Welcome everyone to the October 28th,
2025 Beexley City Council meeting. I'm
now calling the meeting to order. If
there's anyone in attendance this
evening that would like to turn in a
speaker slip at this time, I ask you do
so by handing it in to Auditor McPeek.
Is there anyone who would like to turn
in a speaker slip?
All right. Uh, Mr. McPeek, would you
please call the role?
>> Sure. Mr. Marcelino,
>> Mr. Hurley here, Miss Fible, Miss Sod
>> here,
>> Miss Lamkey,
>> here.
>> Mr. Markham,
>> here. And Mr. Silverman,
>> present.
>> Council, Miss Fible, let us know that
she was not able to join us this
evening. I move to excuse her absence.
Could I please get a second?
>> Second.
>> Second by Mr. Marcelino. All in favor
say I. I. Anyone opposed? Please join me
for the pledge of allegiance.
United States
and justice for all.
>> You can't.
>> All right. It looks like we we
temporarily moved the flag, but we still
we still got it. Um, at this point we
are on to public comments regarding
items that are not on the agenda. Mr.
McPeek, do you have any speaker slips?
>> We do not.
>> Okay. Um, council, I have a very brief
president's report.
Um,
I wanted to share a liaison
update from the Beexley Community
Foundation. I wanted to share with all
of you that they have recently announced
their second cycle grants including
money for Jeffrey Mansion camp
scholarships decorations for the Drexel
Circle circle Christmas tree soccer
girls at Schneider Park ebike for our
police department. They've also had
their final grant cycle deadline last
Friday and they will be announcing
additional grants come December. They
also kicked off their trees for Beexley
campaign just last week and they are
raising money to plant trees on Clifton
Avenue which is a focus of the tree
commission. Past campaigns have planted
trees in all neighborhoods in Beexley
and last year's project was to create a
mayor what's this word
>> corsetum.
>> Yes. on Fair Avenue, which is happening
now. Their annual poker tournament
raising funds for the youth and
recreational fund supporting Beexley
Wreck is going to take place February
20th and their annual gathering at
Jeffrey is May 6th. Um, so please make
sure you make note of those dates. I
also wanted to wish Chief Lewis a happy
National First Responder Day and a
belated birthday. Uh, we also had
another birthday yesterday. our mayor
had his birthday and for everyone who is
listening
uh our next two council meetings are
going to be November 11th and 18th.
There's not going to be two weeks in
between those. So I just wanted to share
that now. I'll remind everybody again at
the end of this meeting but our next
meeting will be November 11th followed
quickly by November 18th.
And that is the president's report. Mr.
City Attorney, you have a report this
evening?
>> Just one thing real quick. the um I just
found out today or yesterday that
unfortunately we'll see what happens but
the Ohio Supreme Court agreed to hear
the state of Ohio's appeal of the
decision in favor of Columbus and us and
a bunch of other municipality
municipalities regarding uh the tobacco
ban. So, uh, that the the the briefing
schedule will be, um, with over the next
couple months with oral arguments
scheduled sometime next year and a
decision sometime next year as well. So,
we'll see what happens and if we're
going to find out how much home rule we
still might have left.
>> Thank you for keeping an eye on that for
us. Mr. Auditor, your report this
evening.
>> Uh, just a couple things. one, we had a
records commission meeting um a week ago
and you've continues to do a fabulous
job. So, thank you, Chief, uh for her
leadership in that. Um I wrapped up a
monthly audit of uh September invoices.
Uh so, thanks to to Carrie and Kona for
sending over that information for me.
and then um had a couple meetings with
Carrie and the mayor and other
stakeholders to tighten up some budget
assumptions whether it's interest rates
or um having to do with uh the income
taxes. So, handful of different things
in flight. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much. All right, we are on
to administrative updates. Mayor, I'm
going to have you walk us through your
updates, please.
>> Thank you, Madam President. Let me pull
those up. One second.
Um,
all right. So, a couple things coming
up. Obviously, uh, election day is next
Tuesday. Don't forget to vote. In case
you guys were thinking about not voting,
you should vote. Um, we traditionally
have a tallying of our local elections
here at city hall. It's a longunning
multi multi multi-deade tradition. Um,
and so I believe that we will do that
again this this next upcoming Tuesday.
Far be it for me to break that
tradition. Um, what I would ask is, uh,
we often rely on people to help help us
be quote unquote runners for the polls.
Uh, and so if the campaigns are
interested in participating, maybe
getting a volunteer or two. Um, what
that does is your your runner would go
to the poll, they would get the results
posted on the on the poll location, call
them in, we tally them here. We often
beat the uh online record
by a good hour or two. So, we get some
more um precise uh local election
results that way. And um you know, it
can be riveting. It can be awkward. Uh
but it's always fun for some. So, uh
highly recommend anyone who wants to
come that is a public event open to the
public. Uh and usually it's around 8
8:30 I think election night. Um, we'll
send out information to all the
campaigns and put some stuff on the uh
on the email about that, the emails. Um,
also related to the elections, yard sign
recycling then begins promptly on
November 5th. It runs nine days out of
the Schneider Parking lot. So, can
campaigns that no longer want yard signs
or individual residents that no longer
want yard signs can drop those off for
recycling. Um, and thank you to Andy for
helping facilitate that. You also see on
my calendar, we now have our Christmas
tree lighting and manura lighting
showing up here, which is kind of
shocking that we're getting that close
to that, but uh make sure to mark those
dates on your calendar. Um next council
meeting is November 11th. We will have a
board of control meeting uh reviewing
the bids for the Schneider Park Bridge.
Um want to thank uh the entire team
that's been working on that. Mike Price,
Elellanena Andrews, Grant Archer, Matt
Clingler, and others. Uh, it's been a
really involved process getting to the
bid bid stage. We were really pleased to
see bids that came in within our target
range. We do have the appropriations in
place for that. Thanks, in large part,
the majority share of that is covered by
the state of Ohio capital fund and ODNR
grant funds that we received, $850,000
of that, and then some additional grant
funds from the Beex Community Foundation
as well as some TIFF funding. So, that
should be moving forward. I'm pleased to
announce that we also have on November
6th a Roosevelt Avenue meetings
workshop. Um, those meetings are due for
refresh. This is North Roosevelt Avenue.
Uh, Elellena has some concepts. So,
we're inviting residents, anyone who
wants to join, but we have sent letters
to residents around uh those meetings to
take a look at the concepts. If you
didn't catch this, uh, there was a RL
Stein wall of fame induction over at the
Beexley Public Library over the past
couple weeks where RL Stein visited
Beexley. I think he was followed by a
camera crew um, looking at some of his
haunts, his household home, Rabinos, the
library, others. I think that's airing
on CBS on on this upcoming Saturday
nationally. Uh, there's our skate park
under construction. It's looking really
good. This is actually about a week old
at this point. It's already coming
together more than that. Thanks those
who participated in the trash talk. And
we did have a great CSG uh mock student
council meeting in which the unicorns
voted on expanding
our commercial food waste uh recycling
uh footprint and it was a six to1 vote I
believe. Is that right? Six to sorry I'm
looking at I suck. Six to one vote. Um
and compost and businesses. So those
have been going great. Um, I did get a
question um about the mural that is
being painted as we speak, I believe, in
the alley, which I know it's disrupted
some folks's uh drive into city hall.
This is the concept of the mural. It's a
this it's a little bit different because
this was originally designed for a wall
that you can tell had some columns. This
wall does not, so it will not have those
columns breaking it up. Um, but
that is the winning mural for our 2025
Mural Fest going up as we speak right
now. Artist name is Luca. They've done a
lot of really cool murals uh in central
Ohio. You can catch it is a local Luca
is a sorry is Luca is a local artist to
central Ohio and has some really great
artwork out there.
Um,
I also want to um
I also want to uh just talk real briefly
about uh the fact that we did have a
homicide in our city uh last week. Um
anytime life is lost, it's a tragedy and
that's especially rare here in Beexley.
Um I want to thank the Beexley Police
Department. you guys have been um
working your tails off night and day
trying to investigate that murder and
bring um the victim to justice and I
know that we have um made some great
progress on that case so far and look
forward to hearing more from that on
that chief. Um I also want to be clear
about our position on uh the property
where that did occur. So that occurred
at a supportive housing facility on
North Cassidy 5 540 North Cassidy
Avenue. It's a 12-unit apartment
complex. Um, we have had that property
on our radar for a couple years. Um,
it's been a supportive housing
development for at least 25. And for
most of my time, we've had no issues
with the property. It's it's been well
managed and well looked after and and um
has had a lot of uh I think um you know,
it's had a high touch from the
management company. The past few years,
we've started to notice that's shifted.
even last summer, we started to look
into it as a potential public nuisance
issue did not seem to rise to that um
status. Uh but then obviously with a
homicide occurring there and some other
incidents that have occurred over the
past couple months, uh we're looking
much more closely at the activity there.
Uh the chief and director Klinger and I
met with uh property representatives of
the property yesterday.
uh we made it very clear to them that we
have zero tolerance for the type of
activity that's been occurring at the
property. Uh we believe that we have the
tools to hold them accountable for it
and we intend to do that. We have a
follow-up meeting with them uh next week
and we're going to continue to pursue
that um with our full focus and within
the law and we'll keep you updated on
that as as time moves forward. Um,
Chief, do you want to add anything about
the investigation or
anything else that you'd like to
>> Mr. Silverman, please?
>> Okay. So, you um I think it's important
we'll share that um the investigation's
ongoing. We're working with Columbus
police and state of Ohio, BCI, which is
Bureau of Criminal Investigations. Um
it's been a very intense process. Uh, I
can share that we have a strong person
of interest and strong enough that um we
hope to by the end of the week have
subpoenas issued for that individual.
Um, the detectives when the mayor
mentioned around the clock that they're
working, that's not an understatement. I
mean, they're really working hard. Um,
looking like we're able to connect some
other unrelated incidents that have
happened in the city that connect back
to this. So, this is a a much bigger
picture of some other criminal
activities that were happening in and
around the city. Um, that's as much as
we can share for now, but look to have
some closure hopefully pretty soon.
>> Yes, sir.
>> I'm happy to answer your questions, Mr.
Silver.
>> Yeah, I see you talk about the bike
boulevard design package. Is that purely
signage or is there any infrastructure
>> changes coming when that is rolled out?
So uh the the initial phase is signage,
wayfinding and markings on the pavement
for the bike boulevard routes. Uh and
there are future legs and by future I
mean some of them are near-term future.
One connects the Sheridan and Park View
leg of the boulevard with the shared use
path segment on Main Street that we're
working on engineering. Um, and then
there's some pretty interesting concepts
around this, especially between Maine
and Cassingham Elementary kind of the
Cassin complex with a more rigorous bike
boulevard infrastructure change. Uh, but
the streets that were chosen for the
bike boulevard are are generally
commerce streets to begin with. So,
there's not a whole lot of
infrastructure going in yet, but we are
engineering through the concordters
project and a OPWC grant that we have
for Remington north of Main Street. um
some more infrastructure improvements
associated with it.
>> Do you have a a map of the bike
boulevard signage route?
>> Uh yes.
>> Yep. I can It's not something I can pull
up immediately, but I can share that
with you. Yep.
>> Thank you,
>> Danny. Uh going back to 540 North
Cassidy, um I'm somewhat familiar with
community housing networks work
throughout central Ohio and actually
into the Toledo area now. I guess with
supportive housing, I mean, what from a
regulatory standpoint, and you may not
know this, I can look into it, but there
I mean, they have to have some
credentiing from the state as an OMA
certified provider, are there are there
regulatory levers that can be pulled? I
know we we're talking about potential
nuisance actions, but I have to believe
some of the deterioration and
maintenance of the site would also be an
issue from a regulatory standpoint with
their credentiing.
>> Yeah. Um, have you looked at that? Are
we aware of kind of what because again
to provide the services they have they
have to hold state certifications
>> right
>> you can't just hand a shingle so has
that looked into or are you familiar
with even what certifications they have
>> I'm not familiar with their
certifications I can tell you that we
feel very confident that we have several
routes that we can approach this with
>> from um with from
>> whatever yeah
>> uh you get the point and I will go into
more detail but there's I can't really
right now
>> at this point in the meeting
>> just so I'm clear that they are pro
their population is are people with
substance abuse, mental health issues. I
know there's some I guess speculation or
room in the community that they're
providing like their halfway house.
That's not the case.
>> It is not a halfway house.
>> Not a halfway house or any kind
>> housing for formerly homeless
individuals.
>> Yeah. Thank you.
>> Any other questions?
All right. With that, I believe that
we're moving on to
uh Mr. Bashel.
Thank you, mayor. Um I have much of it
outlined in my report. Um we're starting
to wrap some projects up and we're also
starting some. Um we started our annual
leaf removal uh program yesterday.
Um
usually we do three rounds, but I am
sure we will do much more this time just
the way mother nature has a lot of the
trees still green. So if you get any
questions, we know it's going to be a
long season and we're ready for it. So
we will get them eventually.
Uh happy to answer any questions.
>> Is there a a schedule that's going to be
shared with the leaf pickups?
>> It's on the website.
>> It's already out there.
>> Yeah, it's already out there. Yep.
>> Excellent. Thank you.
>> Just need some more leaves to fall.
>> Like to see all of them fall.
>> Andy, I'm I apologize. Did you just
mention the South Remington waterline
project? I have it in my report. Um I
did not bring it up, but that project is
underway. It started this week. Um
>> we're going to try to work on it as long
as we can. Um if we have a mild winter,
um we might be done early early spring.
Just depends right now what what type of
weather we get.
>> You said there's that one section just
south of Aster on the west side that is
going to take an extra long time. We're
going to be staging right there, right?
Is that right?
>> On the front of the yard. No comment.
>> That was a joke. Internet, that was a
joke.
Um, any other questions for Andy?
All right. And Carrie, I do you have a
report for tonight or is the budget your
report?
>> So, I just I just emailed you. The only
thing I have um really to discuss
because it is budget time is the um
income tax just to keep everybody
updated. Um through September, we have
received um 14.6 6 million which is
actually 1.2 million above what our
projection was through September. Um and
through the same time last year we are
about 977,000
above where we were last year. So I just
thought that that was a was some key
information to give you guys.
>> So we are so far doing better than
expected
>> and we'll be talking a little bit more
in depth about that pretty soon in our
budget presentation later in the
meeting. Um, I do want to say huge shout
out to Carrie and Megan. You guys have
been working so hard on the budget. Um,
it shows and we're about to talk about
that more in depth, but thank you for
all your hard work on that.
>> Any questions for Carrie?
All right, that concludes our report,
Madam President.
>> All right, we are on to agenda item
number nine, executive session. At this
time, I move pursuant to revised code
121.22G3,
conferences with an attorney for the
public body concerning disputes
involving the public body that are the
subject of pending or imminent court
action and pursuant to RC121.22
22 G2 to consider the purchase of
property for public purposes if
premature disclosure of information
would give an unfair compet unfair
competitive or bargaining advantage to a
person whose personal private interest
is adverse to the general public
interest. Could I please have a second?
>> Second.
>> Second by Mr. Marcelino. Mr. McPeek,
would you please call the role?
>> Mr. Silverman. Yes.
>> Mr. Markham.
>> Yes.
>> Mr. Hurley.
>> Yes.
>> Mr. Marcelino.
>> Yes.
>> Miss Sad.
>> Yes.
>> And Miss Lampy?
>> Yes.
>> Uh, I would also like to invite Chief
Lewis to join us in executive session.
And for folks who are attending this
evening, uh, Mayor, are we going to be
in here or are we going to go in the
back? All right. Um, folks, we're going
to go back into executive session. You
are welcome to stay here, but we are not
going to be miked on camera. And when we
come back, we will exit executive
session and then we will resume our
All right, we are back from executive
session. At this time, I move to come
out of executive session. Could I please
have a second?
>> Second.
>> Uh Mark, is a voice for it? Okay. Y
>> All in favor say I.
>> I.
>> All right. Uh we are now to consent
agenda. Mr. City Attorney.
>> All right. All right. In the consent
agenda, we have the meeting minutes from
October 14th, 2025.
>> Council, are there any comments or
questions on the consent agenda?
All right. Seeing none, I move to adopt
the consent agenda. Could I please have
a second?
>> Second.
>> Second by Mr. Marcelino. Um, any
comments from the public?
Mr. McPeek, would you please call the
role?
>> Miss Lamkey,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Hurley,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Markham,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Marcelino,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Silverman.
>> Yes.
>> And Miss Side,
>> yes.
>> Consent agenda passes.
>> All right. Moving on to third readings.
We have a third reading of ordinance
24-25 to authorize supplemental
appropriations for calendar year 2025 to
cover additional costs associated with
an increase in recreational programming
introduced by Ms. Sad.
>> Thank you, Mr. Fishell. Um, tonight we
need to bring up the proposed amendment
ordinance 24-25
that we looked at at the last meeting.
Um, we did have some increases in the,
uh, fees we're looking at. Um, all very
transparent in this ordinance. We also,
um, want to, uh,
>> Sorry, I said 30 million for a second
there.
>> Thank you, Mr. Markham. No. um wanted to
reiterate that the incre this is due to
increased participation in programming
which is a great um problem to have and
this will generate sufficient revenue to
offset the increased expenses that we
are looking at passing tonight in this
ordinance.
Any questions from council on the
amended?
>> I make a quick note.
>> Yes. Um the proposed amended uh council
president just pointed out there was a
typo on the top of section one. It still
said 18,000.
So I updated proposed amended to show
this the correct sum of 30,600. Perfect.
>> Did I do the math right in my head?
>> Yep, that looks right.
>> Great job. Thanks, buddy.
>> Council, any concerns or or thoughts on
the proposed amendments before Missad
makes a motion to amend?
All right, Miss Sad, do you have a
motion to amend ordinance 24-25?
>> Yes. Move to amend ordinance um
24-25.
>> All right. Motion by Miss Sad. Is there
a second?
>> Second.
>> Second by Mr. Marcelino. Um any further
discussion on the motion to amend? Mr.
McPeek, uh would you please call the
role on the motion to amend?
>> Mr. Marcelino, Mr. Mr. Silverman,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Markham,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Hurley,
>> yes.
>> Miss Lampkkey,
>> yes.
>> Miss Sad,
>> yes.
>> Motion to amend ordinance 2425 passes.
>> Miss Sad, do you have a motion to adopt
amended ordinance 24-25?
>> Yes. I move to adopt amended ordinance
24-25.
>> Motion by Miss Sad. Is there a second?
>> Second by Mr. Marcelino. Any further
discussion from councel? Uh, any
comments from the public?
>> Mr. Mcpek, would you please do a roll
call?
>> Mr. Silverman,
>> yes.
>> Miss Sad,
>> yes.
>> Miss Lankey,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Hurley,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Marcelino,
>> and Mr. Markham,
>> yes.
>> Amended ordinance 24 to25 passes.
>> All right. So, we're jumping to first
readings. Before I read the first
reading, I just want to mention that I
have had the opportunity with another
client to work with the city of Columbus
and they are interested in ordinance
2000 something-25.
So, we're catching up with them with
25-25. They are
>> ordinance 25-25 authorizing
appropriations for the calendar year
beginning January 1st, 2026 to authorize
general fund transfers and subsequent
appropriations in the same amount in the
infrastructure development fund and
capital fund in 2025 and to confirm the
appointment of Mark Fishell as city
attorney introduced by Ms. Sad. Boy,
this might be the 10th reading of this
myself.
>> Right. Thank you, Mr. Fishell. I always
love hearing you say your name when
introducing an ordinance. Um, so this is
exciting. We've been waiting for this
first reading tonight of the budget and
this ordinance is uh in front of us to
begin this process. Tonight we will be
um hearing our first reading our high
level budget um with our high level
budget presentation. We'll hear about
the 10-year projections presented and
our first reading of our pay ordinance
is all happening tonight. So, this is uh
getting us started on this whole
process.
>> Mayor.
>> All right. Thank you, Chair Sad. Um in
front of you at the dis is a copy of
revision one of our 2026 budget. And uh
as I said before, this has been uh a
incredibly collaborative process
including collaboration with you all and
I appreciate that. So I'm going to just
present tonight some high level uh
concepts that are coming out in the
budget, give you all an opportunity to
digest it and start to schedule those uh
meetings with uh the city directors uh
under your responsibility matrix. Um so
let's start first with um some budget
highlights.
First off, we are ending the year 2025
with a general fund balance higher than
we had forecast for two major reasons.
Um, first, um, we did forecast a
decrease in income tax revenue, just not
being really sure what the continuing
trends in work from home would do to our
income tax. And we have been uh
pleasantly surprised to see an increase
in our income tax revenue along the tune
of around 11% if I recall correctly from
the year prior. Um and kind of in line
with uh what the growth curve was, we'll
show that in a second. Uh prior to last
year's uh
drop, minor drop. The other thing that
um is different is obviously we found
that um typo in the city of Columbus
fire contract bill which resulted in an
adjustment to our past bills which
resulted in a um rebate essentially to
us which was an income line item. You'll
see that in the budget book uh show up
as an income line item. Those two things
uh together resulted in somewhere north
of $4 million in unexpected uh balance
in our general fund.
This budgeting does incorporate some
modest operating spending increases,
mostly due to some staff that uh we
believe are important um and rising
material costs and cost of living
adjustments on our salaries. Um it does
include 1.3 million in expected grant
reimbured expenses, 5% increase for
contract with Columbus Division of Fire,
our bargaining unit cost of living
adjustments. It expands on our code
enforcement investment by uh making more
permanent that additional code
enforcement resource. It does include a
new social services coordinator position
um which we'll be talking about in
greater depth here later in the process.
It invests in expanded financial
controls and cyber security. Uh
continues really robust support for our
public safety spend. And it maintains
crucially maintains healthy reserves.
not just maintains healthy reserves,
builds healthy reserves across all
funds, including general fund, budget
stabilization, pool replacement fund,
and infrastructure development fund. I
want to note that both pool replacement
and infrastructure development fund were
set up to serve as auxiliary budget
stabilization funds. So, our budget
stabilization fund um has never been as
robust as it is, not just today, but in
this projected budget.
It does advance our goals and objectives
of the city's strategic plans including
the uh hopefully soon to be adopted land
use strategy. Um and I as I mentioned
has some of those new positions supports
additional staff training and
development. It includes significant
development in our infrastructure sorry
significant investment in our
infrastructure development fund uh to
support could support a number of things
environmental remediation uh but also we
know that infrastructure in general uh
is going to be an ongoing uh need uh for
the city in many different ways. It
incorporates funding for major capital
improvement projects and it does invest
in a new senior center at 420 North
Cassidy including temporary senior
center rent.
So, let's talk a little bit about some
of those projections and where we stand
today. This chart kind of gives us a
picture of where we've seen our income
tax revenue over the years. Um, we have
seen higher than normal growth over the
past u five or six years in our income
tax. Um when we look at our projections
going out, we're using a 10-year
trailing average to uh forecast um 4%
annual income growth, but we're actually
looking at 3% as their forecast just to
be more conservative. Um we believe that
this increase in income tax is due to a
number of things. Um but a a big piece
of it is overall just a general trending
towards some more remote work as well as
and this is an unfortunate side effect
of the affordability crisis but as
housing has become less affordable in
not just Beexley but of surrounding
areas um many of our new residents are
dualincome households or higher net
worth income households and therefore I
think we're seeing a bump in our income
tax revenue as a result of that.
We do preser project a conserved a 3%
growth rate. Um, and we do, as I said,
expect that our 2025 income tax revenue
will come in more than $2 million higher
than budgeted.
This just kind of gives you a
cross-section. By the way, this
presentation is in your folder under the
budget resources folder. Shows you where
those different sources of income are
coming from.
Our expenditures continue to have robust
expenditure in public safety. accounts
for
about exactly 50% of our general fund
spend as well as public service,
general government, and we of course
have a lot more public service and
recreation expenditure outside of the
general fund.
And this budget, as I said, invests in
the future. So, we are doing that in two
different ways. One is we're proposing a
late 2025 transfer of surplus from this
year and and and years prior into the
capital improvement fund and the
infrastructure development fund. And
then we're proposing these multi-tiered
uh additional investments into a variety
of funds including the ones just
mentioned as well as street fund, the
recreation fund, the pool fund, the pool
replacement fund, the employee severance
payoff fund and the water fund.
We are, as I said before, assuming a 3%
income tax revenue that is below our
10-year trailing average. So, we believe
it's conservative.
U, we see a we do believe we're going to
see a slight increase in income tax. It
says in 2028, I think that's a typo. I
think we're going to start to see those
coming through in 2026.
um as they start to bring the property
online as soon as March um with some
temporary accuracy.
We are assuming an increase in property
tax in 2030. Although we all know
property tax is uh a vulnerability, but
we're still continuing to build it into
our projections. But I can address for
you what it would look like if property
tax were to go away. We're showing as
and this is our tenure. We're showing
that we'll have lower interest earnings
as time goes on. will maintain a 3% cost
of living and that we'll continue to see
hyperinflationary health insurance cost
increases. With all that in mind, what
we see is a 10-year fund balance
projection which looks healthy. Um, we
have two we have two line overlays here.
The lighter blue shows what Moody's
recommends as our reserves, 25% of our
income.
The darker line is our own internal
target of 30%.
shows a little bit more of a
conservative reserve. We see that we're
already meeting meeting that
conservative reserve target in 2026 and
then we see that the trend lines are are
looking good. Now, I want to caution you
about looking at this and saying, "Oh,
this is great. We're going to end up
with these gigantic reserves by year
2035." Because what this doesn't do is
it doesn't think it doesn't anticipate.
For example, we know we're going to
enter into some form of a sewer um study
that updates where we are with our
sewers. And the sort of spend that we
need to put in our infrastructure is is
not really factored into these
projections. And we know that we're
going to need to have I believe higher
than historical spend both in sewer and
water infrastructure investment. And so
I would imagine that with one of the
ways that that council and the
administration will look at our reserves
in the future is that we'll be looking
to invest in that infrastructure that
sorely needs it. And so I think that
those super robust reserves looking out
forward will be tampered by the need to
uh to move forward with some of those
investments. I also want to call
attention to something that happens
after the year 2029. super excited about
this and I think it shows up in the next
chart is we have a debt cliff but it's a
good debt cliff. The debt cliff is that
right now if you were to go back to show
what we spend money on in the general
fund
uh bond retirement is that $1.2 million.
It's about 5% of our general fund spend.
We've been super careful about not
further encumbering debt into the
general fund. In fact, that debt is from
2009. That debt was the last, it's the
old, it's the remaining general fund
debt that we have and it's associated
with the police department, the new
police station, the new police station
from 2009 as well as the pool from 2007.
That goes away in 2029. And when that
goes away, that's why you start to see
that curve upward even as we have
additional um, you know, cost of living
increases because we're starting to just
assume we're not borrowing any more
money. And that in turn is going to
allow us to invest in additional
infrastructure I believe over time. So
again this projection just assumes we
have a static spend we don't try to
reinvest and it is really bolstered by
the fact that we have this upcoming debt
cliff and that's what this chart shows
you that in 2029 that general fund debt
that dark blue just goes away and we're
left totally debtree in the general fund
by year 2030 which I'm incredibly proud
of. I'm proud of the work of our entire
city and all of you guys that we're at
that point that we can say that it's
really historically abnormal for the
city and I'm really excited about it. It
also shows what sort of debt we have
that continues on. You can see the sewer
fund, water fund uh debt is uh some of
the largest and we expect that will
actually continue to grow as we take
advantage of 0% interest opportunities
and other forms of what I would say
necessary and healthy debt uh to work on
our infrastructure. So those are our our
projections that are carrying us into
this budget process. I want to talk a
little bit about what you asked for and
what shows up in our proposal. So one of
the sheets that's in attached in the
budget resource folder is I called it
council priorities report back.
Um, and it talks about what was what
what resulted from those um one-on-one
meetings that we had over the past
month.
>> Quickly, um, this is separate.
>> Yeah, separate documents.
in the budget folder in the on the on
this online
uh sorry on the online
>> 2026 uh budget resources and maybe we
just pull it up real quick because I do
want council to know and community as
you're following along that we're
putting everything in that folder to
make it more transparent to follow
along. So just like the mayor just gave
his overview and the highlights, we've
asked for that. That was a concept we
kind of tweaked last year to make it
easier for us to follow and we when we
go and do a deeper dive. So we'll be
having those same things um in this
folder
>> as we hear for example next meeting from
Megan Meyer and Matt Clingler and we'll
have a one one-stop shop place where all
this is easier to look for and find that
transparency
>> and for all of us council members too.
>> Exactly.
>> So under that file Yeah.
>> Yeah. in in that folder is a just a
council private report back and I just
want to talk about what I heard as we
met with you. One was like affirmations.
There's a lot a lot of work that we've
been doing already uh prior to now and
was in our 2020 budget concepts things
like the water filling station
expansions. I heard that from multiple
people that that is budgeted for and
we're working on those. Um additional
resources for code enforcement. Um some
things I haven't mentioned yet. Um, so
we do have some additional Beexley
police resources for school safety and
student education, including our budget.
Um, some additional funding for the
slowdown Beexley campaign with some
pretty exciting um, new technology that
will help uh, support slowdown beexley.
Um, we talked about senior center and
mental health resource investments. U,
expanded ARB inspection processes for
some better controls and accountability
around the ARB decisions. um Delmar
Cassidy gateway wall rebuild as that um
North Cassidy project continues and
engineering the development of the com
quarters concept among other items.
One thing that um really pushes us
further is I heard a lot of u
encouragement that we continue to work
on the Ferndale Mayfield area and so
you'll start to see that shown up in the
budget. Um and some new concepts um that
came out of this these meetings. One was
uh a income tax incentive program that
incentivizes top priority projects for
development. Um I'm not saying that's
like a Mexican restaurant, but maybe it
is. Uh whatever it is that we have
determined are top development
priorities. I'm saying that slightly
tongue and cheek, by the way. Um would
get access to a new type of incentive
that um would normally just be reserved
currently for certain types of office
tenants. Um, that was really an new
interesting new idea that would require
a companion ordinance, but that shows up
in the form of a bump in our income tax
incentive budget. Also, an increase to
our city council operating expense
budget. And there are a lot of ideas
that really need some more exploration.
So, you know that we're continuing to
work on the sewer system, updated study,
um, city event signage, something we've
really had on the radar for a long time
but haven't quite cracked. Uh there was
an idea for property manager for agent
in place property owners to help them
manage contractors and maintenance
contracted lease support just a variety
of things that I cataloged here uh so
that you see how these are addressed or
maybe need some more development have
not yet been addressed in our budget.
And I'm going to go back now just to
kind of the broad overview which is to
say you have it in front of you.
Um, I give you guys a chance to digest
it and we'll start to go into an
in-depth review um, in the coming weeks.
Um, do you want me to pull up the
schedule for that, Jess?
>> Let's do it.
>> So, at our next meeting
and there, by the way, there is a
capital budget uh, included in that
resource folder. Uh, I do expect our
capital budget is still getting
developed. It's still being honed. So, I
would expect to see a little change in
that. Um, so I didn't want to go in
depth on that presentation yet, but that
is in your folder. Um, we'll have that
second reading of the budget
presentation by uh the department has
listed and by the time we get to early
December, we'll be revisiting the
capital budget. Um, we'll have
additional director Q&A opportunities
and hopefully we'll be ready for passage
at some point in early to mid December.
Happy to answer any questions.
Mr. Hurley. Um,
>> yeah, just a couple preliminary
questions on property taxes because I've
been pretty steeped in that in my other
job. Um, so when breaking out our real
estate tax, um, is it primarily just
inside millage and then the street levy?
Is that are those the two sources of
that?
>> Three major sources. Inside mill, um,
and the street levy are two major ones,
but the other is that we have a police
pension levy.
>> Police pension levy. crop up.
>> Um, and then have you looked at or
scored that with the pending legislation
that's very likely to be enacted this
year? House Bill 309 and House Bill 335?
>> Not yet.
>> More House Bill 335, which kind of caps
inside millage growth because it might
going back to your, you know, the
reappraisal for 2030, it might sort of
denute some of that.
>> Yeah. Um,
>> I mean it's it's it's 3% of our revenue,
so it's not huge, but I just, you know,
>> I I see it, you know, slowdown in growth
as being not a big risk for us when it
comes to the real estate tax because to
your point, it is 3% of that pie. It's a
very minimal impact. Uh, obviously the
erasure of property tax would have a
very different impact.
>> Um, it would be an impact that we could
absorb as a city. I don't feel the same
is true of our school districts
throughout the state.
>> Yeah. Um, and when I say absorb, I mean
we could we would need to find a way to
replace lost revenue, but it wouldn't
result in a fiscal cliff.
>> 3% of our budget. Yeah. We could
>> we can only absorb it so long as the
schools actually continue to be
exceptional because if the schools then
continue to decline because they can't
absorb that hit, then the city will see
the hit on the income tax side of things
because people will move other places.
Uh, most likely is what I would be
concerned about. So, is it wise for us
to assume that we're going to have an
increase in property tax and just
completely ignore what is very likely
whereas there's there's some
modification or do we want to
>> temper that? And I know you said you can
give us two options, but how is that
going to look when we're evaluating this
budget?
>> It will look like nothing.
>> Okay.
>> Not having an increase will look like
nothing. Losing property tax would look
different. Um the sure everything you
say is true and there are lots of
doomsday scenarios, but where are they
going to move to? community that's
funding what schools. So, I think
there's there's a lot of game
gamesmanship that we can go into about
the big all the whatifs. This budget
focuses on what is currently law and
what we know. And I can tell you that
our our when I say we the city
constructively us our domain um we would
have the ability to react and figure out
a contingency plan. And obviously every
school district in Ohio would be in the
same exact position where they need to
figure out uh contingency plans. I what
I really fear is that the communities
that don't have for example a good base
of resident income tax would be the ones
to suffer the most. I think Beexley is
in a good position to pivot universally
if there were the loss of the property
tax. Um I fear a lot more for more for
different demographically oriented
communities.
>> Good question. Um, one other question
and I don't know if this is more
appropriate for this or for the uh the
compensation res ordinance, but um I
don't if you've been tracking House Bill
473. It's uh moving pretty quickly
through the general assembly would
prohibit uh pension pickups, employer
share pension pickups um
>> or employee share pension pickups. Um I
guess two-part question. One, is that a
practice for any of our workforce? And
then to have you thought through a
contingency for if we were to have to
make that compensation up another way.
>> I'll tell you my perspective and you
might disagree with how I view this but
I have spent I mean especially in the
past two years uh we are bombarded with
potential risks to income streams and
policies on a like monthly basis at
least. And I'm not interested in
continuing to panic and scramble around
bills that may or may not pass. when
bills pass and when the governor signs
them into law as that process is
actually happening that's when we start
preparing for those changes. We do have
some pension pickup I believe Mark still
with ask me is that right? Yeah, I think
it's 3% of their employee share.
>> Again,
>> it gets to the point where we start to
really
>> to know that there's an issue, then I'm
going to focus and I'm I'm in meetings
routinely where these things are being
talked about and everybody's thinking
through the whatifs and game theorying
around it. Um, I'm really focused on
what do we know and what can we deal
with with the current information. And I
feel confident that we have a great team
that can can pivot if if need be.
Thank you.
>> And I'm happy, by the way, back to Sam's
question, we can forecast different
scenarios of property taxes. I think
we're in an interesting position because
that that debt that debt resolution in
2029, you know, that debt service is
greater than our general fund property
tax receipts. So like we have some we
have cushion in that instance. Um but we
also have to invest in infrastructure
and other things for our community that
we need. So
>> Mr. Silverman,
>> how many new positions are being
proposed on the current budget in
various departments?
>> Yeah. Um, I'm going to tell you what I
think is true, and I have to go back to
double check, and Carrie, you can
clarify this for me as well. I believe
that we have uh a part-time position in
code enforcement, a robust part-time
position and social service coordinator,
and a full-time police officer position
forecasted in our budget. Do we have
additional new positions?
>> I'm sorry, we were talking. Did you say
it? The um
>> I'm sorry. Yes, it Yes. An IT IT
position as well, which has been
>> correct.
>> We have been paying that it as a
part-time, but it would move into a
full-time position.
>> Would you mind like creating a document
that highlights the position, the
purpose, and the budget allocated
towards that?
>> Absolutely.
>> Thank you.
>> Yep. Other other questions on this
ordinance?
It's a lot to digest. Uh I'm sure that
there'll be maybe even an additional
version prior to the next meeting.
>> You could expect it.
>> Death taxes and revision to budget.
>> Sounds sounds good. Uh any other
questions from council? Uh Mr. McPeek,
any speaker slips on ordinance 25-25?
>> No speaker slips.
All right, Mr. M Mr. Official, back to
you.
>> All right, moving to ordinance 26-25 to
establish compensation rates for
non-bargaining unit employees of the
city of Beexley, effective January 1st,
2026. Introduced by Ms. Assad.
One second.
All right, so Let me pull this up.
Budget got me. Uh there's a lot in there
in that budget that we are.
A lot of first readings tonight.
All right.
Do we have it pulled out? 2625.
Okay. I'm going to read it from up
there. Um so in this ordinance we are
just looking at um our non-bargaining
unit employees rates. Um
and yeah I I don't know if you want to
expand on anything further. Oh yes. So
go down and we're looking at all the
compensations from the stages that we
have uh the steps that the mayor set up.
Gosh, 10 years ago.
>> It's been a while.
>> Yeah, it's been a while. So this uh this
was established to show transparency
from when we're hiring and the
opportunities that they have within
their roles and to the city. Um so it
creates I think a great work environment
to kind of know where everybody is in
their steps and for us as council
members on what we're approving in the
budget for these jobs. Um, so it's all
laid out here and I don't know that
anything other than some of the uh what
we were just talking about with the
staff that we're adding on to um has
changed much.
>> Yes. So these are these all reflect 3%
cost of living adjustment. Uh the the 12
month trailing consumer price index
increase is about 2.9%. So it's in
keeping with the overall inflationary
trends. Um would point out uh that Emily
Buckley did a great job of she
reorganized it this year. It looks a
little different than you might have
seen in the past. Um, it is organized so
that the step one salary starts from
lowest and goes highest. Um, so in the
past it was organized by department. Now
it's organized by pay um, strata. And it
gives you a better feel for kind of how
the different uh, roles line up and how
they're clustered. Um, there are some
positions in here that aren't currently
filled. Um, for example, police captain
is a good example of that. That's we
don't currently have a police captain.
Um, front desk operations we do not
currently have. Uh but it allows um that
position to kind of stay on the radar.
Um and then as a reminder, this is just
our non-UN personnel. So we're full-time
ASME FOP and FOP dispatch employees are
that's part of the bargaining agreement.
That does not show up in your pay
ordinance. And then page three is
part-time
seasonal, temporary, and casual job
classifications. Um and that is
clustered by departments. rec tends to
be the largest consumer of those
positions with, as you can imagine, a
variety of rec staff that are seasonal
and happy to answer your questions.
>> Mr. Silverman,
>> what's the um time frame for each step?
If somebody comes in,
>> yeah,
>> it's an anniversary based uh step
increase every three years based upon
the date of hire. They would they would
go from for the most part there's some
exceptions to that based upon the date
of hire like or you know promotion into
that position they will and they will go
up to the next step after a three-year
period
>> and the only time they can come in at a
higher step is upon first time
employment but you can offer them a
higher step based of experience.
>> That is generally the case. Is there
scenarios where you're in step one,
you're doing an phenomenal job, you can
go
>> to step three and skip step two or is
that does it have to be concurrent?
>> I don't want to speak incorrectly. There
have been times when there has been some
dispute as to whether or not an employee
had been brought into the proper step
and there's been some adjustment after
some long conversation about it. It's
not steps are not used as a merit-based
promotion tool. Um it is really a
timebased increase in in as somebody who
matures into a role. Um there are
numerous models within public
employment. It's very difficult to do
merit-based pay that's effective with
public employment because of the way
that everything's a public record and
how that impacts employees and morale.
Um, but
long story short, most of the merit pay
increase would occur when somebody is
promoted into a different position, not
when they're moving uh from one step to
another.
>> Correct.
>> Yes. And our budget Carrie has a massive
spreadsheet that says when different
people move from steps. So, our budget
is based upon that person and when they
moved into the next step based upon
their anniversary dates. Yep. Was there
a question over here?
>> I was just going to elaborate which
we've seen and um having done the role
for a little bit um that transparency
Alex would be when we've hired from
other municipalities
um we've used that a lot to justify
someone who's coming in.
>> Yeah. So
>> based off of I was just going to let you
elaborate on that because I think that's
a good example. If a, you know, I don't
want to pick a position that has one
person in it, but if a
wreck wreck supervisor gets pulled in
and they have substantive experience in
the workplace, they don't necessarily
start at step one. They may step three.
>> When you first come in, you can get into
a higher step than step one, but if you
start at step one, there's a time based
>> uh rate for this three years.
>> Correct.
>> I understand. Thank you,
>> Mayor. I had a question. With everything
in life and daily expenses just costing
more, uh how confident are we that these
wages are competitive enough to keep
folks because we invest so much in them
over the years by training, education,
experience, and we want to keep good
people. Um are we thinking that these
are competitive while recognizing that
it is a public sector position?
>> Yeah, we we do feel we're competitive.
We did our last comp like comprehensive
comp survey update a couple years ago.
We do have one scheduled for this year
so that going into 27 budget we will
have an updated comp survey. Um but we
feel that that we're in a good spot
here. Um obviously that happens just
naturally through our ask me FOP
negotiation process as well. We're
always looking at comps making sure that
we're in line making sure we're
competitive. I have not seen that we're
having an issue attracting employees
from especially when competing with
other governmental entities at the at
the current pace scale that we have
here.
>> That's good, Mr. Markham.
>> Yeah. So, they're all uh arranged it
looks like in ascending.
>> Correct. Step one.
>> So, by step seven it gets a little
square,
>> right? Right. It gets a little varied
that some of them are part-time. Would
that be based on then a 40hour week?
>> Yes.
>> Okay.
>> Yes. So that's there's a little note um
with a typo. It looks like the denotes
permanent part-time employees. So we
have a few with that asterisk where
we're showing what their full mature
step pay would be at full-time, but they
don't they are not full-time employees.
>> Are the part times are those 20our
positions or do they vary or
>> uh that's a great question. Um they I
think the ones that have the asterisks
that show up in the first page of this
are more robust part-time. So they're
hitting that 30 kind of 30 hour okay
phase.
>> Seasonals are tricky because they can
end up working a full week but it's a
seasonal u situation.
>> Um but these I think and I would like
Emily to answer this question about why
it shows up as in one sheet as opposed
to the other. I do think that the first
sheet are the more robust part-time
employees. Um but I can get a better
answer for you than what I think. Do
they do all those employees then when
you said what was the hour was the 32
hour around 30
>> do they all hit that
>> um
>> that's a benefits
point checkpoint right
>> it is a 30 is a benefits checkpoint yep
and
of the ones that we have some are 20
25ish
>> oh so some of those part-time positions
are not benefits don't
>> and then there's some part positions
where we have offered benefits with your
consent.
>> Okay.
>> Um even if they don't hit the 30 hour
mark that show up on this list. So I I
need to get a better
perhaps it has to do with the permanence
of those part-time positions, but I need
to get a better answer for you about why
it's shown up on one not the other.
Missad, do we want to scroll down and
also if there's not any more questions
on that, look at exhibit B with uh
seasonal, part-time, and temporary. And
I was going to just draw attention and
we can have Emily or I guess Mike Price
elaborate on the the biggest um kind of
jump is on it looks like umpire and
referees and I have a feeling as to why
that is um but I'd rather have them
speak to it.
>> I would too.
>> Okay. I don't want to assume um but we
probably will we need to get answers on
what that is and I'm sure my
>> Oh, you talking about the hour or game
ones?
>> Yeah, hour per game.
>> It's hour or game. So, it depends on how
they're being paid either by the game or
by the hour. But yeah, we'll let Mike
further elucidate on that for you.
>> That's great.
>> We'll tell you one thing that I didn't
mention in our broad overview, but
you'll hear about it, start thinking
about it, is that our budget does
anticipate bring the management of the
pool back in house. And so, there
actually is, now I think about it, also
an employee, and we'll give you a full
list of it in wreck for um a pool
manager slash
That person's also has offseason duties
as well. So, we'll be talking about that
more in depth.
>> It's probably just several
>> it's probably going to come speak. Is I
guess we've done what two three years of
uh contract services for the pools?
>> Three or four.
>> Um is there is there data or is there
reasoning that's led to the conclusion
that we want to come back to inhouse? Is
that
>> I can tell you I've always supported us
staying in house. Um Mike will do a
great job of explaining the more
in-depth rationale to you. That's his
that's his Bailey Wick and he'll come
back with that.
>> Sounds good. Um any anything further,
Missad or Mayor?
>> Any further questions from council on
ordinance 26-25?
Mr. McPeek, do we have any speaker slips
on this ordinance?
>> No speaker slips.
>> All right, Mr. official. Over to you.
>> All right, we have a third reading of
the resolution 08-25
to schedule the Beex City Council
meeting dates and times for 2026. Ms.
Lampy.
>> Yay. I get to do one
>> first reading.
First
>> What's that?
>> That's a first reading. Oh, yeah. These
are all first readings. Yeah, you said
third reading.
>> Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. Thank you.
>> First reading. So before you is a
resolution setting forth our meeting
dates for 2026.
Uh Natalie Bard did a great job of
looking at uh our regularly scheduled
dates and then checking spring breaks
holidays. Um we've got them highlighted
here. I would encourage you at least for
the next two readings to please take a
look at this with your calendar. Um, I
did already note that that December 12th
date should really be December 15th, but
we're not going to amend it just yet
because I think we'll have probably some
other changes coming up and of course
July will be um, uh, council recess.
Anything else pop out, Mayor?
>> Um, one thing I think if we could
consider it, I know that August, that
first August meeting with school usually
now starting like within days of that
can be a little tight, especially as
people are wrapping up. end of summer
plans. So, if council might think about
August 18th as opposed to the 11th after
looking at the school calendar, just
something to think about.
>> Yeah, something to think about.
>> Another tough one for us to council and
all that stuff has been tough leading
into that that first committee.
>> Right. Council, any questions, comments?
I know you're going to take a a look at
your calendars for this one, Mr.
Marcelino.
>> It may or may not matter. to me
depending on a week. But just curious,
have we heard anything back on on being
having like Zoom as an option to call
in? I just remember that's been floated
around for attending meetings and things
of that nature. Uh anything new,
>> Mr. Fishell, you want to take that one?
>> Yeah, there there's a law that allows
non-elected boards to do that like BZAP
can do it or Tree and Public Garden, but
city council cannot do that.
>> That's fine. I just curious more. So,
thank you.
>> No, I appreciate you checking. All
right. If there's no additional
comments, questions from council, Mr.
McPeek, any slips on this one?
>> No speaker slips.
>> That's hard to believe.
>> All right. First reading of resolution
09-25 adopting the city of Beexley's
cyber security policy as required by
Ohio Revised Code section 9.64
introduced by Mr. Hurley.
>> Thank you. So, House Bill 96, the state
operating budget for fiscal years 26 and
27, included a requirement that
municipal corporations and other local
governments adopt a cyber security
policy. That law took effect on
September 30th. So, this resolution
presents uh the adoption of that policy
which is in the folder as exhibit A. Um
this is, as I understand, is an existing
policy the city has had. So, when the
mayor and I spoke about this, um, you
know, I commented, it's nice that the
general assembly put a mandate on us for
something we already have done an
excellent job of, but um, nevertheless,
we have our policy uh, for review. With
that, I'll turn it over to the mayor to
offer his remarks.
>> Mr. Hurley, I could not have said it
better myself. So, this was presented to
you all a year or two ago. Uh, it's been
in place uh, for a while and we're
chipping away at it. We just had a
tabletop exercise the past week or two
here at city hall. Um so I I will um I
believe that Eric is coming to discuss a
variety of issues and and love to have
him talk to you guys about it at an
upcoming meeting.
>> Sounds good.
>> The only thing I would I would add is
and this is not related to the actual
cyber security plan is section 9.64 of
the revised code uh lays out a couple
different responsibilities for council
or for any legislative authority in in
the event of a cyber attack. Obviously,
one is adopting the policy, which we're
doing with this resolution. Uh, I'll
send it around, but just, you know, to
famili familiarize yourself with what,
you know, god forbid something were to
happen, what our responsibility as
council would be as it relates to things
like approving a ransom payment or
things like that, there are reporting
requirements that would be triggered.
And in the statute, they are vested in
the legislative authority of a political
subdivision. So, I'll share that with
you all, but um, yeah, I'm sure this is
very comprehensive policy. So, To
Councilman Hurley's point, again, I
think the only two things that are
different from what we currently do is
reporting requirements if there is a
cyber event to the state of Ohio and
that a rans a ransom um ransom cannot be
paid without approval of city council.
>> Yeah, it's reporting I think within 7
days to the Department of Public Safety
and 30 days to the auditor of state,
which sure.
>> Excellent summary, Mr. Hurley. Thank
you. Um, any comments, questions from
council on this one? Mr. McPeek, you
know what I'm going to ask you?
>> We have no speaker slips.
>> All right, we're going to move on.
>> All right, moving on to a first reading
of resolution 10-25
establishing the scheduling of
Independence Day celebrations, including
the parade and evening fireworks display
introduced by Ms. Lami.
>> All right, I get to do a second one. Um
during pre-consel on Friday, uh I
remembered that a couple years ago, uh
council passed a resolution declaring
that we would always have festivities,
whether it's parade or celebrations on
the 4th. Uh so we thought it prudent to
uh come up with this resolution um to
change the fact that the parade will
still remain on the fourth or to to
allow that to remain the same. But the
difference is going to be in keeping
with what uh police chief shared with us
at our last meeting is to give some
discretion to uh the mayor in
consultation with the Beexley
celebration events committee and also
the chief of police to uh move any other
evening festivities um within their
discretion to a different date. You all
heard the chief talk about their
concerns with the festivities from this
year. Um, and a gentle proposal to have
the evening festivities now fall on July
3rd, but keeping the parade in the
morning of July 4th. So, this resolution
would achieve that. Mr. Hurley, you have
a question. I have a very minor typo is
um if you look under now therefore be it
resolved we have section one section two
and then a second section two.
>> Yes we do.
>> So
>> all right we'll we'll get that updated.
Thank you.
>> Otherwise fantastic resolution.
>> Any other comments, questions from
council? Um mayor, are we good to let
this go for third reading given the
vendor talks we talked about the other
day? at least at least a second reading,
right?
Okay. Um council, if at some point at
the next one if I anticipate that we're
going to need to suspend and adopt, I
will give you the heads up. Um but we
may have a timing issue. Right now, the
mayor says we're okay, so hopefully
we'll we'll stay that way. Um any other
comments from council? Mr. McPeek, any
slips on this one?
>> No speaker slips.
All right, we have ordin first reading
of ordinance 2725 to amend title 10
bicycles, motorcycles, snowmobiles of
part four of the codified ordinances to
amend section 474.07
safe riding regulations for bicycles. To
amend section 474.12
operation of minibikes, scooters, etc.
on sidewalks, parks, and school grounds.
To amend section 474.18,
electric bicycles. and to create section
475
motorized personal mobility devices in
order to further regulate the operation
of bicycles, electric bicycles, and
motorized personal mobility devices
introduced by Mr. Markham. We like to
give you a little workout at least one.
Thank you. You know, much like uh Mr.
Hurley's earlier uh what with his uh
safety and his helmet. This is a little
bit uh to update our existing ordinances
to safety with these vehicles and also
kind of goes a little further and and
extends especially along the the
technology and the advances. I know this
has been something that Mayor Kesler has
had kind of on his radar for a while
now. Um and it's goes through when we
can take a look at it how it's going to
update how we look at some of these
these newer vehicles
uh and how we want to look at them in
terms of enforcement and and and just uh
updating the uh the ordinances that we
have regulating them. And you may have
seen recently New Albany uh had uh some
movement on this as well. Uh if you're
like me, you know, a few years ago you
saw ebikes appear and you thought, well,
that's nice. It's just bicycle that, you
know, you don't have to pedal, you know,
or whatever. And now they go 45 miles
per hour. And so now, you know, it start
to become a little more of a concern
there. Uh in preparation for this, you
may also be aware that Mayor Kesler and
I held two listening sessions with the
communities. Uh to the mayor's credit,
they were very well attended. Uh there
were a lot of contributions by by the
citizens and we made well actually uh
the mayor made a lot of notes. We
followed up with some discussions and
then this is kind of what we have uh
we've put forward here. You see um I
guess if we kind of just want to cruise
through here, I'll give like my
interpretation and and Mr. Mary, you can
jump in wherever you want to or then you
can do part two and and hit the things
that I missed. But you can see in the
recital really the main point is we're
looking to establish uh clear
regulations. And then we go into uh
section two and at the bottom boldface
uh it says no person shall engage in
dangerous behavior while operating a
bicycle. And then in the bold dangerous
behavior including you know when we're
looking at just you know sort of uh
stunt riding trick riding you know kind
of operating in a reckless or an
aggressive uh manner that it creates a
dangerous environment and that's the
focus of of that kind of evaluation to
create a dangerous environment is is
something that we're looking at. Section
three, um we talk about uh motor
scooters, uh motor assisted bicycles, um
not on uh sidewalks or public parks in
the city. And so that's that's an
update. I believe maybe we're one of the
few cities that did allow regular
bicycles to be on the sidewalks. And so,
uh the extension of that was, you know,
well, are ebikes allowed on the uh
sidewalks? And clearly uh the feedback
that we got um people do not want to see
ebikes uh on the on and motor scooters
on the sidewalks uh where they may
encounter pedestrians or pedestrians
could unexpectedly encounter them. So
that gets on 474.18
an electric bike on a sidewalk.
Um
and then uh part B of section four,
class one and class two electric
bicycles. Um what are the speeds for
class one and class two?
>> Um up to 20 miles per hour. Class one uh
does not have a throttle. Class 2 does
have a throttle. And the and the reason
for striking this out is just a cleanup.
It's this is state code and it talks
about what a mut could or couldn't do.
seems uh kind of redundant since we are
regulating. So it just it just cleans it
up to be less confusing.
>> Right. So then it's permitted for class
one and class two and then it excludes
those class three which is uh excessive
speeds above that and class 3 go up to
28 miles per hour. Excellent. Uh if we
go to
uh section 4 C Oh, you're already there.
Yep. Now we're talking about age uh
limitations and I think this is probably
where uh our listener feedback sessions
where we kind of spent some time talking
about you know what do we consider you
know you know the ages that we're
looking at and this says that no person
under 14 years of age shall operate uh
an electric bicycle and then we've set
this the age limit of 16 years of age um
with
written permission from a parent or
guardian. And also that person, that
young person would complete uh required
training. And we would be we would
consider that training to be completed
if they either obtained a uh valid
probationary motorized bicycle
operator's license. Uh in my day, we
used to call that the the moped license
or also an electric bicycle driver
education course. Sam, did you got a
clarifying question?
I realize I should probably let you just
do you want me to do it all at the end
of
>> Oh, no. Go ahead.
>> Just on this one. It just says either or
just seems I just say why not just make
it both
>> for the um
>> or C2
two. It looks like there for operation
class one and class two electrical
bicycles. No person under 16 shall
operate unless and then it looks like uh
the person has completed required
training which shall consist of either
or both. I mean, we're giving them the
option. Obviously, they'll choose.
>> Oh, I see what you're saying. You're
saying either is actually legally more
appropriate.
>> Yeah, I would probably get rid of either
and just make it both just to, you know,
because I would say that there's first
there's the state just basic testing and
secondary. Beexley is unique from other
areas around central Ohio. So, it might
benefit to have a specific class towards
Pexley.
>> I I missed I I guess I missed the the
the weight of what you were saying
there. So
>> I thought you were focused on the the
language, but you did actually.
>> So So it says the person has completed
required training which shall consist of
either or both of the following. So
that's confusing because obviously
they're just going to choose one. So,
but I think that we should make it both
of uh obtaining a valid probationary
motorized bicycle operator's license
after the person has passed the test
provided for RC and satisfactory
satisfactory completion.
>> So, my my answer my answer to that would
be I think that is going to be a little
bit redundant then uh because that moped
or motorized bicycle operator's license
that's operated by the state, right? And
so you would have the option of just
doing that, taking going over to the uh
the DMV and and and doing that or
whatever. But then we're off actually
offering here a second option, which
would be to have our own uh kind of
bicycle driver education in in house
here, which I think we're anticipating
would be maybe be a little bit more
efficient way for them to do it if they
wanted. So, just to follow up on that,
so like I have I don't know, I think I
have a 25cc scooter in the back of my in
my garage, but I don't ride it because I
never got the motorcycle license for it.
>> Um, and so the question is just
>> that and I guess I would probably have
to look at the class of of vehicle
itself to see if that falls under. I
just want to try to understand this the
strength of what we're doing in terms of
it. You go ahead and ask your question,
>> Mr. Silverman. I guess to to try to
understand better, the one that's
offered by the state, is that for a
certain age? I'm assuming it's an adult
license or 16 and up.
>> That's an existing program. Right now,
>> program have parameters based off of age
though, built into it.
>> Yeah. Do we know what that age is?
>> Um,
>> is it 16? It allows for 14 and 15 year
old.
>> They can go to the state, but right now
we can go to the state. You can get the
license, but it does
>> it's specific to mopeds. specific to
mopeds. So, our our program that we
would have to develop for the city would
be specific to every type of vehicle
we're listing in this ordinance.
>> It would be more closely tailored to
those vehicles. Whereas that moped
license, we're saying like we would
consider that adequate to our
>> cover the need our ours would include
motorized scooters, ebikes,
>> uh, etc. in our program. And then do we
currently have any thought towards a
license plate issued from the city or
some type of identifier thing for the
vehicle?
>> Yeah, this that's the next point on this
is the Roman numeral 3 talks about an
inspection and so we would have some
evidence of inspection on the vehicle
which will give
>> appropriate a quick kind of visual as to
whether or not and I maybe we get
through it and I talk about some of the
challenges that we've seen that have led
to that concept.
And who who are you imagining from the
city would be operating this class?
Would it be run through administrative
offices? Would it be run through police?
>> Yeah, we haven't um we haven't finalized
that concept yet. I think that I would
love to see an officer offer this class
that students can can come to. I also
think there might be an online option.
So, I think we're we're going to
finalize that. I want to make sure that
we're not placing an undo administered
burden
because I think a lot of this can be
administered like at city hall. So, I
think we're gonna just figure out how
that works.
>> Followup would be to to to look into
creating um either additional through
parking authority or carving out a
caveat to have uh engagement towards
this. I think overreaching and I want to
get through the whole thing, but we're
going to get to the subject of
enforcability and and who's responsible
for for that. And I think that if we
carve out a a youth officer or a
position specific to working with
adolescence in our community, this could
be kind of a tiein for that. I don't
want to see, you know, officers
necessarily pursuing their job to chase
down a 10-year-old on a scooter, but we
want to have accountability. So, I'll
I'll let us get through more, but I I
have some follow-ups to that.
>> All good points. And you can imagine
that the local education that we would
offer might be more tailored to beexley
right in the specifics and then as you
say would be taught on a manner of
someone who's going to be applying some
of those local things that we're
concerned about whereas the the state
thing we would just say well in lie of
that you know this is you know this is
as good as well. What we're really
looking for here is something, you know,
and so that, you know, you're not buying
your 14-year-old, you know, kid an
ebike, taking it out, and and and
they're off like some sort of like let's
educate, let's let's have some sort of
way station where the the new operator
is, you know, shows some level of
understanding of of laws and
expectations. and and these are the two
banners that we have at least uh spelled
out here.
>> Mr. Hurley,
>> I would just add this conversation is
why I think the word either is very
important because if for whatever reason
that that item too, you know, the city's
offering if it's not ready or if we're
changing vendors or if for some reason
we discontinue it in the future, there
is always that option to go the state
route. So for you know for parents that
want to get their child 14 15 year old
that class one class 2 bicycle there's
always an option A that's available from
the state I don't see the state
discontinuing that but it just that
either gives us flexibility to tailor
our own program but it also gives people
options should we be re-evaluating or if
it just takes us a while to set it up
once this ordinance passes.
>> You notice number three is highlighted.
We some people are calling that the
Hurly amendment. That just specifies
again helmets, protective helmets be
required as well. If you scroll down to
penalties, I have highlighted on mine
but is not highlighted here. Uh
penalties number one. Uh though it's
boldfaced, I'm sorry. So boldfaced. Uh
empoundment is is a possibility here. uh
and also um
um prohibited like a a proh prohibition
uh period as well for suspension of
that. Um if we move to
section five, I don't think there's
anything I think that's am I missing
anything?
>> Yeah, and I apologize we're not
consistent with our bolding here. Um we
have there should be a bolding here on
use of Oh, you know what? because this
whole section is new. That's why. So,
this is an entirely new section 475, but
it does restrict the use of uh what we
would call east scooters or scooters
with motors on them to um individuals uh
12 and older uh unless um
unless they are on private property or
participating in a supervised city
sponsored safety program event, which
I'm not sure what that would look like,
but
It doesn't I mean I that that is not a
city sponsored safety program or event.
So um I don't think
>> closing the street.
>> Again, it's not how I interpret it, but
if you want to carve that out, I think
we should add some language for that.
>> Mr. Marcelino.
>> Yeah. You know, there's been discussion
in the past. I'm just curious of what
you found in these workshops. I know
there's discussion of potentially
penalizing the parents here because
again I think this is mainly we need the
parents to really get behind this and
support safe uh usage of these vehicles
for the kids but at the end of the day
was there any discussion about
penalizing parents and where do we land
on that? What are your thoughts on that?
>> There was some discussion about that. I
I think uh where we ended up with is is
where we are at now with the empoundment
and the suspension of it. We did not
extend that to uh to you know penalizing
the parents that so that's that's kind
of where this is right now.
>> Mayor are you caveat to that?
>> Yeah. which is for chapter 474 of our
code currently has a provision that
parents um no parent of any child or
guardian of any word shall authorize or
knowingly permit any such child award to
violate any of the provisions of this
chapter and then it does point to a
penalty clause. So parents are currently
legally responsible for enforcement or
for compliance of their kids of the bike
regulations. We don't have the same
language with micromobility devices
later on in chapter 475 I think that's
proposed which we could add in but it is
currently in place for the bikes
>> and I imagine what we're talking about
practicality is is like when we have
repetitious uh
>> so I don't my thought process if we
don't feel comfortable doing it making
it monastery what if we made the parents
to sit through the class with the kid
again like if they're going to have to
do that training again make the parent
sit through because my theory is that
you do that once make a parent waste
their Saturday watching a video about
eating you know, e- scooters and
>> what what if what if there was an
element to that to uh the recovery of
the unpounded bike or something like
that.
>> I think that that would be I mean just
to think to put everybody on the same
page. Um
>> that's Mr. Silverman I think you had
your hand up next.
>> I guess I just you referenced there was
penalties in relation to bikes. What is
that currently? So, if we if that was
mirrored over to this one, what what are
we talking about when it comes to
puditive u
in relation to to bicycles?
>> 408.01
talks about penalties of a misdemeanor.
Um, and that's anything with to do with
bikes in chapter 474. So most of this
section would have a parent
responsibility clause
um with a criminal potential criminal
that exists today. We also have criminal
is a criminal currently not civil
>> parents. Yeah.
>> And we currently have impounding allowed
for bicycles writ large. This just
double it's like reaffirming it with the
bikes.
>> Mr. Hurley or I'm sorry.
>> Okay miss. Go ahead.
So, just take me through when we're
looking at penalties, um, how would that
violation play out for the youth that's
riding? Like, who makes that decision?
>> Yeah.
>> And then how do we impound the bike?
Take me through steps.
>> Great question.
>> Right.
>> First off, I'd love this to be a good
conversation with the chiefs here at our
next meeting. Um, terms of how it plays
out
to date, the vast majority of our
bicycle enforcement has been positive
enforcement. So, you see a kid with a
bicycle, they get a free ice cream.
We've not done
any actual criminal enforcement of our
what's that?
>> Bicycle helmet.
>> Helmet.
>> Helmet. I
>> What did I say? Oh, bicycle. Okay.
>> The Pavlovian response doesn't work as
well with middle schoolers, which is the
primary offensive group for the ebikes
right now. Um, and so that is one of the
reasons we've we've heard from parents
like, "Hey, take it away if they're not
if they're not, you know, complying with
us." I also think somebody raised the
point like, "Do we want our police
officers chasing kids down in cruisers?"
No, we don't. Someone else raises the
point, our council president, we just
received a grant for police ebike. We
also have it in our budget. So, um, for
this year, I I would anticipate that
that youth officer concept that is in
our budget for next year would be
perhaps the person or another another
officer on bike to help enforce this.
Um, and I think enforcement would be
primarily communication like, hey, you
know, do you know about this law? And
and do you are you registered? Do you
have this? like and I think by creating
this accountability
>> to a kid or to the parent
>> to a kid initially
>> I think our officers um if they're doing
you know especially a youth officer will
start to get to know these kids and
start to see what's you know who's just
flagrantly violating who's not and I
want to like take a step back and and
say you know the reason it's become a
big focus of mine and yours and other
mayors and managers throughout probably
the world but definitely central Ohio is
we've just seen
We see accidents happening regionally
that are horrific. We see that we want
to avoid that happening in our
community. Um, Upper Arlington just did
a video recently on this. They have seen
much more concrete terrible accidents
involving ebikes and and scooters. We've
had some, but not to the point like we
we're I'm worried about, you know, kids'
lives. And I'm not I don't think I'm
exaggerating that some of the behavior
that we're seeing today is going to lead
to some incredibly serious accidents.
And and the other thing that we're
trying to prevent is, you know, class
one, class two, even class 3 ebikes are
one thing. what is permeating the market
right now and our kids are I'm seeing
kids buying them are essentially dirt
bikes you know but they're electric and
they can go up to 50 or 60 miles an hour
and they are outside of this regulatory
framework entirely that's why I think
the the inspection thing is really
important in this certification and I
think it's going to be a painful initial
trans transition because I think there
are kids who have gone out and purchased
this equipment and or their parents have
and they they love it because they're
super fast and fun, but they're also
really dangerous. You know, I think
they're they don't have cognizance of
the implications. They're going through
stop signs. They're operating with a
little bit of a herd mentality. And so,
I think we do need to be more direct
with this than we have been with some of
the other things. And I do feel that it
is imperative that we do some type of
enforcement around this, especially
around helmets. I think helmets and this
equipment it's incredibly important that
if a if a kid is out there riding this
type of equipment without a helmet, you
know, I think that's why where
empoundment can maybe come into play
where it's like, hey, you can get it
back, but show us your helmet. Maybe the
parents show that they've done some more
education and then um
>> and we're also starting to talk about
some pretty serious speeds as well. So
those those helmets become really
important, I think. Yeah,
>> I think just final thought on that um
just quickly is I totally agree with
you. We have to have this in front of
us. I've heard more over the past month
of parents and concerns
>> with um where we're at with this in the
community and we need to address the
safety issue of it.
>> And I I do know um my question just
comes tonight that we're on our first
reading and I'm always curious on how if
we're putting something in action, how
the penalties are going to y
>> play out. So I just would encourage all
of us like we're doing to continue that
conversation because um the helmets are
one thing but the empowerment with youth
and our officers and again chief can
address this more. I just want to make
sure that this is all positive and that
we are um going after something that is
going to affect behavior in all the
right ways and I wouldn't want to put
our department in the situation um with
our youth or our youth in a part, you
know, a position with our department.
That's all. So, I I look forward to
continue
>> totally agree
>> to addressing uh what those penalties
look like.
>> Thank you, Miss uh Mr. Silverman. Yeah,
I want to look at section two of the
chapter 474
um part B. Um I know a lot of the the
youth and we have some avid cyclists in
the audience today, but I don't see many
cyclists stopping and walking their bike
across streets or stop signs. I don't
know if that's common practice uh or
even enforcable to be able to try to
stop people from cruising through. And I
was doing some research earlier and I
know there's what they call the Idaho
stop which is basically you slow down to
yield, you look both ways and you cross
the intersection. Um, and I know youth's
going to reference adults habits. So I I
kind of a want to know if there do we
need to look at possibly saying, hey,
when you're over the certain age, idol
stop is is common practice. Below a
certain age, we're really going to
enforce you to get off your bike and
walk it. I know for myself crossing Main
Street, coming south, really trying to
hammer that home to walk the bike. I
just I guess I struggle with what I'm
seeing from cyclists that that are avid
riders, what I'm seeing from the youth.
And I don't see how section B
a can be enforced
or or or or done if nobody is going to
follow that current passage.
>> Is it okay if I address that?
>> Go ahead. So section B is is existing
language and it's specific to sidewalks
and it has actually this is where we
have cyclists get hit. Um the the
primary cause of an accident with a
cyclist is when they're going through
that I've seen in Beexley is when
they're going on a sidewalk and they go
right through that crosswalk quickly and
a car is not expecting them.
>> So it it only references if you're
riding on a sidewalk. So if you're on
the street you don't have to
>> Correct. When you're on the street
you're acting you're you're a vehicle.
You're just like a car.
>> Vehicles have to stop at a stop sign.
>> You're supposed to stop at a stop sign.
Like we can't we don't have the ability
to say that you don't have to stop at a
stop sign. But this is a sidewalk. So
specifically when a person is riding a
bicycle upon a sidewalk.
>> So if a kid decided to just jump on the
street, he then therefore wouldn't be
required to walk the bike.
>> Correct.
>> Okay.
>> Which is we also we educate around that.
At the beginning of the school year, we
have officers posted at those Cassingham
Broadcastingham main intersections.
We have we have signage around those
intersections too encouraging kids
because that is where kids get hit.
>> And just from my understanding in my
technically everyone's on a bike in the
street supposed to stop for 3 seconds at
every stop sign or it could be a
violation complete stop. I don't think
it's 3 seconds.
>> STP, right? I mean that's what they
taught me. But
>> that could be a violation of anybody if
they don't stop at a stop sign. It could
be pulled over and and cited. Hey, this
is K. Sure.
>> Okay. I'm just just trying to get an
understanding of of what we're trying to
create as we roll this out because what
you're going to get is you're going to
get the person saying, "Look, that that
that person needs to be cited if I'm
going to get cited."
>> I've gotten that ticket.
>> Yeah. And it's a great question and we
we get I get a lot of complaints on the
regular about cyclists that go straight
through intersections. Now, when a
normal cyclist goes straight through an
intersection at a cyclist speed, it's
not safe. But it's
way safer than when an ebike goes
through at a 28 to 40 mile per hour
speed blowing through stop sign. So, it
just becomes an even greater safety
issue, but all vehicles are supposed to
come to a stop at a stop sign.
>> Mr. Hurley, you hand your hand up next.
>> Um, I guess first, you know, I did
attend one of the two listening
sessions. I thought the the dialogue was
really great. Um, I shared this story
just just to kind of level set where I'm
coming from with this because I think
this is a great ordinance and a great
issue to tackle. You know, I had my two
kids who were four and six. You know, my
six-year-old just started riding his
bike on his own. Um, you know, we were
at the Cassingham playground at the
beginning of summer, and there were kids
who were definitely not 14 years old
with ebikes, zooming around the turf
field, doing tricks, being very
reckless. At one point they decided to
come doing like a figure eight course
through the playground at which point I
asked them politely but firmly to not do
that because you know they were you know
had I not I was worried they were going
to hit one of my kids. I mean that's the
other piece of this is yeah we're very
much worried about the kids riding these
bikes. They're hard to control. I worry
a lot about my little kids who are
running around on sidewalks who are just
now starting to ride bikes or ride
scooters and yes they're wearing their
helmets but I tell you if one of these
ebikes which can I mean yes the speed
but also the weight of these devices
hits one of my kids helmet or not I mean
they're going to go to the hospital and
be in real trouble. So I think we have
to you know I love even just as simple
as saying you can't have them on
sidewalks I think is huge. Um, a couple
just, you know, small questions. Um,
first, I I think I know the answer to
this, but just to get it on record, it
doesn't matter if this is a device you
own or device you rent with an app. The
regulations are universal, right? There
isn't some, you know, that safe heads.
>> No, it wouldn't matter.
>> Wouldn't matter.
Um
uh so this is on page 8 uh section 40
475 motorized personal mobility devices.
This is more of just a drafting issue.
You you include the definition of minor
being an individual any individual under
the age of 16 but yet universally in
that section of code minor is used to be
an individual under age 12. I just don't
know if you really need the definition
of minor being under age 16. There's
more of a drafting issue. Um, and this
last question, um, and this is more of
just I guess showing our math on this is
when we say like like for example, age
12, I just know parents, you know, where
where do we get that number? Is that
like a recommendation from the Consumer
Product Safety Commission? Because what
I see specific with the scooters, it's
more of a height, you know, sort of
relative to where the handlebars. I
mean, it's that kind of the issue I see.
So, I don't know. I guess just more at
some point you may have to explain or
justify where some of these ages and
recommendations come from because I know
there are going to be parents who've
purchased one of these devices for their
13year-old, 12-year-old, what have you,
and they're going to protest the fact
that their child can't well my child can
ride their bike no problem. So, I just,
you know, we may at some point need to
look at maybe industry, whatever the
industry, you know, wherever we pulled
this information from these age
recommendations. I just would like to
maybe have that as some supporting
documentation.
>> Great points, Mr. Hurley. Mr. Marcelino,
you had your hand up there.
>> Yes. Can in the skatepark, are we going
to have any areas for bikes there?
>> Um, typically skateparks do allow like
BMX,
>> right? So, I was just thinking because I
think there's the trick riding all that,
but I guess that's uh okay based upon
that. It's a city.
>> I think it's on the street. I'll double
check that. Yeah,
>> just
>> that's a good point. Uh, one other thing
I wanted to add was, you know, given
it's already end of October, our next
two meetings, uh, will finish by
November 18th, and I don't know if
there'd be a vote on the third reading
or not, but um, do we want to maybe
consider adding emergency language this
um, even assuming it passes November
18th or that first meeting in December
um, just so that we can put it into
effect sooner than later, right before
the holidays. But yeah,
yeah, I also wanted to say I I I have
enjoyed seeing more and more kids around
Beexley. I think that they have um
enjoyed a lot more freedom. They are
hanging out with their friends. The
majority of them are being safe, wearing
helmets, being respectful, being
mindful. Um it's less cars on the road,
which is great for us, but I do worry
that um that there are some kids out
there who are being reckless. There are
also parents out there and drivers also
being super reckless. And to kind of
back up what the mayor said, I I think
that we would want to hopefully get this
out as soon as possible, but do it in
the right way. Um the first draft was
really impressive. I know that you and
the mayor Troy took into account a lot
of the input you got at the two
workshops. Um so I know we want to get
it right, but we also want to make sure
we get it out as soon as it's right so
that we can protect um our youngest
residents.
>> I want to speak to just one last thing
that I think both you and and Jess kind
of brought up as well and and that is I
I know we're going to speak a lot about
um like penalties and enforcement and
things like that. The part of this that
I really pushed for was the education
and the registration. And the reason is
I believe the large majority of families
and users
want to be safe and compliant and they
want to be informed. And so I feel like
that there's a lot of lowhanging fruit
in just not again unboxing something and
sending your child out and saying, you
know, hey, you know, whatever. And and I
think that this is a tool for parents as
well, right? So if I don't really want
to have to teach my child necessarily
the laws and rules of the road, if there
are, you know, if there is something set
up, that is a tool as a parent that I
can utilize. You know, now we we have
this in place. Um, and I think that that
is is something that we can use to, you
know, as you say, to promote the joy
really of utilizing these vehicles. you
know, I mean, it's a lot of fun to ride
a bicycle or an ebike or or whatever. I
when I was uh 14 years old or I think
14, you know, I I got a moped and I went
and I passed that state license, you
know, and I had a little license plate
and I had a little, you know, whatever.
I was very proud, you know, that I had
done that and passed and then that
educated me. I knew more about the laws
of the road and what to expect from
other people and what they were obliged
to do and I was obliged to do. And I
think that's where I would put the
emphasis here. And not that we
shouldn't, you know, look at those
penalties and enforcement as well, but I
think what our main goal here is to put
tools in the hands of the parents and
the people here to enjoy these vehicles
and create a safe environment here in
our city.
>> Sounds good. Even if that means maybe we
consider a line item in the 2026 budget
for education on our new.
>> It's in there.
>> Okay. Well, I love I love that you've
already thought of that.
>> Um, any further discussion or comments
from council,
Mr. McPeek, do we have any slips on this
one?
>> No speaker slips.
>> All right, moving on. Mr. Official,
>> I want an electric bike. It sounds cool.
73.
>> First reading of ordinance 28-25 to
provide a use variance for 519 South
Drexel Avenue in order to allow for the
use of the property as a multif family
dwelling not to exceed three units
introduced by Mr. Marcelino.
>> Yeah, just to uh touch base on this, I
am neither a proponent or opponent to
it. It's just that the owner of the
property has asked us to uh consider
making this change. You'll note by way
of history that we had it originally as
uh three separate units. Uh then it was
moved into the bed and breakfast format.
It was modified slightly when Capital
took over and now it's been purchased by
another uh investor and they want to
turn it back into what it was back in
the day here in terms of a multifamily
dwelling of three units there. So, uh,
open to questions, but really I think
direct them towards the mayor and myself
and then think about whether you want to
see the bed and breakfast turned back
into condos or if you want it to be a
bed and breakfast.
>> Mr. Official, if this is a use variance,
do we need a hearing at some point on
this one or
>> Yes, we do.
>> When when would we need to think about
having that?
>> Well, I have to double check what the
notice requirements are. Do you know
them off the top of your head, Ben?
>> I think the code is
>> I I think it is 30 days sounds right to
me, too. Yeah,
>> ninth or something.
>> I don't know. I'm guessing.
I'm making it up.
>> Mr. Marcelino, does that sound good?
First weekend next week. Yeah, that's
fine.
>> Okay.
>> All right. Let's let's uh see if we can
follow up on that. U Mr. Hurley, you had
your hand up next.
>> Um and two questions. First, um the
second to last whereas Capital
University sold. Has has the um I know
in the previous uh variance we had, it
was um the sale was contingent on
approval from council. Have they closed
or is it another situation where the
sale is contingent on the variance? No,
they they've closed at this point, I
believe. Okay. So, it's closed. So,
they're just coming. Okay.
>> They knew this was an issue. Okay.
They're coming to ask us to change.
>> In that case, that that mitigates my
second question. So, thank you.
>> Go for Mr. Silverman.
>> I guess from a zoning question directly
south is an apartment building. So, what
specifically is the issue in the R3
zoning for multif family dwelling? Is it
different than an apartment building
next door that's being being asked for
variance? So the apartment building
adjacent is also R3. It's a pre-existing
non-conforming. The subject property 519
was previously a pre-existing
non-conforming as multif family. Then
got a variance to become bed and
breakfast. Now that it's a bed and
breakfast to return back to multif
family would require variance.
>> Got it. Thank you,
>> Miss Sud.
>> Yep. So, I just wanted to state what um
council member Marcelino just um
reiterated as to council member Hurley
that this was bought 519 South Drexal
Avenue and when it was bought it was
bought knowing that it was existing as a
bed and breakfast for Beexley. Correct.
Okay. So then um a question I I just
have and I've been curious and tell me
if it's appropriate or not. I would love
to know if if we could receive um the
monetary value um that this property as
an existing bed and breakfast in a
12-year period if that has been
successful as a bed and breakfast. Um I
believe I'm under the knowledge that it
has been. So I
I'm just curious to make sure it's been
successful. I'm gonna I'm gonna ask our
city attorney to say what we should or
should not be like trying to pull in
outside the hearing.
>> Yeah. Quasit additional and then
>> Yeah. So So they're going to the
applicant's going to come before us and
you're going to consider multiple
factors that are set forth in the law
and in our in our zoning code and zoning
rules. It's actually one of them is
whether or not they brought bought the
property with the knowledge that there
was this restriction. So that's an easy
one. But I'm not I I'm going to look
back at those factors to see if that is
a legitimate thing to consider. And if
it is, it certainly should only be
considered based on information provided
at the hearing. Um the you know the
question I not for not to answer right
now but the question I would have for
you or anybody else who's interested in
that criteria criterion um is how do you
measure that? I mean are you saying
we're measuring that based on the tax
revenue? We can easily look at what tax
revenue we may have brought in. Are you
measuring that based on a profit and
loss of a private business that frankly
we're not entitled to know? I can't make
somebody tell us, especially a prior
owner. So I I would ask you to think
about what try to define what that means
and then we could figure out if it's a
lawful consideration.
>> Great. Thanks for checking on that.
>> And a reminder perhaps about discussion
of quasi judicial cases outside of the
hearing.
>> Thank you. Yeah, you guys have all been
heard the speech before, but you know,
if people ask questions, you can listen
to them, but the bottom line is you the
less you talk about this in the public,
the better.
>> The last the last owner was Capital. Is
that's not a private business. Would
they have the same protection? Like
would we would we be able to ask capital
if they would share it? I mean, I guess
because capital is a different tax
standing than a private business.
>> Yeah, I mean, you may be able to ask
them. Again, I'm not sure you can
lawfully consider it. Number one. And
number two, the again the question
becomes even if you can consider it,
what does that mean? And how does that I
mean I I I I'm I'm struggling with and
again I have to look at this forward
myself and to help you but I'm
struggling with the question of how that
would even be relevant other than other
than there is one factor that talks
about whether or not the property is
usable and profitable is the wrong word
but uh but that's a factor and but again
I don't know that that council has the
authority to say Oh, the property made
$100,000 last year, so therefore, no,
you can't do it.
>> The the intent is just simply for
community as city officials and
strategic planning for the community
that the way I understand it, the bed
and breakfast, the initial establishment
when we set forth on this voting on it
was to establish a hotel, you know, that
we don't have existing in the 43209. So,
um I might have asked that question
incorrectly, but that's just what I was
looking for. So, if we're changing
something from what it was to what it
is, that's just um I was trying to
understand how it has benefited the
community and um as an existing bed and
breakfast.
>> I believe there is an economic hardship
variance criteria and I believe that the
applicant is intending to show that. So,
I think that will end up being a part of
the hearing at the time. We can decide
what what we need.
Yeah, I'm not sure that it's again, I'm
having a hard time envisioning how
they're going to say I have an economic
hardship because they only made $75,000
a year on this or whatever. But that
again is up to them up to them to prep
present because they have the burden to
persuade you,
>> Mr. Hurley.
>> Ju just an an editorial comment. I'll
be, you know, curious to hear more from
Mr. official, but I mean, you know, I
just I would be bummed to see us lose
the Beexley bed and breakfast. I mean, I
think as a community, people love having
that resource. I know I've had family
when they come into town stay there, you
know, certainly understand the
limitations we have as council to, you
know, and but um and I know, you know,
candidly, there were other offers out
there, at least one other offer out
there to keep it a bed and breakfast.
Obviously, they were not the most
competitive offer, else they would be
the ones who would have gotten the
property. So, you know, yeah, just uh
we'll see. But, um we'd be sad to see
the Beexley Bed and Breakfast go away.
Um it's been a real gem for the
community and a real asset. But, um you
know, that's the way it shakes out
sometimes.
>> And I'm sorry, I'm not picking on you,
but that's the exact kind of thing we
shouldn't be saying because it's quasi
judicial. You can have that opinion. I'm
not saying it that you can't, but that
it has to be a quasi judicial decision
based on the facts and the law, not on
your feelings of and again, there's ways
to there's ways to legally tie it back
to the law that the bed and breakfast is
an asset in the community, but we just
need to be careful. I'm not trying to
scold you. I'm just saying in general,
that's what we have to be careful.
>> No, and I understand this thing. I just
was more or less, you know, sharing a
feeling. know I I understand you know
it's it's you know there there's a very
cut and dry way to look at this and you
know
>> Yeah.
>> Y
>> thank you Mr. Official. We'll get this
set for a hearing at the first meeting
in December.
>> Can I I just clicked on the the
ordinance. Can I I'm going to read the
if it's okay with you the criteria so
you can be thinking about it again as
it'll apply to the facts that we see at
the hearing. So, it's whether or not the
property cannot whether the property
cannot be you put I'm sorry, let me
start over. Whether the property cannot
be put to an economically viable use
under any of the permitted uses in the
zoning district. So, that might come
back to that question that Miss Sad
raised. The variance requested stems
from a condition that's unique to the
property issue or not ordinarily found
in the same zone or district. the
hardship condition is not created by any
action or inaction of the applicant,
that the proposed use will not alter the
essential character of the or or be
detrimental to the adjacent property and
the surrounding neighborhood.
The granting of the variance will not
adversely affect the public health,
safety or general welfare. The variance
will be consistent with the general
spirit intent of the code and the
variance sought is the minimum which
will afford relief to the applicant.
Again, there's a lot of discretion for
you to apply what you think that means,
but those are the criteria. And if you
want to go back to them, it's 1226.11D
of the codif 11 C of the codified
ordinances.
>> Awesome. Thanks, Mark.
>> No, it's D. I said it right the first
time.
>> All right, it's it's D.
Um, any further discussion, comments
from council? Uh, and please heed Mr.
officials advice on this one. Mr.
McPeek, any slips on ordinance 28-25?
>> No speaker slips.
>> All right. Uh, moving on to tabled
ordinances. Uh, Mr. Hurley, do we have
um any action on resolution 7-25 at this
time?
>> We do. Um, I move to bring ordinance or
sorry, resolution uh 7-25 off the table.
All right. Motion to remove by Mr.
Hurley. Is there a second?
>> Second.
>> Second by Mr. Silverman.
>> Uh, Mr. McPeek, would you please call
the role?
>> Is that legal?
>> Miss Lamkey,
>> yes.
>> Miss,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Markham,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Silverman,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Marcelino,
>> yes.
>> And Mr. Hurley,
>> yes.
>> Ordinance. Well, the land use strategy
is off the table.
>> All right. Um, so, uh, everyone recall
from our last meeting, uh, there was a,
um, a couple, uh, last minute tweaks to
the actual land use strategy document
that needed to be made. Those changes
have been made. I would direct you
specifically to what is page 49 in the
in the booklet uh, on the PDF document
available in the share drive. It is page
25. We have uh, the appropriate verbiage
and description of opportunity site 3,
the Montro Green. Um, so that is up.
This is the final document. Uh, I don't
know, mayor, if there's anything you
want to add to
>> expertly said, Mr. Early.
>> Yeah. So, to be clear, no changes to the
word in the ordinance. We wanted to make
sure we had the absolute final final
final land use strategy document fully
corrected and ready to go. So, the
document you have is the land use
strategy. So, that is all I have. Thank
you, Mr. Hurley. That was just what I
was asking attorney official that that
question. Um, it is up on the screen.
This is the full exhibit A. I think
there were a few pages missing at the
last meeting, but they are now added.
>> This is it.
>> Um, has council had a chance to review
these new pages in the entire
attachment, the entire ordinance, and do
we feel comfortable moving forward on
this tonight?
It looks like looks like we are. Any any
comments before Mr. Hurley makes a
motion?
>> Just I'm just going to ask so the last
word then from the schools was maybe
that that little banner down in the
corner. Is that what that was asked for
or is there any
input from them on the
>> the monstros? That's for the Halloween
version.
Good catch, Mr. uh Mr. Markham.
>> Mantras.
>> Yes.
>> So, it's not the final version.
>> It's nonbinding.
>> We'll get that updated. Mr. Silverman,
did you have a comment or question?
>> Yeah. I guess to to Troy's point, was
there did the school take issue or is
there concern with the rendering and
perception? Because I know the school's
having discussions related to facility
improvements separate from the land use
strategy.
>> Yeah. The schools wanted to make sure
that it wasn't too prescriptive to what
might come in in the future of the
rendering. And they also wanted to
add language that made it clear that the
school district's facility plan was not
yet finalized and that it was the
precedent document for their use of
space, which is understandable. It's
their space and that anything that was
planned in there would take into account
school safety, which we agree with. So
there are other renderings that were
prepared for this that are kind of show
more details and and show kind of
make it clear what a site layout might
look like might look like. And I think
the schools really wanted to keep
options open and so not make notes worth
a thousand words. I don't think they
wanted to paint as precise of a thousand
words. They wanted to paint 800.
>> I missed the picture with the bows and
arrows.
>> Right. Right. The flaming arrows.
>> Yeah. Good question, Mr. Silverman. Um,
all right, Mr. Hurley, I'm reading the
room. Do you have a motion to adopt
resolution 7-25?
>> Um, sure. I move to favorably adopt
resolution 07-25.
>> Motion to adopt by Mr. Hurley. Is there
a second?
>> Second.
>> Second by Mr. Marcelino. Any further
discussion from council? Uh, any
comments from the public? Mr. McPeek,
would you please do a roll call?
>> Miss Sod,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Hurley,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Markham,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Marcelino,
>> yes.
>> Mr. Silverman,
>> yes.
>> And Miss Lanky,
>> yes.
>> Resolution 725 passes.
>> Congratulations and a very special thank
you not only to the mayor, to the entire
land view strategy commission, including
council members Marcelino, Hurley, and
Mark them for um all their work over the
past what, two years. Thank you so much.
>> All right, we are on to agenda item
number 15, public comments. Are there
any speaker slips to be turned in at
this time from anyone in attendance?
All right, we're going to move on to
committee reports. Mr. Markham, for
safety,
>> no report.
>> Mr. Silverman for service and
environmental.
>> Yes, thank you. Um I just want to make
note of the concerns in the community as
a whole towards um food benefits, food
scarcity, food issues amongst people
that could be affected with funding um
cut offs. We've been meeting with
Elizabeth Elman for the past few months
on a food council. Um the fridge
launched a few months back which can
actually hold perishable food and we
have pantries located all around Beexley
in the near east side 43209 area. Um I
implore people to reach out to Elizabeth
myself if they're looking at ways to um
try to help in this time. Uh there is
certain protocols that we have to be
mindful of when it comes to food
donations through an official pathway,
but we would be more than happy to work
with that resident with some ideas um
and try to find ways to help them in in
the need to connect not only with
families that might be looking for
benefits, but for other opportunities to
um donate and and give in this time of
need. So, I just ask you reach out to
Elizabeth Elman, myself, or others. Um,
if you're looking for ways to donate
food and help with the food insecurities
going on in the community.
>> Alex, can I add something? Maybe also um
a financial donation or a grocery gift
card to Darn.
>> Absolutely.
>> Would be another Darn. Darn runs a
network um and provides direct grocery
cards towards families. Um please reach
out to darncares.org,
I believe the website is still. um or we
can connect you if you reach out to the
city with the darn um executive team. In
addition to that, um you might see the
hometown hero banners going up. We have
the banners from last year placed on the
street currently. We do have additional
new banners going up um next weekend.
And I am working on a spotlight and
working with um Council President Lamkey
to bring in a few of the many to
highlight um at the November 18th
council. Um I've confirmed with two of
the three that I was locking in. My goal
is to try to identify new ones every
year, but the the banner program, this
is going to be the second year. Um,
every October we open it up to new
families, new new new veterans, new
service members. Um, to recognize that
member that's chosen to serve this
country. Um, and I'm looking forward to
seeing the new banners and the uh, flags
as you drive down.
>> Awesome. Look forward to meeting them.
MSAD for finance.
>> Yes. Thank you, President Lamy. Um,
Alex, I love that program. I just had to
touch on that really quickly. When um
all the baseball towns I've driven to
over the years, you would see those in
small towns and what a great way to use
our pole banners that became very
popular in 2000 when the world shut down
with the high school students graduating
and um it's just a great feeling and
seeing people up there that I didn't
even know were um people of service. So,
great work on that. Um, the next two
meetings, speaking of finance and
budget, our next two council meetings
are November 11th and 18th. So, they
fall,
you know, very closely back to back. So,
I'm going to ask all of council to do
their due diligence outside of chambers
um to make sure that we're reviewing
that budget. We're meeting with our
responsibilities. um we need to all
reach out through Natalie Valder and she
will schedule um for us with uh the
mayor or Megan and then the um
committees that were responsible for for
the 2026 budget. So I know you're all on
that, but I do know when those meetings
come back to back it gives you less time
um to review. So let's just make sure
that we're all prepared so we can keep
moving along nicely as we've done so
far. And um lastly, I'll be
recirculating that um 2026 budget
questionnaire refresher that um Auditor
McPeek and I uh put together on an email
to everyone. So you can use that as a
refresher if uh warranted and wanted
when you are going over the budget with
your um responsibilities.
End of report.
>> Thank you. U Mr. Hurley for strategic
and health.
>> Thank you. Um the quarterly board of
health meeting scheduled for last week
had to be postponed due to some
scheduling conflicts. So we will get
that on the books for November. Um and
then CIC has a meeting scheduled for
Tuesday 8 a.m. So election day starting
your morning off with a bag.
>> End of report. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Um I don't know that Miss
Fible left a report this evening. Um I'm
looking around to see if anybody is
telling me yes. I don't think so.
Uh Mr. Marcelino for zoning and
development.
>> Yeah, we had an ARB uh workshop that was
uh well attended and uh we had a lot of
discussions about ADUs and how those
play in and just a bunch of other uh
desires of the uh ARB group and so I
think it was very helpful. Um and aside
from that, can somebody let the CIC know
I will not be there on TV? Thank you
very much.
Thank you, Mr. Marcelino. Uh, Miss Sad's
already reiterated our next meeting
date. A quick reminder to everyone,
election day is Tuesday, November 4th,
and there is no early voting on November
3rd. Um, so please make sure you vote.
And with that, I will move to adjourn.
Can I please get a