Good evening, and welcome to our public works committee for September 25th, 2025.

We will begin with introductions of our counselors on the front row.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Derek Cahill, District 23.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mike Dill, District 24.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Josh Bain, District 21.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Brian Mowry, District 25.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ron Gibson, District 8.

Thank you, Chairwoman, Andy Nielsen, District 14.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Nick Roberts.

District 4.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Dan Boots, District 3, Washington Lawrence Townships.

Thank you.

And I am Kristen Jones representing District 18.

First up on the agenda is proposal number 258 2025, which approves the tax levy and rate for the Solid Waste Collection Special District for 2026.

Please welcome Jennifer Carter from OFM.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm a budget manager with the Office of Finance and Management.

This proposal is an administrative action that you'll act on as the special service districts council.

It adopts the 2026 budget tax rate and tax levy for the Solid Waste Collection Special Service District.

The information in this proposal mirrors the language in section 3.01 subsection E of the 2026 introduced budget ordinance.

Thank you.

Questions or comments from counselors.

Counselor Cahill.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So the tax rate is increasing.

I know we we move all these levers, but with that, we have historically, not every year but many years had to do another fiscal to fund solid waste.

Does this it looks like this at least materially, if not completely, resolves that for 26?

Is that is that accurate?

Um off the top of my head, I I can't definitely say yes or no, but um I can check and uh get back to you.

Okay, yeah, it just the in the in the proposal it shows that we will we're having we've had to put a million in through a fiscal this year, but it's forecasting that with just the tax next year we're we'll be okay.

So it's certainly my interpretation.

I'd love I'd love clarification.

Correct.

Okay, yeah.

Thank you.

Uh Counselor Cahill, uh Sam Barrett's Chief Financial Officer for the Department.

Um thank you, Jenny.

So um the million dollar fiscal, I I don't have the exact document up in front of me, but there was a fiscal associated with solid waste this year.

It was uh supplemental funding for the solid waste garage, which is going to be complete for construction by the end of the year.

You're correct that there have been um fiscal actions associated with um solid waste uh specifically uh for the the vendor contracts in several years in the past.

Um we don't anticipate that being something that's brought before the council um next year.

Obviously, you never know what's gonna come up.

A lot of times these fiscals are reactions to something that happened that was kind of inherently unexpected.

Um but uh again the the rate that's generating this property tax revenue.

This is the same as what was presented in our budget uh presentation.

So there's gonna be a very slight increase in the amount of property taxes collected and distributed to the solid waste fund.

Um and that that was accounted for in the in the budget numbers that we put together.

So our budget is built around the numbers that are being generated from that rate.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions from counselors?

Anyone in the public who wishes to oh I'm sorry, Counselor Boots.

The quick question.

Sam, maybe you can answer this.

Umid waste collection fee has been the same for nearly 35 years.

When is it gonna be considered to be increased?

Yeah, thank you.

Uh Counselor Boots.

So just I I think everybody on this committee knows this at this point, but the solid waste district as a whole is funded through a combination of this $32 per unit solid waste user fee and this property tax levy, and the property tax levy is generating um around four and a half times the amount of revenue that the user fee is generating.

So so most of the district's operations come from the tax levy itself.

Um you're correct that the user fee has been has been fixed at $32.

Again, we built our budget around that.

Fortunately, because of the solid waste contracts that we entered into that start in 2026 and some savings associated with those.

There's there's really no need for additional revenue for the district.

Will this collection fee be fixed all throughout the next contracts with the new carriers?

So you know the new contracts range for 10 years, and you know, our budgets are adopted on an annual basis.

Um again, we'll we'll have to evaluate you know everything like we do every year as it relates to revenue sources, but we have no plan to propose a rate increase for for that fee at this point or in the future.

But that fee is not fixed per part of those contracts.

If we had a wanted to increase it, we could in spite of those contracts.

Great question.

So the fee the fee is not even referenced in those contracts.

Those contracts deal with the services being provided and the rates that we pay to the vendors.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other comments, questions from counselors?

Anyone in the public who wishes to speak on proposal 258.

All right.

Counselor Boots.

Madam Chair, I I move that we uh recommend proposal 258 to the full council with a due pass recommendation.

Second, it's been moved and second instance proposal number 258 2025 to the full council with the due pass recommendation.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say nay.

The ayes have it.

Thank you very much.

I would like um our two counselors to introduce themselves.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Chairwoman.

Apologies for my tardiness traffic today.

Um Councillor Jessica McCormick, District 16, West Side.

Good evening, Madam Chair, Krista Carlino, District 11, West Side.

Thank you very much.

Next up on our agenda is proposal number 259 2025, which adopts the annual budget for the City of Indianapolis and Marion County for 2026.

The department of public works portion only.

Please welcome Director Wilson to present a quick presentation.

Generally, we do not see a presentation during review and analysis, but in this dis in this situation, we decided to do that because we had um a follow-up questions, and we felt that was the best way to address this.

So I'd like to thank the department for taking the time and energy to do that effort with us tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, members of the committee.

Um, thank you for all of our DPW staff that are in attendance and DPW leadership that have helped us uh put together this presentation for you, the budget that you saw last month and trying to do the best we can to address the questions that uh you have still uh in front of us.

Um tonight we have a short presentation to break down some of the different road work options that DPW has and what outputs we should expect next year and our new strategy uh to address our city's uh infrastructure uh needs going forward.

So uh the slide did you have before you um the the table reflects the road maintenance and preservation treatments that the department uses uh currently.

Uh we try to list these here in a comparative manner to uh provide clarity on the programs we deploy.

It remains important that you counselors and your constituents to keep us informed of issues as they arise.

I just wanted to make sure that that that is clear.

Um we evaluate all requests that we receive and and we work to determine the proper treatments for those based on a variety of conditions.

Uh, the treatments on on this slide reflects the range of short and long-term lasting solutions for our city streets.

Uh, it is crucial that we have uh all these strategies working together to best meet our residents' needs.

So looking at the uh table here a little closely, starting from your left to right, and we're gonna talk about potholes uh filling a little bit here.

Um that is uh usually uh informed by Mayor's Action Center Service Requests.

Um that's where we get most of our data and how we deploy our uh in-house staff or ASME local 725 who performs that work for us.

Um pot hole filling is done on uh all road types.

Um but I'll I'll I'll point out that in the spring we do focus most of our efforts on our thoroughfare networks um uh during during pothole season.

Um we do fill potholes almost all year long.

We we put fill potholes from from January to December.

Pot hole filling is done on uh all road types um but i'll I'll I'll point out that in the spring we do focus most of our efforts on our thoroughfare networks um uh during during pothole season um we do fill potholes almost all year long we we put fill potholes from from january to December so um is it's always uh uh part of our daily uh activities uh weather permitting um so that that's how the the pothole filling program works now moving on to strip patching strip patching is an emergency rapid response um deployment um it is informed by uh our pothole data the our mayor action center res uh service requests um and we use also use uh average daily travel or the amount of uh traffic we have on those roads to prioritize our strip patching needs um this work is contracted out through uh local contractors and not our DPW forces um and we we mainly focus our strip patching efforts on our thoroughfare network uh moving on to our in-house uh D4 district four um the work that they do is informed by uh pothole data and it also is uh takes direct counselor input for our D4 um operations um that that work is performed again by our uh ASME Local 725 uh in house staff I want to point out that you know uh our D4 although they they're they're small and mighty they do have uh some limitations to the amount of work that they can accomplish during the year um and we try to make sure that they uh are focused on roadway segments that are typically a half a mile or less um that's for efficiency and for the for them to have the ability to uh work on multiple areas throughout the county um and I also want to point out that we do not deploy our uh D4 crews on thoroughfares um we we focus them more on our residential roads um our next line there is our residential resurfacing program um you know these are long-term fixes uh this is a data driven approach on how we choose the roadways that we're going to address um those roadways are are done by uh contracted contractors and um typically it's a full width uh it's either a resurface a reconstruction or whatever treatment that may be necessary for for that uh work and I also wanted to point out that the you know uh through this the the state we we are committed to a minimum of a 16 million dollars per year for our residential resurfacing program and then finally our thoroughfare resurfacing um again longer term uh fixes uh determined by a data driven approach through our um uh infrastructure asset management plan and I'll talk a little bit more about that here in a minute but it's that weighted uh uh assessment that uses PCI data uh average daily travel crash data and mayor's action service uh center service requests um again performed by our our uh contractors not in-house um and you know our thoroughfares and our residential contracted services not only include the pavement itself but uh includes things like uh ADA curb ramps signalization uh striping um and other treatments that we're able to uh to do uh on those those those roadway segments next slide so this slide is gonna address uh some of the things that you uh counselors and uh our public will see out of the department of public works in 2026 at our budget hearing there were uh questions about the output provided by these different strategies and and here we'll see uh the estimated outputs explained for 2026 uh and the respective budgets contractor strip patching is a capital investment that will be completed on segments within an estimated 200 lane miles in 2026 sounds like a really big number it is a big number I want us to uh understand that that 200 miles is uh compassing entire roadway segments that we choose but we do the strip patching um where it is needed within those particular roadway segments so it's not the entire roadway that gets strip patched it's just the worst sections within those strip patched uh areas um again this is an emergency response that we uh take to make sure that our roadway networks are operable um as far as our D4 repay our paving um you know is driven by again uh mayor's action center service requests and and direct counselor input um and uh is based this work is uh performed during the the summer and uh we'll be wrapping that stuff that that work up here uh in the next month i i I'll actually have a uh time to go out with our D4 crews in two weeks to uh walk beside the paver like I used to do as when I was an inspector and and and uh be with the crews out there as they do wrap up some of their final uh segments this year

Um as far as our D4 repay our paving, you know, is driven by again uh mayor's action center service requests and and direct counselor input and uh is based this work is uh performed during the the summer and uh we'll be wrapping that stuff that that work up here uh in the next month.

I uh I'll actually have a uh time to go out with our D4 crews in two weeks to uh walk beside the paver like I used to do as when I was an inspector and and and uh be with the crews out there as they do wrap up some of their final uh segments this year.

And then uh we have pothole uh filling um budgetary-wise, it's it's hard to really determine the pothole expenditure due to the um it's just based off the current year's trends.

Um so you know uh this year alone we uh filled about 40,000 potholes around the county.

And then uh the final one here is our resid residential resurfacing.

This varies from uh simple mill and resurface projects to full reconstruction, and the budget lives in our capital plan.

This is a long-term solution that includes design of the projects and requires coordination and aspects like drainage, utilities, curb cuts, ADA, um, traffic signals, uh, and things of that nature.

This is uh also where we plan to use our our partnership with the citizen energy group to ensure our money is going further, and uh those these estimates, those are uh estimated lane miles can vary.

What's the future look like?

The uh infrastructure asset management plan IAMP.

Um I'm proud to say uh our our group is uh currently in the process of creating a detailed IAMP for roads and bridges.

Um I want to highlight this change in the department's programming strategies because 15 years ago when I started at the Department of Public Works.

Um we would take Mayor's Action Center complaints, we would send staff out to the locations to do a physical inspection of those uh and to provide a subjective assessment of the the issues out there, and then we would come back, we would log those uh segments into our master needs inventory, and that's what we would draw to create our capital program going forward.

Today technology is helping us out a lot.

Uh technology has made it possible for the department to perform an objective form of data collection throughout the entire railway network.

We can then use that data to make better, more informed decisions on how we spend the dollars that we have.

And it is important to note that Mayor's Action Center calls and counselor input remain important data points to use for us to determine our five-year capital plan.

Our long-term goals is to include other assets as well, other than uh pavement, but trails and greenways and traffic signals and signage.

So I'd like to uh point out that we'd we'd like to initiate a presentation um to the city city county council to this body uh Q1 of 2026 on what that plan looks like, and then give ongoing updates to this uh this body going forward.

Now I I'd I'd also like to um make a statement as well.

Um, yesterday the department uh gave an uh abbreviated version of this uh budget presentation to the Board of Public Works.

A couple of the board members uh questioned the lack of a budget line item for vision zero, and uh one even went further to say there were no the budget did not say the word safety in Pierce so um his term was DPW does not prioritize safety.

It is important, it's a very important question and observation that uh we are not complete, we were not completely clear in articulating.

I want to make sure that it's not the case here.

I will say that safety does not drive our capital program, but safety is inherently included in everything we do.

The program has always included safe routes to schools, safe routes to transit, school zone flasher programs, street lighting programs.

We built protected bike infrastructures, we've installed sidewalks where they didn't exist, we've administered the urban tactic technical urbanism program.

We make intersection improvements, we make we install Hawk signals.

We are investing in a paint liner truck this year as well.

So I just want you all to know that uh DPW's compass always points in the direction of safety.

Now that can concludes my presentation, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have to do.

Thank you, Director Wilson.

And thank you for explaining that.

And for our folks watching at home, I hope that you can see how important it is to report things to the mayor's action center as a lot of that data is brought forth for your roads and your projects.

So please continue to report that.

And I would like to thank those staff who's taking those reports.

I need to take a lot of those calls, and they're they're cleaning that data for us.

So thank you for taking those calls and doing that work for us so that we can get that data back and get those projects filled for us.

So we appreciate all the work that the MAC staff does.

So any comments or questions for my colleagues, Counselor Cahill.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So I guess I will be contrarian on the the Mac commentary because I do want to make a comment, I guess that I and I appreciate that everywhere in here you also have counselor input uh which perhaps is not objective, but uh I think can maybe filter uh through some things because I I would just point out the Mac is not does not serve people who don't speak certain languages.

So in my in my district, uh there is a we we first encountered this when we talked about keep Indianapolis beautiful, that they were saying everything we do is data driven, we go out and do these trash pickups.

What we found was that areas that uh have a heavy concentration of those who don't speak a language that request request India is English only, and I think I think most people open their pothole tickets and things like that.

And I think with potholes specifically, I don't know a better way.

I just if I hear of it a different way, I'll go out and open the ticket myself.

But when you start aggregating to say, hey, this is a component, I would just suggest using caution because it can under uh underrepresent the need in certain areas.

So when I have 35 or 40 percent of my residents that are uh Burmese uh origin, that it disproportionately will underrepresent them and therefore will cause my streets to be not fixed at the same rate.

So I think you've got other things in here, the PCI, all that is that's all good.

I just would encourage uh caution on that.

Uh strip patching, the one thing I would I guess encourage if we can, it says thoroughfare only, but I can tell you like even in my neighborhood, there are I had like my street itself is in pretty good shape, except for one intersection.

If it was strip patched, the whole the whole street would probably have decades more of life.

Uh so if we're able to expand that definition, I think that could be valuable.

Uh but I have so I have a question, I guess.

You you referenced that D4 it has some bottleneck, but you didn't explain what that is because when I look at the residential resurfacing that we're looking at contracting out, I see the 16 million dollars.

But if we were as efficient uh in lane miles per dollar as uh the D4 repaving, my math shows we'd be able to do 82 lane miles with that 19.6 million.

So can you maybe tell us like what what is the bottom?

Do we need more more equipment that we haven't talked about or what's what's driving that?

I kind of knew that question was gonna come.

Um because you you're right.

If you do the math, it does it really doesn't add up.

Um we want to be uh certain that you know the residential resurfacing that we do contract out, we do do design services on those, so uh there's dollars uh wrapped up in that.

Um we do do other things like ADA ramps, sometimes we do sidewalk and curb on those.

Um our D4 crews do not do any concrete work on those on those those segments.

So there are a lot of more components to the resurfacing program than what D4 does.

Okay now it could range also from just a simple mill and overlay, like an inch and a half mill and overlay, to a full reconstruction of the of the pavement uh itself.

Okay, that thank you.

That that certainly helps explain that any time if you start expanding it into say a complete streets, that obviously the price tag for that is significantly higher than just straight putting asphalt down.

So I I appreciate that.

Uh I I I guess I will make a I guess a comment.

Uh it's it's really not a a question and not not to belabor what you talked about in the Board of Public Works, but I would echo some of the things that uh that were said there.

And I and I don't think these are are your fault.

I don't think they are uh Sam's fault or anything.

I think you were given a budget from from higher up and said this is the number to work with.

And I would I would say I think that number should be significantly higher.

I mean, we've said that every year, but I would say it again this year because next year we will come up with 50 million more than the current year.

And we've put 10 million in to prepare for the net of hundred million that's coming.

But in my opinion, we could have whether we got to that 50 million versus 10 million increase or got much closer to it, that's where I would have liked to have seen it.

I think that some of the things that you are being challenged on with uh you talk about building new sidewalks, but there is not really a uh fund or significant enough fund for repairs to sidewalks.

So we keep building new sidewalks, but the sidewalks we have that are falling apart, there's literally no no ETA.

It can open a ticket and it it could be years before it gets done.

Um I I think the vision zero plan, whether it was out for public comment, whether it was complete, I don't think that itself should be a barrier to identifying some other stuff.

I think we could have operationalized what was done in the the fiscal this year with the fatal crash review team to we know we're gonna have more fatal crashes.

We could have been prepared, uh, but I think that that is again not this is not a uh a ding against you.

I wish that we would give you more money so that we would be able to do more of those things.

Those are the right things, those should be the priority for the city.

Uh we could have next year we will do a budget and we'll have 50 million that the city will contribute.

We could have done that this year.

So that's that's all I'm gonna say on that.

I uh so when I when I vote against the your part of the budget tonight, please be aware that it is not because of anything bad, it is because you didn't get the resources to do all the the things that I know you would do if you had the money.

Thank you.

Leader Mowray.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh sorry about that.

Uh I just had a question.

We're talking about residential resurfacing, and I'm just curious where we are with the one million dollars per district.

Uh I haven't heard much about that in a while, so I'm just curious if you give us a brief update on that.

And if we haven't seen work started yet this year on those projects, can we imagine is it safe to say we probably won't see work done this year?

So uh quick update on the counselor select projects.

Uh we have awarded the contract to three contractors, uh Reef Riley, Milestone, and E and B.

Um those uh segments or or projects have been divvied up between the three contractors.

They're actively uh going out to those uh projects now and evaluating the cost.

So we're doing an alternative delivery method in this this instance and not a full-blown uh design bid build.

So the the process is we engage with the contractor, they evaluate what they can and cannot do, they put a price to it, we evaluate that pricing to make sure that it's in line and and it's fair, um, and then we'll deploy them to do that work.

We we should see some work yet this fall, but the majority of that work will be done in 2026.

Okay, thank you.

And um just for clarification because I thought I in July we put the RFP out, so a request for proposal.

What did that entail then if we didn't have like a cost associated with it?

It it entailed um a uh a scope, if you will, of services, and I I got uh our our our team here that can more uh better explain uh the RFP process uh if are you familiar with the process?

Yes, I am, and I think Lauren can speak to it as well too.

Uh Mark St.

John, I'm the chief engineer for the department.

Uh as Director Wilson alluded to, we were using an alternative delivery method for the counselor select projects.

Uh it operates under the build operate transfer law that the state legislature recently amended to allow us to use that type of procurement.

Um what was selected in July were the the contractor teams.

Um so again, we didn't do it in a traditional project, we would design the project, we would have a list of quantities, and then we would bid the project.

This time we had many scopes for projects, so we knew it wanted to be done.

We told the um contractors what those scopes were, and then they assembled a team and we bid we selected contractors based on their qualifications.

We then work with them to they will detail out the level of design that they need or that they desire on each project, and then how much it will cost to construct each of those projects.

So we're kind of inverting the traditional design bid build process, which helps get the projects delivered faster.

Well, I appreciate that we're trying to exp expedite at this point.

It just seems like I guess a bit disappointing that it's taken this long because we were rushed and hurried to make a decision by November last year, and here we all are almost a year later, and we don't really have anything to show for it yet.

So I don't know if that was just in the planning or what, but it seems like we could have maybe done this a little faster than what we are right now because and I'm glad we're here, we're doing some sort of expedited process.

But um, yeah, just a little disappointed that it's taking this long to get no results yet.

I I appreciate that, counselor.

I just like to point out that a million dollars for each counselor, and I don't know, I think at a DPW section, I know some went to parks, but yeah, I think it's a total of 19 or 20 million dollars.

That's not an insignificant amount of money, and it takes a lot of time to be able to identify and develop uh a plan for that.

Um typically when we uh are developing plans on a traditional design bid bill uh program, it takes a year or more to get through the design and the bid process and award and all that.

So I understand that you know we we want to see this stuff as fast as we can, and we're gonna do that as fast as we can, but um, we still have to follow the processes.

Thank you, Councillor Bain.

Thank you, madam chair, and uh thank you, Director, for the presentation.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for uh your department.

I think you guys are one of the if not the most important uh city agencies that we have, and um it's at least always the top priority for me because uh I do not kid when I say 95% of my constituent correspondence, if not more, it is related to infrastructure.

So constituents tell me that's what's important to them, so that's what's important to me.

Um I don't really like to use committee time to talk about specific district projects, but so I'll I'll speak in uh bigger, loftier terms.

Can you confirm was every counselor's infrastructure project included with those three contractors?

Yeah, perfect.

And I do want to say that I am thankful for every pothole that gets filled, every lane mile that gets strip patched, and when I look through the capital plan, and I know when someone says, How much are we spending to fix roads in 2026?

You can come up with a bunch of different numbers because I look at the capital plan and I see a line item for economic development, which I get what that is.

There's also line items for traffic, there's line items for trails, and I think when people say how much are we spending on infrastructure, most of the time they just mean roads.

And when I go through it, I think I get close to 190 million.

I could be wrong on that, so if I am, please correct me.

And I love that we see an asset management plan coming forward because I I think the only thing we have to go off of is the H and TV study, which is probably seven or eight years old at this point.

Um so it's pretty outdated.

So this is going to be an amazing tool for us.

But when we go back to that H and T B study from seven or eight years ago, it said that for us to just maintain our current road condition on thoroughfares, it was going to cost 360 million dollars a year.

And if we were just going to try to maintain and fix residential roads, or we throw residential roads on top of that with the thoroughfares, it was going to be like 760 some million dollars a year.

And that's pre-COVID pre-inflation numbers.

And we sit here, now we're looking at roughly 190 million dollars.

In your opinion, if we pass this budget, are roads in Marion County going to be better next year than they are this year, or are we going to continue to see a decline in the quality of our roads in Marion County?

In my opinion, I we will have a better roadway network every year going forward, should we see this 100 million dollars?

Okay, how are roads going to get better if seven or eight years ago we would have had to spend 760 million dollars just to maintain our current PCI, but we're spending 192 this year, which is a pretty small fraction of that.

It seems to me that if we're not spending what the H and TV study was saying that we should spend, and again, if we account for inflation, we might be well over a billion dollars.

Sure.

So when I look at that, it seems pretty clear to me that if we pass this budget as introduced, we're guaranteeing roads are gonna be worse next year than they are this year.

Um I I have not read the HTB study.

I trust uh what you're saying.

Um, but I I I do believe that our roadway network uh will be better um year over year uh with this new funding.

I appreciate that.

I will concede that some roads will be better.

But I think the problem is when we have the amount of lane miles that we have in Marion County.

The 190ish million dollars is not gonna cut it.

And unfortunately, if we get the extra 50 million from the state and we do another 50 million here, 300 million is not gonna cut it.

We're we're still only gonna be beginning to address the infrastructure needs in our county.

And again, I'm thankful for every pothole that gets filled.

I'm thankful for your department, because like I said, your department's probably the most important department in the city of Indianapolis.

But I can't support a budget that guarantees roads are going to be worse overall next year than they are this year.

I understood.

Thank you.

Councilor Boots.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Director Wilson.

Just a question of clarification.

The 16 million for residential resurfacing.

Is that part of the 8 million matching from the state?

Or is those numbers just a coincidence?

No, I believe you're correct.

So that's the 8 million we generate dictated by the state and they'll match it.

And that's a recent development.

Correct.

I believe that was in 2023.

Yeah, the last couple years.

Okay.

And then um on your second chart.

Um there's two sixteen million dollar figures.

It's the lower one that is the eight and eight match, correct?

That's correct.

The Necron, it's just a coincidence.

The contractor strip patching is 16 million as well.

A coincidence.

So in this in the budget, there is a new 10 million dollar allocation for additional strip patching on top of the existing six that we have.

Okay.

All right.

So it is just a coincidence that they come the same number.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other comments, questions from counselors.

Uh Councilor Gibson.

Uh thank you, Madam Chair.

And uh Director, thank you for a very thorough uh presentation.

And I really appreciate what DPW does every day.

Uh especially ask me in all their work uh they do as part of the labor there as well.

I I believe that um we all know how important roles are, and I I believe that the budget that you presented is very uh financially responsible.

I believe that uh we're doing the best we can uh when you consider the millions of dollars of cuts that we had to take overall uh based on Senate Bill 1 and the impacts of thereof.

And every department is trying to be uh as frugal and responsible as possible, and I believe you are doing that as well.

I know we talk about uh public safety, you know, IMPD wants a new patrol car, but we can't afford that.

Um so I think we're all trying to do or operate and try to be you know financially responsible in in this environment.

And I would encourage us to support this budget.

I believe that it does impact and create uh more improved roles, and uh we'll just have to work harder and and strategize better in terms of the new funding that's coming our way and do the best we can.

But uh we we cannot uh vote against this budget.

Uh as my colleague mentioned, DPW is probably the most important entity in the city.

Yeah, DPW is not working, the city doesn't move, it doesn't operate and doesn't open.

And so I think it is in our best interest to be supportive uh concerning the financial constraints that we under.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Before we move on to the public comment portion, I would like our Madam Clerk to read a statement before we open the floor to public comments.

We would like to remind committee members and the public of a few ground rules.

So everyone can have a fair chance to speak and be heard.

It is important that we each observe the following rules.

First, each speaker will be limited to two minutes.

Second, any public comments must reasonably relate to the agenda item under consideration.

Third, speakers who strike from the IR under consideration or become unduly repetitious, maybe ask to move on to their next point or conclude their comments.

Finally, attendees who cause disruptions that prevent the committee from proceeding through tonight's agenda in a reasonably efficient manner will be removed.

Please remember that some types of threatening speech are incitement to violence are not protected by the First Amendment at all.

We will deal with those issues if they come up, but we don't think they will.

And now, Madam Chair, for committee member asks for consent to adopt these rules, we can proceed with public comments.

Thank you.

Is there anyone in the public who wishes to speak on proposal number 259 2025?

Please come forward.

Thank you for being here.

Please state your name and your zip code.

Hi, I'm Connie Zabel Schmucker.

I'm advocacy director at Bicycle Garage Indy, and I'm here to comment on the DPW budget and lack of funding for addressing traffic violence.

Budgets and actions reflect priorities.

Unfortunately, um the city leadership and administration has shown that addressing traffic violence is not a priority.

Zero funding to address traffic violence shows zero priority.

On Monday, um I asked for 35 million to address traffic violence, which is 2% of the total city budget.

Not a huge ask to improve our roads for the safety of everyone.

Not budgeting funds to address traffic violence because there's no vision zero action plan is a cop-out.

DPW has 10 million dollars budget for planning for the hundred million dollars that won't even be available for two years.

Also, there was no vision zero action plan when the city have awarded $500,000 for the fatal crash review team recommendations.

That's not nearly enough for the number of fatal crashes for so far this year alone.

And DPW budget could have built on that and added to that amount in the budget, but there's no additional funds, which defeats the purpose of even having a fatal crash review team.

Things that should be in this budget, funding for quick builds after crashes, funding for implementing fatal crash review team recommendations, funding to address known problem areas, starting with the 5% of roads where 40% of the crashes occur according to the vision zero consultant.

You don't need an action plan to do any of that.

We can't wait.

People are getting hit, injured, and increasingly raped and killed.

We know how to fix the roads to prevent the majority of crashes on the roads where they all happen.

It's morally and fiscally irresponsible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Anyone else in the public who wishes to speak on proposal 259?

Come forward.

State your name and your zip code, please.

Hi, my name is Christina Hartley, District 13, 46201.

I apologize if my voice shakes when I spoke here previously.

You had me hauled out by sheriffs.

Um but I would ask that as you consider the budget for 2026.

It's wise to consider the impact of prior years' budgets.

With that in mind, I'd like to read some names of vulnerable road users who died this year because of the actions of prior city councils, DPW, and next year when we see more of these deaths, they will rest on you.

Dustin E.

Masters, Robin E.

Glenn Vedito, Lavender Church, Brian K.

Tolman, Pamela Jean Shoemaker, Christopher M.

Cole, Gloria D.

Bass, unidentified pedestrian, Michael Sims Hayes, Alan Marcelo Sales Garcia, unidentified pedestrian, unidentified bicyclist, Emily Sue Martinez, Dillian Lee Rogers, Andrea Nicole Gibbs, unidentified pedestrian, and their first fatality of the year was Desary A.

Munz, age 60, killed after being struck while crossing this road in a wheelchair by a driver on January 3rd at East 30 21st Street and North German Church Road.

Next year we'll have more fatalities, and you will continue to show a lack of leadership that puts these deaths on your conscience.

Indianapolis cannot deserve and should not face your failures.

Please find the courage to fund actual safety improvements over endlessly patching potholes because you are afraid of the voters getting upset about that.

Your actions and your vote today will cost people lives next year.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Anyone else in the public who wishes to speak on proposal 259?

Any other comments, questions from counselors, Madam Chair, I move your send proposal 259 to the full council, the due pass recommendation.

It's been moved and seconded to send proposal number 259 2025 to the full council with the due pass recommendation.

Madam Clerk, I would like to request a roll call vote, please.

Thank you.

Councillor Cahill.

Nay.

Councillor Bain.

Nay.

Councillor Boose.

Yes.

Councilor Cordlino.

Aye.

Councillor Dilk.

Nay.

Councillor Gibson.

Yes.

Councillor Jones.

Jones.

Aye.

Councilor McCormick.

McCormick Aye.

Councilor Mowreen.

Nay.

Councillor Nielsen.

Nielsen, yes.

Councilor Roberts.

Roberts, yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your presentation.

I want to thank everyone who worked hard to get here for this evening.

Thank you to your staff.

Thank you for everyone who came and put the work in for this evening.

I want to thank my colleagues as well.

I know you all worked hard on budget season.

And so thank you very much for that.

Thank you, Director.

Thank you to your team.

I know how hard your team works each and every day.

Thank you for everyone in the public who attended the meeting as well.

And we look forward to Monday, October 6th for the full passage of the budget.

Thank you.

And I'll take a motion to adjourn.

Some of the second