so that we aren’t just subjectively saying, you know, yes, nay and have data behind it, so I appreciate this approach and approving these. So, thank you for that. Lantz Absolutely. And, as I said, this is a dynamic process and if we encounter glitches we can, weight scores, we can take any number of steps to make sure this aligns with the goals and directives and needs or our community. Plunkett Yes, I’m glad to see it. Obviously, we reviewed this particular area in a Safety Board a couple years ago and it’s been a specific point of emphasis for folks in my district, obviously this is in my district and even so much so that, you know, the Mayor and I discussed it in our September one-on-one. So, I appreciate the process that you’ve gone through. And, for the record, I’m certainly supportive of it. Lantz Thank you. Choi Just a question. This isn’t necessarily for this meeting but these kind of things, do they necessarily need to come before Council? It seems like it’s a process that could be made at the administrative level. Is it because of appropriations that it has to come before Council? I’m guessing it’s in the statutes somewhere. Garrett Yes, I think just to be safe I think we’re running them through Council but given there’s only up to two a year, I thought it was appropriate and, as Mr. Lantz said, they’ll probably be an appropriation that follows each one of these given the flashing requirements and so, I didn’t think it was burdening down the agenda too much. Choi No, no. I don’t know mind hearing about them, but it seems like something that a decision like anything else, that could be made at the administrative level. It doesn’t seem like it needs Council approval necessarily, so. Garrett It is in the— Harris I think we’re going to say the same thing. I think it’s because in Zionsville, Councilor Choi, we have the traffic code in our Code of Ordinances so we typically list out the, you know, crosswalks, speed bumps, streets, speed limits and so, you know, I think we’ve typically handled it. You’d have to go actually Page 11 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 back in the salary or into the Code of Ordinances and amend that traffic code so that’s why it comes back through the Council. Lantz We could certainly take a look if it’s your desire ever in the future to remove this reference in the code. As Heather mentioned, unlike traffic code which will specifically list locations, there is no tabular summary within our code. It just says you can establish them; it doesn’t track them within the code. So, if you like, we could take a look at moving this to an administrative function in the future. Of course, any funds requested would have to come back before you. Choi Funds requested, I understand. I’m just thinking back to when we were discussing stop signs before or speed bumps before, that those kinds of things I don’t see as necessarily needing to come before Council to talk about. Lantz Stop signs absolutely would have to because it is in the traffic code and each stop location is identified in our traffic code so you guys are still the masters of the local traffic laws. So, there are certain elements that will always come to you but there are some like this that we could look to make more of an administrative function as well. And, of course, in the future, I won’t be so long-winded with these. We’ll jump right to the recommendation at the end, right? Choi I wasn’t criticizing you for that. Lantz So, this is hopefully the last time you’ll have to see the whole dog and pony show. Choi Okay. Melton Lance, you mentioned Hampshire has one that’s been committed to. As Zionsville develops more in the future, is that something, is there some kind of trigger to instigate that application, to have those as more developments come? Lantz This was a unique situation that goes back many years ago to Hampshire’s first iteration back in the mid-2000s. It involved a rezone and when a rezone comes before the Plan Commission, that opens the door to exactions that can be made on the developer. However, we don’t want the development process to usurp our own internal process. So, when we have these locations that may be associated or in proximity to a new development or they’re going to contribute substantially, it may be something that is requested of the developer but I don’t think at this point it could be mandated. Melton And, so, the developer of Hampshire paid for that? Lantz There are two that the Plan Commission required of Hampshire to install. Due to the nature of that when that subdivision began its life, it was trifurcated. There are—it existed on several sides of a roadway. There was a centralized community amenity center. So, you had residents living across a county road that would arguably be frequently attending or going to the amenity center. So, because of that relationship, the Plan Commission thought it prudent to establish these and require them of the developer through the rezone process. And, of course, the northern—there are two associated, one on 500 South and one on 400 South—the Page 12 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 one on 400 South ended up serving what is becoming the big four corridor because that corridor has been realigned to afford some conflicts with residences and so now that’s actually a very valuable crossing because we’re using it for the big four crossing. Melton Thank you. Garrett Any other questions, councilors? Or any motions? Plunkett I would make a motion to approve Resolution #2021-17. Traylor Second. Garrett Councillor Plunkett, I heard Councilor Traylor first. All in favor, aye? All Aye. Garrett All opposed? [No response.] Garrett Resolution #2021-17 is approved by a vote of 6 in favor, 0 opposed. Lantz Thank you. Garrett Thank you, Mr. Lantz. Now, we’ve got to pay for it. C. Consideration of a Resolution for an Additional Appropriation for Signs and Pavement Markings for Crosswalk (975 E & Oak Ridge Drive) Resolution 2021-18 – PUBLIC HEARING Garrett So, we’ve got a consideration for a resolution for an addition appropriation for signs and pavement markings for crosswalk 975 East at Oak and Oak Ridge Drive. This is Resolution #2021-18. Lance, anything you want to add to that or Tammy, anything you want to add to that? Lantz No, I will just point out this is in the Cumulative Capital Improvement Fund, the CCIF which is typically a very low balance. There’s only about 200,000 dollars in there and I believe that brings in about 50,000 dollars a year. It’s not a big account for you to consider and I don’t know that next year there is currently anything contemplated in this budget so this is kind of just a low value fund that sits around until it’s got enough to do something or we find a specific use that would be appropriate for it. So, as mentioned, this is to fund specifically the flashing light assemblies as well as what we call hot tape or the robust plastic heated application pavement markings to delineate the crosswalk. Garrett Dollar amount if I remember right is 7,000 dollars. Lantz Nine thousand dollars. Garrett I was close. Page 13 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 Lantz As I recall. I’m trying to click and talk at the same time. Garrett Well, it’s not that much either way. Councilors, any questions? Actually, this is a public hearing so I will—we have proof of publication—if anyone wants to come and speak on this matter, we’ll open the public hearing. All right, I’ll close the public hearing. Burk Hey, Josh, I was just signing those. Did you say what the cost was in a specific dollar amount or we don’t know? Garrett It’s up to 9 thousand dollars. Let me find out the exact amount. Choi It says 9 thousand. Garrett There we go. Yep, nine grand. Any questions, concerns? Motions? Melton Motion to approve Resolution #2021-18? Burk Second. Garrett Motion from Councilor Melton, a second from Councilor Burk. All in favor? All Aye. Garrett All opposed? [No response.] Garrett Resolution #2021-18 passes with a vote of 6 in favor, 0 opposed. Thank you, Mr. Lantz. Lantz Thank you for your time this morning. 7. OTHER MATTERS Garrett We’ve got other matter, Councilors. Lacy President Garrett, I have one quick other matter. I just received a message. Per Chief VanGorder, the strategic fire plan should be completed in December before the end of the year. Garrett Very good. Lacy I just wanted to give you that update. Garrett Good timing. Thank you, Amy. Appreciate that. Looking forward to seeing that. So, we were asked to basically retroactively approve an offer letter for Jarod Logsdon that was dated September 9, 2020 for the Parks Department. Apparently because of the offer amount. Heather, you explain this. I want to get this right. Page 14 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 Harris Yes, I know Tammy is here as well and I believe there is also a representative from the State Board of Accounts who we may want to hear from. So, I’m looking at Tammy to jump in if I misstate anything. But, my understanding is that we made an offer to the Parks Department Superintendent in 2020 and that offer amount was above the amount we published in the Salary Ordinance and so, we did not come back to the Council at that time to amend the Salary Ordinance. It was outside the range that we typically give for those types of positions. So, since that had not been corrected in 2020, we now need to have as part of our audit for the State Board of Accounts a vote today to approve that amount. Typically, we would not approve an offer letter for an employee. The Parks Department under our reorganization and under state statute actually appoints the superintendent so that’s a position that their board actually would appoint with consultation from the Mayor which is included in our reorganization. Then, typically, we, you know, we don’t have any requirement in our reorganization to come back and amend the salary ordinances. Towns as a best practice use the Salary Ordinance process but it isn’t mandated like it is for cities so it’s something we’ve always done. Our reorg requires it specifically and it states that the Mayor can actually adjust a compensation up or down for her, for employees of the Town. The only requirement in state statute is that we can’t change the compensation of officers. So, for any of you as Town Council members or for the Mayor herself, that position can’t go up or down but for employees she has some discretion to do that. So, I think this is really as I look through it, just a clarification for the State Board of Accounts that we were aware that that position amount was outside of the published salary ordinance that the Council had previously approved. And, there are two people here with much more information. Tammy is giving me a thumbs-up which I feel like is an accomplishment so I’m going to go with that. Garrett This is just a procedural thing. It’s nothing to do with Mr. Logsdon or his performance or anything. This is just a check a box for an audit. Harris Absolutely. I think we missed a step in 2020 and we’re just going back and making sure that that is clarified so that we can have no exception to the audit for that particular item. Garrett So, legally doing this doesn’t violate anything with the State Board of Accounts, Reorg, anything like that. It’s just—okay. Harris No, no, nothing like that. No, it does not. Garrett Any questions on that, Councilors? More technical in nature. With that, then I’ll make a motion to retroactively approve the offer letter dated September 9, 2020 for Parks Superintendent Logsdon. Any second on that? Traylor Second. Garrett Second from Councilor Traylor. Havard I believe that you have to state the dollar amount and the allowance and they want to see that in the minutes as well. Page 15 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 Garrett Let me amend that motion then. I will make a motion to approve the offer letter dated September 9, 2020 for the Parks Superintendent which includes a starting salary for the position at 90,000 dollars plus a moving allowance of 8,000 dollars. Anyone second that? Melton Second. Garrett Oh, Councilor Melton beat you this time. All right. All in favor? All Aye. Garrett All opposed? [No response.] Garrett Very long motion, approved 6 in favor, 0 opposed. 8. APPROVAL OF CLAIMS Garrett Next, we’ve got claims. Councilors, any questions? Traylor We’re still on other matters. I hadn’t gotten a chance— Garrett Oh, sorry, Bryan. Traylor Yes, I just wanted to clarify one thing and, and I’m not trying to overstep here but there’s been a lot of, a lot of people asking me and I know probably asking a few of you, about there’s—and I would invite Joe or the Mayor, either one, they’re both here, to come up and correct me if anything I say is inaccurate. But, there’s this OSHA mandate, vaccine mandate that’s in the court system right now, and through AIM, they’ve advised that Towns and even actually private sector workers prepare for it as well. But, for people to just be prepared for this mandate should it go in place. However, there is no mandate going in place on December 5. It is still in the court system and until it’s out of the court system, nothing will be going into place as far as mandates go. So, just to clear up any confusion because I know there’s people in the public that have gotten some emails and some concern about that. But, if anything I’m saying’s inaccurate, let me know but I think that’s the case. Until it plays out in court, there is no mandate going in place for Town of Zionsville employees. Harris And, I can share a little bit more about that. So, you know, part of the Federal OSHA requirement that you referenced, Councilor Traylor, requires that if you are a federal contractor receiving federal funds that you comply with the vaccine mandate. That date by rule has been moved to January 4. The states, so for example, the Town of Zionsville because we take federal transportation dollars and our contracts while they are directly with the state of Indiana, those contracts state that, you know, we are, all the boilerplate that the feds require. And, there’s some nuances in that rule which I will share. We’re trying to work through at our law firm because it is complicated and there’s other things we take like Medicaid which has a separate rule under CMS (Centers for Medicaid Services), Medicare Services—we do that through ambulance billing so there’s multiple touches that Page 16 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 the Town is going to have to sort through in terms of what requirements apply and CMS is different. They have different heightened standard in their rule that just came out last week from the OSHA rules so we’re trying to understand how those two things will play out. All that being said, we are going to have to watch closely to your point, the lawsuits that are filed. The state of Indiana, Governor Holcomb through our attorney general, Todd Rokita, has filed a suit along with about 28 other states to block the requirement as it relates to the state of Indiana. I fully expect that there will be legislation creating additional definitions of exemptions that are stated in the Federal OSHA and CMS rules. The timing on that is going to be a little dicey. We do come back into organization day at the legislature tomorrow so we know that there’s some legislative efforts or interest in trying to get something expedited through the process but that’s been an effort in Texas and Ohio, North Dakota, Montana, other states looking at it. It’s to date, has not fully been implemented in any state so we’re watching it. I know the Mayor is probably having to prepare for it because the timing is so tight. But, I will commit to all of you that I’m watching it as well on your behalf to try to— and I’m happy to work with the Mayor and her counsel to sort through it because it’s very complicated and conflicting statutes and timing is tight, so. Garrett Very good. Any other matters? Okay, now we can go to claims. Any questions on claims, Councilors? Plunkett I’ve got a question on—we’ve got in the non-department total or in the non- department, I guess, 999, we’ve got a legal fee in there that is $13,500 for an employee matter and I’m assuming and I don’t necessarily want to know what the employee matter is here. I’m just curious as to why that wouldn’t be filed under a different department specifically with whoever the claim is for. Garrett Here’s the claims expert. Havard Yes, so, when we do the budget, we put the retainers, the Council retainers under the Council Department and then the Administration one under Administration. All other legal matters because we can’t predict what is going to happen throughout the year go into the nondepartmental. Also, there are some smaller departments and so, we wouldn’t want to call that out, a specific employment matter in a specific department. So, those are budgeted and spent out of nondepartmental legal line. Plunkett Okay, thank you. Garrett Tammy, when you say they’re budgeted, their budget is legal like sort of general legal. Havard So, yes. We have, yes, we have a legal object code within the nondepartmental area of the general fund. So, that you have visibility and can see where we are with the legal. Garrett Okay, thanks. That’s what I thought but I just wanted to confirm. Traylor Tammy, I’m going to have a question for you, too. Save you a trip. Page 17 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 Havard Sure. Traylor All right, so and this may just be me being irritable. It very well may be. But, so, going back again, we denied the additional appropriation for the MAC and we continue to see MAC expenditures. Explain to me again—or, I’m trying to feel better about it because it just kind of burns that we turned down the additional appropriation but yet it still keeps happening even though we said no. So, if you would, just explain where that money’s coming from to pay for these things when we specifically denied this particular item. Havard Sure, so you might see references to MAC in the claims and that is just—so employees, for instance, are still budgeted within their departments even though they’re sitting over in the MAC area. There might be office supplies and things that is—might be, say have a description that says MAC but those were budgeted as general office supplies that they would need no matter where they were. Traylor And, does that apply to, to the I think I saw, like a cubicle in here for somebody in your department. That was just an additional staff person or--? Havard Yes, so we took a full-time position and broke it up into two part-time positions. And, so we have like the court person is sitting over in the MAC area so that they’re more accessible to the public when someone walks in and has a question. Then, they can go right there and speak to the person. Traylor And, it that the cubicle we’re paying for? Havard Yes. Traylor In this? Havard So, and, there is no existing office available in the finance area right now. So, again, we would have had to do something anyway. Traylor But, it’s a cubicle in the MAC. Okay. Okay. Burk So, obviously these were approved budget expenses pre-MAC so you’re just kind of re-coding them for yourself? Havard Correct. Burk So, in the 2022 budget, will that be coded differently? Will MAC kind of have its own budget line item or will it continue to be just departmental spend that would be applied to the MAC? Havard Currently, we are just doing the departmental spend. If there is a desire by the Council to have that separate area, a lot of the cities and towns have like a customer service type budget, then we can absolutely explore that and get that done. Burk Okay, thank you. Page 18 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 Plunkett I think going back to Councilor Traylor’s point, I would just like to know how much money was spent on the MAC, where it came from and was it completed because the MAC was done? I’m assuming there’s a budget somewhere, there’s a line item somewhere that has all the expenses. So, I don’t know when. I don’t know, Amy, if that’s something I email you for a request on or--? Havard We can pull that together. Lacy Yes. Plunkett Thank you. Garrett Anything else? All right, I’ll make a motion to approve claims. Choi Second. Garrett Second from Councilor Choi. All in favor? Garrett Aye. Plunkett Aye. Burk Aye. Choi Aye. Melton Aye. Traylor Nay. Garrett Claims are approved by a vote of 5 in favor, 1 opposed. 9. ADJOURN Garrett I’ll make a motion to adjourn. Choi Second. Garrett Second by Councilor Choi. All in favor? All Aye. Garrett All opposed? [No response.] Page 19 of 20 Zionsville Town Council November 15, 2021 Garrett Motion to adjourn is approved by a vote of 6 in favor, 0 opposed. The next regular Town Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 6, 2021 at 7 o’clock p.m. right here in the Town Hall Council Chambers. Final notice will be posted in compliance with Indiana Open Door Law. Thank you all. Respectfully Submitted, Amelia Anne Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator Town of Zionsville Page 20 of 20