City Council Meeting – Monday, June 21, 2021

The June Fishers City Council Meeting will be held on Monday, June 21 at 7pm.  I warmly encourage you to participate.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING

How to Observe and Participate in the City Council Meeting at City Hall.

Masks are optional for fully vaccinated people. Unvaccinated people are highly encouraged to wear a mask. Seating will continue to be spaced a few feet apart.

• 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 any Public Hearings during the meeting – and during Community Comment, which is held at the end of every 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 address the City Council for up to three minutes each. The council members are not required to resolve or respond to your comments at that moment. Usually, pathways are identified for follow-up and additional dialogue.
• 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. You can find the videos in the Agenda Center. Click on the TV icon under the “Media” column.

City Council Meeting

The City Council Meeting agendas are available here, under the City Council header. Each agenda has items on it that appear in blue. These are links to open the supporting documents.

Here’s a rundown of this meeting’s agenda items and my interpretation of them.

2.  Announcements. One of the City Council announcements at this meeting is a recognition of Pride Month.

5. Finance Committee Report. 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.
   I try to attend every Finance Committee meeting. At the recent meeting, it was announced that Fishers will receive $6.9 million from the American Rescue Plan. This is the new plan that provides direct relief to citizens, local governments and schools to contain COVID-19 and rescue the economy. The $6.9 million that the City of Fishers will receive must be spent by Dec 2024 on specific things only:
   
   • Reimbursement and expenses related to COVID-19
   • Grants to assist small businesses, non-profit organizations and industries impacted by the pandemic
   • Water, sewer and broadband projects
     
     I anticipate Mayor Fadness and the City Council working together to determine how the $6.9 million could be best invested for our community.

NOTE: There is no Health Department Update on the agenda, as there has been for the past several months. Fishers’ current COVID community risk rating has recently decreased to Yellow-Level 2 Moderate. The Fishers Health Department’s first Annual Report is currently available for review.

6. Consent Agenda.
   There are two items on the Consent Agenda.
   Item a. is approval of last month’s City Council meeting 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.
   One of these transfers had been authorized by the City Council in a resolution in April. The final resolution approved the Fishers Police Department request of up to $25,000 to replace the gun racks (gun storage) in police vehicles that proved to be breachable. The resolution allows this transfer of money collected in the Forfeiture Fund (assets seized during criminal investigations) to pay for new gun racks.
   
   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

7. Stevanato Agreement. The Stevanato Group is an Italian pharmaceutical (syringes/vials) company that plans employ over 200 in the next four years and invest $145 million in their new, 370,000 square-feet US plant located in Fishers at 126^th St and Cumberland Road. This resolution offers Stevanato incentives to come to Fishers. These incentives include transferring 33 acres to the company, waiving 100% of their personal property taxes and providing a $2.4 million commercial property grant. The Indiana Economic Development Corp is also offering Stevanato tax credits and grants. Also see agenda item #8.
   City of Fishers Press Release

Budget/Financial

8. Lease Between Fishers Redevelopment Authority and Fishers Redevelopment Commission. This resolution would authorize a $27 million bond (loan) to purchase property at 126^th St and Cumberland Road for Stevanato (see agenda item #7) and the SE corner of 116^th and Allisonville Road (the site of the demolished Lin’s Foot Spa building) as well as funding infrastructure improvements. Tax Increment Financing (TIF) will repay the loan. The loan would be backed by Local Income Tax (LIT), thereby securing better interest rates.
   The Fishers Redevelopment Authority and Fishers Redevelopment Commission would also need to approve these actions to move forward.

9. Reimburse Expenditures for Fire Station Project. On June 7, 2021, the HSE School Board approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Fishers. The agreement transfers 3 acres of land that HSE Schools owned to the City of Fishers and the City of Fishers hosts HSE student experiential programs on city property – Ritchey Woods, the Agripark, Hub + Spoke, etc.
   This agreement allows the city to move forward with construction of Fire Station 97 at 136^th and Prairie Baptist Rd to cover an area of our community that is detrimentally far away from the nearest emergency services.
   
   This resolution allows design and sitework to begin immediately because the soonest that the City Council could approve the bond (loan) is next month. This resolution authorizes the city to use $9.4 million in city funds now – and pay it back with the bond when the bond is issued soon. In July, the City Council will consider approving the bond. Fire Station 97 design and land costs were planned for and included in the 2021 City Budget that the City Council approved last fall.
   
   I applaud this partnership between HSE Schools and the City of Fishers and am looking forward to Fire Station 97 serving well those Fishers residents who live on the NE side of our city.

Government/Miscellaneous

10.  City Council Taskforce. At the January 2021 City Council meeting, I stated my concern about how the City Council appointed individuals to Boards & Commissions and overall lack of diversity. In response to my concern, it has been proposed that a new Rules Committee delve into these appointments and formalize an improved nomination/selection procedure to ensure transparency and diversity. The Rules Committee would also formalize other procedures for the City Council.
    
    Formal and legal city government steps must be taken to create a new “Rules Committee” of the Fishers City Council.
    
    It was quickly discovered that the two current City Council Committees haven’t been formalized either. City Council Committees are committees whose makeup are exclusively members of the Fishers City Council.
    
    There are two other City Council Committees – the Finance Committee and the  Non-Profit Committee. I am a member of the Non-Profit Committee.
    
    This resolution would essentially create a committee to document and formalize City Council committees! This committee is called the Committee Task Force and would probably eventually become the new Rules Committee.

Planning & Zoning

There are a few 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.

11. & 12. Fiscal Plan and Voluntary Annexation, Playschool at Saxony, 13149 E 131^st St. The childcare facility is planning an expansion. I am paying close attention to details of the expansion that some residential neighbors have expressed concerns about. FINAL READING.

13. & 14. Fiscal Plan & Voluntary Annexation, Giulioni, 11178 E 131st Street. East of Promise Road and across the street from Fishers High School. FINAL READING.

15. Text Amendment to Municipal Airport District. 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. The City of Fishers has been aggressively pursuing corporate development in this area for a while. Variances are being requested for the distribution center’s front setback. FINAL READING.

**A virtual Town Hall is scheduled for Tuesday, June 22, at 6:30pm.**

This webinar is open to any Fishers or Indianapolis resident who would like to join in. Local elected officials, the developer and City of Fishers staff members will be in attendance to provide information and hear citizens’ concerns and questions.

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.

When: Tues Jun 22, 2021 at 6:30 PM

Topic: Indianapolis Metro Airport Development – Virtual Town Hall Meeting

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://zoom.us/j/92259318268?pwd=bW9TQ3BGdXBYVkFSaEJOajdQNzFkUT09

Passcode: 938394

Or dial by phone,

312-626-6799

Webinar ID: 922 5931 8268

Passcode: 938394

16. Update to 2040 Comprehensive Plan. The City of Fishers’ 2040 Comprehensive Plan is the important master document that was originally crafted five years ago that articulates the vision and priorities for the city for the next two decades! This resolution finalizes the revisions to the plan that are proposed as the document’s five-year update. Updates have recently been made to the city’s planning document in these areas: Land Use, Housing/Neighborhoods, Transportation, and Parks. I encourage you to take a look at the 2040 webpage to review the draft and learn about the vision for your city.
    I served on the Housing/Neighborhoods committee that was charged with proposing updates to that chapter of the document. I enthusiastically support the commitment to hire a consultant and engage a citizen task force to dive into our city’s housing needs and long-term solutions. FINAL READING.

17. Temporary Signs for SR 37 Businesses. This ordinance temporarily allows businesses affected by SR37 construction to install additional signage to assist their customers. FIRST READING is the first, but not final, consideration of a matter.

18.  Changes for Uses of 25,000 Square Feet+ Commercial Spaces. This is a proposed change to the City’s Unified Development Ordinance. The UDO is an important document of our city’s development and construction standards. The proposed revision would require City Council approval for some types of new tenants of big box store buildings, like Fry’s Electronics near I-69/96^th St. If the new tenant of a big vacant space is retail, commercial, place of worship, or a school, City Council would review, could add conditions for the betterment of the neighborhood and community, and must vote to approve. (Medical, office, industrial and manufacturing would be exempt and not need City Council review and approval.) FIRST READING is the first, but not final, consideration of a matter.

Regular Items

19. Unfinished/New Business.

20. 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. 🙂