The May Fishers City Council Meeting will be held on Monday, May 17 at 7pm. I warmly encourage you to participate.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
How to Observe and Participate in the City Council Meeting
I am not certain if masks are still required in City Hall or if seating will still be limited to ensure social distancing. I have inquired about that and will provide update when I receive information.
- The meeting will be held in-person and will be open to in-person attendees.
- A video of the meeting will be broadcast live starting at 7pm on Monday so you can watch from home. This is a way to observe the meeting only.
- In-person attendees are welcomed to address the City Council during the Public Hearings during the meeting and during Community Comment at the end of the meeting.
- Fishers residents are also welcomed to submit public comments electronically prior to the meeting. All comments submitted before the meeting will be presented to City Council members. These comments are not read aloud but become part of the official meeting minutes. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now. Select “City Council Meeting” and that will open a comment box for you to type in. Submit your comments by noon on Monday, the day of the meeting, so they can be distributed before the meeting.
- “Community Comment” at the end of each City Council meeting is always open for your comment on any Fishers topic. This is an “open mic” opportunity for 10 Fishers residents to each address the City Council for three minutes.
- Meeting agendas and past meeting minutes can be found here, under City Council tab.
- Past meeting videos are supposed to be posted within 48 hours of the meeting. Sometimes, you can find the videos here, in the Agenda Center, the TV icon under the “Media” column. Sometimes, City Council meeting videos are to be posted here.
City Council Meeting
The City Council Meeting agendas are available here, under the City Council header. As always, the agenda has items that appear in blue that are links to open the supporting documents. Here’s my rundown of this meeting’s agenda items and my interpretation of them.
5. Finance Committee Report. I don’t expect a report this month, since the Finance Committee’s May meeting was cancelled. (I look forward to the Finance Committee presentation at each month’s City Council meeting. Since City Council is responsible for fiscal oversight, this monthly report is very important but usually brief and informal.)
6.Health Department Update. Fishers’ current COVID community risk rating is Orange-Level 3 Significant. The Fishers Health Department’s first Annual Report is currently available for review.
7. Consent Agenda.
There are two items on the Consent Agenda.
Item a. is approval of last month’s City Council meeting minutes and the May 13 Council Retreat minutes.
Item b. transfers funds. These actions transfer funds within the city budget, which is needed periodically. The transfers do not adjust the bottom line at all. This is a transfer of dollars from one budget category to another to avoid a negative balance in a category.
The Consent Agenda is a grouping of routine reports that should be approved in one swift action, instead of approving each one separately. I believe that all items included on the Consent Agenda should be approved as presented and approved unanimously. If not, the item that requires a revision, abstention, or other action needs to be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered as a separate voting item.
REGULAR AGENDA
Economic Development
8. 2020 Tax Abatement CF-1s. Some of the City of Fishers’ Economic Development Agreements with companies provide tax abatements for the company. This allows the company to receive a deduction from the company’s owed tax payment. In return for lower (or no) tax payments, the company guarantees specific investment/employment commitments that benefit the City. Each Economic Development Agreement includes a “clawback” which require a payback of the tax abatements if the investment/employment commitments are not met by the company. The CF-1 form is used by the company to annually report the company’s compliance with their commitments.
Each year, companies like Braden, Flexware and Four Day Ray in the downtown Nickel Plate District and every company that have been provided tax abatements (deductions) by the City must submit a Compliance with Statement of Benefits Forms (CF-1) related to each of their respective abatements. The City is required to annually review each company’s CF-1 to determine whether each has substantially complied with its respective Statement of Benefits and, if it has not, whether the failure to substantially comply was caused by factors beyond the control of the company. Fifteen companies’ CF-1 form has been reviewed by the City Economic Development Director and found to be in compliance. One company is out of compliance. These CF-1 forms for each company is public record.
The company that is out of compliance is ThyssenKrupp Presta, an automotive tech company that came to Fishers in 2018 and is located on Exit 5 Parkway, behind TopGolf. ThyssenKrupp Presta’s Economic Development Agreement was executed in 2018. The company received a 5-year 100% personal property tax abatement and a $50,000 grant for a 150 Full Time Employees by Dec 2020. Their current FTE count is 84. ThyssenKrupp Presta will receive a Notice from the City about their lack of compliance.
Planning & Zoning
There are several voluntary annexations that are being considered at this meeting. When a property owner located in an unincorporated area would like to be annexed into the City of Fishers, a public hearing is held at a city council meeting to discuss. Many times, a property owner wants to improve the property and/or start receiving city services. Fishers has so many unannexed parcels that our incorporated city map is sometimes called “swiss cheese.” In general, an annexation is a positive action for both the city and the property owner. A Fiscal Plan is also required to document the estimated costs the city will incur to provide services to the annexed territory, like police, fire, sewage, etc.
9. Voluntary Annexation, Playschool at Saxony, 13149 E 131st St. PUBLIC HEARING. The childcare facility is planning an expansion. I am paying close attention to particular details of the expansion that some residential neighbors have expressed concerns about.
A PUBLIC HEARING means that any resident is invited to comment on this topic. This is the only opportunity to make a comment and address the City Council on this specific matter.
If you attend the City Council meeting in-person, you may comment on this matter during this part of the meeting. The City Council President will open the public hearing by asking if anyone would like to speak. If no one indicates that they want to speak, the public hearing can be closed quickly. So, please indicate immediately that you have something to say when the public hearing is opened. Otherwise, you may miss your chance.
Fishers residents are also welcomed to submit public comments electronically prior to the meeting. All comments submitted before the meeting will be presented to City Council members. These comments are not read aloud but become part of the official meeting minutes. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now. Select “City Council Meeting” and that will open a comment box for you to type in. Submit your comments by noon on Monday, the day of the meeting, so they can be distributed before the meeting.
10. Voluntary Annexation, 11178 E 131st Street. East of Promise Road and across the street from Fishers High School. PUBLIC HEARING.
11. Voluntary Annexation, Hidden Oaks Subdivision. North of 113th St on West side of Southeastern Parkway.
Agenda Items #12 and #13 are about a new distribution center being proposed at the Metropolitan Airport.
12. Utility Easement Vacation of the Airport Authority. 2nd Reading. This is a matter to prepare the 38 acres for the development of a 310,000 square feet distribution center at the Metropolitan Airport by Scannell Properties. The Indianapolis Star reported on this proposed development recently, which helped to notify more nearby residents and provided me additional information, too. Although the City of Fishers has been aggressively pursuing corporate development in this area for a while, “Mayor Scott Fadness had said previously he would prefer not to have large general warehouses move in…” This is the current Metropolitan Airport Master Plan, released in 2016.
13. Text Amendment to Municipal Airport District. FINAL READING. Variances are being requested for the distribution center.
14. Unfinished/New Business.
15. Community Comment. All comments submitted through the online are supposed to be provided to the city council members before the meeting and become a part of the meeting’s official record. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now. Select “City Council Meeting” and that will open a comment box for you to type in. Submit your comments by noon on Monday, the day of the meeting, so they can be distributed before the meeting.
Meeting adjourned!
If you have any comments or questions, please send them my way. Email is a good way to get a hold of me.
Thank you for reading all of this. 🙂