South Bend Common Council member Oliver Davis is praising Mayor James Mueller’s move announced Friday to send $70,000 in city money to the Food Bank of Northern Indiana, to help federal SNAP recipients. But Davis wants to know whether the public thinks that’s enough.
Tonight’s council agenda includes a resolution Davis has sponsored with Council Member Sherry Bolden-Simpson to explore whether the city should do more. It would require the council’s Personnel & Finance Committee to hold a joint meeting with the Mueller administration to explore tapping into the city’s cash reserves and Rainy Day Fund, which contain tens of millions of dollars.
“So we have to say what is reasonable? Do we need to do more? Do we need to do less? And we need to hear that from our residents. We may need to go beyond that or we may have to stay where the mayor is right now.”
Council member Sheila Niezgodski chairs the Personnel and Finance Committee. She did not reply to WVPE’s interview request.
Davis says he envisions such a meeting happening next week, even if Congress ends the shutdown by then. And with three more years left in the Trump administration, Davis thinks the council should form a task force to be better prepared in case the dysfunction in Washington affects the city again in the future.
