e
good evening everyone Welcome to our o
October 22nd Bexley city council meeting
if there's anyone in attendance tonight
that has a speaker slip I ask that you
please turn it in at this time to our
auditor are there any speaker slips to
hand in all right seeing none Mr mCP
would you please call the role sure uh
Mr Marcelino present Mr Hurley present
Miss fible I'm here missad here miss
Lamy here Mr Markham president and Mr
Silverman Council uh Mr Silverman is not
able to join us this evening I move to
excuse his absence could I please get a
second second second by Mr Hurley all in
favor say I I I anyone opposed right
please rise for the pledge pledge of
allegiance flag the United States of
America and to the Republic it stands
one nation under God indivisible liy and
justice
Mr mCP do we have any speaker slips for
agenda item number four we have no
speaker
slips all right Council I have just a
few things for my president's
report um the first is I wanted to thank
those of you that attended the one
Beckley dinner uh planned by former
council member Jen Robinson um it was a
great evening great weather a great
conversation and so worthwhile so I
wanted to thank everyone who
came um I also wanted to provide a
leason update from the Bexley Community
Foundation uh I invited Olive Council to
the um upcoming bus tour that the BCF is
holding I hope that you will consider
attending um that is on November 14th
I also wanted to share that the beex
Community Foundation board recently
approved over $50,000 in Grants from
their second cycle this year grants
include an anrank exhibit at Capitol
University coming in February
2025 an art event for the
bmpa $115,000 to Common greens who runs
the Beckley farmers market and
scholarship money for children to attend
the Jeffrey Mansion summer camp
um they are also working on funding some
infill and replacement trees for the
trees for Bexley campaign um to the tune
of
$40,000 so we are lucky to have the bexi
Community Foundation do all that for
us um I also wanted to follow up with
Council regarding um a revision to the
proposed public comment policy um did
everyone get a chance to look at that I
wanted everyone to know that I I heard
you I Incorporated all of your changes
um I think it helps to
clarify our speaker policy it adds an
additional way that the public can
contact us um it also clarifies
when uh speaker slips are required and
when they're
not um any questions or further
discussion from Council
Mr her just uh I think there is a typo
um on the witness slip uh the first
bullet speaker slips are not required if
you wish to comment on the consent
agenda third reading or motion to adopt
but I'm under the impression that at the
end of our meetings we typically have
another public comment period um this is
on our current agenda it's item 21 where
no speaker slip is required is that that
would be a change um but I think Mr
Markham had a really good suggestion
which was we're going to add um a second
opportunity to the agenda where we will
collect speaker slips so that would
address that concern um and one other
um actually that that answers my
question thank you all right Council any
other comments do folks feel comfortable
voting on this tonight um so that we
could um clarify it and go
forward I'm seeing some head nods U
could I pleas have a motion to adopt the
revised public comments policy so moved
moved by Miss fible could I please have
a second
second I'm G to give it to Second by Mr
Marcelino is a Voice vote okay all in
favor please say I I I anyone opposed
all right council at our next public um
city council meeting will put that
policy in place thank you so
much and I do have one
last item for my public uh for my
president's report Council a couple
weeks ago I had a chance to issue my
first joint Proclamation um as city
council president as you typically know
the mayor usually does those
proclamations but there was a very
special Bexley resident who uh deserved
a proclamation and
tonight I am actually going to do
something a little different I'm going
to give my very first proclamation of my
very own to a very deserving Bexley
resident who has a birthday coming up
oh all right so here's the fun
part he didn't know this was
coming okay whereas Ben Kessler has
Faithfully served the city since
2012 as beckley's mayor chief executive
officer and safety director spending his
days nights weekends early mornings
afternoons serving our community with
matters large and
small whereas mayor Kesler has a great
affection for spreadsheets makes quick
work of sorting filtering color coding
so he can relay data to council and the
most organized and aesthetically
pleasing manner
possible whereas mayor Kesler also has a
proven commitment to all things green in
addition to keeping all the plants at
City Hall alive thanks to his conference
call watering sessions he also has
encouraged amazing growth and
sustainability in Bexley and the region
through his leadership and
morsy comma and other groups whereas
mayor Kessler's talents stretch far
beyond spreadsheets and
sustainability he is also the ultimate
foodie Grill Master graphic artist
gardener on call musician at the ready
handyman and on some occasions even a
rodent removal
expert and finally where at in addition
to wrangling the many mayoral projects
phone calls meetings emails and popup
situations that arise with being mayor
Ben's largest accomp accomplishment may
be his success in raising three
outstanding Young Bexley citizens namely
Ella s and Brew
Kesler now therefore I'm Monique lampy
by the purely ceremonial Authority
granted to me as city council president
do here by name October 27th
2024 as Ben Kesler day in the city of
beex very
sweetday hold on we need to
okay all right where should we where oh
here we
okay whereas he has not managed to stop
the beam of life from
intruding thank you madam president
that's my first ever Proclamation I
thought so I thought so there's also a
Dairy Queen ice cream cake waiting for
you go and the freezer back there
thank you that's
right all right and that concludes the
president's report Mr City attorney over
to you no report all right
M you can follow
that Mr otor do you have a report no
report oh y'all are making this so easy
all right we are moving on to ordinances
with visiting
presenters um this is on some tabled
ordinances m Mr Marcelino do we have any
um action on ordinance
17-24 sure do uh I would move to uh
remove ordinance 17-24 from the table a
motion to remove from the table by Mr
Marcelino is there a second second by Mr
Markham Mr mCP would you please call the
role Miss lamp key yes Mr Hurley yes Mr
Markham yes Mr Marcelino yes Miss FAL
yes and Miss s yes ordinates is removed
from the table
you know on this one I don't have much
to say but I do before we get started
want to thank Ben Megan and all the
members of our community that helped uh
I know we have Mr Freeman as well as I
believe Nate green I'm helping out and
trying to come to some form of an
agreement here but I know it was a lot
of work it was weekend work it was
evening work uh it just I appreciate the
work that went into it regardless of how
Council decides to vote on this um but
really we should know the amount of
effort that went into getting us to
where we're at today and so thank you
for that and thank you for our partners
and I apologize I'm not trying to avoid
the crowd got the sun here but I
appreciate uh Continental Real Estate
Group um and you know working with this
as well and hopefully we can find some
form of a partnership to uh end on for
many years to come and from there I
would leave it kind of to the mayor uh
to uh lead us as to where we're at right
now sorry
and thanks to
Katherine again thanks to Catherine I
appreciate that as well yeah thanks I
didn't even know we had this it's that
one today it'll go
down you know um are you ready for thank
you councilman Marcelina what will
really help situation is a fivestory
apartment complex right certainly cut
out the late afternoon light and I I
justess but I don't chest because there
was a difference uh when the
construction started um I'm going to
attempt to give you guys a quick
synopsis with Megan we're going to Pitch
hit on this a little bit um for where we
are with the access easement um first
we'll start up with like sort of the
basic terms and conditions um and then
talk about some of the more complicated
terms and conditions um I'm going to
pull
up the
I was going to pull up the site plan but
I'm not seeing the site plan can on the
latest do you know where that would be
or can you pop it into the folder as I'm
talking um some essential provisions of
this easement are that the travel Lanes
within the Bexley square and City Hall
parking lot so the drive aises um that
Loop that we all go around becomes uh
part of the access easement that
Vehicles can travel over that that area
to get to the adjacent property at 2200
East Main Street and as part of that the
developer is responsible for half of the
uh maintenance costs of that drive
lanane um another key provision is that
there are two access points then to the
west of us that would attach to that
property um specifically attaching
structured parking on that property um
that would allow them to access the
parking garage the parking garage also
has access points um via a curb cut on
Main Street on their site
um and there is some access coming from
Park viiew as well so uh what it really
provides them is access though
ultimately to the light and to better
circulation for their for their lot so
those terms where that access is
located shared cost of the maintenance
of the drive lane are I think basic
terms of the easement that we've been
discussing all along um what a lot of
the conversation then has gotten into is
how do we share the parking itself and
I'm going to pull up a uh
a sheet that might seem daunting at
first but we're going to walk you
through it and it will hopefully make
some sense as we as we decode this
so at its basic form and the Tiff
agreement affirms this the parking in
the garage would be open and free to the
public uh the Tiff funding requires
public access to the parking garage um I
will qualify that to say that under Ohio
law a public parking garage that you
could charge for which would need a gate
but the default condition that everyone
wants is this condition where there's no
gating no gated parking it's free and
open to the public and there's no no
restriction in the parking lot that
would be scenario one that's the column
with the teal I guess at the top maybe
scenario one so that's where cross
parking is occurring between the two
lots with no Gates or physical
controls under this scenario a minimum
of 124 parking spaces in the parking
garage on that tract would be available
to users of Bexley square and City Hall
shared with the medical office and
Retail uses that are occurring on that
adjacent site the reason the number 124
comes up is because when we look at the
zoning requirement for their use that
medical office office space and
restaurant space and we add to that the
70 spaces that we currently have it
comes out to around
179 parking spaces I think that are
needed between the
two so this is this is some math here
179 spaces needed between the two there
will be 55 left on our lot and there
will be 124 over there combined 179 so
that gives us the same parking we have
today plus adequate parking next door
and we're sharing between the two sites
we have porous parking um there will be
peak times when Orange Theory will be
dominating our parking lot as they are
now um and then there would be some
additional parking next door there will
be times when Hudson 29's busy in the
evening and they might be spilling out
over to this parking lot but together
they'll have sort of a symbiotic uh
relationship um and I'm G to pull up a
graphic here to go along with
this this is sideways not for long now
it's upside down um so to to just sort
of Orient where we're at This Is Us at
City
Hall this is the access into that
garage access into the
garage this hashmark which indicates I'm
not sure what that hash mark indicates
no change Zone okay gotcha um and uh and
then the area which is being jointly
maintained is the drive these Drive
aisles that's the 50%
maintenance um so under scenario one 124
spaces would be available jointly at
that their site 55 would be available
jointly over here and the extent that we
would restrict any of our spaces say for
example council president parking only
that reduces the number by one that
their number would then become 123
because we're down to to 54
spaces um the second row is basically
saying
that 70 of those spaces need to be
really conveniently located close to our
parking lot so they're easy 70 of those
unrestricted spaces needs to be easy
access to us on their on their parking
garage additionally we've asked that 10
of the parking spaces in the garage be
available for city hall employees for
daily use so they're not there's no time
restriction there might otherwise be
like a two or three hour we have a 4H
hour time restriction here we don't hold
the four-hour time restriction against
our employees obviously we're asking
like for example employees show up it's
a full parking lot they're going to have
to park in the garage they're not going
to have a problem parking there for the
full day uh as
employees um and then cost of parking on
that track would be free under scenario
one and then we get down to that
reduction factor which already already
addressed one to one reduction Megan is
there anything you would add to that
scenario the second two scenarios
scenario two and three are what happens
if they put up Gates now I want to be
careful saying this because we're going
to bleed in the next ordinance but the
next ordinance is the Tiff agreement and
I think the Tiff agreement clarifies the
parking is free is that correct okay so
the Gated scenario in all likelihood
would only occur after year 30 so year
31 we're worried about potentially year
31 and why would the developer be
interested in a gate not to say that
they there could be some reason they
would use a gate in the interum but it
would have to be free so I'm not really
sure maybe it would be a time control or
something um the developer might use the
gate because the parking has to be
available to the public and let's
say some development gets built next
door and there's a ton of new parking
demand and they're getting flooded with
parking and they can't park their own
site and then they have some reasonable
controls they can install now we might
not want to have a gate we might not
want to be in a situation where our
users have to go behind the gate whether
it's a time restriction only or whether
there's a small fee attached to that so
there are two scenarios one is that they
put up a
gate and let me back up under any of
these scenarios they have to meet with
the pro us the property owner we have to
explore any reasonable alternative to a
gate and satisfactorily do that and they
have the ability to put up a gate I mean
it's a it's a little bit of a it's just
it requires them to consult with and
think about as opposed to just going
ahead and put of a gate two two things
that might happen if they put a gate
scenario two um would say that we
continue to share parking they continue
to have access to our parking we
continue to have access to their parking
but they would any validation if there's
a charge that applies to their
businesses would apply to our businesses
so our businesses are treated the same
as their businesses they're not a second
class citizen or users of City
Hall um we remain still have those 10
parking spaces of Avil to City H
employees during the day the second
scenario might be that like you know
what this gate thing is too much of a
hassle maybe it's they are charging for
parking because for them that works we
don't want our users to pay for parking
we don't want our parking lot because
it's free to become occupied by all the
adjacent Parkers so under scenario three
we say okay this parking lot's
restricted City Hall beex Square only
their parking lot is their use or public
use only but you have to pay for it but
because we're down 16 parking
spaces you developer have to give us 16
dedicated parking spaces at a convenient
location for us and that convenient
location for us us is this honeycombed
area right here so it's the closest
available adjacent parking it's surface
parking it gets us back to 70 parking
spaces
um we
would
still is this correct free with
validation
parking in addition to I don't think
that's right that that cell that's a
leftover um would be in charge of
enforcing the parking they would have to
at their cost pay for enforcement of
parking on our site to make sure that
their users aren't parking on our site
um and and installing a drive aisle for
us to access that parking lot
um
and I'm not sure but can you explain the
permit
responsibility oh the permits gotcha
zoning right
yeah anything you would add to those two
scenarios Katherine anything you would
add to our scenario
breakdown so that's that is the current
status of the draft easement that you
see in front of you it's been negotiated
over many many versions um by uh staff
as well as a group representing the cic
that was a work working group around it
um so that's where we are today and we
can answer any questions on
that Council any
questions Mr Mark I don't have a
question I just want to uh say thanks to
uh mayor Kesler and Megan for uh
spending so much of their time working
on this over the last few weeks and I
know that has been maybe a little bit
frustrating for us to wait for these
details but you know your reward for
that was then spending an hour arguing
with City Council Members yesterday over
it uh and I know that was fun for you uh
I appreciate that and I would just say
that I am pretty satisfied that this
seems to be a reasonable
um a reasonable arrangement with a lot
of forethought as to 30 years from now
which you know not easy for someone like
me to think too much about but
you know it is our our responsibility to
to kind of think that out so appreciate
that to both of you and uh I'm just GNA
say I advocate that I think this seems
like a good plan
thanks Mr Marcelino did you have your
hand up yeah I think you know just
touching on what Troy said we did talk
about this a lot and initially I had a
lot of concerns about Gates ETA and how
it would restrict uh parking um in that
lot but I think a couple things that
made me feel really com comfortable with
it where the facts that if a Gate's
going up we're going to have um a
meeting with them to make sure that we
have the that's the least restrictive
means to enforce um parking on that site
uh it also became clear to me over time
that the need for the gate is not uh
something that they want to enforce
themselves um as as we understand it um
but it's they need to make this
agreement in order to go forward in case
the worst case scen areio sort of comes
about um so I think at this point just
after learning all that understanding a
bit more about this understanding the
current usage of Capitol University of
this lot and what other events bring to
this lot as well as China Eagle uh I I
really think it's a a small um issue
that I don't think will arise so
hopefully there will be no gate but if
there is discussion of the gate I feel
comfortable with them coming back to us
to justify that that is the least
restrictive means to enforce you know
the parking situation on that site also
it's comforting knowing that the city of
Bexley always at parking over there for
its employees so all those things made
me feel very comfortable with it in the
long
run Mr Hurley um yeah I would first just
Echo what my colleagues have said you
know being in those cic meetings and
just seeing the diligence that went into
this um you know it's a lot lot of hours
a lot of volunteer hours from our cic
members and that's um that's really uh
really great I have couple just
technical questions first are we going
to get a copy of this chart once it's I
guess final it's a very nice document
yeah yeah yeah okay
um yeah and just just so I'm clear this
the easement doesn't impact we're not
getting into the Demar like so we have
269 spaces in the garage we're not
getting into how those spaces are
demarcated in this where it gets into it
is it talks about convenience so you'll
see the that second row is pretty key
minimum number that must be located in
generally convenient locations um the
wording is more sophisticated than that
I would imagine uh but it has to do with
convenience to us okay um and in all
practicality most likely the any reserve
spaces like for apartment residents
would be located lower down and kind of
tued away so so of the 269 spaces in the
garage minimum of
124 minimum of 124 are
without you know without restrictions
yeah essentially um so some of those
above and beyond the 124 they might be
like um reserved for the medical center
use okay they might be reserved for
apartment uses and they basically have
the ability to to CAG has the ability
separate from the Tiff they have the
ability to uh to to restrict some and
the Tiff is even more restrictive the
Tiff I think is 180 parking spaces give
and take give or take 185 okay so to
Tiff says 185 spaces need to be uh
public Avail okay so the 185 is the more
important number not the 124 for 30
years it is
yeah okay but Danny Hurley Jr in uh you
know
2055 might get real fired up about
columns two and
three appreciate that thank you did you
have your hand up too yeah what just for
my own clarification who can provide
validations what
businesses um Megan I think it has to do
more with parity among their own uses
right about
validations in the fish sh
yes any other questions from
Council um is Council feeling
comfortable to have some action on this
one tonight Mr
Marcelino do you have any action on
ordinance
17-24 I would move to approve ordinance
17-24 motion to approve by Mr Marcelino
a second by Mr Markham any further
discussion from
Council yes would like to say as you did
Danny the the cic Reps put in a lot of
time and energy into to working on this
Megan put a lot of time and energy in
working on this I took the occasional
cranky phone call she delved into the
weeds and uh we talked a lot about terms
but you were in the trenches and thank
you for all your work on it Katherine
thank you for all your work on this as
well are there any comments from the
public prior to council's vote all right
seeing none Mr mCP would you please call
the role Mr Marcelino yes Mr Markham yes
m iable yes Mr Hurley yes Miss lampy yes
Miss sad yes ordinance 1724
passes Miss sad do we have any um action
on ordinance
33-24 I do I would like to move to
remove ordinance 33-24 from the table
motion to removed from the table by Miss
sod is there a second second second by
Mr Marcelino Mr mCP would you please
call the
role Miss sad yes Miss F yes Miss Lamy
yes Mr Hurley yes Mr Marcelino yes Mr
Markham yes ordinance 3324 is removed
from the
table I'm going to pass this over to the
mayor we have some special um guests
that are going to speak to us
tonight yeah uh we have Greg Daniels
with us here uh to answer your questions
we have
um but Megan
or Megan you want to talk just about an
update from overall where we are here as
opposed to last time we talked about
this yeah absolutely um the version of
the agreement that's included in the
packet is very very similar um to what
is previously uh given to you I think
two weeks ago um when we last chatt with
Greg um the difference being they did
final calculations to get to that exact
number of spots that had to remain free
and open to the public and Greg I'll let
you remind them as to why that was
good evening everyone um the uh the
calculation that brought us to the 185
has to do with the IRS rules um the
public spaces in the garage are being
financed with tax exempt
bonds uh so that means they have to
remain public they can't be private
spaces and while you can charge for
public spaces on a first come first
serve basis we also heard the feedback
from the city and put in the agreement
do have to remain free and open to the
public and that's good for at least the
30-year term of the bonds after that IRS
rules no longer uh apply you fall back
on the easement and the the different
categories that the mayor and Megan went
over in their last presentation but for
the first 30 years because of the
financing because of the IRS rules you
have those 185 spaces that are free and
open in
public um beyond that I would just
remind Council um you do have a memo
about the difference between this and
the original um Tiff ordinance that you
passed last year but essentially that
set up the mechanism to collect the
funding for the Tiff and to create the
fund here at the city um this is the
mechanism by which we would then pay the
Franklin County Finance Authority for
the um debt that they will be issuing to
the developer for the project um so this
is kind of part two if you
will any questions from
Council I have one for our auditor uh Mr
mCP do you have any concerns about this
ordinance and the way it's uh set up I
do not thank
you Miss I just wanted to highlight um
thank you Mr Daniels on highlighting the
180 uh free and open to the public spots
because that was something that we were
addressing last time you were here um
also just reminding Council that the way
I understand it is in this ordinance
33-24 we also addressed the um no gated
parking and the Gage for the first 30
years so on that one it's still the last
ordinance and what's in the easement
it's the same thing that applies uh
throughout the entire period including
the first 30 years so what this does is
for the first 30 years it's the higher
number of spaces and it's the free and
then you kick back to the easement for
everything else so the two kind of go
hand in
hand I'm good to you as well yep okay
thank you y Mr Hurley you have your hand
up um so the a thank you so the 85
private spots um do you have any I mean
I assume those would be sort of Reserve
would they be reserved parking like if
I'm pointing in the garage is it GNA say
reserved I I would anticipate it would I
think they're thinking that those would
be Reserve spots I I know they have
tenants that they need to provide spaces
for on the residential side so I would
anticipate those get used for that um uh
maybe a question for the mayor for both
of you so you mentioned um when we did
the easan a few minutes ago uh Reserve
parking for though how health space
would that come out of the 185 spot
allocation the 83 spot allocation the
185 can't be reserved okay reopen the
public um which is one of their
concerns in terms of anyone can come and
park there but it's so that would be the
the balance of that which
is5 after so are there 300 spaces total
or there's 269 total spaces so
in the garage right in the garage at
least 185 have to be free and open to
the public right for a minimum of that
30-year term of so 84 is the balance 84
is the balance they can reserve that
they can charge for that those are
private spaces the tip's not paying for
it they're paying for it excellent thank
you but and then there's a plus or minus
60 car parking lot in the rear
and I know that's not part of your deal
yeah none of that's part of the Tiff
yeah exactly the not paying for that the
Tiff's paying for the garage it's
nonetheless always of concern when they
talk about like total parking spaces
right excellent thank you any other
questions from
Council missad do you have action on
ordinance
33-24 I move to approve ordinance
33-24 motion to approve by missad is
there a second second second by Mr
Marcelino any further discussion from
Council any comments from the
public Mr mCP would you please call oh
I'm so sorry go ahead and come on up
please Conant Lewis 663 you Clair um
thank you for all the hard work you've
done on this but I was just curious
about the um the parking spaces that are
not part of the Tiff the parking spaces
that are just free and clear behind on
the north side of the of the project are
those going to be open for public
without any fee and no restrictions or
how do they factor into this whole
process Miss Le what we'll do is do you
have any other questions besides that
one not today um well let's let's
conclude your public comment and I'd
like to invite maybe Mr Daniels or the
mayor to answer that question thank you
thank you so much you Connie um
so yeah and Megan do you you w to goad
and answer that
um I do not believe that we have
stipulated um there may be a balance um
remaining after the
124 um specifically in the easement at
least 70 as we stated have to be in the
garage which would indicate that the
balance would be in that back lot
however if there 10 spots extra we did
not stipulate that they had to remain
free and open to the public yeah um so
we were really focused on the total
quantity that would accommodate the
retail end uses which we have protected
through the East thank you for thank you
for responding to that I would only add
to that Madam president that the one
time that it might become restricted is
if that scenario three happens and the
16 spaces are reserved exclusively for
the city hall site that's one that we
know of and I think they have broad
rights to
to reserve them for specific uses as
long as they're honoring both the Tiff
and the easan
agreement thank you Mr Mayor Mr mCP
would you please call um would you
please call the
RO Miss Lam key yes missad yes Mr
Markham yes Mr Marcelino yes Miss bable
yes and Mr Hurley
yes ordinance 3324
passes thank you um what a big big night
thank you so much Mr Daniels for coming
back thank you Greg and cther
yes you're welcome to stick around off
the
clock all right moving on to item number
10 Mr uh City attorney over to
you oh consent no you skipped item
nine oh I did oh because we changed so
much I want to ask a question though
before since it's the mayor's update I
have a question have you calculated what
term you'll be in when that Tiff expires
underground under ground parking garage
term thank
you skip administrative thanks that's
actually really morbid I'm sorry for
even saying oh it's
terrible okay with
that
um I have prepared an update for you um
I'm we're going to just kind of answer
any questions have otherwise the written
report stands for itself mostly this is
what has happened over the past two
weeks and we're about to get to that um
I have a budget thank you for Megan Cary
and staff you guys did amazing amazing
work it's not over but it's been amazing
um got some updates on building the
landing strategy and the Community
Builders and some some cute photos uh
and happy to answer any questions about
the general update before I get into
budget all right
well buckle
up because we have a budget to talk
about so what we're going to do is we're
gonna do a really high level overview of
the budget which you all received on
Friday um we're going to talk
about uh projections uh looking at a
10year forecast if uh trending occurs as
reasonably could be expected with um
some uh databased assumptions and then
um we will review the capital budget and
then we will uh answer any questions of
course but then the deeper departmental
overviews will begin at the next council
meeting um so you should have in front
of you our 2025 budget
book that was done by a key
detail uh this is on this is on on
grandon at Maine we had a m just for the
budget yeah there's a lot of oh I mural
I didn't realize
that uh Mark will do a tour of that it's
on the uh the the BCF bus tour I'm sure
November 14th can accommodate that so as
you can see this looks a lot different
than our past budgets um Megan uh
applied some amazing uh Graphics skills
to this Carrie threw out the old
spreadsheet and started from scratch so
this is a 100% new spreadsheet
uh void of some of the ghosts that we
have encountered in past
spreadsheets probably has some new
ghosts of its own but um it's a fresh
start and it's been a great process so
I'd like to start with two claps for
Carrie and for
Megan all right
um as we get into this I'm gonna talk
about some high level overviews and then
GNA turn over to Megan and Cary who
we're gonna address um some of the
trends and some uh um some forecasts so
so budget highlights uh we're about to
talk about our income so this is all
kind of a little bit front and backwards
but essentially this budget incorporates
some minor spending increases mostly due
to cost of living rise and material
costs but it's a pretty conservative
budget that's designed
to this is unique and it is attached to
your agenda under uh first reading
budget resources um it includes a $ 1.41
million Grant budget The Lion's Share of
that the million dollars is coming from
ODNR and the state capital fund grant
money that we've already been awarded
for the bridge at Schneider park it
assumes a whopping 9% increase for
contract with the Columbus Division of
fire and we see assumes because we since
learned after going to print on Friday
that it's actually
99.5% or
something higher than that uh so that
will be incorporated in your next
version um part of that is they had a
new new labor negotiation and they had
to do a catchup um from last year's
calculation uh our fop contract cost of
living um expands code enforcement
investment invests in expanded Financial
controls and cyber security that one for
Matt MC peek uh continued support for
premium health and Public Safety
Services AKA our Police Department fire
department and others
um it advances the goals of our
strategic plan actually went through our
strategic plan that we just passed and
it almost item for
item items that are under strategic plan
are reflected in our budget um maintains
our staffing levels at our 2024 Staffing
level critically does not add any new
staff so just want to start with that we
do not have any new staff called for in
our budget um as it stands with a small
as risk for a potential future that's
not actually appropriate in the budget
uh support staff training and
development kind of across departments
we're we're investing more into our
people uh we're investing more into
Capital infrastructure and budget
stabilization funds and you'll see that
here in a second uh we are focused a lot
on the water fund our water fund is um
is being drawn down as we build out a
lot more of our water infrastructure and
so we're kind of at a Crossroads do we
increase the rates above and beyond
columbus' increases or do we find other
ways to fund them and one of the ways
we're Fin and defund them is we are
going to reclassify in this budget some
of our water expenses to divert out of
the water fund into the general fund
which will in turn allow us to continue
to build out infrastructure and not
raise rates any more than what Columbus
is raising rates and I I say that
because Columbus is raising rates we're
about to talk about that um there will
be a Columbus Water and Sewer rate
increase that we're going to pass
through we are calling for a new lead
service line replacement program a loan
based program where we help residents
who have uh lines that the EPA
classifies as being lead lines or having
been potentially contaminated by lead
lines uh to replace those lines um at a
reasonable rate um and you'll see where
that falls when we present that later
it's supporting a new comprehensive
sewer study we've been talking for a
while about how we've done about 12
years of our old em te study and it's
time for us to reassess where are we
with our sewer where do we really need
to focus um it's time to do a really
deep dive in that and we'll be talking
about that as part of our sewer fund it
defers resources back or diverts
resources back to the community
Improvement Corporation thereby funding
the cic's operations for additional uh
Economic Development down the road we'll
talk about that in
specifics it expands our AED and our
water refill station
programs it continues to provide
resources for expanded new sidewalks
green spaces
invests in our senior
center what else does it do it makes
coffee no
um and I sort of probably maybe should
have put this first but I didn't want to
lead with the bad news so uh why do we
talk so much about no new staff
restricting sort of a lot of that
discretionary spending um and that's
that uh what we have seen this year is
that our income tax receipts have dipped
below what we projected um we're we're
projecting that they will be low be
below at the end of the year 2023 was a
peak we think uh this could be a blip
but it could be a trend and so we're
gonna we're looking at this seriously
and I think an important curve to look
at is what happened in 2020 the pandemic
2021 we started to see a much higher
increase than years
prior due by probably to two major
factors one of them was work from home
so you're working from home you're
paying the full Bexley tax by the way if
you work from home in Bexley you pay
less taxes than you work in Columbus you
live in Bexley but just same so um and
that continued in 2022 the other thing
that was happening obviously was
inflation so those two things were going
hand inand so it's hard to really
predict we're going to end up in
2025 but we're gonna we're playing this
conservatively and we're going to assume
that we saw a dip in 24 we'll still see
a little bit more of that same Trend
going on in
2025 it might not be that it might be
that we bounce back up a little bit it
might be that we dip down even lower
than than we're showing here in 2025
there's sort of a a room for erir a
margin for air on both sides the good
news is we have very comfortable
reserves to handle that
situation um and uh let's just hope that
it's a it's a that where we if we were
to air that we are in the side where it
ends up going higher and we're going to
talk about reserves in a second but
first
Megan's going to talk about general fund
Revenue sources fund Revenue um so
general fund being your main operating
um fund um overall you're seeing $22.2
million um in income obviously the
biggest source of that continues to be
income tax and as the mayor just
explained the rationale floor we're not
projecting an increase in that um so
while it does comprise nearly 80% of our
budget we're holding that study um
however some some good news um there are
increases other places um building
permits we do um project an increase
there a slight increase due to the
construction activity happening at the
Fitzgerald interest earnings I think is
another category to pay attention to um
compared to
2022 that um interest earnings annually
were closer to $200,000 so that's
actually a pretty significant increase
um real estate tax also property tax um
we did actually if you're looking at
your general fund summary there's a
year-over increase of over
25% that's because of the Franklin
countywide reassessment that occurred
last year and so we do have that onetime
uptick um obviously we'll maintain that
we just don't anticipate that same
percentage increase year-over-year um so
you see that there as well um something
that you don't see on this pie chart is
the cic revenue um so as the mayor just
mentioned um we did eliminate um the
transfer from the cic to the city of
Bexley to keep that funding with them um
so instead of us giving them money we're
just not going to accept the money that
we have in Prior years um so that
category is fallen off um and then of
course you see that big $1.4 million in
Grants that the mayor mentioned which if
you're moving into um the oh I clicked
mine not yours can you click over to
expenditures um yeah it's sign it's sign
I thought I had it um which if you come
over to expenditures and you we're going
to look at 2025 versus 24 you You'
probably be a little concerned because
looks like there's a pretty big
year-over-year increase um however that
is due almost entirely to the $1.4
million in Grants which is reflected in
that General government fund um category
there if you took that 1.4 million out
it would be a 3% overall increase from
2024 to 2025 in general fund
expenditures and that is almost
completely due to those costs of living
adjustments um for staff um that we
anticipate this year um other categories
here here of note um
sorry um actually that is pretty much
all I wanted to say about expenditures
um so something um to note there that
does not include oh it does have Bond
retirement but it does not include the
transfers from the general fund to other
funds and so if you want to click
forward um these are those general fund
transfers so all of that was operating
revenue or operating expenditures plus
Debt Service this is the additional
trans for amount um so what what does
this mean this means money that we
funnel out of the general fund into
either Capital Enterprise accounts or
that budget stability fund some people
have also referred to it in this chamber
as the rainy day fund um and so this
year we're planning um you know that
850,000 to fund Capital Improvements the
mayor's going to touch on exactly what
that capital budget looks like later um
and then some some other significant uh
transfers today we talked a little bit
about the pool replacement fund I I
think that's been on people's minds we
heard Council indicate that they're
ready to start seeing some improvements
well there is a a fund that is growing
year-over-year for that and that budget
stability fund we'll get to later the
projections to show you kind of what
level that's at But continuing funding
,000 is our typical allocation for that
um something that's not indicated here
but that is in your appropriation
ordinance um are two late 2024 transfers
um that were not included in your budget
but are actually possible because the
city is using um the last of our arpa
funds to help offset police salaries
opening up other money in the general
fund which we hope to transfer um so
with your approval those would go to the
capital fund and $600,000 to the water
fund um so that's not in the 25 budget
would but would be done before year end
2024 so with that I believe it's back to
the mayor
all right it's forecasting after this
yeah okay cool you're up to bat soon
Carrie so we're g to talk through the
capital fund itself um which is this is
all in the budget book and align it in
basis but this is a more detailed
exposition of what is currently proposed
in the capital fund um and here's the
police department Capital fund which you
can see you know a range of Investments
ranging from kind of on the low endend
um uh new lasers uh new night vision
goggles up to uh replacement of three of
the fleet vehicles um some work on their
physical facility with ladder Windows
heat pump range repairs um some Public
public records management software so
just a variety of investments in the
police program and you'll have an
opportunity to hear directly from the
chief as he delves into these as part of
his budget presentation but I wanted you
just have start to have eyes on on
what's being proposed here um similarly
in the service department um we have uh
a pretty broad array of uh programs
showing up here in the capital fund um
equipment
initiatives you know everything from
invasives removals community garden
fencing uh to uh you know electric sign
boards pickup trucks but I really want
to highlight the biggest number you see
here which is the water meter
replacement program and water meter
software so when I talked about how we
were working to make sure that water
rates don't increase and that we can
continue to have viability within our
water department as Andy and I worked on
this with with Taylor and we looked
really closely at why does the water
fund keep on getting drawn down
year-over-year what are some
controllable
costs or uncontrollable costs one of the
major cost centers that we have been
taken on over the the past few years is
preparing to replace water meters that
are 20 years old or more in this in the
city and as they get older those water
meters become less accurate and less
accurate water meters means slower water
meters which means less accurate Revenue
collection for us so we need to have
accurate accurate water meters but
they're not cheap they're very expensive
and so we've been warehousing them we're
about purchased about two-thirds of them
this would allow us to purchase our last
third and we're proposing that the water
meter program the water meter reader
Program start to move over to the
capital fund and out of the water fund
um we believe that one of the things we
hear a lot about is the hardship that
our rates cause to Residents um we are
simply passing along expenses but we
believe that we have the capacity within
our Capital fund budgets to handle this
program and getting it through and this
is a kind of a temporary expense we'll
be dealing with it again 20 years from
now right before the easement rolls off
over it or sorry the Tiff rolls off over
2200 so we think it's it's appropriate
because this is kind of a one-time cost
and it's outside of the normal Service
uh to to move it over here but that is a
philosophical shift and I really wanted
to call that out um traffic light
cabinets the EPA leadline inventory this
is another expense in the budget but
it's being driven by new EPA reg
regulations
and really it's being driven by the fact
that we have
lead service lines in portions of our
community I want to talk about this very
carefully and you correct me but the
lead service lines are are the are the
lead lines between the water M and then
a res the curve box where a resident
service line is many of our service
lines historically were led to begin
with the Columbus Water treat treatment
treats our water with an additive that
sort of essentially this is maybe not
the scientific term for it but it locks
the lead into the pipes and not into the
water and that's why we don't have lead
in our water rate readings when we go
and test for lead we don't have a lead
problem in our in our system but
nonetheless and we don't disagree with
this the EPA wants us to get rid of all
of our lead lines and I think you guys
share in that I'm sure that objective um
and so uh what we are showing here is
that the inventory that's where we're
going to start to finalize where our
lead lines are because
to date we we see them and then we swap
them out during our opwc projects but
there are lots of lines we haven't
touched uh during our opwc projects or
in earlier opwc projects and then
there's the lead rep we're doing that
replacement of our own service lines and
then we're helping residents replace
lines that might have touched those lead
lines and I don't it would be really
easy for us to go deep in this so we'll
just start with that and we'll go deep
later and a small plow Che
uh
technology again this will be presented
in Greater depth but a variety of
software endof life equipment upgrades
for our phone system and for PCs
throughout the city that are being
phased out because of the operating
system some Wi-Fi upgrades which I know
you guys might appreciate because we
hear about that from time to time um and
and some you know software upgrad some
just uh software upgrades uh for some of
our major software
products and Recreation at
parks variety of facility upgrades for
the Mansion
um got a batting cage in here uh pickle
ball
lights uh and I want to call attention
to specifically two items that are
having an asterisk on it the Four Season
shelter house and the portable trailer
stage um these are two items that we
would love to see supported by our
budget I don't feel comfortable putting
them in our budget that getss passed the
beginning of this year not knowing kind
of where that final Trend goes with the
income tax how much do we need to hold
on to Capital fund dollars I want to be
super clear the Four Season shelter hous
is currently estimated in the 1.2 to 1.4
million range we don't have money for
that right now like anywhere even if
things go well well I shouldn't say
anywhere we're not supportive of trying
to fund all that out of our existing
reserves we're hoping to make that Maj
Grant request from the state capital
fund from the BCF from some others we
don't see that necessarily being funded
in this year's budget but what we do
want to do is we want to tell you in
advance these are two items that are on
the we think they'd add a ton of value
to the community we'd love to come back
at the middle of the Year see where
things are going and perhaps ask for
some Fund in that time so you're on
notice that's why they're there with the
with the No No dollar sign next to them
and we can discuss that more in depth in
the future
and we're now going to move on yes yeah
I just when if you could go back
to the capital
Investments there are certain things and
maybe I'll just email you that I just
want to understand because we ran into
this last year where certain it expenses
are actually were last year like annual
subscriptions and those should be an
operating budgets and not Capital right
so um I'd just like to walk through this
in a little bit more detail to make
certain that we don't
have that pop up again my you're shaking
your head so I trust that oh I totally
agree with you and we've already cleared
some of those out but even as I was
reviewing this for tonight we'd already
presented the budget so I didn't want to
change things but you know we have some
invasive species removal and some Bridge
planting cleanup work that could easily
go within our normal Landscaping budget
and it's it's six to1 half a dozen the
other you know agreed so like it's a
Phil philosophy and I understand that um
I want to talk about Debt Service real
quickly Debt Service is obviously in the
budget so we compared that um and we're
about to get into forecasting in a
second so I wanted to Prelude the
forecasting because you'll start to see
this and kind of brag on our team and
you guys and the work that we've done
because this is our annual Debt Service
forecast and you can see that dark blue
it's the tail of the jet of the jet we
decided that looks like a jet plane
because we're about to take off to lower
debt um but that general fund Debt
Service of one around 1.2 million you
see starts to taper off and then totally
drop out in
2029 those that's the debt that was
issued for the swimming pool
construction and for the police
department construction and it was
issued back in
2009 it did not have a discernable new
Revenue attached to it it is about to be
out of the system for our budget we're
really pleased that that is all of the
general fund debt that exists so in
about four years we're about to have no
general fund debt which is huge so not
to applaud ourselves too quickly because
we might need debt in next four years
but it's a really exciting thing to give
as a gift to the Future Leaders in
Bexley you know we start to look at pool
reserves you know we didn't have pool
reserves going into to speak of going
into the new pool construction back in
2007 we're now once we see the end of
that going to have more and more
opportunity to start to set aside
reserves to fund the future
infrastructure to then eliminate future
debt
hopefully along those
lines we see a chart that shows you the
history of our reserves our general fund
reserves so this is our the dark blue is
our general fund
balance the light blue is our rainy day
fund or budget stability
account the red line is the recommended
Reserve um of 25% of our expenses sorry
our income Revenue shows so showing
where we're where we should be where the
bond rating agencies want us to be and
so you can see that as we have moved
forward we've continued to ACR reserves
above and beyond the recommended amount
and that even as we Face a potential dip
in Revenue in 2025 which is why you see
it dip down because it's a revenue based
Reserve we're still uh comfortably
outperforming the recommended Reserve uh
within the general
funding and now Carrie all right you
talk about our projections yes our
10year projection assumptions so he's
already discussed this um we do have a
slight reduction in income tax
projections for 2025 based on um the
project projections for 2024 we did
forecast a slight increase in income tax
starting in for 2027 to account for the
Fitzgerald um there was an increase we
just had increase in property taxes so
um there's another reassessment in six
years so we did um account for an
increase in 2030 for property tax um
reassessments um we have had high
interest rates so they are significantly
reduced for the 10-year assumption and
then we um did an assumption of a 3% um
cost of living um wage increase across
the
board and then this goes along with um
with the slide that the mayor just
discussed as well showing the general
fund balances um as well as the um
budget stability fund um we are healthy
trending healthy um and staying above
what is recommended for the um 25%
Reserve based on um our
Revenue so if anybody has any questions
and if you wanted to get in the weeds
and really look at all those numbers
there is attached to your agenda the
10-year Revenue expenditure projections
with uh that chart that we just looked
at alongside those the detailed
assumptions at the top and the
corresponding income and expense line
items so that is kind of where we're
going to leave us for tonight we can
answer General budget questions and um
Andor questions on anything we just
talked about but I want to give a quick
forecast for the next meeting is where
we start to delve into the budget in
detail we will have departmental
presentations we will run from front to
back in the budget book in the order
presented you will receive a second
revision of the budget on the Friday
before the next council meeting um it
will not change between that Friday and
our Tuesday uh you will also see with
that a revision list that shows what has
changed we already talked to you about
like at least one or two things that we
know have changed um but you're not
going to have multiple versions kind of
thrown between the you know the
different meetings um so we'll try to
keep it as as reliable as possible from
that
perspective and Mr Markham I think you
had a question this is like a science
guy question for the tax
nerds sorry Carrie
uh I guess you know I've always thought
like with the small population that we
have that it would you know you might
see sort of dramatic swings in city
income tax but that's not the case we're
fairly stable I just as the population
sort of shifts and change and home
ownership and it seems like it would be
not out of the question that it would be
a little bit difficult
to so we have a fairly stable income tax
history and in case you wanted to see
what it really looks like um and how we
figure out our projections you could see
there are some years where you have
there's some there large drops and
changes
now biggest ones usually have a story so
you know 2020 2002 was right after
the.com bust 03 was a year of rebound
for that but it was just unstable during
that period we saw what happened after
the Great Recession in the 2009 period
2008 period and then then in 12 through
14 we raised our income tax so uh that's
not really representative but what we
see actually and you can kind of see
this consistently is you have you have
drops because of recessionary conditions
and then there's a rebound
makeup um and some years where you know
they can't necessarily explain it we
have Matt knows this we have years where
somebody invents something and they take
a huge windfall and it becomes a
noticeable shift in our income tax
receipts there is a little bit of that
variability but it's a maybe also at the
same time a little more stable than you
might think I don't know maybe not so I
asked that question and you had a
spreadsheet with numbers with
annotations that's why I got that in my
[Laughter]
Proclamation yeah yes I had one comment
and one question um my first comment was
if I understand this right with putting
in 50,000 to the rainy day fund that
will for the first time ever bring that
over $2 million correct yep for as long
as I've been on Council uh council
member Markham has been a big advocate
of always contributing to that budget
stability fund so I thought that was I
thought that was significant it's going
to push it over that two million Mark
and then my question was for Carrie
harri um by when do we think that we
will have all the um Q3 numbers for 2024
on like what's actually been spent I
know that in the budget a lot of those
charts were filled in but some of them
weren't weren't um are we anticipating
maybe by the next council meeting we'll
likely have most of
them for the spreadsheets in the budget
I think um there's a column that says
like September 30th
actual um and most them are filled out
there's there's a few that I assume we
didn't have that that data so um that's
pulled straight from our software so if
there is nothing there it means that
there we've not it's not been spent and
some of that's due to timing some things
may not be spent until the end of the
year or it could be even um potentially
a new account line for the 2025
budget but so but if there're that is
accurate through September 30th there
also a couple budgets where we're
showing
projected um and those are where it's
so it there's just new information
that's so kind of different from what
you might see in the whether it's you
know income going up or down or whatever
it is that that it's showing as a
projected especially in some of those
special fund balances and we're trying
to complete for revision to a projected
column that shows where our where our
directors feel we're going to be at the
end of the year in those different uh
budgets can I add on to that thanks for
bringing that up by that is something I
think you should mention I have asked
for that every year and I do want to uh
say appreciation to the mayor he has
done that every year added to that and I
think that creating a fiscally
responsible budget every year and also
managing to put aside a little bit of
money like that into the rainy day fund
uh as a is a impressive feed and I I
think it's something that the residents
should really uh appreciate I think
that's uh very
admirable all right ma Madame President
if it pleases you our agenda would move
us on
to the finance department's uh report or
update and
um G okay so we just discussed that um
income tax is lower than um projected
but we do have higher real estate
Collections and interest earnings so we
um have received 79 almost 80% % of um
our estimated um Revenue through
September and then the um expenditures
are actually at about 74% so um which is
slightly less than where we should be
through
September so if anybody has any
questions about about
it any questions for carries key
takeaways
all
right we talking about those numbers for
the seemingly endless months ahead so Mr
bashore yes sir um I don't have anything
to add to my report tonight but happy to
answer any
questions questions for
Andy Andy I want to commend the crews
and the projects in general the
sidewalks that are popping up the the
streets that are being paved there's a
ton of work going on and I know leaf
collection started
Yesterday by my calculations so it did
so good work to the crw you guys are
doing a great job thank
you all
right that concludes our
updates okay Mr fishal now on to the
consent okay actually when Mr bashore
spoke it reminded me of one thing I just
want to let Council know that we are
negotiate we just started negotiations
with the asme bargaining unit for the
service and Rec Department departments
and we're getting ready to start
negotiations for the dispatchers just
FYI you'll hear more about it later okay
consent agenda uh on the consent agenda
we have the meeting minutes from October
8 2024 ordinance 30-24 to appropriate
3,800 from the general fund to the
mosquito contract fund to pay the
remainder of mosquito control treatments
for 2024 that was introduced by Miss sad
and we have ordinance
33-24 to appropriate $10,000 from the
general fund in order to provide funding
for public AED device installations that
was also introduced by Ms
sad Council are there any questions on
the consent
agenda seeing none um I move to adopt
the consent agenda could I please have a
second second second by Mr Hurley um are
there any comments from the
public seeing none Mr mCP would you
please call the rule
Miss
s yes Mr Hurley yes Mr Markham yes Mr
Mar solino yes Miss viable yes Miss
lamby yes consent agenda
passes all right we are onto a third our
third reading of resolution
0-24 to schedule the Bexley city council
meeting dates and times for the year
2025 introduced by Ms lampy
thank you uh Council you'll notice that
we uh we we did a just a typographical
update because there are not two easers
and there will not be two easers in 2025
so we have taken out the
wrong you don't know
that are are there any um any comments
questions concerns from Council about um
the proposed dates in this
resolution all right seeing none I move
to adopt resolution
7-24 could I please have a second second
second by Mr
Marcelino this is the third reading are
there any comments from the
public no
comments speaker lips
sorry Mr mCP would you please call the
role on resolution
7-24 Miss FAL yes Mr
Markham Miss lampy yes Mr Hur yes Miss
sad yes and Mr Marcelino
yes ordinance 724 passes good work
Monique yeah it's actually that's
earlier than it's been so good
job um all right on to First readings
first reading of ordinance
35-24 authorizing Appropriations for the
second I'm sorry
second oh God sorry I apologized thank
you thank you thank you
Mr that felt like a second reading we
just had all right how about a second
reading of ordinance 34-24 to establish
the salary for the office of Bexley
auditor for the years's 2026 through
2029 introduced by Ms sad thank you Mr
official my colleagues just have my back
over here they're just making sure we
get this right um so as we spoke at the
first reading this is a reflection upon
the salary increases we had um voted on
and approved for our auditor uh via
Council the last time we had a look at
this and now we're looking at it again
so the 2026 2027 2028
2029 um 3% you know, increases for our
auditor are reflective of what we had in
there for 2025
2024 etc
etc happy to answer any questions on
this tonight I thought there was one
thing that a suggestion at the last
meeting to maybe add a sentence and
thereafter yes yeah there was if if
there's ever a year where it's not
Revisited it keeps going I mean
technically it would still keep going
but we should add the your that did come
up and I I I forgot we can probably
amend it either before the next meeting
or as it's up on the third reading if
that's what council wishes okay um I
could help you come up maybe with the
sentence or two for the next one or at
least remind me we'll do uh any any
comments or questions from
Council all right moving on all right
how about first readings now hang on
hang on a second Mr M any speaker slips
on ordinance
34-24 no speaker slips all right first
reading of ordinance
35-24 authorizing Appropriations for the
calendar year beginning Jan January 1st
2025 to reappropriate all unexpended ow
opwc project Appropriations for 2025 to
authorize general fund transfers in 2024
and to confirm the appointment of Mark
fishell as City attorney introduced by m
sad thank you Mr official I believe in
our discussion this was one that you
were going to um I was going to pass
back to you for a deeper dive no this is
the budget this is the budget do you
want to you don't want to pass that back
to you for a deeper dive no um all right
well this is the budget so here we go
it's in front of us tonight we'll have
it here for three readings and um we'll
be diving deeper into it as we go every
week hearing from our
directors and um just ask Council to
continue to outside of council do your
homework and spend time on it so you get
those questions asked before we all get
together um here and just reminding
those um those responsibilities that
were laid out in our review for our
20125 budget to make sure after tonight
in the next few weeks before next
council meeting that you're meeting with
your assigned UH responsibilities
because we will rely on you you know
each individual of the seven to do the
due diligence within those departments
um to offer any questions that those of
us may have that aren't covering those
different areas of the budget
sounds good um I I will have some
questions offline I spent a couple of
hours on this last night so Ben I will
reach out to you just I wrote down some
specific
questions um any any comments questions
from
Council um Mr MC any speaker slips on
ordinance
35-24 no speaker
slips okay on to First reading of order
ordance
36-24 to authorize the mayor and auditor
to enter into a contract between the
city of Bexley and Franklin County
Public Health introduced by Mr Hurley
thank you um I'll turn it over to the
mayor just to say this is our um annual
contract with Franklin County Public
Health um they've been an excellent
partner I think it's pretty much a
straight renewal the the rate that they
charge is assessed per capita so we pay
the same rate as every other constituent
community
um yeah I don't know may or anything to
add on
this you nailed it um
the it's expected to only go up
1.17% that contract prices include in
the budget but there are no changes from
last year's contract anyone who's been
following the drama around uh food
licens of temporary events I did meet
with the director of Franklin County
Public Health today and we're continuing
to brainstorm better ways to do that
but uh that's not part of this contract
I just wanted to give you that update
separately okay sorry Mr MC any speaker
slips on ordinance
36-24 no speaker
slips all right moving on to a first
reading of ordinance
37-24 approving supplemental
Appropriations and the 2024 budget of
$30,000 Jeffrey Camp what's snw stand
for Sal salaries and wages thank you
$10,000 before and after care salaries
and wages $14,000 Prof recreational
professionals and $4,000 Recreation
special activities to pay the additional
costs associated with an increased in
increase in programming introduced by
Miz sad so our 2024 program revenue is
outperforming the initial estimates by
231,000 additional Revenue results and
additional costs additional Revenue
projections are looking to be a net
positive um with an estimated in the
recre fund coming out of with
177,000 any questions comments from
Council all right Mr mCP any speaker
slips on ordinance 37-24 no speaker
slips okay moving on to First reading of
ordinance
38-24 to establish the water and sewer
raids charged by the city of Bexley
introduced by miss
zad the mayor spoke to this a little bit
in the budget um we are held to Columbus
in their increases and when they come um
we receive them so um with our water
rates we were looking at from the city
of Columbus and a 7% increase in water
and our sewer rates are looking at an
increase from the city of Columbus of
six% any comments or questions from
Council we can also explore creating our
own water department Authority
processing plant and sewer plant so say
the word and I'll break out this break I
saw some amazing things in Austria this
summer just saying it is amazing because
I put just as an anecdotally I pulled
together wage comparisons for asme
negotiations and every other place in
the in the state you see all sorts of
water and wastewater treatment plant
operators and you see none in Franklin
County except for Columbus because they
control all the water and always have
and probably always will Mr MC do we
have any speaker slips on ordinance
384 no speaker slips we could build a
Keystone Pipeline to Delaware and get
their water I'm just
saying Delaware a joke AI who's
listening to us that's just a
joke okay ordinance first reading of
ordinance
39-24 to establish compensation did I
just do that one no to establish
compensation rates for non-bargaining
unit employees of the city of Bexley
effective January 1st 2025
msad um I would ask Council to refer to
the exhibit a that is a attach and it
does a nice job of laying out the unit
pay rates um with the uh what it's going
to look like in
20125 so if you haven't taken a look at
that that's good to pull up I don't know
if we can pull it up here all
right
um correct me if I'm wrong mayor but I
believe it was you who came up with the
step system
um many years ago it was me myself and
directors worked on it y so it's when I
started with Council I appreciated it
coming from the the business world of
how this looks and then being able to
understand where we're at across the
board and our departments and how we pay
our people so this ises a nice job of
laying that out to better understand
where we're at in
2025 uh yeah and I would add Emily has
done excellent work uh taking that torch
and carrying it further um and you'll
see this time in the past we've had
ordinances that delineate the part-time
for some reason in the body of the text
this one now has a part-time temporary
pay exhibit uh just to be more
consistent
um so feel free to take a look at that
and don't ask me any detailed questions
please about the part-time section in
particular Council any detailed
questions for the mayor on this
one go for
it Mr M are there any speaker slips on
ordinance
39-24 no speaker
slips okay now we're on to a first
reading of resolution 8-24 to adopt the
tax budget for calendar
year should say calendar year 2025
attached here to is exhibit a introduced
by Miss zad I think this is the one you
want to send back to me I'm sending this
back to you Mr official okay so this
this requires a little bit of
explanation if you looked at the
resolution there was a little hint at
the explanation but not the detail that
you might need so in June of 2025 2024
you passed the resolution approving
adopting the tax budget for calendar
year
2025 keep in mind that that is a routine
thing that really doesn't
have any reality that's not fair it it
doesn't bind the city to anything when
it comes to your actual budget income
revenue or expenditures however it's
required by Ohio law and it must be
filed with the county
auditor all of that was done however the
title of the resolution you passed in 20
in June of this year was
wrong so the T so the budget was
submitted and accepted by the Franklin
County auditor office with no question
however and this will relate to the next
resolution I'll get to in a second in re
in preparing the next resolution which
are tax
levy the tax levy
information um Carrie realized the
mistake that was existed in the prior
resolution we passed again there's no
problem with the county I don't see any
issues but I felt that for from a
suspender and belt standpoint it made
sense for Council to pass this and one
of the where asses has the explan oh
there it is has the explanation so what
we're hoping you would be willing to do
and again exhibit a is exactly what was
on exhibit a of the one with the funky
language um and really what happened
again was the tax levy language was used
on the tax budget language resolution
that you passed so the hope is that you
would agree to to suspend the three
reading Rule and adopt this this evening
just again for cya purposes what's
C I'm sorry that me it means cover your
behind Council any comments
questions any concerns about uh
suspending the three reading requirement
and possibly adopting this
one seeing none missad do you have a
motion to suspend the threee reading
requirement for resolution
8-24 motion to suspend and and adopt um
just suspend just suspend I'm just going
to motion to suspend resolution
8-24 motion to suspend the three reading
requirement for resolution 8-24 I will
seconded um any comments from
Council Mr mCP would you please call the
role on the motion to suspend Mr
Marcelino yes Mr Hurley yes Miss FAL yes
Miss s yes Miss Lamy yes and Mr Markham
yes motion to suspend three reading rule
passes missad do you have a motion to
adopt resolution
-24 I have a motion to adopt resolution
8-24 motion to adopt by missad is there
a second second second by Mr Marcelino
any comments or discussion from Council
any comments from the public Mr mCP
would you please call the role Miss Fel
yes Mr Markham yes Mr Hurley yes Mr
Marcelino yes Miss sad yes Miss Lamy yes
ordinance 824
passes okay so now we are on to a first
reading of resolution
9-24 accepting the amounts and rates as
determined by the budget commission and
authorizing the necessary tax levies and
asserting the buying that to the county
auditor introduced by Ms
sad this um as Mr official was saying
goes along with
8-24 so if there's anything else that
you would like to elaborate on what we
need to do with this tonight I'd
appreciate it sure so the mistake that
you've rectified on 8-24 was discovered
when resolution 9-24 was being prepared
and again I I want to emphasize this
that this is just a a small glitch it
doesn't create any problems and our
finance director is mortified that she
missed a deadline that doesn't have any
impact but the tax levy budget I'm the
tax levy certification was due to the
county auditor by October 1st she has
received an extension to file it so
again no no harm no foul but we are also
asking for suspension and adoption this
evening so it be filed like this week
and again just like the tax budget this
just Ser the the the Franklin County
budget commission tells us these are the
numbers that we've come up with please
certify that they look right and it's
it's a routine thing that's done every
year and again has no reflection on what
money might come in or how you are plan
to spend it
so Council any concerns about suspending
the three reading requirement and Poss
adopting this one this
evening seeing none missad do you have a
motion to suspend the three reading
requirement for resolution
9-24 motion to suspend um resolution
9-24 motion to suspend by Miss s is
there a
second second second by Mr
Marcelino any discussion from Council Mr
MC would you please call the RO on the
motion to suspend Miss Lamy yes Mr
Hurley yes Mr Markham yes Mr Marcelino
Miss F yes and Miss sad yes motion to
suspend three reading role or ordinance
924 or resolution 924
passes missad do you have a motion to
adopt resolution 9-24 motion to adopt
resolution
9-24 motion to adopt by missad is there
a second second second by Mr Marcelino
any discussion from Council any comment
ments from the
audience Mr mCP would you please call
the
role Mr Marcelino yes Mr Markham yes
Miss fible yes Mr Hurley yes Miss lankey
yes and Miss sad yes resolution 924
passes okay moving on to a first reading
of resolution 10 20-24 confirming the
mayor's appointments of members to the
community Improvement Corporation board
introduced by Miss hurle Mr Hurley I was
talk talk to
um yes uh we are reappointing three
members to the cic and if I reading this
correctly Ben there is potentially a
fourth person either being reappointed
or appointed that has not been
determined mystery member that's correct
Mr Hurley did um I have not completed
interviews of folks who submitted
interest from our publ sheine of the U
opening at the
cic um but there is a vacant seat um
specifically this would actually be
somebody
serving um the term I thought that term
expiring might not be correct uh that
Matt Kingler is currently billing U Matt
was appointed prior to being an employee
um and so we felt it appropriate because
we do already have an employee POS
director position obvious the council
members for the cic to balance to go
back to Residence versus um office slash
council members and Matt says he's
having adequate excitement uh running
the building and planning department so
um so anyway um really
interesting applications I'm excited to
meet I think one person I've never met
before who applied and so um we'll be
bringing back a proposed amendment at
the next meeting hopefully with a name
in that slot very good thank you thank
you any questions or comments from
Council um it is just a first
reading seeing that Mr MC do we have any
speaker slips on resolution
10-24 no speaker
slips I don't think we have any action
on the remaining tabled ordinance let's
move on to committee reports Miss sad
for
finance Halloween teen party this
Friday super excited
this is the second year for it as uh
everybody knows and lauan I'm sure I'll
speak more to it a lot of work goes in
as we all know to that Halloween party
and it's great to see Park and rack
extend their programming as they always
do so well and give these teens a place
to go um Mike would need to speak to it
but I know we're blowing away our
numbers again this year which is awesome
to see Mr sod and I will be stopping in
there before we go over to watch St
Charles football team um and I have to
just say this um I'm sure of you as my
colleague here sit next to me tonight
and said how how about those hoers so we
play uh IU as uh started their football
season you know undefeated which has
been a long time coming and people are
starting to appreciate and actually
recognize when I wear hooers or Indiana
University um game days coming to
Indiana Indiana University on Saturday
um at home super excited and hopefully
they will continue the winning Street
end of report who do they play
Washington good game you were wearing
that you were wearing the Indiana
sweatshirt on Saturday um Miss fible
Recreation and
Parks Recreation and Parks blew it out
with the um harvest fest last weekend it
was great heard Mr Silverman took home
the award for best
Chile something that is inaccurate
reporting that's okay we'll let him
think I do know that I do know
that
oh all I know is there wasn't enough the
cotton candy man was doing so much
business that I had to be creative with
my
[Laughter]
nephew so he wanted some serious candy
so we just got some pre-made stuff and
borrowed a stick and we put the pre-made
on a stick and it worked and he was
happy but kudos to uh farmer Mike Bryce
who by the way um little Ben Kesler was
born on the 27th and five days before
that on this very day five days before
that Michael price was born so I would
encourage all of you who have Michael's
text to uh give him a big big happy
birthday um yes the teens are Friday
night and the grown-ups if that's what
you want to call us are Saturday night
and um
Jonathan has a great costume so please
join
us so um and of report thank you uh Mr
Silverman is not able to join us tonight
but he did want me to share with all of
you that on Friday November 1st 5:00 pm
at the bexy library you're all invited
to a special duty to service celebration
featuring the unveiling of bexley's
Hometown Heroes Banner
program it is designed to to recognize
Bexley active service members and
Veterans who have served our country in
the United States armed forces special
guests will include the capital Roc
Honor Guard um our mayor major Dave Moz
retired Colonel William Butler and
councilman Silverman so I hope you can
all consider
attending Mr Marcelino moving on to you
for zoning and development uh ARB is
tomorrow from 4 to 6 they have a slate
roof Workshop uh talk about slate roofs
in our community as many homes have
those so I think that might be of
interest to some people um in the room
are listening the thousands online uh
for Bap on uh October 24th 2024 at 6 PM
uh we had a great land use strategy
meeting uh last night that I found
fascinating to say the least um in
trying to figure out what to do with
this community um as we move along into
the future I think we have a lot of
options and a lot of ways that things
can go but I do feel confident with the
guidance that we are receiving from uh
our leaders and uh that group Etc um and
then uh I guess I'll leave it at that
for now thank you Mr Hurley strategic
and health um first uh me and the family
had a wonderful time at the Harvest Fest
as well as the one Bexley dinnner so
those were two really great events um
that I was glad we got to participate in
um Board of Health met last week we set
our calendar for
2025 also had I thought this what was
you know the start or in some ways
continuation of a conversation just
around injury prevention pedestrian
safety um and what we can do in 2025 um
you that's probably something that a lot
of people don't realize public health
departments do engage in is injury
prevention research and advocacy so I
think there's a lot of a lot of good
things there it was nice hearing from
the mayor on some of the things the
city's done in the past and I think
we've got uh a good opportunity there
for the future uh cic um met last Friday
approved a property
acquisition this week cic is likely also
meeting Friday morning to follow up on
the work we just did with the easement
um land use and cic also scheduled to
meet November four 4th excuse me and uh
that is it end report great thank you Mr
Markham for safety uh also shout out to
The One Beckley event last weekend I
always meet some really neat people
there it's a lot of fun uh land use
strategy I'll Echo it Sam said there was
we were presented with a real estate
market analysis and that is available is
it not yeah sure uh you will find it
interesting rating uh uh I I thought
that was amazing that was to see what
how we compare with what we at least in
market analysis should have here versus
what we do have uh all all data still
indicates a Mexican restaurant uh
definitely
just a note to our council president on
resolution
7-24 in my household we do celebrate two
easers we celebrate regular Easter and
the Easter that comes after candy gets
discounted a few days
later thank you so much Mr Markham point
point of one thing to add to Mr Markham
is that um since we're celebrating such
illustrious birthdays this week our
chief Lewis's birthday is on Friday so
that's another text that you can send um
and then we should all just go out for
milkshakes one of these days I
guess sounds good yeah there are there
any comments from the
public Madam president I actually just
have so under our new speaker policy you
mentioned for this second public comment
period there'll be a time in the meeting
where folks on the next agenda yes when
will that happen probably right before
the committee reports is what I was
thinking I think that's a really good
spot thank you good question though all
right Council I think we oh I'm so sorry
Miss Lewis come on up uh just to a
notice that there's coffee with the cop
tomorrow at nine o'clock to 11 o'clock
Starbucks great thank you so much for
the reminder we appreciate it all right
Council we went through a lot tonight um
I am going to move to adjourn can I
please have a second second second by Mr
Marcelino all in favor say I anyone
opposed nope all right motion is meeting
is e