Laserfiche WebLink
Special Council Meeting <br />June 12, 2012 <br />Page 2 <br />Council Member Lancaster: She said she needed help in cleaning up her district; 1581 <br />specifically with dilapidated houses, code enforcement, and infrastructure; wants to explore tax <br />abatements and grants for senior citizens in assisting them in rehabilitating their homes; and <br />awareness of gang activity. <br />Council Member Grossnickle: He said he wants to establish a timeline for building a <br />new wastewater treatment plant; continue to improve the permitting process; explore the <br />possibility of creating a retirement community at Lake Crook; look at ways of getting more <br />companies at the airport, such as Fed Ex; that his retail dreams were Target and Sams; he would <br />like to see more youth activities; placing a temporary canopy over the city pool allowing for year <br />round swimming; and in the next Charter Election propose a charter amendment increasing the <br />percentage of people it takes to call a referendum. <br />Council Member Drake: She said she would like for employee benefits to be reviewed <br />because some benefits have been taken away from employees over the years; wants improved <br />customer service; clean-up of the City; improve the permitting process; more partnerships with <br />Scouts and School Districts to paint parks and things of that nature; review the lien process on <br />foreclosed properties; consider town meetings if they put on the ballot trash privatization or <br />4A/4B; move forward with PEDC about bringing new businesses to the City; explore grants; <br />good communication; and move away from hiring consultants. <br />Council Member Jenkins: He said he wanted to have more youth activities; more <br />emphasis on code enforcement, as there was a problem with high grass in his district; and more <br />industries in the City. <br />Council Member Frierson: He favored Mr. Godwin's ideal of a community newsletter, <br />whether in citizen's water bills or through the local media; wants performance evaluations of <br />employees; accountability of department heads; more business friendly toward the downtown <br />area; some type of tax freeze on restoration of downtown buildings; stated that he knew the fire <br />code was needed but that it put a hardship on new downtown businesses; implementation of a <br />strategic plan to include where we are, where we want to be and how we are going to get there; <br />and better infrastructure and code enforcement. <br />Mayor Hashmi: He said he wanted a strategic plan that was good from Council to <br />Council; he wants the plan to contain dates, milestones and accountability; he wants the plant to <br />be specific on how to monitor progress; that the plan must be in -house and be agreed upon by all <br />of the department heads and the Council; wants a quarterly report to the Council on progress of <br />the plan; wants short and long term plans incorporated in the budget; wants the plan to be <br />department specific, such as responsibilities and performance; wants a capital improvement <br />project for each department and does not want funds transferred from one account to another, but <br />instead wants to plan ahead for projects; and wants the best customer service. <br />Mayor Hashmi: He said another item he would like if possible was a decrease in taxes by <br />1% per year for the next five years, but emphasized that he did not want to cut services. He said <br />he wants to include in the next Charter Election a specific amount of money for dilapidated <br />