right
I I did that's
are we on are we
on are you sing a f what is that
supposed to mean yeah she's saying I'm
back what is that supposed to
mean there he is press from San Diego or
whatever right
are we recording we are
okay thank you everybody Welcome to the
Tuesday October 24th meeting of uh
Bexley city
council oh it's good to see everybody Mr
mCP how was your
day it was great I started the day um
having a cup of coffee with our City
attorney um and then I get to end the
day with it with them so pretty exciting
thank you all day long with Mark fishell
excellent yeah beautiful weather too
today wasn't it all right uh let's uh
let's see who's here go ahead and do the
roll call please okay
mad here Miss Robinson here Mr Markham
here Mr Marcelino here Mr Kingler here
miss lampy here and Miss FAL I'm here
please rise with me for the Pledge of
Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag
the United States of America and to the
stands
naice thank you want to point out that
our council member Jess sod always very
well-dressed
but you probably maybe have not taken a
second look at her attire tonight would
you like
to yeah and you've yes and you've got
some special guests here that are
similarly addressed would you like to
introduce them to us thank
you so tonight we have the pleasure of
having team Bexley come and speak to us
on um behalf of the team and we have a
great um number of them in the crowd
this evening the team has raised a
significant amount of fun runs towards
cancer research uh for patania and we
are excited to hear all of the
accomplishments that they have done and
hear more about the future of the team
and maybe get some um wonderful leaders
here tonight to join the team in 2024 so
without further Ado Suzanne krai is
Gonna Come speak on behalf of Team
Bexley hi everybody Welcome this is an
honor I'm officially in spandex in front
of city council so may it be noted that
might not be the first I don't know
right that's good point thank you Jess
for inviting us to be here and thank you
for my teammates who are here as well um
I am co- captain of Team Bexley um Greg
Adams would has been our captain for
many many years and has just recently
moved from Bexley so he would be here if
he didn't live in Virginia so um but
he's here in spirit we are a Grassroots
patania team or Paton that raises funds
for a transformative cancer research at
the James so for 15 years we have joined
thousands of others for a central Ohio
Bike Ride ranging from 24 to 100 miles
new this year was gravel day where
hundreds enjoyed an epic experience set
in the picturess hills of Athens County
we are proud to have Bexley in our name
and you should know that we have Bexley
in our heart in all that we do slide
number two please
Ben
each patania participant makes a
personal commitment to the cause um but
as a member of the team Bexley pelaton
they have the camaraderie and support of
a true team and Community this year as a
team we had 91 participants so that's
writers volunteers and Challengers and
challenges are Challengers are
individuals who believe in the cause but
do not want to be on their bike hint
hint that might resonate with you we had
20 high rollers on our team this year
high rollers commit to raise personally
$5,000 by themselves they they don't
share funds they they do it all
themselves and our high rollers this
year knocked it out of the park so wait
till I tell you what we've done um we
have we had 12 firsttime Riders this
year hint hint for those of you who have
never been a part of it and we had 12
15-year Riders so those are participants
who have been um part of every single
ride and seven survivors which is living
proof of the work that we're
doing so so far
2023 this is going to be our best year
ever so that number right there
38,2 193 was as of four o'clock and
we're just totaling some you know
there's some loose ends so some people
have made some donations to themselves
they're sort of funding their own ride
um for and and just adding to it to get
to their personal goal so as of um what
five 530 it's
$359,450
so we'll probably have a number um
upward from a few more thousand dollars
than that and it'll be our final for
this fundraising season and this will be
our best year ever which is amazing um
we just also crossed the Milestone of
$3.5 million raise since the beginning
hi
okay so we are part of the collective
efforts of the patania community who
since its Inception has raised more than
270 million not counting this year so
final numbers are still being calculated
um and will be officially announced in a
few weeks so every single person every
single person here should take great
pride in the work of the patan community
and team Bexley and what we have
accomplished
together so how does team Bexley do what
we do uh our leadership committee a lot
of several members who are sitting here
thoughtfully plans our yearly calendar
and Designs our team jerseys uh we
typically hold a few key events
throughout the year including um a
festive Community kickoff go ahead Ben
you can show the next slide we do a
kickoff in the backyard it's it's a
party it's a celebration and anybody is
invited it's not a fundraiser it's just
it's a friend raiser we want you to be
there if you are curious hint hint just
come and show up and you'll learn more
um next next slide uh we also brought
back pedal for pancakes this year this
is our um youth oriented ride uh we it
had been done uh for three years in the
past and we took a little Hiatus and
then it came back this year at Capitol
University and it was a big hit U and we
will be back next year so and I know you
all have probably probably heard about
it a little bit next slide shows um the
car wash we've got Jimmy here thank you
for sharing the rinos parking lot with
us years ago more than 10 years ago when
we um talked to Jimmy about this idea he
had to really um he had to jury rig some
water so that we could get water through
the hose to the the cars and we had to
um also teach the high schoolers how to
wash a car so that was it was really
good um but we so this year the ride oh
my gosh go to the next slide please um
$3,714 were raised in just a matter of
few hours uh so the Bexley boys and team
boys and girls soccer team have a little
friendly competition and the uh with
backing from the Bexley boosters um and
it was super exciting this year we um
got to meet with the team afterwards you
can go to the next slide and you can see
we did a little um check celebration
with them which we hope is a new
tradition and we're so grateful for
their help um okay you can go on to the
next Slide the next slide um features
those of us who participated in the
gravel ride the gravel ride is a new
experience um um some of you may be
familiar with it you ride your bike uh a
little bit thicker tires it's not
mountain biking and it's not Road riding
it's somewhere in between so this year
was the first gravel day started by
patan it's super exciting um and there
were hundreds of us who participated in
it and I highly recommend it it was
really
fantastic um next slide please so thank
you we could not do this without our
partners um I'm going to start to list
some but I'm going to miss about I mean
um just as many people so um the city of
Bexley Bexley celebrations committee
Bexley boosters Bexley wck and Parks
Bexley py Capitol University role
rabinos Ortho One Bexley automotive and
so forth and so on and so on and so on
so if I didn't say your name say it to
yourself in your head right now or you
can shout it out uh but everybody has
had um an impact on what we're doing and
I can't mention everybody because I only
have a few minutes and I know you don't
want your meeting to go way over so how
can you get involved um as mentioned we
host a kickoff party each spring and we
want to stress that our team is always
looking for new participants at our
kickoff you can learn more ask questions
and learn how to get involved we want
you as a writer a volunteer a challenger
or a joner and we also invite our
business Community to join us as
sponsors sponsors help us to offset um
expenses and allows us to ra raise
maximum funds for cancer research do you
know that because of patania fun fing
Partners 100% of writer raised funds
goes to cancer research so that's pretty
impactful when when we personally are
asking for funds and that goes straight
to cancer
research so I think next slide yeah next
slide says thank you that was and then
go on to the next slide um so you've
likely seen team members chanting one
goal in the Bexley parade or holding up
an one index finger in a photo um one
goal is our one goal is to bring an end
to cancer thank you for being an
instrumental component of that one
goal that's
it do we have any uh comments or
questions for
S I just want to thank you guys team
backs I feel really sad this was like
the first year I wasn't a writer in 12
years um and I was so excited about
gravel day and we ended up having a main
event that night so I'm going to talk to
Doug ahead of time make sure we do not
have any conflicts uh but but the work
that you guys did is just so phenomenal
and have always done in the community we
look forward to continuing to support
and ride alongside you right or sale as
it were or do other things to raise
funds it's like almost like laughing at
me in the back thanks
Doug thank you so much and thanks for
showing up in force with this uh with
this excitement and energy that's just
so much fun for us
here all
right we need a picture quick picture
all right let's get
it anybody that wants come on
up I want to elevate what
fut
yeah
hey I want to elevate what Lee just said
in case it was lost a little bit there
so if I can have the attention of the
room for a second uh Jimmy and Rino's
early early sponsor of the team every
year so generously donate space pizza
and really generous funding to this this
effort so cheers for thank
you
so
get
ready you got
your what's
that you know not play golf during
election come on
all right thank you I believe we have no
ordinances with special guests tonight
we do have a speaker slip for public
comments Mr Richard Sharp is that is
that it yo please approach the podium I
think it's
rard
rishard yes I'm from Southern Ohio so it
is
Richard um anyway um I'd like to thank
everyone for allowing me the opportunity
to uh speak tonight I'm coming here
regarding a state issue one Richard oh
state your name and address my name is
Richard Sharp 845 College Avenue
anything else I'm forgetting you know
after after two years it's easy to
forget anyways I I'm coming to uh speak
regarding uh State issue one um this
city has had a long history of looking
after children protecting children bike
helmet uh requirement U eliminating
smoking under age
18 and um vaping and flavored things
like that and um I as Leaders of this
community I I think that you should look
closely at Ohio issue one and I've got a
copy uh from seethe language. org of the
um a constitutional amendment that's
required or that's being put forth um to
the people of a high to decide the thing
that I'm most concerned about is that
State issue one does not include an age
limit we are opening up for children
miners who can't get tattoos right now
who um can't can't get their ears
pierced or whatever without parental
consent under the age of 18 because
um we
value um our children and realize that
sometimes they're not at an age that
they can make an appropriate decision
the way that
um issue one reads it says every
individual has a right to make and Carry
Out one's own reproductive
decisions including two but not limited
decisions on contraception fertility
treatment continuing one's own pregnancy
miscarriage care and
abortion if it just said those names but
did things but didn't
um even in include but not limited
to um I I might be okay
with not having an age
restriction or inclusion but by not
including the age we're we're allowing
children to decide their own
reproductive decisions which could
invalidate certain rape statutes and
could you know put children in a
situation where because it's
reproductive um their own surgeries um
with their bodies that they may not
realize will lead to sterilization in
the future and they may regret that um
someone didn't give them both sides of
the of the story and so I don't think
it's appropriate
um for the state of Ohio to
um put children in that situation of
making very important
decisions without parental conversation
without other other conversation from a
variety of trusted uh sources so
um you may you may feel certain aspects
of of this are good and needed and
that's fine I I respect that I just want
everyone to
consider the broad nature of what this
um Constitutional Amendment could do and
the things that could be the unintended
consequences of having such a broadly
worded um item in our con in our state
constitution and um that's about all I
have to
say and um so anyways there's copies
here I'll pass some around and leave
them to the audience but um and since I
know so many people
were um and I can understand the last
state issue one um were um concerned
about how a super majority affecting the
Constitution um and people who
were
um were kind of dismayed
knowing the ultimate purpose of that
Constitutional Amendment were
dism as to uh how um that process went
through and I can understand that as
well um I would encourage if you if
anyone voted that way that they consider
amending the city
Charter um having their political party
constitutions Rewritten so that the
simple majority
um can make changes in those documents
as well because both political parties
your city government has super majority
so thank you very much thank you Mr
Sharp no other speaker slips Mr mCP is
that correct all right to get to the
president's report the only thing I have
to say is that two weeks from now we do
not have a city council meeting but I do
believe we may be here is that true Mr
Mayor
uh yes uh there is a deep optionally
here grind Bexley tradition uh that we
tabulate uh the votes on Election Day
for local elections so we will be here
um I would offer volunteer slots in
advance to anybody who wants to do some
poll running it's it's it's a it's a
hoot excellent I know you've got one
because my wife will be working one of
those so she will so report in somebody
wants to Jen if if you want to remind me
like within the next week that I need to
get other volunteers that great I
usually it's the day of that I'm like oh
shoot
so so two weeks from tonight we will be
here if you want if you want optional
but not a city council meeting and then
three weeks from tonight we will resume
our Council meetings and I would mention
that there are some members of city
council who are running for reelection
but I don't I won't mention their names
I don't want to ruin the surprise when
you get into The Ballot Box all right
move it on to the City attorney no
report moving on to the auditor um I do
have a report can you uh pull up the
report um and really just what I wanted
to do was spend a little bit of time
today um with the budget coming up
talking about our balance sheet um we
spend a lot of time in our um meetings
talking about about the income statement
and ultimately how much money we bring
in and what are our expenses and beer
does a great job of explaining that um
but there's another component to our
financials which is our assets and
liabilities so um heading into the
budget season wanted to make sure
everybody had the at that Foundation um
as we're looking to approve a budget so
what I wanted to do is just spend a
couple minutes talk about assets and
debt what do we have going on here so
Basics are we um assets are are um ass
asss that we purchase um that have
economic value to the city so those can
be roads buildings Parks anything like
that and debts are obviously monies that
we um borrow to make those improvements
that can be in the form of bonds or
loans okay so just getting the
foundation here um and as with any
municipality business and our own
households we're always um looking to
acquire assets that align with the goals
of the community okay so um that is what
we will be talking about through the
budget process is what are we how are we
going to be investing these dollars um
and you know from my perspective I also
want to you know encourage us to think
about cost of long-term ownership um
because you can buy a building um and
you have maintenance that comes with it
and all those types of things so as we
go through those budget disc discussions
um let's make sure that we do talk about
cost of long-term
ownership um with that being said um
it's all about making sure that we we
you know manage this Balancing Act um
both of managing our assets and debt uh
to ensure long-term stability and again
Moody's provides us feedback on that and
I'll touch on that a little bit towards
the end just to to you know keep you
apprised is how Moody's looks at our
city um and you know as we go through
the budget process and we look at
Capital allocation um we're going to
talk a little bit about um I'll touch on
it briefly here but it's just the
balancing act between the interest that
we earn on our assets and the interest
that we pay on our debt
um and you know fortunately in today's
economic environment um the city council
as well as my predecessor did a great
job of refinancing debt so the reality
is our interest rates are for the most
part lower on our debt than we are
earning now on our assets so you know at
this point in time we're we have you
know over $25 million sitting in in
different kinds of um liquid assets um
earning um for the most part returns
great than what we're paying on our debt
which is a great position for us to be
in so in short no reason necessarily to
take monies and pay down our debt so
some basic concepts here before I move
into you know just snapshots of what our
debt and um assets look like any
questions
okay um so I've grabbed a couple
snapshots from our
audit can you yep so this is um a view
of our assets okay so what this is
saying I'm not going to go through all
of them but if you look at the far right
hand columns you're going to look at um
this representing that we've over you
know a period of time we've acquired
about $69 Million worth of assets um so
that's the bottom line there of
2022 that's comprised of land
construction and process which is $6.9
million and then the bulk of our assets
sit within infrastructure which is about
$43 million so that is is where we are
you know improving sewers we're
improving the roads and all of those
types of activities that um you know
help keep our community um running
efficiently and and um looking great so
again just want to give this Foundation
that this would represent the book value
of our
assets any questions on this kind of
going through this quickly but again I'm
available if you want to get into deeper
details the next slide would show our
debt um so what this is ultimately
saying is that we have um and when when
government entities present their
liabilities which is debt um they put it
into two different buckets okay one
being government activities and then the
second being business type activities so
the government activities on the left
hand side represent Investments that
we've made in buildings Investments that
we've made in solar panels and all other
TP types of activities that it takes us
to to just run our governmental
operations um and then on the rightand
side would be business activities so
this would be um debts that we've taken
on for um water lines sewer other types
of activities according to to the audit
here so um this would be a comprehensive
picture of the debt that we've acquired
for the city so in total it's about 26
27
million
okay the next slide are just a couple
other little snapshots that I I wanted
to to personally take a look into in the
upper right hand corner um I don't want
to get too far into the concept of Gap
accounting but as we talked about we had
about $69 million of book assets that
are showing up on our financial
statements the reality is um beer does a
great job of tracking these assets we've
paid more than $117 million for those
assets over the years and what happens
is that those assets depreciate in value
we're decreasing the value on our
financial statements so you know as a
we've invested over the life of our
financial statements about $17 million
to improve the community against that we
have $27 million plus or minus a bit in
debt so you know from my perspective
we've done a good job of managing debt
against asset acquisition and a lot of
these assets have useful life of 35 to
50 years because of the nature of the
assets so again the goal here and if you
want to get into deep details happy to
do it but just to give you a macro view
of what our balance sheet looks like
from an asset and liability standpoint
okay in the lower right hand corner is
probably the most important thing I mean
I can sit here and tell you all day long
that our financial condition is good and
strong
but at the end of the day we're all
relying on Moody's who is an independent
third party to tell us how we're doing
and what is difficult to see here but U
beer and I had a meeting with our Moody
analyst probably four or five months ago
and I captured the um ratings that they
give us specific to our debt specific to
um you know how we're managing our
assets and as you can see they're all
highly rated so single a and double a
rated those are um you know know very
high tiered investment grade ratings
that Moody's gives us which means that
we are you know managing our assets and
liabilities appropriately and we're
getting very high ratings
so race through this fairly quickly um
but again the goal was to just give you
a snapshot overview of um you know the
types of assets that we're investing in
what it looks like on our financial
statements and the debt that we have
outstanding against those
assets
thank you pretty fascinating I think
you've got some here happy happy to yeah
I two questions um the first is what can
we do to move from AA up to an A on that
second category well I did a great job
of making it really small so I can't
see so let's see you've got it zoomed in
ratio yeah so can I
yeah yeah yeah I mean it it is it's
really desire to go up yeah well we yeah
and it's really just these are
essentially fixed cost versus Revenue so
it's you know at this point in time we
have a very strong financial statement
but it is decreasing our fixed cost and
our cost against the the revenue so or
it's just growing revenue and
additionally a community of our size
will never be the top rated because we
don't
have um the stabilization you know it's
not as when you're this small it's not
as stable as like a big large has many
many many cash in we've been told by
Moody in the past that we are at the top
that we can be for the community of our
mix right that's helpful then the second
question um I think it was on slide two
um given that we're landlocked and you
know seems like property in Bexley
continues to Rise um is there any reason
that our land value would stay the same
from 21 to
22 shouldn't that to the to the non-math
person shouldn't that go up it's a great
question so the key with gap financial
statements generally accepted accounting
principles when they present the
financials it's always based upon cost
not market value okay that is not the
market then and then and then it gets
then it gets depreciated to make it
worse so what I wanted to do was kind of
why I wanted to call that out and it's a
great question is on the the final slide
I show you what the costs are so to your
point um you know our costs in a lot of
these types of assets generally Speak
now some of them are you know or
depreciating like our sewers but for the
most part we have more money in it than
what's being reflected on our books
because of depreciation but there are
certain assets like are buildings that
have have appreciated in value and we
could Jeffrey all of those things would
would certainly be appreciating in value
but that that again is not how financial
statements are presented based on
cost yeah is it is it fair to State a
three and a half million dollar jump in
buildings and improvements is the
Jeffrey
Mansion um there'd be a chunk of it go
through it yeah I would imagine a lot of
that's side to those improvements I'd
have to go through and kind of see how
we've
we
um different hit the books in 2022 maybe
that's a big jump
yeah I'll go back and reconcile ad
yeah
okay um so that's it on this Auditor's
report um I have two other things um one
uh beer and I meeting with our invest
investment adviser on Thursday morning
so we're going to get a better outlook
for what um they expect Investments to
look like and and rate a return for the
20124 years that we can help that with
budgeting but then um the final thing I
have here is um kind of big news um so
with mixed emotions I am sharing that
one of our longest tenured employees in
the city um will be retiring and that is
Beacher hail oh
thank
you so 26 years I will do you know we
will have a long long opportunity to
thank him um but as a reminder becher's
been with us for 26 years um oversight
on all Financial functions um he's made
just tons of contributions over the
years um and I you know just love
listening to the way it was and the way
it is today um things have changed quite
a bit um so i' I'm hopeful that beer
will drop some um you know interesting
stories over his final few months with
us um on what it's been like but um His
official retirement date is uh going to
be March 31st
2024 um so he has um been very kind to
give us a long transition um I think
that's really important when we have
somebody who has all the technical
background and Street smarts that I love
to say about you know how to run a city
um Financial um organization so you know
we'll be working over the coming months
to to find a backfill um to hopefully
Shadow beer for a period of time and and
ensure a smooth transition so um we'll
be thanking beer today and many more
times for all the contributions he's
made to the city over the years so thank
you well I thank all of you very much
it's been a it's been a true blessing
working here um city of Bexley has just
blessed my family tremendously and I'm
so thankful that I had all these years
but it's a lot of years and I have an
opportunity to go work with my son so
and so that's gonna be fun so um I'm
kind of retiring but I'm still gonna be
busy so EXC well I think there are gonna
be many opportunities for us to to uh
applaud you beer and to commemorate your
time with us but I will say um I've
always really enjoyed my working
relationship with you I think from when
I was a council member uh the budget
Hawk council member uh sitting in your
office to um like this sounds this sound
negative I mean it very positively the
productive tension uh that exists with
sort of the auditor's office and the
mayor's office and then you in the
middle as sort of a joint reporting
employee that gets to enjoy what he's
trying to say is he's enjoyed busting my
chops from now I think it's a it's been
a really it's been a fun uh really I
think um it's like a romantic comedy a
little bit isn't it it's been I I just
really enjoyed working with you I think
well thank you the feeling is very
mutual and I just not not to harp on
about it but I just think like this is
the sort of dynamic that could just
become really toxic and with you I think
we've always you've just always been so
open and straight shooter and it's
always just been a pleasure working with
thank you very much I appreciate that
congratulations thank
you P I'll start Tex you my tea times if
you would
like well I have kind of wanted to I
told my son who works in a golf pro shop
I said this is the retirement job I want
every time I show up he's watching
TV
yeah yeah yeah I guess we can move on to
the into the administrative report then
from that seems like okay we do that
sorry one second I'm
just something here not that I'm
multitasking at all that's not what's
happening
all right to our administrative updates
first up I think we have Mike Price am I
am I correct about that yeah we do I've
got Andy bashore on the agenda here I
think we moved Mike up for a a sporting
competition that he is I believe yes
thank you by the way I appreciate it
thanks
Natalie um yeah the only thing a Qui
couple quick highlights from the report
um the the Halloween bash is this
weekend uh we have 200 uh middle
schoolers registered for Friday which is
super exciting um and uh unfortunately
it's changed since I did this report but
unfortunately we are on a wait list now
uh we have to cut it off somewhere we
started at 150 but we didn't want to
turn too many kids away so we moved it
to 200 um with the adult we're about 150
we got a little bit of room there so if
you're still looking to to join us
please please do um but decorations will
really start
uh tomorrow we're getting a bunch of our
stuff tomorrow and we'll be decorating
for the next three days and have a good
time um Halloween Patrol uh again I will
uh plug that we we are still in
desperate need of volunteers we we want
to get as many volunteers out on the
street as possible uh for trick- or-
tree night um to help keep the kids safe
so if you or anyone you know is
interested have them reach out to us uh
Josh Hester at be.org or be.org
Halloween uh to fill out some
information and we'll get in touch with
you other than that happy to answer any
questions um
300
200 we will use as many as we can get
but a good year is about 300 and we're
about at a 100 so cap students signed up
we have about 60 cap students it's a
little bit lower than normal
so
usually we'll get somewhere on a good
year we'll get close to 200 cap students
but uh it's changed the last couple
years in terms of how they engage can a
parent be a Halloween Patrol member and
also walking around with their kids they
sure can okay so basically every council
member should be a Halloween Patrol just
as long as you're prepared to uh you
know handle anything if anything comes
up
yes sure
or uh
Mike did you get through everything M
I'm sorry I did
okay yes yes yes we do have some high
schoolers but um
yeah great thank you all thank you
Mike
um
hey Andy
sorry there you
are I'm mayor
Andy how's it going good sir good
evening city
council good evening okay I'm pulling up
your report Andy
uh one second I gotta switch my share
over to
this I'm sorry where is
it there it is
and's okay Andy what yeah um I really
don't have anything to add to my written
report tonight but more than happy to
answer any questions anyone might
have oh my goodness so many questions
Jen Robinson um no question uh just a
comment um I think you've timed the
completion of the drexal project
perfectly with the peak of color in the
five seconds of sunlight that we had on
Sunday I took a left down drexal to
drive south and it was absolutely
gorgeous so it looks really really good
I know everybody was waiting for that to
be finished and I know there's still a
couple more tweaks to do but it really
does look magnificent so kudos to you
and all the team who've been working so
hard to get that done thank you
ma'am I'm gonna add another Kudo for
Andy with his timing because I took a
walk just before a council meeting
around the Clown house uh today and do
you know how it was different Mr
bashore I think I might have a good
pretty good idea it's a brand new
sidewalk going right down there down
Charles around the clown housee which is
just in time and perfect for uh trick-or
Treat night it's fantastic and the it
was a beautiful afternoon evening and so
many residents were walking on the
sidewalk and just they had such pleasure
to see that shining on them it felt very
very magical much like the uh auditor
relationship that you guys all have
there that's what I've always used for
to describe it thank you in other words
yes yes
sir hey Andy hi I was buzzing around
Bexley today and oh my gosh there's
people there are our people are up in uh
their buckets doing lights we've got
people taking down trees we've got
people busy busy busy I also noticed on
my way here that there's a lot going on
on Colombia place where are we with all
of that we have a pre-con meeting uh
this Friday and that project's going to
um uh start probably next week with the
sidewalks and some of those repairs so
that's getting ready to uh kick off and
hoping to have it done here uh late fall
before snow flies wonderful I just it
looked like it was getting busy uh it's
getting busy ah getting busy there and I
was just
curious also just add that the water so
the waterline piece of it's done yes sir
IR installed and so the the concrete
work is what's about to mobilize and it
should be done perfect great great and
it's coming in lower than uh our
estimates a little bit a little bit
lower good for us good for them
yeah uh Jess
sorry um Andy in your report it mentions
the Columbia Gas main replacement
project that Columbia Gas is sending
maps to our residents I was just
wondering when those were going out
those went out um at the beginning of
the project um they're almost done I
left that in my report because I'm
trying to get Columbia Gas to um send
out maps for next year for their 24
project um but they're almost done with
the 23 project but um I'm encouraging
them to get a jump uh so the residents
have a little more notice and you know
just so they won't be surprised next
spring
thanks Andy I appreciate
that any other questions for Andy um
Andy I do want to just let Council know
with Drexel um the uplighting I think
we're expecting to go in later in
November I think end of November just or
December is that right Andy or did I get
that wrong uh no sir so we have them on
order um right now it looks like we will
receive them probably late December okay
um depends what kind of winter we have
um but more than likely it'll probably
be early spring when we get them
installed so you're probably going to
continue to see orange barrels at the
noses of the medians until those are in
place uh because we're going to want to
also eliminate the the kind of go Veer
to the right signs that are at the front
of each median um with those lights um
so you'll see those still that's part of
the punch list also there's a pedestrian
flashing Beacon that's going in in at
Powell Drexel is part of the project and
the one that exists at Dale and the one
at Fair need to move in because of the
bump outs so they're going to be
relocated so there's still punch
punchless items just to let you guys
know about also you might have noticed
that the median next to Briden has not
yet gotten planted uh that's because we
went out to plant it and Matt mCP lives
like four houses down and he put a stop
to it uh just kidding he didn't say that
no but we are actually gonna we are
going to slightly shorten that median um
where the the South NOS uh we've just a
lot of people have had a hard time with
that left-and turn and actually it was
informative to us we we changed our
medium design slightly for the remaining
medians um it will so it's going to just
get kind of saw cut and then there's
going to be some flush brick right where
there's details aren't that important
just know it's a pretty it's pretty
minimal project it'll be done pretty
quickly but you'll see a little bit more
work
happening the um I just anecdotally
first of all Drexel looks amazing second
of all anecdotally it really seems to be
traffic seems to be going slower down
there real a lot significantly yep I can
speak to driving a Suburban down that my
kids like to go you can't even go 35 mom
and I'm like no I cannot so Road dieting
is a real thing you should drive the
city's cookout trailer with the uh F-150
Lightning it's uh it's fun so okay Andy
anything else no sir all right thank you
Andy have a good evening thank you you
too
um sorry guys I have to go back to
acrobat there we are next up we have
Chief Gary D Lewis Jr at
bat because beer retired is that what
happened am I out already I'm
sorry I thought he was he still had
March tasking here guys thank you for
your patience bottom line the bottom
line um um bottom line is if you've read
through that we just continue to have
good um good economics good Revenue um
especially in the are of investment and
well income tax of course but um yeah so
it's been we're doing really well um I
don't see hopefully no problems popping
up um because expenditures are under
budget course that you know sometimes
expenditure timing can all of a sudden
you spend a lot of money because you
need to but hopefully that won't happen
this year and we'll continue to uh chug
right along and uh I hope that my clip
art lives on after I retire I like I
think that's one of my best
contributions to the
city it's from 1984 I
think any questions for
beer I was just congratulating the
auditor on the interest rate environment
uh very favorable for Investments
good time to be an investor not a
borrower that's right and we're in a
good position for that
so okay thank you beer appreciate it
thank you great
evening Chiefs bottom
[Laughter]
line good evening so I I do have um
first I want to field any questions with
this week's update and then part two I
do have something that has literally
just occurred today that I think is very
important to share with Council so I
want to fill questions first and then
I'll share that
piece questions for the chief Jess I
just wanted to um commend uh detective
Bry and detective bird on doing a great
job with heart safe Beckley they um are
spending a lot of time on the
programming and they're doing a great
job thank you so much they have been um
Lee Nathans and I speak probably every
other day and just doing a level set and
and talking about the progress um the
expansion and the need to potentially
have more dates to continue to build
that program out so to say that we are
excited is an understatement so it it's
going well but thank you for that
feedback okay chief big news yes so um
taking it very very personal to look at
what we can do to continue to partner
with our Jewish community and um today I
met with the um FBI the assistant
special agent in charge who's
responsible for Columbus and Cincinnati
and we have really looked at how do we
expand that partnership um we're going
to provide an officer on the FBI joint
terrorism task force as part one um
we've not been a part of that in the
past so we will do that in the capacity
of assigning an officer that will be
there in a part-time role um this is an
expansion currently we have someone
assigned to the cyber crime unit and
someone to the US Marshall's office but
this gives us a direct link to them very
differently I'm on the jtf executive
board but by actually having one of our
officers assign to that from the patrol
will be really a great opportunity and
we'll also look to add Lieutenant
holdren to that piece from the
investigative side um in addition to
that I had um attended a conference
confence last week just got me thinking
of a number of ways and how we can um
really just provide comfort and
education back to our Jewish community
and
so really just tried to brainstorm and
ultimately this is what we're going to
do we're gonna conduct Town meetings at
every synagogue in Bexley and on that um
panel will be myself a member of the um
Steve flowers who is the director of
security for the Jewish Foundation we've
invited a member from the
Anti-Defamation League to come in as
well as the FBI joint terrorism task
force and the four of us will be a panel
that will meet with each synagogue and
talk about um what we're doing to help
keep them safe we will talk about the
Partnerships we will talk about ways
that we've already done from our Kine to
partnering with other agencies but we'll
also talk about ways to help keep them
safe and to feel better about what's
going on and to be more informed
um how we can create some communication
methods and I also think it's very
important from an education standpoint
to understand the difference between
hate speech and hurt speech I think that
there's still a lot of unknowns even
with what we um underwent last week and
trying to understand the Dynamics of
very hurtful speech and how um First
Amendment rights are protected and how
we manage potential demonstrations and
so this really is a great way for us to
partner with each one of them um it's an
aggressive timeline we're looking at
sometime next week to kick this off and
really um continue to um just be
involved be proactive and continue to
reach out to to our Jewish Jewish
Community um the FBI loved the idea um
they think this could really be a
boilerplate for other synagogues
throughout Central Ohio but we'll be the
first to do
that
um Chief and I were talking earlier this
week and um you know we I think we've
shared uh in many different ways as a as
a city Our concern and care for our
Jewish Community um the Investments that
we have done in the past year under your
leadership uh in in putting a bomb dog
bomb doog on on our Force um and
strength to know this ties with the
synagogues really positions us very well
to be leaders um not just in Bexley but
in the region and hoping that we can
continue to provide even more robust
support and I really appreciate what
what you're doing and and what we're
doing to accommodate that thank
you any other questions for yeah Jess I
just wanted to say I really appreciate
this communication and this effort in
these next steps um in conversations
with my Jewish friends they didn't even
know that we had a bomb dog you know and
so it's a great time to really give that
education on what we've already done
what we'll continue to do if you could
just continue to keep us us updated on
um these next steps so that we better
understand them so we can continue to
help our community know what actions
that were taking that are taking place
and we're able to speak to them that
would be great yes ma'am yes
ma'am thank you
Chief um okay couple things to update
you all on uh I'm sure you've read
through my report in deta so you are up
to speed but I want to highlight a
couple things um we do have the one
Beckley RFP uh responses in and are
coordinating with the library in the
schools to select a coordinator for that
um really promising really good quality
responses so that's that's excellent um
last night here at City Hall we had our
alley of the future
draft
um plan presentation to neighbors and
I've also included this in uh your pack
packet but I wanted to go over with you
what we're planning for that alley so um
it's been it's been a little bit of time
since we last talked about this project
um and just to remind you what is the
point of the project and and what are
the principles of the project the point
of the project is to um come up with uh
sort of a better uh infrastructure
approach to the way that we F uh finish
off our alleys and provide the service
to Residents through the alleys um it
sort of actually started as a cover
storm water management um program to
find out ways to to better divert storm
water from going directly into our
sewers uh and flooding contributing to
the flooding of sewers um and so um but
then in in doing that we also were
looking at what are some air way other
ways we can enhance the alleys and thus
the quality of life for residents um one
of the overarching concepts here has
been is this something that we can
replicate in every alley so it's not
just something that only one alley who
won this competition gets but is it able
to
feasibly financially and and and
physically be installed in other alleys
and so what we have presented to the
residents um is first off this very dry
soil analysis uh showing that uh the the
clay soil underneath the alleys was not
going to really accept a whole lot of
storm water um and then some
plans that show some areas they won't
look exactly like this but where we're
going to cut out the pavement and have
some permeable um pavers with a gravel
substrate which will allow storm water
to more slowly feed into the uh storm
system and be
treated um we are uh going to be
providing uh smarter uh Cobra head
lighting than we have in our other
alleys very similar product but it will
be motion sensing it will default to a
lower light um which has been a
complaint of some of our residents have
felt that our Valley lightss are a bit
intense lower light but it will be
motion sensing so they'll actually kind
of softly ramp up as people walk
underneath them um which will I think
actually call even more attention to if
there is anybody in an alley up to no
good it will be even more obvious um but
still have that kind of lower light
Ambiance uh for the rest of the night um
another uh concept here is an area where
it could be safer for kids to play in
the you could playay in the alleys all
the time in many of our alleys um and so
we've developed a uh sort of the idea of
this this gate that can close um in
areas where there's an section of this
alley many alleys have them where there
are no garages that are accessed in the
alley so Vehicles don't need to go in
and go out so in that section of the
alley which is kind of called out in
this plan um residents would be able to
close the gates then it kind of
effectively becomes a oneway alley away
from those gates in either direction
it's kind of a central block location um
and so if you're leaving your driveway
your garage to the alley you'll you'll
look you'll see that you can't go that
way you got to go the other way and
you'll exit the alley that way and
there'll be this protected uh play area
for for kids um we're going to try to
get some Community Foundation funding
for uh some play equipment that would be
common play equipment that can be placed
um there on the
edges uh and love your alley funds
actually this is not that's a broken
park bench so don't look at that uh but
um park benches there's a resident at
res at Rose at Drexel and fair who
restores park benches you might if you
look at that house you know there's a
lot of park benches retired physici uh
it's his hobby it's his passion and he's
asked us if there are places where we
might be able to use those park benches
and we think they would go very well in
the outl future um so the out future is
going to have some seating areas it's
kind of hard to tell in this
presentation but with this area where we
don't need to accommodate turning
motions from Cars the alley can go down
to an 11 foot width as opposed to 15 um
because it's just a straight shot for
any vehicle that is before you ask great
for Fir trcks and for rumy um but that
lets us put a little bit of area for
planting and also some seating space off
to the side when those gates are closed
people could
use
um where were
we uh Furniture okay um one of the
custom res was some uniform areas for
their trash to go uh we have so we're
going to provide the option for them to
purchase a pad or some enclosures that
would be consistent and standardized um
but again that's on private property so
that's at their election it would be on
them them to pay for
it um and then we're partnering with
love your alley so this will be a love
your alley alley block next spring um
with Native plantings um and some art
installation and we're trying to see if
maybe there's a place where we can have
sort of a Whimsical inlay at the center
of that uh play
spacee those are some native
plantings I can name some of them but
all not all of them so don't ask me uh
and that is essentially the draft plant
um the the drainage piece you know many
of our alleys in fact it's very rare to
have a storm drain in the alley so this
is a little different but what is what
is what we put lot of attention to
is the the permeable spaces that would
drain into a storm drain eventually um
that drain extension is much
less expensive and much less complicated
to install than like a standard storm
drain it's going to be basically a
perforated pipe with a sock over it
that's inlaid down um so it's a lower
cost way of slowly you know getting
storm watered more slowly into our
system um that we think is uh something
we could replicate in other alleys
throughout the city and would help us
with um generally reducing the amount of
storm water that's uh surging in our
system during a rain
event any questions on Aly of the
future yeah um the smart lighting could
that Al could that be solar lighting so
um that was some yeah it could be solar
lighting it would cost a lot more to be
solar lighting
um because it needs storage so you would
need a battery piece to it as well um so
I love the idea of it being solar
lighting love love love that idea uh
but on a positive note we are buying
wind energy for those lights so it's
renewable energy that's powering them in
the first place cool thank
you um we do have other workshops coming
up we have land you strategy 2.0 here on
November 1st uh been working with
members of Lany strategy to plan that
Workshop um Bexley strategic plan
Workshop is September is November 16th
and then we will have an upcoming skate
park design at some
point 2200 East Main uh is not going to
be zap on Thursday but it will be coming
back to ARB on November 9th there was a
special workshop with ARB earlier this
month uh that I think went well there's
been some really good developments on
that design um so we expect to see them
back at the airb on November 9th uh we
think they'll probably be at all three
Commissions in
November um I want to announce that
Beckley has received Souls smart gold
designation which is a really big deal
Elizabeth P work into it it's a
meaningful designation it's hard to get
we had to change a lot of our processes
to achieve it in terms of the way that
we review applications uh the expertise
on staff our staff has been trained in
how to adjudicate solar samples as you
you guys know we changed an ordinance in
order to get this designation so uh I
think we deserve a round of applause
good
job and that is uh that was the highest
we can get and then they announced
Platinum like last week so now oh my
gosh uh but you know one of the one of
the requirements for platinum is that
your that your main Civic building have
solar panels on its roof and I was like
well I think we can check that one off
the list um joint Livingston Avenue
project update uh we met with we met a
couple times with Columbus about the
joint project again this to remind you
this is a grant through morsy it's a $16
million project um that we are we are
the uh lead on the project theoretically
but Columbus is doing a lot of the work
which is great um we have a joint team
collaborating they don't know how to
work with a joint team we don't know how
to work with a joint team so it's been a
fun exercise to learn how to uh
collaborate on on a really complicated
project
um but this is the project that we'll
see Livingston Avenue get uh bike paths
on the side of it get medians in the
center um you know Street
lighting uh improved bike infrastructure
up Alum Creek Drive so there's a lot
going on with this project um and it
goes all the way to James and uh to
remind you in the public this is like a
five to sevene Horizon so it's a it's
going to be a lot of design work there
will be RightWay acquisition um and and
part of our agreement with Columbus is
that at the end of the project the
rideway would be transferred to Bexley
north of the curb so that sidewalk on
Livingston would become a Bexley
sidewalk um and we're pretty excited
about that tree laon as well so that's
moving forward and I think that's all I
have for now but I'm happy to answer any
questions oh I do want to point this out
this is a that's our yeah this is our
city hall cat that's Brandy she actually
lives at my house but she showed up uh
in the backyard a few weeks
ago she's now our alley the future she
the one with the she's she I normally
make her wear a cosmonaut hat yes that's
that is true um Elizabeth Garrett got a
birthday present to work the leaf crew
for an hour apparently she has always
wanted to do that so she helped us test
our equipment last week and I want to
recognize that neighbors were uh sure at
the uh at the Council Office hours this
morning morning I want to note that Troy
Markham is using a reusable mug as is
Monique you can't tell it's it's behind
uh behind someone's back there but
Monique I believe is also using her
usable mon so Props for that Matt but
Matt's not
Matt mayor's not but his car's not
idling is his car is shut
off he's actually just holding my drink
and I took his reusable mug just to make
myself look look better so it's good
also that's like one of four mugs that
Matt used right he just kept throwing it
away get another
one any
questions thank you all right I think
we'll turn over to Mr official all right
consent agenda the meeting minutes of
October 10th
2023 any comments or questions from
Council or our audience if not move to
adopt the consent agenda can I get a
second second second by Mr Kingler uh Mr
mCP please call the role Mr Marcelino
yes Miss lampy yes Miss s yes Mr Markham
yes Miss viable yes Mr Kingler yes Miss
Robinson yes consent agenda passes thank
you all right no third readings no
second readings but a first reading of
resolution 7-23 accepting the amounts
and rates as determined by the budget
commission and authorizing the necessary
tax levies and certifi find them to the
county auditor M Lamy thank you um I
think we may be missing an attachment or
some language to resolution
7-23 okay you
ready a good one I'm G put this in the
packet
herebody a
chance
I think under section two it ends with
as follows but there's nothing in the
resolution that incorporates exhibit a I
think there's just text missing from
this
resolution justop from last
year
um why don't we do this why don't I look
up because I know that
the feater shared with us that there is
a time crunch on this so why don't we
move forward with the meeting pleas is
the president and I will go back to our
last to be pass
okay yeah as you guys know this is a
resolution
that's by stat
simp what's our time table on your your
mic is off to by the way so sorry uh
yeah our timetable on on
this well I think beer was asking for
suspension adoption tonight but um the
implication is that if if it's not
passed by the end of October it's a
potential audit comment but
that's are are we good then to you think
we're okay to move it to the next
council meeting or you saying you're
going to reengineer this thing as we are
I'm gonna check into it real quickly
here to youdle in a few moments and you
are also doing a PowerPoint presentation
for this next part it's already
done maybe we can come back am
surprised uh I love it okay so we yeah
we'll maybe come back to this in a
moment oh that sounds good thank you all
right so
uh we are going to move into tabled
ordinances and I do apologize to council
because uh we we are going to I
believe take ordinance uh 1923 or plan
to take that off the table uh
momentarily tonight only for discussion
we do have some additional information
that I think the mayor wants to share
with us
uh so that's that's coming at us perhaps
right now Matt right yeah I'll make a
motion to remove ordinance number 19-23
from the table I'll second that um can I
get a Voice vote all in favor say I I
all oppose same sign all
right so the I'll kick it off by saying
the uh School Board um I think they
nailed down what they are to do with the
taxes for the school district so we need
to update this ordinance now that
they're done with their work um mayor
can you go into some of the details uh
you have more of the details of what
they decided to do and how that affects
us yes I would be happy to do that thank
you so um I'm gonna go
um into a
presentation that is on the agenda if
you go to tabled ordinances in your
packet you will see
uh file labeled 2023 1024 Tiff
update um but I will walk through this
with you real quickly um so the this is
by the way the latest rendering that
architecture review board was reviewing
uh last week at their workshop so the
design has been coming along like I
mentioned but that's not what the Tiff's
about uh a quick refresher Tiff stands
for tax increment
financing um because it is the
incremental increase from tax revenue
that provides financing um the the chart
in front of you is just an example it's
not it's not this site it's an example
of an instance where you might have a
base value of x and then as the value
increases the tax revenue associated
with that value increase gets diverted
into a special fund um that pays for
public uh improvements eligible public
improvements uh in the instance of this
property uh 2200 East Main
Street it is uh currently a tax exempt
site and so there is not currently a
base uh value that's receiving taxes but
when it stops becoming a tax exempt site
the auditor's base value at the time
will become taxable immediately um and
the Tiff will only ACR to new value uh
new new tax taxes associated with
increased value above and beyond the
base value so there still will be a base
value taxed um with the site like this
site site such as 22 M um I walked
through this chart with you back in the
spring and it's a lot uh but it's sort
of supposed to illustrate something and
hopefully it kind of does um and what it
shows is how a tiff brings in Revenue to
a city and this this chart is just a
theoretical property that would
theoretically be valued at
450,000 and it kind of shows you what
happens when a tiff is applied and the
blue lines show represent Revenue that
comes in on a standard Norm normally
taxed parcel and the green lines
represent what would come in with a tiff
applied and so what you can see is the
city's portion goes up and then some of
those uh County and other issues are a
little bit lower that's across the board
and when a school is not participating
the schools are made whole it's it's
level um whether or not the schools
participate in a tiff is 100% entirely
up to them it has nothing to do with us
they have to decide whether or not they
want to participate in
Tiff why would they do that that's a
good question for the schools uh there
are some reasons why they might choose
to participate in a tiff um for example
if you have a site that is tax exempt
and I'm I'm not putting words in their
mouths because I I do not do not cannot
and will not represent their logic but
when you have a site that's tax exempt
and you're supporting development is
allowing development to occur on that
tax exemp site that might be a strategic
reason that the schools uh would
participate in a tiff another reason
they might parti participate as if
there's something else in it for them or
they're generally supporting the
development objectives of the
city um this this site uh as proposed
this Tiff and I say proposed because
while the schools have approved of this
of the information I have up on the
screen you have not um and that would be
up to you to vote on uh so it's been
proposed in in as much as the developer
has has requested that we consider a
tiff um it is gener from our perspective
it is very similar to every other Tiff
we've provided on Main Street um when I
say from our perspective I mean what the
city is contributing to that Tiff is is
identical uh to other developments that
we've had that have occurred on Main
Street in many ways um there's a little
bit of a difference here when I say
identical I want to say it's identical
in the ter in the sense that it's a
30-year Tiff that it's providing City
Tiff Revenue to provide for public
improvements to the project uh and other
projects that are like this that we have
granted tiffs on include the Ohio State
Bank building they include the GI Eagle
Market District uh the the project um at
the GI Eagle Market District is helping
pay for the costs with this site um and
then there had been um additional tiffs
on um there was one at the Drexel for a
shorter period of time not identical a
little bit different um and so we've had
we've had two over the years I guess I
should say uh this would pay for bonds
directly connected to the proposed
public parking garage um uh the element
of that garage is that it would be
available to the public to park in
including available to this project to
use um the
bonds would be uh paid for by the Tiff
if the Tiff was short for some reason
the developer is obligated to cover the
spread the city is not obligated to
cover the spread um the schools have
agreed to participate uh with these
stipulations they would receive a
$56,000
pilot again that's also normal the
schools participated in the Giant Eagle
Tiff and we administer the pilot program
the pilot payment to the schools every
year um any excess Tiff revenues Beyond
The Debt Service payment would go to
schools so for example let's just
pretend a million dollars come in in
Tiff revenue and 8 00,000 these are just
madeup numbers $800,000 go to bond Debt
Service uh and 56,000 has already gone
to the schools in that pilot then there
would be remaining
$144,000 that would go to the schools in
that instance and why that matters
is um especially important today that
the that income the that sorry the
interest rate environment as we know is
not great and so there's definitely a
scenario where even though this Tiff is
is pretty tight when I say tight what I
mean is it it's going to raise probably
just enough to cover that Debt Service
there is a there is a uh scenario where
the debt gets um you know it
gets um refinanced essentially and the
rate goes down and then there's more
money available to go back to the
schools and the schools and we both have
the right to trigger uh to trigger re
reexamining that U that interest rate if
that should
change um the schools have also asked
for income tax sharing on income tax
from new employees to the second floor
office
space um Ohio statute uh provides the
schools with the affirmative right for
income tax sharing anytime that they um
anytime that they participate in a tiff
they have waved that for the overall
project but they have asked for it on
the office portion of the
development um we have the we have in
the spirit of negotiating before you
guys have a chance to vote on it we have
said that we would consent to that but
that if we had an income tax incentive
that we would only share net revenue so
for example if we we have an income tax
incentive um we did at Raymond James
that his rolled off um then the
remaining income tax revenue would be
split with the schools so that we would
get a piece of it and schools would get
a piece of it the other thing that we
asked is that it only be accur to new
employees so if there was an employer
that moved to this building that was
already in
Bexley um then th that that Revenue
would not be shared with the schools
pre-existing employee they have agreed
to that as well
um one of those is a good lesson that
was learned from the Gateway uh Gateway
incentive package which has just been
kind of a a bear in retrospect on in
some in some ways so those are the
general terms of the Tiff uh that Tiff
agreement is also attached to your
agenda um it is it's been updated in
October so you have the updated version
um again the schools have voted to
approve it you have the ability to say
no you have the ability to ask for
modifications um you should not feel any
pressure just because the schools
approved it I will say that this is a
very very similar income or sorry very
very similar incentive that is used in
other projects throughout Central Ohio
to provide for public parking so if you
go to the bridg park district of Dublin
this is identical to what they've
provided there um Upper Arlington Short
North areas where you see structured
parking structured parking is expensive
and Tiff is often the mechanism that
provides the financing for Structure
Parking Sam you have a question yeah uh
you say that this is similar to projects
been done in other areas but I think and
you then also said that the Gateway
project was a bear that was a bear but
for 15 years years correct in The
Proposal here's 30 any concerns about
the longevity here of this Tiff and is
it is it increased in terms of years
because of the number of units and the
difference in the size and I guess I
wasn't really parking at that I'm just
kind of working out loud with you here
let's check what my question is yeah so
want to be really clear Gateway was not
a tiff Gateway is a property tax
abatement um there the the only
similarity there is that there's income
tax sharing and the way that we did the
income tax sharing was a a little bit
shortsighted in my opinion um I can say
you know I I I wasn't part of it but and
I probably wouldn't have known it at the
time but like having administered it now
for 12
years you know you learn you learn uh
from experience do do you feel
comfortable here explaining why you
believe that because I think it might
give some insight as to when we work
through this as a whole and if it
requires a separate meeting I'm okay
with it but sure yeah it's really simple
um it's it's that it it has hampered our
ability to provide income tax incent
and still get revenue from from the
project so we've had Gateway was
struggling to fill office space and we
took a pretty proactive role eventually
after it had been vacant for a while um
Raymond James and
usrc both excellent employers that came
to that project we provided them with
income tax incentives and there was a
period of time where most all of that
income was going directly to schools and
we weren't getting anything because the
income tax incentive now now we're in a
position where we are realizing 50 % of
it um and it's about to roll off that's
going to expire I think after 2023 and
it'll all be coming to the city and it's
a really lucrative uh employ both
employers have been really lucrative so
uh it was I think we made the right
decision because it was one of the
decisive um factors that determined them
located in Bexley but it it was just
kind of like you know we had given away
the farm and the way that we structured
the deal and the schools I want to give
the schools real props because they've
been really transparent working with
this very cognizant of our issues vice
versa
um and sorry to keep talking but there's
one thing that I I didn't point out if
you read that Tiff agreement there's a
calculation that after a
certain if there are more than I think
it's 13 students to the pro property and
that's kind of based on how many
students had been there in the past that
it would trigger some additional um
priority preference to the tip paying
them back but it does not in any way
shape or form obligate us differently
than we are in anything that I just
showed you yeah thank
you just chime in uh a lot of us have
children in the schools here so I know
we're invested in what the school board
decided um at an hour and 19 minutes on
the school board meeting the last
meeting they dive into this whole entire
thing so there's a shortcut to getting
their perspective you know and they go
in depth VI Powers Alicia Mitchell they
ask a lot of good questions Kyle Smith
explains it all so it was very helpful I
watched it or listened to it um
so go check that out hour and 19 minutes
on
YouTube um very
helpful thank
you this income tax incentives then if
those come in those are those are born
solely by the city if those are offered
up they're not part of the
the there's not a split that comes after
those then is what you're saying so
there would be
an but not that one is what G okay so
that would be okay and that $56,000
annual payment that comes off the front
end of the Tiff collected is that right
okay yeah the way this is structured
what the reason I say it's identical is
because today we have Tiff agreements
where the Tiff payments are going to pay
for a public
project you know it's it's the City's
piece of the Tiff it's no more than that
that's no less than that that is exactly
what will happen this instance if the
Tiff does not produce enough revenue for
the bonds the developer needs to to come
up with a
shortfall um if the developer can't
there's recourse so it's it's the city's
protected and I would um suggest that
this is sort of a good first step
presentation to then get Greg Daniels
who is our Economic Development Council
on this into council at the next meeting
to sort of explain more of the mechanics
behind that but he's been obviously
fastidious in making sure that that it's
structured appropriately and and I would
assume we would see a 30-year breakdown
plan for the financing proposed
financing for the
garage how that works out cost over 30
years yeah okay we can yeah certainly
get you that um another thing that is in
your packet is a tax productivity
analysis and if if you guys would allow
me a a moment to kind of nerd it up with
you on that um I'd like to sort of
explain it
so I understand this has actually been
in the packet now for the past three
meetings I think so you might have
already looked at this
um but there are three columns here the
the column on the left shows you what is
currently happening on that site which
is a pretty easy one to show you because
it's tax exempt so there's not a whole
lot happening there the auditor has a
value ascribed to
it we could assume that if those
apartments were occupied there would
be income tax revenue coming both to the
city and to the school district and so
we've sort of calculated that based
upon what is market rent for those and
what sort of income would be necessary
to rent those
properties and and I want to explain
when we when we
forecast income tax from residential
units we use the bare minimum
underwriting criteria that would allow
someone to live in those units so for
example um if rent is $1,000 a month and
the calculation is that rent is to be no
more than 30% of your expenses we're
just saying how much you need to make to
afford $ thousand dollar at the lowest
amount so it's a conservative estimate
and the reason I say that is we know for
example that
um in some of our other living
situations on Main Street there are
households that make far more than would
be necessary to afford the rent or the
or the purchase of those house
households so um this is a this is the
bottom level of income tax that would
come in
um so the center column shows what the
condition would look like with a tiff in
terms of receipts that come
in and uh based upon some assumptions of
of based upon the cost that has been
communicated to us we have uh value of
uh retail office space value of
residential units um the sort of kind of
minimum payroll that might come in
minimum income tax um that might come in
there are lots of footnotes so you can
read what all those assumptions are
based off of um and then how much of
that is getting diverted into a tiff and
how much of that is coming in to
Baseline property tax receipts pilot
payments income tax receipts um so tax
productivity
as
proposed and then also on the right hand
column it would be what would tax
productivity be like post Tiff at
today's
dollars and I obviously 30 years from
now the economic conditions would be
different so this is not trying to be a
crystal ball into a 30-year future
economy it's just saying what it would
look like today uh were there no Tiff
there
yep yeah so the where at the bottom
where it says debt issue is
that is that the one million 18947 times
something I have to I'd have to go back
to okay that's fair it's been a couple
no no that's fair um and I think we have
a new debt schedule so I would have to
to compare and contrast okay where that
stands just trying to understand what
the numbers mean not necessarily what
they are going to
be it most like I don't look at it most
likely it's the capacity of the 899,000
Tiff receipts to add a five and a
quarter interest rate U it's the
capacity of what could you know come out
of
that thank you for this this is really
great I I know your birthday's next week
and you're like about 10 years younger
than me so you're probably a little more
excited about the 30-year reality than
than I am
but it's nice to see it TI tiffs are
typically 30 years uh they don't have to
be I mean they could be shorter than
that but it's often the sorts of
infrastructure improvements that are
being made you know kind of do require a
longer a longer tail so and again I you
know to be serious again though I mean
that would be based on again seeing that
that number for financing for that
garage project which is important I
think
I will make sure that gets circulated is
there anything else that you would oh
and that's I want to be clear about that
so there are many other Tiff eligible
expenses in this project we are not
proposing funding those we're proposing
only the public parking garage you say
Tiff eligible you just mean by law that
we could by law you can yeah Tiff could
pay for you know demolition it could pay
for utilities coming to the site um The
Proposal that we have is the Tiff is
focused on the public parking component
on
anybody else with comments or questions
yeah Matt um I appreciate the rundown
and the the heavy lifting mayor on all
the numbers and facts and figures um
just ask the council take a good hard
review of these uh reach out to uh me
and please copy the mayor with questions
um and then I
think I'm hoping to get a vote on it at
next council meeting if we can with a
pending Bap approval um so we can give a
more clear Direction so let's let's be
clear about what you're asking for there
what we would be voting on is acceptance
of the
tiff with the condition then that Bap
approves the current design or what so
it would be conditional on zoned
entitlement so you would say yeah we
approve it but if it doesn't get zoning
entitlement then we don't approve it
which is obvious kind of because it
can't get built without zoning
entitlement but it's just it's it's
reiterating the fact that um you know
the zoning rights to the project through
VAP yeah would need to occur in order
for the Tiff to occur are there any
changes significant changes then that
we're talking about that could be made
as part of that process that might
affect whether we would vote approve
this or not oh so would the site you're
saying would you be concerned about so
what if p for instance uh increases or
cuts the amount of parking in that
parking garage or changes significantly
this building I mean that's that would
be well this is a unique situation
because you will will also need as part
of this project provide cross access
easements in the future um to provide um
you know sort of a shared parking
agreement um we're going to be asking to
encroach our own parking lot on this
site so there's a lot of there a lot of
other legal agreements to follow so you
have other triggers to help control that
those those concerns okay you could also
put language in this proposed amendment
ordinance that would say in
substantially similar maybe not
substantially similar form but in a you
know markk could come up with some
wording that would probably satisfy your
concern that the that the development
change radically from what's proposed
well in a negative way and I it is very
possible I misunderstood you I thought
the Tiff was not going to be voted on by
Council until after Bap approved things
in fact sitting here tonight I just sent
an email to somebody who inquired about
that and told them that and I'm not
saying I was I'm not saying I was it's
certainly possible I was I misunderstood
um that was what we had talked about
okay um I think that there's concern
about the timing of being able to pull
all the pieces together with the Bap and
the Bap meeting schedule and in the
council meeting schedule so they were
they were asking that we make it
conditional upon zoning because that was
the concern that we that I had expressed
that we had sort of said we want to wait
for zoning and they said well can you
make a conditional F zing and again you
don't you don't need to do that but that
was the request no yeah right you don't
have to do that I guess what I want to
think about in the next week or so is
how to go about doing that you know just
thinking out loud which is can be a
dangerous thing um you know we could say
that it's subject to approval by Z be Z
approval um um in a manner satisfactory
to city
council that is that overstepping city
council city council overstepping their
bounds because they're not the ones who
are reviewing that and it could come to
them on an appeal potentially so I got
to think of that again I'm just thinking
out loud but I understand what Troy is
saying for sure I mean I don't think
anybody up here I don't want to speak
for anybody but wants to be you know
come back and see I mean it could even
be small changes that trigger major
concerns from council members or members
of the community we don't know what we
might be concerned about is the thing
yeah I mean so that that's that's a
challenge right and again I I can
certainly work on coming up with some
language I just would want I need to
give that some
thought yeah I just want to say this is
also unusual and that you have other
levers to pull
too right but I don't want I I'm
reluctant to again gut reaction but I'm
reluctant to say and subject to all
these other approvals down the road and
then have city council say we don't like
X and we're going to withhold some
easement access and blow up the
project and we'll end up in
litigation I mean that again I I'm not
saying we can't figure something out I'm
just saying that we need to be yeah
pretty precise but also General enough
so we can consider anything that Council
might want to take into consideration if
you see the final plan and then say uhuh
that ain't going to get my approval yeah
and again without like we could I feel
like this probably just needs deeper
conversation agre and an approach but I
just want to reiterate this there is no
there is no legal obligation the council
has to provide cross access easement
there is no legal obligation the council
has to do that so that is a that in of
itself would not allow the project to go
forward so there are other levers that
aren't normal uh with this project we
need to have a deeper conversation
you're 100% right yeah and I'll stop
trying to think just off the top of my
head okay just again for a little
followup question of that I know you
explained this probably in the beginning
but Lyn so what is the
timing what's What's the timing
consideration that we're being asked to
to make this change and do this now um I
think in November
um they had and again I'm so I'm like my
job here is to just try to communicate
to you what what has been requested and
to try to find a reasonable to broker a
reasonable way to do that I think a
November approval has been requested
it's possible be appr which approval
Tiff by us for the Tiff correct and it
has to do with the contract on the site
okay and it is possible that not just
the contract preparation legal documents
it's possible that the Bap ruling
doesn't occur in November um so Council
should not feel rushed if it's if it's
something where you guys feel like hey
this is UN unreasonable request what
I'll do is I'll get more information
because it felt to me when I was
discussing it and it's again this was
sort of a conversation I had this
afternoon so this is newer to me but
when I was discussing it it felt like
the contingency could satisfy the zoning
concerns we had had in the past but you
guys rais some great points and that's
how the that's the whole whole point I
having the conversation right now are
they are they planning on being on the
Bap they're planning on being Bap
tomorrow night no right no they're not
they were their site planning is still
developing based upon
architecture okay I thought after that
Workshop they had a clear Direction and
they were going to try to get on the
agenda for tomorrow night no okay yeah
or not tomorrow night Thursday night
thank you yeah I'm looking at it on my
calendar yeah wrong day
um okay well we'll see where it goes um
it in the next two in the next you know
coming days if you have questions just
reach out to me and um no I've still got
a question for you yeah so uh I mean
what do you think about this because I
mean I guess I feel very comfortable
with I hear you with doing a tiff after
Bap does an approval because that makes
sense to me and that's something I can
sell to the residents here but I feel
somewhat
uncomfortable doing this and saying
well especially because I know there's
already been significant changes so I'm
just interested in your candid feedback
Matt yeah um I'm comfortable with the
picture we have now I'm I'm I'm I'm of
the same mindset so like the way it's
structured now I'm comfortable but to
your point if you know they got to go
back to the drawing board and dzap tells
them a bunch of things and things
change um and like I said Mark I don't
know if you can come up with language
that says if there's substantial change
from the last Bap submission or you know
if if they say oh you know we can only
provide 150 parking spots we're going to
reduce you know the space of our garage
yada yada y then I feel like it should
come back to us and we we need to
revisit it um right that's where I'm at
with it right now but as it stands right
now I'm very I'm comfortable with the
way it
looks we comfortable with the Tiff the
ordinance the way the amount of par the
amount of units the amount of parking
the amount of revenue revenue that would
be coming into the Tiff the whole the
numbers piece of it I'm comfortable um
but I didn't even think about the point
you raised so I'm glad you raised it
okay if if they drastically
change because that can happen yeah I
mean I'm gonna be relying on you a lot
for some of the judgment and info coming
from those B app yeah I Wasing I was
hoping I was hoping they would be on
Thursday's meeting I I didn't realize
they weren't going to so we'll find out
in November um to the financial piece I
know and it's not our problem I'll say
but from the financial piece I think
from the developer they were I think
they were trying to line up closing or
or financial with the banks uh for
November now Frank did say in the bat
meeting I can ask for an extension
because I'm Frank but um I mean I think
he said literally those words maybe um
something that
effect I think like I think what I can
do is I can go back to our Council our
our Development Council and Mark uh just
sort of talk through what you guys are
saying and see if there are any ideas
that are generated from that yeah I
would just I would just want to be as
specific as possible in terms of the
contingencies that can trigger Council
to say never mind I would rather not
leave it up to well we didn't say we
would Grant you an easen and we you know
but now we're not going to so go back to
Bap kind of deal I'd rather be up front
with everything as much as we can think
of that is that would be
contingencies um to allow Council a
second chance to review this if any part
of it is not going the way within reason
Council wants it to go design wise and
whatnot I guess what I would ask is I
don't I don't foresee it changing
drastically so if you would um I'm I'm
asking a favor maybe of all of you to
review the ordinance the way it is and
the numbers and feel comfortable with it
and then come to the next meeting maybe
prepared to speak more about it and to
say you know yes you're in favor no
you're not in favor and then we can give
a more clear path
um to the development okay yeah I mean
I'm I'm sorry I don't mean to keep
hogging this discussion either I'm just
uh do you have any nightmare scenarios
in your head where you say we approved
this and then something happens to
change that design and then you go well
wait I now I don't like that I mean
maybe that's not a fair question I
didn't until you said it um no no I
think I think they're pretty I think
they're pretty locked in I think
architecturally they've they've made a
lot they made a lot of changes the most
recent renderings are a drastic change
and for the better um I don't see the
numbers changing a whole lot okay from
from a BAP decision um I'd also add the
Bap and arv are being incredibly
rigorous I know they are oh yeah but I
think makes me happy just I want to
affirm what you're asking makes perfect
sense and I think that we just need to
discuss a little bit more and and think
through I don't have any doubt about
that they're doing their jobs well I'm
just talking about our responsibility
here with passing this Tiff that's all
I'm
saying here's what I'll say to that and
Sam you have a question I want to make
sure Oh I thought you rais your hand
sorry out of the corner of my eye Frank
the developer Frank has constantly said
you know it's not your problem to ARB
and Bap meaning their problem it's his
problem about he he needs the density
for the units to have the units you have
to have the spaces right of the garage
so there's there's a a financial
incentive to have a garage of this size
because of the density that they have in
the units so yes they're going to change
the architecture but I don't see the
density and the amount of units changing
yeah he'll change his architecture but
they got to get the units and they in
order to do that they got to get the
parkings and we're getting a tiff on the
parking garage so I don't see the
numbers changing that much does that
make sense yeah yeah okay but I don't
have any nightmare scenarios because I
don't even know what that might look
like I'm just saying no yeah I you know
I'm just saying like I feel I felt
really good about what we were doing
before and now I feel a little weird
that you know yeah so yeah go ahead so I
just want to understand the timeline so
November 14th is our next council
meeting so what you're asking is that we
have reviewed the Tiff and we come
feeling like we are educated on it have
asked questions of you or mayor Kesler
yeah um but it is not going to be on the
Thursday Bap agenda so Bap will see this
for the first time after our November
14th
meeting they've seen it they've seen it
they've seen it yeah but what they saw
was very different
from right the site plan changed quite a
bit and bap's focused on site plan
obviously any
variances so November 14th we meet
November 28th we meet again and then
they'll
see the new it'll be in front of them
November
30th not the 30 yeah 30th right because
it yeah it's it pushed a week because of
Thanksgiving yeah and it could I mean
based out of the last Workshop that they
ARB had um with the developer was it
Tuesday or last week
um variances could come out of that more
special permits different things could
come out of that so maybe that's why
they're they're trying to reconfigure
and then they can't be on Thursday so
would be November 30th I have it on the
calendar is the next pleas that me did
you just say that I'm sorry if I just
refused okay yeah
so other questions comments well we've
got it
out if not I think we got a
motion I make a motion to table
ordinance 19-23 I'll second that uh can
I get a I all in favor I all opposed all
right uh we Sam do we have
another yes uh I moved to remove
ordinance 3523 from the table I'll
second that uh all in favor I say
I all oppose same sign all right this
remove Sam so the mayor and I have been
discussing this one and it came about
via the previous uh dog ordinance that
was passed the last meeting I am only
taking it off tonight just to ask ask
you all to take a look over it and
consider your level of comfort with
removing specific breeds from the
language completely uh we have discussed
potentially leaving it as it is we have
discussed uh enumerating enumerating the
types of and breeds of dogs that would
be uh dis I
guess how do I want to say this governed
by this I guess in terms of it um and
then we've also discussed completely
removing
U breed specific language completely um
as a whole so I just am going to ask you
all to take a look at it I'm not in an
extreme rush to get this one off of uh
the table and voted on but I want to do
it right so I just ask everybody to take
a look and what I may do is open it back
up at the next meeting uh take it off
the table for questions comments
thoughts Etc I also welcome them now if
anybody has any questions comments
thoughts
Etc just your
so Sam if I'm on I know we talked about
it at pre-council a little bit so when
you say taking that that third option
you were mentioning is that mean includ
allowing the Animal control officer to
designate specific dogs based on their
an incident as correct based upon an
incident as opposed by just saying a
breed is okay I just want to make sure
that by case understanding that's we
talking about and just to further
clarify that that is our current law
provides for that so that we wouldn't we
would just be striking the any breed
specific legislation
yes so all right seeing no further
discussion at this time I appreciate the
time and I will move to place ordinance
bless you 3523 back onto the table I'll
second that all in favor say I I all
opposed all right I think we can move on
to uh committee reports looks like we
have Mr president yes um we can probably
go back to that one ordin resolution
that we had taken a pause on the first
reading if it's oh I'm sorry I forgot we
were still doing some work on that yep
um so we have a proposed amended
resolution
723 good thing you had all that downtime
in the last few yeah minutes hanging out
here some resolutions I do note that the
language that doesn't make sense in
section two did appear in past versions
so good
[Laughter]
catch yeah I think you take out and
be I think the be it further refers to
section two which we don't need I think
I think it's a clerical M clerical
change if you just take and be it
further because it makes no sense and
it's confusing and just go straight to
section
twole so it would it would read like
that it would read and be it further
wouldn't even be
there and our hereby accepted period
right section two oh I'm sorry you're
not looking at my screen I'm
sorry uh
you're missing out on this guys it's
good at this point in time I now have so
many windows
open will I find it will I find it there
you go
sorry
uh no that's not it's not
sharing all right again it's clerical if
people are comfortable approving it and
the final version won't have those four
words I think we're perfectly fine to v
on it in my
opion oh I I shared the wrong word doc
sorry gosh proposed
amended there we go oh that's beautiful
that's the one be
further okay and then that
that that sheet that looks like it's
been xeroxed 20 times uh would be
exhibit a which is
did did you say we need emergency
language in this or just adop an
emergency but I think he's asking he
wanted to suspend and adopt
okay
okay uh comments
questions I just want to look at Mark's
face all right I feel
good do you feel good I I I do now that
it incorporates the right exhibit and
reads correct I move to amend resolution
7-23 as shown on the
screen motion to amend by Miss
lampy I'll second it seconded by Mr
Markham um Mr mCP Mr Markham yes Mr
Kingler yes Miss sad yes Mr Marcelino
yes yes Miss viable yes Miss lamkey yes
and Miss Robinson yes so amended so I
move to suspend the three reading
requirement for amended resolution 7-23
motion to suspend the three reading R
Miss lampy seconded by Mr Markham Mr M
PE Mr Marcelino yes Miss Robinson yes
Miss F yes Miss sad yes Miss lamkey yes
Mr Mar yes and Mr Kingler yes motion to
suspend three reading rule
passes I move to adopt amended
resolution
7-23 motion to adopt Miss Lamy second by
Mr Markham um at this point I think we
can open up for any questions
comments Mr MC peek Miss fibble yes Mr
Kingler yes Miss lamkey yes Miss
Robinson yes Mr Markham yes Mr Marcelino
yes Miss sad yes motion to pass the
amended
resolution
passes it did okay sound good okay let's
go to uh chair reports Mr
Kingler thanks president Markham we have
a land use strategy commission 2.0
public Workshop coming up on November
1st uh we also have our next Bap meeting
this Thursday night and then our next
ARB meeting is uh Thursday November 9th
and a report thank you Miss
fible thank you um I have I have two
things um one is related to service one
is related to things going on in the
city and and and a little bit personal
as well um first thing is um the Eco
challenge that we all have been part of
I hope we have Team Vexy has slipped
down to number 10 so if you could get on
it let's check in okay let's be as green
as we can be we still sign up for that
thank you slipped off I don't think that
it's too late I don't think it's too
late get on that Elizabeth Elman I will
ask her to make that
happen there's a lot
um a lot of times I have been said I
have been told if you see something say
something if you hear something say
something
um and I'm really
sad that I need to say that there is an
individual who is running for city
council who was
uninvited to speak in front of a group
of
individuals
because he supports
Israel
um I think based on that amazing
resolution that we put forward
earlier this year thank you president
thank you Mr
Robinson that we need to be really
careful as a
city to partner with
organizations that do that to me that
is exact what we're talking about with
anti-Semitism it it truly truly is um
suggesting that because this gentleman
is Jewish he supports some sort of
genocide is completely completely
inappropriate um my husband and our
mayor were part of a gathering this
weekend I could not go because I was
settling my daughter in um to an
apartment in New
York um while I do not
approve of some of the bullying tactics
that individuals use on Facebook and no
I didn't I was not asked to put sign up
in my yard
either um I will I will gladly but I was
not so I I I I would ask that the
Facebook individuals to please stop
bullying my council members but I will
also I also truly want to share with you
because I do feel like I need to say
something and I am going to make sure
that those Facebook bullies do know
where I stand so I'm gonna read to you
Jonathan asked me what should I say in
front of this group of
people and I said I started telling him
what I thought he should say and he
said you know what please put it into
writing for
me so in front of a very large group of
individuals from the Jewish Community
who by the way raised $22
million for Aid humanitarian Aid to
Israel my husband shared this as a
Catholic mother
who has done a darn good job of raising
Jewish children I have made sure that my
babies are proud
Jews sadly all three of them each in
different cities in
America have had their hearts torn out
by what has happened in
Israel and just when they are down the
evil of anti-Semitism creeps out from
every dark spot to kick them down
farther it is is not just biased news
programs and
newspapers they have dealt with
derogatory comments in group chats which
they consequently had to leave they have
stopped following classmates on social
media post whose they just couldn't
handle anymore and worse had to defend
their love of Israel against words they
never thought a friend would
say never have I thought that I would
have that I I would have the need to
have a safe haven for my
American
children never did I think never
again could happen
again no other country is expected to
turn the other cheek when
terrorized we need Israel to exist and
remember I was my words were to a group
of Jewish
people the Israelis are fighting not
only for their right to
exist but for the existence of the Jews
I have
raised as well as for all the Jews I
love I just felt like I needed to say
that and I'm taking this opportunity to
share with you and I hope other people
listen
because the Jewish people need a safe
haven and I would encourage all of you
to educate yourself about the history of
the Jewish people um not only in the
land of Israel but everywhere in the
world thank you for
listening end of our rep
rep can I say something I'm sorry Troy
may I just sure sure and this is just a
p as a piece of Education because this
did happen over the weekend where there
was a pro Palestinian um rally downtown
which again First Amendment every
absolutely should they should be out
there whether we agree or disagree they
have the right to be out there but I
just want my non-jewish friends here to
understand when some things are said
which were said during the rally um
including and I'm not going to get both
I wish I could figure it remember the
other one I I'll share it with you so
but one of the main chance was from C to
C that is when you hear that that
explicitly means that the objective is
for Israel not to exist as anything
other than a Palestinian state that is a
common phrase used from C to C and it is
it it is synonymous with the
annihilation of the Jewish people in
Israel I am not going to share trigger
coat that and again for my non-jewish
friends here I just want you to
understand that and it made me think of
it with loran's comment so
thanks thank you
missad so um laurian thank you for
sharing
that
can I come to my report
last sure sure you want me to come back
to uh Miss
Lamy um quick report uh I reminded
Council uh if you have not already
please reach out to Natalie and the
mayor's office so that you can set up
your uh meeting with the mayor and your
assigned uh um department heads to uh
discuss your uh budget wants and desires
um it is expected that at our next
council meeting on November 14th um we
will have a first reading for the budget
um but please go ahead and set up those
meetings as soon as possible um with the
uh with mayor's office if you can uh we
are obviously in the middle we're
approaching budget season um at least
the next couple meetings will probably
be long um mayor do you know yet uh who
might be coming to that first reading um
of the
budget um yeah it would probably be um
the police department and um the some of
our general city hall funds and then an
overarching uh presentation of the
budget okay sounds good um so if you
can't just get this in
um
and other than that that's the end of my
report and then just to clarify when we
return in
uh when we return in November that would
be the first reading we would have the
first reading is that what we're think
14th okay yes thank
you uh
same yes thank you very much uh as
health and safety chair uh here for city
council I certainly want to encourage
any member of our committee that has any
safety concerns to please reach out to
see how we as a city can help protect
you and your family uh it's been
heartbreaking to hear of many close
friends and people I consider family
frankly telling me that they're updating
their security systems they're
considering buying weapons they're doing
anything that they can do to protect
their family and so I just want to uh
you know from my stance do anything that
I can to try and help protect you and
your family you know there is a lot that
is said on Facebook and I appreciate
that and you know I am not very public
in sense of what I post and what I don't
post and what I share and what I don't
share in terms of black lives matter I
didn't post a black Square on Black
Tuesday I didn't find it uh important to
get likes or or comments uh for for my
position on a stance I don't have a vote
Yes on issue one sign in my yard but I'm
going to vote Yes on issue one um I live
in Bexley for a reason because I want to
be surrounded by our community commun
members and I want to be here for our
community members when they're in need
and so I just want to reiterate if
anybody has questions about where I
stand my email is on the website I'm
absolutely happy to engage in discussion
that's why we have office hours so we're
here for additional comments and
concerns to be addressed and moreover if
there are any issues regarding safety
that I can be of assistance with that I
can help direct that I can do anything
for you and your family to protect you
please come talk to me that's why you
put me here and I want to make sure I do
my job for you
thank you thank you Sam uh Miss
Robinson well I was going to remind
people of the uh Bexley strategic plan
meeting on November 16th from 5:30 to 7:
which I clearly just did um lauan thank
you for for what you said um I reached
out to Troy last week and said you know
I've I've got a lot of my mind about
what's happening in this world and it
affects us all very very deeply and
I felt that for the remaining few weeks
that I have this this chair I have an
opportunity to say something I realized
that my take on the issue might not be
the same as everybody else's I'm a
Catholic Woman married to a Jewish man
raising Jewish
children I had a nephew who was in
Israel when all of this happened he's
out thank God this is real what's
happening is real but there's
I'm going to read what I wrote
Because it's just too important not to
say two weeks ago I was grateful for
readdressing our anti-Semitism
resolution at the time we all felt
overwhelmed by a sense of
inaction it felt meaningful both
personally and as a councel to show
support for our Jewish
community in the preceding weeks the
feeling of overwhelming sadness has
stayed a constant part of my
day the images and stories on our TVs a
continual reminder of the worst of
humanity the abhorent attack by Hamas on
Israel the very definition of a
terrorist act cannot and must not be
tolerated the callous disregard for the
lives of Israelis cannot be
justified the history of the conflict
between the Jews and the
Palestinians is long and
complex however an act of terrorism is
not now nor ever will be just a
justifiable solution
period and the sadness
remains while the Jews suffered an
enormous tragedy and attack against
their very
humanity and while I believe that Israel
is well within their rights to eradicate
Hamas I don't want to lose sight of my
own
Humanity those images on our TVs are not
just have captured
Israelis innocent Palestinians have been
tragically affected by this terrorist
act as
well they may not like
Israel and or Juda ISM but they are not
all combatants they have been injured
displaced and even killed as we show our
support to the Jewish community and
stand with Israel in their Justified
attempts to eradicate Hamas and their
followers I will not forget that all
innocent lives deserve our Humanity in
equal measure life cannot become less
precious for those who were brutalized
by hamas's evil attacks simply because
we are now at war with that
evil my husband who is Jewish said
something to me that really stuck with
me it isn't by chance that Shalom is
used to say hello goodbye and
peace that conviction should grow as
Israel grapples with its pain as we all
grapple with our pain it is a pain we
all share but that conviction does not
stop at the Gaza border and if it does
Who Have We
Become I have no
answers all I can say with any certainty
is that when the worst of humanity acts
with disregard for the lives of those
they perceive as enemies as well as
their own people we must remember the
humanity of all those affected by this
conflict and most importantly remember
the need for tuna um the repairing of
the world
thanks thank you
Jen i
s it has been a hard few weeks of
knowing what to do and how to handle
things
um many of my our Jewish friends have
been reaching out to us just to know
that how we can support and I've
constantly said please continue to
educate me so we can lean in so what I
wanted to say tonight just to reiterate
is that as the mayor said in his Bexley
blast on Friday that we are committed to
ensuring Bexley is a place of Peace for
all those who live and work and visit
here and we will work tirelessly to Ure
that our Jewish neighbors are safe and
secure in their homes and our community
spaces that we are here for our Jewish
neighbors and our community and you are
all important to us and there's no
silence here that's what I wanted to say
um I'll end of report
there your mic's not on I feel very
supported by everyone in this room and
people not in this room too so I I I
want to say I just wanted to say that I
should have said it earlier thank you
Mark I know you had some followup stuff
that you thank you and I'm quickly Gonna
Change of course for a second and say
that I purchased some copies of this
book by Laura meckler uh dreamtown
Shaker Heights and the Quest for racial
Equity she came and spoke at the library
and so the city hall library is open to
pass these out if anyone wants to borrow
them because they're in short supply at
our actual library and then I'm going to
donate them onto the library after
anyone's read them at once um the other
thing that I wanted to talk about is um
a lot I have to say a lot easier for me
to now because you guys have all spoken
so I'm glad that I forgot to point this
out to you until just now um today I uh
placed a white and blue ribbon set on my
front Tree in my front yard um there's a
ribbons for Hope campaign I have more
ribbons in my office if you guys would
like them um I've been asked by a lot of
people uh if the city can have signs in
city hall or ribbons and City Hall to
hand out and I've explained to them that
the city of Bexley cannot do that um the
city of Bexley can't
U pass out uh material that's that that
could would fall under the situation
where we'd have to provide the same
material for any other group that
requests it and so a pro Palestinian
group would have to be given the same
consideration um and so just as we have
not done this in the past we the city
cannot do that so if somebody asks us
about that that is in no way shape or
form a lack of support for our Jewish
community
and I think Jen you said so beautifully
what has been weighing on my heart which
is this the pain of innocent lives being
lost
and I feel like a grizzly bear when it
comes to our community our Jewish
Community I feel a sense of of of
protection I feel a sense of um care
that is that is guttural right
but we've all now come under Fire in the
past few days because we've been asked
make the statement I stand with Israel
and put a sign out that says I stand
with Israel and the challenge that was
so beautifully said to by you is what
does that mean it's more complicated
because there's a lot of political
consideration tied into that and so I
said to
myself how do I best explain that to
somebody that says I want you to say
these words I stand with Israel and put
this sign out in your yard
um and so I want to say that I of course
I stand with Israel and by that I mean
this but I stand with our Jewish
community and I wrote some things down
as I thought this I stand with our
neighbors we stand with their freedom
and their right to security we love our
Jewish Community it's also our
community we will surround them with the
sense of Peace belonging and security
that they deserve we understand the
rightful fear of anti-Semitism and
persecution and we join them in saying
never
again and for us these are not empty
words we have resourced positions within
our Police Department to put money where
our mouth is we regly focus our
attention and care to these very issues
at no time in more pressing and Urgent a
manner than in today we stand with our
Jewish Community we stand for their
rights with the sensitivity to the Deep
history of their persecution and with a
commitment to being allies and Defenders
of their right to peace security and
belonging we stand with our Jewish
community that is so powerful that we
stand with our Jewish community and I
really
hope that that message which we are
sending loud and
clear is heard and received and embraced
and that we continue to be a source of
of comfort and a source of protection to
our
community thank
you those words mean a heck of a lot
more than some resolution a piece of
paper that says the council stands with
Israel so thank
you sorry I interrupted and jum now I we
appreciate you weighing in as well and I
just really say that I just really
appreciate the the just the really
thoughtful speaking that you've all done
here tonight and I just I'm really
really proud to be a member of this city
council I I just really feel like this
group of individuals is just just a very
thoughtful
caring group of people and I I I really
am very pleased to be to be a part of
all you guys here tonight and thank you
for all this all the things you've said
I would extend now to public
comments all right if not I'll take a
motion to adjourn motion to adjourn I'll
take a
second second by Miss Robinson all in
favor I I all oppos sign thank you
everybody
know