I want to say good morning to everyone.

Hi there.

This is the regular monthly meeting of the Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Associations.

My name is Kathy Burton, and I'm the current president for McCannna.

For those of you who may not be familiar with us or who are visiting us for the first time or watching us on the government channels for the first time, we are a not-for-profit 501c3 that was founded in 1990 as a coalition of neighborhood and homeowners associations across Marion County to be able to talk with each other, share resources, talk about common problems and what their resolutions might be and provide support for each other.

We meet on the third Saturday of every month, except in the month of December at 38th and at North United Methodist Church at 38th and Meridian.

Our meetings are from 9 to 11 a.m.

And they are broadcast through the month on channel 16 or or 28, depending on what the time of the month is, so that we do have an opportunity to reach neighbors from all over Marion County and they can find out what's going on in the city, what issues are being discussed, and how to engage with the public process even when they are not able to attend the meetings.

And we know that Saturday mornings are difficult for a lot of people, but I think for people who are active in their community, they know that it doesn't matter what day or time of the week you're meeting.

Everybody struggles to get to meetings, so we certainly appreciate the support from Channel 16.

We also want to thank United North United Methodist Church for providing us with meeting space.

It is centrally located and accessible on the Indigo bus line so that people can get here quickly.

Our guest speaker this morning is Bob Osley, who's the president of the City County Council.

This is a very busy time of the year for him.

I know they're in the middle of budget season, and so his time is difficult, but he did, but he did um make a space on his calendar for us, even though I understand he flew into Indianapolis late last night.

Before we do that, however, I do want to announce that our next meeting is on Saturday, October the 18th.

You can keep an eye on our Facebook page for who our speaker will be, and at the request of members who were here last month, I did send out a calendar a couple of weeks ago that lists all of our meeting dates for the rest of 2025 is 2020 and or and 2026.

So if you're someone that needs to plan ahead, um you can find those dates on our Facebook page.

If you need to reach us, you can call me or text me at 317-847-9959 or email me at CB7801 at AOL.com.

Before we invite our speaker up to the front, I'd like to ask if there's anyone that has an upcoming event or meeting in their neighborhood that they would like to announce.

Yes, ma'am.

Good morning.

My name is Sue Whitfield.

I'm the founder of Uniswitched Gap Ministry, which provide transportation for families all over the state of Indiana.

And we've been having uh transportation for 37 years, and we are having a board's dinner, which I think the flyer is up there.

So we will be having an awards dinner, which is this Thursday at 530, and it will be held at IV Tech Community College, and the tickets are $80.

So it is a fundraiser.

We want to expand our transportation to other five other counties in the state of Indiana.

So you're all welcome.

Um if you need any more information, please see an RMC will be our president, Mr.

Bob Osley, for our dinner.

Thank you.

Um Cecilia, if people are interested in purchasing tickets, how might they go about doing that?

So if you would like to purchase tickets, you can go on Zale and type in uh the phone number 317-728-2518, or you can go to our website, which is www.usewhatyou got ministry.org.

And I do have business cards if you want a little bit more information and I'll stay around a little bit longer to share.

Thank you so much for this opportunity.

Um I have gotten an email asking if we could put that on the uh McCannna website, but I couldn't figure out how to get a I'm having computer issues as always.

I couldn't figure out how to get a PDF posted on Facebook.

Can you send the flyer to me as a JPEG maybe?

I'll give my granddaughter to help me.

Okay, there you go.

That that sounds kind of familiar.

So I want to be sure to get that up on our Facebook page, even though I know it's coming up pretty quickly.

If I can get that, then I can post it.

The computer I have right now doesn't have a program that I can convert PDFs to JPEG, so I couldn't get it posted like I thought I was going to do.

Thank you.

Okay, is there anybody else that has an upcoming event that they would like to announce?

Um okay, Mayor's Neighborhood Advocate.

And I am going to ask you may speak from whichever position you are most comfortable.

Um I brought information there's flyers out there for the bacon to vibrant program.

Um it is a program where people or developers can obtain dilapidated houses to rehab.

Um the link is on the um if anyone at home wants to go on, it would be www.indigo.

Indie duckgov slash activity slash vacant dash two dash vibrant for more information.

Y'all have that memorized, right?

I said for the people at home.

Okay.

Um, and I guess I do have a couple events this week on September 25th.

There's a community open house at the mountain patrols barn.

Um that is located at 3325 West Vermont Street, and it's being helped from four to seven.

It's going to be similar in nature to any of the other community days anyone's gone to but for the horses.

We do have an ongoing monthly program that the mayor's office puts out called Two State 10.

Um just type that in on the search bar on indie.gov to get the link.

But for anyone that's here, I brought a flyer with the QR code to get you to that.

And I did bring for the people here in attendance construction updates for the blue line.

There's a block party on October 6 on the site of the old women's prison.

If anyone would be interested, they're going to have interactive tours and just a lot of other things.

It's the neighborhood starting of the visioning for reuse.

October 4th.

It's the Saturday.

Thank you, Jim.

This is early for me on a Saturday.

Um they invite everyone to come, but it might be a last chance if anyone wants to actually see what the old prison looked like.

Although most of the buildings have been burned out already.

Does anyone have questions for me?

Okay, thank you.

They may come up.

All right.

Um, I will tell you after Mr.

Oxley has a man up here.

Last month we did spend quite a bit of time talking with individual neighborhoods about issues that were critical to them so that we could convey them to uh city of Indianapolis and have the neighbor boys, neighborhood voice about what is important to us, not just have the city tell us what they think is important to us.

Um we're gonna have a little bit of a discussion about that for a new initiative that we're gonna try and launch that will help um neighborhoods across Marion County lend their voices to each other to provide some assistance so that we can be some very we can address some very specific issue-targeted um situations that need to be addressed.

Um I spent a long time over the week trying to figure out some clever acronym for this um initiative.

So I'm gonna ask for some input about what should we call this, because we don't want to duplicate things that other initiatives that may have been named by other neighborhoods.

Um with that, um again, we are fortunate to have with us this morning the president for the city county council.

I did send him a list of issues in advance, some of which were um identified at last week's or last month's meeting.

Um the most critical, of course, is the upcoming city budget, which is currently being reviewed by the by the committees of the city county council.

And so um that's the thing that we asked him to address specifically, but since he was here, we also I also sent him a list of some of those other items, um, including the post office on Sherman Drive or the alley.

Um so we want to see if he can help us address some of those.

And with that, I would like to um ask Mr.

Osley to come on up front.

We appreciate you taking the time.

Um he's got some issues to address.

I did while he's getting settled.

Um, I forgot to put these on the table, but for those of you who are interested, I do have a few of the handbook for help that the Coalition for Homelessness, homeless intervention prevention puts out with resources if homelessness is an issue in your neighborhood.

And if you think it's not an issue in your neighborhood, you might want to reconsider that.

And I also have a few more uh the folders from the Marion County Health Department.

Um, if people want to know what kind of services the Marion County Health Department can help provide to your neighborhoods, again, they have been excellent partners for neighborhoods for the many years that I've been involved in McCannna, and I encourage you to take advantage of the services that they have.

With that, Mr.

Osley.

Good morning.

How are you?

I'm good, thank you.

I appreciate you coming.

I'm sure you've got some wonderful remarks, and then we'll put you on the hot spot and ask you a bunch of questions.

All right.

What a great way to kick start your weekend, right?

I love it.

I love it.

Well, uh, good morning, everybody.

Um it's uh it's great to be back.

Uh I think it's been a few months since I was last year.

It has.

But we appreciate you coming back.

Absolutely.

Um to start as as you had mentioned, we are in the middle of our budget season.

And uh this year we are at um it's our largest budget um uh uh to date 1.7 uh billion dollars.

Um and with that um we've got uh I think primary focus on public safety and on housing in that budget.

You know, we've we've we've had some challenges when it came to some decreases, anticipated decreases in property taxes, and that was based on um the Senate Enrolled Act uh number one.

Um but ultimately we will balance this budget.

Um all but a few agencies uh were asked to reduce their uh their proposed budgets by about four percent.

Uh outside of that when it came to public safety, um police, uh fire, and the sheriff's office.

Um the goal was to either remain flat or go go no more than two percent up.

Uh but as it stands right now, we're in the middle of this, and uh for the first time in maybe ever, the council and the administration uh worked for the last probably six, seven months together uh to try and craft a budget that encompassed the priorities that council members um get addressed or have to address based on meetings like this, based on meetings with constituents, and it should be um it should be a budget that reflects um the voices that we've heard in meetings like this.

Now I don't know how granular you want me to go.

Um well let's do high level to start with, unless there are particular granular levels that you would like to address.

Okay, please.

Okay.

Um well, before I go to my list, okay.

How are you?

Um I know that one of the issues that has come up is um and that I know I sent to you was the fact that for many, many, many years parks have been underfunded.

Yes, um, along with a reduction in park rangers, which of course goes to public safety.

That's right.

But I think for people who are trying to look long range at establishing situations that help prevent social challenges, trying to have a robust parks department that's safe and provides preventative services and programs is very critical.

Um that doesn't matter.

I mean that that applies to neighborhoods all over the county.

So can you address the fact that parks have been underfunded for quite some time?

Okay, the answer to that is absolutely yes.

Um, and that is us not only working with parks to develop a more robust budget, but also working outside of the city agencies to get additional funding, philanthropic support, and so on, like many other parks, many other major parks around the country.

And knowing that that we need that kind of horsepower to get to be a park system.

I mean, our goal is to be a world-class park system, and we've got great leadership.

You know, Brittany Crone is our new parks director.

Um Phyllis Boyd was an amazing one.

Um she's gone on to um another position.

But our our our goal remains to have a world-class system, and unfortunately, we we have not invested as much as uh as other cities per capita.

You know, we have 218 parks, and that's a lot.

Uh and the and and the right amount of funding is several million dollars more than we have invested every year.

And and we have been blessed by grants and um contributions from from from, for example, um the Lily Endowment.

We invested a lot of money in our park systems across the city when we had the federal funding that came as a result of COVID with the ARPA dollars.

So when we do have money, and when we have you know a good amount of money, we do put it into hitting those targets that we have set out across the city.

Those park systems that have been underfunded, those park systems that have had poor maintenance, just so that the residents you know who use those parks have an opportunity to see sort of a world class facility.

And that's our goal.

We will continue one to invest you know city funds, but also to aggregate as many uh contribution uh dollars, philanthropic dollars as we can, philanthropic and corporate dollars, and that is the way that most of our of our world class systems actually do.

Well, I won't say most.

I will say a lot of our world class systems in in in various cities in America work with alliances, um work with uh philanthropic dollars, um, and that's the investment of our community members, our stakeholders.

Um one of the biggest issues that seems to come up is the condition of our roads, correct.

Um I think everybody can one of the biggest one of one.

I think that one of the um one of the things that reverberates across the country is it doesn't or across the country, across the county is the roads in my neighborhood are the worst ones in the county, and you hear that from every neighborhood, every township, everybody believes that their roads are the worst.

Um having the opportunity to drive through much of the city, I can agree with every one of them.

Um but um there is also a concern that dollars are being funneled in such a concentrated ways to the roads that other services are going underfunded.

How do you address that?

Uh other services such as well, things like the parks department, the prosecutor's office that handles code enforcement issues, um, the idea of city of turnover in the city agencies, and are we underfunding salaries for city employees?

Is that part of the reason that there's such a big turnover?

And so how as a city county council, how do you look at balancing getting the roads repaired as opposed to and and funding other critical services?

And there's a piece that I'm gonna insert here when you're part way through your answer.

So boy.

Well, that was a really tough one.

Okay.

So we have a finite budget, right?

And this year, as I said, it's 1.7 billion.

Uh, in that, and over the years, we have heard the concerns about our roads.

We see the we see our roads, we experience our roads.

I don't think there's a single person in the uh uh in the enterprise who does not recognize that.

This administration um has done something over the course of the last six or seven years to put more road funding into or more investment in road funding, not at the detriment of other departments though, just to be clear.

It is reusing, for example, bonds that you know expire, and you know, those payments that we were putting into those into the repayment of those going back into roads now.

Um I think it was maybe 2015, 2016, our road budget was uh shy of 80 80 million.

This year it's over a quarter of a billion with the with the notion and the intention that we are hitting deferred maintenance as we go forward.

Now, it may not look like it to everybody, but there's a lot more road work in Marion County now than we've seen in many years, and it will continue to be that way.

Now we have years of deferred maintenance, years, and it takes it takes time, but we are investing in ways that we have never invested in our roads.

And as it stands, uh you know, we have um uh House Bill 1461 that will provide an additional 50 million dollars to uh Marion County to match 50 million dollars in new funding that we now have to uh identify, but we are going to identify that, which will then produce an additional 100 million dollars.

Um it's almost like um trying to think of something that um it's almost like when your doctor says you've you have too much sugar, you've eaten too much sugar, um, and you got to cut back on certain things.

Yes, it takes a while, right?

It does take a while, but you begin to see improvements, and we are seeing improvements.

And it is our goal, I mean, obviously, to have roads that are not any different than the roads in our surrounding counties.

No one wants to ever hear excuses about road funding, but you all are aware of some of the challenges that we have experienced with road funding.

That Marion County is a donor county.

And that has been, you know, a thorn, I think, in our sides for many, many, many years, that there are per capita, you know, less dollars here than in most of our surrounding counties when it comes to business.

Oh, okay.

So when you pay your taxes, you know, they're going to a general fund in the state, those are then redistributed to the various counties according to Barry's formula.

Um we contribute more than we get back.

And so that in that sense, you know, there are some certain counties that get more than they put in.

And their roads look really great, you know.

Um we'd love to borrow their roads, in fact, if we could.

Uh but this year the General Assembly recognized, you know, has been recognizing, but recognized that Marion County needs a special allocation to begin to pay back that sort of deficit in funding.

And we are going to take advantage of that and then continue to supplement it, as we have, as I mentioned to you, right, you know, um just now we are we are supplementing it, probably a quarter of a billion dollars.

Um there was a few years ago a major road plan to put in over a billion dollars supplemental into our roads, uh, because we know we have such deferred maintenance, and we will continue to do that just so that our roads have a level of quality that folks aren't afraid to go out in the morning for fear of retirement.

I want to now I want to now I want to flip the page, so to speak.

Um but one of the other complaints is that we receive is a delay in projects that are supposed to be done, um, either getting them started or getting them finished, or kind of a lack of coordination, so that some neighborhoods are almost trapped.

They can't figure out how to get out on another bridge on West Washington Street was one that was a big issue, but but we need to see what I got back from neighborhoods was that we need to see better coordination about when projects are going to happen, how long they're gonna last, and I realize you know, weather delays and those things you can't control.

But make sure that they get done when they're supposed to get done, get started when they're supposed to get started, and then there's a little more thought given to, you know, are you asking people to detour, detour, detour, and they end up right back where they were where they started.

So that doesn't have to do with the budget specifically, but since we're on roads anyway, I wanted to bring that up.

Uh it is it has been brought up many times.

Well, but it has from counselors.

Counselors are you know, we've been very vocal uh with um uh Department of Public Works, and Department of Public Works does understand you know those those challenges.

Some of it though does come about because of the deferred maintenance and the fact that we have got to address these roads.

And even though a project is planned, those needs, the the grade of each street, you know, our streets are graded, you know, A to I don't know, F probably, yeah, A to F.

Uh sometimes those needs are so critical that they actually interfere with the progress of another project.

Okay.

And it is all part of that mending up our road network system.

It is it is not desired, it is not part of the part of the plan to delay those.

Uh, but sometimes that does happen.

And DPW is working more in concert with its with its various, you know, um it's various sort of subdepartments, it's various components, to ensure that when we say that a project will start in January and will be done the following June or July, that we keep to that.

It is difficult.

And I and I've got a project in my own in my own district.

Um I'll I'll give you an example, and I'm sure many of you have experienced it.

It's the 30th Street Bridge.

Anyone know anything about that?

Oh yes.

A little delayed.

It's a little delayed.

And one of the reasons, though, now that is not about coordination within the enterprise.

That is for one expected circumstances.

How about that?

Okay.

That, for example, the the dressing of the peers in a particular kind of stone.

Um it was it was believed, and I don't know why there was not more confirmation of it.

It was believed that it surrounded a sort of an earthen structure.

Well, what they found, and by the way, because it's an historic bridge, the stone was meant to, the replacement stone was meant to either be the original or to find stone from the same quarry.

Now, because the belief was that it was an earthen structure, it was, or it seemed that it would be easy to take the blocks off, uh identify them, stack them, so they could go back in the exact same places.

But because it wasn't an earthen structure, it was a concrete structure.

Then they had to chip those blocks out.

Okay.

Well, one, that's a time delay.

Yeah.

Um, and two, those blocks actually, many of those blocks became worthless because when you chip them, you know.

They break.

They break.

All right.

So given that, and the fact that the base structure, which I guess had been anticipated to have been in great shape, actually had deteriorated.

So upon getting into the structure of the of the bridge supports, um, there was a need then to reconfigure and reshape, repo, uh, and reform those uh those peers.

That caused a ripple effect because the structure was not part of the original design or you know, or cost.

So I've been told that the latest of that bridge will open will be April of next year, based on on those delays.

But we we we get those kinds of circumstances when we're dealing with something that isn't new, when we're talking about refurbishing something, restructuring something, and that is one of the challenges that we will always face when we come when it comes to public works projects.

Some of these are completely unforeseen, although that earthen structure probably should have been identified early.

But these things happen.

Well, I think we all saw that with the deterioration of our um sewers downtown, but the combined sewer over short and the fact that maintenance had been delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed for years.

Yeah, and now we're all reaping the benefits of that.

Yes, that's a way of putting it, yes.

While reaping our the fruits of our decisions, there you go.

Yeah, and we have the cave-ins and the leaks and those things then cause other problems.

That is a problem obviously with deferred maintenance.

Okay, and we have to address deferred maintenance, and that is why it was I think a really sound idea to put this one billion dollar plus program into place, one billion dollars over five years into place that we address directly and intentionally deferred maintenance.

Okay, all right, Kat.

We're gonna go Pat and then James, and then we'll go back up to Ellen and then Cecilia, did you have a question?

Okay, um can you give us uh overview of any decreases that are happening in federal fundings like for HUD, lack, DOT, the things that do amount to um running for the city and valuable projects?

What I'd like to be able to do is is to give you a one-pager that we put together that outlines what our challenges are when it comes to housing.

Now we've got senators who put who put things on paper on how to recoup that, how to make up for that, but those haven't been passed yet.

Uh I think that would be most helpful, and I can send to uh to Kathy, um, which breaks down what those numbers are with our uh community development block grants in our home funds and so on.

But we have we have experience then for that.

Um put in the space in or so we as you know have a multi-thousand unit deficit when it comes to affordable housing in Marion County, and it is incredible to what um affordable housing, okay.

Yeah, some estimates are you know 30,000 units here in Marion County, um, you know, sort of a deficit of units.

Uh it has made it incredibly challenging, which goes back to something that I think we all will talk about, for example, the vacant divide uh vibrant program.

That what is the existing stock that we've got and how do we put dollars into those units which will which are noticeably less, notably less in in most circumstances, to get more units occupiable, more safe quality units occupiable.

Uh that's something that is more within the use of our dollars.

Uh but there's such an uncertainty about our housing funds in this recent climate that we are we are forced to look at what do we already have, what what what units do we already have, what can be put back in service.

Um as you know, uh the Freds took over IHA, our Indianapolis housing agency.

And our the goal being for the for the housing agency to be able to provide vouchers.

Um there's been a there was a slowdown in the in the giving out of uh of those vouchers, which has exacerbated the situation of access to affordable housing.

So it then falls on navigators and others to find existing housing stock and to use the funds that are at least stable when it comes to home dollars and C D B G to invest in those and once again this the this touches on another topic, and that is our homeless neighbors, and wanting to ensure that we not just reduce but we eliminate homelessness in our city, you know.

The target right now is 2028, um, and and that's a that's a really aggressive schedule.

Uh but we have to find other means of of doing of doing that.

Now, I'm I'm told that we will probably have an additional 500 units from IHA available.

Five million, five hundred units of uh IHA properties by the end of next year.

Um there are a number of properties that they have in place now that are going to get refurbished under new management.

Um a selection will be made by the end of this month on new management, and those and and that entity that was selected for the seven properties, seven properties that were put up, um, have a task in front of them, and the task being to get those refurbished and made available.

But as I said, this goes back to how do we house as many individuals as we possibly can without having to rely so heavily as we have before on the federal dollars that are going into incentives for developers to build and um what do you estimate is the is the shrinkage for this year's city budget in like block grants and I think you guys have in your budget, correct?

I mean there are numbers in the budget.

Um that's on that one pager that I'm going to send to Kathy.

I'll I'll make sure that so the numbers are right.

Uh we do expect some uh some shrinkage, yes.

And it goes back to this is now how we have to depend on on other entities to help us make up that you know that deficit in housing opportunities.

How do we get, for example, this in this first year, which is the goal of streets um streets to home, how do we get 350 individuals into permanent supportive housing?

And as we go forward, how do we get those others you know in these coming years into permanent supportive housing individuals and their families without having to depend so heavily just on the federal dollars because those also come in in various forms?

So it's not just CDBG and it's not just uh our our home dollars.

Okay, I think we need to move on to another question.

So, James, you're next, and then I misspoke.

It's James, then Andrew, then Alan.

So very simple.

Ellen, you already had one question.

No, I didn't.

Okay, all right.

Okay, we'll we'll get as many in as we can.

James.

Very simple and quick.

Uh what's the possibility of getting DPW at our uh neighborhood meetings?

Well, and I found it very hard to do so.

Okay.

That will eliminate some of your I will ask.

Okay.

I will ask for representation at our upcoming meeting.

Okay.

I'll ask them to come with me when I come.

How about that?

That works.

Yes.

That's the Highland Vicente.

I understand.

Okay.

Now you know how to city's been shown some love.

Yes.

Yes?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, you have.

Okay, very good.

Okay.

I don't want anyone thinking the Highland facility has been overlooked.

You all have got some significant love.

Right, right.

Okay.

Okay.

Andrew.

Excuse me.

Good morning.

Thanks for being here.

Kind of talks with budget and evolution of things with the city.

There's all these talks of data centers coming to the South Society, and then there's one in Martindale, Brightwood, the lack of job creation, lack of tax revenue.

What's your stance on that?

Have you?

So as president of the council, I'm I have been hesitant to weigh in sort of publicly on the discussion.

There are benefits that come with it.

And stakeholders.

The tax abatement components, for example.

And thinking that the tax abatements are forever.

Those tax abatements are generally 10 years.

And at the end of that, those units, those investments, pay significant dollars and put them in and put those, you know, those dollars into property taxes into our uh into our funds, our city funds.

So it's weighing out what is that impact.

And generally those uh data centers are um uh low density, um they're not like truck parks where there is constant vehicle activity.

That can be a bonus, but until we have some assurance on what it's going to do to residents around in terms of escalating costs, impact on on water, it's it's difficult you know to support.

They they are difficult to support.

Uh and so that's no that that's my own stand.

We know that we need these.

Every time you pick up your phone and you you get on the internet, you are siphoning data.

And that's not going to change.

We're not going back to picking up a rotary phone and you know, and hoping that someone's gonna answer it on the other end.

So we know that we need increased capacity.

Uh and on the other side too, is you know, this uh this notion of um do we want those things in a neighboring location, for example, a neighboring county, where they're still on the same electricity grid and still drawing from the same water sources, and we're getting no revenue.

That's a challenge because then those those issues don't get addressed that stakeholders are put on the table, those are incredibly valid issues, and we get nothing out of it.

So those are things that we end up having away.

And that's what it makes it challenging.

I mean, it makes it incredibly challenging.

And until I think we have a way of you know documenting as best as possible, here's going to be the impact on the stakeholder on the resident, you know, and neighboring.

Um it's really hard.

Impact fees.

Yeah.

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

Ellen, and then we'll read it.

Well, we've got the Elder person we'll do with them we'll do Jim.

I want to add a couple things.

One, uh, as far as the rules are concerned.

In the in Maryland County.

Well, the central areas get a lot of attention, and so do the collar areas of Maryland County.

There are areas that wind up in the news.

Why can't this?

And they overemphasize it, and then they can think that's the way they show it.

That's multiple holes all over the place.

And it doesn't, it's the same hole.

Just go please encourage them to go fix the that hole.

Yeah.

Make and make it known, which they don't.

I mean uh I'm not saying the city doesn't make it known, not the news media doesn't make them known.

I think your publicity people need to go after them to say we fixed it.

You put you spent the time to spend so many times.

Show that it got fixed, that it did get addressed.

It only takes a few seconds.

I even got my terrible alley finally fixed.

They did some patch up and finally fix it.

We can actually drive it.

I am better in a in a small to medium car.

I think you need that they need to toot their own horn.

There's other things about uh when talking about tax dollars to safety have to address how much of it is too gee, we're gonna go talk to everybody.

You know, there remember a long time ago there was a thing that oh you could only use so much of the budget for police cars and policemen.

That needs to be clear too that when we spend that money, is a city going to be given some, because I came from the state level, I believe, is the city going to be given some leverage and how they spend it.

I think that that part needs to go back with the state or however it was originally, so that we do get the appropriate amount of spending what's needed each time, and part of that is actually our role council to determine how how this wants to spend.

Um we have a we we have a very robust we have very robust conversations in those committee meetings, those those budget hearings on just what you're what you're indicating.

But I do appreciate the recognition that one we probably don't indicate to the general public the proactivity, so to speak, of EPW in addressing a certain road uh challenges, potholes, etc.

Uh, that we could do a better job of it.

But I'm glad, you know, with the city, and the council actually a couple of years ago uh began to devote money specifically to alleys so that that becomes the norm that we have to address our alleys because our road funding, by the way, that comes from the state is designated for roads, and alleys don't fall under that heading, and so anything that we do on an alley is supplemental money that we then you know we are injecting ourselves into it, but alleys are a huge concern across the county, and it too will take time, but they are getting addressed, and I'm so glad that you know you've experienced it, um, and you can witness that incredible challenge in trying to work through not just road maintenance, but alley maintenance, and then new infrastructure that we also have to account for to have to keep our city running.

Um, basic uh of the challenges, but we're we're working.

I don't know.

I just need you to know.

And in fact, we have something every year, it's a spring fiscal, it's it is basically like your uh when the IRS sends you your um uh after taxes, and you've already paid it in and they give you what's it called your refund.

Okay, okay, whatever that thing's called.

So every every year we we get uh you know allocation, and um this year we actually put a significant amount of money towards additional money, so this is more of a supplemental towards um uh road patching, um and that is important, so it's not just putting down uh asphalt in a hole, it is taking out those swaths of bad road, and you know, we call it strip patching and replacing you know those so that our roads at least have more longevity and a smoother ride.

Um there's there is a significant commitment to addressing our roads.

Okay, all right, Ruth?

Yeah, okay.

I am in a state of transition.

Um I can walk with a cane, but I am terribly handicapped by not hearing, and I think I represent a lot of people who back off of activity, political or whatever, because we cannot hear everything.

Um so if I've missed something, I apologize.

That's why I moved to the front so I could hear about the roads.

I had not driven down meridian for a long time.

And I'm surprised that that major thoroughfare is patched, but it's not what one would expect from a major thoroughfare.

So whatever.

Secondly, I am terribly concerned about the curfew situation.

Because I think it represents a need to break the cycle.

I believe it was President Obama said actions have consequences.

Being a parent is a darn hard job.

I gave up a professional career because I didn't think I could do both, because I saw being a parent was a full-time job.

Unfortunately, we have a whole group of people, single mothers, frankly, who have either given up on the job or do not have the assets to do the job.

And so we have children running around at three and four in the morning.

Be in the house by midnight.

And that was when I was a teenager and a young adult.

So how do we break that cycle?

I read in the paper somebody said, well, we have to do something about the roots of the problem.

Well, we've said that for years, and the roots of the problem are still there.

Part of it being an obtuse state legislature that made it that you don't have to have a permit to carry a gun.

To me, that was just ignorant.

So what about these young mothers or single mothers who are trying to control young men typically?

How do we help them or how do we awaken them to their responsibilities?

I go back to President Obama.

There have to be consequences.

How do we do the consequences?

If they don't have the money to pay a fine to get their kid out of a hooseco, then we better start finding the fathers who have abandoned their responsibilities.

And how do we find the fathers?

Our police are already overburdened.

I don't know the answer to my questions.

I'm sorry.

Now, I almost dropped the paper, and I have copies back here.

When I read that Spike Lee of all people is focusing on family values.

And so I have copies of the article, and maybe he could give us some ideas about how we can break this cycle.

Before you answer, I have to say one thing, having retired recently from caring for young children.

There are a growing number of single fathers who are facing some similar challenges now.

I agree, you know, primarily as mothers, but there are single fathers, single parents, or sometimes grandparents who have taken on the role of raising children.

So the largest percentage may be single mothers, but it is a society as general people that are thrown into situations that they they don't know how or can't cope with that we have to really look at.

But last time I too, last time I knew it took two people for there to be a child on Earth primarily.

So I agree with you as single parent.

So I agree with you as a single parent it but we've got to find the other person, yes.

So you ask a uh a very important thing.

I don't have any answers.

No, no, no.

But I think maybe what generated I think your your question was that when this particular proposal came before the council, it was sent back to committee, and one of the reasons that it was sent back to committee uh goes to something that you know term that you had used, um, and that is um those fines exacerbate the cycle of poverty.

So, and especially for those families that single mothers, single fathers, genuinely.

So the question comes to how do we how do we show that actions have consequences, and is that the parent providing some form of community service, something that says I'm repaying for the for the damage that my offspring has caused.

But we have to be really thoughtful about that too, because that time is maybe time that could be spent working.

So it wasn't as easy as we'll impose a fine and that will make something better, because it might not, it might make it worse.

So, how can we thoughtfully go about this and in a way that is more collective and broader that that identifies the community not just not just as a monolith, but as various components of that.

That's that's one.

I made it a point, and and I think most of my colleagues have made it a point, that local government cannot do things alone at all, uh, and especially anymore.

That um it's a nice tune, by the way.

I like it, uh that when entities or organizations come to the city, um our funds are limited, that we must have community support, philanthropic support, and corporate support to function well as a city, and that includes the programs for fathers, um, because many fathers, you know, um we have a high incidence.

I would imagine that a number of those young young people who have been involved in uh acts of violence, um have fathers who were incarcerated, fathers who are dealing with addictions and so on.

We've got to factor that into the equation and work more collectively with those organizations more intentionally, not just hey, you know, they're out there and you know, here's a resource.

How do we weave them into the work of city government?

We actually function as members of the community, elected officials are members of the community, not a distinct body, so as members of the overall community, and as a body that is part of the overall community, how are we weaving in that support going back to for example this uh streets to home, which uh Rosemary just you know uh spoke about earlier, as opposed to us trying the city, trying to deal with it on our own.

I believe that we have wisely said we've got philanthropies out here, we've got corporations out here, we've got the faith organizations out here.

How are we doing this together?

We will have skin in the game, and this issue is not a government issue.

This issue is a city community issue, societal issue, it's a societal issue, and so the the way to make this work is folks must have skin in the game.

So on this first tranche of dollars for the streets to home, it was identified at 8.1 million dollars.

That was to safely and securely and you know, house uh 350 individuals who are without uh permanent shelter, and of that the city put it has put in a third.

That's for for for the first phase, and has teamed up with our faith organizations and our philanthropies to say if you can do your bit as well, we really can make a dent.

And as a member of government, I I recognize it really well that oftentimes people just want to say, how come you're not doing something?

Well, that doesn't take into account that sometimes we don't have the funds to do something, and it also doesn't take into account of what are you doing because it's not just a city function or a government function.

So when it comes to this you know, concern about our you know our children and and and curfew, um, it's more than we do we just find them.

Do we just impose a fine?

Where are the where are there other programs in this that provide other services for those kids to be a part of our churches, our synagogues, our mosques?

There are so many uh entities out here that are doing amazing things, but how often are they uh coming together and saying collectively, we have far more than we do individually.

Yeah, and we are looking intentionally looking, you know, very hard at how are we teaming with these other entities so that we are collectively solving these challenges and these issues, and uh you know, as I said, I I for one um most of my most of my colleagues believe it is an important element that we work collectively, we have to be intentional, uh otherwise we will not solve our collective challenges.

So, you know, we've got great organizations like fathers and families, you know, for example, that work to stabilize fathers, um, work to find housing for fathers, work to find employment for fathers, reunite them with their families, uh, find ways that they can maybe because they didn't have a great role model, it's possible.

How do you become a father?

You know, how do you become a good father that is a role model?

And once again, this sounds sounds horrible, but it that doesn't happen in the blink of an eye.

It requires intentionality year after year, but we have stake in the game, and we're putting money behind it as well to encourage others, and we're asking others to come together.

And here's something else.

In many of our philanthropies now, um, there's a discipline that they're showing that says you have a great idea, but entity, you know, entity A, you have a great idea, entity B has a similar idea, and then entity C also has a great idea, and you all are sort of focusing on the same things.

If you really want to do something, you have to come together and then come to us.

You partner, you come to us, and we will give you what we can towards this idea, this big idea.

Because we spend so much time and and we have so much redundancy that our dollars are not as well utilized because they're being broken into little bits versus a chunk that says we this chunk can burst through that wall, you know?

I could probably poke at that wall with my finger for you know a few days, and maybe I'll make a little hole, but all these fingers together are going to get through that, and that is that goes back to it's not just as easy, it's not just an easy thing of let's find parents.

No, we it's not enough.

Because there's the challenge that it will make it worse.

So, how are we doing it more collective?

You have to be careful that there's not it doesn't become competitive in the different groups.

Well, it is, it is competitive now.

And that is why I see I think it's so important.

They're protecting their terms right there.

There's some there's some ego death that has to happen.

And in order for us to really do something, and let's reduce the you know the redundancy.

You got you know, entity A has a backup house, entity B has a back of house, entity C has a backup house.

How about you come together and you have one back of the house?

Imagine more dollars that go into you know those programs, and I want us to be stricter on that.

That no, we're not funding 7,000 different organizations.

We'll fund seven organizations, and you guys will come with incredible horsepower and make a difference.

Okay.

I'm gonna ask if Jim would indulge me just a second.

So we're gonna go to Cecilia and then we'll go back here, and then we'll come back up to Jim.

I would just like to share a vision.

I am working with the children's museum, and as you know, I started the use what you got ministry 37 years ago when my son was in prison for armed robbery.

We were the only one in the state of Indiana.

I am the the Lord had given me a vision 20 years ago to start the only 24 hours, seven days a week family success center.

Now you're talking about children who have nothing to do at two and three in the morning.

The Children's Museum and I have met with Mabel Fall Creek to build a family success center.

This no one has ever heard this, no one knows the fact that it's children's museum and Jennifer Robinson, that would be over 24 hours, seven days a week with the basketball courts, give our kids something to do, a wait room to give our kids something to do at two or three in the morning, case workers to give our kids something to do, resources to give our kids something to do, and I understand it's been a difficult because I'm a mother and a woman who didn't who anyway is coming.

I am working on that.

God gave me a vision 20 years ago, and he shared Jennifer Pace has all the information.

The children's museum is working with me because I am working with children.

I understand drugs.

I understand kids being out, even though my kids grew up in Speedway and Eagle Creek, but they still my son still did something on that.

So I'm here to get something happening that would be open 24 hours, seven days a week.

I have met with Mabel to Fall Creek.

David Bacon has the plan.

IFF has the plan.

It's all I UP UI created the plan for me.

So it's document.

Okay.

Amen.

There you go.

A phrase I heard one time in a family gathering is we as prayers were being said, because one of the kids popped up and said, talk, talk, talk, when do we eat?

Yes.

Okay.

Um first I want to introduce myself.

I'm Shauna Murphy.

I'm the um I'm going into my fifth week as the executive director of the Martin Luther King Center.

And um, I live over here off the 39th in Broadway, and I raised my son here.

So the first thing just in relation to the conversation that we're having, I think it's important one that we don't pathologize the people that are engaged in these um in our communities because it's easier to isolate individuals, and I like look at the systemic reasons why our children and our younger dogs are engaging in certain behaviors.

Some of it is just a lack of anything else to do, but then some of it is what conversations are we having with the kids that are being picked up to understand why they are where they are.

And um when we talk about resident voice, um, I think that's a voice that we don't invite in because we've already seen them as being in trouble in some kind of way, but I worked with some um women who were coming from being incarcerated, and the one thing they said is the person who has the solution is the person that's closest to the problem.

And so as we think through the different ways that we are um strategizing to support our communities, our parents, and somebody said earlier, may I raise my child, whoo, I tell you, it's a hard thing.

And if you're you're working, you're doing all the things, and like with my kid, he just texts me, and like you raised in a certain way, but you're gonna be your own person.

And so, how do we um attract their voices?

My question for you, Mr.

Osley, is um in relationship to all the changes and cuts that have happened across the um pre-K and early childhood education communities.

Are there opportunities with this city to make up for some of that difference?

And what is the educational landscape looking like from the city-county council perspective?

It's a good that's a good question that you ask.

Um, this goes back to something I said a few moments ago.

We've got fantastic organizations out here that are addressing issues of education with our kids, and that's academic education that is other forms of education for our kids.

We've got to put into our DNA, into our city's DNA.

And we are and we are tempting, and we are trying.

That partnership works best than trying to do it alone.

And how do we how do we build up those other organizations?

How do we partner with them?

How do we get them to partner with others?

How do we engage more effectively our philanthropies to deal with the shortfalls that we know are coming or that we're already experiencing?

And in many ways, this has been a wake-up call.

This political environment has been a wake-up call.

That this is something that we should have been doing for years.

That the organizations that are doing fantastic work in their various silos need to be brought together.

We need to be partners with that.

We need to put seed money, we need we need to have skin in the game.

But the challenges are ours collectively.

And you know, in many ways, folks come to the city and say, you know, what are you doing?

And it's like, this is what we can do.

Well, let's pick up the phone and talk to you know, entity D or entity E.

And see how that partnership can work.

Um it is the it is the one way that I can that I can see going forward.

The uh I was blessed, I'll say this.

I was blessed to have uh a mother uh who grew up in Hallville and grew up in a time when segregation was at its peak, and she oddly you know said to my sisters and me on more than one occasion that those were like the best times of her life.

Now we were offended.

I'll tell you that right now.

We were repeatedly offended whenever she would talk whenever she would say that.

But we finally understood what she meant, and what she meant by it was we we knew where we could go, where we couldn't go.

Right, and there was a sense that we had our strength and our sense of being in being unified.

And we fight, we I think we have lost that.

We have looked to outside sources to meet our our interior needs.

And city government is not in a place to fill gaps, large gaps, it's gotta be collective.

And I mean, I'm gonna be preaching this probably for the next 50 years of my life.

And I mean, I realize it now more than ever, because we can't rely on the feds to supply us all of our needs.

Many of our needs can be met right here.

Right on our on our front step, right at the you know, at in our community centers, right?

Just we gotta do it.

So if there's a particular you know entity that you're thinking about, um, I know that the city would want to be engaged, but how much we can put behind it alone, uh, it's probably not a lot.

I don't know that it has to be a league with money, but some of the punitive measures that are in place for people who can be at home and be that source of support, particularly around early childhood education, qualifying for benefits, if I agree, over-reliance on any one structure is unsustainable.

But if people are being penalized for staying at home and being able to take care of their children, then that's more of a systemic issue than an individual issue, and it's not necessarily a city issue, but it percolates at the state, but it has real consequence in our community.

Sure.

I'm realizing that the state oftentimes is not that does not necessarily listen to the city.

Um then those if if we are passing down some form of penalty to someone to someone for doing what Ms.

Hades talked about, which was my kids, that is a that is a real job.

Then we need to know about it and find ways then that we can relieve that.

Uh I place that to you.

If we can identify person A, person B, whatever, that we're penalizing them for that, then that they they need to go into this network that I'm talking about.

How do we provide them a net that they don't fall through and the kids don't fall through and their families don't fall through?

Speaking of which, we of course would hope that Ms.

Rossa could stay with all morning, but I happen to know he has a family obligation.

In fact, in fact, how about this?

My wife's out of town, and um, you know, I mean she ran it, she's you know, she's a teenager.

But no, but no, no, no, no.

She's a she's a good, she's uh she's uh she I love it, she's a straight A student.

Um but I still have you know, because I'm sure my wife will be texting me like, so how's our daughter?

And I'm you know, I won't have an answer.

I'll be like, I don't know.

So I literally just a moment ago takes their like, so I could at least say I communicated with her is everything okay?

I had to is everything okay just in case I'm I'm questioning on that.

But no, she's I I wouldn't wake you next time.

Well, no, I mean I would.

In fact, she volunteers um at the MLK Center.

Yeah.

Do you know her?

I've not met her yet.

I just you know okay, yeah.

She volunteered all last year.

Um, she's into this.

But I'd love maybe a couple more questions.

I feel like if you've got time, we've got I feel like I I can check off a box of I've communicated.

James, I gotta get Ruth first, and then I'll come back to you, okay?

But she hasn't responded.

Uh by the way, I blame my mother for the fact that I'm sitting up here right now.

She's probably James.

If you'll indulge me briefly, I'm gonna flip to land use.

There was something very interesting on TV last night that a smaller company is looking to go to the old Sherman Drive drive-through movie place and build a smaller computer place.

Data center.

Yeah.

And I thought how wonderful.

We've got all of this bypassed property.

Let's use it.

They would be using utilities that are already in place.

They would not be um attacking a quiet neighborhood, feeling like they've been invaded.

Uh they'll keep the weeds down.

Uh I hope that your planning department, which is another subject, uh, which I won't even go to, that your planning department would really pursue that.

I'm not sure in all that that the Martinell Brightwood neighborhood would agree, but well, would would the neighbors prefer to see a vacant property going to hell with the weeds growing up, and probably all kinds of vandalism and so forth, or would they prefer to have a nice development, quiet development?

That's the question.

What's the major intersection there?

Not who are you talking about?

It's the old Sherman drive, drive in.

Sherman and what?

Movie theater.

Sherman and what?

I don't know.

I was like, North side, south side, give us Andrew D.

Know what the cross screen is like Sherman and 25th.

I don't know where this is.

I never went there.

Okay.

Yeah, it's like sure in the 25th area.

Okay.

Okay, that's fine.

Alan quickly.

I will be quick.

Uh, when they look into those projects, you have to look at also are they providing parking for their employees?

Yeah, I'm not done yet.

And what are they even talking to the neighborhood?

Because there's a lot of companies, especially that come from very large companies that are not on the philanthropic bench, because those in the philanthropic bench tend to talk to communities.

But and I think we're bringing you something, but that's not our job.

And so you may get intransible or however intransent neighbors, in other words, the ones who will not qualify.

So you don't know that.

And what is their plan?

Is it gonna be something nice looking, or are you gonna be looking at a 24 high five?

Probably look like the we don't you don't know, and right now we don't know either.

So I think that, like you said, uh Mr.

O'Connor, uh, I think that this business of them coming together, having a meeting, the neighborhood association could call the meeting with them because individuals who would come, but see what their plan is so they can present their plan to the neighborhood.

Maybe they come to some understanding at least.

If I could insert quickly, I think one of the biggest issues data or data, depending on who you want to talk to, centers are coming to Indiana.

That has been clear across the state.

The lack of transparency has been a huge stumbling block.

And perhaps where the city county council could go before we see more being proposed, whether they are large or small, is to step back and form a task force similar to what they've done in La Port County to look at the potential impacts and get some of those answers and demand some transparency before the crisis is at hand.

I couldn't agree with you more.

I think one of the one of the issues that we have with this major one was the lack of transparency.

Lack of getting answers timely, basic questions like power usage, water usage, potential impact, backup plans.

If you want to do something along these lines, you've got to engage, and you've got to engage early.

If you're going to be a good partner, why not make that obvious?

Yeah.

McCain of orders itself to be the unit fish between the neighborhood associations and the city.

James.

Quick question.

What happened to the Department of Correction probation department that the individuals came to the communities, and some of that time was donated to specific communities as requested.

Things like that.

We had a good pride, had a good program at one time.

We had a lot accomplished, a lot of buildings refurbished of vacant properties redone.

No calls.

Exactly.

Okay.

Zero calls, but giving back to the communities.

That program was cut out.

And we wish to have that program reinstated so we can make good use, not only of the individuals who were serving that probationary time or what a house arrest or work release or whatever to go back into helping and supporting the communities.

Great program.

He was.

That's information that you can track down.

That would be great.

We do want to be respectful of Bob's time.

So I'm going to take one last question.

Pat I because I don't have anything better to do.

I have read a bunch of different cities ordinances over time.

And one of the interesting, more interesting things, is that some of these cities will find when there's a code enforcement issue, and there are code enforcement issues, they will find once they get to the violation and it's not cleaned up, they will start finding on a weekly or a daily or a monthly basis rather than one fifty dollar fine.

So that amounts to the cost of doing business.

So with those funds, I I know they're, but code enforcement could have more officers or more teeth.

And also we see the whole the neighborhoods, as you would know, they see the zoning, the code enforcement, the variances requests, then code enforcement again and back to the court.

And then so we see that whole cycle, and the core, the city um uh prosecutor, they are woefully undermanned.

We will see a very significant code enforcement, and I know it's it's everywhere, but speaking personally, uh, in our community in Decatur, we will see um some violation go, and code enforcement has prepared the file, and it takes over a year for city the city prosecutor to be able to pick it up.

And it's not because they're slacking off, um, it's that they're they're undermanned, which means they're underfunded.

So I there are ways to get more money into code enforcement that other cities are already doing, and uh a $50 fine, and then the court only slaps a hundred dollar fine.

So it's not it's it's not a deterrent in any particular way.

So um something that could be looked into.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um I've got two things to uh to get back to you.

Um obviously the homework on what Pat asked about, but the one pager on anticipated federal funds and the and the impact on the anticipated federal funds that we know better than to a life.

Okay.

Um a couple of things real quick before we go, and then you get to have the last hurrah.

Um one of the concerns that we heard voice from neighborhoods was the continual turnover of staffing in the city that you know you establish a relationship with with somebody in the department or your MA or your department head, and then next thing you know, they're gone and somebody else is in place.

And another easy answer is well, we don't pay them enough.

And I think that could well be true, but there have to be other things that are going into the fact that we are seeing such turnover in the cities, and that makes it difficult for neighborhoods to cope with specific problems because every time a person changes, you gotta start all over again because there's no institutional knowledge left.

And so I know you don't have an answer to that, but that continual turnover of city staff has the city looked at why are people leaving.

Is it is it just the funding?

Is it is it we're just not paying them enough?

Throwing money at the problem doesn't always fix it.

Is it the residency requirement?

Is it the job expectations?

Is it a lack of clarity about what their duties are or hiring them for one thing and then expecting them to do something else?

Um and then the other one, and I'm not saying this just because Jane is here, but I'm going to.

Um over the years, the Marion County Health Department has proven to be a very valuable partner to the top of the neighborhoods of Marion County, and through different administrations, there's been a sense of confusion about you know, let's get rid of the Marion County Health Department, let's keep a Marion County Health Department.

Let's figure out who's gonna do what, and and and I hope I'm not stepping on anybody's toes.

Um, but I think that we would like to see that partnership between the Marion County Health Department and the City of Indianapolis strengthened and clarified about who can do what and what you keep talking about working together.

So here we have this incredible resource.

Let's make sure that we're using it and respecting their expertise and abilities because they bring a lot to the table.

We we do rely upon them, and so do our so do our constituents very much so.

I'm hoping it doesn't seem as though we are not in concert.

Well, I don't want me to put data on the spot because you know she's but but that and like it isn't just this administration, it's been previous administrations all across the board.

There was many years ago, there was a conservative effort to sunset the Marion County Health Department and get rid of them entirely.

I think where we're at right now is more confusion about who's responsible for what and that and it may not be confusion, the city and the health department may be clear, but it's not clear to neighborhoods.

How would you want us to make it more clear?

Um I put you on the spot, so I guess that was something documentary on the cooperation between the two.

Um I think that if um okay, a real good example is vacant and abandoned housing and lots.

Sure, there's still a huge amount of who do you call for which things it seems to me that those things go hand in hand and maybe trying to parse out the duties they should be coalesced to say this is the place that you call when you have an empty vacant abandoned property instead of well, you call them you call this one for that, and you call this one for that, and you call this one for that.

Very good.

So if there are duties where they overlap, or if there are duties that you know, the mayor's action center could help clarify things when somebody calls in that says if you have a vacant lot and you know who owns it and it's got high weeds and grass, this is who you call.

If you have a house that is empty, whether it appears abandoned, vacant, whatever, this is who you call.

So I think I think that would help some of the mayor's action center could be clearer about exactly who to contact.

Or they just transferred the call.

That would be another option.

Is there any way for there to be a cooperative sharing of information?

You know, to say, oh, the city can't take care of that, but I can transfer you to this department, instead of saying, here you're driving down the road, you see an abandoned property.

Here's a phone number.

Well, I'm driving down the road, I can't write that down.

A central clearing house.

And not everybody has a smartphone.

So telling them go online and do it, didn't work either.

Jim and what Jim a central clearing house.

Yes, and the central database of this information.

Ellen?

Just real quick.

Uh one gap I see in all the conversations.

And uh I run house.

Um the person the owner of the house, it's another house.

It's another house.

And they had a quarter order on them because they weren't paying rent, and finally when they left, they found that they she found that she they had been hoarding.

And it was going to cost her thousands to get it cleaned up.

I think that's a gap.

There seems to be ordinances and things that take care of they have too many pets, or you know it's really filthy, the board of health gets in.

What do you do with the hoarders?

Because that's a huge health risk, huge expense on the landlord.

It's a huge expense on the community, too, because it's always overflow, it's rarely contained.

Not to mention fire.

Well, yeah, but anyway, so um I think that uh a property owner does have the right, and I don't know, people are very uh unclear, including the property owners, or what is their right to examine the property after so many months, not looking for you know, minutia about and or being nosy, but with the rentor to say is this a major well fire hazard health hazard something before it gets so out of control takes thousands to clean it up, and it really does cost thousands to clean it up.

So I mean it's very helpful.

I appreciate that.

Um I I don't know the answer.

I mean to that.

No, I know that.

But but um I I'd like to have something that I can give back to Kathy.

Okay.

Do we already have that?

Or is that within our is that within our powers even to approve?

Or clause in the lease that demand that enables the property owner to have every six months or so.

Yeah, every six month inspection.

If they think about it, but this is an individual, so I think individuals are not aware of it.

And maybe it would be nice if there was a minimum number of things laid out on the city website there that uh that gives both the renter and the property owner the basic rights and that kind of an agreement.

So when you know from what's too far or what is permissible, okay.

All right, well, there is food for thought, and I I know I keep promising to let Bob finish up here, James.

Well, I wanted to kind of help Bob with this one.

You know, he probably agreed with me on this one.

You know, we we go through our channels, you know, neighborhood associations, we go through our channels.

We when neighbors have uh complaints, usually that's the that's the best way to get things done is through your neighborhood association and uh have a point of contact.

I mean, we have to do some things ourselves, you know, to help and and make Bob's job easier and also the uh a mayor's liaison as well, because when we do things, we have complaints, we invite the right people to the neighborhood association, but we also have to do our homework too before we make a uh a complaint.

So we have the the neighbor, the the home address, the lot number, I mean, which is easily to be done, county assessors and so forth.

When we make those uh uh those assertions ourselves, it it helps everybody.

And so uh just like if we have a a house with a problem, uh we may not know the owner, but we uh uh call the uh get the complaint to the uh mayor liaison.

Uh I'm just saying from the bottom, the bottom very bottom.

Go to the uh mayor's liaison, uh they'll look it up.

Bob may so happen, whoever the councilman may be in that area, may be at the meeting, so they mark that off on their calendar, such as Bob does most of the time he's at our meetings, and uh he looks into it himself, or the mayor's liaison gets back to us so that we can do what we need to do.

Okay, good.

All right, Bobby concluding comments you want to make here?

No, I appreciate uh the opportunity to be here with everyone uh today, and we'll circle back on the things that I committed to.

Okay, and uh it is always just great to to be here.

I wish I could I wish you invite me more.

You are willing.

You are welcome to come.

Any time so we'll work on the next date.

Okay, very good.

Get the word out.

All right, all right.

Thank you all.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, so we'll make sure that we get Bob back with us more often.

Um Dame, I wanted to ask very quickly because there's a lot of information out there now about childhood immunizations and where we're going and who's gonna get them.

I want to clear up.

Does the Marion County Health Department still make childhood immunizations available?

Yes, indeed.

And have any of the Indiana state laws at this point changed about immunization requirements for schools that you are aware of?

No.

Okay.

Not that I'm aware of.

We are still advocates for protecting our children's health.

We understand that it's up to the parents what they want to do.

I have not reviewed what the Indiana State Legislature has said about vaccines, but the Marion County Public Health Department has not changed its position.

And you know that Dr.

Kane is an infectious disease specialist.

That is her practice, so she's not going to change that.

Okay.

Okay.

We want to, you know, James made a very valid point.

Um and we heard this reiterated last month by a new attendee.

We have to take some responsibility as a community and make sure that we are being advocates for ourselves.

And yes, I do get on the social media platforms, but just complaining on Facebook or Twitter or X or whatever platform use, just put posting of complaint about something online does not get the job done.

And that's something that we really need to work on.

Social media has a valuable platform.

McCana uses Channel 16.

You know, we're using the internet.

And those are valuable tools, but we still have to not rely just on putting something out there in the cloud and thinking something's going to happen because we did that.

So now I want to jump back to what we the conversation that we started last month that was an initiative to provide opportunities for, and yes, we're going to use the internet to provide support for each other across the county.

What we identified that there were several broader issues, things like we all need to have our roads fixed and we need to find out you know what's going to happen with the increased fees from BNS.

Is that going to go to help fund a more adequately staffed prosecutor's office to handle those code advice enforcement things?

But then we also talked about identifying very specific issues in your neighborhood where you need extra voices and extra help to reach the decision makers.

And what we talked about, and I think what we're going to move forward with is establishing either one to start with, one or two days a month for each township.

And I realize that each township has hundreds and hundreds of problems.

But trying to highlight a specific area or problem that has needed some attention, and we keep going back to the alley behind the post office.

But but that's one that does need to be addressed.

So that we can say, you know, let's say this week or this date on the calendar for Wayne Township, there is this problem.

Here's the information that you need to have to be able to speak intelligently about it.

We would like for everybody across the county to call, write, email your counselor and say we are in support of this neighborhood trying to get this problem resolved.

This is going to be a bumpy process because I know that there's going to be competing people who want to have the same day.

It isn't going to be a perfect process, but we have to do something to try and make sure that we are supporting our neighbors all across the county.

Because it is one of those situations where, of course, the problem that you want to see addressed first is the one that's in your backyard.

But we can't do it by ourselves.

So in October at our meeting, um, I will have a form out on the table for that people can take to identify a specific issue in their neighborhood, in their area, on their street that they would like to see addressed.

What we need to have from neighborhoods in order to participate in this is some specific information.

The address, pictures if you have it available, so that if you know, if I live in Washington Township and I want to try and provide to somebody support to somebody in Pike Township, I I don't drive through that township all the time.

I need to have more information, but it also has to be kind of high-level and succinct.

It can't be a three-page-long dissertation.

So I want you to go back to your neighborhoods and think real hard.

Talk to people in your neighborhoods if you can, in your neighborhood association who live next door to you, who go to school with your kids.

What are they complaining about most?

Is it the pothole that is in the middle of Southeastern Avenue?

Is it that they put the barricades on East Washington Street in a place where nobody can figure out how to get around the detour?

That happened to me this morning on the way here, by the way.

Now coming off of Southeastern onto Washington Avenue where they started doing the construction out.

Okay.

Oh, isn't that a good thing?

Oh, yes.

Yes, and I have to take a really large detour.

Yeah.

But we want to, you know, sometimes problems are so big that you really do have to start with the small stuff first.

Um, and you and that gives you traction to say, look, that lot has been overgrown and filled with trash for years, but look what happened.

Now it's not.

That gives you a little bit of traction and a little bit of hope.

In talking to people from who are younger than me, which is pretty much most of the planet now, I think.

What you hear now is just this kind of sense of hopelessness and helplessness that it doesn't matter what we say or do, it ain't gonna make any difference.

And for some of them, it turns to so I'm gonna pick up a gun and shoot whoever I want to, but it's just this sense of hopelessness, and we've got to get past that because I'm not getting any younger.

Someday that's the generation that's going to be taking care of me.

We have to get everything to a place where people feel like their voice is being heard.

Now, in order to do this, I spent some time thinking about okay, what do we call this initiative task force, whatever you want to call it.

Uh what's telling somebody else?

I kept coming up with neighbors, or was it neighbors?

I don't know, it was nuns was the acronym in the name that we and I thought, no, we can't call ourselves nuns.

So I want you to think about because it's easy to do, you gotta have something that is identifiable that will catch people's attention, and I don't have the answers to it.

So I also want you to be thinking about what we could we call this.

We don't want to repeat something that some other name that somebody else already has.

We want it to be easily identifiable so you can say, you know, McCana on the happy neighborhoods.

This is the the committee for neighbors helping neighbors or you know, hands across the county, or whatever you want to call it.

I'm I'm not good at branding.

So if you've got an idea for what to call this initiative that can help give us an identity, I would love to hear from you.

What?

Bitches.

Better infrastructure through.

I'm not sure you can say that in the basement of a church.

No, no, can't.

Although there were some acronyms like that that did uh we're talking being tossed around at a meeting on the app.

We don't want to use that word.

Okay.

Yeah, I thought I'm just gonna so give that some thought because I don't want this.

I want like I said, this is going to be bumpy.

We've never tried anything like this.

I'm sure that we're gonna have times when we're not doing it right, but at least let's do something.

Yeah, yes.

So, with that, anybody have any thoughts or comments about issues?

Ellen?

It's not even an issue.

I think that uh neighborhood involvement has almost skipped a generation.

So I really really encourage get those 20 somethings involved and early 30 somethings.

That doesn't mean you don't get the other ones involved, but the other ones usually a lot of other things have formed them for many reasons.

So I find myself with somebody who's on an old older person, that I have a much easier time communicating and working with people in their 20s and your late 30s, because I see myself in them.

It's like we've gone full circle to I was them at that point.

Yeah.

So uh don't even think it's gonna be somebody around your age.

You'd be pleasantly surprised, you know.

And I'm trying unfortunately, the media is saying these Generation Zs are not involved, they're not they're lazy.

That's not what I see at all.

They have great ideas or work really hard, and uh they're a joy to work with, and they seem to have less prejudice across the board.

Well, you know, can we just stop pointing fingers and blaming everybody else and you know exactly we can we could sit in this room for two hours every month and figure out who we can blame, or we can figure out how to fix it.

That's right.

So, any other questions, comments, upcoming events?

Okay, um I have one.

Yes, ma'am.

About your how you just presented this forming of this committee, whatever it turns out to be.

What I get asked a lot is when you when you make a plea like that, include how to go about it because a lot of people don't know how to even identify who their counselor is, who their congress people are.

So either either provide a phone number or a website or a email address.

Once you gather your information and you're ready to submit it, who'd who to submit it to, how to submit it.

That's a good idea.

So try to make a real quick suggestion.

Uh-huh.

Always use your little spy glass thing.

Search in most the city, the state, and federal, most of those little searches get you to the spot close to the spot you want to be in.

That's true.

But if we consolidate all that information in one place rather than say go look for this yourself.

Say we will try to get it, but here's another way you you probably could find that give them alternative ways to find it.

Because I also did a lot of complaints, which goes back to what you said.

A lot of complaints about people saying you've got to stop relying on social media.

But most of the people in my neighborhood association are older than me, and I'm retired, so and I, you know, I just I struggle because everything on the internet has changed since I was in the workforce where I was taught how to do with a lot of changes.

So yeah, I mean, we have so many people in our group that don't even have cell phones.

Well, and you know, I I I think that's true, and I do use the computer, but I am not I would not consider myself to be computer literate by any means.

I run into obstacles all the time because I don't carry a smartphone.

There is an assumption that everybody on earth has the same level of knowledge and the same access to technology.

Right.

And I and I think you're right.

One of the things that I found out in my own township is when somebody calls me with a problem, I can say, well, I can I can do this for you, or I can tell you how to do it.

But sometimes I don't know how to do it.

So then I'm calling somebody else and going, things like I can't figure out how to post a PDF to Facebook.

I'm sure there's a way to do it.

I don't know what it is.

That's another reason to get these young folks in that do it every day.

And do this for me and can figure it out.

Well, I I retired three years ago, and when we first started our business, um, you know, you did everything by paper.

You deposited your payroll taxes at the bank and you wrote paper checks and you filled out your forms and you mailed them in, and by the time we closed 42 years later, everything had to be done online.

So I think for a lot of people who are especially in the what are they called the baby boomer generation?

Yeah.

You know, that's a struggle.

It's a struggle for me.

It's a struggle, you know.

My mom's almost 90 years old.

She doesn't even have a computer.

We can't just assume that the internet, while useful, is going to take care of everything for us.

Well, I just can't.

I mean, I I was told to my face by two folks at a community thing that we had a table at.

Why should I care about my neighbor?

What what do we do about that?

Seriously.

You know, and that's rampant.

It's like people don't, they're not kind to other people, they don't care about other people.

Well, I have to I have to tell a and I think that's true about talking story.

My wife said my mom is older.

Um her garage door got left up.

So it's like 11:30 at night, I'm getting a text, and it happened to be her neighbor across the street and her neighbor next door, who are both a couple of generations away from her, that saw her garage door open.

They were they were concerned about going to her house in the middle of the night.

So they called me, but here were young people, they they they had my phone number.

But but that's why you care about people, her garage door is up.

They don't they don't go have coffee with each other every day, they don't sit in the backyard, but they took the time to let me know her garage door was up so we could get her house secure.

You know, if I were gone from my home, I would like to think that even if I don't go out and you know shake hands with my neighbors every morning, then we're kind of watching out for each other.

But that's hard.

Why should I care about my neighbor?

Because you want them to care about you.

Okay, well, if there is nothing else to go on this morning, our next meeting is October the 18th at nine o'clock, and I hope to see you and bring somebody with you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alrighty, thank you all for coming and enjoy the rest of your day.

And don't forget.