they'll be there
tomorrow yeah probably should probably
change my life
too yeah yeah
yeah this I'm really not joking is it
this no judgment here I $59 oh maybe
it's that might you better see which
siid it is the bigger the two better
like it it'll last they have a lot of
option long time and and you just take
it across yeah and then acoss before you
go to bed so it lasts a long
time for hundred
bucks CU your lashes look really good
that's that and I'm telling you they
didn't you have to be really good about
it your daughter you're going to be a
doctor before sorry just at night just
at night I just do it at night
okay
um yes a big girl job girl job and she's
she's taken two Gap years and she kicked
butt on her impcat and she's uh just now
starting to
app she wants to be a a physician she
won't be at work she'll probably be she
might be a dermatologist my older one's
in medical school
um now and she this is
Annie she's the one that just graduated
she's the one that graduated yeah um but
uh I find some pictures I'll show you
yeah she just that one just graduated
from duke and the other one is at Gale
in medical school uh she wants to be a
pediatric
psychiatrist
I'll I'll
all right um extra loud for our attorney
uh City attorney to hear that um welcome
everyone I'd like to welcome you to the
January 23rd 2024 Beckley city council
meeting if anyone has any speaker slips
I ask at this time that they be handed
to auditor MC peek or to the mayor's
assistant Natalie B please turn this in
prior to the start of the meeting uh
with that Mr mCP would you please call
the role uh Mr Marcelino present Mr
Hurley present Miss fible I'm here miss
sad here miss lampy here Mr Markham here
and Mr Silverman here and we have a very
special um group joining us tonight for
the Pledge of Allegiance um we are
joined tonight by Boy Scout Troop 166
mayor do you have anything you'd like to
add before we have them uh lead us in
the Pledge of Allegiance we just had a
great tour of city hall with Scout Troop
166 and and I think it's pack 166
actually did I get that right okay and
they are fifth graders from cassingham
and Maryland and they're especially
interested in renewable energy so we're
talking about energy programs and
answering questions about forms of
government and they are super excited to
be our Council anything to add wonderful
well thank you so much if everyone would
please um turn to our flag and if our
troop would like to lead us in the
Pledge of Allegiance I'm going to turn
it over to
you of
great job thank you um you want a photo
since we are joined you got a really
good you got one already all right
everything's been behind the scenes I
love it you guys want another one we can
do another one we're good all right and
you are welcome to join us for the rest
of our meeting or you could uh make a
quick quick exit
good job good job Scouts some of
remember Jeffrey maple syrup Festival is
March 2nd don't
forget and I love it some of them want
to
stay okay moving on to item number four
public comments regarding items not on
the agenda we do require a speaker slip
for this um want to remind Council that
per our written Council policy regarding
public comments this is the Public's
chance to make comments and statements
to council and to share their thoughts
on City business with all of us we want
to make sure we get to everyone who um
wishes to speak to council and has
turned in a speaker slip it's a time for
us to listen not to debate them not to
engage them back and forth um but to
really put on our listening ears and
hear what folks have to to say to us um
Mr MC Peak um do we have any speaker
slips for public comment regarding items
not on the agenda um we have two speaker
slips for ordinance 424 which is up for
um that one is on the agenda so at the
appropriate time I we will make sure
that we call those Folks up and
obviously public comments um consist of
an uninterrupted up to five minutes per
speaker as long as you give us your name
and your address at the outset that
would be much
appreciated moving on to the president's
report I did have a brief report to
share with you um Council our Ohio
ethics disclosures are due May 15 we've
got some time I'll remind you a little
closer to then I do have a brief update
from the bexi Community Foundation for
all of you gamblers and Texas holdom
fans there is a tournament on February
2nd at Jeffrey Mansion benefiting the
foundation and on May 8th they are doing
their annual gathering at Jeffrey
Mansion I also have an update from the
Bexley Area Chamber of Commerce on
February 2nd from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. they
are having breakfast with um the
president of fortuna bank which is the
only female owned bank in Ohio their
guest speaker is araria Rollins and that
is going to take place at the senior
center at 420 um uh North Cassidy and
then finally um as we Embark our year
together we have some new council
members I'd like to encourage each and
every one of you to consider um reaching
out to a fellow council member and at
some point maybe working on legislation
together it would be great over the next
two years if you could try to reach out
to a different council member every
couple weeks or couple months and seeing
if you can uh co-sponsor or
have some mutual input into legislation
together um I think that would be a
great thing for us to offer to our
public and that is the end of the
president's report Mr City attorney no
report this evening great Mr auditor um
I did just get another speaker slip um
doesn't have a summary of what they'll
be speaking to is it an active ordinance
or second reading what's the name on the
speaker slip um Leah
okay oh public comments would you like
to offer your public comments or did you
want to wait until something is on the
agenda you sure okay we we'd love to
have you um all right moving on to our
just oh I'm sorry one quick thing a
couple quick things one um grateful that
Carrie's here um she's joined as our new
um back fil for beer for our finance
director so um welcome to your first
city council meeting um and then second
I just wanted to say that I had an
exploratory conversation with Julian and
Grub who's the thirdparty auditor um
that can help us um with um independent
audits of our business processes so um
you know this is around processes and
controls um they help the city of uh
Dayton and many other municipalities to
eval valate um internal process making
sure that we are processing payments
accurately um that we're processing
insurance payments accurately all these
types of things so um just wanted to let
the council know that we've kicked off
some exploratory conversations they're
coming back with some um a proposal that
would ultimately outline what a control
environment and audit process would look
like so um you know if council members
have ideas recommendations of processes
that they're interested in um being part
of the audit um please reach out to me
great very exciting thank you
thanks all right turning it over to um
our mayor to take us through the
administrative updates all right um our
first administrative update is uh from
our director of administration and
development Megam Meer who is out sick
today she started coming down with
pretty nasty cold yesterday and we said
that uh Council probably does not need
to have a cold alongside her so she has
provided her update uh in your agenda
packet um just gone through some of the
things that she's been working on which
is now Beer's bottom line has really
inspired I I think some other directors
so this is Myers's month and
review
uh good work beer your leadership well
it might be your longest lasting Legacy
in Beckley just kidding that's a joke
that's bad um and uh she talked talks a
little bit about what she's been up to
and and what she has on the horizon
there um happy to answer any
questions to supplement that but barring
that we would move on to our finance
department update with our dueling
Finance directors or is it still beater
bottom line or is it carries crystal
ball it's it's a oh car's crystal ball
that's a good one too I had said carries
key points but a crystal ball beats key
points might be over over promising I'm
not sure you got that
you're um so just a couple comments one
you know we finished up the real the
year very strong uh the the um on the
budget versus actual we were we ended up
about almost a million dollars better on
our ending budget than than we budgeted
for our ending balance to be and that's
despite the fact that we loan the Tiff
fund 1 point or a million 950 so that
yeah had that back in we' have been
ahead about $3 million a lot of that is
of course due to income tax which
exceeded um exceeded budget by 1.5
million
um a little troubling thing to me was we
were 300 some thousand off or below
budget in December and it looks like we
could be just a tick below budget for um
or January to I won't know for sure
until we get in our you know the
withholding from our employees for the
last pay period so bottom line is things
still look good but just we may the days
of exceeding our income taxes by such
huge amounts may be slowing down and uh
that is it for my report you I guess
we'll have to come up with a new logo
because that looks a lot more like me
than it does Carrie
so but I really did like that one by the
way so I hope I hope you keep it that's
some good clip art any questions for
beeer or
Carrie um beer in section three of your
report uh you mentioned that
um sometimes um there's numbers are off
because of the timing of expenditures
related to Grants and subsequent
reimbursements do we as a city have any
control or any input into that timing to
line it up so that it it's more S I
guess that'd be more of a mayor question
because I just report it I don't really
get involved in collecting it or
expending it yeah so grants Revenue um
for last year is really unique because
it includes a state capital fund revenue
for the bridge which won't be realized
until the bridge is constructed um so
that's essentially going to be we'll we
will have a windfall of Revenue on
grants in either this year or next year
also this the year of the parks Grant
from the Community Foundation um so so
that that in and of itself is $850,000
those two line items where Revenue won't
have come in until later so that has to
do with timing where we have projects
that get reimbursed by grants and it's
usually there is a tail on them um
because of the amount of the large
amount of grants that we had promised
last year that won't get reimbursed
until this year that it'll be a it
should be Ben's crystal ball says that
it would be a flipped scenario in 24
where we'll have Grant Revenue exceeding
substantially our uh our
estimates okay thank you
y I need a better aliter more
alliterative thing than that I'll work
on it try can perhaps help me with
that yeah it doesn't work any other
questions for beer or Carrie a
hard-hitting one for Carrie would be
appropriate at this time anybody has one
no all right har we're excited to have
you um I believe uh we are on to our
service director uh Andy and I have
to hold on Andy I'm going to get your
report up here in a second there it is
thanks mayor um there's my report um
been pretty busy here um finishing up
leaves and little patch of snow here and
there but um really don't have anything
to add to my report but happy to answer
any
questions any questions for Andy chess
sorry
I was wondering if we could still um
consider putting the LED lights all the
way around the mediums on Drexel um I'm
on that you know 10 times a day early in
the morning heading to hockey and with
the 5:30 Darkness I just think it's
something we should still consider that
we've done with other mediums um in the
community so I know we've talked about
it and I know they're on the front of
each side but I would like to just still
consider having those wrap around the
whole
medium I'm hoping in the next CP couple
months we'll have the tree lights up so
that that should help but I mean you
know obviously we can look at it and go
from there and the so pavement markings
too so let's just kind of step back and
do like an overall update we OD
do is Paving Drexel and they were
supposed to have paved been able to pave
Drexel in the fall their timing uh
slipped so now they're looking at
opening bids in the summer and Paving
late summer which is really unfortunate
of 24 um we have the option we as a city
could fund the paving which really
doesn't make sense we're talking about
like a probably $400,000 Paving job um
and so we would like to of course use OD
do funds for that it's a state route so
we're gonna have to wait for that um
what we will be doing because we were
waiting for the pavement to put in the
markings Blane markings will make I
don't know if any of you drove Drexel
when it was snowy and noticed that the
tracks in the snow between the medians
made it much more apparent how to to
drive as as the meetings kind of as the
as the road curves ironically um there
will be pavement markings that go in
temporarily starting hopefully next week
is that right I'm hoping in the next
week week and a half to have the
temporary markings down and that that
should help a lot it's not going to look
amazing but it will help the guidance a
little bit and again I'm just going to
remind people our effort is to lower the
speed to 25 if you drive
25 Main Street's 25 no lights on the
curbs Fair's 25 brighten Beckley Park no
lights on those curbs if you drive 2500
Exel there's like it's not an issue but
if you drive 35 it becomes a little more
of an issue so but we will continue to
reassess that we also have our street
project for next year um going to bid
here very shortly we finalized our our
list of streets for that so um we'll
give you guys an update on that once
it's final final and going to bid it'll
be very busy season next year in the
city uh with we still have to finish our
streets up from this fall you know 23
then I'll show the 24 project so
there'll be a lot of work going on in
the city and Mr Markham I I looked our
city engineer in the eye this week and I
said are we 100% gonna finish Charles
this year and he said yes I was like
because I am asking for a
friend you know I love to hear that the
sidewalks exactly
y we're gonna have a big party with the
that's right when they complete the
final sidewalk maybe on a Sunday we
could have free Sundays on Charles
our our Scouts were asking today why do
we not have free Sundays on Sunday so
the world does not work in Fairways Mr
Silverman hey Andy I had a few residents
from South bexi reach out about the
Brandon and Chelsea projects and they
wanted to know about Paving on the Alley
and the street and if there was any
updates you can provide sure um right
now um it's kind of as it is we're going
to maintain it over the winter uh with
temporary pavement but it won't get the
final course until the spring uh as soon
as the spring we're going to pave the
alley and then you know go from there
but right now it's just maintaining and
and just for my knowledge base I know
there's a street assessment how do
alleys function when it comes to
deciding if they get paved or
not do you want so right now we have
like um me my me myself um Street
supervisor city engineer and the mayor
we have a list of streets and we have
them on a schedule we do like a pavement
condition rating and every year we
re-evaluate um like last year we had a
couple that actually moved up just
depends how hard a winner we have but we
have them kind of on a schedule as far
as where we go from there so but when
you say street are you including the
alley in that assessment as separate
than the street or is it included so if
you look at like Chelsea would that
include the alley as well how do you
separate the two as far as the street
and the alleys yeah right now we try to
do at least one alley a year on our
project um eventually we get caught up
but that alley since it's had work done
on it it will get repaved thank broader
picture alleys are viewed separately
from streets and they have a much longer
life expectancy in terms
of I guess I should also say tolerance
for like potholes and some of other
things in the alley we will patch and
repair but it's not going to be held to
the same standard as a standard street
is in the city so they do have a longer
longer life just in terms you know for
obvious budgetary reasons certain
certain alleys and backs that get use
more and if you see an alley that you're
like hey this is looking really rough
yeah kick it over to Andy he'll check it
out um we'll add it to the list to
consider thank you and then finally I
want to make sure it's clear that I
don't think Chelsea and granon are on
the same repavement schedule they both
should be next summer by the end of next
summer yeah great never mind that's good
to know go ahead three things um one
thank you to everyone
love
days we don't
but you guys I will tell them um two
I've loved the year
end that c great all the stuff that you
guys have accomplished put for us really
drives how hard you all are work um
three I um I am noticing and I and I've
mentioned this you and the May before
that those patches I don't know what
it's called
tangular
red Corners the Ada ramps
[Music]
yeah I'm hoping in a springtime we're
going to do some of that with our own
Crews and get those fixed it's kind of
time sensitive we really can't do a
whole lot with them right now with the
weather but in the spring that's going
to be one of the first things we tackle
and I think snow
blowing makes it worse it does freezing
makes it worse too so it's a good it's
gonna you'll see some of that we're also
looking at cast iron ones which I've
seen around we have one um Jason city is
not demo
yeah other questions for
Andy may I take a we had a we had a
speaker slip so yes sir I think we have
a question for
Andy would you be willing to come up
real quick to our microphone just um
there's a button on that microphone if
you hit it you're going to see the light
turn green that way we can all hear you
thank you I was just mentioning that the
alley by the library looks like a cheese
grater ran over
it thank you for your comment thank you
so much for that comment I just added
that to the
list we love
uh what type of cheese grater what type
of cheese
grater of course nice well
done okay we are going to move on
um and couple things I want to highlight
in my update
uh we do have our Commonwealth Park
Workshop uh here in council chambers
tomorrow at 5:30 um we have we sent
letters to Residents North of Broad
Street on Drexel Park viw and and
Columbia and Commonwealth up to Maryland
we became aware I think over the weekend
that some of those addresses did not
receive the letter even though that and
some we even heard yesterday somebody
got their letter like yesterday even
though it was mailed two weeks ago so
then we hand delivered letters on
yesterday to say here was the letter you
should have received um the we know this
is short notice the workshops on
Wednesday we will send out another
letter letting you know what next steps
are um and promising a date for a
council meeting because the plan with
the Commonwealth Park Workshop would be
to take feedback on the concept of
uniting both sides of the park and then
come back to you guys as we discussed
for sort of a discussion on how to
proceed next and that was one that we
will then advertise out to those same
residents so hope you can join us
tomorrow at
5:30 um Brian Kent Jones will be here to
present some Concepts some potential
renderings of what might be able to
happen we'll be presenting the traffic
study that we did and answering your
questions and just taking feedback so um
that would be awesome uh we then just to
keep your calendar full Thursday at 6:30
we are partnering with the library uh to
bring Michael wil Co from United white
to present on the future of Central Ohio
and planning U Michael wios does an
amazing presentation um I've seen him a
couple different times he is a data nerd
and he he provides incredibly in-depth
uh trending for the region and a lot of
insight into housing Trends and overall
U demographic trends that we're going to
be seeing um tap you know focusing on of
course the Intel project and others and
provides it in a way that's incredibly
clear and um knowledgeable and then he
has a second presentation coming up um I
think it's in March I don't think I have
it in this calendar but I'll I'll be
included in in future calendars um so
grateful that he agreed to do that um
and then if you are I think you have to
be an adult for this I apologize but our
Beckley poker tournament which is uh
held by the Bexley Community Foundation
and benefits the Community Foundation
will be a Jeffrey on February 2nd but I
will tell you that is exactly a month
from March 2nd which is our Jeffrey
Woods Festival where we will be making
maple syrup with our Scouts so um hope
you guys can attend all those things we
also have the state of the community
coming up on March 7th um and our winter
newsletter is going out this week um if
you take a look at your agenda there is
a copy of the current draft newsletter
and you can kind of take a look through
that um um and if you see any typos
please let me know quickly because it
will be going to the printer and
probably in the next uh two day or two
so um that's there in your agenda and
I'm happy to answer your
questions yes
Jess two quick questions um are we
recording the meeting tomorrow night
about Commonwealth yeah awesome and then
are we recording the speaker at the
library for those because that's a great
the library is okay wonderful thank
you Alex was just wondering how the uh
skate park Workshop went and when do you
have some rough drafts for public facing
documents to view it so I was out of
town the night of the skat Park Workshop
but I know lauran was there you want to
talk about real quickly how it went it
was really wonderful um it was
incredibly well attended um it was very
clear by the attire these people were
hardcore skaters and they were skaters
from our community and from communities
around and um the vibe that I got from
them was just amazing they're very proud
of what has been put forward they're
very stoked about it they've uh I'm not
real sure what Diamond grind is but they
were excited about
that I was I was I was an event Thursday
night and two skaters came up to me and
said that they heard about a skate park
coming and I told them that once there's
public facing stuff I would send them an
email of what it would look like um but
there is there is there is interests
from all around Columbus so it's very
exciting what I have heard is they want
for these parks to be different while we
have some in central Ohio what they're
looking for is it to be something
different than what they already have
and one thing that's going to be really
exciting about the difference is while
they're going to be concerned about
getting the leaves off of the surface
they're very excited about our barbarum
and the shade that it will create and
they're also very interested in keeping
it clean and they wanted to know is
there's someone that's going to be
collecting trash and and and they have
early birds that come out and make sure
that the surface is clean at the
beginning of the they're hardcore I'm
just yeah and they're very excited
yeah it's been a really cool process so
far and I want to give a shout out to
the owner of Embassy skate shop uh which
is in the Clintonville area it's been on
the steering committee and really
helping us out and helping get to spread
the word and that that commune is super
enthusiastic and knowledgeable and then
we have bexy residents on the steering
committee and has been neat you asked
about timing we can get you the
presentation it was two different draft
Concepts the final draft con the final
draft concept is going to be presented
at a public workshop on the 21st of
February at six o'clock at the senior
center um and then there are two more
skate park steering meetings coming up
before that so we'll continue to be
honing it um there's some really neat
Concepts coming out not just the skate
park but then if you know where that's
planned for being located it's kind of
around the curve on the trail at
Schneider Park and so we're talking
about like putting features all along as
you get up to it so that it stays
interactive till you get there and some
neat things so it's cool any other
questions all right thank you madam
president that concludes my report thank
you uh we hope to see some skate part
merch uh once that is all ready and done
I know you'll come up with something
great um all right turning it over to
our City attorney for the consent agenda
all right on the consent agenda we have
the meeting minutes from December 20th
2023 the meeting minutes from January
2nd 2024 and the meeting minutes from
January 9th
2024 are there any comments or questions
regarding the consent
agenda any from the
public okay I move to adopt the consent
agenda can I please have a second second
second from Mr Marcelino all in favor
say I I anyone
opposed motion
passes all right onto a third reading of
ordinance
46-22 to impr to approve an
intergovernmental agreement between the
city of Bexley and the Bexley public
library and to an emergency introduced
originally by Miss
Lamy thank you uh we're bringing this
one back you might recall that we were
originally going to have this on the
consent agenda but we've got uh some
minor tweaks to I believe the attachment
uh mayor if you could walk us through
what those tweaks are yes sorry I'm
trying to pull this up on the screen
give me one
second appreciate your
patience
Pati is it
done here it is um so the uh for those
of you who have read carefully through
the exhibit intergovernmental agreement
um you'll realize immediately what has
changed in this proposed change um or
you I'll I'll take you to the the line
version so as as you maybe know have we
talked about the bidding for the library
project yet at
Council I'll review it um it went to bid
um at the end of last year uh there was
only one bidder the bid came in above
the 10% threshold exceedence of the um
of the estimated cost um and so we're
working with the library to do some
value engineering on it although a lot
of it seems like it has to do more with
timing than anything else um so there
will probably be an up updated estimate
potential value engineering I think
absolutely will be some value
engineering because there were some
things called out by the the bidder and
potential biders that provided some good
it into how to make it a better uh bid
package um and so the the agreement was
drafted with a proposed cost in mind and
this removes that and just talks about
City contribution towards the
construction at an amount to be
determined it just the agreement has a
lot more to do with the way that we're
working together on the project
management itself and less to do with
funding so this sort of punts the
funding question into the future based
upon uh the project it doesn't it does
not in any way shape or form commit us
to funding nor does it commit the
library to funding so we would go into
this agreement which does govern things
that are happening right now so it kind
of formalizes that so I think it is
important to have this past because it
talks about project design management
and bidding um and then we would come
back with a update once it goes to Bid
And if there is a successful bidder for
the project the financing piece of it if
that makes
sense um given that the changes are in
the attachment we wouldn't need to amend
correct
okay right the attachment just has to be
amended okay yeah that doesn't require a
vote to amend the ordinance right so
this is in the um very recently in your
packet as proposed amended and timing
wise if you know I understand you're now
looking at this just now and um it was
we just found out like on a few days ago
that this was a an issue potentially so
we're fine waiting till the next council
meeting it's not an emergency um but it
would be good to get it passed sooner
than later and happy to answer your
questions about the
changes would Council like some
additional time to look at these changes
or are we prepared to take action
today Mr
uh just a small question uh bottom of
page three section six operation and
maintenance um you know it indicates the
parties you know library in the city
will enter into a future agreement to
maintain this project do we know what
the cost of that ongoing maintenance
might be it's probably somewhat related
to the total cost of the project to
construct but just curious what the sort
of long-term cost is going to be to the
city and Library yeah that's a great
question um we do have a draft
memorandum of understanding between the
city the library and the synagogue and
I'm happy to share that with Council um
when it comes to maintenance and I'm
holding this up so
that I don't
misspeak and it's sorry I'm not pulling
it up here because it's so heavily
redlined that it's not going to be very
helpful but we talked about um for the
first year
um working on uh the
just keeping the plant life in good
shape and watering and helping with that
for the first year um but that beyond
that the bexy library is responsible for
basic maintenance upkeep of the shared
public space so the library is is is
responsible for ongoing costs and we
would incorporate the watering program
into our annual seasonal water and it
wouldn't um it would be hard for me to
quantify exactly what that would add but
it would be it would be di Minimus yeah
okay that's fine um yeah I'd love to see
the M when it's finalized but I have I
have no problem moving this today my
colleagues agree any other questions
from
Council okay it is a third reading no
speaker slips required do we have
someone who would like to offer public
comment if so come on up um if you can
please push that button again so the
light turns green it is green okay great
if you want to give us your name and
address we'd love to hear from you for
up to five minutes
please uh I am uh Leo and uh I just
and I just wanted to ask uh what the
project is and what it would
do mayor you want to take this
one thank you for that question Leo um
the project is a
proposed um a little small Park what we
call pocket park between the library and
the synagogue right next to it right now
there's just a a driveway there
essentially um and so it would be what
we're calling the outdoor reading room
and I'm trying to pull up a rendering of
this uh to be able to show to you it's
cool trying to
multitask um the outdoor reading room
would uh provide a seating area and some
sort of light uh like Story Time sort of
performance space um but also it would
involve
updating trying to see this is this
isn't a great image of it because that's
just the current connection mostly
uh I don't think there this is kind of
blurry and I apologize for that but this
sort of shows what that might might look
like um I don't think a chalk wall is
currently planned but that's a great
question I think there'll be a fountain
and some reading chairs and some string
lights and um a little small elevated
stage for story time and that sort of
thing but it also involves improving the
front to the library itself um making it
a little bit more accessible um getting
up the stairs to to the in the in the
the ramp that goes up to the library
Landing so the park piece of it is sort
of a city sponsored project and then the
main entrance is the library sponsor
project and we're working on it
cooperatively and so this ordinance is
about how we structure that Cooperative
agreement between the two parties
library in the city great question thank
you um all right Council are we we ready
to vote on this or would folks like a
little more time all right I'm seeing
some nods so I am going to
um move to adopt ordinance 46-2 3 could
I please have a second second second by
I'll take it Mr
Marcelino uh Mr mCP would you please do
the
role Miss fible yes Mr Silverman yes Mr
Markham yes Mr Hurley yes Mr Marcelino
yes missad yes yes and Miss Lany yes
ordinance passes great thank you so much
moving on
to we have a second reading of ordinance
0-24 to amend chapter 22.01 rule 8 of
the codified ordinances of the six city
of Bexley introduced by Miss
lamkey um thank you as I mentioned at
the uh first reading um we have made
some minor tweaks and adjustments to
committee um chair assignments and
responsibilities as outlined in this
ordinance are there any questions from
Council regarding those um Mr mCP do we
have any speaker slips on on this
Ordinance do not okay um any opposition
from folks to putting this on the
consent agenda at the next meeting all
right Natalie if you could please mark
this um ordinance 1-24 will be on the
consent agenda at the next meeting thank
you
all right we now move on to a second
reading of ordinance 0 D 2-24
authorizing a contract between the city
of Bexley and the City of Columbus for
the provision of the city of Columbus
for the provision by the city of
Columbus of fire protection and
Emergency Medical Services for the
5-year period beginning January 1st 2024
and ending December 31st 2028 and to
declare an emergency introduced by Mr
Markham thank you this is our five-year
contract of the city of Columbus for
fire protection this is the second most
expensive item on our budget each year
uh but for that we uh we get not one not
two not three but four fully staffed
fire stations around the perimeter of
Columbus I'm right on that cor yep have
top-notch service all the Fire
Protection Service that we need none of
the hassle of maintaining those um and
every five years we we renew this any
comments questions on this I think at
the last meeting the chief did and the
mayor did a nice job of kind of walking
us through through this one
um I Madame President I would ask the
City attorney that um because this is a
period beginning January 1 is there any
urgency and and passage of
this I think you can wait a couple more
weeks okay I mean if council's
comfortable with it is spending no I can
wait
okay sounds good um Mr mCP do we have
any speaker slips for this ordinance we
do not then Mr official do we need to
put in the actual number of the
ordinance on the attachment or is that
just grammatical and you fill it in
later on what attachment I'm sorry um
the actual contract there's a blank
space I think you have to fill in the
ordinance number is that once it's
passed oh the contract and in the
contract itself yeah we can that's just
we can just fill that in we can put that
in anytime we have the ordinance number
now that's just something Columbus
wanted okay you talk about right here
yeah that would just just just want to
remind somebody we would we would hand
perfect either handw WR it or use a
typewriter you have sounds good um how
do folks feel about this one being on
the consent agenda any
opposition okay I'm seeing all right
Natalie if you can mark this one um
ordinance 2-24 will also be on the
consent agenda
thank
you Mr
official okay we are moving on to a
second reading of ordinance
0324 to appropriate $ 22,7 38 from the
law enforcement trust fund fund 18
introduced by misss
sad thank you um so this ordinance is um
basically our chief Lewis was here to
speak to us about it last time that the
$227 38 needs to be approved by Council
that's why it's in front of us that's
the way the law enforcement trust fund
was set up and this money um in that
trust fund has come from the good work
of our department and um what they've
been able to do here um in Bexley so
this is just allowing them now to take
those resources and spin them
appropriately to how the chief and the
department sees fit um with that
22738 so it's a second reading tonight
it'll go to our third reading and our
next meeting but it's very
straightforward and um give some money
back to our department to uh serve our
community thanks Jess um any questions
or comments from
Council um Mr mCP any speaker slips on
this one no okay um would Council be our
right to put this on the consent agenda
at the next meeting
too that okay all right we are rolling
um Natalie if you can add ordinance 3-24
to the consent agenda that would be
great okay
we already discussed y all right Mr Fish
you are up so I'm going to skip
0424 because we are waiting on a guest
and we will go to a first reading and
then come back to that
0424 they're both long too apparently um
titles so first reading of ordinance
0524 to authorize the mayor and City
auditor to accept funding and enter into
an agreement with the mid Ohio Regional
Planning Commission pertaining to the
Livingston Avenue reconstruction Capital
Improvement project and to enter into a
capital Improvement project
intergovernmental and contribution
agreement with the city of Columbus
relative to the project to authorize the
city auditor auditor to appropriate
funds received from morsy for the
project including providing funding to
the city of Columbus in their
administration of the project to
establish auditor Serv certificate
certificates as needed and requested for
the project and to as necessary
authorize the auditor to receive any
unspent balance of funding deposited by
Bexley to the city of Columbus for the
project introduced by Ms
sad thank you there's a lot of language
here um in that title but basically what
this is doing is it's a um very positive
um situation for our community that we
are we've established this relationship
with the city of Columbus morps is going
to be involved as well as the city of
Bexley and moving forward um we're all
very excited to see these improvements
to Livingston Avenue and what this is
going to mean to our community I am
going to then now kick it over to the
mayor so he can do a deeper dive on
exactly what those relationships between
morsy the city of Bexley and city of
Columbus are and how that's going to
play out thank you um I have a brief
presentation to share this evening on
this ordinance um but but um Jess um I
think summarized it well as you all are
aware Bexley was the applicant and the
recipient of an attributable funds Grant
through morsy last year um for the
Livingston Avenue project and it's
essentially infrastructure piece of the
joint Livingston Avenue plan that
Council adopted in 2022 and if you want
to um sort of familiarize yourself with
that plan it is on our website under uh
plans and studies document the project
scope uh includes
uh roadway reconstruction on Livingston
landscape medians shared use paths
Street lighting storm water improvements
s signal Replacements and upgrade to
theota bus stops um it will include uh a
wider sidewalk on both sides of the
street which will allow for cyclists and
pedestrians to share that space it will
include a wider Tree Lawn and we're
talking about the residential areas
basically essentially um College Avenue
Avenue and to the actually really more
yeah College Avenue and to the east um
wider tree lains so today there's like a
very slim strip on Livingston Avenue the
tree lines are called for six to eight
foot treein essentially along that area
which is um similar to um Park View or
some of those some of those streets um
and those those medians are a full uh
width median um so they'll they'll have
they'll feel a little bit more like a
Main Street medium actually a little bit
wider than a Main Street median um and
currently um it's in the very beginning
stages of the design phase the contract
for design has been awarded um to omm by
the city of Columbus and this is um a
little bit like the intergovernmental
agreement with the library I mean they
are they are not dissimilar except this
is much wordier so uh essentially what
we're doing is we're joining we're we're
asking Council to ratify an agreement
whereby Beckley which applied for the
funds kind of in name only because the
city of Columbus really facilitated us
as our technical support for that um and
is receiving funds from morsy would then
disperse the funds back to Columbus who
would be the project manager um Columbus
has an extensive depth of experience on
a tributable funds project we have none
um or at least not any recent experience
the tribal funds projects are federal
projects they are robust it's similar to
if you've watched or followed from a
distance what's happened on North
Cassidy north of delmare Drive um you've
probably followed a very slow moving
train no pun intended as uh that project
has marched from application to approval
it's essentially a seven-year project
and Livingston will not be different it
will require a small amount of eminent
domain work in order to widen uh
sidewalk spaces it um would also impact
the commercial area in in keeping with
the Livingston Avenue plan um and at the
end of the day what we're going to see
is an infrastructure that matches what
shows up in that plan um the details of
the funding are such that um we have
come up with a tentative agreement about
how we would split the local match and
that is based upon the Frontage that we
have on Livingston compared to the
Frontage that Columbus has on Livingston
and based on um footage of Frontage uh
the calculation is that Bexley would
carry 33% of the local match and
Columbus would carry 67% of the local
match based upon the application you can
see the numbers in front of you that's
roughly a 1.6 66 million uh contribution
from Bexley you have already budgeted uh
$541,000 odd dollars in the
infrastructure fund for this year's
piece of it um the remainder of it would
be spread out um
over a period of time prob five or six
years um and I'm still waiting on some
more information from Columbus to help
us sort of forecast that um and provide
more information on that so I've talked
about the fin ing what the project is
the intergovernmental agreement itself
you can read the draft of it um in the
packet sort of uh memorializes the
financial contribution and the fact that
the city of Columbus is the Project Lead
uh Mark fishell has reviewed this and
provided comment there has been
amendments based upon that I think
there's one other very minor Amendment
based upon I think you would wanted some
if they changes that we have feedback in
the changes which makes sense yeah I
mean I'll get some language on that but
it's very minor and they were open to it
right and I think we're probably very
well protected by being the technical
recipient of the funds as well so either
way I think um uh it's it's had it it
was originated through Columbus's legal
department it's had lots of City
attorneys look at it and uh we'll have a
minor change to come in a this is we're
calling this a draft exhibit and and
probably by next meeting we'll have it a
exhibit that doesn't say draft on it and
I think isn't morsy coming um are they
coming in a couple weeks to discuss this
or they're coming unrelated to this um
and I morps is the funding arm but
they're not really the not really
they're doing they doing the work arm
okay but if you wanted I mean I could
have someone from Columbus maybe come
talk about it or that may not be a bad
idea it's it's been a while since uh we
we heard from somebody from col this and
given that we've got um some new members
joining us that would be great um I will
share that I had the privilege and honor
of being uh on the joint Livingston
Avenue uh group working group and um
thanks to the hard work of that group um
there are some short-term changes that
you've seen on Livingston with the
striping and going from multiple Lanes
to uh one lane in each Direction and a
turning lane but a big component of that
group was trying to figure out long-term
changes so that uh residents of
Livingston could enjoy their front yard
and that traffic could really slow down
um because we've all heard you know the
stories of Livingston um so this is
really speaking to the long-term piece
of that right mayor that's correct yeah
um sounds great I appreciate that Mr
Silverman thank you um at what point
will we need to notify residents on
Livingston that have direct Frontage to
the street of any imminent do main
proceedings so um and by the way I don't
want to freak people out when I say I'm
talking I'm talking about like feet not
like property yeah um first off many of
them have been uh prived to those
conversations through the planning
process um we're not experts on that
because it's not it's not the type of
project that we normally under undergo
so I don't know the I don't know the
technical answer to your question I can
only reference the Cassidy project which
we've been kept informed on but have no
relation to um that the any sort of
property acquisition piece of it is soon
before they go to Bid And so it's like
they've been spending right now on cidy
the past year working on it um and it's
about year four or five into that
project so it's quite a ways out and we
will know however what we're talking
about with that as we go through this
design process that's happening right
now so the engineering firm that's been
engaged will have public workshop and as
part of it and we'll start to develop
incredibly detailed surveys that show
exactly what that looks like are we are
we gaining any more um service of the
Northbound Society Livingston through
this or is it maintaining all by
Columbus so the the informal agreement
that we currently have with Columbus
that has not been in any way shape or
form codified is that following the
completion of the plan um and it I think
it might be talked about about in the
intergovernmental agreement and maybe
it's something for us to put in there as
well I have to I have to refresh it's
been months since we actually reviewed
this draft
um we anticipate having a rideway
boundary line adjustment so that Bexley
would take the rideway north of the curb
um we would then be maintaining the
treeon and the sidewalk on the Bexley
side of Livingston Avenue currently that
RightWay there is no rideway for Bexley
the property line is the beginning of
Corp limits and it's just north of the
sidewalk
yeah Mr markam yeah I think that's a
really good clarification to make when
people hear emminent domain they start
to imagination goes wild I can tell you
that the uh as a resident of South
Bexley that Livingston Avenue traffic is
a nightmare and for us to have the
opportunity with morsy to and city of
Columbus to come to the table and create
um a cohesive Community look with
Berwick there I think um is probably
uh it's going to have a much bigger
impact than most people in the city
would imagine I would say and uh I'm
enthusiastic supporter of this it's
probably the number one reason along
with fale Mayfield that I became a city
council member so I'm uh super excited
that we've got these people coming to
the table with us uh and also uh what a
uh Financial bargain for the city as
well any other questions or comments
from Council Mr Hurley
just a clarification on the um the
contract the second to last recital on
the first page project construction is
anticipated to commence in 2029 is that
a pretty firm timeline or do we
um I me
here the 2029 timeline is an estimate
okay uh they are uh again they are
managing multiple versions of projects
like this every year and so they have a
pretty good feel for what it takes and
it is excruciatingly slow um but it's a
federal process and so it's a totally
different process than what we typically
undergo with our
grants and I do want to clarify I think
I say Grant I want to make sure everyone
realizes this this is not a loan it is
fully funded from morsy funds so other
than the local match that $13 million
Grant is money from morsy through the
federal through morsy from the federal
government directly to the project it's
not owed back it is um it is 100%
contributed good clarification um any
other qu questions or comments from
Council U Mr mCP do we have any speaker
slips on this
ordinance we do not okay all right um we
will have this go to our second reading
at our next meeting uh Mr official will
you Circle back please to um the second
reading our guest has arrived all right
so we have a second reading of ordinance
0424 to amend sections 12262 12361 124.0
3 124.0 N
12541 125 and 12543 of the codified
ordinances of the city of Bexley
Planning and Zoning codes to repeal
sections 15 12 54.0 5 125412 the city's
codified ordinances and enact new
sections 12540 5 and 125412 and to amend
the zoning classification and official
zoning map for all property located in
the commercial Service District and
certain property in the low density
multifam residential district to mixed
use commercial and Livingston Avenue
District overlay introduced by Mr
Marcelino we discussed this a bit at the
first uh reading um I don't have
anything additional right now I know
there are some small changes that I
believe the mayor um intends to discuss
um um but I would kind of leave it at
that and then I believe we're going to
have some comments on this matter so I
advise that we perhaps discuss the small
changes that were considering then allow
for public comment and then go from
there that's acceptable yeah and um if
it's also okay for our zoning Council to
give us kind of an overview because
you've heard it from me I think you
should probably hear from Katherine is
that all right yeah absolutely um so
this is not unrelated to our last
ordinance that we just talked about that
first reading um this is a
proposed um change of the Livingston
Avenue zoning uh in the commercial
District which extends from Francis uh
West to the creek it's Comm it's
currently commercial service which is
more of a highway oriented um retail
zoning designation which is allowed for
um auto part shops uh or not auto part
shops but Auto auto service uses
Convenience Stores um the the car wash
the Tire the tire place those are more
commercial Service uh vehicle oriented
traffic oriented type retail uses the
livon Avenue plan um envisions that that
District becomes more of a mixed use um
housing
retail um environment along with many of
the other corridors in Columbus as they
evolve um and so Columbus uh and Bexley
we are trying to align our zoning code
to allow for those sorts of uses um
the way that this looks in terms of the
actual practical change is that it takes
uses that are currently outright
permitted on Livingston Avenue such as
um auto automotive uh maintenance and
repairs or convenience stores and it
makes those conditional uses with an
overlay for Livingston Avenue so
Livingston Avenue overlay still allows
uses on Livingston that don't exist such
as drive-thru restaurants in other parts
of the city um but uh it also morphs
into a mix use commercial so Main Street
and North Cassidy are currently mixed
use commercial Main Street has a Main
Street District overlay North Cassy does
not currently have an overlay this would
then align Livingston all of our three
commercial corridors with uniform zoning
Main Street having its own overlay
Livingston having its own overlay the
other thing that um this zodan ordinance
does is it changes some of the language
around our conditional use uses it
doesn't um I want to caveat this
generally does not change conditional
uses um but it changes language about
the process for conditional uses and
that was largely informed by as you guys
know the lawsuit that came about over
the approval of 2300 East Livingston and
the recommendation by the court that we
legislatively make our conditional use
criteria clear so this does not this
does not open uh housing projects such
as 2300 East Livingston or outright
approval it would still have to come
back if this were to pass and go through
a conditional use review as it did
before um Sam mentioned some changes in
your packet you'll see uh a folder under
the second reading section um and any
any member of the public has access to
this package under our documents on the
website for upcoming agendas um
ordinance 424 has a folder and there's
additional documents proposed amended to
be incorporated and they include um
multiple documents with very small
changes because there are sections of
our code that refer to commercial
service that would just need to be
updated um there is also some question
about how we handle signage because of
some intricacies of our code and I'm
gonna allow now the rest of this
presentation to go over to Jason sui who
is here with us he is our planning
consultant and kathern Cunningham who is
our zoning counsel to if you could
augment augment anything I just said in
terms of laying the table and then also
uh provides a little bit of narrative
about uh any proposed changes that'd be
awesome if both of you would like to are
you guys playing rock paper scissors
right now okay I I would have liked to
have played that because I think I would
have won but instead I just stood up and
took command so I like that um I really
just want to give you some some overview
of um I'm happy to answer any questions
about the ordinance I know you've had it
before it goes to Bap as you know
whenever there's any proposed change in
the code and so will take a look at it
make recommendations to you that's part
of your process uh and you will have
another public hearing on this after you
get the recommendations from Bap so I
just wanted to sort of point that out
this is not the last time um but the
mayor did ask me to come in and you got
latent sort of um additional changes and
ordinances that we were hoping to have
to you tonight about didn't quite get
that done and that's what I call sort of
the trickle down effect because in this
case what what your ordinance does is it
eliminates the commercial Service
District I think as the mayor has said
and it applies the MU District mixed use
commercial um in on the living in the
Livingston Avenue Corridor but what it
does is sort of similar to what was
happening in in on Main Street that
you're very used to and that is it puts
an overlay the Main Street district is
an mu District zoning classification but
it has an overlay on it called Main
Street
so what has happened and it gives a
little bit more control and ability to
do things and sort of take into account
the nature and character of the area and
so what I think part of the the the uh
what the mayor said part of sort of
listening to what the court said in that
lawsuit and also looking at your code
and the intentions of Bexley and the
differences between Main Street and
Livingston Avenue um was for some
recommendations and Mr Su is really
better at the substance of of um the
planning the zoning the standards um
than I am I'm better at sort of fixing
it together so it goes in a code right
um but what they really did was in in
sort of what I would describe is they
created a Livingston Avenue overlay that
goes over top of the MU District much
like what happens on Main Street but
with a different overlay that's more
sensitive to um the Livingston Avenue
Corridor and what's happening there and
things that are maybe more appropriate
there that wouldn't necessarily look
like Main Street on the other hand it
does sort of adopt and refer to some of
the mainst street things that are like
they like and create certain development
standards by code that would apply on
Livingston Avenue much like the lessons
learned from Main Street they took the
things they liked and things that were
needed to be amended a little bit
tweaked to be more applicable to um
Livingston Avenue and Jason can go over
those with you but that's really what's
happening and that's what's in the
ordinance before you well what we did
after we got the meat of that together
was um sort of took a fine look at the
code and said
okay if the Cs district is eliminated
and this La district is um going to be
applied what are the other sections of
the code that mention those districts in
the powers and duties of the ARB the
powers and duties of Bap who had
authorities over and who had authorities
relating to the Ms district and and but
now the LA district has to go in and
become part of that so we we looked at
the code generally and a lot of the
things that you will see in these
additional amendments are just
accommodating for the fact that now
there is an additional overlay District
in Bexley and making sure it gets in
everybody's powers and duties and powers
to review and all of those things and
falls into the process like everything
else and make sure that there are things
that don't sort of get away from us um
because the Cs District was eliminated
one of those in particular is signs when
you went to the sign code um and you'll
see that in in what mayor describes as
the the folder that folder is really
just trickling through the code and
trying to pick up everything that
referred to Cs and a lot of those are
not just in the zoning code they're also
in the general development standards
they're in parking they're in signs
they're in around the code in different
places and all of these provisions and
proposed changes are really about those
sections that are also inadvertently
impacted by um eliminating a single
zoning classification and by um adopting
an additional overlay in the city so I
think the
the mayor has something up so that you
can see one of the things was um and he
has his notes on there but in the powers
and duties of ARB they had they have the
authority to Grant um certificates of
appropriateness in the MU District but
but there was an exception for the Main
Street District while there would also
we would treat the overlays the same
there would also be an exception for the
livon Avenue District overlay and those
will go to BM so it's just trying to
treat everything overlays in the same
way so it's the same process throughout
um with most of these things so all of
the additional amendments that you're
going to see really are about making
sure the code reads right and we've
picked up everything that's going to be
affected by that the things that you
find your folders relate to the powers
and duties of Bap um because they have
certain review authorities with with
regard to that they relate to the um
there there are certain Provisions under
bap's authorities that relate to what
they do in overlay districts like the
Main Street district and the campus
planning district so we added the um
Livingston Avenue overlay District to
that too and that's really sort of their
review procedures and what standards
they apply same thing we would treat
living an overlay in the same way
associated with its standards as Main
Street is treated to its
standards um the signs that's that's
Jason is going to talk to you about that
because the signs there is there were CS
standards for signs at at Livingston
that didn't didn't necessarily match the
Main Street District standards for signs
they were separate so um that is
something that we're going to ask Bap uh
with your permission of course ask Bap
to review and make recommend ations to
you about um and I think Jason has um
will have some recommendations they' be
working on that too and then the last
thing was um just in terms of the
parking spaces we needed to um there see
there W it wasn't so much a conflict but
we needed to equally apply them in the
same way that we do the other overlays
so these are some trickle down things um
we'll be asking for a an amendment to
the ordinance and really what I call
cleanup but you may view it differently
but you would have it all before you
certainly as an amended ordinance in all
those sections and they are available in
a folder in the code and I am happy to
answer any questions about the ordinance
or what's in it or why it's in it or how
the language got the way it was um I
know that you had some introduction
before and in terms of the the you know
the planning standards and the
development standards what I call
development standards which is like
setbacks and Heights and densities those
kind of things um architectural stuff
that really is more of a planner's role
than a lawyer's role um my judgment is
much better deferred to planners and
Architects on those issues and I'm happy
to do that but there are any questions
please let me
know Council I have any questions for
Miss Cunningham Mr Hurley um I don't
know if this is a a question for you or
the mayor or um I don't think it's a
question for Jason because it's more
legal so on the attachments and the
folder you mentioned mayor um the
document that is cleaning up the section
of code Main Street district and campus
planning district
review um middle of page two you're
adding a section here I'll let you catch
up yeah right there 207 right yeah just
more this more of a clarifying question
um so we have this you know within the
Livingston Avenue District the board
shall Bas approval on the review of the
LA District standards the Main Street
design guidelines that's more or less
mirrored from the previous sentence
which applies to the Main Street
District yes and then we have this and
any other plans or design guidelines
approved by Council yes is this the
Livingston Avenue plan or po I just that
that's appears to be language that
differs from the Main Street portions of
this and I'm just curious it does differ
and the reason it differ
there the way that it has worked in the
past and the reason that it differs is
in mainst street as least as far as I
know and certainly the mayor and Jason
could um correct me there is it's there
I'm not aware of any other plans or
studies it's and we've talked a lot
about the mainstream guidelines and they
have been specifically referred to and
adopted in the code as it relates to
Main Street um there have been other
guidelines um I don't know if they're
design guidelines there have also been
other studies relating to Livingston
Avenue there may have been other studies
um relating to Main Street and those
historically have been looked at as well
um if Council wants to specifically
identify a particular guideline and
incorporate by reference or a particular
study could certainly do that but the
history of Bexley has been when they do
have studies they typically look at all
of those to determine sort of the the
standards of the district and and the
design guidelines that they're going to
apply I whether that's the Southwest
beex Le plan or not that I can't answer
but the mayor and Jason might too
because I I just don't know enough about
design I know it it has some conceptual
ideas about uses and things I'm not sure
about design mayor do you know yeah can
supplement that everything she said of
course is is appropriate The Joint
living Time new plan does have some
design guidelines in it yeah but um as
you guys know we have budget this year
to update our design guidelines for Main
Street and to expand them to include
Cassidy and Livingston um and so we
anticipate that we're going to have
commercial design guidelines that are
that are uh an umbrella design guideline
but then also have some granularity to
those three different corridors um
coming out of that process probably in
the next 12 months so does
if I'm understanding this is more or
less um meant to capture any of those
future plans that are in place without
having us have to go back and constantly
update this section of code in the
future is that a that's right that's
fair I will I will supplement that to
say that I I do anticipate that when we
have our main our design guidelines r
large that we are going to want to come
back and codify some of those standards
um in another phup ordinance that would
include because right now we have some
of our Main Street gu design guidelines
codified and so those will arguably
probably change and so as those change
we would also want to codify living St
in Cassy I would think okay and I think
that both the mayor and Jason can
address this again better than I can but
when there was the the sort
of zoning Co
modernization I don't know however many
years ago
um one of the things that they did
intentionally was choose certain things
out of the out of the Main Street
guidelines to actually codify and you
see those in the provisions of the code
where you see the big Jason could
probably tell me the code
section um but where you see the sort of
the grid when it's talking about Main
Street design standards it's not called
guidelines it's called standards you
will also see that in the proposed
amendment to Livingston Avenue
Livingston Avenue design standards and
those are items that they took out of a
study and made part of the code codes
specifically in addition to that though
um more like and again he'll correct me
if I'm wrong but more like the signs on
um Main Street they rest more in the
guidelines and so the code says well the
standards you know we have these
codified standards and also if there are
guidelines we use those to establish
standards for other things and so if
they're not if they're in Conflict the
code always controls but if they're
design standards that Council has
specific Ally approved that doesn't mean
that it was a neighborhood study or
something that coun didn't come before
Council and you didn't adopt by
ordinance if there are study that that
Council has adopted by ordinance and
approved then those supplement the code
for if there's any kind of blank or
polic or you know issue that has to be
decided and to your point
to you know not be not have to go back
and update the code every time there's a
new codified standard that Council
chooses to create for a particular area
of the city at Main Street or at
Livingston Avenue or in this case also
campus planning is in that bucket if
that makes sense yeah no thank you for
that clarification thank you um I did
have a question what is the interplay
between this ordinance and the ordinance
that we just read via first reading 5-24
they both concern Livingston Avenue five
Dash sure address that be Jason and the
mayor whoever I don't know4 was so I'm
like I I have no idea so
um the uh this is a picture of what the
joint Livingston Avenue plan envisions
the commercial District on Livingston
would look like and if those of you who
know Livingston that doesn't really
evoke evoke Livingston right now so um
the infrastructure improvements that are
necessary to see this through which
includes tree
Wells um you know lane lane alteration
of lanes the design of the traffic
signals the street lamps that are in
place all would require um would require
the funding that's part of this but also
would require the zoning to go behind it
so if you look at the types of uses that
you see in this inspiration imagery
those are not uses that are anticipated
by the commercial service Zone in
designation but they would be
anticipated i' say use it's actually
probably less about use and more about
form anticipated by mixed use commercial
with the Livingston Avenue overlay um I
will add you know there are power lines
on Livingston in both sides that don't
show up in this image no one's really
solved that question so there are things
that remain uh to be solved but that the
Zone they do go hand inand because the
zoning would need to be changed in order
to allow that long-term vision for
Livingston Avenue to be realized um it
takes both the funding and it takes the
regulatory frame framework to be in
place to have it happen Mr sui did you
want to add to that I luckily for all of
you and the audience have much less
content to provide than Katherine seemed
to think I do so it's gonna be a lot
shorter as if though everybody loves
talking about Zoning for a long time I
think um what the mayor was just saying
is important to understand and that this
is a natural evolution of the way our
zoning process has occurred and what we
did when we updated the zoning which is
actually quite a few years ago now um is
is that we simplify districts to the
extent possible and at that time we sort
of as a as a city as a region even you
could say about our commercial corridors
we hadn't quite evolved yet to take the
aggressive approach that I think is now
pay dividends to rethink the way some of
these traditionally Automotive
commercial corridors could be
repositioned to be more mixed use
walkable and more neighborhood based
we're always going to have
Commercial High volume high traffic
corridors throughout the region we're
not saying that's not going to happen
what the city of Columbus is doing in
their zoning what we're doing what city
White Hall has done what Reynoldsburg is
done what up Arlington's done all these
different communities is start to say do
we need the quantity of those that we
had and can we change them in a way and
this is going a big Direction toward
that so the only thing I'm going to
really add is that as Katherine
mentioned we're going to take this as an
overlay which means now all of a sudden
our Co gets are zoning map and our code
gets simpler sounds more complex but in
reality what we're doing is saying we
believe that mixed use which is a more
pedestrian oriented Vision that looks
like this is what should be mostly the
condition on Main Street on Cassidy and
on Livingston Avenue so essentially what
we're doing is getting W rid of a super
a Superfluous zoning and just making
some slight changes to each of those
with the overlays and the other way this
really interlinks to the what the mayor
mentioned as far as the the design
guideline process by having this in
place we then have the underlying zoning
of mixed use cor mixed use commercial
which then puts the uses as a standard
for both permitted and conditional and
we can think about through that design
process what are the specific standards
that most apply to each of those we took
I think a pretty good stab at this by
adapting the Main Street guideline
standards into this and we now have to
think about with the B app specifics as
Katherine mentioned
like how do we want to adapt those those
sign guidelines right now because we're
kind of transitioning from big giant
signs that you can see when you're
you're looking for a drive-thru to more
pedestrian oriented signs which you can
still see when you're driving but are
more like Main Street that's something
we're going to have to work at as sort
of a stop Gap while we put this in place
that being said as we go through this
iterative process for the next year and
come up with specific design guidelines
for all of those corridors we'll be able
to refine this to the point where I
think we've got good design standards
for the next decade to apply in all our
commercial corridors so that's really
all I wanted to tell you today um other
than we do request that you send this
back with those issues to the Bap so
that they can be investigated further
and uh if you have any specific
questions about any of the standards
that we put in here I'm happy to answer
those today any questions from Council
for Mr sui Mr
Silverman
thatass um I think that has yet to be
determined um we'll be engaging with the
consultant to help us through that but I
think that it's probably fair to say
that there will be some uniform
guidelines among all three but then
there will be a little bit of native ISM
that's in in kind of injected into that
so for
example what works on on Main Street
doesn't necessarily work on Cassidy
doesn't necessarily work on on
Livingston sorry what would each of them
have their own design guidelines then I
think that's a likely outcome but I
think that has yet to be
determined the one last thing I do want
to mention um is that our luckily our
firm omm was awarded the contract for
this through a separate process with the
city of Columbus so um I can assure you
that as part of that we are fully
intending to engage you and all the bexy
community thoroughly in the process of
that so you'll be back we'll be back a
lot I'll be back as well as Engineers
who actually understand all the
engineering questions that anybody may
ask uh about implementation of this
project any other questions from Council
of Mr sui um thank you Mr sui I
appreciate it um I did want to mention a
few things because we have had some
additional members of our public join us
um this is a second reading um so it's
my understanding from Mr mCP that we do
have some speaker slips that were
submitted so we are going to have public
comments from those who have turned in
those speaker slips uh if you weren't
with us at the beginning of the meeting
I'd want to remind everyone that per our
written Council policy on public
comments this is the Public's chance to
make comments and statements to council
and to share your thoughts with us
regarding city city business we want to
make sure we get through um the folks
that have submitted those speaker slips
it is council's opportunity to listen
and not debate or not engage in a back
and forth however since we have the
benefit of Miss Cunningham and Mr sui
here if a speaker does have a question
please rest assured that I'm going to do
my best to write down your questions I'm
also going to ask them to also uh keep
track of the questions if you can and
then once all of the public comments
have concluded and we have heard from
each person that turned in a speaker
slip I will be asking Miss Cunningham
and Mr sui to come back up to the podium
to address address those questions that
were asked and to provide further
insight to council so that we all have
the benefit of hearing what the answer
aners to those questions were um if a
question does need a deeper dive I'm
going to ask the mayor to please um have
the appropriate uh City personnel or
staff or consultant uh get back to U the
person that asked the question if we're
not able to get to it today and then
finally for everyone's benefit um Mr
Marcelino I believe public hearing will
be at the next one February 13th yeah
it's on February 13th and there there is
um since that's a third reading there
will be no speaker slip required uh at
that time so each speaker that has
turned in the speaker slip has up to
five minutes to uh speak uninterrupted
by Council um and that being said when
you do come up um and your speaker slip
is called if you can please state your
name and address uh Mr mCP who do we
have that's turned in that speaker slip
please uh we have two uh we'll start
with Mike McKinny okay Mr mckenny if you
would mind come on come on up
please uh thanks very much you can hear
me fine right yes is that yes that light
is green so we can hear you just fine
thank you sorry there you go okay uh if
I could so a lot of new people
[Music]
here um excuse me sir would you please
go back behind the
dis Mr mckenny hold on a second I want
to make sure you get your full five
minutes well yeah okay I'm sorry sir go
ahead everybody lot of new people here I
did a prepared statement so I wouldn't
be contemporaneous ad hoc things in
badly when we do that uh I do have ADD
I'm probably going to run a minute I beg
your forbearance as everybody has sort
of you know leisurely went through this
it's pretty consequential and Advance
thank you so I'll move on Mike Mckenna
832 South Roosevelt I'm just going to
read the prepared statement so I don't
go off track okay so forgive me for no
eye contact but what I'm trying to
communicate is deeply important I moved
to Bexley 30 plus years ago I raised my
children who graduated from Bexley and
St Charles here in that same time my
career has been in real estate
Investments real estate development
including OFA tax credit projects and
real property valuation as a subject
matter expert providing valuation and
Associated standards and compliance
oversight and expertise during this time
I have owned and built many properties
within Bexley millions of dollars I was
Al I was also the first Bexley CI
citizen uh police citizen of the Year
this was for assisting and apprehending
a man who was assaulting a Bexley police
officer I only mention this uh because
of the award it gave me the access to
and an opportunity to have more candid
transparent and ground level Insight of
the challenges that have historic
historically faced Southwest Beckley one
thing that seems apparent to me in my
review of this matter is that it
demonstrates absolutely no tangible or
enduring economic benefit of any kind to
the city of Bexley while I can see no
enduring benefit there are an array of
Highly significant risk including
enormous capital and economic losses
risk that the architects of this scheme
won't themselves be personally invested
in no the only Capital At Risk is that
of other people namely the surrounding
Property Owners any other driving
motivations aside please I beg you put
yourselves in the shoes of the
immediately adjoining and nearby
surrounding Property Owners Bexley is an
interring Municipal Corporation
surrounded by various socio and economic
and other forces and externalities many
of those forces and Associated impacts
are outside of our Direct Control
however importantly Bexley has long been
stabilized and as most residents would
believe and expect such a location would
not be subject to significant land use
or zoning changes that may result in
risk of damage or economic loss
furthermore you have Direct Control to
further mitigate these risk this means
that these people that the people who
invest here do so with the reasonable
belief that this is not a speculative
investment and that it's more of an
annuity with respect to risk of loss and
capital these considerations are
reasonably and unquestionably part of
the typical purchasers buying decision
when they think about investing in
Beckley moving and living here about
about a decade ago we undertook a
lengthy and careful careful development
of the Bexley land use strategy where we
engaged numerous stakeholders paid tens
of thousands of dollars to EMH andt and
others to promate and publish the
Strategic plan with that context in mind
let me read from it functions as a
commercial Corridor that reflects
Beckley with well-maintained and
attractive commercial improvements and
with appropriate uses I mentioned the
people who make purchasing and
investment decisions within such a
landlocked and stabilized location those
people place reasonable and rightful
Reliance on these types of published
strategic documents and plans having
relied upon them they are now faced with
an ad hoc Proposal with immense risk of
loss and potentially enormous measurable
damages an ad hoc spot zoning that is
completely contradictory to the very
strategic plan promulgated by the city
and published for the aforementioned
Insight stability and as an inducement
to invest and upon which purchasers
reasonably and rightfully relied the
document says encourage payroll
generating use I'm going to save a
minute by not wasting any more time
there they want medical buildings that
some of the best developers in central
Ohio were on this plan on this
committee uh so they said Medical
Offices I checked there's not a single
pediatrician in the city of Bexley not
one that I have been able to identify
not one I would add I think it's a great
and appropriate use so now for whatever
reason despite the publish guide guiding
overlays despite the trial decision
despite the appeals court decision
despite the very real risk of enormous
loss to the nearby and surrounding
Property Owners which I'm guessing our
Charter or some other guiding document
must prohibit despite all of this the
Cadre of those attempting to advance
this ill-conceived scheme of deter that
they will not take no for an answer
despite no risk to themselves and are
proposing this ad hoc zoning that again
is completely contradictory and
inconsistent to the very strategic plan
promulgated as guidance and published to
the community and investers as
inducement and upon which people
reasonably and rightfully relied this is
not a social experiment this has
enormous risk to those people I have
substantial knowledge on the topics I
also have
access to enormous amounts of data
systems and resources preliminary
research appears to objectively
demonstrate quantifiable measures of
Damages preliminarily it appears the
impacts will likely be enormous in the
range of 30 to 12 plus or minus percent
loss or reduction in the median cost per
above grade gross living area to the
properties surrounding the proposed
development Mr mcken you have exceeded
your time sir are you close to wrapping
up your comments probably have two more
minutes as I promised on the front end
so if I may
please thank you very much uh where was
I uh so 30 to 12% the property owners
immediately adjoining and nearby will
likely suffer the greatest impacts and
losses if un Artful I apologize but
think Chernobyl as a metaphor the
immediately adjoining properties will
likely experience profound losses and
value the Imp will emanate outward and
ripple well beyond the immediately
adjoining properties I won't even talk
about the overall economic health and
physical condition of the corridor
simply Drive behind Mumu take a look
you'll see it in summary thank you uh
considering everything I've said beyond
the law and what that will mean as
elected officials your terms will come
to an end at whatever length they may be
your service will end thank you for that
uh your service will end and you will
move on with your lives but the
decisions and the votes that you will
make will linger and have potentially
devastating consequences long after
you're gone if those decisions are wrong
speculative or based on some personal
ideology it's your constituent will pay
the enormous price and suffer the
enormous losses and Lasting damages that
is an important reason for the Strategic
documents in this case I can't imagine
uh forget that uh please put yourself in
the shoes of the surrounding uh of the
surrounding Property Owners of this
proposal and imagine it was you that you
didn't live somewhere else in North
Beckley or Central
Beckley I have no reasonable idea why
this matter is still actively lingering
but this terrible proposal can be
summarily stopped under the direct care
custody and control that you possess
individually jointly and severly thank
you for the forbearance on the time if
you have any follow-up questions I'm
happy to answer them I suspect you won't
but if you do I'm happy to answer thank
you for your comments Mr mCP who else uh
turned in a speaker slip regarding this
ordinance please um Miss
Turner if you would please state your
name and address uh we will give you
five minutes thank you so much hi um yes
my name is Leah Turner and I live
adjacent to the property uh
2300 um so I didn't know this fellow but
um I had no prior conversations and it's
very interesting that what he had to say
and I know he's not the only uh South
Beckley resident that feels that way um
my comments are uh that I think this
ordinance is very vague there's a lot in
it it's a lot I think for council
members to to break up and to look at
let alone the citizens to understand it
um it also it's also a very um dense
area with people and Autos already and
you're only asking for more more people
more Autos I don't know where you're
going to put them I don't know where
they're going to park but I'll get to
parking so the area is already dense and
you want to make it denser I've also
noticed that all the commercial property
that's already on there um it appears um
to pretty much stay the same it has a
conditional use except for um the the
funeral home which is again less than a
quarter of an acre less than a quarter
of an acre and I'm sure you all live on
more than a quarter of an acre in your
own home and like the gentleman said you
put yourself in the resident's Place who
have to deal with this because I could
go through a laundry list of what I have
dealt with down there and you don't even
know my daughter saw the police take
down some somebody I saw another guy
he's running away from the police and
he's leaving his stash in our
yard now those are the more nonviolent
ones of course and then there's the one
the guy that wanted to
uh break into Sally woodard's home and
so who do you think called the police
who do you think can see with 17 windows
on our first floor a 1922 home who do
you think can see everything the
two-story home we see everything from
college all the way to
Francis and all the way around so we
know what goes
on you don't you have no
idea absolutely none and you are going
to make an ordinance that's going to
create more Havoc each and every one of
you so you better think very carefully
because do you want your children there
because I'm inviting you and your
families to come on down and if you want
to have a Sunday that's fine or you want
to have some hot cocoa I dare you
because I know some people in this city
won't go down there to Livingston
because they're afraid and you want to
put children and you want to put more
people down there if it's not safe for
you it's not safe for
us and I don't understand your parking
code you're going to add commercial
building possibly to
2,300 I don't understand where people
are going to
be you know it's not again in your
neighborhood it's not in your backyard
we chose to move there we chose at over
20 years
ago we raised our daughter she went to
college she got a nice scholarship
because there is a superior school
system here and I think you've forgotten
why people come here they come here for
family they come here for the
education and the quality of
life and we're not you know all the
people down there at our end of the
street they're not going to have
that
so with one Bexley in
mind what are you going to do for us
because we've been here and we've lived
here not only my home which is 220 feet
deep my husband and I we care for it we
care for our our we've cared for Sally
yeah I'm sure I'm running out of time Mr
official but
um I think you really need to like the
gentleman said I don't know but I really
want to meet
him would you make this a place for you
to live so I dare you I really do dare
you to come down with your family and
play and have some ice
cream because I don't think you'll ever
come you won't ever walk
there and you know
why thank you for your comments um Mr
mCP was there anyone else or were those
the two speaker uh we have one more who
um we've added uh David Green okay Mr
Green go ahead and come up please if you
wouldn't mind stating your name and
address please and I'm happy to give you
uh five
minutes hi thank you for including me
David Green 806 Francis Avenue
um I live in the middle of the street so
the
uh whatever the existing Funeral Parlor
was was uh
built about 50 60 years a ago it's been
a nice compatible use uh what I was
interested in is learning more about
your revised ordinance learning about
definitions what's a u mixed use
exclusions is there going to be
non-conforming uses for the existing
uses along the area and are you going to
have access management that's a critical
decision eliminating
driveways I gave the May a whole book on
that and I hope you looked at it um the
uh these are things that benefit the
community in the long term um reducing
traffic accidents maintaining flow of
traffic and then also improving the look
of the area providing more residential
this should not be this area should not
be Highway commercial which is what it
is turned
into a freeway offramp in the MD middle
of the city attracts all these you know
what they look like their drive-throughs
get gas fast you know jump out there you
buy a hot dog I I think the whole thing
is not appropriate for residential areas
and um you shouldn't have inappropriate
uses at store toxic or volatile uh
materials the tire store is one example
but there's there's possibly others but
these things should be thought about
thoroughly as a uh compatible with
residential areas and it can enhance the
area make it better make it much more a
long-term benefit for everybody and I
think this is an
opportunity you don't get these
opportunities very often you don't get
Redevelopment opportunities very often
so you got to be very careful on how you
do it and you got to be very careful
that you include everybody which you've
done with this plan and I want to know
how it's also going to relate to the
plan and there's certain goals that are
in here which are good and I agree with
a lot of this stuff in here but we need
to nail it down a little bit you know
and uh show how these things are going
to benefit us and uh I think that that's
basically uh what all all planning
should be so I thank you for your U
attention and I hope this works out for
the benefit of everyone thank you for
your comments Mr Green U Mr mCP was were
those the three no more speaker slips
okay um as I promised earlier um I was
trying to do my best to keep track of
any questions I would ask uh Mr Su or
Mrs Cunningham to come up um and address
to council please um the ones that I
wrote down there was a question about uh
the parking code uh that was one
question I also heard questions about
access management um and also how this
relates to the Southwest master plan um
if you could please address those to
coun
now that the public comment section has
concluded thank you Mr sui yeah um one
of the things I think that is a little
bit confusing about this is that this is
not a zoning for a site this is a
rezoning for a corridor and while I
understand there are some raw feelings
based on some you know recent zoning
debates that have taken place within the
community um just to clarify I know this
term spot zoning gets thrown out a lot
um
it's sort of a term that doesn't really
have a specific definition in planning
that being said the way we usually
interpret that is if one individual
partial is zone different than anything
around it now there's no if you go to
planning school you're not going to see
like here is exactly what spot def spot
zoning is it's kind of a amalgamation of
history that being said what we're doing
is exactly the opposite of that we're
trying to Zone an entire Corridor to be
the same zoning and we're trying to
actually make it more in line with other
whole corridors that are in this in the
community now whether or not you agree
with what's allowed in there is a
different issue I just wanted to clarify
that because I've heard that come up a
couple times and um that's actually not
not at all what we're doing um what's
Happening Here is more of a
clarification of the allowable uses
which are called permitted uses and the
conditional uses um and in this
particular
District we are intending if Council
agrees to widen the opportunity to have
residential here um as the last speaker
mentioned that could be very
advantageous as a way to integrate with
a larger residential neighborhood now
those are still conditional uses um as
we've stated them for for most of those
things so a specific development as a
mayor said earlier like the 2300 would
still need to come back in to get
conditional use approval which is
basically the same process that happened
last time so it would be no different so
this while it seems like it's you know
the same thing it's a very different
thing this is looking at the entire
Corridor to figure out how it works so a
couple things this creation of a mixed
use Corridor is exactly what we are
steering toward with regard to all of
those things that were mentioned about
access management that would be part of
redoing the roadway to configure
driveways and configure access to
individual Parcels in a better way um
improving Aesthetics adding commercial
uh there is office commercial allowed
now and we could actually have more
office the same office commercial
allowed so this new zoning does not
preclude Medical Office Buildings by any
any means nor did the previous zoning um
removing the inappropriate uses as one
of the speakers mentioned this doesn't
remove any uses we're not kicking
anybody out what we are saying is going
forward if you want to redevelop any of
the sites we are going to be encouraging
Redevelopment that is in a form that is
more walkable pedestrian oriented safer
and integrated with the community now
people can differ on these things people
can find statistics on anything I can
tell you with great Assurance over you
know 20 plus years of doing this 20
almost 25 years now 27 years shoot I
don't know I'm old um mixed use
corridors Are Much More Much More
advantageous to the residential
neighborhoods that are adjacent to them
than high capacity Auto oriented
commercial corridors for long-term
success I live right by an off-ramp and
luckily in my neighborhood we've been
able to turn the tide on that and
transition a street that used to be high
Capa High Capacity commercial um large
lot driveways parking in the front and
that's been converted now to a
residential scale walkable Street and
it's not all the way there but it's a
lot of the way there and it makes it a
heck of a lot better and I can assure
you where we where I live the property
value is not suffering and this is
happening all over Columbus and really
the the trend for the region the trend
for the the state and that I I would
Hazard the country is to transition
these to residential plus commercial
mixed use corridors you see it happening
in Upper Arlington in Westerville in um
in all communities this isn't a unique
weird thing that we're trying to do here
in Bexley and I would also mention this
is really trying to make it more like
Main Street so I I don't know how better
to answer those questions because I
think they're a little more nebulous but
if there's anything really specific from
Council that you heard in there that you
want me to answer with regard to the
guidelines I'm happy to do that Council
are there any last minute questions for
either Mr sui or Mrs
Cunningham nope thank you so much for
being here both of you we certainly oh
I'm so so sorry Sam
I okay then later I'm sorry I didn't
want to make sure I didn't see you um
just a a reminder again um this is
coming up for a
third uh reading uh it will also be a
public reading at our next meeting
February 13th and no speaker slips will
be required we are also going to put
this at the front of the agenda earlier
um so that uh folks um can speak earlier
and don't have to stay for the rest of
our meeting Mr Marcelino did you want to
ask I'm sorry to I apologize can I also
add to what you said that as a reminder
it will also be discussed at the Bap
meeting on
January oh two days from now so so
that's an opportunity as well to to hear
what's being thought of sorry I'm sorry
you're okay no worries Mr Marcelino yeah
so you know I I introduced this in part
because of my position um where I'll
land on it is is to be determined but
I'm trying to think about the future um
as I believe Mr mckenny was making sure
that we are mindful of and and mayor I'm
trying to put this all together there's
a question about the interplay from uh
president uh lampy here in regards to
ordinance for 424 and 524 and because
we're on a first reading tonight of 524
and a second reading of 424 I hadn't
necessarily linked the two together so I
guess my ultimate question comes down to
can
524 the project Associated there with
take place without
424 so um 524 is the
infrastructure project for Livingston
Avenue which would be of great benefit
to the overall Corridor regardless of
resoning I think um the point that we
were trying to make before is that um
the zoning to mixed use commercial so
more of a Main Street sort of interface
as opposed to Highway orange commercial
um interfaces better with those
infrastructure changes in the commercial
portion of the district
um so I think that hopefully that that
answers your question I don't I don't
want to over answer I don't answer
questions you're ask no it does it's and
it's and it's I'm probably looking for a
definitive answer that's really hard to
but I'm trying to look outside of the
scope of past uh projects that have been
proposed for the area and think more ter
more along our long-term goals for that
Corridor so I can give you a case study
um the
uh you know
the the amount of curb cuts that we have
on Livingston Avenue um we were recently
looking at the Lucky Lotto property
that's sat vacant for some time um has
had historical
underinvestment um it's an example of
you know yet another curb cut that can't
like really interface very well with the
infrastructure that we have in place the
Livingston Avenue infrastructure project
would
complement um a wider sidewalk more of a
setback and then combining that with
mixed use commercial zoning and the sort
of use that might follow as opposed to
to a convenience store um would be
complimentary to the infrastructure the
infrastructure is a huge value ad for
Livingston regardless so I would never
say that like if you can't you know if
we can't update the zoning code to be
more similar to Main Street Cassidy then
you shouldn't improve the infrastructure
I think you should absolutely still
improve the infrastructure in Livingston
I think that answers it thank
you okay thank you so much um move M on
where uh are we up to
taable Yes um is there any action on
tabled
ordinances I'm looking at Mr
Marcelino no not I'm only looking at Mr
Marcelino yeah no not giving those to
you there I think that we have a lot to
work through with this it was discussed
how significant this proposal is and so
we want to make sure council's dedicated
towards those um though I will advise
Council that we'll plan on moving
forward on those probably before the
next meeting I'll be candid that I've
had some personal matters that have
drawn my attention away from working
along the final changes there so okay
sounds good all right all right now
we're on committee
reports um finance committee
missad thank you um so we have some
posos purchase orders that we need to
review um these invoices received prior
to the purchase orders being o they were
um open due to the end of 2023 purchase
order closures and beginning of 2024
Po's opening so the purchases in excess
of
$3,000 um need to always come back to
City Council in which purchase orders
were opened after the date of the
invoice required um they require Council
approval so that's why we need to
discuss this this evening these can
easily occur during the end of the year
when purchase orders are closed in mid
December and then any carry forwards
aren't able to be immediately
reopened it can also occur at the
beginning of the year when the books
have not been yet opened for purchase
orders so um as you see before you
tonight um that's exactly what happened
here the um opening of these invoices
and the PO
dates were um early December and early
January so um and they're in the excess
of $3,000 so they need Council approval
so um what I'm going to ask of everyone
tonight is that um we do that so that we
can get these paid so unless anyone has
any questions or comments I would look
to then make um a motion for all six of
these POs to be approved but I'm going
to open it up to council if anyone one
has any questions on any of these
invoices that you're looking at right
now from these vendors most of them are
um as you see service
oriented and it just came back to when
the vendors were actually um charging
the city and the timing of that uh there
was a motion by missad to approve the
payment of these invoices seconded by
Miss FAL all in favor say I hi anyone
opposed anything further missad
that is
it end of report thank you moving on to
Recreation and Parks Miss fibble if
you're in the mood for some spaghetti
make your way over to St Charles on
Sunday February 4th um from 1 to 6:30 um
tickets are at the door and there's also
carry out nice Sunday dinner um wck
board met last week uh talked about
things from inv vious species to pickle
ball hours to the indoor tennis at
Montrose which is a total Grand Slam I
guess um thank you for getting that um
and uh let's see what else um the next
meeting there are lots of fun these Rec
board meetings they're doing all kinds
of stuff especially on the tail end of
the year of the parks which just keeps
Ono so come um the the February February
seventh is our next one so so so come um
I talked already about the skate um
Workshop which was it really was great
and I I couldn't believe how well
attended it was it was really great um I
checked in with Mike today to find out
about the ice rink um sounds like it was
pretty amazing in five days they had
537 people that's on one Given Sunday
two
six people um do we need a sheet of ice
do we Jessica love the yes love the
photo we do we definitely do and Mike
asked me to plug again the poker
fundraiser so I know Ben said it
February 2nd food starts at 5:30 gaming
starts at 6:30 um tomorrow night is the
unification conversation I cannot go I
am going to be with my daughter in New
York City I know that Mo'Nique said that
she would go I am so grateful that it's
going to be um but I am not only a uh
council member in favor of this
unification I am the closest council
member to this spot um and I am in favor
of the unification so so but I'd love to
hear your perspective so please go and
because I'd like to to hear how the vibe
goes there um the last thing oh also um
February 88th there is a preservation
and enhancement committee for um the
parks so keep that date in mind I'm not
sure where that is I'm guessing it's
here but I don't
know is it a Jeffrey Mansion that makes
sense the workshop or the steering
committee it looks like it's a
uh I don't know
I don't know I don't know February the
8th I know I'm going
regardless location TV so the last thing
I wanted to mention was on Sunday I went
um with my husband to The JCC where
there was a conversation a town hall
about um what is being done in central
Ohio about
anti-Semitism and all the different
partners and and their there was um
Chief of Police from Worthington New
Albany
um
OSU um trying to think where else there
were a lot there were over 20 people oh
an FBI agent was there that's in charge
of um of dealing with uh this issue and
it was amazing there were over 20 police
officers present and um I want to tell
you how very proud we all should be of
our police chief he as you all know is a
rock star and huge Applause to all of
those who brought him to us so all I can
do is say thank you he was inspirational
as far as his Innovative thinking um he
stressed the whole idea of the best
thing you can do is you see something
say something and he also stressed the
whole idea of uh technology and how
important that is and so many of his
Partners um you you could tell that they
were
um batting off some of the things that
he was saying I mean and and and he
really is leading the charge with this
and I was just so beyond proud to be a
beite that day so I'm just saying very
excited and hoay him
so that's all end of report thank you
Miss fible uh service and environment Mr
Silverman thank you um esac met uh one
of the updates that I read was the 80%
opt-in on the aggregation which I
thought was awesome um it also we were
given a Souls smart gold status award I
think based off of that participation
rate um I also learned that the
universal recycling law for commercial
businesses and multif family residential
for recycling uh so I think that's a
huge Improvement for the city and and
trending in the right direction um and
overall i' like to see the progress that
we're having with the ESAT committee
so great thank you um Mr Marcelino
zoning and
development uh before I get into my
report I'll piggyback up what she said I
actually had spoken to somebody else in
the committee who said the exact same
thing that Chief Le just did amazing so
I'm really glad hear that and I'm glad
that they were able to get some
information to our community members
there um in regards to some meetings uh
we sat I sat in on the ARB it's a
planning meeting there um I was blown
away everything was over my head as a
non architect they are brilliant we are
in good hands they are looking out for
uh everything that's being done in our
community and is just amazing it will be
a lot to take in but the one thing that
I did take away from it is that we as a
community are going through a time of
extraordinary change there's a lot of
development taking place all throughout
the community um and I know that they uh
that we have some tight resources
available we've been bringing in people
like uh Miss mayor Meer excuse me um as
well as some others but we may want to
consider an additional person in that
department to assist Kathy rose with
some of this work just from what I'm
hearing because what they were stressing
is that the types of
uh projects we have coming in require a
lot of dedication that's on top of
projects for our other community members
that maybe it's just a homeown or
looking to put on a new uh front patio
or something that we don't want to fall
behind some of the bigger developments
we coming we have coming down the path
so as we go about this year we're going
to have an opportunity to speak with uh
Miss Kathy Rose when she comes in so I
encourage you to ask her about her
capacity and reach out to her to get a
better feel for what her day-to-day is
and see how we could potentially assist
her only because again this is going to
be a huge era of change and we want to
make sure that we are doing that um
right I also met with n green just
personally to learn a little bit more
about the cic again another example of
an extraordinary individual stepping up
to volunteer his time for our community
so um thanks to him and uh thanks
everyone else for all they do that's my
report thanks thank you Mr Marcelino I
know you are super busy and we
appreciate you um strategic and Health
Mr
Hurley um thank you so on the Strategic
of things uh I've started planning the
strategic planning Retreat that Council
will be having um looking at end of
February early March I'll be reaching
out to you all to figure out what dates
work and don't work on your schedules um
looking at a Friday or a Saturday
morning um you know for a few hours
together uh president Lamy and I are
meeting next week to also review some of
the details um you know with your
experiences former strategic committee
chair I'll definitely rely on you and
our former uh colleague uh Miss Robinson
for uh for insights if there are any
topics or anything you want to discuss
or have on the agenda please please
reach out um you know I think it'll be a
really productive use of our time um but
uh but if anyone has any specific things
please let me know um on the health side
of things uh so Board of Health met last
Tuesday the 16th
um two things to come out of that first
you know the uh updates from Franklin
County Public Health are on uh on the
Dropbox file um a lot of great stuff
they're they're I mean I've worked with
them in other capacities they're an
awesome organization um two things
though the first I know the mayor asked
in the meeting about um some of the
resources they have available I don't
think people really realize all of the
services and homebased and community
supports that are available through
Franklin County Public Health um they of
course share information with us about
how many Becky residents utilize these
services and I'm sure there's more of a
need than is being met so um the mayor
asked about some of those resources I'm
not pushing that information out so I
think that'd be great to just make sure
everyone in our community knows what's
available to them the other that I want
to I want to research a little more is
there is um a uh sort of a initiative
within Franklin County Public Health
called Community Health action teams or
chats and these are formed to either
tackle a specific issue or focus on a
specific Community um they you know
everything from immortality and heart
disease to you know maybe something in a
specific neighborhood in Columbus or
around around Columbus not obviously in
Columbus um there is no chat in Bexley
and I'd like to explore maybe if there
are ways um something if there are needs
we have as a community I know we do a
lot with things like cart safe Bexley so
if this is an opportunity for us I'm you
know going to kick the tires on it and
see what see what's there um lastly just
two things to put on uh your all's radar
so tomorrow the Ohio Senate is
convenient I know Mr fishal mentioned
this at our last meeting um there is
going to be an override vote on language
related to locco local tobacco
ordinances that should the override go
through and in my day job I'm you know
watching this closely and I think it is
going to go through um baring a legal
challenge we may need to revisit our
legislation around flavored tobacco in
the not too distant future but we'll see
what happens and go from there the other
is um there there's a much more
high-profile override of a piece of
legislation house Bell 68 I know um we
were all contacted by some of the folks
at Bexley Pride about that a few of us
joined um a webinar that the ACLU in
equality Ohio hosted a couple weeks back
um you know I'm not going to Pine on the
bill I I've you know been dealing with
this professionally for a long time I'll
just say um there are folks in our
community that I think are feeling um
within within Bexley and even around
Bexley that are feeling uh targeted by
some of the actions of the general
assembly and I just um if you know folks
in that Community or know folks who may
have a family member in that Community
just maybe take a moment to send them
some love because um I think uh they're
people that are really hurting right now
um so I'll leave it at that thank you
madam president thank you Mr Hurley um
Mr markom Safety Committee thank you in
defense of the mayor in his year of
parks I never did specify that it was an
Earth
year might be a a jovian year where
Jupiter goes around the Sun
yeah there remains to be seen
uh t public garden commission met last
week um they've got a lot on their
agenda uh one of their ambitious goals
is to locate and fill every spot on City
grounds that needs a tree so they're
they're uh scouting the city they've got
a GPS Network set up to where they're
doing that right now uh and they're
making plans for Arbor Day uh Landmark
trees of course which we all love this
year Landmark tree uh focusing on on the
sycamore tree so they will be
recognizing and looking for Sycamore
specimens and uh I know the mayor has a
soft spot for sycamore trees as
well uh they also are looking at they
they had a discussion over uh looking at
our noxious weeds ordinance so just
throwing that out there that that's
something they're talking about and so
we had a discussion we did revisit the
noxious weed um
list five years ago I think we took a
good look at it so uh we had a
discussion about that and little history
lesson as well so that's about all that
was going on there great thank you so
much Mr marham um oh I'm sorry go ahead
tree and public gardens commission is
ecstatic to have Mr Markham as their
representative you know what when I made
assignment I knew that they would
there's a lot of love in the room I can
tell
you all of you as leison that would be
their perfect scenario try toy is a
perfect fit Madame President I had one
quick thing oh yes um so I neglected to
bring this up but um from time to time
we receive a letter from the Ohio
Division of liquor control so I'm going
to look at the mayor and Mr offishal to
um clarify this but we are being
provided a notice that a liquor license
is changing hands um it's the OB Indian
restaurant to what appears to be a new
owner and what this notice does is it um
gives us an opportunity for a hearing um
my standing is that um we typically do
not request a hearing um and those
hearings are typically held when they're
is um perhaps a nuisance tied to that
liquor license to learn more um so that
we can um weigh in and potentially um
alter the intent so um long story made
short we have an opportunity uh for
hearing um I need to postmark the
response by February 9th if you do wish
to have a hearing let me know um but it
is atypical that we do
it thank you I I'm hearing from the
mayor and our City attorney that there
is no reason for us to request that
hearing um anyone on Council not in
agreement with that rep are too light
that
count thank you Mr mCP for for bringing
that up all right we are on to uh public
comments no speaker slip is required as
I stated earlier this is a chance for
Council to listen to any members of the
public public who wish to offer us their
statements and comments it's not an
opportunity for Council to debate or
engage in it back and forth and each
speaker could have up to an un
uninterrupted five minutes anyone wish
to offer public comment at this time no
okay um and just till council is aware
going forward I have asked U Miss V to
be responsible for the handling and
moving of the microphones and other City
Hall equipment so that nothing gets
damaged or lost or misplaced so I
appreciate you doing that uh Council our
next meeting is February
13th um we do have a busy couple weeks
coming up so with that I will move to
adjourn could I please get a second
second second by Mr Hurley um all in
favor say I I I anyone opposed all right
we're
done