Fishers City Council Meeting – September 21, 2020

Sep 20, 2020

The September Fishers City Council Meeting will be held on Monday, September 21 at 7pm. Here’s a summary for your information and I encourage you to participate.

Public Participation

  • A video of the meeting will be broadcast live starting at 7pm on Monday, June 15, so you can watch from home.
  • Fishers residents are welcomed to submit public comments electronically prior to the meeting. All comments received before the meeting will be presented at the meeting and will be part of the meeting’s Community Comment. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now. Please submit your comments as soon as possible, before noon on Monday, September 21 is ideal.
  • “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 any Fishers resident to address the City Council for three minutes.
  • There are two items on this meeting agenda which include a Public Hearing. A public hearing means that any resident is invited to comment on this particular topic. A public hearing is the only opportunity to make a comment and address the City Council on this specific action item before a final decision is made.
  • 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, under the “Media” column. Sometimes, City Council meeting videos are to be posted here.

Meeting Agenda

The September City Council Meeting agenda is available here. As always, the agenda has items that appear in blue that are links to open the supporting documents. Here’s my rundown of the meeting agenda items and my interpretation of them.

  1. Finance Committee Report.
    This committee met last on September 16 to review the proposed 2021 budget. Usually, the Finance Committee meets and discusses the Budget/Financial items before these items appear on the City Council agenda. The most recent Finance Committee meeting minutes are available to review.
  2. Consent Agenda.
    There is only one item on the Consent Agenda. 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.Last month’s City Council Meeting Minutes. The last several pages of the meeting minutes include the public comments that were submitted electronically last month from residents. As an attachment, these public comments are included in the official meeting record.

REGULAR AGENDA

Economic Development

  1. Economic Development Agreement with Maple Del Development. This is a proposed new residential development off of 116th Street, between Chatham Tap and Charleston Crossing subdivision. The developer, Hageman Group, has already purchased the neighborhood of 17 homes in order to demolish the homes and acquire the land to develop. Their proposal, in partnership with developer JC Hart, would create 197 residential units here – 164 garden-style units, 18 three-story townhomes, and 8 two-story patio homes. The developers are asking the city to help them finance the $30 million project. They are requesting that a bond (a loan) be issued that is backed by the developer and paid off through TIF revenues. In this agreement, the City would allow the developer to not pay the City for the additional property taxes that would be incurred when the property is developed and increases in value. Instead, that additional tax revenue would be used to pay off the bond. The City can only use these incremental tax revenues, not current City funds, to pay off this bond.
     
  2. Amended Project Agreement with Nickel Plate Hotel. A Project Agreement with SPF15/First Internet Bank for the Nickel Plate Hotel was finalized in December 2019. This agenda item changes the deadline for the closing of the project from Dec 31, 2020 to June 30, 2022. The date extension is necessary because of pandemic-related delays. The Nickel Plate Hotel will be a 110-room boutique hotel located on the southside of 116th Street, alongside the six-story First Internet Bank headquarters. This building is currently being constructed. The City of Fishers had already agreed to waive fees and provide a payment of a $2.1 Million incentive from the downtown TIF fund for development and construction costs. This action changes the closing date only.

Budget/Financial

  1. 1st Reading of the 2021 Budget. The budget requires final vote to approve by City Council at the October 19 meeting. There is no available information on the budget to share because the estimate of 2021 County Income tax revenue that the City can expect to receive changed substantially just a few days ago. Larry Lannan posted good information about the budget situation and Mayor Fadness’ comments about it. I believe that the City Council and the public will receive the 2021 budget proposal from Mayor Fadness for the first time at this meeting.
    One required step to finalizing a city’s municipal budget is the Public Hearing. After the Mayor presents the budget, the public will be invited to step forward and ask questions or make comments about the budget. This is the first and only time that public comments will be accepted on the budget before the final vote at the October meeting.
  2. Approve Excess Levy Petition. This action is a necessary step for the City to generate the property tax revenue to fund the new Fishers Health Department in 2021. A city is allowed to levy a property tax to fund a city health department. The amount has to be $0.01 per $100 of assessed value which is estimated to be about $650,000 new revenue for the city. The city has to prove that they will levy this exact amount, which will increase the city’s maximum levy threshold, and are doing so because the city is providing new services to residents that the city wasn’t providing before. Legally, this process requires this resolution. Bottom Line: the city is collecting a new tax on citizens to fund the new city health department. BUT, Fishers residents will now be exempt from the county’s property tax of $0.01 per $100 of assessed value that funds the county health department.
  3. 1st Reading of the 2021 Salary Ordinance. Proposes a 3% raise for all city employees. Revisions to staff positions:

Health Department/Permitting & Inspections Department

  • Adds Epidemiologist, Health Educator, and Nurse to Health Department
  • Changes Building Commissioner title to Building Commissioner and Environmental Health Services Coordinator in the Permitting & Inspections Department

Engineering

  • Adds new position of Senior Infrastructure Inspector
  • Changes Traffic Technician title to Asset Manager

Public Relations Department is now Community and Public Relations Department

  • Change Director of PR title to Director of Community and Public Relations
  • Adds Volunteer Coordinator
  • Adds Community Engagement Coordinator

Administration

  • Changes Director of Economic Development to Director of Economic and Community Development; moves into a higher salary grade

Public Works

  • Adds Inspector – Water Quality
  1. Transfer Real Estate to the Fishers Redevelopment Authority. This is a procedural step related to the permanent financing of the transportation bond.

Government/Miscellaneous

  1. 1st Reading of a proposed Amendment to the Animal Ordinance. I don’t see that the proposed amendment or revision has been provided.
  2. Final Vote on the Grantham Proposal. These properties are located at Southeastern Parkway and 113thStreet, approximately 16065 Southeastern Pkwy, near Hamilton Southeastern Intermediate/Jr High School. Development of a housing subdivision of 290 lots is being proposed. The developer wants to receive approval to create a Planned Unit Development, which allows for alterations in the current zoning requirements for these 157 acres. There have been numerous concerns from neighbors and other Fishers residents about the negative impact that this development could have on the serene character of this unique area, traffic, safety, school capacity, etc. The developer has been communicative and agreeable to adjacent neighbors request to lessen impact to their properties. This is the final vote.
     
  3. Annexation of the land for the Grantham Project. If the project is approved, the next step is to annex into the City these 5 parcels that are currently unincorporated.

Regular Items

  1. Unfinished/New Business.
  2. Community Comment. The first 10 people to sign up before the meeting begins have the opportunity to speak for three minutes each on any city matter. “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 any Fishers resident to address the City Council. In addition, Fishers residents are welcomed to submit public comments electronically prior to the meeting. All comments received before the meeting will be presented at the meeting and will be part of the meeting’s Community Comment. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now. Please submit your comments as soon as possible, before noon on Monday, September 21 is ideal. 
  3. 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. If you would like to leave a voicemail, please ring me at 888-518-7117.