e
welcome everyone to the O October 8th
Bexley city council meeting we are so
pleased that you could join us if
there's anyone in attendance tonight
that needs to submit a speaker slip I
ask that you hand it in this time to
miss waterer who is at the end of
council or to our city
auditor um and Council as you are aware
Mr Marcelino is unable to join us this
evening I move to excuse his absence
could I please have a
second second by Mr Hurley uh Mr mCP
would you please call the role Mr Hurley
yes Miss
fible Miss f
[Laughter]
here was distracting okay well we'll
we'll take note of that um Mr Silverman
Behavior yes so B is present excusing
Sam Sam oh yes I'm excusing Sam and I'm
also
here yes thank you hey um Miss sad yes
okay Miss lampy yes Mr Markham uh yes to
both okay and Mr
Silverman yes okay okay Council I may
have done that backwards so I apologize
count as roll can it count as the roll
call okay well then we are just moving
right along to item number three please
join me um and rise for the Pledge of
Allegiance I
pledgees na
we have the benefit of being joined
tonight by several uh special guests our
first special guest is darus uh darus
Blackford who is here to speak with us
once again about the upcoming Columbus
marathon Mr Black for thank you so much
for joining us um if you want to hit
that button on that microphone and tell
us a little bit about the upcoming
marathon that would be wonderful thank
you president council members mayor I am
just I'm so thankful and honored to be
here this is my 14th time before all of
you I I was a much younger man back then
um we were talking earlier I'm so what
what I've seen over the years which is
wonderful is how theity
has continued to Rally around this event
it's the 44th year of the Columbus
marathon 44th year that Bexley has been
a part of it so from the very beginning
and that's just so wonderful so I I
actually personally do the door hangers
on Drexel and and and here on Maine and
I love what I've seen over the years the
neighborhood the kid I I used to when I
first started there was little families
you know two and threey old kids toys
are in the yard now there's a car with a
college sticker on it and it it's just
such it's so neat to see what what's
happened but also what's happened with
this event uh since 2012 we partnered
with Nationwide Children's Hospital
we've raised more than $13 million uh uh
for the hospital which is such an
important Community um uh asset here for
for all of Central Ohio and really for
for the state and the country um I'm
also uh kind of tickled by the fact that
I try to bring something new to you
every year and it's getting kind of
tough to find new facts but from the 90
minutes of 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. on October
20th we will more than double the
population of Bexley so it's kind of
kind of we'll bring in around 13,000
people uh in the marathon and half
marathon that'll also be gone so you
won't most many of the community don't
even know we are here and I'm just uh
just thankful for everything over the
years that we've been able to do and
accomplish with the help of uh of of the
city and so thank you to everybody for
the continued support uh anybody doing
the event this year sometimes someone is
someone anyone on Council running the
marathon or mayor city leaders Pia
gravel okay maybe next year yeah I know
and and and you'll probably be out with
the Cheer Zone there uh cheering is loud
as yeah we have one of our so we have 24
children from the hospital out on the
course one of them is located at uh
Columbus schools for girl up there at
the corner Drexel and um just just um
this way from broad so but any questions
any thoughts concerns what date the
marathon yeah Sunday October 20th
October 20th thank you so much uh
council member s we are working on
Drexel for you right now good took my I
I drove down I'm not concerned I'm okay
yeah yeah oh it's oh it's gonna be super
smooth looks really good yeah I'm really
uh and honestly the islands that they
were put in I think the last year was
the first year that we had those they
actually really helped us a lot and we
we actually put in uh wind feathers to
kind of decorate a little bit love the
island yeah he helped us a lot I heard
helped us a lot yeah they they love the
islands fans big fans of the medians but
just thanks everybody again and thank
you for allowing us to use the streets
for for a couple hours and and just all
the support every year so but we are so
grateful you for you thank you again for
coming for yet another Year look forward
to seeing you next year
hopefully thank you so much on wood yes
thank you everybody take care always
good to see you
all right our next special guest is uh
Jack ogrady with the Franklin County
Auditor's office he is speaking uh
stepping in for Beth Kenny U Mr Orr if
you wouldn't mind coming on up and if
that button's not already green if you
want to hit that and that way our uh
think it's green there we go there you
go good evening members of council my
name is Jack O Grady I'm a community
outreach coordinator with the Franklin
County Auditor Office uh just here with
a few quick updates tonight um you have
slides I would love slides if we don't I
know most of
them let's
go let's go all
right there we go all right so uh as I
hope a lot of you know last year was the
sex anual property tax reappraisal so we
are still finishing up the challenges
from last year we're hoping to get those
done by the end of the year uh on
November 88th you will be able to
challenge your 2024 property
values uh those will be going on to next
year as well but November 8th is when
that opens next slide uh so on October
1st our tax levy estimator went live I'm
not certain if Bexley has a school levy
up this year but it's pretty intensive
we do fantastic right to here so if you
go in there it'll let you know how
that'll impact your property taxes for
next year it also shows you all of the
uh levies that you're already paying for
when those come up uh if they're being
renewed there's a lot of the battle
language on there as well it's pretty
intensive QR code Works love to see that
uh it's a lot better looking on desktop
than mobile but it does work on mobile
um there's yeah all the battle languages
on there it has just oh that's
fine but yeah so that went up last
Tuesday um we're also supporting a lot
of
legislation uh this year and next year
we're not expecting that a lot of this
is going to go into effect this year
we're looking at 2025 but Senate Bill
224 and Senate Bill 2 or 271 244 and 271
excuse me we're both introduced this
year Senate Bill 244 has to do with
residential stability zones which as it
was explained to me is essentially
abatements for uh need and not for
development uh Sen 271 has to do with
circuit breakers which are uh you can
get a tax credit up to $1,000 if your
property uh taxes exceed 5% of your
income both of those are for qualifying
households so if you are under $60,000
for Jo combined household income
uh your property is valued under I think
it's 438,000 uh the stinziano solution
is a property tax deferral program that
has yet to be introduced but we are
looking forward to that and then we are
always advocating for modernizing the
homestead exemption right now that is an
exemption for seniors qualifying seniors
over the age of
65 uh whose income threshold is under
36,800 the exemption is
26,200 before it was just the threshold
the income threshold that was increasing
with inflation now both numbers are
going up with inflation we'd still like
to see those both go up but at of now
that's where we're at next slide please
uh important dates coming up October 1st
was in the levy estimator went live
October 12th this Saturday we'll be at
White Hall yearling High School from 10
to two for our second affordable housing
resource Fair we do this twice a year we
just did it in Hiltonia midle in March
that was our biggest one yet we had over
a thousand constituents there uh that's
my favorite event that we do it's a ton
of uh affordable housing resource like
focused vendors I don't think I'm
allowed to say that it's over 50 so I
won't but that's usually the tag we go
with uh I think it's a really great
event I'm really looking forward to this
one this year so that'll be Saturday
from 10 to two uh November 8th again is
when you can start filing complaints for
your 2024 values November 16th is our
other biannual event that we do that's
shred hunger the last one was May the
4th in Canal uh that's a shredding event
where you can come up drive up with your
car have all your paper shredding in
your trunk uh any e cycling we also take
so like old TVs we'll take that on site
it'll be shredded on site usually we do
a food drive with that this year we're
partnering we do a nonprofit partnership
I can't recall who it was in Canal but
for this one will be in Prairie Township
we are partnering with uh Sanctuary KN
uh so we're trying to do a clothing
drive for that so I think pants
specifically is what they're asking for
so bring all your unwanted pants please
that'll be to one uh and then December
1st is when dog licensing season opens
that's December 1st to January 31st octo
or not October Ohio state law mandates
that your dog be licensed in the county
that it resides uh in Franklin County a
license is $18 or then it increases
incrementally uh the lifetime uh dog tag
I think is
$108 um that fee will double if you uh
pay it outside of that time so we
encourage you to do it in between
December 1st and January
31st um any questions uh Mr Silverman
has a question
yes
got yeah the ballot language is all
provided by the school districts
uh I believe so dependent on your
partiel
correct toal
am am does it not at the bottom it goes
through a bunch of the different uh
levies
uh uhuh for
sure yeah it's pretty extensive it
doesn't be
your tax am for
your sure we're still working on it we
just went live with it last Tuesday so
if you do if that is an issue uh you
could call that's a good number to call
uh I think I had my email uh in there
but also if not I do have to run to Milo
after this I think I actually have a
card in my pocket oh I do let's
go any any other questions for Mr
ogrady thank you so much Mr ogrady did
share with me that he is visiting uh
different city councils and we are by
far his favorite city council so you are
always welcome to come back I think in a
roundabout way said that I'll stand by
that's what I heard that's what I heard
good thank you so much Mr appreciate
it all right Council last but certainly
not least of our special guests we all
know him as Mr Bexley but also um as the
executive director of the Bexley Area
Chamber of Commerce Brian drewy is going
to uh share with us what the chamber has
been up to and some uh upcoming events
well great well thank you Madam C
council president and everybody else's
staff I had a great speech it was all
ready for Sunday and I decided to change
that from there so obviously you guys
are aware of uh next Monday from there
Banners are out signs are out for the
taste of Bexley but I was having a
conversation uh with one of my peers and
so I was discussing you know my my
recent issue that I was having and they
were like well we have a great national
chain that takes care of all that that
stuff and you know thanks I said well do
you guys work with your city council do
you work with your mayor and they said
no they said you know we have people
that take care of all this and I said
well I said well I'm kind of lucky
because uh mayor Kesler from there we've
had a great conversation yesterday and
today and um and the city council and
everybody who's been around here has
really kind of pitched in from there so
obviously the taste of Bexley is my main
fundraiser from there so it allows me to
have my fancy car it allows me to have
my big staff um
but but having people from there who
step up and it it kind of caught me off
guard that you know the other Chambers
did not necessarily work with their city
council and staff members and you know
police department and things like that
because they said oh we Outsource all
that information so I changed my speech
because I wanted just to thank you um
everybody here who you know kind of
chips in helps out from there with uh
the chamber also just supporting us from
there because you know my focus and
vision has been to support the
businesses in our community and our
surrounding community and making certain
that they have equal opportunities to do
good things and so with our event it
allows us to Showcase from there 35 36
depending on is going down a little bit
um vendors uh who are are doing great
things in our community and just an
opportunity to kind of meet and talk
with them so on behalf of the chamber
just want to thank city council staff
and everybody for their help
and also from there Shameless plug it's
next Monday from there I do know who has
bought tickets and not who's
volunteering to so but thank you
everybody appreciate it talk to you
later questions any questions for Mr D
Miss Bible thank you very much yes
please resend I've looked and looked and
looked for the email I know youve sent
it so that I can get to the um volunteer
yes yes that uh my board member uh
reminded me that today this afternoon so
that is on my wasn't on the blast either
so I couldn't find it no I I have that I
I was supposed to do that so that will
come out at 9:05 tonight um other
questions good question you um yes mayor
mayor Kesler well I wanted to thank you
Brian Brian is an incredibly hardworking
Chamber of Commerce executive director
as we all know but a similar experience
that you just shared was I called a city
manager of a city Who Shall Not Be Named
yesterday to inquire about you and I had
a conversation I was like you know our
Chambers this thing what do you guys do
and what do you know about this she's
like or they are they were like sorry um
um yeah I don't really know about that I
don't think we've really you know I'm
not really sure how the Chambers doing
that particular thing I was like well
maybe you should yeah well I also had to
point was I had similar experience as I
was trying to get some more information
yes yes
of and yes another chamber had the same
suburb of Cleveland is who I was
speaking with further narrow down for
you thank you for those comments mayor
any any other questions for for Mr jur I
I will share that are you
like oh thank you okay the light up my
head is coming and hitting just s please
put that in
record yeah I wanted to thank you Brian
because not only do you um do so much
for the city but um the very types of
events that chamber holes I think are so
um interesting um Council and and other
city leaders if you haven't had a chance
to already go to one of the breakfast
with the chamber meetings um they also
have uh women in business meetings they
have happy hours in case uh happy hour
is your social activity of choice um a
lot of networking um uh events um all
days of the week all days at the time um
so there's a little bit of something for
for everybody and we certainly
appreciate you particular Brian you are
the right person for that job thank you
I appreciate it thanks everybody thank
you all right we are now to agenda five
Mr mCP are there any speaker
slips no speaker slips okay moving on to
the president's report uh Council I'm
excited to tell you that a few weeks ago
the um Council communication working
group met together and after a very
intense um but detailed um meeting uh we
are going to be hopefully coming to
council at your next meeting with some
recommendations I'd like to thank
council members fibel and Silverman for
uh meeting with me and uh we will bring
those recommendations to you for your
input um going forward I also wanted to
share that um at our next city council
meeting um I will be asking for
additional input and possibly a vote on
our uh uh contemplated updated speaker
policy I didn't want to have that
tonight without Mr Marcelino here um but
I had um written down several good
suggestions that all of you shared with
me at our last meeting and including
there was a great suggestion from our
City attorney that will be incorporated
so that will be emailed at the end of
this week to all of council so that you
have at least a week and a half to
digest it before our next meeting um
further updates um as we mentioned there
is a school levy on the ballot this fall
they are holding different community
events to educate um the public on what
the levy uh looks like some of those are
scheduled on nights that we have City
Council meetings but there are two that
are not on Council Tuesdays the next one
is um October 15th 6 to7 at Jeffrey
Mansion and then the other one is
October 30th 6 to7 at Bexley Public
Library if you are interested in
attending also early voting is open at
the Franklin County Board of Elections
on Morse Road if you think that you'd
like to vote early or you're going to be
out of town on Election Day you can go
ahead and vote early in person and then
finally last night I had uh the
opportunity to attend uh Memorial at The
JCC with council members fibal and the
mayor um and the memorial was an evening
of remembrance and hope and they lit
seven candles in honor of those who have
been killed um in Israel um for the
current hostages that still remain for
the officers and um um and Military that
are trying to assist and it was a very
profound moving evening um and I know
yesterday was their onee anniversary as
well so I hope that you please continue
to keep them in your thoughts um any
questions for me before I turn it over
to our City attorney
all right Mr Mr ficial you're up thanks
just two quick updates um first of all
the the con two continuing sagas around
surrounding the um home rule authority
of municipalities first of all in the
case with that city of colum that we
joined with the city of Columbus on
Tobacco legislation that we were
successful uh they were successful on on
and on our behalf that is now in the 10
District Court of Appeals briefs
briefing is is occurring as we speak I'm
guessing a decision Sometime Late spring
um in addition I think I shared that
the Athens County Common Police Court
ruled in favor of the state on the
single use Plastics um that is going up
to the fourth district court of appeals
um and um the city Bexley I will be
filing with I discuss this with the
mayor and mikas brief or a friend of
court brief that will support the city
of Athens hopefully they have many
others including the Sierra Club and uh
a lot of other organizations I I I
should have had this ready to it just
came to my mind so I didn't have I don't
have the um specifics but basically one
of the things that the Common Police
Court Judge held with no evidence in the
record to support this but seemingly
counterintuitive in my mind is that the
reason that this is a Statewide an issue
of Statewide concern that supersedes
home rule Authority Under the Ohio
Constitution according to this judge at
least in part is because the requirement
or not the requirement but the um the
decision to
allow businesses and individuals to use
S single use Plastics is part of the
state's
comprehensive plan on
recycling because single-use Plastics
are and again no EV evidence in the
record are made from recycled material
and can be recycled again so therefore
that's why this the state made that
policy decision and we have no say so
among other things so I mean I see a
puzzle look on Lori anvit I mean it
makes no sense to me either so we'll see
how it goes thank you for the update Mr
Markham so just uh just to summarize and
so the ruling is against the city of
Athens
uh so that they're plastic ban now is is
deemed unlawful in in in terms of what
the state suedes that that that that is
correct in my opinion and I think I've
shared this before in my opinion we're
we should still continue to enforce ours
until either the someone tells us
someone with authority tells us we can't
I guess I would venture out that I don't
even think enforcing it is even a word
we need to use here because our partners
here are not using single-use plastic
because they don't want to use
single-use Plastics and they know the
their consumers here don't want them
using single-use Plastics and so uh I
mean that's great but I think the market
forces here are we don't want single
anyway that'd be my editorial cont
comment on that no I think that's a
really good point and just so you know
too there was no business that brought
this lawsuit in the city of Athens it
was brought because again at we have a
chance to address this too after some
Jerry mandering the city of Athens ended
up in a different um a different house
district that at least part of it did
that had a representative uh who of a
particular political persuasion who uh
to just doesn't want to see that kind of
law being enforced on the local level
and he persuaded the Ohio attorney
general to bring a lawsuit against the
city of Athens that's a good point
that's I'm going to tag team on that and
say that I mean the businesses around in
Franklin County are moving away from
single-use Plastics anyway doesn't
matter what the law is because uh
consumer demand is to not use these and
so the the Kroger who's not in Bexley
right over there I think they've got a
timetable where they're abandoning that
as well so yeah not nobody wants this
thank you Troy um any other questions
for City attorney I would just clarify
Mark the the law that Athens passed is
not the same laws ours I just wanted to
confirm that I mean it's far far from
identical right
thank you we'll take far from far from
Iden
okay thank you spoken like a true lawyer
um all right Mr auditor you are up um
just want to thank everybody for all of
the work going on tied to the budget um
I know that behind the scenes front
stage everywhere there is just a ton of
work going on um so just thank you all
in advance lots of questions coming to
people's ways um but again just
appreciate all of that support so thank
you and a big thank you to you as well
and to council member sad as our finance
chair to the mayor and all the
department heads for um the next couple
weeks much appreciated any questions for
our city
auditor all right Mr Mayor over to you
for administrative updates
than first
very Martin as she takes on her first
budget process and is we're working
through a lot of reforms to budget
processes as we do that so there's a lot
of work happening behind the scenes
extra hours being put in and and a lot
of conscientiousness so we are doing our
darnest to meet that Target of October
22nd as our first reading and looking
forward to that I also wanted to share
um
Madame President you brought up the the
remembrance evening yesterday evening it
was incredibly powerful I want to thank
Jewish Columbus for putting that on the
JCC for hosting it um Chief Lewis uh
gave some fantastic remarks uh to the
media yesterday along with Jewish
Columbus um it is a a sad day to
remember uh and our hearts are with
those that are still held hostage and uh
and in and in prayers for peace in the
Middle East
um also want to recognize uh the spouse
of our uh council member lauan fibble
Jonathan fibble who is now chairing
Jewish Columbus did a fantastic job
helping to lead that evening um and
commend the attendance of uh elected
officials from throughout the state and
region
um one thing I want to address and it's
it's in the written report uh is before
addressing it I want to mention one Bey
Gathering was moved to October 13th
that's this Sunday you can still sign up
until Wednesday I believe if you sign up
for one Beckley Gathering considered a
twofer you need to also then go to the
tast to beex the next night right Brian
there you go hey there you go
okay uh but uh signups are looking good
so make sure to do that um and if if you
would love to host a table I know that
we were still looking for table hosts
that would be great um I want to bring
up a topic that's been front of mind um
particularly the past few days past week
um but always is uh which is bike and
pedestrian safety as as you guys know
there was a student cycling to school
that was struck at the intersection of
Remington and Maine and while he's doing
okay um you know the the uh damage of
confidence to him and his family and the
and the the fear that's associated with
that is is not to be
underestimated um and I want to talk
about what we are doing and have done as
it pertains to bike and pedestrian
safety um first off uh and the chief
will address this at greater length um
we have been doing an increased
enforcement around traffic safety issues
including Running Red Lights running
stop signs um and then after meeting
this week to review that incident are
are redoubling those efforts
particularly in the school zones um
Drexel the project we were referring to
darus is an example of a pedestrian cing
project which has been very effective uh
statistically in terms of lowering the
speed of vehicles and also so just
subjectively watching those shorter
crosswalks and the and the greater
confidence and safety of our kids as
they cross the street but we have a
variety of projects that are coming up
um in a at a variety of levels our com
corridors project you guys have heard us
talk about that before uh engineering is
working on that idea of of a even
greater safety enhancements on the
streets that connect our three
Elementary campuses it's one of the
projects that we have in to link us as
part of the transit supported
infrastructure so the the ballot issue
that's coming up in November has Transit
supported infrastructure money Bexley
has applied for $3.6 million of that TSI
money and those projects would be part
of their phase one include comcor
project also include the Livingston
Avenue project and include uh expanded
bike and pedestrian interface of the
Main Street bridge over Alum Creek which
we're working with the Franklin County
engineer on another bike and pedestrian
Safety project so the com quarters
project the Alm Creek Bridge which you
all very familiar with we've received
over a million dollars in grant funding
for that we are Advanced stage of
engineering and we're about to go to bid
on construction and expect that to
happen in 2025 our bike boulevards bike
boulevards program which has been a
logistical nightmare of WF finding that
we're almost done with um and anticipate
to install that in the spring of 25
obviously we've just recently been
talking about the Livingston Avenue
multi-use Path U we're looking at you
know what happens on North Cassidy as as
we integrate with Columbus and do our
own infrastructure in North Cassidy so a
variety of those infrastructure projects
are occurring the other Crux of the
message so we talk about enforcement we
talk about infrastructure and
communication so communication needs to
go out obviously to drivers but also
what do we as parents take home to our
kids what did I take home to my kids on
Friday afternoon and it was a message
that will always be important no matter
what we do it will be critical which is
as a as a cyclist
as a pedestrian frankly as a driver when
we come to
intersections scan the faces of the
people driving make sure they see you
pause don't cross until until you till
you have eye contact it's not to blame
any anyone who who is injured by an
automobile but it is the thing that our
kids can control and it's the thing that
we need to continue to drive home
wearing bike helmets uh Danny now till
age 18 uh for sure we should all be
wearing bike helmets to set that example
uh for our kids and for the community
so um all that to say uh we will
continue to work on these projects and
and we have many more as you know that
we're working on right now um we'll
continue to listen to community feedback
figure out how we can continue to
enhance enforcement infrastructure
communication um as we move
forward
um I want to congratulate our Bexley
Police Department they're recognized by
the Ohio ass ation of chiefs of police
as the agency of the month as part of
their sharing Ohio's best program so
congratulations Chief Lewis and the
department and one of the benefits of uh
being a maybe maybe doing my report a
little bit later than maybe some other
people do is the chief talks about the
uh the Bex police City Hall dog that was
rescued as part of a litter of pups that
were rescued by rumpy actually I believe
found them in an alley Animal Control uh
scooped them up and helped rehome them
almost immediately but one of them was
just a little too sweet uh and so we had
a naming contest go out in the blast the
full formal name of our city hall
Beckley Police Department dog our city
dog is Madison Roosevelt Beckley or
Maddie Maddie uh named in homage to uh
the late and great mayor David Madison
uh she is being cared for by one of
bexley's finest right now you'll see her
at City Hall from time to time and at
different community events and she's
being sponsored by Bexley animal
hospital and Hollywood Feed
so uh great job uh with the ACO and and
helping with that and chief excellent
idea about the community naming
competition and uh and the whole thing
actually this is the chief's brainchild
which I very quickly supported as I was
tempted to bring one home and I was like
this is this is good solution um talk a
little bit about TSI and Transit
supported infrastructure I just talked
to you guys about that but that's in the
report um you'll note as we said Drexel
Avenue is being paved lots of Paving
going on as part of our streets projects
so kudos to the service department and
our engineer we're getting that done and
a couple photos from the field uh one of
bexley's newest residents as of last
week is beis Kesler enilla that is my
newest niece right there just born last
week um enjoyed a a gig at the farmers
market Ben Heckman helped DJ in between
uh set lists with me we recognized Ed
May harell and her contribution she
founded the bexy Historical Society in
1974 I believe um she uh her artwork is
is all all over Beckley you once you
know what to look for you'll see it her
line art and and and watercolor
paintings of historical scenes of Bexley
and she has been such an advocate for
remembering our history over the decades
that she's worked um within the
Historical Society so we honored her at
the Vexy Historical Society um about a
week and a half ago um and then there's
a photo from last night of the JCC and
I'm happy to answer any questions no
just kidding before I do that I want
to recognize I recognize the chief in
oacp um you'll see in his report uh with
stats that we have um one thing we look
really closely at is our obviously our
trailing 12month and our year-to-date
stats and you'll notice I want to
congratulate the chief and the dep
Department that on both the Year date
and the trailing 12 month every category
of statistic as it pertains to um theft
robbery burglary shows an improvement so
uh thank you Chief and agency for all
your work on that um Matt uh Kingler and
the building department have been super
hard at work uh Matt has been St
systematically streamlining operations
with enthusiasm and optimism uh which is
necessary and it's been great so thank
you for
that um and I want to really call out
the rec department Mike uh the support
that you've given to community events
you and staff and the service department
staff have given to community events has
been historic this year we have had more
community events more attendance uh and
more that we've asked of our staff uh
and you have LED them through that and
really appreciate your hard work and
diligence on that um and so I want to
give a round of applause to you and your
staff thank
you I would do two claps but I don't
know how well that would work with the
big room with that I would like to turn
it over
to uh the chief chief Lewis wait before
you do that questions questions for
Dodge questions that was Miss
sad um mayor Kessler you did a nice job
of talking about um to your kids about
what we can do um being safe as a walker
or biker in the community um it got me
thinking that we do such a great job in
the kindergarten aspect of Safety Town
and getting the kids um initiated into
our elementary schools of with the
walking and biking safety and then I
feel like after that um we kind of drop
off with those reminders so something
that we may want to look into is an
educational piece um just like this week
it's Fire Safety Week at cassingham and
that's completely new to them
and they made um different days around
what you're dressing up to do to
remember fire safety so maybe it get we
get back to you know um Walker biker
pedestrian safety and we look at that
initiative um even if it's just a flyer
that goes out in their backpacks to
their homes but it'll help have that
conversation between you know our
residents and their children great idea
because I would love that same
conversation that you had with your kids
for all of us to have with our kids I'll
start knocking on doors but a great idea
yeah thank thank you Miss sad I had a
quick piggyback to that I I remember
when council member Hurley brought forth
the ordinance that we just recently
passed uh raising the age um to 18 and
and requiring helmets until that age we
had talked at that time about that
education component and I think that we
all felt comfortable that there was
already funding in the 2024 budget to
have that so if there's an opportunity
for this Council or a city leadership to
help with positive reinforcement maybe I
I know our police officers already do a
great job at that but if in terms of
additional resources that they may need
or that this community may want uh maybe
there's a way for um other folks to uh
to help with positive reinforcement
whether it's you know if you see a kid
that's Crossing safely at an
intersection and doing all that they
should do maybe they do get their
Johnson's coupon for ice cream or we can
think of something else but I wanted to
just bring that back to council member
Hurley for uh for for his input because
I know that education was an important
piece of that ordinance did you want to
add anything to that
Danny Ln part of
and we do plan on with our
Communications team a a program to get
the word out to parents and students um
about
ordance great thank you
coming I had a people reach out to me
after um protest protest store
yesterday um I guess first what is the
current and I HED
around what the current law or
restriction
around sign around sidewalks I'm gonna
actually punt this over to our City
attorney who's done a lot of work on
this yes so we did a lot of work back
during the pandemic with the protests at
Amy Acton's house so the short answer is
that protesters can be on the sidewalk
um not on school property not blocking
the street technically they need to be
technically they need to be walking
around and back and not just standing in
one place in front of residential
housing we did really decided that that
wasn't a practical thing to enforce for
a lot of reasons um and they can't be
disrupting the piece um and again they
can't be making threats or things like
that but again from my understanding is
there was a less than you know Pleasant
looking sign that somebody had and
unfortunately across the street from
from the the cassingham complex and from
the little bit I know about what H what
that what was involved it was totally
within First Amendment
rights don't get place ofor trying
to what people are saying one I think
concerns people have
question had blatter it was
more people didn't like was less
about
knower or
trou trying to push protesting away from
places of schools I don't know if that's
something you take a look at I just
people reached out to me
I maybe it' be good to have that
conversation offline between the two of
you to see if if it warrants you know
some updating or a closer look yeah I
mean so number one number one from what
was described to me in the sign again I
haven't seen it it certainly follows
certainly is disturbing certainly Falls
within First Amendment rights number two
I'm happy to talk to you about that and
I'm happy to pursue what council
Administration wishes me to do uh with
regard to what we can legally do I am
personally and professionally a strong
advocate of the free Marketplace of
ideas and you start restricting and
there are a lot of unintended
consequences both legally
and perception wise in a community like
this um but again I'm happy to talk to
talk about what we can potentially
restrict not a lot I think is the answer
yeah and and I just want to reiterate
that we've first off uh police officers
did a great job responded very quickly
made sure that it was within the law and
then it was not an appropriate area and
all that um we've done a lot of work
around this issue um with you know under
a very high pressure situation and even
situations before that I think that the
key what I recall from that work we and
we brought in First Amendment Scholars
and outside experts to fortify your
position Mark was that um if it's on a
public space if it's a sidewalk uh
there's really little to nothing that we
can do about freedom of speech other
than Breaking other ordinances of the
city that are unrelated to the the
speech ordinance mean I think generally
speaking that is absolutely correct um
so you know again I I just I I just
think there are a lot of unintended
consequences um regarding what becomes
then content potentially content based
and uh again you know I I've shared the
story with you and it's not an Apples to
Apples comparison but the city of Brian
Ohio who I represent dealing with a
pretty nasty issue that where they're
just trying to enforce the fire code and
it's gotten into some First Amendment
issues that have gotten really ugly for
City officials there um because of
people's
perceptions good discussion maybe you'll
follow up with
I'll just share with you
that having spent a lot of time at
universities if there were ways to
circumvent and create a place where that
could happen it would have taken place
and um having spent a lot of time trying
to manage and mitigate a lot of these um
as the mayor indicated um we're really
really limited and they have the
freedoms um within those public uh and
that's the key is that they are public
accesses
so sidewalks um they're protected and
and as much as um you know I talk a lot
about hurt speech and hate speech and
it's hurtful but it's not violating the
law and that that hurtful image that
hurtful um wording has an impact um
unfortunately it's protected and I
generally and I probably someone you
mark you know I'm I'm very to go first
amendment the the one concern that was
raised to me some my conversations
yesterday that it's just kind of
sticking with me is just sort of the the
violent you know the the blood splatter
in view of kids being dropped off for
school but I I know that you know if
there were a way to solve that or
promote a better quality of speech we
would have already figured it out as a
society I just just wanted to put it out
there and yeah I'll give a little more
thought and you know me Mark and I can
connect offline and little bit but thank
you thanks for raising that Mr Hurley Mr
Markham did you have your hand I was
just GNA add too that you know you know
it's something that's UPS setting but
you know keep in mind when we're talking
about First Amendment rights is
attention is the fuel to the fire here
as well and so you know when you there's
nothing that they want more when they do
that than to get attention and if you
start taking action against protesters
like that you start sending police to
send a protester away then a week later
there's six of them there and then
there's 20 of them there and then you
have Gatherings like that so I mean I
think you have to be very very careful
when you start taking action uh against
people who are you know doing things
like that thank you Mr Markham um any
other questions for the mayor before he
starts going through additional
reports right thank you and I do want to
reiterate that uh it would never be my
personal preference that people be
protesting in front of a school I mean I
think obviously that was designed to
cause exactly The Angst that we're
dealing with um moving on to our chief
of police Chief Gary D Lewis
Jr good evening
Council uh I think that you know um
obviously here to answer questions and
really trying to capture a lot of what
the police department has been doing um
a couple things that I want to really
highlight one uh the mayor had put
together um for lack of better terms a
town hall um focused around Livingston
and we invited the Columbus Division of
police to come in with us and I felt
like
um although it may not have been the
answers that the community had hoped for
we did open oursel up to answer a lot of
very tough questions and really talk
about ways to continue to partner and
then really showing the priorities and
what's happening in in other parts of of
Central Ohio and more importantly in
Columbus so I am um at least pleased
with that outcome and and and the
feedback that was received um the other
piece to this and as the May eluded you
know we take any and all traffic crashes
very serious especially when one of our
students sustains an injury um there are
three things that I talk about often
it's the three e education engineering
and enforcement and that has been my
mantra for a long time and I think that
we as a city um I've heard the word
education come up a lot and programming
around that um we've done a tremendous
amount in engineering from Livingston to
drexal um and on and then the last piece
is enforcement and one of the things
that um you know I started here in
September of 20122 and since then and
looking at the data we've seen about a
45% increase in traffic enforcement and
so when you look at that year toe and
the number of traffic crashes
investigated stay consistent we have
seen other areas of functional activity
reduced with theft and crime it's
showing us that we're making a
difference and we're making an imp impa
the other thing is that we look at from
a spot map where are those hot spots of
traffic crashes Andor speed and there is
nothing that you know we've got a number
of one-offs but nothing that says we
have a very specific area to focus on um
but the mayor and I have talked about
how do we try to make sure that that
visibility intensifies um for the next
number of weeks in the morning hours and
and I've learned anecdotally over the
years um things will see a significant
drop in the morning and then the
afternoon we'll pick up and so there is
this um kind of ebb and flow and we're
prepared to deal with that um and those
are really some of the things that I
just wanted to touch on very quickly um
but I'm open to
questions first is a comment and then a
question uh I read the um slideshow PDF
that was put together when you guys won
the award and I was really impressed
with just the sheer amount of Engagement
and relationship that the police
department is doing towards the
community I was able to be at the
Livingston meeting and I was impressed
again the relationship that you had with
Columbus your experience with the Ohio
State Patrol to really speak to the
questions that the community had the
feedback we got was they might have not
been the answers they wanted but it was
the answers that was factual and the
reality of what could we could do so I
just wanted to commend your whole
department on those relationships and
it's really appreciated in this city uh
my question goes back to the safe routes
calm Corridor um as we are reviewing the
the the calm Corridor for students to go
from the Southern and Northern
elementary schools as they transition to
Middle School um is there an opportunity
to partner with the police and the
schools in the city to have people on
those identified intersections during
morning and afternoon time frames to
have a sort of a traffic officer or
traffic volunteer
um and and what would that opportunity
look like what would be needed from the
police department's perspective to be
able to have somebody on those
intersections during the hight trffic
mornings and afternoons kids are
commuting from the south to the and the
north to great question so you know I
think that we have an opportunity um you
know I remember um volunteer retirees
that would come out and be a part of
that effort and I think that partnering
with the school and having
administrators also take a role in that
and truly building and developing a
relationship gives us an opportunity I
think the more people with orange vest
out there doing their part the better
and so I think it's bigger than just a
police enforcement thing I think it's a
um the education I think it is the
engineering and the enforcement is
lastly but I do um really um you know
going back to to um us being recognized
the partnership opportunity to me is
Limitless and looking at building that
relationship with our schools and
looking at all of us owning safety and
getting all of the the the students um
to class safely and back home again and
I would add to that that in the past
we've had pto's uh approach us and ask
you know can we help them spin up a
volunteer program we would 100% support
that uh we are ready to equip educate um
and help organize a program like that
it's been a challenge to get Volunteers
in the past but you know we're here for
it our officers are working those school
zones during the pickup and drop off
time so I mean they're they are doing
what they need to be doing in those
moments um but if there's additional
support to the community we're all for
that sorry uh
Troy i'mna add the kudos for last week's
uh meeting I think the one thing that
you've drilled into my brain your your
brand is meet people where they are and
I think you know you do such a really
good job of that in that meeting last
week but I I think was an example of
that is to to just to be out here and to
take the questions and bring you know
Columbus Police Department and I think
it was enlightening for everybody even
you know those of us who thought we knew
most of you know what the situation was
uh it was it was really great I want to
commend you for that uh for for bringing
those the CPD here for for the the
people to talk to and uh along with that
as well um and with yesterday being
October 7th your continued presence with
the religious Institute tions uh in
Beckley and in the community uh the way
that you've been a a very consistent
presence there and that message out
there um you know I I stalk you on you
know on LinkedIn and everything and I I
know you're very vocal uh in promoting
you know that sort of reassurance to the
community and and that guidance and um
you know it means something a lot it
means a lot for a community to see the
police Chief out there being a voice you
know of that and it makes people feel uh
comfortable in their Community it makes
people feel safe and I want you to know
that you know those expectations I
remember three years ago uh being on the
committee to to interview you and all
your worthy uh competitors uh the
expectations that that I had for for the
role that we would bring in the police
chief here is that uh you've you''ve
exceeded them and continued to exceed
them and I I appreciate the fact that
that you bring that here to our
community thank you very much very
humbled by
that we do all of that uh Amy is
phenomenal we actually uh part of her
budget goes towards new equipment
updated equipment bikes um and we take
Safety Town very seriously um I'd love
to see the graduation of Safety Town um
this goes back to me being very
politically correct and saying um I'd
love to get from our kindergarteners to
our fourth and fifth graders to our
sixth graders in building that
relationship I think it's a missed
opportunity to build on uh tricycle to
Bicycle to helmet um to car and that
motorist and so I think that we really
have a blank canvas that could be built
and created with our young people in
this
Community Partnership absolutely
also so I look at that quarterly
every we don't um so there are some
groups here within Bexley BR in
particular that we share a significant
amount of data with every quarter and
provide that with them and so what that
does it helps gives us an idea um how
are we focusing our efforts and
initiatives um what are the trends that
potentially could be happening and so
it's just helpful for internal purposes
as we look at our staffing you know we
really similar to many of our residents
look at um South Central and North part
of Bexley and deploying those resources
from a traffic enforcement
perspective uh
laurian all of these wonderful things
that the police department are doing to
build our community and our
relationships with everyone and yet
there's still
doing the scary jobs that police
officers are asked to do
and officer holdren was with us
detective right detective was with us
last night um at The JCC keeping you
safe he was he was meeting a couple on
their porch when I was sitting there
talking to this couple on their porch
because they had a very very scary
interaction with someone in their
neighborhood and he was so wonderful
with
them and then last week we heard a lot
of commotion outside of our front door
and officers had pulled over a pickup
truck that had
been they they they saw a broken tail
light and they ran the license plates
and it was connected to someone who was
on the loose but was accused of or
wanted for strangulation so something
pretty darn scary and witnessing how
they handled the individuals in the car
with such respect but could have been
really really scary
people um and it ended up they had just
bought the car from this person and
hadn't changed the title and and the way
they handled it you could hear the
officers I witnessed it all I could hear
them laughing with these individuals the
individuals laughing back and they and I
will tell you that our taite program is
working so they left this scary
situation and I'm sure it was scary for
the individuals and I was scared for the
individuals as well as for our officers
but they left the situation with a
option to get a new free tail like so
anyway it was just I I just witnessed
some some some amazing amazing police
work too so not just the the wonderful
stuff that builds our community and
builds our community's confidence in
there but but they're doing that that
dirty scary jobs too so thank you for
that
Madame President Chief I want to go back
to this award that your department won I
know we've already highlighted it it was
on Facebook but I want everyone here to
know and everyone who's listen online
this is a huge deal for us yes you only
joined us barely two years ago I I
almost fear that you pick too soon
because if you've done this in your
first two years with Bexley uh you you
have set such a high standard for what
you're going to do in the next coming
year and as I look around council
chambers four of the seven of us are
graduates of the citizens police academy
uh council member Markham myself um
council member Silverman and councilman
uh or councilwoman um fib and for us to
see your officers uh become Educators
become neighbors become part of our
community has been so huge Council a
couple months ago I was talking to the
chief about something and he had this
huge grin on his face and he handed me
the the uh annual report of the Bexley
Police Department I went home and I read
it it's a great read um I can only
imagine with the 20124 annual report is
going to be so if you ever have
questions about the amazing work that
our Police Department um is doing um it
is all here in writing but your award
and your dedication and the amazing
folks that are in your department can
simply not be overstated so
congratulations thank you so much uh um
I I will say be remissed um I was once
told if people are not willing to follow
you you're just one person out taking a
walk I have an amazing team and it
cannot be done without their work their
dedication their passion and every
officer all 33 of the men and women at
the beit police department all the
dispatchers and all the support and
administrative people have bought into
the philosophy and that's why we've been
successful so um I will will not take
credit for their work because they're
out there doing it they're making those
tough traffic stops they're taking the
drunk drivers off our city streets
they're the ones doing it and so I want
to make sure and give them High
Praise all right thank you even officer
Grimes do you hear us oh want to shout
out officer Grimes and thank him for
working this
evening okay moving on to Mr cling Mr
Kingler director of building and
planning thank you mayor nothing to add
to my written report I will take
questions gravity is the essence of wit
Mr
Silverman I just wanted to let you know
Matt um I had a resident come to me and
asked me a question about a driveway
easement and I referred him to your
office okay and I got a immediate email
back saying the detailed information
made it so much easier for me to get to
what I needed to get to um I appreciate
your communication your your detailed
imagery as you show people where to go
on the website to get something I know
whenever a resident is dealing with
something personal to them their
emotions can be heightened and you were
being able to alleviate that quickly and
efficiently has been a notice since
you've come um he had glowing reviews of
the communication back and forth he's
very excited for the progress that he
has made on his house and I look forward
to when you ramp up with your new staff
member for the capabilities to increase
and I just wanted to give you some
accolades back from some of the
residents that had interaction with you
since you've been on as the Director of
building thank you appreciate it I'm GNA
work with um Natalie soon to revamp our
website with lots of hyperlinks and make
it super easy to navigate so look for
that in the next coming months a great
job Mr Hurley question
our
last
comment they have not reached out to me
my knowledge I've been copied down a lot
of emails but I don't think we've set a
date yet for yeah I think they've been
doing more focused Outreach um at this
point but I'm also not a that
yeah other questions for Matt M ly
president ly director Kingler um do you
have an expected date by when you're
going to have the Livingston Avenue FAQ
online I I think I heard at the end of
that that there was going to be the the
collection of all the questions that
were asked and if an answer was provided
or an answer was going to be provided
that we were going to make that
available on our website yep so the
mayor reached out to service Jim Pike
and Kelly sco and um we set up a meeting
with them to go through all the
questions he listed those out and I
believe that meeting is next week uh
after that we'll get something up on the
website soon great thank
you this s two months to Catalina's
director Kingler is that gonna happen
close yeah I'm talking to the husband
about landscape and parking lots and
things yeah super exciting close super
exciting um I think there will be a
Council pancake ball eating contest uh
at the opening I would assume could be
sooner I'm conservative with my
estimates so it could be could be sooner
all right um any other questions all
right Recreation and Parks Department
director Mike price thank you mayor um
just a couple quick highlights I want to
talk about volunteer local it is a new
software that we have purchased for
managing uh volunteer opportunities
within the community so we have just
started to launch that publicly uh this
past month we had some uh a soft opening
we used it for our splish blash and- UT
Triathlon and a couple other community
events uh but we are starting to ramp up
that um software and that program um the
next uh step for us is to focus on
relaunching our neighbors helping
neighbors program which is a program you
may remember started back in I think it
2013 uh mayor and um Dave Hayes at the
time through the code enforcement I
think it was a a program designed to
help uh houses that needed a little bit
of assistance and maybe they weren't
capable of doing some of the work
connecting them with uh volunteers to
help with wrecking leaves uh snow
removal that sort of thing um it has had
gone through different iterations since
2013 um uh it has uh most recently as
part of our hiring of Kristen uh
Schweitzer with our senior program it
was uh an effort that we wanted her to
undertake she had experience with
connecting neighbors and those was in
need of some support uh through our
previous employment um got a little bit
sidetracked with her efforts with uh
getting the senior center off the ground
but she has uh started to turn some
Focus to uh developing this neighbors
helping neighbors which is now turning
into the Good Neighbor Network um so
what we are going to be uh encouraging
uh residents to do is to register for on
the software uh if they're willing to
volunteer to help a neighbor who might
need some assistance we're going to
focus this fall on Leaf cleanup so so
we're going to try to connect uh willing
volunteers with uh people that maybe
don't have the ability to take care of
their leaves the way they they might
like to um so that's underway uh if you
know of anyone interested they can go to
be.org
volunteer um and we will continue to
develop that program it may include snow
removal in the future if we ever get any
snow um and uh other projects down the
line but chrisen schwitz are within our
department whoever sees our senior
programming uh has a lot of experience
doing that is going to be managing that
program as well um couple other quick
highlights obviously we have the Harvest
Festival coming up uh next Friday so
please join us it's it's such a well
attended event we've added an extra half
hour starting at 5:30 this year till 8
o'clock yeah yep uh the mayor will uh uh
we can't give away which Chile will be
his because it's the competition and we
want that to be fair but the mayor will
be involved in a Chile uh off
competition uh well food hay rides we
will not unfortunately at least at this
point we will not have a bonfire uh
because of the ban on um bonfires and
other open
Flames uh which is still in effect um
our Halloween bash uh is the guess
that's the following weekend with the
Middle School bash on Friday and our
adult bash on Saturday it is a ton of
fun uh if you uh have any interest in
volunteering we I think we have some
spots through volunteer local to
volunteer for the middle school one but
we'd also love to see some of your faces
all of your faces uh at the Halloween
bash adult event on Saturday night
drinks food music good time um and then
other than that uh we will also be using
volunteer local for our Halloween Patrol
I will say Halloween Patrol for trick-or
treat on the 31st um the last handful of
years has been very difficult to get
volunteers uh our numbers have been uh
from a height of having between 250 and
300 are we all app students out here is
that we no you accept High School uh we
accept High School okay yes good to know
yes what what
school Bi
State all right
okay so college student high school
students we look for volunteers to walk
the streets during trick-or treat and
keep our young trick-or-treater safe so
if you're interested U go to be.org
volunteer um but we uh we normally need
between 250 to 300 in last you can't
leave council chambers until you we
forgot to mention that part little
awkward sorry about that um I'm
sorry yes yes thank you thanks guys so
uh Phil please spread the word to any
high school students you know or college
students and uh let's get them signed up
end of report happy to answer any
questions thank you Mike I want to add
to your report there was a great Jeffrey
Woods uh Force management plan meeting
recently and there you guys are making
great progress on that so lots of
different fronts with progress and I
know you've also been super busy with
budget stuff um I want to highlight as
well you mentioned volunteer local so
that's piece of software you guys helped
us fund through the budget this year um
brought to us through wreck um so
excited to have Kristen overseeing the
neighbors helping neighbors program I
think it's going to be an amazing uh
Focus so I think it's gonna be great
good neighbor Network sorry that's right
good newly branded good neighbor networ
rebranded relaunch yes any uh any
questions for
Mike
beond to Rally volunteers our city and
even for my children schools
forever awesome it I would love to get
that into the hands of St Charles and
CSG because they all
volunteer hours and I think
that
foret
all
and I think right and I truly believe
that there's something special about
volunteering your communities so I that
would
already that's and how do
we how does the community
contact you they know
there's next that
might so they would contact Kristen
schwitzer directly k schwitzer at be.org
or or call the office uh and she
will uh she will help connect them
figure out what the needs are help
connect volunteers with them so our our
our first approach right now is we're
trying to build that database of
volunteers right so we're really
focusing on getting as many people in
the system that are interested in
volunteering whether it's specifically
for an event that's marked within uh the
software or whether it's hey if there's
ever anything that becomes available
that you need assistance with we're
happy to do it so we're trying to build
that database of volunteers we have a
pretty decent database because we use it
for splish and dash and as you are well
aware with all your help with our
volunteers on that we have over 100
volunteers involved in that so we're
building that we will be building that
as part of Halloween Patrol we've
already we have reached out to St
Charles and CSG from a Halloween Patrol
perspective but as we build that we will
then turn our focus and and and more
immediately we're turning our Focus to
identifying those households those
families that need some assistance um
and uh we're being proactive in trying
to identify but we are also encouraging
the public to reach out to Kristen if
they help can help identify households
that need assistance and then she will
work to
connect in with
volunteers that I would last
year's and S out a
c is that something that this will also
do so you'll have this big database of
people
thatti we'll send out what we you know
it it could be for an event that's
coming up and we're looking for
volunteers or it could be specifically
for a household that needs assistance so
Yeahs y yeah and just to like highlight
that like for the smoke and fire
Festival we needed some people to help
out on the cookout trailer and like use
it one of the early uses of that system
and it was like filled like that which
was awesome the blast did have
information about contacting Kristen it
will be in our upcoming newsletter we're
spinning up be.org volunteer which will
have all that information from both
sides uh for people uh in preparation
for the newsletter uh so on another Alex
I think
yeah thanks like just just first
question the Good Neighbor network is it
launching on a certain date and is that
going to be communicated out
CommunityWide or is it kind of a rolling
pilot that's kind of already out there
it's it's out now um it was in the last
last yeah the article from the last um
it's it's ramping up the community now
but it is it is live and live um you
know after about a month of being out
could we get Christen to come in and
kind of speak to it kind of see the
areas that we need to kind of help uh
improve on or what's working um get some
feedback for this neighbors Network
would' be H we' be happy to I know
Kristen is scheduled I think it's the
November Rec board meeting so she's
going to be putting some reports
together and I I'll encourage her to
make sure she she puts some numbers to
this as well thank you and and have we
can yeah happy to have her come to a
council meeting if
appreciate that and another question I I
had a couple conversations with
residents around adaptability with
regards to like playground equipment or
sensory kits that possibly to see
expanding into the bpack and I know
we're working on the Jeffrey Mansion uh
remodel project I want to know if you
could speak to any any plans for uh
adding playground equipment specific to
kids with sensory needs and
adaptability uh yeah it's a good
question um we actually had a
conversation today I guess it was
um about our um efforts to work on the
playground uh redo at Jeffrey Park uh so
that will be and I appreciate you
bringing that up that'll be a part of
consideration in terms of what those
apparatus look like what the design is
um you know one of the challenges of
Jeffrey Park currently is we have a a
surface that's mulch it's not the most
um accessible friendly surface so
that'll be something that we'll be
talking about in terms of what goes back
in as we replace that as well as the
types of features that are there um uh
but yeah that that that'll be a part of
that conversation and I expect that to
hopefully ramp up over the next couple
months and into early spring I reached
out to to followup on that I reached out
to an organization that does uh sensory
kits for uh people that go to sporting
events stadiums and I'll I'll share with
my findings possibility of of adding
those to the bpack that could be given
to a child that could benefit from those
would be something that possibly is a a
addition to the what we currently offer
the beack uh and I'll share the findings
from the company when they when they get
back in touch with the finishing
questions I asked no I I appreciate you
bringing that up we've we've over the
last handful of years we've been
partnering with the Craig kimman Craig
kimman family and the money that they
raise with their race they donate money
back to help um uh to help support
children with special needs um and so
you know an example of some things that
we've added like at the pool we added a
digital clock as as opposed to hand you
know clock with hands uh we added a um a
sign board help uh with communication
for for kids that are less verbal or
non-verbal um and so that would be you
know sort of a a great sort of project
to think about some of those those funds
to be able to use the support so I
appreciate bringing that up thank you
all right any final questions for Mike I
got I got a follow-up question for the
gallery which which class are you here
for service over in the Glenn School
who's your
professor yeah okay just not my students
say yeah it's good to have you here
though good thank you very much Mr Price
Welcome to our visitors GL so glad to
have you feel free to ask any questions
when you're allowed
to in the meeting thank you Madame
President that concludes our report
our oh yes so um and I I we we have uh a
couple out ofate travel appointments
coming up um two of them are in the rec
department uh we got to figure out how
to get in on this program but the rec
department is taking a couple trips I
believe to
Disney World yeah not a couple a trip a
trip a couple a couple staff M couple
staff members okay yeah we're done part
of the program revenue is supporting the
trip they are there in their capacity
running the program um so that is that
is coming up um and then the chief I
believe Chief is there out of out of
state travel coming
up it's also a Disney
World it's in
Switzerland Boston Mass
all right um as per our policy that's
something that the auditor and I review
and approve uh but we're going to
continue to give you guys a heads up so
Council will be informed great thank you
so much that concludes our
administrative updates Mr official over
to you for uh consent agenda all right
on the consent agenda we have the
meeting minutes from September 24th
2024 all right are there any questions
or comments from Council on the consent
agenda
um this is um an opportunity where no
speaker slips are required are there any
comments from the audience on our
consent agenda right seeing none I move
to adopt the consent agenda can I please
have a second second second by Mr Hurley
Mr mque would you please call the role
Miss fibel yes Mr Silverman yes Mr
Markham yes Mr Hurley Miss side yes Miss
Lany yes okay consent to J
passes all right got a we have a third
reading of resolution 6-24 approving the
petition for special assessments or
special energy Improvement projects in
affidavit under Ohio Revised Code
chapter 1710 and declaring the necessity
of acquiring constructing installing
equipping and improving certain public
improvements in the city of Bexley Ohio
in cooperation with the Columbus
Regional energy special Improvement D
district and declaring an Emer Mery are
we on this one too okay I'm just making
sure that was accurate
still oh that's s okay yeah gotcha mad I
think this is you yes so we have heard
from um visitors about Pace we've heard
from the mayor um just reminding
everyone what pace stands for it's
property assessed clean energy and
tonight after as this is a third reading
we do have a proposed um amended
resolution
we need to pull up and I am going to um
hand this over to the mayor to discuss
the
Amendments um so they are both both this
this resolution and ordinance have
similar amendments um in spirit um this
one this resolution was worded with an
emergency Clause uh I believe Mr
official it's your opinion that a
resolution doesn't actually need an
emergency Clause but it was already
written into the title so we make made
the body fit to it it's it's probably
Overkill but I don't think that's
harmful and if you go down to um the
body of the ordinance section four is
amended to change it from earliest
period to uh the statutorily required uh
emergency language and similar comments
will apply here at the with the
ordinance that follows it these are both
the
pace uh legislation for the pace for
2200 East Main Street
um and happy to answer any questions
about either the amendment or the
project in
general any questions from Council um I
I recall from our last um meeting and
our speaker uh what I took away was that
this
encourages special um energy projects
and improvements and it doesn't really
have any Financial uh detrimental impact
on the city um so I intend to support
this
um any questions before I asked Miss sod
if she has any proposed action yes Mr
Hurley
toal
invest yeah this this shows the total
investment in um Pace eligible
improvements um and Pace eligible
improvements are when a project exceeds
the local building code um with Energy
Efficiency improvements um at that point
the Ohio statute says that those
improvements can be financed through
Pace assuming that the regional Pace
District which is called the regional
Columbus special El sorry energy
efficient special Improvement District
approves the project and if the local uh
jurisdiction does um so as you can see
it's LED lighting heat pumps building
envelope and plumbing fixtures which
comprise exceedences over the building
code and are eligible for Pace
financing um and speci assessments total
maximum assment cost
23 but their total project cost 15
million is it I'm trying guess I'll just
ask I don't have with this on the
operational side if they were to come
back you they have they have this place
let's say they wanted as they're going
to do some additional work they have the
ability to come back and I guess like
I'm sort of
think no
um right it's um whether the numberers
15 or or or 20 3 million because you can
roll in additional costs associated with
the financing of it so interest for
example and and other costs um that's
probably why the number exceeds uh the
amount if the project scope changes then
the property owner would go back to the
uh Regional Pace District um and it
happens by the way like for example they
could come three years from now and say
we want to do solar and we'd love to get
pace finan for it it would absolutely be
delighted if that happened
no the the literally the only thing that
the city is doing I don't mean to
minimize the role here but the only
thing that the city is doing is is
saying it's
okay to allow an assessment to be put in
this property and then for that
assessment to get passed on to the
lender in accordance with the higher
Revis code it's a it's a process that is
um there's a lot of paper for very
little action on the part of what the
city actually does there's no there's no
Financial ility whatsoever and the
oversight the primary oversight of the
project and whether or not it's
achieving what it's supposed to do via
oh high Revis code is happening at the
regional Eid
board the
ass yeah it's a simp it's very simple
it's Debt Service so you look at the
project what is The Debt Service on the
project you can see U that is kind of a
calculation right there based upon the
terms of their loan this particular
project is financed through the Franklin
County Finance Authority a lot of our
Pace projects in the region are financed
through third party lenders that
specialize in this um but this
particular one is through uh the
authority and they might you know they
might structure it for example that
there's lower interest at the front end
and then it kicks in later there's lots
of ways they can structure
it right Miss s do you have H proposed
amendments
looks like we don't have any more
questions so yes I would love to move to
adopt the uh proposed amended 6-24
resolution amend it first let's amend it
first okay motion to amend resolution
6-24 by Miss sad is there a second
second second by Mr Hurley any questions
from Council on the
Amendments um Mr mCP would you please
call the RO on the motion to amend Miss
lamkey yes Mr Hurley yes Mr Markham yes
Mr Silverman yes Miss fible yes and Miss
sad yes Amendment
passes missad do you have action on
amended resolution
6-24 yes now I would love to move to
adopt proposed amended 6-24 resolution
motion to adopt amended resolution 6-24
by missad is there a second second
second by Mr Hurley uh any questions
from Council
any comments from the
public Mr mCP would you please call the
role Mr Silverman yes Mr Markham yes
Miss Fel yes Mr Hurley yes Miss lamkey
yes and Miss sad yes amended ordinance
passes all right moving on to a third
reading of ordinance 28-24 approving the
necessity of certain public improvements
in the city of Bexley Ohio determining
to proceed with those improvements
levying special assessments for the
purpose of pay the cost of those
improvements approving a Cooperative
agreement and a special assessment mou
with respect to special assessments
introduced by mad can we just take off
that it can you pull that up Mr
Mayor because we are not dispensing with
three readings this is the third reading
and I think that oh okay so that's
there's another that's right there's
another yeah I think we're going to try
to amend this one got similar did not
have effective emergency language on
section
19 um of the uh of the ordinance so that
amends it to do that all right um I
think uh Council you'll see up on the
screen the proposed amendments uh for
this one including change the title
adding emergency
language um any discussion on that
before I ask missad if she moves to
AED missad I'd like to make a motion to
move to amend ordinance
28-24 a motion to amend ordinance 28-24
by missad is there a second yes second
by Mr Silverman any questions from
Council on the motion to
amend Mr mCP would you please call the
role on the motion to
amend Mr Silverman
yes Miss sad yes Miss FAL yes Miss
lamkey yes Mr Hurley and Mr Markham yes
motion to amend
passes Miss s do you have action on
amended ordinance
28-24 yes move I'd like to move to adopt
um amended ordinance
28-24 motion to adopt amended ordinance
28-24 by Miss sod seconded by Mr
Silverman any comments from Council on
the motion to
adopt any public comments
Mr mCP would you please call the
role Miss lamkey yes missad yes Mr
Markham yes Mr Silverman yes Miss fible
yes and Mr Hurley amended ordinance 2824
passes all right onto a third reading of
ordinance 29-24 to transfer 57,000 in
Appropriations from the personal
services portion of the building and
zoning department account to the other
expenses portion of the account and to
appropriate $65,000 from the general
fund in order to provide supplemental
Appropriations to operating expenses
within the building department account
introduced by Miss sad thank you Mr
official um so we this is on our third
reading tonight we have discussed those
Appropriations uh in 2023 we had
$40,000 um that was going towards
building um officials inspection and
design review expenses and they were
paid out in 2024
Appropriations um the reason why we're
asking for this additional money has to
do with expenses that occurred in 2024
due to several large um projects in the
city are there any questions further on
this
tonight I see no questions miss you have
action on ordinance
29-24 I I do I would love to move to
adopt ordinance
29-24 motion to adopt ordinance 29-24 by
Miss sad is there a second second second
by Mr Hurley any comments from Council
on the motion to
adopt any comments from the public Mr M
would you please call the role Miss hod
yes Mr Hurley yes Mr Markham yes Miss
fible yes Mr
Silverman yes Miss lampy yes ordinance
2924 passes
dropping the
mic Matt's heading to Disneyland now
too all right I think Mr I have some
questions for Mr Kingler on this next
ordinance so
he no I'm
[Laughter]
not okay we have a third reading
ordinance 33-24 approving a tax
increment financing and Cooperative
agreement with the Columbus Franklin
County Finance Authority the city of
Bexley Ohio and CAG Bexley Apartments
LLC for the issuance of bonds by the
Frank Columbus Franklin County Finance
Authority in support of the CAG Bexley
Apartments LLC pledging net service
payments received by the city from the
Trinity apartment's Tiff for the payment
of bonds to be issued by the Columbus
Franklin County Finance Authority
pursuant to that Cooperative agreement
and declaring emergency Miz sad thank
you Mr official that is a
mouthful so um I wanted to start by just
saying to council that I am going to ask
that um if everyone's okay with it that
we table this tonight we are still
waiting on some information from our
special meeting that we had a few weeks
ago is that a few weeks ago or last week
last week last week um time just fly so
um we're waiting to be updated on our
TEF agreement and um from Continental as
well as the budget so I'll if there's
not any other questions on that or if
the mayor doesn't have anything to
elaborate on I'll
Silverman is that to include the
discussions that are ongoing related to
the parking garage itself um because I
know that they're still separate right
this ordinance and then easement
ordinance right so this ordinance is the
garage Tiff so the public financing
component the other one is Amusement um
and first off want to really thank you
guys for scrambling to make that meeting
last week we were all operating in good
faith trying to hold up our end of uh
timing for the developer this is not
because of us that it's delayed so um
and this happens it happens yeah I'm not
blaming I'm just saying like you know I
we don't take for granted the fact you h
a special meeting track I really
appreciate it that's still kind of
unknown yeah so the easement is a tabled
ordinance right now but um there's been
good progress on the ement even this
week um we've been holding meetings like
every other day just to get it moving
down the field and so I feel pretty
confident the cic is going to be
reviewing it in a special meeting um
coming up Friday Friday 8 AM um and uh
or at least reviewing progress on it
whether or not it's the final written
document um and then we'll be be able to
bring it back to you guys I would hope
by October 22nd we're looking at both
this and the EAS mitt and Tandem and
they will they aren't the same thing but
they're not going to conflict with each
other and we'll be able to kind of
explain how they fit together I I mean I
don't want to ask a dumb question here
but when you say like you're having
meetings every other day like what's
that mean are you is there a negotiation
going on are you getting more
information no we're negotiating okay
and by we it's the U Representatives
that were asked by the cic to be there
um Megan Meyer myself and then the
attorneys on both the cities and cic's
and Continental side and um
representatives from Continental okay
there's no no there's no council
representation on
those I don't think no the cic had a uh
had a few members that out of the
meeting were pass in their attorneys in
uh in real estate
okay all right Council any other
questions before Miss sad makes her
motion Miss sad any action on this one
yes I would love to to um move to table
ordinance
33-24 a motion to table ordinance 33-24
by missad I will second um Mr mCP would
you please call the r Miss fible yes Mr
Markham yes Mr Silverman yes Miss lamkey
yes Mr Hurley and Miss sad yes ordinance
3324 is
tabled all right on to Second reading so
second reading of ordinance 30-24 to
appro appropriate $3,800 from the
general fund to the mosquito contract
fund to pay the remainder of mosquito
control treatments for 2024 Miss zigan
thank you Mr
official this uh ordinance as we spoke
about at the first reading um the
additional cost comes from added sprays
a vendor change and improved testing and
results if council is okay with it
tonight I would like to um move this to
the consent agenda for our next meeting
everyone's I don't see an objection
okay all right so now we have a second
reading of ordinance
31-24 to appropriate $65,000 from the
general fund to the grants and donations
account in order to provide supplemental
Appropriations for grants that have been
awarded
missad yes um so since this ordinance
the city has received additional funds
Grant funds including additional mural
Fest funds and a police department grant
other potential grants from our
sustainability programs coordinator are
also in the works and may be awarded
this year we're proposing an amendment
to increase the appropriation from
65,000 to 80,000 if passed this would
bring the Appropriations in the grants
fund from 200,000 to 280,000 for 2024 an
amount which is still substan
substantially lower than the income
already received in 2024 to date we have
received 597 ,
6278 in Grant
funds this is $20,000 higher than the
grant funds received as the writing of
this ordinance but as the month of
September is still not closed we have
not adjusted the total received amount
listed in the ordinance in an effort to
be able to open purchase orders to keep
existing and near future Grant projects
moving forward without delay we're
requesting an amendment from 65,000 to
80,000 we are also requesting ing a
suspension and adoption tonight as we
are currently waiting to pay one of the
mural Fest artists despite having
already received the grant funds to
cover their
payment right questions from from
Council it sounds like we need to amend
and suspend and adopt Madame President I
want to commend Natalie who's done a
great job in leadership through this
ordinance and it's talking through the
Amendment with Jess having uh Jess come
on
let's Natalie who has to process this
mad house of Grants coming in and uh
expenses going out so it's been an
incredibly fruitful year for us as you
know with Grant receipts and um and and
continue to diversify the source and
amount of those grants this is necessary
for us to close out the
year great no questions from Council
Miss s do you have a proposed amendment
on ordinance
31-24 yes I would love to move to
um adopt a propo a proposed amended
ordinance
31-24 we're g to amend it first so I'm
gonna I know I have a lot in front of me
tonight and I'm trying to flip my
computer back and forth to all these as
quickly as I can so be patient with me
um so yes I would love
to um
motion to amend ordinance
31-24 right motion to amend ordinance
31-24 by Miss sod is there a second
second second by Mr Silverman any
comments from Council on the proposed
amendments Mr mCP are there any speaker
slips no speaker slips would you please
call the RO on the
Amendments Mr Hurley Miss fible yes
missad yes Miss Lamy yes Mr Markham yes
and Mr Silverman yes motion to amend
passes Miss do you have um motion to
suspend the three reading requirement on
amended ordinance
31-24 yes I move to suspend the three
reading requirement on ordinance
31-24 motion to suspend by missad is
there a second second second by Mr
Silverman um any comments from
Council Mr mCP would you please call the
RO on the motion to suspend Miss fible
yes Mr Silverman Mr Markham yes Mr
Hurley Miss sad yes and Miss lampy yes
motion to suspend the re three reading
three reading requirement
passes missad do you have a motion to
adopt amended ordinance
31-24 I move to adopt Amendment or uh I
move to adopt ordinance amended
ordinance
31-24 motion to adopt by Miss sad is
there a second second second by Mr
Silverman are there any questions from
Council um Mr mCP any speaker slips no
speaker slips right would you please
call the role Miss lampy yes Mr Hurley
yes Mr Markham yes Mr Silverman yes Miss
FAL yes and Miss sad
yes I don't know how many words to use
but I will simply say ordinance 3124
passes it's amended ordinance 3124
passes do I need to include anything
else Mr attorney we are done okay thank
you Mr mCP thank you
miss all right a second reading of
ordinance
32-24 to appropriate $110,000 from the
general fund in order to provide funding
for public AED device installations Miss
sad yes so this ordinance mandates the
install of our AED and ble controls kits
this secures the finances any questions
tonight we have not discussed that but I
will uh would you have any concerns
about it going on the consent agenda
because I I'm with Mr Hurley if
and heading into budget SE season I
really appreciate that um consideration
if everyone's okay with it all right
sounds good
thanks all right uh Natalie we'll put
ordinance 32-24 on the consent agenda
thank you
missad all right second reading of
resolution 0724 to schedule the Bexley
city council meeting dates and times for
the year
2025 m lampy
all right Council this is another
opportunity for you to look at our
proposed meeting schedule for
2025 um did Council have any questions
comments did we um did we miss anything
on our proposed meeting list Mr
Hurley yes it could unless there are
questions or changes we need to make
Miss we still need to find tooth it a
little bit just to make sure with all
right we will leave uh resolution 7-24
off agenda um any comments from Council
though for for us to further tweak all
right seeing not Easter's mentioned
twice not that it matters maybe it's
maybe it's the Greek Easter I don't
know okay all right we will look at that
thank you for catching that it is April
20th
got it good catch see what silly we love
having a teacher on Council because she
catches that stuff um any other comments
from Council Mr M PE any speaker slips
on this
one no speaker slips all right moving on
all right on to First reading of
ordinance 34-24 to establish the salary
of the office of Bexley auditor for the
year's 20 26 through 2029 Miz
sad are you guys sick of hearing from me
yet
tonight I remember when Troy used to say
that and Monique as well but I I never
was but now I'm in the seat and I'm like
wow are you guys sick of hearing from me
yet so um if we are able to pull up um
May our old ordinance as well um wanted
to kind of show everybody where we were
coming from with the new ordinance for
the auditor salary so then you can kind
of see what we're doing here in the
upcoming years which keep in mind too um
our current auditor um the wonderful Mr
MC Peak um would be up for reelection so
voting on this tonight doesn't affect
who the next auditor would be
um so just like how like we do with city
council it feels awkward if we're voting
on something that we may not that would
affect us directly right now so um um
this would be for the future so this is
affecting 2026 2027 2028 and 2029 and we
are simply reflecting what we were
already doing in the years of 2022 to
2025 so I thought that was important to
show um all members of council those
have been around that have approved this
already and then those who are new to
see what we've established in the past I
think I can see the algorithm that you
used
here went into Mr Silverman do you have
a question
yeah I just didn't know um is this in
comparison to what other councils are
doing and other cities are doing in
regards to Auditors um where did we kind
of establish this baseline from I can
see where it would make sense to
continue the pattern that we've already
established but I guess from a
historical standpoint what allowed us to
get to the initial numbers that we're
using for this position you asking me
see are you looking at me
or I can tell you
I can answer at least relative to
comparables and um and it will be
non-specifically answering rela of
comparables but just to say that there
aren't excellent comparables because
there are a few elected Auditors in
central Ohio not that many um and they
they are quite different in the roles
that they assume and I think we've
talked through that a little bit so um
it's it's hard to find an exact comp I'm
happy to assist with showing what they
are but I'm not sure that they're other
parttime yeah I mean and I've reached
out to Julian group who's are consultant
and and auditor and the reality is there
are not many part-time Auditors that
exist in the state of Ohio um so there's
just it's a difficult comparison to do
an apples tles comparison is it
traditionally a full-time position
across the Spectrum or is it
traditionally outsourced I guess I'm
trying to just trying to establish the
role that we have
answer yeah I mean this is this is one
where I mean
I I don't know how it's Sol for I mean
we know that we have neighbors um beside
us that have a you know elected official
that is in that role um and it's a
full-time position um but outside of
that I really don't know how it's it's
it's managed within other municipalities
and in the those instances to each one
I'm aware of there the auditor is the
finance director of the city our Charter
sets it up differently than that so it's
just unless you know I can chime in a
little bit again I don't and it's so
again across the state I'm not I mean I
couldn't have said said it with that
certainty that Julian and Grub did but
um it's certainly my experience that
most Auditors are if that position
exists in a city most Auditors are
elected most Auditors are full-time um
there you know there are some exceptions
where there's well not exceptions but
there are other scenarios where you have
a finance an appointed Finance director
without a city auditor that would be a
charter issue that of course the city
looked at years ago and was rejected by
the voters um but you're not going to
find any
comparables um that I don't think that
are going to allow you to say oh this is
way too high or way too low or just
right um for any of us and and I can't
say if and again there's some people
here who can correct me if I'm wrong
that what happened was again four years
ago or so there was discussion when Bill
Harvey was the auditor that was that
bill generated and again knowing he
wasn't running again um with and the
idea that we were paying way too low I
think it was like $166,000 for for the
auditor's position and there was
discussion back then about we need to
increase it how high should it be
increased we don't want I mean you don't
want to you know again I think part of
the discussion was you don't want to pay
somebody $50,000 for a part-time job and
have people be running for it for the
money um so I think that's how they got
the city council got to the 27 and then
it's just a $1,000 increase for eight
years in a row if thises I I can add to
um helped missad with this one um and I
felt it was important for whatever
numbers we are putting forward for the
next um for the next fouryear term um
that it be um enough to
attract the right person with the right
amount of expertise that we would need
that it would be at least a 3% cost of
living increase building on the past
couple years and I also wanted to um
afford this individual whoever the
auditor is the opportunity to either do
this uh as a part-time role Standalone
or maybe in addition to their existing
duties uh we as council members have a
pretty good idea of you know how many
hours a week we might put in give or
take I know from working with our
current auditor and also uh our past
auditor Mr Harvey um that they put in um
a different amount of hours but also the
amount of expert expertise that we have
and should demand of our city auditor is
much different uh because of the the
business and experience that we expect
them to have um so I'm the one that put
in what the amounts were I'm certainly
open to other suggestions but I also
agree with what mayor and Mr fishal said
it is virtually impossible to find a
model in another city that is similar to
our current
structure I'll just chime in uh because
I I wrote this one way came up and there
was a lot of discussion about this this
is kind of a really weird organic kind
of you know process where we thought
about this those numbers changed a lot
before we came up with them and I think
the thing that we kind of wrestled with
was you know we had Bill Harvey here you
know who was an institution and it was
kind of like the challenge for us was to
sit there and say now if you remove Bill
Harvey from that and you know you you're
trying to figure out what that auditor
is you know what is that balance of you
know of what it's worth bringing in you
know people to run for for auditor you
know and then still as you said not
making it you know not a full-time
position so you're not you know you're
not creating something that you know is
overly compensated too because we're
also kind of wey of having purely a
financial incentive for people to run
for auditor as well uh you know we're
we're super fortunate to be where we are
with Mr Muk here and not to not to be
too GLI about it but you know auditor is
very skilled you know it's a skilled
position you know I mean any idiot can
run for city council and end up here we
want you know you auditor you know we
we're really looking for someone we rely
on the auditor you know for so much and
I think that's kind of where we're with
those numbers so I would encourage you
you know while it's here and up to sort
of you know I would encourage debate or
thinking about that as well is this does
this you know does this update make
sense does it you know if you know mCP
retires and goes to live in you know the
Villages in Florida or whatever and you
know whoever we're going to try and you
know bring into a position I think we
always kind of want to keep that in mind
you
know good discussion other questions
from Council it is just a first reading
so we will have some additional
opportunities to to consider this one
did yeah and just as a reminder well
again two things one is I mean I think
and I just actually was had a meeting
with another client last night another
city who's thinking about their mayor
and going forward and there there is I
would I would encourage you as much as
possible to not think about the person
um because there's no guarantee about
who that person will ever be and
unfortunately under the law there's no
there's no requirements to be an auditor
again we've been very fortunate with
Matt we've been we were very fortunate
with Bill Harvey but you never know at
the same the other thing the other point
from a legal standpoint again as a
reminder this has to be passed
in by the end of this year to be
effective in
2026 um and again you can you can have
an ordinance that builds in these
increases but they all of those
increases have to be designated or
determined by ordinance by the end of
this year to be effective in the new
term good missad so did you have any
questions you're good um this just this
was a chance to kind of reflect on some
of the really good work that bill Harvey
did when he was Among Us and when um
council member Troy Markham brought up
his institutional knowledge I remember
this ordinance as we're going through it
and those changes that he was very
passionate about if he was going on to
do something different how important
that was to the city and so just wanted
to reflect on that here for a moment um
I'm proud of him for the the good work
that he he always did for us and this
was a good reflection tonight great
Point all right any other questions or
comments from Council Mr Mayor a quick
question a quick comment which is you
might want to consider making a section
two that says that while Council some of
the respective W Council anticipates
that this would be updated four years
from now if not that future salaries
would would would remain at the 2029
number or something the reason I say
that is you wouldn't want to create a
situation where for whatever reason
somebody forgets you know uh council is
super compatitive and can't agree on
anything and whatever it is that you get
it to a non-compensated utter situation
in 2030 I think that's probably unlikely
I don't know that we've done that in the
past no but you're right occurs to me
that just might be a good fail safe I I
think I would recommend it the more
simple way is just say 2029 30 2029 and
thereafter okay and that way you don't
need a whole new section but that's a
good point not to suggest that it
wouldn't get updated in 20 for 2030
yeah great Point thank you so much
um Mr M any speaker slips on this first
reading no speaker slips all right um I
do not think we have any action on table
ordinances uh moving on to committee
reports uh Miss
sad um it's budget season so our next
city council meeting October 22nd we
will be hearing our first reading of the
budget I know um the mayor is planning
to meet with council members on their
wonderful ideas that they put in front
of um mayor Kessler here recently and um
from our October 22nd meeting on just
reminder to all of council that you'll
need to be meeting with your delegated
responsibilities for the budget so if
anybody has any questions about any of
that please give me a call um I'm happy
to help navigate through budget season
it's going to be fun guys are gonna love
it have we reached out to you guys to
schedule those pre budget meetings
Okay okay so um reach out to Natalie if
you could please I'd love to just talk
through the the concepts that were
brought up at at the Council planning
meeting and uh close to I would say like
next week if possible um so that you
have a chance to see kind of where we
are with those as we finalize the first
reading
budget sounds good thank you so much
especially a big thanks to you Jess for
for caring a feral cats and to the mayor
for getting us uh on an action plan much
appreciated um Miss fible recreation and
parks there Rec board meeting this
Thursday
um I'm planning my costumes I hope you
guys are planning yours
to have to talk Jonathan into this one
so please sign up it's always yeah it
doesn't take
much just so it's a it's a really good
time anybody that hasn't been it's
really a lot of fun so please please
please sign up and uh thank you miss
bers you already um sent uh St Charles
and uh CSG the link to for volunteers I
love it she is on it so thank you all
right right thank you Miss fible U Mr
Silverman for service and environmental
thank you president um upcoming this
weekend October 12 is paw in the park
sponsored by our wonderful beex animal
control and it will be from 9: to one at
Wolf Park in Schneider hopefully Maddie
can make an appearance as I will be
there with my pups um spna is launching
a trash cleanup November 2nd 10 a.m. at
Schneider Park shelter house to walk
through the neighborhood and clean
litter up I wanted to congratulate green
Bley and the echo challenge they began
their second week towards the challenge
of trying to help people plants and
animals who live on our planet and the
team is offer to a great start if you
want to learn more about it go to the
city of bexy environmental sustainable
advisory committee esac and reach out
their next meeting is November 15 at 6m
I also wanted to thank the tree
commission they and Susan quentes helped
organize the Boon County orbitor on
wheels who came to the end of the woods
Fest on Sunday and they had an awesome
exhibit to highlight the wildlife around
the woodlands um and it was very
appreciated they did tree walks part of
the nonprofits that this event raises
fun money towards is Jeffrey Mansion so
it was an awesome opportunity to educate
and highlight the amazing things we're
doing in the woodlands in our own
Community end of
report all right U Mr Marcelino is not
with us and did not have a committee
report for this evening
uh Mr Hurley for strategic and health
you uh so very busy couple of weeks uh
cic meets Friday at 800 am uh Board of
Health meets next Tuesday October 15th
at 5:30 pm land use strategy meets
Monday October 21st at 6:30 p.m um I
will be hosting my monthly office hours
on Wednesday October 16th at 9:00 am
this time at cherborg um which Natalie
could you check the City calendar I
thought it the date looked wrong on
there but I I may also interet Rong I
was hoping to do it Wednesday what's the
date we'll connect offline uh 10:16 I
may have plugged it in wrong with the
spreadsheet but yes 9:00 amm at cherborg
I'll see you two there for
sure um I'll also be hosting the table
at one Bexley and volunteering at Taste
of Beckley um appreciate call out early
voting did begin today um and I'll give
you a little political fact if you want
to be left alone for the entire election
season go vote tomorrow they'll they'll
scrub your name from all their Outreach
lists and nobody will
not so that is is true that is
true well the the parties will scrub
from their vote of
contact won and say please vote you
won't get people knocking on your door
because they're going to say oh that guy
already voted we're not going to
unless you have an unsophisticated local
elected official who just wants to knock
on all the doors I
Wasing you still have to
watch end tomorrow you will get nothing
good good to know anything else Mr
Hurley that is all thank you Mr markam
Safety you still have to watch all the
commercials
[Laughter]
though uh Friday this Friday October
11th the tree commission uh has their
annual tour of the newly Crown 2024
Beckley Landmark trees there's a uh golf
cart tour that they take around and you
probably are expecting me to invite all
of you to come to it but you are wrong
you are not invited it is sold out they
have filled all the spots today by
popular and but you might be able to
sweet talk somebody into letting
you yeah so that's Friday at
1:00 all right thank you Mr Markham are
there any comments from the
public all right seeing none Council our
next meeting is October
22nd um we will see or wait let me do
this right we do have a board of control
meeting we will after see you October
22nd um there is a board of control
immediately following this meeting I
will I am moving to adjourn can I please
get a second second by Mr Hurley all in
favor say I I all right meeting
adjourned are you going to the
landar
e
e e
all right I'd like to call the October
8th uh Bley Board Of Control meeting to
order roll call of members Mr mik
present laming here C I am present is
that how you do that how do you do that
when you're saying you're present just
have to say you're present here I am
rocking a review of minutes we have
minutes from August 27th
24 at that meeting we reviewed the
minutes of August 13th and bids for the
stanbury avenue street
resurfacing and then we
adjourned do I have a motion to approve
those minutes I move to to approve those
moments a second minutes motion has been
made in second to approve the minutes
for discussion all in favor say i i v
same sign well we all said I so the
motion
carries and now we're going to move on
to next time on agenda review of bids
for the 2024 Bexley Street treaties
project
and uh we have in front of
us uh two bids and a recommendation from
our
arborist
second the lowest and best bid is yard
Barbers at a bid price of 880,000
uh this is
for a total of 190
trees um 8,6
6422 Greenscapes also submitted a bid
for the same quantity at $
89,4
6.50 so it was you know a little bit
more than 10% higher than uh the one
submitted at 880,000
um these are being paid for through a
combination of Grant funds through the
trees for Bexley program as well as our
annual uh Street tree replacement funds
in our budget
and I'm happy to answer any questions
you can view all the species and
quantities no I I think the the savings
or the lower bid by almost nine or 10
thousand makes sense yeah yeah pretty
straightforward yeah I would agree any
further discussion or questions yard
Barbers quite a bit so they do a lot of
our planting um these are all just if
for the massive listening and viewing
audience uh these are all warrantied
trees so if in the first year of
planting they fail to thrive they will
be replaced under this contract what's
that should we have a drought should we
for example have a drought and they
don't make it through the drought yes
but uh let's hope for that not happening
again all right um could I entertain a
motion then to approve the yard Barber's
bid for the 2024 Street tree planting
project motion to approve the bid from
yard Barbers I second that motion motion
has been made by lamp seconded by mCP
any further discussion all in favor say
I I motion passes um next up on our
agenda any old
business nope any new business NOP nope
all right uh I move to adjourn a second
all in favor say I hi we're adjourned
nice excellent work