REGULAR MEETING MARION COMMON COUNCIL MARCH 20, 2012 7:00 P.M.

.M., CITY HALL The Common Council of the City of Marion, Indiana met in regular session on Tuesday, the 20th day of March, 2012 at the hour of 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers, City Hall. On the call of the roll the following members were shown to be absent or present as follows: Present: Troxell, Luzadder, Nevels, Whitticker, Thompson, Brunner, Smith, French and Batchelor. Absent: None. The minutes of the previous regular meeting of March 6, 2012 were presented. On a motion by Whitticker, 2nd by Thompson, the minutes were approved as presented by the following vote. Aye: Troxell, Luzadder, Nevels, Whitticker, Thompson, Smith, French and Batchelor. Nay: None. Abstain: Brunner. COMMITTEE REPORTS: Councilman Henry Smith said they had one meeting, Ordinance Committee meeting, and it was, he felt, a very outstanding meeting because its one of our own from the city will be doing an uplifted job at 16th and the By-Pass where it will take on a different look and so it would be passed with a favorable approval by the committee. Mr. Reese will get into it later in the meeting, Smith said. UNFINISHED BUSINESS RESOLUTION NO. 2A-2012 The City Clerk read Resolution No. 2A-2012 by title only. Confirmatory Resolution of the City Council of Marion, Indiana, declaring economic revitalization area for property tax deductions on real estate for Spencer at the Crossing, LLC. Tim Eckerle, Executive Director of the Grant County Economic Growth Council, told the Council with him tonight are the Fortneys, the principals of Spencer at the Crossing. As they described last, when they adopted the Declaratory Resolution, that was the first step in making the area eligible for property tax abatement. Tonight, they are .E NT asked to conduct a public hearing and consider adopting a Confirmatory Resolution, which will grant property tax abatement for a term of six years, which will phase in property taxes on their new investment to construct a new office building at Spencer and the By-Pass. Theyd gladly answer any questions they may have, Eckerle said. Councilwoman Joselyn Whitticker told the Council they are in the second step of this process so at this time, they have recommended from the Tax Abatement Committee that they move into the public hearing so if theres anyone to speak on behalf of this resolution, they do so at this time. Council President Don Batchelor asked, do they have anyone from the public that wanted to speak for this? There was no response from the audience. Ms. Whitticker then said, the Tax Abatement Committee would like to speak in favor of and to move it to the next step because, as they stated last time, this property, the Fortneys are taxpayers and this property has been on the roll as far as taxes and they move to the next step and that is where they are at this time and they are in favor of moving to the next process. Councilwoman Madonna French called a point of order and asked whats the next process? Mr. Eckerle told French, the next process is that they will, this is the only action by the Council. If it is approved, the signature by the President. Councilman Brad Luzadder stated, he would like to make a recommendation and a motion that they pass Resolution No. 2A-2012. Motion was seconded by Brunner and carried by the following vote. Aye: Troxell, Luzadder, Nevels, Whitticker, Thompson, Brunner, Smith, French and Batchelor. Nay: None.

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NEW BUSINESS GENERAL ORDINANCE NO. 4-2012 1ST READING The City Clerk read General Ordinance No. 4-2012 by title only. An Ordinance to vacate a portion of a public way, vacate that portion of an alley located between 44th and 45th Streets in the block between Landess and Harmon Streets, common addresses being 4417 through 4401 S. Landess and 4402 to 4416 S. Harmon Street, all in Marion, Grant County, Indiana. Phil Stephenson, attorney for petitioner, told the Council he thanks them for the opportunity to come before them tonight. The purpose of this petition is probably a little easier viewed on the exhibits, which are attached to the petition that each of them have. Essentially, theyre seeking to close an alley, which as they can see runs from 44th through 45th Street and is also between Landess and Harmon. 44th itself has been previously closed so right now

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GENERAL ORDINANCE NO. 4-2012 Continued that alley simply dead ends. IWU owns all that property surrounding that alley and if they look at the second exhibit, they can see the reason that theyre doing that is the new seminary building is not on that property but as it turns out, (inaudible) plan has finally been figured, they can see that it essentially runs over what would be part of the parking and as part of the entryways in and out of the seminary building. The alley right now does not provide any access to anyone. As he said, it dead ends so they cant go anywhere on it anyhow. They have proposed in the ordinance that they would retain easements for the utilities that may be located in that area. They can see theres no construction over it so it will not impact in any way existing utilities. So they come to them and ask for the first reading tonight and move this to a public hearing for the potential closing of this alley. If he can answer any other questions from them, hed be happy to. He also has with him tonight Jay McHenry who is the Assistant Vice-President of Campus Construction and Planning. So if he (Stephenson) cant answer their question, hes sure he (McHenry) will be able to, Stephenson stated. Councilman Henry Smith asked, what buildings are going up in that area? Stephenson replied, its the new seminary. If theyre looking at that second one, they can see its outlined and theres a larger building in yellow. Thats where the seminary will be constructed. Again, its not over that. Its primarily but the roadway and part of the parking lot for that seminary would utilize part of that alley. Councilwoman Madonna French asked, what are the other yellow buildings on this? Mr. McHenry said the diagram theyre looking at (inaudible) three other structures aside from the seminary, they are existing structures that IWU owns. One is the Alumni House, the one that is farthest to the left, and the two structures that theyll see that are along Harmon Street, one is called Upward Bound and the other is called the Honors House. French asked, so theyre constructed? Mr. McHenry told her, yes. Council President Batchelor asked, are those buildings going to be demolished or are they going to remain? McHenry replied, at this time, they are looking to phase out the Honors College or the John Wesley Honors Facility and phase out Upward Bound, the other structure. They are relocating those other facilities or other functions elsewhere on campus. Batchelor asked, and this third building there? McHenry said, the Alumni House, yeah, that will remain. That was a structure that had been relocated from elsewhere on campus to that location. Being no further questions from the .E NT Council, motion was made by Thompson to pass this to a 2nd reading and public hearing. Motion was seconded by Nevels and carried by the following vote. Aye: Troxell, Luzadder, Nevels, Whitticker, Thompson, Brunner, Smith, French and Batchelor. Nay: None.

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GENERAL ORDINANCE NO. 5-2012 1ST READING The City Clerk read General Ordinance No. 5-2012 by title only. An Ordinance authorizing the issuance of the City of Marion, Indiana economic development revenue bonds, and the lending of the proceeds thereof to Tree of Life Bookstores, Inc. and authorizing and approving other actions in respect thereto. Darren Reese, Director of Development Services for the City of Marion, told the Council he is happy to be with them tonight on a very exciting night. Actually, its already been a pretty exciting year. So proud of what the Fortneys are doing at Spencer at the Crossing and the development that theyre seeing out at Indiana Wesleyan University. Tonight, they have another local company that wants to use an instrument that they commonly use rather than tax abatement. What theyre talking about tonight is economic development revenue bonds assisted with tax increment financing. He has a short introduction of the model that theyre looking to implement and then hell hand off to their project principal, Mr. Darren Campbell, to share his vision and then theyll be happy to take questions. As a background, since 1995 and over three city administrations of different political philosophies, the issuance of economic development revenue bonds combined with tax increment financing districts has been a critical tool for large-scale projects in and around Marion. Since 95, the Mowery Administration did the Dunhams deal, which is still in existence. The Henry Administration created what is commonly known as the monster TIF that encompasses much of the retail development across the By-Pass where this development will also occur. This Administration has utilized this method for General Motors, Central Indiana Ethanol, Dollar General, most recently at Five Points mall district. Another district that has benefited from this that they see tangible results from is the University Marketplace, the Meijers Development, the Kohls Development. The Kohls Development, by the way, was the only new retail development in 2011 in the State of Indiana and the first in two years in the State of Indiana. Hes eagerly awaiting, he believed when he brought this to this body last year with Kohls finally being able to be said aloud, he believed he prefaced it with and now the last remaining secret of the most well-known secret across the community. Hes hoping in the next coming weeks, theyll

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GENERAL ORDINANCE NO. 5-2012 Continued be able to announce the other three that are probably the worst kept secrets in town right now. These things do not happen in a stagnant community. Other communities across the state utilize this method as well, including Gas City. They have used this method to assist with Wal-Mart, American Woodmark and most recently Eschelon (sp?) Furniture. Basically, every large scale development in the State of Indiana, at least in the last 10 years, including ours, has used this method hes bringing forward tonight. So, other than having the right community climate, a climate where people want to be, this model is critical to growing our business community. Thats not just him talking. Many of them have heard site selectors profess that communities are simply, if theyre not using TIF, theyre simply not in the game. And his colleagues across the state that serve communities that are not using TIF have a lot more free time. As they discussed this project, he would remind them that this model does not impact the existing tax base in any way. The city has no obligation to repay economic development revenue bonds and neither TIF or tax abatement take away from the existing tax base. No public entities are negatively impacted by the use of this instrument. This only impacts new taxes, new taxes that would not otherwise be generated. Even better, these deals have maximum allocations. They do not last forever. And if there is more increment than is generally expected, we get. These are the basic tools that we have to work with to help them generate jobs. Job growth and retention is key. It generates new income taxes and sales tax (inaudible) government, schools and libraries and it drives home sales and retail spending. As our jobs grow, we can make the case for people that work here to live here and its up to us as a community to make this a place where people want to live in. We already are. We love our community. We just have to sell it to everybody else. The more people that live here, the better chance we have to bring more students to our schools. Today, the dollars that come from the state that (inaudible) students are more important to our local systems daily operations than theyve ever been. Now theres a little more than 4,000 students in Marion Community Schools. The projects that hes mentioned, for Marion alone, over the last 15 to 20 years, represent about 1,500 jobs and he wished there was a way to quantify, directly or indirectly, what that means to student enrollment. It has to be hundreds of students that are here because of the things that theyve done and that has to translate to millions of dollars every year that the systems been able to .E NT retain. They are proud of the relationship that they have with MCS. They are probably more important than any one other thing continuing that they will be able to continue their economic development trend with. So they will not do anything to negatively impact their ability to be the system of choice for our area. Since the mid-90s, in almost the very same time frame that he just referenced, theyve had a myriad of business that started with the basic idea to create an environment where people want to be, an environment to them that the community did not offer at the time. Tree of Life Bookstores was borne by fierce entrepreneurs that chose to go out and make a difference in this community. Hell let Mr. Campbell share his companys story but he stands before them to advocate on their behalf so they can solidify their commitment to Marion, their corporate headquarters and primary and national distribution center and a point to establish a new base for their retail operations. Last fall, he had lunch with Mr. Campbell and he laid out his vision that hes about to share with them for Tree of Life Bookstores and they talked and they looked at different locations across the city and they kept coming back to one site, the former Hobby Lobby and the current home to YK Furniture. He said he mentioned to Darren that they already had an occupant at that place but he persisted and asked if there was a way that something could be worked out. So they asked YK. Its not news that the Gin (sp?) family has hit some snags along the way but they are still committed to Marion and the project at that site. They promised they would do the project there. They are grateful to our community for what theyve done to help them and they dont want to let us down. But, after much discussion, YK is willing to be a good community citizen, redefine its project goals and sell the building to Tree of Life. YK, just like the rest of us, wants to see our community grow and that corner is very much a keystone to our continuing development. So, in short, Tree of Life has agreed to assume much of the original YK building. YK is still committed to Marion and they will find another location. In effect, this allows, this project allows our community to rally around one of its own while still being open to grow our international presence. Its a win for all parties and this is what were supposed to do to grow our community and it satisfies the base goal, the fundamental reason of why theyre doing anything at all on that corner and thats to redevelop that old K-Mart into something they can all be proud of. Tonight they begin the public process of this project. What they are requesting of the Council is the approval of up to $10,000,000 in economic development revenue bonds to benefit this project. The City of Marion is the conduit for the creation of the bonds and Tree of Life is responsible for the repayment of any bonds ever issued. In this model, the TIF generated from this site will be used to assist in the payment. It will not cover the full amount of

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GENERAL ORDINANCE NO. 5-2012 Continued the debt but it is a positive impact to their bottom line. In phase one, Mr. Campbell will lay out his projected investment of nearly $2,000,000 into the existing building and parking lot. They have a financial institution that is ready to pull the trigger on this model once its implemented and they will move on to later phases of the project that Mr. Campbell will explain as needed. Again, theyre advocating for bond ability to be created by this Council to benefit this project. The citys not writing the check for these bonds. We are not on the hook for them. They are absolutely worthless until a bank says theyre not. Tree of Life is on the hook for these bonds and were allowing them to use their new property taxes to help pay it back. So, now that all the pictures are up and the cats out of the bag, he would proudly turn over the microphone to Darren Campbell, CEO of Tree of Life Bookstores, Reese said. Mr. Campbell thanked the Council for their time. This is his first time ever being in a Council meeting. Hes done a lot of presenting so if hes inappropriate in any way, he doesnt know if Roberts Rules or how this applies. Hes been to plenty of Church Board meetings. A little bit about himself, he came to this community in 1991, came to Indiana Wesleyan. Grew up in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada, became a U.S. Citizen in 2008. Met the love of his life, Nancy Minnich who is from Converse, Indiana and they got married in 1995. After graduating with a business and marketing degree from Indiana Wesleyan, he actually ended up in Youth Ministry and became Youth Pastor at JC Bodyshop. Some of their kids were part of their youth group and some of them, as parents, helped him and his wife grow up. They were all growing together. His wife actually worked at a bank in town and they tried to juggle being Youth Pastors and have a career and one day they said, what if we started a business? They have this business degree. What does Marion need that we dont have? And 15 years ago, we didnt have a coffee shop. Starbucks was in Seattle and they just opened a shop in New York City. They werent all over the place like they are today. They knew a hippie Pastor that sold coffee equipment and they decided to open a Christian Bookstore for a younger audience. Not your grandmothers Christian Bookstore but something that all ages would enjoy. Open layer with a coffee shop and that was the vision of Tree of Life. If they remember 15 years ago, Wal-Mart had expanded to what they are now and theyd added a strip mall and they located where the, theres a nails place right beside AT & T. That was their original .E NT location 15 years ago and they took out a small loan with his in-laws and they had a dream. They had no idea how God would bless it. A couple of years later, Indiana Wesleyan invited them to take over operations of the campus bookstore. He had been a college student, he had bought those expensive textbooks and they thought they could do a better job and they gave them that opportunity. The following year, Anderson University called and said, hey, they heard what they were doing at IWU and asked if theyd like to come down. That was really the first time that they thought, okay, this could be something bigger than just a local Mom & Pop business. To date, they serve 17 colleges and universities in eight different states. They have 110 employees. They do over $10,000,000, upwards above $10,000,000 in sales. He was told earlier he shouldnt tell them how much his sales are. A lot of their employees joke that when they tell friends at church or community events that they work at Tree of Life and theyll say, well I was in Tree of Life and I didnt see you there, people dont realize that they are larger than just the store on the By-Pass. Their core business is the college market. They have an internet business. Theyre actually an affiliate for Amazon.com, Ebay, (inaudible), Barnes&Noble.com. Many times when you buy a book or a textbook, new or used, they do that fulfillment out of the distribution center which is in Warehouse City. Theyve been growing and they are actually under four different roofs in Marion. They have the Indiana Wesleyan store, they have the Tree of Life on the By-Pass, they have their offices at 4601 S. Western Avenue and then they have 20,000 square feet at Warehouse City. Knowing that leases were coming to term, they began to explore what their options would be and would there be any way they could actually put at least the retail, the warehouse and the office space under one roof. So when he met with Darren Reese, they explored different potential properties that would have a retail component. Like them, he lives in this community and he drives by this 16th Street property all the time and wondered what was going to happen there. They seized an opportunity to maybe come in and come up with a different idea for that property. He wants to bring a retail look and feel like you would have in Indianapolis and in Kokomo, a larger, attractive, feel and finish to that property, something that hasnt been there. Frankly, something that will compete with other retail properties in the city. They intend to put their retail store in there and then also lease to other local and hopefully some out of town tenants. 15 years ago, they had a dream and God blessed it and now they have over 100 employees. What would happen if they could do that for three, four, 10 other people with a dream? If you will, a retail incubator that they can help to give back. So they envision that. The first phase of the project will be renovating the current site and the property. A

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GENERAL ORDINANCE NO. 5-2012 Continued second phase would be to build another 22,000 square foot adjacent property that would be for retail. There are also two up lots in the front and that would be a third phase where they would either sell or develop those corner and front up lots by Wendys so they could have a fully functioning retail center there, Campbell said. Mr. Reese then said, so with that, they are open to any questions that the Council may have. Councilwoman Madonna French said, they gave a great presentation in their meeting earlier tonight but she thought it would be advantageous for the public to know that they have a commitment for the bonds already, is that not correct? Reese told her, yes. This project is full of wonderful things, including financing that comes along with it. Councilman Henry Smith asked, what is their starting date? Campbell asked, the starting date for the project? Theyd hope to start, pending the approvals, once they receive the deed, theyd want to start right away. That could be as early as May or June. Itll take some time to finalize construction plans but there is some work that needs to be done on the roof so theyd begin renovating on that component and then working on some of the parking lot and signage. Theyd hope that the project could be completed no later than 13 months from the start date. Honestly, theyre hoping they could be in the location and fully functioning by spring of 2013. Councilman Jim Brunner asked Mr. Campbell, when they move into this, what would they do with what they know as and the public thinks of as the Tree of Life down there south on the By-Pass? What would they do with that? Campbell told Brunner, thats a good question. They actually lease that space now so that would be up to the current landlord. Thats the Hamster Group and they would (inaudible). Councilwoman Joselyn Whitticker stated, after careful questioning, not so much with Reverend Campbell because she knows him personally so, disregarding that, he, to speak in his behalf, again, this is a local entity that is a, you could say homegrown, if you want, business. They have ties in this community. They have also paid taxes in this community and so on so she believes, and she cannot speak for anyone but herself but as a Council member, she feels very good about this, just as they found out about the Fortneys and so on, what it trying to happen here because the people that he employs are local people. They live in this community. They buy items in this community plus there are jobs and so on so they feel very, she feels very comfortable about this endeavor. And as she said, she has known Darren, Reverend, and Mrs. .Eis N Darren Campbell for years and shes talking about 15 plus so she feels very comfortable about whatT happening here, Whitticker said. Being no further questions or comments from the Council, motion was made by French to pass General Ordinance No. 5-2012 to 2nd reading and public hearing. Motion was seconded by Whitticker and carried by the following vote. Aye: Troxell, Luzadder, Nevels, Whitticker, Thompson, Brunner, Smith, French and Batchelor. Nay: None.

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George Roesly, Jr. to address the Council regarding certain issues. Marion resident George Roesly, Jr. told the Council hes here this evening to discuss the First Amendment. When our founding fathers established the Constitution and wrote the ten amendments, they wanted it to be geared to where the public would be able to participate with their representatives, especially their local representatives, like the City Council. Hes been here a few times and he always sees somebody leave, discouraged, because they didnt know the proper procedure on how to come and address the City Council. He is challenging them to possibly change their procedure to where if someone has an issue, they can come up and discuss that issue with the City Council. Now theres many different ways of doing it. Marion School System has a way where they can write down their name, what they want to talk about and they go up when they call them and they discuss it. The County Council, they more or less allow them to participate as the meeting goes on. Hes been at the City Council meetings, he believes thats the correct one, until 11:00 at night. He understands thats pretty long when they start out at 6:00, he believes. But his main point is is people need more access to their City Council and a two-way, a better two-way communication with Marion. Now, everyone says, oh, weve got the Marion Chronicle. Well, his opinion, for 75 cents, hed rather get a candy bar but there are other ways to put out the information. One is on the Marion network, on the computer. He believes they could probably put a copy of this meeting on that. Theres a calendar on there that they could put in the meetings that theyre going to be having, what time theyre going to meet and what theyre going to be concerning. He has a lot of suggestions. He and Mr. Batchelor discussed a lot over the telephone and, like he said, what hes trying to do is try to get the community more involved with the City Council and the City Council more involved with the community without having to call his City Councilman, Fred Troxell, after he just got off of work or whatever and tell him about his alley or his other problem within the first Council area. To him, he (Troxell) cant do anything about it. That would be a city responsible or a

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city government that would be responsible for repairing something like that along the river. Say, road repair, he cant call him and tell him his road needs to be repaired and expect him to (inaudible) City Engineer or wherever he has to go and look into it. To him, thats a reason why they have these meetings, to let people know whats going on. He understands that they dont have to respond. All he has to do is stand up here and talk. But thats about all he can say, for now. He appreciates the time that theyve given him, Roesly stated. At this time, Councilman Fred Troxell said, he really was going to bring this up under New Business but he has a comment to make about this gentleman and what he has to say. A week ago Monday, he got a phone call, and this needs to be said. He told the gentleman, he said look, he doesnt think hes telling him the truth or else theyre lying to him. Now, the party was Nuisance Abatement and he has a problem, a trash problem, thats terrible and he didnt even know about it until a week ago Monday. Tuesday morning, this same gentleman called him, was a little rash and he again, he said, either hes not telling him the truth or theyre lying to him. So Wednesday morning, he gets another phone call and the gentleman said hes going to Court. He said, in fact, hes got a police officer there on his porch right now. Troxell said he told him to hang on to him, hell be right there. (NOTE: This is where the tape ended and was turned over. Troxell was still speaking.) In the meantime, another officer shows up. He doesnt know why but anyway, he goes to Code Enforcement, he stopped at the Mayors Office on the way there and left a message that he needed to talk to him, gave him his cell phone number. Incidentally, ended up with the house owner, one, two, three department heads and the City Attorney and he was told that he couldnt get anything out of his ward unless he went through the City Attorney. Now, hes outnumbered five to one but he has a bad habit of saying what he thinks and he wants, tonight, he needs to know whether or not he, as a Councilperson, has to call the attorney to get permission to talk to one of his constituents. It doesnt make sense. Now, he was told they changed the rules. Well, to change the rules, they have to change the ordinance so hes here tonight to let them know what happened. Hes not ashamed of what he said. He told the truth and he doesnt hide it from anybody. But now what should he do? If the rules have changed then he needs a copy of the written rules. And something else, he wants a copy for each one of the other Council .E NT people because he doesnt want to be discriminated against. So whats their pleasure, Troxell asked. Council President Batchelor asked Corporate Counsel Josh Howell, does he have any knowledge as to what Councilman Troxell has referenced? Howell told Batchelor, only tangentially. He thinks the Councilman would indicate that it wasnt he who he spoke with and that his is involved with this in any way. He thinks hes talking about Mr. Gallaway, is that correct? Mr. Troxell replied, yes, Mr. Gallaway was present. Howell said, he would need to talk to him to flesh that out more. He doesnt have any direct or personal, firsthand knowledge about any of this. Batchelor asked Howell if he could touch bases with Attorney Gallaway and get back with them and let them know what took place (inaudible)? Mr. Howell replied, hed be happy to. Troxell added, the reason he brought this up, he had no idea anything about the trash but the gentleman told him that he was told by Code Enforcement that it was his (Troxell) fault that they had to take this person to court. He guessed they checked with the prior Councilman in this ward and it had been going on then. So, hes behind the eight ball. He needs to talk to his constituents. He doesnt need to refer to the Mayor or to the City Attorney about things like this. Councilwoman Joselyn Whitticker said she has a question. Her question is, how many attorneys does the city have? Now, theyve just said Mr. Howell sits in for them. Thats for the City Council. Then they have Mr. Gallaway. Has he been on the rolls for a month and what is his purpose? And then do they still have Herb Spitzer as the attorney also? She is dumbfounded. They have three attorneys. How many of them are full-time and how many are part-time? What are the benefits they are paying and, from her standpoint of view, theyre all the citys attorney and she believes she just named three people and she doesnt know how many are part-time, how many are full-time. She doesnt expect that question to be answered tonight but she would like to have that answer because if the budget was developed in August and then voted upon and they hired an attorney, they advertised for it in January because she saw the advertisement in the newspaper and then they hired one in February and then they came to the Council, the city did, to request money to borrow $12,000,000 plus they got $1,000,000 from the Marion Utilities. Thats $13,000,000 and their budget is, she believes, $27,800,000. She wants to know whats going on, Whitticker said. Councilwoman Madonna French stated, a point of clarification. They authorized to borrow up to $12,000,000. The $1,000,000 that they borrowed from the utility, to her knowledge, is the only amount of money off that $12,000,000 that theyve borrowed. They havent borrowed $13,000,000. Whitticker added, now dont forget, also, they were told, since theyre talking about this, that there would not be any interest on that $1,000,000. She believes

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they are paying 3%. They need to check with the Utilities Board and so on. She still comes back to her original question. They have $1,000,000 from the Utilities plus 3% interest. Thats not hard to figure out what the interest is going to be that they were told that there would not be any interest. There is an interest. Also, going back to what their total budget is and so on, she still would like her questions answered and she would like to know how much they have drawn so far on that $12,000,000, up close to and so on. And she knows Madonna cant answer that. Thats going to have to come from the city but, you know, people are questioning and she questions, Whitticker stated. Councilman Paul Thompson said, in regards to Mr. Troxells complain, all of them get those calls from the taxpayers of the City of Marion that they are not getting the services that theyre paying for. Theyre concerned about the unsafe structures around the City of Marion and he knows for a fact that the City of Marion spent a lot of money tearing down homes and creating vacant lots and theres been some questions asked about whos benefiting by this and hes talked with the Mayor and the Mayor, he thinks, is sincere in trying to get the city cleaned up but who makes the decision as to who tears these homes down is the Board of Works and none of those Board of Works members are appointed and they (Council) are appointed. Or elected. Hes sorry. They are elected and they are elected to represent the people that call them and Freds not the only one getting these calls. And then when they come up and talk to the proper authorities, they tell them well, its on the list. Well, he was out to a place today that the roof is falling down, theres a building permit there that was dated 2009 and its an unsafe structure and then theres two more within three blocks of that thats falling down. Now, you know, theyre trying to sell the city. Theyre trying to bring new business into this community and new industry and create jobs. But until the city can get some additional money somewhere to get some of these structures tore down that are falling down and their streets cleaned up, they are not going to be able to create new business, unless they clean up their own messes. Now, he also has a list here tonight and hes sorry that the Engineers not here, he doesnt see him, but 57 streets that are supposed to be overlaid. Everybody have that in their packet? Now, theyre all wanting their streets taken care of but overlaying over bad areas is not a good thing. He would rather see a list of half that and the jobs done right so that the taxpayers are getting their moneys worth. So he thinks that its time that they sit down with the City Administration, as a Council, and be open-minded about things and .E NT try and get some things going to where they can create some money to take care of the Street Department to buy some equipment to do the job that needs to be done. Those guys hands are tied and they need to make a visit to some of these departments and talk to the department heads and see what they need so that they will know when its budget time next time what to appropriate and what not to appropriate. He has these concerns and he hates to see Fred picked on and if they need him to be picked on, hell stand up to them too. But, its time that they start representing the taxpayers of this City of Marion and try to work together. Now they cant do it by themselves. They need the people, the citizens to be involved too. There has been so much pride forgotten about in this community because of some of the things that the citys neglected. He means, when you look out the front window and the street is full of chuckholes and houses falling down around them, how do you take pride? And he commended Ken Hussong at a meeting, the way he presented it, it was so good to hear him tell the story that he grew up at 18th and Washington and having to go down into his own home before it was tore down and pick up the paper sacks from an old store that the Christmas tree was sitting on that had about 20 years of history with it. He told a story he wished he could come and tell this whole Council and get their attention and hed like for the public to hear it too because the way he told it was the truth. A lot of people dont like Ken Hussong because they think hes been around too long but his hands are tied too. But they need to give their employees of the City of Marion credit for what they can do with what they have to do it with and its their (Council) responsibility to see that they get what they need to take care of the city and then all of them need to work together and hes talking about the citizens as well. Theyve got to take a little more pride in Marion, Indiana before its going to turn around, Thompson said. Mr. Troxell stated, he wants to make this clear. He will work with the Mayor, he will work with the department heads and the Assistant Engineer has already worked with him in taking care of a safety problem in his area before this ever happened. But, for some reason, hes got a problem with somebody so he just wants his people to know theyre welcome to call him and hell do what he can do but thats what he was told.

MA I NIDA A RO N IN

Being no further business to come before the Council, on a motion by Whitticker, 2nd by Luzadder, the meeting adjourned. Time being 7:53 p.m.

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