Zionsville Town Council

Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 This meeting was conducted onsite. All Councilors participated in person. Council Members Present: Jason Plunkett, President; Brad Burk, Vice-President; Alex Choi; Joe Culp, Josh Garrett, Craig Melton and Bryan Traylor Also Present: Heather Harris, Town Council Attorney; Andy Pickell, Deputy Mayor; Cindy Poore, Director of Finance & Records; Jarod Logsdon, Parks & Recreation Superintendent; Amy Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator; and other Town Department Staff OPENING A. Call meeting to order B. Pledge of Allegiance Plunkett All right, good evening. I will now call to order the Monday, December 4, 2023 Regular Town Council meeting. If you would please stand and join me with the Pledge of Allegiance. All Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF THE MEMORANDUM OF THE NOVEMBER 20, 2023 REGULAR MEETING Plunkett All right, first item on the agenda is the Approval of the Memorandum of the November 20, 2023 Regular Town Council meeting. A copy has been posted. Are there questions from Councilors? Garrett I’ll make a motion to approve. Plunkett We got a first by Councilor Garrett. Culp Second. Plunkett Second by, was that you Joe? Culp Yes. Plunkett Second by Councilor Culp. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Page 1 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Plunkett Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. REQUEST TO SPEAK Plunkett Up next is a Request to Speak on Agenda Item. Amy, did we have any requests to speak? Lacy No, we do not. Plunkett We need to get you your own microphone. Lacy I know. MAYOR/ADMINISTRATION UPDATE Plunkett All right, up next would be Mayor/Administration Update. We did not receive one of those so we’ll move on to the Town Council Update. TOWN COUNCIL UPDATE Plunkett Are there any questions or updates from Councilors? I would ask Councilors, you guys will, you’ll recall at the last meeting we approved the claims with an amendment to the claim to include the Fire Chief’s legal bill that was left remaining unpaid. It’s my understanding all the claims were paid except for that one and we have the Deputy Mayor here. I would love to hear the Deputy Mayor’s plan to pay the Fire Chief. Deputy Pickell – Pickell Pardon? Plunkett I, would you mind coming up here and explaining to us the plan to pay the Fire Chief’s claim that was approved at the last meeting? Pickell (Inaudible off microphone). Plunkett No, I have my legal counsel and I know what my legal counsel has been saying. Pickell (Inaudible off microphone.) Plunkett Would you mind coming up here, please? I’ve received 15 questions, no less than 15 questions the last two weeks about why this hasn’t been paid. Please come up here and talk to us. Pickell There is an email today from Amy Nooning explaining what the State Board of Accounts told us, Cindy, how she can pay this claim. That’s how we’ll pay that claim. Plunkett How is that? Pickell There’s an email, your counsel has it. Page 2 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Plunkett I’m, I’m asking you. Andy, you’re on all the emails back and forth. We approved claims last time. You guys chose not to pay it. Pickell You’re on the emails too. So why are making me explain? Plunkett I’m asking you to put it public right now. Because you guys are the only two people in this entire Town that don’t want to pay this. You and Amy Nooning. Please explain that. Please. Pickell Are you serious? Plunkett I am. Deadly serious, Pickell Deadly serious? Plunkett Deadly serious. This is the most unbelievable – Pickell How do you know that I don’t want to pay that claim? Plunkett Because you and Amy Nooning are standing in the way of paying it. Pickell What we’re trying to do is protect our financial principle for the Town. Plunkett This Administration is suddenly worried about the financial principles for this Town? Pickell We can, we can either discuss the past or we can talk about right now. Plunkett I’d like to talk about the past meeting where we approved a claim and why you’re not paying it now. Pickell We’ve told you that we are going to pay it properly. Plunkett So this, for the record, this is the – Pickell It has to go through – Plunkett This is the first I’ve been notified that you intend to pay the claim. Pickell No, it is not the first time. Plunkett It’s the first time. Pickell It’s been in several emails Councilor. Plunkett That is incorrect. Pickell Read your emails then. Plunkett Every time, every time I send an email to you guys – Page 3 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Pickell I’ve explained to you – Plunkett Why we’re not paying it – Pickell That where we’re at on this. I don’t think I need to explain anymore. Fair? Plunkett So where, so where we’re at is you guys are refusing to pay the claim as we approved it at the last meeting? Pickell If you would like to put those words in my mouth – Plunkett Because you guys (inaudible) pay it. Pickell You can do that Councilor. Plunkett It’s accurate. Pickell Those are your words – Plunkett Based on an email that came through here today – Pickell Not mine. Plunkett You guys apparently want to pay this as income and not as a claim. Are those your words or was that the email you’re referencing? Garrett So are they paying the claim? Plunkett Nobody knows. Garrett Well and I’m not trying to put words in Deputy Mayor Pickell’s – but he said they’re trying to pay the claim via the DLGF. That sounds like they’re paying the claim but that – Pickell That’s not – you misheard me Councilor. Garrett Okay. Pickell What I said was we’re following the State Board of Accounts’ advice on how to pay this properly to avoid IRS problems, to avoid audit problems from the State Board of Accounts. They’ve given us advice, legal advice. We shared that with Council and the President. That’s how we intend to pay the claim. Garrett Uh – Pickell There’s nothing else about it. Garrett So, is, does that mean you have what you need then to pay the claim because you’ve got the State Board of Accounts’ advice? Page 4 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Pickell We’re ready to have Cindy put together. We have to ask for you guys to do a Salary Amendment Ordinance to pay this as salary to the Chief to make it legal – Garrett So we only have one – Pickell As per the email Councilor. Garrett We only have one meeting left. Are there assurances that if we get that in the last meeting the Mayor’s not going to veto that Salary Ordinance? Pickell The best we could do. The problem is not on our end. The State Board of Accounts – it was Thanksgiving week, that put us behind. We didn’t get answers from legal. Heather, you can, you can agree with us on that or not but, we haven’t tried to slow boat this at all. We took what you brought to us, we tried to put it in the best – Plunkett You tried to slow boat this as this has been a three-month process. Pickell So that’s, that’s flatly false Councilor. Garrett So you have a path forward – Pickell You presented this two weeks ago to Cindy on a Monday. Plunkett We have been asking for three months to have this done. Pickell No. It’s never come across my – Plunkett Ever since – Pickell Desk ever. Plunket Well how long – Pickell I’ve been here for three months. Plunkett How long have you been Deputy Mayor? Three months? Pickell Longer. It’s never come across my desk. That might be a misstatement on your part. Plunkett It’s not a misstatement on my part. Pickell I think it might be. Plunkett I’m pretty sure it’s not. Garrett Hold on. So – Pickell You can do a public record of that fact. My email is wide open. [off microphone] Page 5 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Plunkett Okay, very good. Garrett Andy, there’s, there’s a path forward that is the – Pickell There is a path forward – [off microphone] Garrett Hold, hold on – I’m only asking you come up not because I’m trying to make you go back and forth but only for anyone that’s – so, there’s a path forward with an Ordinance that will amend – Pickell Yes – Garrett At the next meeting. I guess my – Pickell Cindy – Garrett My ask is, is there an assurance that the, I know you are saying this but we only have one more meeting left as this Council and I’d like to get this done as this Council. If we pass that Ordinance, is the Mayor going to sign that Ordinance so that it will then get processed per the Ordinance? Pickell I have not had a personal conversation with her about vetoing or passing it because we honestly just found out today from State Board of Accounts that’s the way we’ve got, we have to pay this out. Garrett Yes – so, I think that would be helpful, I mean I am frustrated – Pickell I will tell you Councilor, we are not – Cindy is moving forward to get this to you on the 18th. Garrett Right, that’s the first step, right? Pickell Yes – Garrett But then it requires the cooperation of Mayor Styron to sign off on that Ordinance and I’m just and I know you haven’t talked to her so I’m not going to ask you to speak for her but it would be helpful to understand going into that that she also will approve that Ordinance change so that then the claim can be processed properly per the State Board of Accounts. If she vetoes it, then we will, are either out of meetings or we’ll have to call a special meeting which will make me very grumpy to have to come back and potentially override that veto so that’s, I guess, what I’m trying to get at is it sounds like you have a path forward, later than maybe we like, but I would love that path forward to be supported by all sides so we can just put this all behind us and next Council, next Mayor doesn’t have this hanging over them – Pickell Very good. Garrett That was my, what I’d appreciate. Pickell Very good. Page 6 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Garrett Thank you. Traylor On that I’ve got a quick question – why can’t we, like why does it have to be income? I don’t really understand that. Choi I don’t either. Harris Okay, because it’s – Traylor Because it’s a reimbursement or – Harris Yes. I’m going to share what, what I know and so I did receive an email this afternoon. I didn’t actually read the email until I got here to the meeting just because I was in meetings today from Amy Nooning who is counsel to the Town. I had some conversations with general counsel at the State Board of Accounts. I know Amy has as well as has Tim Berry. I did speak to Tim Berry on my way to this meeting and I also saw Tim Friday night at a social event so we talked about this a little bit as well. So, typically, if an employee would receive a settlement that would be for some sort of legal action where they were provided a fee in a settlement agreement, if the employee is a W-2 employee, we’d 1099 that employee with the amount of the settlement, you attach the settlement and you send that to the IRS to ensure that the employee does not get subject to taxation and the employer doesn’t have payroll taxes, etc. for that additional compensation. In this instance, we don’t have a settlement agreement in the traditional sense where all parties have signed an additional settlement agreement. We had it for the original amount but not for the full amount of reimbursement to the Chief. So, I think the goal or the conversation is how do we make sure that the Chief can get the amount without triggering a taxable event or an adverse tax event for him to have to pay taxes on additional compensation. So, a few other options that I know could be considered, I think, would be that you could pay the attorneys directly for the amount and then the attorneys could refund the amount that have already been expended by the employee. You could do it that way or you – which would mean no additional amount from the Town or I think what’s being contemplated or discussed, which, I’ve not seen an exact plan so I can’t tell you I’ve signed off or, and I wouldn’t have authority, I would have to go to my client to get sign off so I’ve not done that – but I think that what’s being contemplated is you’d gross up the employee compensation, amend the salary report, do an additional appropriation for that differential in the amount but doing that is going to cost the Town more. So, I’ve asked whether or not there’s another opportunity like paying legal fees directly but I haven’t had any conversation with the Chief’s attorney so, just I can’t tell you if that would be a valid option or not. Garrett So we can’t, we can’t pay directly? Harris But that’s sorta where it is – Garrett I’m sorry to interrupt you Heather. Like we can’t – Page 7 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Harris I don’t think – Garrett We can’t reimburse the lawyers for the Chief directly – I don’t want to pay more than I get net the same. Harris Yes, it seems like you could and that seems like a valid option and one that you could just get a claim and then reimburse – pay, pay the attorneys and then reimburse the Chief’s fees could be reimbursed from the legal and that doesn’t trigger any sort of taxable – Garrett Yes – Harris Event and then the Town would be out the differential, I mean would be less the differential – Garrett Yes – Harris So, I understand that’s an option but I’m trying to get verification on that. Garrett Got it. Harris So I’m giving you what I think is an option but – I had a brief conversation with Cindy literally moments before this started and I know she’s trying to get all options, Tim was trying to explore different options as well. I mean, I think, what I shared with Tim and Cindy is to try to get this resolved before the end of the year so it can get resolved under the current Administration and the current Council because I think that’s fair to the new Administration to not have to deal with that day one. To make sure that the Chief is not implicated with any additional tax burden and to make sure the Chief is made whole for the cost of defending himself against, in the lawsuit with the Town. So, I mean, and every other party has been fully paid for except for the employee which I think is the goal. So, that, that’s what I know as of like this moment but, again, I think we just are trying to understand what is the actual plan and what is the timing on payment, what are the steps and is there a commitment to actually ensure, to your point, is it going to get paid before the end of the year? And I would like to see if there’s an opportunity to pay legal directly – Garrett Yes, I’d prefer that because – Harris If that’s an option – Garrett Yes – Harris And I don’t want to over promise anything. Garrett No, that’s fair but it’s (inaudible) Town. Traylor I mean this really isn’t income. I mean, so it shouldn’t be, in my mind, shouldn’t be treated as such but just I think it’s important that all parties involved just work in good faith to get the right thing done. I think the Chief was, unfortunately, put in a really, really bad spot by the Mayor and I think it’s the right thing to do to Page 8 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 make this, make him at least financially whole. So I just think working, if we can get some good faith cooperation that’d be great. Harris Yes, I’m going to suggest back just to give the Deputy Mayor a preview. I’m going to suggest back to legal counsel for the Town tonight that maybe we get on a call and just go through all the options with the Town’s financial advisor and then set the plan, you know, like what all steps need to be done so we can all work cooperatively to get it down and I’ll, obviously, include you Deputy Mayor. Plunkett Any other updates from Council? OLD BUSINESS Consideration of an Ordinance Approving an Updated American Rescue Plan Act Plan Ordinance 2023-29 (Final Reading) Plunkett Moving on to the first item of Old Business – this is a Consideration of an Ordinance Approving the Updated American Rescue Plan Act Plan. This is Ordinance 2023-29. This is a final reading and we have Councilor Garrett to present. Garrett Yes, I mean, there’s not much to present. I think we’ve talked about this in previous meetings. This is basically encompassing all dollars left in ARPA for a variety of different uses in Town including maybe a microphone for Ms. Lacy as part of the IT piece because there’s money in here for upgrading this AV system, microphone system. A lot of money towards trails, a lot of good causes, you know, it really touches on all different departments. I don’t know that I need to go through it again unless there’s many questions on it. I’ve appreciated your guys’ support as we’ve gone through this. Plunkett Any questions for Councilor Traylor? Garrett Or me? Plunkett Oh, I’m sorry – Councilor Garrett. Geez. Garrett If not, I’ll make a motion to approve Ordinance 2023-29 on final reading. Burk Second. Plunkett Uh, I heard a second – first from Councilor Garrett, second from Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Page 9 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise Regulations on Nepotism Ordinance 2023- 30 (Final Reading) Plunkett Up next is a Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise Regulations on Nepotism. This is Ordinance 2023-30. This is a final reading and we have Heather Harris to present on this. Harris Yes, so Council members, as you recall, this is part of our Code update and this is clarifying which department regulates and enforces the chapter. It also makes a correction in the date referenced in Section 4 into when the law came into effect. It changes the reference Clerk-Treasurer to Mayor per the reorganization and then cross-references the, or corrects the reference in the chapter in Section 9 saying it will take effect immediately and that is all and this is related to the Town’s nepotism policy which is required by state statute. Plunkett Any questions from Councilors? I would make a motion to approve on final reading Ordinance 2023-30. Traylor Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Traylor. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise the Town Court Ordinance 2023-31 (Final Reading) Plunkett Moving along – next item is a Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise Town Court. This is Ordinance 2023-31. And, again, Heather for this one as well – Heather’s got the next few here so. Harris Yep. So, again, this is part of the Code update. This one is a fairly easy one. It just adds a section to clarify that the Town Judge has jurisdiction over the Town Court. Plunkett Any questions from Councilors? I will make a motion to introduce or to approve Ordinance 2023-31 on final reading. Melton Second. Plunkett We’ve got a second from Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Page 10 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise General Provisions of the Traffic Code (Traffic Control Devices) Ordinance 2023-32 (Final Reading) Plunkett Up next is Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise General Provisions of the Traffic Code. This is Traffic Control Devices, Ordinance 2023-32. This is also a final reading. Heather – Harris Yes, so this changes the name of the chapter from General Provisions to General Provisions in Traffic Control Devices, adds a section to clarify which department regulates, regulates and enforces the chapter. There are a couple of grammatical changes and in Section 15 it clarifies that all traffic control signs, signals and devices need to conform with the Indiana Code as well as the Indiana Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways and adds a section prohibiting sign damage or removal which is currently in the codified Code. Plunkett Any questions from Councilors? I will make a motion to approve on final reading Ordinance 2023-32. Burk Second. Plunkett Second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise Permits Required for Banners and Signs Ordinance 2023-33 (Final Reading) Plunkett Next is a Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise Permits Required for Banners and Signs. This is Ordinance 2023-33. Harris So, this Ordinance adds a section to clarify which department regulates and enforces the chapter, it adds a definition of banner in Section 4 to mean a non- illuminated sign possessing characters, letters, illustrations and ornamentations, changes reference in this section of Code of Clerk-Treasurer to Mayor per the 2014 reorganization and that is all. Plunkett All right, any questions from Councilors? I will make a motion to approve on final reading Ordinance 2023-33. Garrett Second. Page 11 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Plunkett Second by Councilor Garrett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise False Alarm Fines Ordinance 2023-34 (Final Reading) Plukett Up next is the Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise False Alarm Fines. This is Ordinance 2023-34. This is also a final reading. Harris So, this Ordinance adds a section to clarify which department regulates and enforces the chapter. It adds a section to define what a false alarm is and to prohibit a false alarm intended for clarification and it also changes the reference of Fire Department Chief to Chief of the Fire Department to match the 2014 reorganization. Plunkett Questions from Councilors? I will make a motion to approve Ordinance 2023-34 on final reading. Burk Second. Plunkett Second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise Traffic Regulations Ordinance 2023-35 (Final Reading) Plunkett All right, last one. Consideration of an Ordinance to Revise Traffic Regulations. This is Ordinance 2023-35. This is also a final reading. Harris This Ordinance adds a section to clarify which department regulates and enforces the chapter. In Section 5 it adds Indiana Code reference that gives the Town the ability to regulate or prohibit the turning of vehicles at intersections. It re-words Section 6 to make it more straightforward, makes language more direct in Section 9 by changing the phase “the same” to “the vehicle” for better clarification and it re-words Section 11 to make it more straightforward and that is all. Page 12 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Melton Heather, I have, oh – Harris Yes? Melton A quick question on that. I had 71.08, it’s a muffler requirement. Is that part of this, right? Harris Yes. Melton So just, just thinking through this – one of the bigger complaints that I get in my district is we have, we have several districts that could have this same complaint – Michigan Road, 465 area but 865 carves through Zionsville and is there anyway that we could limit the Jake brake use through that Ordinance or is that something we would come back for or is a Jake brake – Harris Yes – Melton A “standard muffler?” Harris Yes – I did not add anything like that here. There is state statute on Jake brakes that passed a couple of years ago that amends the State Highway Code. I can get you that section and we could consider, we can look at that to see if we can further regulate at a Town level. I do recall a few years ago that being discussed in the General Assembly but I can’t remember exactly what it does and we did not include it here because the goal was to not try to make any real policy changes, to just make it conform with the reorganization to update the – Melton To update? Harris Ordinances. Melton Okay. Harris But I will, I will be happy to get you that information. Melton I’d like to maybe look into that in the future. Harris Yes, especially out where you are. Melton Thanks. Garrett I have a question for Councilor Melton – Melton Yes? Garrett What’s a Jake brake? Melton A Jake brake – Culp I’m Googling that right now actually. Page 13 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Melton A Jake brake is a common mechanism added to a diesel engine to slow down the vehicle, slow down a semi generally – Garrett Got it. Melton And it’s that – Harris You hear that – Melton [Making Jake brake sound] – Garrett Yes, okay. Melton That we hear in the district we get it a lot. Harris I like the sounds effects there, yes but that was a legal sound effect. Melton It was. Make sure that you get that on the recording. Thank you. I appreciate that. Traylor How do you spell that? Plunkett All right, any other questions for Heather? I’ll make a motion to introduce or to approve Ordinance 2023-35 on final reading. Melton Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. NEW BUSINESS Consideration of a Resolution Regarding the Parks and Recreation 5-Year Master Plan Resolution 2023-26 Plunkett Moving on to New Business – the first item is Consideration of a Resolution Regarding the Parks and Recreation 5-Year Master Plan. This is Resolution 2023-26 and we have Jarod Logsdon, Superintendent of Parks and Recreation. Logsdon Thank you President Plunkett. Plunkett Sure. Logsdon Good evening Council. Every five years the Town of Zionsville Parks and Recreation Department has the opportunity to reengage with our community and invite public input to reestablish the priorities and vision of our park system. Page 14 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Throughout 2022, our team met with residents to collect community input, inventory existing parkland and neighboring park systems and refine reoccurring priorities to draft the 2023 to 2028 5-Year Master Plan. This document is an update and replacement of the previous 2018 to 2022 5-Year Master Plan within the Town’s Comprehensive Plan and creates a roadmap to initiatives and funding priorities for our next five years and beyond. Like the previous 5-Year Master Plan, this update highlights several capital improvements and opportunities within our park system and identifies potential funding opportunities. Additionally, this Master Plan explores several pillars within our operational responsibilities to best plan for the future. These include a land acquisition study, ADA accessibility audit, staffing study, facility life cycle analysis and park impact fee utilization strategy. This Master Plan update was previously presented to this Council in January before being reviewed and finalized and received a favorable recommendation from the Zionsville Board of Parks and Recreation and the Zionsville Plan Commission. Adoption of this Master Plan Update will allow the Town’s Parks Department to remain eligible for Indiana Department of Natural Resource grant opportunities which has helped build our park system throughout the years. Since the last 5-Year Master Plan, we have been the recipient of $5.7 million dollars from the State of Indiana’s DNR Department. So, happy to answer any questions about the document or in general about our park system. Garrett Hey Jarod – Logsdon Yes? Garrett And there’s a lot of detail in here so I feel bad asking about one specific thing but one of the recommendations for the golf course was to repave remaining cart paths and two years ago or so we had appropriated funds to repave all of the cart paths. Is there still some remaining or can you sort of talk about that just a little bit? Logsdon Yes. So there are segments that were in the best shape that were just beyond our budget. Asphalt just in my time from being here has went from about $6 a unit up to $9, so just that cost increase with COVID has kind of made us scale that back. Garrett So, if, when we appropriated the money I was expecting 100%. What percent of trails did we end up repaving then? Logsdon I believe it’s right above 70%. Garrett Got it. Okay. Thank you. Logsdon Yep. Plunkett Are there any questions from Councilors? It certainly is a robust document. Garrett Yes, indeed. Plunkett I mean, obviously, obviously as you go through and look at it, I mean, there’s, there’s some pretty substantial changes in staffing models and some pretty large Page 15 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 capital expenses that are, are in this plan. I’m sensitive to the fact that the plan has to move forward so that we can apply for grants and we can request additional, additional funding sources. I will say over the next four years I’m, I’m hesitant to see the Parks Department increase that much in staffing and I think that even a lot of the capital expenses seem to be kind of merged with a number of other funding sources so I don’t know how we would figure out which areas take priority but I guess, I’m certainly, I’m certainly happy to see this move forward so that you can apply for everything that you need and get a plan together. I don’t want, I guess what I’m saying is I don’t want this to feel like a rubber stamp because this certainly is a very expensive 175 or 180 pages, however many is in here but – Logsdon I think 300. Plunkett 300. Traylor 296. Logsdon There we go. Plunkett Yes. Traylor I counted. Plunkett I get the hard copy so it’s a little heavier but – Logsdon And, and I can speak to some of that. Certainly we wanted, as we come to this Council, this body, future bodies with requests for staffing, we wanted some data to support why we needed those improvements so ultimately looking out the window and if something is in disrepair you’ll know that we need an additional resource there but to actually have some data to go along with that argument and that conversation in future years. So, understanding that we don’t operate in a vacuum and there are competing priorities as a Town, we’re very aware of that and there are some very large price tags in there as well. One, one thing I noticed during this process was the Next Level Trails grant was not announced when we had the 2018 plan. So, completion of the Big 4 Rail Trail was very aspirational at that time and then an opportunity came and we were able to do that. So, if it’s not in the plan you know the chances are we won’t get to it so we just wanted to be comprehensive with that. Traylor And I think having been on the committee, this is kind of like a best-case scenario. Plunkett Yes. Traylor If everything fell in line, here’s what we’d like to see done in five years but knowing, yes, of course, there’s – Plunkett Yes. Traylor Financial priorities may keep you from hiring all the staff you may want. Page 16 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Garrett I guess Jarod, to that point, my only, and this won’t be my problem because this is my last evening meeting but I just want to make sure you as the financial manager of the Parks Department is cognizant of capital buildouts related to FTE’s required, right? I mean as Councilor Traylor said, if, if this is, if everything went perfectly but it also, you know, if you’ve got 30 positions today including part time, this proposes adding 62 more including part time. So, as, as maybe you come to future Councils or a future Mayor for a capital project I would just like to not back that, back the Town into a corner where now that we have this capital project paid for through bonds we have sort of, well we’ve now got to staff it and then suddenly we’re not able, we’re cutting other things to be able to staff that. So, I think it’s a great document, a lot of detail as President Plunkett said, I just want to make sure you’re balancing both sides of that going forward. Logsdon So we completely agree. We will hold that ribbon together should we not have the resources to take care of that new addition. Garrett I appreciate that. Melton Jarod, before we, before we approved the Carpenter Nature Preserve, this was a document that we really wanted you to make sure it got funded and pushed through and I think that, the fact that we finally have gotten this in our hands, though it was only a few days ago, we’ve, we’ve got a great plan and I think moving forward with the Carpenter Nature Preserve this ties it all together and it makes sense to me now and I’m, I’m really appreciative that we have this that we can use as a plan but, again, I don’t think it’s, I don’t think it’s a monument so I don’t think we have to do everything in this and I think we should just continue to do what’s best for the Town of Zionsville, not just meet the plan because it’s a plan moving forward so. I think it’s kinda similar to what everybody else is saying as well but I’m excited to see it was a long read and I’m really tired of reading today but I appreciate it. It was a, it was very informative and I’m excited for the next four years for the Town of Zionsville, our Parks Department, our pathways and I’m excited for that. So thank you. Logsdon Thank you. Plunkett Jarod, how many, out of curiosity, how many companies, companies did you guys have respond to the RFP to do this? Logsdon We interviewed three. I can’t recall how many we narrowed that down from. Plunkett All right, any questions for, for Jarod? Traylor I’d make a motion to approve. Burk Second. Plunkett First by Councilor Traylor, second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Page 17 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Thank you. Logsdon Thank you. Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend the Town of Zionsville Zoning Ordinance (Holliday Farms Sentry Senior Living) (Petition 2023-36-Z) Ordinance 2023-36 Plunkett Up next on the agenda is a Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend the Town of Zionsville Zoning Ordinance. This is the Holliday Farms Sentry Senior Living, Petition 2023-36-Z, Ordinance 2023-36. We have Director of Community, Community & Economic Development, Mike Dale, here to present and Matt Price, the attorney for the petitioner. Dale Good evening. Regarding the Holliday Farms Amended PUD, at last month’s Plan Commission meeting the Plan Commission held an advertised hearing on this item and forwarded a favorable recommendation to you regarding the rezoning of about 23 acres from the Special Use-7 zoning district to the Planned Unit Development PUD. The Plan Commission’s recommendation is dependent in part upon the recording of a zoning commitment concerning exterior lighting, loading door locations, delivery times, preservation of vegetation, additional landscaping and the requirement for an updated traffic operations analysis upon future development of the site. The site is located on the east side of Michigan Road, south of County Road 300 South, about one mile north of Willow Road and immediately north of the Interactive Academy. The site address is 3795 U.S. Highway 421 and the petitioner is Sentry Development. This project involves amending the Holliday Farms PUD by incorporating 23 acres located on the east side of Michigan Road for development of a senior living facility and other commercial and residential uses as specified within the proposed PUD Ordinance. If the rezoning is granted, then future site development would be subject to Plan Commission approvals for subdivision platting, subdivision platting and a development plan or development plans. That’s an introduction to the site, otherwise, I’d defer to the applicant or petitioner. Garrett Matt or Jordan, if, if one of you wants to come up I got a question that maybe isn’t related to Mr. Dale here. My understanding, we are not voting on a TIF component of this but there is a TIF in the works that I think will provide some good public access to those neighbors that have been asking for trail access. I know it’s not final, but would you mind just sort of talking about it so the Council maybe has some understanding of once if, if we approve this here, and I’m supportive, what this might mean down the road for something we would not otherwise get if we didn’t approve this? Page 18 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Price Yes. Thank you for the question Councilor Garrett, members of the Council. For the record, Matt Price on behalf of Sentry Development. Yes, we worked very closely with really two neighborhood associations that are in close proximity – the Bridlewood subdivision which is immediately north of this parcel and the Hidden Pines subdivision which is, kind of wraps around to the east of us as well as with Interactive Academy representatives and one of the things that became very clear from our early discussions with them earlier in the summer was that it was important for them to kind of fill in the missing teeth of the perimeter pathways along Michigan Road. And so the proposal we’ve made, at least preliminarily, to the Redevelopment Commission is that this project and it’s $25 million dollars in assessed valuation, would generate the revenues that could support the funding of perimeter paths from where Appaloosa Crossing leaves off to the north of Bridlewood all the way down to Willow Road. And part of what the developer, Jordan Dorsey, with Sentry Development has agreed to do is to, as part of a developer-backed bond, fund the amounts necessary to construct those perimeter pathways upfront and so it’s a, it’s a significant investment with the senior housing and it makes possible that additional, those additional amenities. Garrett Thank you Matt. Price Yep. Plunkett Any questions from Councilors? Melton Yes I have, I have a couple questions just because this is the first time I’ve seen this. I haven’t seen this. It looks like there’s the, the senior living center that’s still on, on the docket, right? That’s, that’s the part of this, right? Is that correct? Price Correct. Melton A major part of that? Price Yes. Melton And then there’s a pond to the east that looks like it has a fountain. Is that pond part of this property? So, the one to the east which would be separating Hidden Pines and the senior living facility, is that? Price Actually, if Mr. Rust would pull up the site plan I could, I could walk you through that Councilor Melton. Melton I appreciate it. If you don’t mind, I just had a few questions about that and – Price Yes. Melton Something that’s another question that I didn’t see on this map, just curiously, I know it’s already been development plan approved – just curious for my own personal liking – dumpster location, where, where are the dumpsters on this property going to be held? That’s a hot topic in my district and I didn’t know, I Page 19 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 didn’t see a location on here. Is that something that you guys have an idea of where that’s going to be on this map? Price Yes, maybe I’ll ask Jordan Dorsey to come up and address that specific question but to address your, your first question – the senior living component is a little over 11 acres of the total 23 acres that’s part of the proposal and that’s the building footprint you see on the site plan. We worked very closely with the neighbors to develop tree preservation areas which is the shaded area that you see along the northern perimeter and it extends all the way down the southern perimeter of the property as well. It’s heavily wooded today and a significant portion of that wooded area is being preserved. As Mr. Dale mentioned, there are also commitments to augment that wooded area with evergreen plantings that we’ve made a commitment to. What the neighbors spoke to us about was that they’d like to preserve that, that woods on our side of the property line which we’re, which we were very agreeable to do but they also, from their experience with Interactive Academy, they can see Interactive Academy today through the woods and so they said knowing, knowing that situation exists today with the Interactive Academy structure, if you could augment it with evergreens to provide that multi-seasonal screening, that would be advantageous and then I think the, the detention that you’re, you’re speaking of is that pond area that’s in kind of the northeast corner of the project and that’s being driven largely by the topography for the property but, obviously, would provide some additional separation between the building and the adjoining property lines. Melton So, so what I saw when I Google Earth today was an existing pond with like a fountain – Price Oh – Melton And I think that may be just to the east of this picture. Is that, so that’s already in Hidden Pines probably in the neighborhood – Price It’s probably in the, yes, I think that’s probably part of the Hidden Pines project. Melton Great. Price Yes. Melton No big deal there. So, this, this project, the consideration of this location, I guess, is, with that pathway coming down the potentially coming down the east side of Michigan Road – that’s, that’s amazing. It’s something that I on the Pathways Committee and several other Pathways Committee members are very interested in. Is this potentially, this property, a potential location for a down-the-road bridge or tunnel? Has, has anybody talked about that conversation for safe access across in these two properties that are owned by the same “developer?” Price We, what, what has emerged as part of that discussion is the creation of the investment that could fund a safe crossing across 421 as well. That’s going to be really part of the ongoing discussions with the Redevelopment Commission as far as the scope of what’s included. What we’ve, what we’ve focused on initially was the, the north-south perimeter pathway connections as being the top priority Page 20 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 but I think it is important to understand that that’s a now project. That’s with the senior housing project as the additional assessed valuation comes online from the remaining commercial pieces, that can open up other opportunities like surface grade crossings, safe crossings as you described. Melton And is this, is this senior living facility is it going to have like parking for like golf carts and things as well? Is that, I know that sounds silly but we’ve got the golf course, we’ve got, that’s been a talk about are golf carts allowed to cross Michigan Road, etc. Price I don’t, I don’t know that we’ve specifically identified at this stage locations for golf cart parking but that, that would be something I would anticipate being asked about as part of the development plan approval process. I think it’s, I think it’s possible. I think one of the things you’re pointing out with that question which I, we very much agree with and it’s actually what makes this site so attractive for this use is that it is in the middle of things. It’s not scuttled away, away from other people so it’s where older adults and our average age is in the 80s – Melton Okay – Price For this building. It’s where those adults can live and be, be in the mix of the community, be visited by their family members and friends and feel like they’re a part of the action. Melton One, one last question and this, again, this is my first time kinda reading through this all today, it seems like there was, so we have all these outlets on the front of this property, those are commercial outlets, correct? Price Correct. Melton And part of this approval tonight includes those and includes the idea that we are not allowing those outlets to be drive-thru, to have drive-thrus – or am I incorrect on that? Price No restaurants with a drive-thru. Melton No restaurants so, but, but drug store was okay to have a drive-thru but no restaurants? Price Right. Melton That’s a commitment, right? Price That’s right. That’s actually, that’s actually in the Ordinance. Melton Fantastic. Yep. I just wanted to make sure – Price Yep. Melton I was clear on all the, all the words. Page 21 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Price The, yes, it’s an excellent question and we spent a great deal of time with both the neighbors and with the Plan Commission working through those permitted uses and arrived at where we arrived today which is limiting the nature of the commercial uses so, for example, there’s no service stations, no restaurants with drive-thrus. It’s going to be more of a neighborhood commercial. We did preserve the ability to have walk-up restaurant service so like an ice cream shop, for example, would be permitted. A financial institution would be permitted and we also limited the areas where a residential use could go so on the very southern end of the property you see kind of a shaded area that we’ve identified as a residential use block. To the extent there are any residential uses on the property, they would be limited to that one area on our site plan. Melton Perfect. Thank you for answering those questions. I appreciate all the work you guys, the developer’s done with the neighboring neighborhoods. Price Thank you. We appreciate that. Melton Thank you. Price Did you want to address the location of the dumpster? Melton Dumpster? Dorsey Sure. Price Trash, trash enclosure. Dorsey Good evening. Jordan Dorsey with Sentry Development. The current dumpster location would be you can kinda see a hammerhead on the site plan here on the northeast corner of the building. It would be tucked up against the building in that location but certainly as we finalize the development plan for approval through the Town, we’ll finalize that location and then we do know that we’ll continue to communicate with the neighbors through the development plan stage as we finalize some of the details around the site. We’ve developed a really good working relationship with them and we’ll, we’ll keep doing that. Melton That’s great and there’s another pond there too as well so there’s, there’s a lot of buffering – Dorsey Yes. Melton A lot of extra pines if you’re going to plant those in addition so I’m, I’m excited that, that you guys have worked so closely with the neighbors. Culp Are you guys eventually going to have a stoplight there? Is that something like is that before (inaudible) put something in there? What’s kind of the plan? Price Yes, you’ve, you’ve hit on, yes, the – Culp That’s, that’s a pretty big – Page 22 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Price It is – Culp People coming in and out eventually. Price Right. That’s our, our traffic study identified that need and so that’s, that’s part of the proposal. We also committed, as Mr. Dale noted, that we would update the Traffic Impact Study to the extent there is a future residential use to account for that as well. What, what’s, what’s emerging from Michigan Road really from 146th Street all the way down to Willow is kind of a series of traffic warrants and anticipated lights in the future. Culp It’s growing. It’s growing. Burk Not a question but just to Jordan and Matt – just a lot of appreciation on this one. I’ve stayed pretty close, pretty well connected on this project from the beginning. I really enjoyed and it’s been, it’s been kind of alluded to but the collaboration with the community and the HOAs on this it was, it’s been really outstanding and there’s a lot, there was a lot of accommodation and a lot of patience and the fact that they’re not here tonight but they’ve been part and kudos to the Plan Commission as well who carried a heavy load. I don’t think we’ll hear anyone, we could hear someone speak out against it but I think the reason that we won’t is because so much was done to make our jobs pretty easy. I know there’s a lot of, a lot of things that have happened and I’m especially pleased to hear that Sentry’s committed to helping put some dollars upfront to pay for a much-desired pathway from Appaloosa down to Willow. I think that’s much needed and certainly the neighbors in that area are appreciative of that so it was just a, I know it was a lot of patience and took quite a few months to get to this place but I think that’s how it should work and just thank you for listening to the people of Zionsville. Price Thank you. Plunkett Any other questions for Mr. Price or anyone else? Otherwise, I’d entertain a motion. Melton Motion to approve Ordinance 2023-36. Burk Second. Plunkett I’ve got a first by Councilor Melton and a second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 7 opposed. Traylor And just to clarify – that was introduction, correct? Page 23 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Plunkett Yes to the first reading, sorry. That’s correct. Traylor Okay. Oh, okay. All right. You’re right. You had your, the first one at the Plan Commission. My mistake. Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend Code of Ordinances to Revise Hosting Minors; Liquor or Controlled Substances Ordinance 2023-37 (First Reading) Plunkett All right. We’ve got a few here with Heather again going back to the Ordinance cleanup here so I’ll kinda let Heather run with these. The first is a Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend the Code of Ordinances to Revise Hosting Minors; Liquor or Controlled Substances. This is Ordinance 2023-37, also a first reading. Harris This one is an easy one. It just adds a section to clarify which department regulates the chapter. Plunkett Any questions from Councilors? I’ll make a motion to introduce on first reading Ordinance 2023-37. Garrett Second. Plunkett Second from Councilor Garrett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend Code of Ordinances to Revise Abandoned Vehicles Ordinance 2023-38 (First Reading) Plunkett Up next is a Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend Code of Ordinances to Revise Abandoned Vehicles. This is Ordinance 2023-38. Harris This Ordinance adds a section to clarify which department regulates and enforces the chapter. It edits the definition section to refer to Indiana Code for the definitions of abandoned motor vehicle and unregistered motor vehicle. It fixes the Indiana Code references for unregistered motor vehicle. The Code cite that’s currently there was repealed and replaced so we put the new Code cite. It changes reference of three days in the current Ordinance to 72 hours to make it consistent with Indiana Code and it edits the time that it’s illegal to leave a car abandoned on private property from 48 hours to 24 hours. Current Code requires 24 hours to remove your car from someone else’s personal property and then it corrected the typo in Section 7 and that’s it. Page 24 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Plunkett Any questions from Councilors? I’d make a motion to introduce on first reading Ordinance 2023-38. Burk Second. Plunkett Second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend Code of Ordinances to Revise Garbage, Weeds and Grasses Ordinance 2023-39 (First Reading) Plunkett Up next is a Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend the Code of Ordinance to Revise Garbage, Weeds and Grasses. This is Ordinance 2023-39. Harris Again, this one – I’m trying to find the actual memo for this one but I don’t see it. In this particular Ordinance, we’re just adding a new section of Code that indicates who will be responsible for the chapter with the Department of Public Works and I’m trying to find my actual amendment here or my memo. Garrett Heather, did you see the email today from Mr. Lantz on this one? Harris I did not. Garrett And since this is a first reading we might be able to clean it up, his concern and he’s welcome to come up if we need him to, I think was that we’re asking him to do something that he’s not staffed or has traditionally done. Harris Okay – Garrett DPW has not really done this. So, I don’t know if we necessarily need to hold it up but I wanted us aware of that so if we need to maybe change it between now and final reading – Melton It’s Code Enforcement, correct? Garrett Correct. Melton That does the fines and assesses the fees? It’s not the DPW and I think that was the memo. Garrett Correct, yes. Thank you Councilor Melton. Harris Great. Is that the only – I don’t see him here. Is that the only change that needs to be made or? Page 25 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Traylor Please, come up. Harris I found my memo now. I had to go back to my original send. Lantz Thank you for that invitation as I did not fill out a comment card but perhaps you will entertain my thoughts. Yes, traditionally, the Code Enforcement – anything that’s not clearly a police matter, fire matter and stormwater matter all these litany of items that are, are Code Enforcement have traditionally fallen to Planning and now CED. They have compliance officers. They used to be in the Salary Ordinance for this so the staffing processes, procedures, have all been housed in that department. So I think that probably the simplest way would just be to replace DPW with CED and then either Building Commissioner or Superintendent of that department, I’m sorry – I forget Mike’s title right off the top of my head. Director, is he another Director? Harris Okay. Lantz Director. Melton So I had one other side comment on that and this, this has to do with as we evolve as a Town and we look for ways to improve like, like having native grasses. This is something that we’ve seen in my district as well so we’ve got weeds and grasses is labeled on here. I just, it talks about the corporate limits of the Town. I just want to clarify in my mind – that’s the entire Town of Zionsville. That’s not rural or urban, correct? The corporate limits of Zionsville? Harris Corporate limits include both districts. Melton Includes both districts. So I just, I just, I’m concerned that there might be some pushback if there’s some kind of property owner that has a focus on native grasses growing in their, you know, and I just want to, I don’t know how we’re going to delineate between the two and I don’t know if somebody has to register their ground as farro or whatever to, to be able to have native grasses and will that argument be something that we’ll see? I don’t know, Mike, Lance – I don’t know if you guys have any comments on that? I know that that is something that we’re doing in Royal Run. We have native grasses that we’re planting in our common area to kind of go along with this idea of, this, I don’t really – this is more of a Jarod Logsdon idea but any thoughts on this? Are you understanding what I’m talking about? Lantz Oh, absolutely. It’s a great comment and right after I tell you this no my yab (?) I’m going to turn right around and explain it to everybody, right? Yes, so sorry about that inconsistency. That’s a good question because as emerging, particularly stormwater quality measures have gained traction, the implementation and use of native grasses is encouraged and we encourage it. And I think that when it comes to code enforcement there is a degree of subjectivity to it because you have landscaping, right? I think this is what really this is targeting is someone who is just not keeping track or care of their lawn. They’re just not mowing anything, they have turfgrass, so perhaps there could be some qualifications in the next iteration before you vote that would speak to Page 26 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 turfgrass or perhaps some type of, of qualifier to that because we certainly do want to encourage a variety of landscape options and native plants are one of those. So it’s a great point and it has long been kind of a conflict as stormwater regulations evolve and we promote those yet everybody wants to keep the manicured lawn. So, I think that it’s worth a future discussion but for the purposes of this, I think just targeting turfgrass and just unkempt property conditions. Harris And that is correct and if I can, I finally found the memo that corresponds with this. So, the changes that are being made is to clarify which department so I think we’ll want to go back and make sure that gets amended and then it changed the definition of the word container from including the word man to an adult individual just to make it more gender neutral and then it changes the reference of Town Manager to the Director of Public Works and changes the reference of Town Clerk-Treasurer to the Director of Department of Finance and Records for paying fines and receiving those dollars. So, if we, you could go ahead and amend the DPW reference to Community Economic Development or we could come back with a redlined amendment and include some commentary on native grasses, either way would be okay in preparation for the next meeting since this is introduction. Garrett I think it’s probably easier just to introduce it and then we can make the changes. I mean, that’s my preference. I don’t want to, if you’re okay with it President Plunkett. Plunkett I’m absolutely good with that. Garrett And Councilor Melton if you want to work on that piece? I mean – Melton Yep, no that sounds great. Garrett So you maybe bridge that gap? Melton Yep. Harris Yes, and I’ll make sure that all three relevant Directors that are impacted see the draft as well, as well as the Deputy Mayor and legal counsel for the Town so we make sure we get it right. Burk It sounds like there’s still going to be opportunity to, to work on this. I would just, I think it’s an important update and as we think about unkempt property and I don’t have a definition of weeds, Heather, I know you probably do or you could probably find it but what I see a lot is, obviously, weeds and grasses but it’s, and this isn’t at all landscaping but just, just trash, trees and I don’t even know what to call it because they’re weeds that are defined more by something that just grows up all over the property and just, it’s not exactly grass and I’ve had complaints where people come out and say well, it’s not grass so technically the grass is mowed but there’s just a mess of junk that I guess are somewhere between a shrub and not necessarily a weed that are just really, really unkempt and all over the property. I don’t know how to define that or if that’s in weeds or if there’s another way to add something here and it gets harder, I realize, to Page 27 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 regulate what’s landscaping versus what’s just complete overgrowth but that’s something that I see and hear a lot that there are complaints that, yes, the lawn may be mowed but it’s just, it’s just really, really, really unkempt and, again, I don’t know if they’re weeds. They’re probably defined professionally as not a weed, it’s some kind of shrub, bush, tree. Harris And I know we’d put one option, our goal was not to change policy when we were doing these updates but we occasionally will put like option for consideration for the Council and on this one we put you may also want to consider defining like what grass length is appropriate and then you could do that while you’re thinking about turfgrass and so and we did look at some other communities so we have that research we can kind of share what other communities have defined it largely around like 8 inches when the grass is 8 inches long. Melton Not to complicate it – so, I’d motion to approve if the President would ask for it. Plunkett Introduce. Melton Introduce, excuse me. Thank you. Plunkett So we have a motion to introduce Ordinance 2023-39 by Councilor Melton. Burk Second. Plunkett Second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend Code of Ordinances to Revise Curfew Ordinance 2023-41 (First Reading) Plunkett Up next is a Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend Code of Ordinances to Revise Curfew. This is Ordinance 2023-41, also a first reading. Heather – Harris Yes, so the is it alcoholic beverages? Plunkett This is the curfew, I believe. Harris Sorry – I had alcoholic beverages pulled up. Plunkett I believe the next one is the alcoholic beverages. I have your memo if you want me to read it. Page 28 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Harris No worries, I got it. So this, this Ordinance adds a section to clarify which department monitors the regulations from this chapter. There’s some duplicative language in curfew hours for minors younger than 15 years old. We’ve left it as is but the Council may wish to just cross-reference this statutory citation instead of duplicating. There is duplicative language in the emancipation section. We’ve left as is but then the Council may wish to just cross-reference the statutory citation. So what’s, when I say that what’s happening in the Ordinance is at some point when these Ordinance, Ordinances were originally enacted instead of just cross-referencing the state statutory Code cite, it’s retyping what the Code cite says. The reason that gets challenging as we clean these up, if we just cross- reference the statutory citation if there’s a change in that definition which happens from time to time we don’t always have to come back and catch that and then update the Ordinance. So our preference is traditionally just to, to do the Code cite. It’s a little bit safer that way and so we’ve got a couple of sections where we could go back and clean this up further as we’ve made note for the Council where you could just cross-reference the statutory citation and, again, we did note, although we didn’t change any of the penalties in any of these Ordinances, that this is a fairly old penalty. The rate was set in 2007 so as the Town considers rate and fee increases in the next year for the Fee Schedule, these may be something you want to benchmark against and see what might be appropriate. So if there is interest in cross-referencing the citations directly, we would introduce tonight on introduction and then we would bring back a red- lined document with just the statutory citations for the next meeting for amendment. Plunkett Any questions from Councilors? I’ll make a motion to introduce Ordinance 2023-41 on first reading. Melton Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Excuse me. Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend the Code of Ordinances to Revise Alcoholic Beverages Ordinance 2023-42 (First Reading) Plunkett All right, up next is a Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend the Code of Ordinances to Revise Alcoholic Beverages. This is Ordinance 2023-42, also a first reading. Harris This one is a fairly easy one. It just adds a section to clarify which department regulates and enforces the chapter. We did list a couple options for Council consideration. One is to list, to include a list of properties and activities excluded from the prohibition. This chapter was amended in 2016 so you may want to go Page 29 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 back and look at some of the language to, that had sort of prohibitions. There is again a note to the Council to maybe look at the fee for violation. It was last set in 2007 so you may want to see if that’s been subject to inflation or what other communities are doing but relatively easy, it’s just changing the department regulating and enforcing the chapter. Plunkett Questions from Councilors? I’ll make a motion to introduce Ordinance 2023-42 on first reading. Garrett Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Garrett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance Amending the 2024 Non-DLGF Budget Ordinance 2023-43 (First Reading) (Public Hearing) Plunkett All right, up next is a Consideration of an Ordinance Amending the 2024 Non- DLGF Budget. This is Ordinance 2023-43. This is a first reading and we have Heather and Councilor Garrett to walk through this. Garrett You want me to go or? Okay. So, this is basically following how the Administration has chosen to budget for ARPA spend. This is a Non-DLGF because this is federal dollars so it’s not approved by the State. What we are doing is taking the elements of the ARPA plan that we approved today and putting them in the Non-DLGF budget that was already approved and there’s a bit of an overlap there because components of the ARPA plan and the Non- DLGF budget were signed by the Mayor whereas the plan was vetoed, we today passed with a second vote the entirety of the plan which inclusive of both of those, but this amendment to the Non-DLGF budget only includes the final components of those because those components had never appeared in a Non- DLGF budget. So, pretty straightforward. There shouldn’t be any surprises in there. Heather, anything to add to that? Harris We’re just following the process that was used previously to identify the new spending under ARPA and I know we did publish an additional appropriation which I think President Plunkett is going to read. Plunkett Yes, I would say this is a public hearing. I have proof of publication of the notice of public hearing. At this point I will open the hearing and ask if there’s any members of the public who would like to comment? Having seen none, I will close the public hearing. Anything else? Page 30 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Garrett If there’s no questions, I will make a motion to approve Ordinance 2023-43 on first reading. Plunkett We’ve got a first by Councilor Garrett. Burk Second. Plunkett And a second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Garrett President Plunkett, as, as time is growing short here and I’d like to get this finalized, I would actually like to make a motion to suspend the rules so that we can vote on final reading here tonight. Plunkett We got a first by, a motion to suspend the rules by Councilor Garrett. I’ll second that. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Garrett And then I will make a motion to approve on final reading Ordinance 2023-43. Plunkett We have a first from Councilor Garrett. I’ll second that one as well. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Ordinance 2023-43 passes, passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Consideration of an Ordinance Amending the 2024 Salary Ordinance Ordinance 2023-44 (First Reading) Plunkett Up next is a Consideration of an Ordinance Amending the 2024 Salary Ordinance. This is 2023-44. I’m listed on this Alex but do you want to take this? Choi I will. Plunkett Please? Thank you. Page 31 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Choi Let me finish signing this. Plunkett And Heather, you’re on here too. Choi Heather, do you want to kick it off and I’ll have the explanation – Harris Yes, absolutely. So this is amending the 2024 Salary Ordinance to increase the compensation paid to Town Council members under Exhibit A, which is Council and Boards. It changes the Council President’s salary to $15,000, the Town Council Vice President’s salary to $13,500 and the Town Council members’ salary to $12,000. This was last, the last time there was an increase in Town Council salary was in 2001 and at some point I think it was 2008, the Council moved to a two-meeting a month schedule from a one-meeting a month schedule and then as you all know, we have a Mayor now and the complexities of the Town have grown. I know Councilor Choi and myself we did a lot of research to benchmark against other communities and I know there’s been research previously with the Administration to try to understand what similarly sized communities were doing in this space so I’ll turn it over to Councilor Choi to share some of that data and information. Choi Sure. Is this available by slide or I’ll, I can also just talk about it. So, thank you to Jo Kiel and to Heather Harris for gathering a lot of the information that we needed to benchmark this obviously. So I introduced this as part of the budget and we just kind of stepped back on it and re-introducing it now as part of the Salary Ordinance but like Heather said, the last time the Town Council’s salary was increased was in 2001 and it went from for the Council members from, I believe, $3,300 to $5,000 and for the Council President, I believe, from $6,600 to $10,000 back then and it has not been touched since then. As Heather Harris stated, that it, you know, in 2008 went to two meetings as well as the size of the Town has grown considerably over the last 22 years. So one of the things I did was look at, so I received data from about towns of population, the lowest being Whitestown at 12,785 all the way up to neighboring Fishers at 104,701 but what I did was around the state there were comparable sized towns to ours and so I looked at everything that we had information on so it was about nine towns, nine towns including ourselves – Franklin, Avon, Schererville, Hobart, Michigan City, Crown Point, Richmond and Portage. When we looked at all those, Zionsville fell at $5,000 per Council member, fell at the lowest of all of those towns. The other ranges ranged from $6,700 all the way up to $16,222. So when we looked at the median of those, the median was Portage at $12,465 so we kind of used that as a benchmark. I also divided this as dollar per 1,000 population and, again, we fell second from the lowest in – or sorry, we fell lowest of those comparable towns and then when we benchmarked that and multiplied it by the population, it came to $12,839. So, we thought just in, in order to appease President Plunkett, he likes round numbers, so we decided on $12,000 for Council members and the complexity of the role of the Vice President and President also needed some recognition as well. A lot of, about half the towns that we surveyed had some kind of increases for Council President and Vice President or Vice President and so we thought that an appropriate amount would be $1,500 for the Vice President and $3,000 above for the President and Page 32 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 there is a portion in here to revisit this salary on an annual basis based on increases to other Town employees or with the Administration so that we don’t get stuck again 20 years down the road looking at a huge bump up. It is a huge bump up but it is consistent with neighboring towns of similar sizes. Plunkett Heather, anything you want to add to that or? Harris The only other thing I was going to add is the Mayor’s Administration did include a proposal to increase salary in the last two years so this was something that they were looking at and thinking about as well. I think at the time it was last considered, there hadn’t been the opportunity to benchmark against other communities and we wanted to have the opportunity to look across not only just the neighboring communities but, obviously, Councilor Choi went deeper than that and kinda looked at similarly sized communities across the state just to make sure we were falling in line. Garrett And this is effective Jan. 1 next year? Harris January 1. Choi Yes of 2024. Harris So we’ll need the Salary Ordinance for next year. Choi So I will make a motion to introduce on first reading Ordinance 2023-44. Garrett Second. Plunkett We have a first by Councilor Choi, a second by Councilor Garrett. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Choi And if you would, I would also at this point so that the next Council is not burdened with then approving their own increases in salaries to suspend the rules at this time and to move to a final reading. So I’d like to motion to suspend the rules. Plunkett I got a motion to suspend the rules first by Councilor Choi. Culp Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Culp. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Page 33 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Choi Okay, so I’d like to introduce Ordinance 2023-44 on final reading. Traylor Second. Plunkett First by Councilor, second by Councilor Traylor. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. Before we do move on though I would like to thank Heather and Dr. Choi and Councilor Traylor for their work on that and Councilor Garrett has had an interest in this as well so certainly appreciate the effort there in obviously keeping this out of the next Council’s court so appreciate that. Approval of the 2024 Schedule of Meetings Plunkett Up next is the Approval of the 2024 Schedule of Meetings. Amy is certainly down there if there are any questions. Obviously this keeps our first Monday at 7 p.m., third Monday at 7:30 a.m. I would note that there are five meeting shifts for various breaks and holidays so any questions from Councilors? Traylor Would, would you entertain the motion to move that up to 6:30 a.m. for the third meeting of the month? Plunkett I would not entertain that. Traylor No? Okay. Just checking. Plunkett I appreciate your effort on that. Garrett I was going to second it. Traylor Yes. Plunkett If there are no other questions from Councilors, I would, I guess we make a motion to approve this right? I’d make a motion to approve the 2024 Schedule of Meetings, Schedule of Public Meetings. Burk Second. Plunkett Second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Page 34 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. DECEMBER 4, 2023 CLAIMS Plunkett Up next is the Approval of the December 4, 2023 Claims. Are there any questions on claims? We have Cindy in the back. No? Traylor Nope. Choi Motion to approve claims. Plunkett I got a first by Councilor Choi. Melton Second. Plunkett Second by Councilor Melton. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. OTHER MATTERS Plunkett Up next is Other Matters. I would just point out briefly Councilors in a, just the time that we’re up here just a quick search through my email inbox the first email that I can find where I emailed the Town’s attorney regarding the claim and paying it was December 6, 2022 so. Any other matters from Councilors? ADJOURN Traylor Motion to adjourn. Burk Second. Plunkett We’ve got a first from Councilor Traylor, a second by Vice President Burk. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All Aye. Plunkett All those opposed same sign. [No response] Page 35 of 36 Zionsville Town Council December 4, 2023 Motion passes 7 in favor, 0 opposed. The next Regular Town Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 18, 2023 at 7:30 a.m. in the Zionsville Town Hall Council Chambers. Public notice will be posted in compliance with the Indiana Open Door Law. Thank you. Respectfully submitted, Amelia Anne Lacy, Municipal Relations Coordinator Town of Zionsville Page 36 of 36