Muncie City Council February 1, 2021 AMENDED MINUTES MUNCIE COMMON COUNCIL 300 NORTH HIGH STREET MUNCIE, INDIANA 47305

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021

REGULAR MEETING: 7:00P.M., 15r FLOOR CITY HALL AUDITORIUM.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Led by Councilman Garrett.

INVOCATION: Given by Pastor John Lee from Berea Church. Councilman Polk requests a Moment of Silence to recognize the passing of former City Councilman, Dave Taylor. Taylor passed away last month in January from COVID complications and was the longest-serving City Councilmember, ever, in the City of Muncie. He served 7 full terms of 28 years.

CITIZEN RECOGNITION: Councilwoman Selvey recalls in November 2015, Deb Huston had a vision that no Southside Middle School student worry where their next meal might come from when not in school. With help and permission from then principal, Kelli Turner, that vision became reality. Starting out with enough food to send hbme with 4 students weekly, the pantry has blossomed into something Deb never could have imagined. Now feeding around 60 students a week, the SMS pantry is a staple at Southside. In the 5 years since its start, Deb and her volunteers have made and sent home over 30,000 backpacks of food each weekend and along break while also providing nearly 200 families with a Thanksgiving and Christmas meal each year. 6th grade teacher Rachel Miller recalled her experience working the Christmas Dinner giveaway by saying, "the families were so thankful for the help. The best part of the evening was seeing the relief on some of their faces knowing they would be able to feed their family on Christmas." In connection with the pantry, Deb and her volunteers also operate the monthly family food giveaway that has provided food for approximately 560 families this year alone. Deb's dedication to the students of SMS and their families does not go unnoticed by members of our community. Dr. Donna Cray of Frederick Family Chiropractic has donated thousands of drawstring backpacks and totes for students to carry the food home in each week as well as sponsoring students on the backpack program and Christmas dinners. She is joined by Nick Richards of Maxwell's Barber Shop who, for the past 3 years, has held a raffle which raising thousands of dollars to support the Christmas backpack and Christmas dinner program. Not to mention the support of numerous businesses, community organizations and churches including Fairlawn Church of Christ, the Jar Community Church, Second Harvest, John Frank Football, Eagle Flight Wealth

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Management and many more who have donated money and supplies to the pantry. Along with the food pantry, Deb and her team also run a clothing den where students can obtain clothing and personal hygiene supplies when needed. Special Education teacher Conner Polk was able to take a student to the den one day to pick out shoes and the student couldn't believe it saying, "oh my goodness, these are the nicest shoes I've had. I'm so glad I get to have nice shoes for gym!" With the new mask mandate in place, Deb secured over 700 cloth masks made by local volunteers to distribute to staff and students. Deb and her volunteers have given thousands of hours of their time to keep the pantry going. Over the life of the pantry, Deb has had volunteers from local churches, student groups and the help of many SMS faculty members. Because this is not Deb's full time job, she often spends her evenings and weekends working on paperwork and preparing things for the pantry. She has even given up multiple personal days to come in to work and spend the day working on items in the pantry. With restrictions on visitors and volunteers due to COVID, this year has been especially difficult on Deb, taking on a majority of the work herself. Deb is married to the love of her life, Dan Huston and has 2 boys, Daniel and Michael, as well as 2 grandchildren, Grace and Luke. When Deb is not working as an Instructional Assistant at Southside or in the pantry, she enjoys spending time with her family or taking a trip to her favorite destination, Essenhaus. Deb is truly an asset to the City of Muncie. Councilwoman Selvey can think of no better person to award the February Citizen of the Month award to then Deb Ferell Huston. Additional volunteers include Rick and Jayne Hopper, Charlotte McKnight, Tre Morton, Linda Crow, Karen Pierce, Margaret Jones, Cheryl Matthews, Jenny Leach, Trela Donati, Sherry Cross, Sherry Huffman and Kim Brown. Brittany Bales, School Board Representative, and Southside Middle School Principle, Dr. Corey Hartley, teacher and Rachel Miller are present tonight as well. Southside Middle School Principle, Dr. Corey Hartley explains that this was an absolute surprise to Deb and the group actually "fibbed" to get her here, otherwise, she wouldn't have come. Deb is one of the most humble but selfless people he has met in his life. While he has only been at Muncie South as a Principle for about 6 months now, he knows that they could not do what they needed to do on a daily basis without her and her volunteers. They appreciate her and could not think of a more deserving person to be recognized. Deb Huston couldn't do what she does without the volunteers, the School Board, Principle Hartley and the teachers. Anything that comes up that they need, the teachers will jump right in to help the kids or the pantry. She is just lucky to lead it but it could not be done without all the volunteers and people in the community, like Nick, The Jar and Fairlawn.

Councilwoman Selvey states that since she is an educator and this is Black History Month, she has something that she would like to share with her students, the families and the community. She just wants to remind everyone that this year, Black History Month

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returns to its root with a new focus on black family ties. The theme for 2021, the black family representation, identity and diversity explores the wide-ranging diversity of black family life from single to 2-parent household to nuclear extended and biracial. The black community has always exhibited a steadfast understanding of the value of family as a source of comfort and strength. This month let us remember and join in the celebrations with our black community and learn to strengthen our family ties, regardless of what it looks like.

President Robinson takes time to welcome the newest City Councilmember, Brandon Garrett from District #3. They look forward to working with him and welcome him here tonight. Councilman Garrett thanks everyone.

ROLL CALL: PRESENT ABSENT Aaron Clark X Ro Selvey X Troy Ingram X Ralph Smith X Jeff Robinson X Brandon Garrett X Brad Polk X Jerry Dishman X Anitra Davis X

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: A motion is made by Ingram and seconded by Smith to Approve the Minutes. Councilman Clark refers to the nominations/appointments made to the Vice-President, Reading Clerk, Legal Counsel, Human Rights Commission, Metropolitan Planning Commission, Industrial Revolving Loan Fund, 911 Board and the EDIT Building Commission were all by virtue of being a sole candidate while the minutes reflected a "9-0" vote. He recommends listing it "by acclamation." A roll call vote showed 8 yeas, 0 nays and 1 abstain (Garrett). AMENDED. MINUTES APPROVED AS AMENDED. Referring to the Land & Traffic Committee Meeting held on December 1, 2020, President Robinson explains that just the 3 Committee members (himself along with Ingram and Smith) will vote to approve those minutes (155 pages worth). A motion is made by Ingram and seconded by Smith to Approve to Approve the Minutes from the Land & Traffic Committee Meeting held on December 1, 2020. A roll call vote showed 3 yeas (Robinson, Ingram and Smith) and 0 nays. MINUTES APPROVED.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

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REPORTS OF CITY OFFICERS: Muncie Fire Chief Miller (along with Muncie EMS Director Clark) takes the time to welcome the 2 new council members tonight. He also appreciates this opportunity to showcase what the MFD has done and express some of their accomplishments achieved over the past year. As most know, April 6th of 2020, the MFD took over the entire City of Muncie servicing the citizens of Muncie with an EMS service. With that, came a lot of different avenues that they ran into, including an increase in run load (by quite a bit). In 2019, the number of runs jumped from 9,671 up to 14,751 in 2020. The department went on over 5,000 more runs with the addition of the EMS service. A synopsis of things the department has done to help those services consists of purchasing 2 new ambulances in 2020 to help with the incurred run load. Also, via a grant, the department received some ATV vehicles that are Med stat or otherwise known as off-road vehicles that could be considered small, mini ambulances. Once those vehicles are decaled up and everything, remembering the Council earlier expressing interest in wanting to look at those, they will invite everyone out to check them out. President Robinson jokes that he recalls they asking to 11drive" the vehicles. Chief Miller doesn't know if that will occur but the Council is more than welcome to come out and look at them once they are ready. Those vehicles were obtained through a grant that the department received instrumented by Lead Investigator Robert Meade along with grant writer Dustin Clark. A synopsis of where the department is at, man power wise, consists of 110 firefighters, 64 EMT's, 4 advanced EMT's, 3 paramedics and 7 firefighters that are currently going through Paramedic School. Soon, those 7 will be able to come out on the trucks and perform paramedic duties. Currently, there are 4 recruits that have taken the EMT class and have yet to go take the test, in addition to 2 more firefighters currently in the EMT class. They, too, will soon be available to go out. As it can be seen, it is a continuing process where they will eventually get people up to where they need to be and a majority of the people will be EMT's, at minimum. They also have 11 recruits that are coming on that would help with some of the budgeting issues that occurred last year, like Overtime. There are people that have retired who were still on the books and had to be replaced with people coming in. So, the department was paying Overtime to the people to replace retirees who were still on the books. Now that those people are off the books and with those 11 people coming in this year, it will help immensely. The first part of the new hires started at the end of January and then this week, the remaining firefighters will come on the trucks. The fire department has also been involved in a Stress Management Team, which will help the firefighters that now going on the EMS runs along with the firefighting. You see enough gruesome things as a firefighter and now with EMT's, you are seeing a lot more. The new Stress Management Team recently put in place consists of 12 firefighters. Anytime there is an incident that is kind of unusual, there are 12 individuals there and available (it won't be all 12, obviously, but there will be somebody available on every shift) to talk to them. This gives the employee a chance to let someone else know what he or she went through, instead of

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everybody holding everything in and playing the "macho-man." They are trying to get away from that perspective and letting the department know that there is someone here that they can talk to. In addition, a lot of times it helps when the person to talk to is another firefighter because they can relate to the situation and experiences had. In regards to COVID-19, which was not only a troubling issue with the fire department in starting this new service but who knew there would be a pandemic. It did wreak havoc for them at some times. They have done pretty well keeping employees on the job. Chief Miller believes right now, they have had approximately 25 firefighters who has had the virus. However, they have not been inundated with a bunch of cases at one time, only experiencing 2 or 3 here and 2 or 3 there so to speak, it hasn't really effected he operations of the fire department. If there would have been 10 or 11 cases at one time, like many other departments have had, there would be issues. So far, they have been fortunate in that aspect. Chief Miller gives the firefighters credit for that because some ground rules were laid out early on of what was expected of them to do to help prevent this and they have followed them pretty well. They implemented the 6-foot social distancing guideline and no longer allow outside visitors to come into the fire stations (including families). The department utilizes a fog machine to fog the apparatus and ambulances after runs along with fogging of the fire stations once a week to make sure it is all disinfected. The department is taking all these precautions and Chief Miller has to say they have followed them pretty well. He does not believe it could be decimated totally but they have been fortunate at this time. Chief Miller announces the fire department has also been involved with a baby box. It is basically a safety device that, under the Indiana Safe Haven Law, legally permits a mother in crisis to safely secure and anonymously surrender her unwanted, born child. It is anonymous and located at the No. 1 Fire Station at 421 E. Jackson. Several sponsors contributed and Chief Miller would hate to start naming them and forget one so doesn't go into detail about sponsors other than there were many. How it works is a parent can open the door to the baby box that sets of a silent alarm that triggers a call to dispatch. After that, the parent can place the baby in a bassinet positioned inside the wall of the fire station in the box. There are sensors located inside the box that trigger a second call to dispatch. The parent can either push a button or simply close the door to the box that then releases a third alarm to dispatch. Dispatch will then notify the Battalion Chief there on duty or any emergency personnel that can retrieve the baby. Emergency staff would then evaluate the baby and further take the baby to the hospital to go from there. Muncie is one out of 50 in the nation to have a baby box right now. There is talk about maybe having another one located somewhere else in the future but this is a unique situation that we have here in Muncie. Toys-for-tots was recently handled a little differently due to it being an unusual year. The department was still able to care for approximately 800 kids and 400 families. It is down from what has been done in the past but Chief Miller is proud of the fact that at least it

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occurred this year. A lot of people were apprehensive about going out, getting toys and exposing themselves. These are some of the things that Chief Miller thinks they, as a fire department, has done that the public would consider is kind of unusual. People think all the fire department does are fire runs and EMS things. They are also involved in other things in the community and just wanted to let the Council know where they were at on that. Councilman Dishman asks if the Safe Program is still enacted where someone can get help. Chief Miller states yes, every fire station has a red button near the front doors. All a person needing help would have to do is push that button that signals throughout the fire station for emergency personnel to come out. Anybody that needs help of any kind can always come to a fire station, push that button to get emergency assistance. Dishman questions if very many people do come up and push the button needing help. Chief Miller states not as much as there used to be. He would say 3 or 4 years ago there was more when comparing to now. Dishman adds that he always thought that was a good program. Chief Miller mentions that a lot of time people do not know where to go and it seems if they don't know where to go, then go to a fire station- which is okay. Councilman Clark refers to the stress training and appreciates that being done for the firefighters. He questions if there are any plans or anything participated in with the rise of electric vehicles on the road. In the coming years, we are going to see more and more. Clark assumes there is a different way to approach the issue. Chief Miller states there are several classes that are offered through the state and several employees (especially those on the rescue truck) have went and completed it. It is a different type of automobile fire in comparison to just your typical regular automobile. Yes, there are employees who have taken classes on that already. As Clark mentioned, Chief Miller believes in the future, there will be more out there of such and people will, in fact, have to go to more schooling. Councilwoman Davis brings up the talk of EMS being unsuccessful. She asks if the Chief can give some information about the success of EMS currently, as far as overtime hou rs and the profitability. Chief Miller responds the possibilities are endless. In talking about future goals, he thinks one of the future goals is to see the firefighters enhanced to paramedics. The stepping-stone is more ambulances, as Councilman Smith has asked when he'll get ambulances in his neighborhood. (Chief Miller jokes whenever the councilman wants to fund it which Smith responds to let him know who he needs to take down on the council to get it funded.) Again, the goal is to see an ambulance at every fire station and seeing more firefighters becoming EMT's. That is the only more growth they will have. The Chief thinks that the projection was that they would do $1.2 million, however, the department has done $2.14 million, more than the projected amount that people thought they would do. President Robinson asks where that puts the department in the black. Chief Miller believes last year that they finished with right around $30,000 or somewhere in there. Robinson adds that obviously with the start-up costs and overtime costs, as it was mentioned earlier, that some

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of those costs are not going to be there and the overtime is going to decrease substantially, recalling discussing that in some side conversations. The Council can only hope to expect to have Chief Miller back before them this time next year bragging about even more success. The Chief adds that the ambulances have been on the road constantly and they will eventually run into a replacement situation too. Next year another goal is to obtain another ambulance or few. When they started this program, before the current administration came in, they started it with 2 used ambulances which already had tons of miles on them all while we are putting more miles on them. In addition, the new ambulances are contributed in and is not unusual for them to go on 30-some runs a day. Some of those employees are getting in there to relieve the previous employee and may not get lunch or dinner and just an hour or 2 of sleep. That many runs and each run, besides the time it takes for the patient, has about an hour's worth of paperwork and things to do. Those employees are earning their cue . Councilman Ingram states Councilwoman Davis asked the question he planned to ask so he will take his time to thank Chief Miller and EMS Chief Clark for their dedication to the community to make sure they provide the best service possible for the citizens of Muncie. Ingram also thanks all the men and women of the Muncie Fire Deparmtent and Fire EMS for their dedication and service to the community. It takes someone with a big heart to give so much, care for their community and put themselves in harms way. Chief Miller indicates he is just the head of this while it is all the men and women out there who actually deserve the praise for what all they do. He really appreciates each and every one of them and what they are doing. Ingram believes both Chiefs set a high example of how to maintain themselves in the public and that filters down through the ranks. Councilman Smith certainly joins Councilman Ingram in a job well done for Chief Miller and the entire department. He would like to focus on the Stress Management Program questioning when it started. The Chief explains they joined in venture with the police department who is also doing this. It is separated because police and fire both have their own unique situations and believes this class began about 3 months ago. There are firefighters that will handle fire issues and police officers to handle the police issues. A lot of time the employees will just go through these things and not really talk to anybody about it. Being able to talk with another person who has experienced some of those things will better help them. As a 20-year Veteran of the Air Force, Smith can conclude they face PTSD. This is PTSD on the civilian side, the blue line with what has been started. 22 veterans a day commit suicide. More police officers commit suicide on a daily basis then those killed in action. Smith questions if Chief Miller has any statistics on firefighter suicides. The Chief states he does not at this time but will see what he can obtain for him. Smith would be interested in that and thanks both Chief Miller and Chief Clark for a job well done.

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Councilwoman Davis requests Chief Clark to come to the podium. Once there, Davis says she doesn't have any questions but just wanted everyone to see the woman in charge of taking care of EMS. She does a wonderful job. Councilman Ingram mentions that since she is at the microphone (and assuming that all of the collections are complete for January) asks Chief Clark for a close estimate in what was collected in January alone. Chief Clark informs she can advise how much but plus or minus the hundred dollars, Chief Miller elaborating it will be an estimate. Chief Clark explains on the average and with COVID, it is not knowing. Also, there is the factor with Ball State being closed and the billing portion of not knowing how it has worked. They would average about $150,000 and it goes back and forth. In January, they were actually at $236,000- and something (like she said, she can give the amount plus/minus the hundred dollars). Ingram states that is amazing. Chief Clark explains they can't guarantee that is going to stay but from the numbers originally projected, it is right on target to be at $2.8 million by the end of the year. They can project all day long, but, things happen and we just do not know what will happen. Chief Miller adds with what Chief Clark mentioned, Ball State is out which is almost another 20,000 people that are going to have to have care at some time. In closing, the Council thanks both Chiefs for their service.

A special exception for former Councilman Ray Dudley along with the coaches and members of the Muncie Central Boys Basketball Team who are in attendance this evening. Ray states the one thing about Muncie is when people think of Muncie, they think of basketball at all ages. When times are bad here and we are losing jobs, we still have basketball. One time, it was about cross-town rivalry basketball. It has always been about basketball. These young men here are part of the legend now, which is Muncie Central Basketball. They will never change that they was a part of the elite. Behind Dudley is now 2 of those legends, whom are now coaches. The unfortunate thing about this year is that it is different due to COVID. Therefore, all of the ways the team used to receive donations was unable to be done this year. This ultimately put a damper on the team. In fact, the sports package that these kids have to get costs about $300 to $350 a piece. With COVID and everything else, it is really hard when you have a single parent income coming in. Even if you have a 2-parent income coming in, you are counting your blessings because you are still working and half of them are not working. To get that money, it would be somewhat hard so this year as he was sitting in his office, the Athletic Director, Tom Lyons, reached out asking if he knows anyone that would be willing to give a little bit of money because none of these kids can afford these packets. Dudley, himself, reached out to the first council member, which was Ralph Smith, who recalled him saying, "absolutely!" So, he figured he would just reach out to the rest of the Council. These players are here right now to tell each and every one on the Council thank you because every single council member donated to the Muncie Central

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Boys Basketball Team. That says a lot about Muncie and the love of their basketball. The team has provided the Council with framed and autographed 2021 team photos as a thank you for donating gift. Dudley did not get a chance to talk to Mayor Dan Ridenour until a few minutes before the meeting so asks if he would like to come up and say something. Mayor Dan Ridenour just wants to repeat what he said when first being asked about the program which was "I'm in!" stating he will also participate and help with the history and all the good things that come with Muncie Central and Muncie Central Basketball. President Robinson jokes if anybody else in the room wishes to make a donation, get out their checkbooks and Dudley will come around. Coach Chandler Thompson just wants to say thank you for all the help the Council has been able to do to help them and this team out. Like it was mentioned, COVID has hit them hard and they are doing the best they can. What the Council has done is very much appreciated. Coach Thompson explains he is a short speaker so he is going to get off the microphone and let them get back to business. But, he does appreciate everything that has been done. Dudley introduces fellow coaches, Cedrick Van Leer and Blair Broussard. President Robinson thanks all 3 coaches for what they are doing for these young men.

APPOINTMENTS TO BOARDS & COMMISSIONS: President Robinson explains tonight, they only have one appointment which is to the Muncie Land Bank. A motion is made by Selvey and seconded by Polk to appoint James (Jim) Lowe to the Muncie Land Bank Board. Robinson declares nominations closed. Being the only nomination, Jim Lowe is declared APPOINTED to the Muncie Land Bank Board of Directors. Robinson explains Mr. Lowe could not be here this evening due to a prior engagement but the Council has all seen his bio and he is very, very well qualified.

ORDINANCES PREVIOUSLY INTRODUCED:

NEW ORDINANCES:

ORO. 1-21 AN ORDINANCE ADDING SECTION 39.05 TO CHAPTER 39 OF THE CITY OF MUNCIE CODE OF ORDINANCES. A motion is made by Ingram and seconded by Selvey to Introduce. Councilwoman Davis reads "whereas, the public policy of the City of Muncie is to provide all of its residents with equal employment opportunities and to promote diversity among its citizens and businesses; whereas, the City of Muncie recognizes that effective government operations should reflect the diversity of the individuals and the entities the City serves; whereas, the City of Muncie should actively promote the increased utilization of minority-owned, women-owned, veteran­ owned and disability-owned businesses in contracting for public works projects."

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Dan Ridenour, Mayor of Muncie, explains this was something brought forth at the end of last year and it has been reworked. It is something that the administration noticed that we were not getting minority, veteran, disability or women-owned businesses applying in the bid process. Along with Yvonne Thompson and Brian Stephens-Hotopp, they wanted to put this forward. The Mayor appreciates it has been reworked and reworded. He is very supportive of trying to make this happen and appreciates all efforts and Councilwoman Davis' especially. Councilwoman Selvey believes this ordinance is the correct thing for the City and we need to make clear that this is only the beginning of the work that we must do to ensure Muncie's spending is as diverse as its population. Councilwoman Davis adds when they redid the language on this ordinance, as it is related to ordinance 43-20 that is currently Tabled, the Council Attorney, Dan Gibson worked closely with the Council along with Yvonne Thompson and President Robinson. They all came up with some good information that is very important (and which is why she read the 'whereas' sections) and she is thankful for Brian Stephens-Hotopp for being the starter of this information. There were many conversations and Davis is just glad about this and thanks the Mayor for wanting to have this in writing. Questions called. An all-in-favor vote showed 9 yeas and 0 nays. INTRODUCED.

ORD. 2-21 AN ORDINANCE FIXING THE MAXIMUM SALARIES OF EACH AND EVERY MEMBER OF THE MUNCIE POLICE DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF MUNCIE, INDIANA, FOR THE YEAR 2021. A motion is made by Polk and seconded by Ingram to Introduce. Craig Wright, City Controller, begins by recognizing the basketball legend that is now in the Mayor's office, Mr. Deputy Mayor Richard Ivy. Continuing, Wright explains this ordinance is amending the budget for the police department salaries for 2021. The reason this was amended was because it was decided to take out some language down in the bottom where Administrative Pay is along with the top 2 positions and the Chief and Deputy Chief. These are the salaries that were passed in the budget for 2021. President Robinson mentions he should have stated that the Council wants to Introduce this ordinance As Amended. He verifies everyone received the amended copy (filed stamped 1/29/2021) on Friday from the Council Secretary. Robinson questions if the Council needs to redo their motion. Council Attorney Dan Gibson advises that the Council may go ahead and vote to Introduce it and then entertain a motion to Amend. It would then be the amended version that would be up for adoption next month, which would require a motion to Adopt As Amended. Gibson also wishes to make clear that this salary ordinance is simply amending what the Council already adopted last year (ord. 29-20). The normal typical procedure is the Council having until November 1st to adopt the next year's salary ordinance (which was

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properly done for 2021 during the October 2020 City Council meeting). This ordinance is just amending those figures due to some changes with contracts and whatnot. Questions called. A roll call vote showed 9 yeas and 0 nays. INTRODUCED. A motion is made by Ingram and seconded by Polk to Amend. Questions called. A roll call vote showed 9 yeas and 0 nays. AMENDED.

ORO. 3-21 AN ORDINANCE FIXING THE MAXIMUM SALARIES OF EACH AND EVERY APPOINTED OFFICER, EMPLOYEE, DEPUTY, ASSISTANT, DEPARTMENTAL AND INSTITUTIONAL HEAD OF THE CITY OF MUNCIE, INDIANA, INCLUDED HEREIN FOR THE YEAR 2021. A motion is made by Ingram and seconded by Davis to Introduce As Amended. {Robinson confirms they are skipping a step and going straight into Introducing the Amended version.) President Robinson explains this is the same situation as the previous ordinance, it has been amended and everyone received that amended copy in their email on Friday and clarifies this is introducing the Amended ordinance 3-21. Craig Wright, City Controller, states these are the amended salaries for all the offices passed through budget. A few things he wishes to point out on salaries that were changed that was strikingly different refers to the bottom of page 3, Police/Fire Merit Commission. That is a position that was originally in at $7.25 and after meeting with the City Legal Counsel and Police and Fire Chiefs, this position is already taken care of and being administered by the Office Manager{s) for the fire department and police department. Those 2 employees are doing this job at their current rate which is in the ordinance. That rate has been changed to reflect that and are generally only working a few hours a month on the Merit Commission Clerk duties. Moving forward, the Council will probably see that position get resolved and the duties permanently gone into the Office Manager's position, which is reason for the adjustment. The salaries are all within budget and will be met, as assured by both the Fire and Police Chief. President Robinson reflect the Council going on record to state that this ordinance is actually amending ord. 28-20 as they did before already passing the salary ordinance in a timely manner. This is an amendment to the original ordinance 28-20. Questions called. An ail-in-favor vote showed 9 yeas and 0 nays. INTRODUCED AS AMENDED.

RESOLUTIONS:

RES. 4-21 A RESOLUTION APPROVING SETILEMENT OF LITIGATION. A motion is made by Polk and seconded by Ingram to Adopt. Craig Wright, City Controller, explains this is a resolution just resolving some litigation from a prior case that was set aside in the Legal Settlements Fund.

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Attorney Dan Gibson advises this and the next resolution are resolving some litigation that was previously discussed in an Executive Session. The Council has all been provided information on the matter and Gibson spoke with the City Attorney that is retained by the insurance company. Some of the funds will be paid out of the insurance proceeds and some will be paid by the City General Fund out of the Settlement account. Gibson recalls her advising the highly recommended approval by Council of these settlements. Councilman Clark questions the Controller to make sure that the funds are available in the General Fund. Wright answers yes, they will be. It is set up is in a different way to fund this. When a settlement is reached, the City pays off the settlement in full with aIllegal fees and this all goes to AVP, which is Davies Claim Solutions. They wait until everything is paid and then send it over to third part in Brit and then they turn around and reimburse the City. Wright explains that we are currently waiting on a substantial payment from previous claims that they have received all of the paperwork, everything has been submitted and they are now just waiting on it. The claims, Wright explains, they just need to make sure Council will approve them so the office can pay them but those will not be paid until funds are received from the previous settlement and with the agreements. Questions called. A roll call vote showed 8 yeas, 0 nays and 1 abstain (Selvey). ADOPTED.

RES. 5-21 A RESOLUTION APPROVING SETTLEMENT OF LITIGATION. A motion is made by Polk and seconded by Davis to Adopt. Craig Wright, City Controller, enlightens it is the same information as the previous resolution. Basically, this is the same case. Questions called. A Roll call vote showed 8 yeas, 0 nays and 1 abstain (Selvey). ADOPTED. Councilwoman Selvey elaborates she is abstaining her vote because she was not part of the Executive Session last year so she is not privy to the information and details.

OTHER BUSINESS:

President Robinson brings up one of the current Tabled ordinances, ord. 43-20 in which ordinance 1-21 has replaced. There are 3 different options the Council has when it comes to doing something with that ordinance. They can choose to leave it on the Table and let it expire (in 2 more months) and at that point the ordinance would be dead. Another option is to Withdraw the ordinance. Since the original ordinance was sponsored by former Councilman Ivy, Councilwoman Selvey is well within her right to be able to withdraw this because she is Ivy's replacement. The final option is to go ahead and vote. President Robinson's recommendation is that Councilwoman Selvey Withdraw ordinance 43-20. Councilman Ingram agrees with that or letting it die. Councilwoman Selvey formally proposes the Withdraw of ordinance 43-20. Ordinance 43-20 is WITHDRAWN.

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Councilman Smith goes back to recognizing the Central Boys Basketball Team and adds that the Council supports all of Central athletics. However, this past Saturday, the Wrestling Team competed in the Sectional. They qualified 8 wrestlers to go to Region aIs. Smith is unsure how long it has been since that has happened but believes it has been quite a while. He wishes to take the time to congratulate the Wrestling Team, Head Coach AJ Bradley and those 8 wrestlers that qualified for Region aIs, which will be held at Jay County this Saturday.

Councilman Polk would like to recognize a group of students in the audience from Mrs. Julie Snider's Central High School Government classes. This is a new group due to a new semester. Polk explains that they come, every month. Mrs. Snider explains the students here tonight are full credit and have to come in and observe a meeting while the AP students came and observed last semester. This semester the students have to come up with something to present to the Council, which is what they are working on now. They hope to present in March or April. Polk states he is looking forward to that. Mrs. Snider elaborates that the group here tonight, this is their first meeting.

Councilwoman Davis wishes to say Happy Black History Month. There are many activities going on this month and many things on Face book. If interested, please get involved. Davis likes to learn different things about different cultures and hopes that many other people will too.

President Robinson concludes by relating he was a Muncie Central alumni but his son goes to Burris so he wants to make sure that the "other" school in Muncie gets recognized too. They may not have the best basketball team in the world but they are excellent mathletes. Polk adds that they have a good volleyball team, too. Robinson agrees.

Amanda Price-Clark, Assistant General Manager with MITS, wanted to come out tonight to make sure that everybody is aware of Route 17 that just started today. It takes you out to the new Delaware County Justice & Rehabilitation Center and runs from 8:30 am in the morning until 4:30 pm, which is the last trip back in to the transfer station. A trial period of that route will run for 6 months and depending on the ridership, the Board will decide whether or not to keep that route. Therefore, if people want to see this continue, they need as many people to ride the bus out there as possible. It is very similar to the Ivy Tech route. It goes out Liberty to Port to 26th, up to Tillotson, in and out of the parking lot, back out on 26th, all the way over to Cowan and back in the same way. She just wanted to come out and make sure everybody knew about it. There was only 11 riders today but it was the first day so they will accept that. She is willing to answer any questions anyone may have.

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Councilwoman Selvey asks if MITS is going to take the COVID restrictions into consideration and possibly extend the trial period to more than 6 months because it is very important for a lot of families and relatives to stay connected, even with people in that facility. We need to make sure that route is available. Mrs. Price-Clark states they will consider those but from MITS' understanding, it is that they have just been doing virtual visits that already were occurring before this. In terms of visitation, she does not know how many people will be riding for just that purpose. However, that will all be considered when they look at it. President Robinson appreciates MITS' flexibility.

Julie Mason, on behalf of the Master Gardener of Delaware County program, wishes to inform everyone of the upcoming classes available through the Purdue Extension University for Master Gardeners. The program starts on March 3 and goes on until June 2. If interested, you can go to the Delaware County Building to sign up. It is for Master Gardeners; those that wish to get themselves prepared and grow good vegetables during the season when it starts. Mason also invites members of the public to the Master Gardener monthly meetings held on the last Wednesday of every month. They talk about various things about gardening, trees and ways to improve the environment. She appreciates the opportunity to be able to speak for her group. She concludes by stating "Master Gardeners, Ooo Rahh !"

Audie Barber thinks that with this short meeting tonight, it is going to be an early evening so he will keep his comments, sweet, short and simple. He thanks Eddie Bell, former Fire Chief from the previous administration for taking the initiative to introduce fire-based EMS to the City of Muncie. Barber thinks it has saved some lives and their prediction was a little bit wrong but it was for the best. They predicted low and it is higher. He just wants to commend everybody that has worked on fire-based EMS and that has always had a positive attitude toward these people; good job to all of them. And, for the people that lied about it, good job for them, too.

James Turner wanted to come back and follow up from last month regarding an ordinance amending Ch. 34 Division 5 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Muncie, Indiana, Section F3 related to service animals. He saw that has been taken down from the website but he did want to follow up on where we are in the process of correcting that. President Robinson advises he is aware of that not being the only issue in the Code and the City has numerous issues (as the Mayor has talked about) about compliance with ADA. There are sidewalk issues along with many other concerns that this city has. Robinson hopes that by the March meeting, they have something proposed- a Standing Committee of Council to look into that ordinance and look into some of the issues that we have in our community involving all of ADA compliance. He also wants to work with the Human Rights 14 Muncie City Council February 1, 2021

Commission to perhaps have them form a Citizen Advisory Committee (Robinson hopes Mr. Turner accepts an invitation to be on that Committee) and that that Committee work alongside the Standing Committee of Council to correct some of these issues that we have in the ordinances. It is not a fast fix but it is a fix and President Robinson would rather get it right than to keep layering Band-Aid's. That is his hope for the March meeting that he will bring that ordinance forth and get that moving in the right direction. Turner explains as they have discussed he not only has a service dog but this is his field of expertise so he is more than enthusiastic about making a contribution in this area for the City. Robinson hopes so because the plan is to give Turner a call. Turner responds he loves the City of Muncie and has been her for almost 40 years. In closing, he thanks the Council for having him. Robinson adds he will be reaching out to him later. He also comments that Committee would be a Standing Committee of Council so that would be just like the Land & Traffic, Government Administration, Finance, or Environmental Impact Committees made up of 3 councilmembers. President Robinson (knowing his colleagues on Council) suspects that to be well received and again, will reach out to Yvonne Thompson with the Human Rights Committee to see about putting together a Civilian Committee. Turner mentions he has been working with her, as well. Robinson acknowledges she is fantastic. In knowing of this being an issue that has been going on for much longer than it should makes it something that the Council certainly wants to address. In closing, Turner wishes to state parenthetically how saddened he was to hear about Mr. Taylor. He closes his statement by stating God Bless.

Richard Ivy, Deputy Mayor, just wants to comment when he was Personnel Director under Mayor Dan Canan, he created the Disability Council that is still effective today. He elaborates that Yvonne Thompson is still a part of it and he doesn't think it is necessary to create a new Council or Committee but maybe appoint 1 or 2 council members to that Committee to serve. He just wanted to put that out there. Councilwoman Selvey would like to concur with Deputy Mayor Ivy. She is a recent appointee to the Human Rights Commission and would like everybody to know that they are focusing on doing a better job. They will have their elections tomorrow so they will then know the President, Vice-President and Secretary when the time comes. If you read the code and Selvey admits to reading it several times, there are many good things in place; we just want to make sure that they are being enforced. The process of filing a complaint, followed by what is step number 1, 2 and 3 and the challenges and things to go through need to be clearer for the citizens of Muncie. Selvey can assure that after tomorrow and when those elections have concluded, things will be clearer for the Council. She concurs that right now, they need a change to reorganize and get stuff together before including or introducing other people to the Human Rights Commission.

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Kristopher Bilbrey refers to a couple times this evening people talking about the fire department EMS program and he just wants to say when the fire department started looking at EMS, he was absolutely against that program. He was very much in favor of the Delaware County EMS Program. DCEMS for many, many, many years ran an absolutely wonderful, top­ notch program. They are still wonderful people there and still do an amazing job. Although, Bilbrey does not think DCEMS is the thing it was 10-15 years ago. He started looking at what Muncie City Fire-Based EMS was about, started researching the numbers and more importantly, started talking to people on both sides of the argument. At some point, he switched his position in the fire-based EMS. He has been, for quite some time, a massive supporter of the Muncie Fire Department and the EMS Program. Under Chief Bell, Bilbrey was permitted to ride along with the EMS on their first day. The men and women on the fire department and the entire program is fantastic. The reason Bilbrey is up here now is throughout this meeting, there have been a couple questions on the City's livestream. These are questions that the same citizens have asked month after month after month and Bilbrey does not have an answer for them. He does not necessarily believe the information that is being stated in the questions but he does think these questions deserve to be asked and if there is a way to answer them, maybe it is a misunderstanding or maybe there is something going on. However, these do not reflect Bilbrey's opinion of the program or what is going on, although he does see that this is something that is out there. If there is information that is either wrong or information that might be right but maybe there is a different reason why it is happening or what we need to do to look at it to maybe fix it; maybe there should be some benefit to that. For example, one commenter tonight on the City's feed said "while we've been here, there have been 2 calls for service of chest pains or shortness of breath which are ALS calls. Yet, there were no ALS vehicles available." Heartland was apparently unavailable but Bilbrey does not know for sure as he did not hear this call due to physically being here at this meeting. They are wanting to know why this happens frequently. The commenter states that they listen to the dispatch traffic for 8-10 hours a day and that this is a common occurrence. Bilbrey does not know if that is correct or not and explains every time he has been involved with the fire department and have heard calls for service for ALS, they have always been available. However, if this is something the citizens are hearing, Bilbrey wonders if there is an answer for that. There was another question that Bilbrey did see quite a bit regarding us being told that this would eliminate the need for 2 trucks to run on certain calls, yet, that still happens. If there is a way that we can look at this to maybe answer these questions, if this is something that is not actually happening or there is a reason why this is happening, maybe we can get that information out to the public because he does not think it is getting there. President Robinson questions if Fire Chief Miller or EMS Chief Clark would like to address those questions.

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Chief Miller states a lot of times, depending on the type of call, it depends on how many people they may have to have. The ambulances only have 2 people on them at one time. Sometimes, when they get there or are dispatched, depending on what type of call it is, they need the additional personnel to lift assist because there is only 2 people there. Sometimes, they are getting into certain areas they did not know they were getting into so it depends on the type of call depends on how many people to send. They don't always send the fire truck but if it is a certain type of call, they do send the fire truck for additional manpower for the ambulance because there are only 2 people on the ambulance at a time. Chief Clark just looked at her "active 911" application and has a few things to touch on. First of all, in the last hour and a half there have been 11 calls. It is all ALS- chest pains, unconscious, difficulty breathing- so it doesn't matter at that point how many ... 11 is more than whether the City had it or Delaware County. It doesn't matter the comparison as it is just far beyond. However, she is looking in all of the calls at who all is responding and every single time, they {MFD} have been able to get there {and people are clearing up). One of them says a certain ambulance was dispatched and at that point, a medic hoped off after showing up on a scene to help with a critical but immediately cleared up from the hospital and said they are in route. So, they are getting there and it is still getting sent. That happens to just be a literally crazy thing. From 6:16 PM on it went "accident entrapment, breathing difficulty, chest pain, chest pain, breathing difficulty, chest pain, unconscious, chest pain." Of course, that happens right as we are here talking about EMS so unfortunately, it is just a very busy service. They are busy and have great backup plans in place where if trucks are all out, there is an exact process to go by consisting of Eaton and Heartland filling in. That was even done before. People think a lot oftimes, too, that they hear for example, "the fire department driving the squad." That is because when they go on these calls, it is the difference between BLS and ALS. If they go on an unconscious call, more than likely, they are going to have extra hands in the back. So, that engine is going to roll with the ambulance to the hospital so there is extra hands in the back. It is not a shortage of medics; it is just needing the extra manpower. That did not change from which service was doing it. If there is extra hands needed, the engines have always stepped off and on to an ambulance to help with that. Chief Miller explains the fire department done that even before operating the EMS service. Sometimes, you would see the fire engine go with Delaware County EMS. That is the same issue here. As Chief Clark said, it is just a busy service. They could have 11 ambulances and still need 12 at certain times. As it was mentioned, the paramedics hop off and move into other places too so they are making these runs and they are getting serviced. Kristopher Bilbrey asks for follow up to provide the response time if she can. While Chief Clark looks at her app for the response time, Councilman Smith states he lives about a half a block from Fire Station No.4 and can hear the notification and siren come out of the 17 Muncie City Council February 1, 2021 station. He thinks it could not be less than 2 minutes and would say is immediate response out of his station, No.4. Chief Clark provides an update on being notified at 19:36 (given the call out for it) and by 19:37 medic #2 said that they were in route and meeting up. It is instant. Chief Clark adds it is just people that hear the traffic and don't know exactly the dynamic of what is going on so it is easy to assume. In addition, Chief Clark encourages the people that have those questions are always welcome to call the fire department which will gladly, one on one, speak and talk to anyone. President Robinson states he was going to encourage that everyone, too, with any questions or concerns to reach out to the fire department. It is very easy to get a hold of these people here. You can go to the cityofmuncie.com website, Departments, find the fire department and call the office to ask your questions. Councilman Ingram adds he is always available on his email, too, if anyone ever has questions that the citizens would like to have asked from certain department heads or regarding the police and fire departments. Ingram is happy to be the go-between in that.

Matt Peiffer, 119 S. Dill Street, is deeply troubled and concerned about the crime rate on the rise in Muncie. He believes in being proactive instead of reactive. So, at the beginning of this year, he started a fund raising campaign called "Ring in a New Year" raising money to buy ring cameras and donating them to hot spots with high crime in Muncie. He talked with Chief Sloan earlier in the week to identify those hotspots, being in the Industry and The Old West End. Mr. Peiffer left some messages with Councilwoman Davis at her office but he is aware she is super busy so he hopes to hear back from her soon. He would like some further recommendations on how to contact the President/Representatives of The Old West End Neighborhood Association, as he has left a few messages with them too. Mr. Peiffer is thankful for the citizens of Muncie and others for donating some money to purchase these cameras. Former Mayor David Dominik donated $100 and Peiffer even took $100 out of his own pocket for a second ring camera because the children and the families of Muncie deserve to go to bed tonight without the fear of bullets flying through their home. He hopes we can find ways to address this crime sooner rather than after an innocent child is killed. Councilwoman Davis doesn't recall receiving any messages from Mr. Peiffer but she does want to speak with him after the meeting. Mr. Peiffer agrees to wait to talk with her.

ADJOURNMENT:

A motion was made by Polk and seconded by Davis to Adjourn. A vote by acclamation showed 8 yeas and 1 nay (Robinson). ADJOURNED.

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Jt~i2 ~,.w-z_ Belinda Munson, Muncie City Clerk of the Muncie Common Council

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