The June Fishers City Council Meeting will be held on Monday, June 20, 2022. I warmly encourage you to participate.
WORK SESSION
A Work Session will be held at 6:30pm, prior to the 7pm City Council Meeting. No action is taken at a Work Session. It is a gathering of the city council members to gather information about a specific topic. Work Sessions are always open to the public to observe. It will be held in City Hall.
The topic for this work session is Code Enforcement. It is a follow-up from last month’s meeting. Councilor Stoller asked to have a report listing the developers with the number of permits they have received, violations received, and dollars they have been fined to date.
How to Observe and Participate in the City Council Meeting at City Hall
- The meeting will be held in-person and will be open to in-person attendees.
- A video of the meeting will be broadcast live at http://tinyurl.com/CityOfFishers 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. In order to submit a comment, you need to designate the date of the meeting that you want to comment on. Look at the public meeting calendar. Then, complete the online Public Comment Form. Select “City Council” and that will open a comment box for you to type in. Submit your comments by NOON on Monday, the day of 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.
- 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 City of Fishers YouTube channel.
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.
5. Council Committee Reports.
Finance Committee Report. The Finance Committee is charged with advising the City Council on matters concerning the general financial operations of the City. Since City Council is responsible for fiscal oversight, this monthly report is very important. Typically, the report is reflected in action items for the City Council that are reflected in the “Budget/Financial” part of the meeting agenda.
NonProfit Committee Report. The NonProfit Committee is charged with advising the City Council on the award of $120,000 in grants to local non-profit organizations. The second meeting of the committee to review the grant applications and make award recommendations is 8:30am on June 30.
6. Department Reports. The monthly Fishers Health Department report is made available to residents about our city’s vaccine status, COVID community risk status, and other important public health info.
The vaccination clinic at the old 116th/Brooks School Road Marsh building has closed permanently. The new clinic location is now open at 8937 Technology Drive (behind Target). To schedule your vaccine, visit https://www.coronavirus.in.gov/vaccine/ and click on the red bar.
The CDC recently approved vaccines for 6-month to 5-year-old children and FHD is preparing for an anticipated higher demand for these vaccines soon.
The City of Fishers’ COVID community level continues to stay LOW! This is welcome news! Please get vaccinated and boosted to keep Fishers healthy.
The FHD 2021 annual report is now available.
7. 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.
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. Tax Abatement Compliance. 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.
Twenty-one company CF-1 forms that represent received tax abatements have now been reviewed by the City Economic Development Director. (In 2021, there were 15 forms.) See page 3 of this Resolution.
All companies are in of compliance. The one company that was out of compliance last year had their commitment adjusted in July 2021. They are in compliance now.
Each of these CF-1 forms for each company is public record.
Budget/Financial
9. Use of Revenue Bonds of 2018. The loan that was taken out to fund the North By North project was more than $1 million than was actually required. This action allows the remaining $1 million to be devoted to Nickel Plate Trail expenses – specifically, the 116th St tunnel and security for the trail. Mayor Fadness stated in the May City Council meeting (for the first time that I can recall) that the plan all along was that the unused funds from this old bond would help fund the Nickel Plate Trail project.
The North By North project is the retail/apartment building across the street from Four Day Ray, at North Street and Lantern Road. The developer of this project is Envoy, State Senator Scott Baldwin is Envoy’s CEO.
At last month’s city council meeting, I asked the city how much has been invested in the Nickel Plate Trail so far. This Nickel Plate Trail cost information was last shared in this October 2021 update. In addition, Fishers resident, Brad Jones, provides a good summary of that 2021 recent Nickel Plate Trail financial update as well. No updated report has been provided as of June 19, 2022.
10. Funding for Arts Complex/City Hall Project. Last month, the Resolution was approved to fund the construction of the new Arts & Municipal Complex to replace the current City Hall, which is not structurally sound. The total cost of the project is $24,545,000. A bond will be used to pay for $17,445,000. And the municipal general fund (city budget) is paying for $7.1 million. Last month, the original funding plan was that $6.3 million ARPA (American Rescue Plan) funds were supposed to pay for part of the City Hall project. Now, that portion of the project will be paid out of the general fund. ARPA funds will now be used instead to pay for something that was originally coming out of the general fund.
This step executes this funding arrangement that was approved last month. This agenda item will welcome public comments in a Public Hearing format.
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. Fishers residents are welcomed to submit comments for the public hearing on this matter electronically prior to the meeting. All comments received by noon on Monday on the day of the meeting should be presented during this part of the meeting and will be part of the meeting’s official minutes. The Public Comment Form is live on the website right now.
If you do 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.
11. and 12. Appropriating Motor Vehicle Highway Funds and Local Road and Street Funds. The Auditor of State allocates funding to local governments like the City of Fishers out of the Motor Vehicle Highway Account and the Local Road and Street Account. These funds are collected by the State of Indiana from gas taxes, vehicle registration costs, and other transportation-related fees. The City of Fishers has received $5.6 million total from both funds during the period August 2021-July 2022. Now, the City Council appropriates these funds for local spending that was not previously approved to be spent. This action is an additional $700,000 to be made available for the City to use. ($350,000 from each of the two funds)
This $700,000 will be used for road improvements and streetscape improvements that were scheduled by the City to be completed this year. The costs for these 2022 projects came in over budget and additional funds are needed to complete these planned projects. These two agenda items will welcome public comments in a Public Hearing format.
Government/Miscellaneous
13. Interlocal Agreement for Bridge #314. This is 116th Street and the Nickel Plate Trail in downtown Fishers. Strangely, this qualifies as a bridge because of the measurements of 116th Street over the Nickel Plate Trail tunnel here. This agreement with Hamilton County Government states that Fishers is in charge of future inspections and maintenance of this structure, now that it is a “bridge.”
Planning & Zoning
14. and 15. Milford Park. Voluntary Annexation of 60 acres at 11810 Florida Road, located on the far east side of Fishers – north of Florida Road and 113th Street, near Whelchel Springs and Thorpe Creek neighborhoods. Millford Park is a proposed development by Lennar of 121 homes.
16. and 17. Lehman. Voluntary Annexation of 15 acres for 35 single-family homes by Pulte. Property is at 8115 E 126th Street, located on the south side of 126th St, between Allisonville Rd and Lantern Rd.
Unfinished/New Business.
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. 🙂