my
these microphones do not work oh wait
this one does
i think mine does all right
check oh yes
uh
council
last
council meeting
of 2021
everyone that is with us this evening
thank you for coming mo harvey thank you
especially for being here and sharing
your husband with us for years upon
years upon years we are grateful
my heart right now is thinking a lot
lately
about
our neighbors to the south
um
i was blessed that my aunt and uncle
slept in their cellar that evening
but
didn't have any harm come to them
however the airport that is six miles
away
is has been devastated and i know you
like i am listening to them if any of
you come across a way that we can
personally help in some way or another i
would i would love to hear about it um
but we will send
healthy thoughts
warm prayers
and i know that kentucky takes care of
its own so i am proud of the con of that
state for for doing so so
um
we did start on a very silly bright note
all of us and i'm sorry to bring us down
but i do think that we need to
to be thinking about thinking about them
so
with that i would like to ask for the
last time of my sweet auditor
bill harvey to do roll call ms fibal
here mr klingler here ms zlamke
let's all stand for the pledge please
we had lots of special
individuals with us
last
week we were celebrating lots of
accomplishments um
this week we have
some special guests but no one specific
that's going to come
and speak to us under um item four
item five is public comment and i'm
guessing we have people that want to
give public comment
is it just spencer yes
spencer i'm gonna give you
not just i mean spencer the only
individual that is that is that wants to
speak with us this evening
spencer if it is related to the chief
no okay because i was going to give you
the option the mayor is going to give a
conversation about the chief and and our
our movement uh to replace him and i
thought maybe that might answer some of
your questions before you spoke and
maybe you'd want to speak about that but
having said that
and noting that you're
shaking your head no it's not about that
i would ask you to please come up remind
us
that you're spencer cajon and where you
live and that would be great
thank you my name is spencer and i live
in 679
and i'm here today to address the budget
changes
spencer i'm so sorry would you mind
turning on your microphone just push
that button right there that would
probably help wouldn't it
it's awesome excellent again my name is
spencer cahoon and i live at 679 vernon
road i'm here today to address the
budget changes that fund a housing
assistance program to support bexley
police officers choosing to reside
within bexley
this is on behalf of the bexley dei
where i serve as an executive committee
member
for those of you who may be unfamiliar
bexley diversity equity and inclusion is
a grassroots organization comprised of
community members advocating for
policies and practices that eliminate
racism and all forms of inequities in
bexley ohio
first off we would like to commend the
city for continuing to consider ways to
improve our police department
many community groups and individuals
have identified community engagement as
a target for improvement
encouraging our officers to engage with
our community as neighbors is a way to
improve community engagement
and to help us get to know the people
who serve us as officers
the high cost of housing in bexley has
been an obstacle to officers living here
and we are hopeful that this program
will have some impact in changing that
while this is one approach to addressing
community engagement and bpd
improvements we hope that this will be
one step in an ongoing process which
will require many different approaches
and ongoing examination of what is
working
with that in mind we hope that once the
details for this program are fleshed out
they will include regular review to
determine program utilization
and to measure the program's impact on
providing meaningful incentives
to people moving to bexley
that being said we must also express our
disappointment at city leaders who
created this policy without speaking to
the bexley coalition for equitable
policing during the initial development
phase
a year ago mayor kessler had indicated
to numerous community groups that he was
interested in considering proposals
for police reform but did not want to be
choosing proposals that might only be
supported by a few groups
he encouraged our bexley community
organizations
excuse me
focused on police reform to join
together so that reform measures could
be proposed and examined with a general
agreement with one voice
the bexley coalition for equitable
policing was precisely that
collaboration
to provide a connection between the
various community groups addressing
police reform matters and the city
for the last year the coalition has been
addressing police reform matters and
meeting with various city leaders on
various police related issues
this housing assistance was introduced
into the budget without any
communication with the coalition
it is ironic that a reform targeted at
improving community engagement would be
created without that same engagement
in bexley we pride ourselves on
collaboration
one of the benefits of collaboratively
including diverse voices at the
beginning of such a proposal is that
multiple perspectives insights and lived
experiences empower us to consider new
proposals critically and to create a
more robust final proposal
the community has come together to
create a community resource to
facilitate exactly this type of
collaboration at the city's request
we in turn
request that the city contact concerned
community groups through the bexley
coalition for equitable policing
to help develop details of this policy
and to provide feedback and assist with
future police-related
policy development
by working together we can ensure that
our policies they're never perfect
will be as strong as we can
realistically make them moving forward
we are all neighbors
seeking to help make bexley a better
place for everyone we look forward to
future collaborations that value our
diversity include our community and help
to create a more equitable bexley thank
you
thank you spencer
thank you i appreciate that
spencer if you if you're around for a
few more minutes i will i will address
some of what your comments were please
thank you
thank you thank you spencer thank you uh
mr mayor um so we are going to move on
to
a bittersweet moment for me
my last
president's report
um it has been a true honor to serve as
council president for the last four
years it has been a pleasure
to serve with the six of you
i am
so uh grateful
for your kind hearts
and your forward thinking
and your hard work
bexley is blessed to have each one of
you
richard
we're going to miss you
every challenge
that you have
been faced with
you always
do it in a spirit of goodness
and i am i am grateful for that
richard has dedicated
12 years of his life to the city
and for that we thank you
um
i am proud that we as a council can
close 2021
i'm knowing that our sweet city is
stronger
and kinder
greener
and more unified
because we
[Music]
chose not to be affected by our world
but to affect our world
we showed the world how the government
how a government
can govern
how it should be done
natalie mayor mark you each deserve our
gratitude for helping us bolster our
healthy environment of hard work do good
be respectful
thanks also to all the department heads
and their crews
for every
for yet another year of unwavering
dedication to our community that they
serve
is nothing less than remarkable
the dakotas say that a person is judged
by the tracks they leave
bill harvey
your tracks have helped to secure our
city's future
leaving us in a position to venture
forth safe and sound
our city has thrived under a watchful
eye
i am personally grateful for your blunt
honesty
gentle mentorship
and king business sense mostly i am
grateful you are my friend
p.s your phone number remains and will
continue to remain
on speed dial
thank you
um i will remind everyone that we have
appeal tomorrow night that starts at six
o'clock
and um the honorable miss sod will be
leading us through that
[Laughter]
and
it will be tomorrow night that we decide
when
hopefully with catherine's help
when we will announce our our decision
um
prior to i am i'm guessing prior to
the end of the year
um and also i will continue to remind
everyone that our swearing-in is the
third of january at seven o'clock
don't think i've forgotten anything
with that we will move on to
the city attorney if you have a report
sir how can i follow that up i do have
no i have no reports
that's the best way
administrative updates oh my goodness
andy bayshore you are up sir
yeah madam president i don't really have
anything to add to my written report
tonight um other than uh leaves have
been a hot topic and uh just so
everybody know just please be patient um
we're working extra shifts and working
saturdays
and the guys are working as hard and
fast as they can
i know they are and it's and it's it's
amazing to see them and what they what
they managed to get accomplished
um
eric ash was in the middle of main
street this weekend
grilling holes and
and fixing pipes
and he and a crew of at least two others
spent nine
hours on main street this weekend guys
nine hours
um a busy weekend for the department
yep it was i stopped to give him a thank
you hug and to uh thank the rest of the
crew and um please no we're grateful
thank you very much i will let him know
does anyone have anything to ask yes
assad has a question for you mr bayshore
yes mr bayshore um yes leaves are a hot
topic so i just wanted to kind of
do a quick reminder here on sunday night
i
was doing some of my leaves myself and
if you're worried about you know them
blowing or into your neighbor's yards or
whatnot you can always bag them
and put them out to the curb i did it
myself
and
you know and then they get picked up as
well so
it's so great that our city offers that
service and it's a wonderful thing but
there are a few different ways to do it
so
yes just a reminder and when you do put
them out make sure
they go to the
other side of the sidewalk um
please keep them the tree the tree lawn
please keep them out of the medium um
and i know i've seen it multiple times
you guys are working really hard so keep
up the great work thank you
anything else for mr bayshore
thank you andy if we don't talk to you
beforehand
happy holidays me too and we'll see you
in 2022.
chief reinhardt's up next
good evening madam president
good evening chief
this is yet another bittersweet
goodbye to you your last council meeting
as well
ma'am
do you have uh anything other than your
report tonight
uh no i do not
does anyone have any questions for
the chief
assad
and the
chief reinhardt in your report you you
shared
that the bexley police department
strives daily to be the best for our
community and profession
knowing that none of us in life are
perfect but we're we're trying our best
to be in the profession those
professions that we've chosen i share
that with you and i just wanted to say
thank you for your service and to remind
those who are working so hard for all of
us every night to be safe so that i can
sleep in my house next to my babies and
know that you guys are taking care of us
i just wanted to
also say to our department be safe
during the holidays and this time and
thank you for uh
for doing the best you can for our
community so and best of luck to you
thank you for your service thank you
ma'am
ladies and gentlemen anyone else have
any questions or comments
chief i just wanted to echo um
assad's sentiments um thank you for
everything you've done for our community
i hope you enjoy retirement i'm sure you
will
we appreciate everything that you've
done for us
and for our community so thanks for all
the hard work over i think 14 years
of course yeah 14 years yeah thank you
appreciate it thank you sir
ms lamke
chief i remember when you came on to the
city um and i just wanted to thank you
for a long tenure of service to
not only bexley but to our community
i wish you the very best in your
retirement and i know that it's not an
easy time for
anyone to be a police officer but please
know how much we have appreciated your
service and the service of your entire
department
we hope you have a wonderful wonderful
and restful adventurous retirement
thank you ma'am
mr robinson
good evening chief
i
i had some comments prepared for my
report and then it seemed silly to wait
until the end of the meeting when you
are
right here on our screen so i'm going to
share them now
two years ago when i came
onto council and was assigned the
safety and health committee chair
boy we could not have known what those
two years would hold both in terms of
safety and health
got the got a doozy of a committee for
sure
but i have to say
um how much i personally have
appreciated
your leadership during this time
um and i i mean leadership as much
leading the department as your
willingness to
lead us
to better understand policing and your
willingness
to i mean how many how many porch
coffees did we have where we
shared ideas
and pushed back at each other about
ways to do things and i so appreciate
that i think that
maybe not a lot of people in the
community know how willing you are to
have these conversations and i'm sad to
see you go
i
know that those are going to be some
really big shoes to fill
and i appreciate your
leadership in terms of my committee and
helping me to better understand what it
means to be a police officer not just
a police officer in the united states of
america but more importantly a police
officer in bexley so thank you for your
service and thank you for your
willingness to have hard conversations
and thank you for your willingness to
sometimes not agree but always do the
best for our city
thank you thank you for your kind words
i'm going to miss your like strolls down
main street and i am
going to
miss your kind words every time i see
you
i am going to miss hearing from your
departments uh
individuals who share their
their wonderful thoughts about
about you i talked to an officer
yesterday
um
who shared with me how kind you were
when he was um ill a few years ago
um
we will miss you
we will miss your insight on things i
will miss being able to
feel like i can uh
call you up and ask you questions and
and get your honest answers about things
um
so know you are loved
we always will have a slot for you on
the lawn because we love to listen to
you play the drums
so
thank you i enjoyed doing that thank you
thank you thank you we've all missed you
and you are appreciated please know it
take care anybody else
i i do want to add to the voices chief
uh
this is your boss how's it going good
sir good the uh
i first met uh chief i'm gonna call you
larry right now because that's what i
called you when i first met you because
i didn't know any better i first met
larry uh in
2007 when i was running for city council
and i remember touring the city with him
on bike
early on as a council member that was my
first ride-along
and uh and kind of seeing the city
through his eyes
and uh i will tell you
in my update i have outlined what he
achieved has achieved within the
department and i know it's not a
complete list chief
uh he wouldn't allow me to add any more
to the list after i i added i asked him
you know what else what am i missing
um and he doesn't want toasting which is
what we're doing right now
but he's in for some more before the end
of his term 10 years so sorry chief
i've enjoyed
our professional relationship i've
enjoyed our friendship
and uh i have appreciated the way that
you have calmly helmed this department
through
uh all sorts of uh
all sorts of different um
well for panicked phone calls for me
early on especially
dealing with uh
crime robberies things that we were
talking about but through um
through thick and thin and
your integrity
and your patients
are uh both both to be commended and and
both assets and attributes that i have
enjoyed uh through my time and i'm gonna
miss you chief as the chief
and i can i know that you're probably
going to want to kind of ride off into
sunset and totally
detach but we're not going to 100 let
you do that so uh
nice try in advance and uh thank you for
the time and your service to our
community
yes sir thank you
all right we're going to let you go
thanks
and we'll let you go
yes ma'am
be well
mark's having a side conversation here
uh michael price is up
you're there michael i am thank you
madam president how are you
he what no he's not
can you hear me literally an unplugged
thing
beautiful
can you hear us mike
i can hear you can you hear me i can
sort of hear you mayor you're so in the
background can you hear me
sorry we can hear you we can hear you
okay
um
before getting in the report if it's
okay uh madam president i would like to
also extend a a thank you uh to um
to richard uh and to bill and to chief
reinhardt for all their their service uh
to this community obviously as they
as an employee of this amazing city i
i'm also blessed to be a a resident and
i appreciate everything that they have
done
uh for our community um for the
community that i call home and uh all of
the support they've given me as an
employee of the city and
it's been a pleasure to work with all of
them and i can't thank them enough for
what they've done for all of us so thank
you all uh and and also i would i'd be
remiss to express the same uh to uh miss
fibal for your leadership as uh
especially through these last couple
years the difficulty we've all been uh
faced with
with covet and the challenges associated
with it but i i greatly appreciate all
the leadership that you've you've shown
over these two years as president so
thank you all
with that i don't have anything to add
to my my written report
anybody have any questions for michael
price
when does this when can we ice skate
mike
that's a that's a that's an answer
that's above my pay grade you have to
talk to mother nature about that all
right i'll discuss it with her
all right
thank you sir
thank you
we appreciate you be well
all right
bill harvey
what do you got for us
um
well
the uh the november reports up there as
you can see things are
uh as they have been uh we are spending
less in bringing in more than budget um
the
general fund is
at the end of november has
i don't know about three million down a
little bit ben if you'll raise that up a
bit if you would please a little more
yeah the general yeah yeah so we're
about three million dollars above where
we budgeted so
not too shabby um
i'll be happy to answer any questions
richard
yeah um one i was curious about the
interest income
account because that
with the higher cash balances and we had
a budgeted higher number than last year
i was wondering
and i don't think interest rates have
they've been fairly low
um
yeah what what would have caused that
big drop in interest uh it it could well
have been timing beecher are you on the
i phone here
i
i'm here bill what was the question i
heard
interest rate down
uh interest income is
is
below budget by 130 000 here today
um
interest rates are down um and our
carrying balances
they should be good you know what i'd
have to to get
um
during the budget i noticed that but i
haven't got a
i could i'll i'll check with uh our
investment advisors to get the exact
components of why that's down but
interest rates are not good
and
the possibilities
of
you know or the um
i'm saying the availability of good
investments has not been that great
i'll i'll get an answer to you richard
right
and then the other question and there's
just questions they're not accusations
or anything um but our franchise and roe
fees are down considerably as well even
though they were budgeted to be a lot
higher and i know we have a staff
member that's handling
our right-of-way um issues so i was
wondering if there's any explanation for
that well we have not yet billed our
right-of-way to the utilities which will
pay for that staff member
i was actually just speaking with our
service director this morning about that
the we have several utilities that
haven't yet reported on their on their
amount of um miles of use in the city
which is what we need for the
calculation
so we're going to double check with
legal counsel but we're going to
probably build them on an assumption
that that we will make
in a way that will protect us if we're
wrong in our assumption
um but uh so that they would have to
then kind of have the burden to prove
that that is not their
their miles used of right-of-way so it
has to be billed we're gonna we're gonna
build before the end of the year that
revenue might actually end up showing up
next year
um i don't know why it would be down
from
other like year to date last year
because we haven't to my knowledge done
anything differently and i wouldn't no
feature would know that he's about to
say
yeah it could be partly timing if we
haven't received because it comes in big
chunks also was not
i believe wow was purchased by another
company is that correct
and so we're going to have to make so
we'll have to follow up and make sure
that we make sure that company gets on
board with paying their franchise fees
because that could be part of the
problem there could be a delay there
thank you that's all i have
other questions
um
i just want to say to all of you how
much
i've enjoyed working with you i
appreciate all the support
all the comments it's been uh it's been
a fun several years
thanks to all of you and uh
call me if you need me but don't call
too often
[Laughter]
i think his sweet spot is eight o'clock
in the morning
after that he's really busy
[Laughter]
thanks that's all i have mr spreader
thank you mr harvey
mr mayor
you madam president um
my update is attached and i just closed
it hold on one second
uh to the agenda
a couple things to highlight um
one thing that you brought up in your
introduction to your roll call or
opening statements was the
victims of the tornadoes
in neighboring states
one of the things the red cross is
asking for is for blood donors and there
is a blood drive on friday at the bexley
public library 10 a.m to 4 p.m i think
they do that monthly so the next one is
in january on january 21st
um so that is one way that we can help
out and uh i you know for what it's
worth heard the governor of kentucky
asking for donations to red cross and
salvation army so that was
another another idea maybe
a couple things to cover here
i have
[Music]
a written uh thanks to the chief but i
think we
we covered that well during his his
report
um but i do want to talk about um
the replacement process for the chief
or the the search for a new chief
which i know will be of great interest
to the community and i wanted to
talk about some draft thoughts
for your input and feedback
and then
[Music]
incorporate those
into uh some a final process to
work with the community on so
in my report i have about three pages of
uh
the process um
outlining um selecting a search
consultant
going into initial stakeholder visits
and engagement
[Music]
actually
specifically mentioned a group spencer
was talking about earlier today
community survey and interaction
and creation of search advisory
committee
uh creation interview committee that
would be tasked with uh the actual
interviewing process
and how council is involved
throughout and then the final
confirmation process as well as a
timeline
hoping to be able to accomplish this
over a two to three month period
but i don't want to rush it either so
it's it's possible it takes longer than
that
i think the process will in and of
itself sort of
start to become clear with timing as it
gets started
um in the interim deputy chief kenneth
goff will be our acting police chief
until a new chief is selected and
installed
all this is i don't i don't want to sit
here and read this word for word i've
circulated to you guys in advance
and would welcome any feedback at this
time
and also welcome feedback from the
community so this is on our on our
agenda online
uh i have my phone number here
to reach me with any thoughts be happy
to talk about
this process in advance of finalizing it
so
fire away if you guys have any uh any
feedback or thoughts or anything you
want to talk about
ladies and gentlemen
monique did you ever hand up i'm sorry
mayor can you talk about the process to
select the
search consultant
if you know what that process is already
you might not as just yeah so i have
i've been assembling it with the help of
i got to give credit to brian jury who's
um
has a spreadsheet with all the different
search consultants that have helped over
the past two to three years with
different chief searches in central ohio
so i have a whole list of who helped out
locally
and um some information on those firms
and what they what they cost for the
different cities so i am in the process
of reaching out and and interviewing
those search committees um certain not
search queries i'm sorry search firms um
usually it's an individual with some
experience that that you know has done
this before
so
you know i want to get a feel for who's
out there what the options are
um if it feels like to me that it's a
fairly clear-cut decision i will go
ahead and make that if it seems like
it's something that could
uh really benefit from
more conversation i think that would
prolong the process but it would be
something that i would get some some
additional input on
um and i think one i kind of dove into
this
not wanting to read everything word for
word
um but i think uh
it is important for me to
express and communicate that
you know i do think that this process
that we're about to enter into is one of
the most important things that that i am
going to involve myself in is as the
mayor and that you guys are going to
involve yourselves in as council members
in the confirmation of this position and
in your interaction throughout the
process
and so
it's something that i think we need to
be very thoughtful about and i think
that um
i plan on dedicating a great amount of
time over the next several months in in
helping to steer this process
i have expectations for what i think the
next chief candidate should look like
i've written some of them out here
community focused collaborative
empathetic strong with a demonstrated
history of strong critical thinking and
systemic problem solving and reform
hands-on great communicator
those are some of the descriptors that
popped into my mind as i've been
thinking through this
but i care a lot about what other
community members see this position
being and i know that we're going to
have a whole diverse
diversity of opinions across the board
and i i think that it is critical that
we be listening to all those opinions
and incorporating them and
synthesizing them through the through
the process so
i should have probably led with that but
jen
first of all thanks for
flushing this out even more uh than the
the last draft this is this is really
helpful can you speak just um
and i'm sure we'll get more information
as we go but the the difference between
hold on the um the search advisory
committee and the interview committee um
if you could just kind of um clarify
that just for for people listening and
also would there potentially be any
overlap between those two groups do you
envision that so the search advisory
committee is sort of a sounding board
committee throughout the entire process
from
once we get that committee put together
which i hope to do by early january
um through to the
selection of a chief and the hiring of a
chief and even the onboarding and uh and
you know first months and years and
years
hopefully of the chief
their duties would be to help with
community engagement uh identify blind
spots in community engagement and then
you know help with re outreach and and
gathering of information helping to
steer the search process with the search
consultant
providing input on candidates
and then the interview committee is a
smaller group that is
more traditionally accustomed to
interviewing candidates and going
through the interview process
as conceived it would be myself the
council president
a representative of the civil service
commission
chair or co-chairs of the search
advisory committee so that's a place
that there's some overlap there and then
a police chief from a local agency
either active or retired
um and then also the way that this is
drafted uh finalists so us you know two
or three finalists would go back to the
search advisory committee for feedback
so there is inter interplay and
interflow but there's a slightly
different role to the two groups
jessica
sharing my
mayor kessler the search consultant um
would you be able to share with us the
list that brian gave you only because
[Music]
i haven't had any experience with
anything like that and you're asking us
for some insight and feedback and i
think just looking at that list
with you would maybe open
us up to be able to provide some of that
because that sounds like a very key
component
in this process
and would love to
if i find anything from that let's be
able to give you some feedback
great yep
as um
jessica um just amplified how important
that is i would like to echo that and i
would and and in doing so i would urge
you
to give yourself
more than just the end of
this month to make a selection about
that
i mean it's it's
the 13th and we still have christmas and
we still have
new years and
it's such a busy time i want you to
i want this process
to take its good old time
so that we do it do it right not fast
i appreciate that i do want to say i
keep on having different people saying
go faster or go slower okay well i'm
getting a lot of feedback
um yeah yeah exactly
yeah just go right to speed
we just want you to do it right and if
it takes a little bit more time to do it
right
we need it to be done right so i just i
just find this time of the year very
difficult to accomplish anything
without feeling like you're being
harried doing it i will tell you the
people i've reached out to who have been
super responsive and i've had really
good luck in and getting appointments
scheduled and so i i'm confident that
it's
i'm not saying that we would know by the
end of december at all i'm just saying
that it's it's been good to know there's
interest in engagement so all good
does anybody else have
richard please
yeah for the community survey and
interactions
um segment
you indicate you
anticipate will include a community
service
survey as well as opportunities for
community members to meet in person and
share their perspectives
so um
i would just
i know columbus just went through a
process and had
i think
open meetings with finalists or
candidates are you anticipating not to
be
one of the community type sessions or
are you anticipating it
um be
prior to interviews
so that that particular section you're
reading from has to do with um creating
the profile for the candidate and the
getting the search launched um i haven't
gotten into the weeds about what that
would look like with finalist candidates
um i would be looking for a lot of
feedback from our search advisory
committee and i wouldn't be at all
surprised if there's a
in person public peace with finalists
anything else
and i know you
are good about doing this and you
already are probably planning on it but
it's worth saying that you know this
process to l'orian's point we want to
make sure we're doing it right and
making sure that there is space at every
council meeting during your report to
give an update
on where we are and how the timeline may
have shifted or not
um i think will be absolutely key so
that the public feels very much like
they are being informed and are a part
of this process as much as as they can
be so
thank you and also i think i plan on the
blast being a primary communication
point for residents as well so on friday
we will have at least a draft kind of
concept because i don't want to leave
too much time before
sharing
the general direction i think that we
might head with the process itself
so you've got till friday if you have
any other process questions
i would love to have feedback prior to
friday and i i uh understood having said
that i understood and we appreciate that
we we can understand that mostly it's
because i didn't want to wait like with
the next one is christmas eve the next
one is new year's eve it's just like
understood
understood um
a couple more things madame president
please first off uh spencer thank you
for your comments i have to admit i'm a
little perplexed because i've been
dealing with cecil goop who i thought
was a representative of the group in
the early concepts for the housing
allowance he and i have met multiple
times and i met with darn about it as
well and at this point in time we're at
a uh
i asked council to fund it
i asked we created some very loose
language in the budget ordinance itself
i'm not sure if you saw that but it
talks about
community service requirement and
the plan authorizes the plan to be
created but that's as far as we've got
so i assume that uh what one council
does know and it was in the paper this
week i believe that
we're also going to be going to the
community foundation asking for a grant
to assist with this
um we have not spoken with the
union about it and it would be a part of
our contract that would have to be
amended so there's a whole process to go
before it actually happens the first
step is to know that we have money for
it
and then uh the details get crafted so
first off i want to
uh
thank you for your feedback but also say
like i and say
that um i was under the impression that
i was interacting with a member of the
coalition in uh these kind of interim
early sort of budget conversations
thinking about it so i apologize if that
was a was not correct or if uh somehow
there was a
crossing of wires that occurred um and i
would love any
any feedback at any time and i think
actually we have a meeting
that we're working on setting up with
the coalition for next week uh
about the search process itself so
thank you um
there's an electric aggregation update
i'm not going to read through the whole
thing and something i want to draw your
attention to
uh
is our a slight tweaking to our social
media strategy um
there's some verbage on the next to
final page that talks about how
we plan on
revising the way that we're
communicating to make sure that any
communication that we create any sort of
announcements
of calendar calendar items
updates to the community are are always
happening on bexley.org as well as
social media so that there's not
there's no one who chooses to be outside
of the social media sphere and not does
not have access to communication
resources from the city
it's become increasingly important i
think we've all
read about some of the issues that
major social media platforms have had we
have experienced it ourselves in lots of
ways
but i think one way that's been pretty
startling to me is watching
engagement on the platform change over
the past three to four years especially
where
we used to say like we used to put out
information about maybe it was a
community event or an initiative that we
had and have a lot of eyes seeing that
so you get to see how many people viewed
it
[Music]
but we'd also put out safety alerts or
whatever or
articles that from time to time gather
you know some fire among the community
and so what we have found is very stark
differences over the years in
drop off of people actually seeing posts
about positive or
like informational type items and so
engagement has declined in those items
it has increased on
um especially crime posts and some other
sort of like
more galvanizing uh type type of items
so there's an algorithm we all know
there's an algorithm shift and we're
subjected to that just as everyone else
is
we've all probably had people in our
lives who have suffered from anxiety
around social media or mental health
issues around social media
that's something that's incredibly
important to me i know also the
superintendent who i've talked to about
this
making sure that we're not endorsing or
creating exclusive content on a platform
that's problematic
um so we've we've taught we toyed with
just doing like what um some companies
have been doing recently and completely
to platforming we don't think that's the
right choice for the community because
we think we do have people who are
really engaged still on social media and
turn to that for especially today
information
and don't necessarily wake up every
morning check bexley.org
don't know what's wrong with them but i
think that's true so this is just more
of an intentionality about the way we're
communicating and
um
just a statement of values i think so
just wanted you to be aware of that
shift as we go into the new year i don't
know that it will feel that different to
many people
other than um just
bexley.org will probably look different
it'll probably feel a little more
interactive than it has felt in the past
i think
um
i brought some attention on my report to
uh michael dr beth weinstock i'm sorry
and birdie light
and their appearance on cnn
last week which is pretty cool to see
and also just the great work they're
doing with that organization and raising
awareness of accidental drug overdose
and and how easy that can be
even with kids who are not aware that
they're taking the substance anything
close to what they are actually taking
so it's scary as a parent
and
something i think we should all be aware
of and help to spread the word about
that is my
update
i believe
i'm sorry i'm looking at my notes i
think that's everything thank you mr
burkham
so a couple years ago we spent
considerable time on designing these uh
guidelines for these
5g cell towers
i have not noticed construction of 5g
cell towers and i don't know if i'm not
noticing it or if
what's going on i just thought i would
ask
that's a great question so
we
we have not seen any applications except
for one
one application came through and was
approved
um at the governor's mansion at the
corner of
uh parkview and maryland and the reason
you haven't heard about it is because
it's on a pre-existing poll so it wasn't
really gonna actually we asked them to
make the poll nicer so it's gonna take
an old wooden pole
and make it not an old wooden pole so
but that's that also has not happened so
i'm not sure
frankly what's going on i sort of
hesitated to ask i don't really want to
reach out to verizon and be like knock
knock
why are you not applying for this
richard has a theory but uh that's i
have noticed within the region that
there hasn't been a whole lot of
deployment either
mr sharp
um
i've been watching
as i traverse the city and if you go up
71 you'll notice all the celta all the
um towers are loaded with 5g
transmitters all around the edge
multiple layers now they look like
christmas trees they're also on
existing um
electric transmission lines or putting
poles up inside the transmission tower
and there are on
hotels on the sides of hotels office
buildings at easton they're on the sides
of buildings bexley house has a number
of
on top of their building as well and so
it looks like the fund companies have
adopted the technology that
is less quote robust uh technology as
far as um
speed but allows greater distances and
than the ones they were talk talking
about every
quarter mile or something
and so
i think that's what they're using to get
a faster and fuller
coverage
and
there are there there are a few at
easton
and i know i've noticed individual
they look like white
poles with a little canister on top
they're fairly well
um in downtown there's a few
and so um they're they're mainly in high
traffic areas where there's a lot of
people congregating using their cell
phones and that's where you get the
individual ones
most often
yeah at the bexley house ones i do not
believe are 5g i think they're they're a
standard just roof mounted um based on a
permanent permit but uh
yeah
they had they haven't pulled a permit
for it at least let's put it that way um
but the uh it'd be nice to have one on
cassidy just south abroad
and probably on
on parkview
there's like those couple drop zones so
um
[Music]
[Laughter]
anything else for the mayor mr klingler
please yep one quick couple quick things
uh applaud the effort on the social
media strategy uh shift to love that um
do you have any sort of data on the
bexley blast and how many residents have
signed up for that because i personally
think that's amazing um
it's like a
quick a lot of information quickly in an
email once a week i think that's great
yeah so the bexley blast has um
hold on
i have it
no that's not right
it's around 4 000 subscribers
but i'm not it'll take me a second to
pull that up i'll get back to you with
the actual number and we actually have a
pretty good engagement rate we have
about a 50 open rate which doesn't sound
like much but it's a lot for a male a
male list so that's great um it varies
between 50 60 usually um depending on
how sensationalist our headline is
it does seem to make a difference
um but yeah and it's obviously as you
know we're consistently plugging in
every single communication we have to
get people to sign up so
we will continue to highlight that as
our as our key communication mechanism
is that
is that all mr klinger
are you going to share your ice cream
mr harvey is that 4 000 bexley residence
band or that total subscribers do you
know
so that is total subscribers
so um i'm not sure what you mean we we
don't track if they're residents or not
residents is that what you mean yeah
um
i mean incidentally it seems to be
largely driven by uh residents sure and
people do unsubscribe you know often if
they're if they've left the community
i used to
get like emails every time someone
unsubscribed and it'll be like you know
i'll be like oh yeah that person moved
so um you know it does self cleanse a
little bit the list but
uh so we actually had a so we last week
december 10th
uh we had it was it wasn't even an
enticing title it was the december 10th
edition
we had a 62 an open rate um which was
pretty good great
yeah it really is
all right anything else for the mayor
all right
moving on to the consent agenda if we
may we have three different items all
right and the consent agenda we have the
october 7th 2021 meeting minutes
ordinance
5221 to ban the discharge ignition or
explosion of fireworks with the city of
bet within the city of bexley introduced
by ms robinson and resolution 16-21
confirming the mayor's appointment of
members to the bexley community
improvement corporation introduced by ms
saad
all right um
can i please have a motion on the
consent agenda
yes question question
um mark i know you you were looking at
the the fireworks thing everything was
everything was fine everything was
kosher
excellent
well you've got your mic job i moved to
adopt the consent agenda thank you is
there a second
second
thank you yeah mr klingler was not here
so ms lamke made the second
we have a first from uh jen robinson and
a second by uh monique lamke is there
anyone in
attendance who would like to speak on
the consent agenda
any council members that would like to
speak on the consent agenda
mr otter
yes markham yes ms robinson yes mr sharp
yes ms
yes mr klingler yes ms lamke yes
nothing under um ordinances with
visiting presenters so we'll move on to
the third readings all right third
reading of ordinance 5121 to approve the
collective bargaining agreement between
afscme ohio consulate local 3318 the
city of bexley introduced by mr markup
any questions
no questions
do you have a motion motion to adopt uh
ordinance
51 21 51 21. second thank you mr
klingler we have a first from mr markham
and a second by mr klingler forgive me
for repeating this but
um
natalie isn't with us this evening and i
want to make sure that when she does um
listen to this it's clear for her
is there um anyone in attendance that
has any remarks about the ask me
piece of legislation
anyone any council members
mr markham yes sharp
yes ms robinson yes mr klingler yes
assad yes spibel yes ms lamke yes
mr marco i mean mr yeah i know you
have a third reading of ordinance 5321
to authorize supplemental appropriations
calendar year 2021 introduced by mr
markham thank you there's a lot of
moving parts on this one see if there's
any questions on this and or any updates
coming from
the mayor
i do not have updates but mr harvey was
probably more aware of those things yep
there are no updates speech that's
correct is isn't it
yep we talked earlier and he said this
is it
that's correct
all right
um
i think they're both the same to be
honest with you it was a matter we
thought it had to be an emergency
or does it have to do with that
i don't have any notes on this one no
the proposed amendment has uh
works wages included it added the
remember the water fund
the waterfront appropriation the
original one did not have that
but we already did the amending on this
didn't we
yes
i feel like yes we did
might not hurt to do it a second time
just to be safe okay it's up to you guys
just to be safe
yes let's i'm looking right now as we
speak
except my eyes are not so great
all right that doesn't help thank you
though
it's 53-21 is that what that's amazing
yeah it doesn't look like it
okay that makes sense because i don't
have a
main version
okay
question to amend uh ordinance 53-21
okay we have a first um on amending by
mr markham and a second by mr sharp
are there any questions about the
amending it's including the water that
wasn't included last time
among other things
anyone in the
joining us have any questions
all right on the amending
mr sharp yes mr markham yes robinson
yeah ms lamke yes amended
mr markham motion to pass amended
ordinance 53-21
thank you first for mr markham and a
second for mr klingler questions from
those in attendance
question from council members
mr harvey ms robinson yes ms lamke assad
yes mr sharp yes mr markham yes mr
klingler yes ms fiable yes asked
54 21. all right third reading of
ordinance 54-21 to immediately rescind
the state the city's state of emergency
first declared on march 15 2020 and is
last amended on september 10 2021 and
all executive orders issued relating to
the coven 19 pandemic except for
previously approved temporary signage at
commercially zoned properties temporary
expansions of restaurant patios and
temporary facilities for coven 19
testing and vaccination which will
extend until june 30th 2023 introduced
by mr sharp
thank you thank you
i'd like to call attention to the fact
that um we've been under an emergency
status since march of 2020.
the last
update
and associated executive orders were
september 10
2021 when um
mitigation mandates were required
by all residents and visitors
and
um and it um
there's been
changes in thought
nationwide regarding the continuing
state of emergency um there's been
discussion this is not included in my
recitals but in new york state
there's been discussions about the
effectiveness of mass mandates even
though the city of new york recently
require
reenacted a mandate
in addition to
their
mandates regarding
vaccination proof upon entering various
restaurants and public
venues
so um
i think we've had long enough
time um
that if there's any
if there was any
real uncertainty that needed to have
swift action by our
executive
fully capable executive um
leader and
the um koba task force that's we're
working with him
that um
that would be understandable to continue
the executive order
orders i think continuing an emergency
declaration
dilutes the meaning of emergency it
opens it up for potential abuse in other
situations and other
that um
it says it sets a
precedent
that future administrations or or
residents may
take advantage of a condit and it
conditions our children into
authoritarianism
um
feelings so anyway that's that's my um
background reasoning for proposing
this i think this council including our
our new member if there's anything that
the mayor feels needs to be enacted on a
legislative basis that
that he would be able to make his case
and council can have community
discussion
and
pass legislation accordingly
um there were some things
that i
that were included in the executive
orders that i felt were worthy to be
considered and i mentioned this i think
at the first or second reading
that involves zoning issues
that
there's there should
can be a legislation
legislative solution to those issues and
maybe some of them are worth continuing
permanently
just for
ease of business and to adapt to
situations that might occur in the
future
i i do have
a philosophical complaint with
the press and the way they've reported
only referring back to the 1918
um pandemic i want to um
remind everyone that there were
worldwide pandemics in 1958 1968
and um
the con the various flu strains that we
collectively refer to as seasonal
flus
are the variants of those
pandemic
related
viruses so
it's not unprecedented
that
people move on
adapt
and um and
and um
and and
um
government relinquish some of the extra
powers that were
taken during the true beginning of an
emergency so thank you very much
does anybody have any
comments ms
lamke richard thank you for those
comments um just today i was
reading with interest uh
several new creative mandates that are
occurring in different cities
across the country to further deal with
covid and related
health emergencies
i think that extraordinary times
sometimes have warranted states of
emergencies or mandates by local
governments and certainly the covet and
all that it brings especially with the
winter coming flu season coming
a new variant that is coming and
potential
unknowns for the next couple months
it was almost a year ago that i jokingly
said you know i sure hope we don't have
a third or fourth wave of covid
gosh little little did i know that we
would still be struggling with that in
december
of 2021
while i respect the facts and the data
and the insight into this ordinance
i can't support it but i do appreciate
the
thoughts on trying to make sure that we
have a good checks and balance
in our government
but for those reasons and a few others i
won't be able to support this ordinance
so i'll respectfully disagree with you
anyone else have anything to
to add
i guess i will um
i will note that i have been
for
a year and a half now been on the calls
with our kova task force and
until the
the brains that we have collected to be
part of that task force tell me that we
should be that we are safe to take off
our masks
um in public places i i i will not
i will not support anything but mandate
to wear them
i have talked to several different um
business owners
and they have remarked to me it is a
blessing that the mayor has done this so
that they
can
kind of put the onus on him
rather than the onus on on on them and
having to turn people away they said
well they can
one one um shop owner said specifically
well i can
mandate people come into my business and
wear masks i
am glad that i don't have to do that um
i
i know that
that um
that is what supported and i just think
there are so many unknowns about this
that i just think especially
with the rise due to the thanksgiving
holidays i i have the distinct feeling
that there's going to be
more to come after
our new year um
i'm i'm hopeful
i'm hopeful with all the children being
vaccinated in
columbus public there
thousands upon thousands of kids are
being vaccinated this week um so i am
i'm excited about that and hopeful but i
do know that there are
you know those among us i have a friend
very sick right now who's been
vaccinated twice
you know he had his booster scheduled
but got sick so there's a lot of
breakthrough and i think that
you know
we
put safety first
and i think
there are individuals who because we are
wearing our masks
people who are more vulnerable are less
likely to to get sick from all of us and
i always say that i am not afraid of so
much of being sick but god forbid i
would get someone else sick
so and i just i just think that i can't
support this as well but i i thank you
richard
i just wanted to
raise my hand for a closing comment
absolutely after everyone else has a
chance or does anyone else
have anything to say jen
i uh i struggled with this one a little
bit because i so wish we were in a place
where we could say
we've done it
um but as as i was reviewing this um
over the end of last week and we
received the email from franklin county
public health talking about
the low numbers of vaccinations and
asking
for
city's help
in making sure that we are doing what we
can
to ensure that people wear masks and um
and and
follow
the safety protocols that we know at
this point um are helping
i um also then over the weekend received
i want to say no less than four emails
from bexley city schools
about cases of covid
and
you know
for me
as much as
masks are an inconvenience and i think
we're all over it let's just be real
um
the idea that our children are at risk
is is just too much and they
these are children who have been
vaccinated and we are seeing
breakthrough cases in our middle and
high school age children
and um
for those for that reason first and
foremost um i'm going to keep my mask on
and i'm going to support the
um
the
the emergency um
legislation as it stands um i think it's
important that we do so until a time
that we can all very safely and with 100
confidence take off these masks
[Music]
[Laughter]
so unchartered waters it still is and an
interesting time right so we're here in
december in the height of cold and flu
season it's not coming we're here
um and flu for my family has been
something that we have been concerned
about for a few years and then you have
covid which we've handled it like the
flu
it's an interesting time so i really
um think highly of richard for bringing
this to council because what it does is
it allows us all to reflect
and have a great conversation
check in again and say where are we at
what should we be doing
we are in the height of cold and flu
season so i had the opportunity this
past weekend as many of you know to go
to new york city
and the interesting thing because every
city and every state is handling things
differently
it was interesting to me to be able to
go into almost any facility
and with an app
nyc coveted safe
i show my license and i show my
vaccination card
and then
i i it says all over everywhere i went
that i don't need to have a mask on
inside those facilities as long as i had
my vaccination
and i showed proof of identity
um
my daughter was with me she's 10 years
old and as of december 14th she also
would have to show via the city of new
york that she has been vaccinated
at least one dose
um so it's just it's an interesting time
i'm just gonna leave it there
what does the mask do there's a lot of
different things that you could read
about is it worn correctly um
you know
all the things and i i don't know that i
have any of those i do not have any of
those answers but i will continue to
reflect to listen to the science to have
conversations with my colleagues
and i will continue to absolutely
respect anyone who
allows us to stop and continue those
conversations um at where we are
in the now and um
you know
we are back in cold and flu season so
we're inside more here in the state of
ohio
and uh what we do know about covet is
when we're outside
that
just like the flu it's it's not as
strong and um
you know it's it's not as highly passed
and more people getting it but when
we're inside and we're all together um
you know the pandemic is is more
aggressive so
um
i i just commend richard for having us
all stop reflect and talk about this
again i don't know that tonight i'm
going to be able to support this
but i do really respect that we will
continue these conversations and i think
it's really good to continue to look
outside of bexley and columbus ohio and
to look at what's happening across the
world and how they're handling things
and
and uh keep continuing to think of how
we can
how we can do it here
in bexley for our residents
i i think the mayor and mr klingler have
said go ahead mr klingler
thank you
yes
um
i
i really appreciate uh richard bringing
this to the table um
i'd love
i've always loved where you come from uh
with your thoughts and your opinions
and and i agree
with where you're coming from to the
point
of
um at some point
we have to
take the masks off at some point we have
to we have to we have to live with this
because covid
19 the omicron delta it's not going away
um and at some point
at some point we have to move on with
our lives and learn to live with it like
we do with the flu
and like we do with many other viruses
that circulate our society
so i will keep this on my radar
um
just don't think now
is the time for me
so thank you richard for
bringing it to the table um i'll put it
in my outlook to bring it up in six
months again i'm just kidding
thanks
uh madam president mayor um
so i had a phone call with a resident
earlier this week asking about the
mandate and uh she was
uh i'm not going to represent what your
opinion is richard but maybe of your
opinion about the mask mandate and
she felt that it was in me as well okay
uh she felt that it was uh she felt she
was concerned about um
her choice not to wear a mask
and feeling harassed in businesses and
i shared with her my logic which has
been consistent which is that um
i am not in a position i'm not a health
expert we have excellent health experts
on our code 19 task force but they don't
have all the information
[Music]
so what is our definitive source and i
understand it's hard to to pinpoint a
definitive source i think we've all
mentioned there's like different ways to
look at this right
but i feel that uh the cdc has been
the clearest guided guidance for me
through this and policy making and
therefore our emergency orders have
actually changed a lot they've been very
fluid um
we had a mask mandate early on it went
away very soon after we had it actually
because it was supplanted thankfully by
a state um a state mandate
and then when that went away it was
because the data said it should and
cdc said it should and
it was great right and then the cdc said
no you know what it's turning out that
that's not the case with the delta
variant you guys should have a mask
mandate again and recommended that
communities require that people wear
masks in areas of substantial or high
transmission which franklin county is
and bexley is
and so uh we have listened to the
experts um
to me the primary point of information
is the cdc
our franklin county public health
department has local context and has
also been supportive of this and as
as you guys know i'm not sure that the
public is privy to the email that we
received earlier this week but
the director of franken county public
health wrote a very explicit
concern in urging local governments to
either keep the mass mandate or to
interstate it if they didn't have it and
cited
low vaccination rates still in franklin
county at 63 percent and cited uh as of
the day that that was written there were
no icu beds available in central ohio
which is a very scary thing indeed so
i can't
with good conscience obviously you
understand that i don't i mean there are
orders that i put in place so i believe
in them but i also feel that there is a
that that i can't supplant my opinion
for that of the cdc that's my
perspective so when the cdc says
they change their guidance or we go
below substantial or high transmission
and who knows what happens a month or
two from now omicron could take over and
could be less dangerous and maybe sweep
the nation and it's a good thing who
knows i don't know um
uh but the cdc will and we will continue
i will continue to follow the guidance
that cdc gives us
until such a time as we have local
expertise that says maybe
for some reason that's not a good idea
but in the meantime that's where we're
at and uh i appreciate what you guys
have said here council richard um
i appreciate that you are always you
know thinking about this from a
different angle and
respectfully disagree with where you are
on this one but uh thank you for
engendering the conversation
is there anyone else left to say
anything
okay
well
i
i want to make it clear it's not this is
not necessarily
about
these okay and i refrain from using the
word if you notice in the ordinance
because i did not want to make it about
these this is about the authority of the
america issue executive voters versus
the legislative process
i would be happy to entertain a motion
to amend this ordinance to be effective
in 30 or 60 days rather than immediately
as it's currently written
i think the key point of this ordinance
is to get
this body involved in the decision
making have elected officials
make decision
along with recommendations from the cdc
which are recommendations are not
requirements
and the code task force
and that anything new being enacted by
council as a requirement so by ext by
allowing an amendment to this ordinance
extending the effective date for 30 or
60 days it would allow
the next council
to
enact whatever portions of the mayor's
executive order that he
that he would recommend that council
would enact
with any type of deadline or any type of
sunset
but i think it's important to move it
back to to the legislative process
because we're beyond emergency the
emergency needs to end it cannot be
ongoing forever because a year ago we
said well it'll only be a couple more
months you know
[Music]
those who see
it's been quoted in the past those who
seek to protect their security by giving
up their freedom lose both
security and their freedom
so that's why i'm bringing this up
it's my responsibility as a
representative
representing the small proportion of
residents who feel the same way as i do
and if this council chooses to enact any
type of
additional thing i think that's
appropriate and
council
then would be
say that you know council would have
ownership it's not just in one on one
person's hands
because it sets a uh
a dangerous precedent not for this
gentleman
but for others who might come after us
additionally
my personal feeling is mass just extend
it draws out the period of time it's
it's probably one of the reasons
franklin county does have a low
vaccination rate is because people think
why do i need to get vaccinated if i'm
still going to have to wear the mask
anyways
when is it going to i'll i'll just get
covered when i get it
you know
the science says that people who have
had covet are 20 have 27 times more
antibodies
than
protective antibodies than people who
have vaccine
we are not
allowing
our individuals to take their health
their bodies
and their own situation into account we
had
more children
shot in the past week
and killed in a car
than we have had
children in this county dying of cobot
so
i think we need to set our priorities
straight do things that will actually
protect our children
rather than
being a mask
or a badge
similar to
what occurred in the 1930s
i'm sorry
i
i apologize
i'm sorry i said that i
i did not mean to offend anyone
um
and i apologize i lost my train of
thought
but
the data if you look at the ohio
kova dashboard
franklin county
incidents death rates are not much
different
than
other counties that do not have mandates
again each county is different each
governing body can make the decision
so um i'm just
imploring um
this this body not to acquisit acquiesce
its powers
and set a bad um precedent so thank you
okay
i only
i will second any motion if anyone wants
to amend i don't want to waste anyone's
time by making an amendment of motion
and and um not having it
um seconded so
making
an amendment to this
ordinance
richard do you have further action on
this ordinance
i would make a motion to move um
to pass ordinance 54-21
is there a second
hearing no second um
the um i think we can move on to
ordinance 55-21 thank you thank you very
much
all right third reading of ordinance
5521 to renew the city of bexley housing
voucher acceptance
program grant previously established by
third amended ordinance 4320 for the
purpose of encouraging bexley rental
property owners to accept and
participate in various state local
government and not-for-profit
organization housing voucher programs
introduced by mr sher
as i indicated at the last meeting i
wanted to have some statistics on
rental properties in the city that
accept housing vouchers
i
emailed the housing voucher program at
columbus metropolitan housing i tried to
talk to people i went over there
their offices are
closed to the public uh right now but i
did speak to someone who
is involved with the cmha as far as
helping residents find
housing with voucher programs and that's
an individual that is
familiar to this city rosetta brown who
worked with
the city and relocating our southwest
bexley residents when the cic
bought
properties that were
the city the city bought and had um torn
down and those residents needed
um
new
new a new place to live which are our
city engaged rosetta brown to help with
and the council
enacted the voucher
program for those who had children in
the school district
she indicated that
there are no properties
in bexley that
accept
or registered with cmha
to
accept housing vouchers
she is
expressed support
for the city to help her get the word
out to work with landlords she said
she's been and i apologize i try not to
use that word property owners um because
i feel that's
more
reasonable um
term to use
um
that
that she is
looking for property owners in bexley
who will accept housing vouchers so um i
would encourage council to
continue this program at least one more
year
the
county program they're funding
for their landlord assistance program
that i referenced last time that
is also ending december 31st
she didn't indicate whether that was
going to be renewed or how much of it
had been used at the county level as
well so
um
she was
excited that it was targeted towards
single-family or duplex property owners
she felt that was
a benefit as well as far as
incorporating
a diverse population within our city
so that they can build relationships
that they need to be
successful in their neighborhood so
thank you very much for
considering this i do not have any
amendments
to propose but would accept any
offered by other members
a conversation about this um ladies and
gentlemen anybody have any comments
about this
i think every step that we can take
towards inclusive housing
is an exciting one and um
because we are not currently in a
situation where there are
um
property owners that are accepting
vouchers it certainly doesn't mean that
in the future we won't so obvi i think
this is an avenue we should think about
pursuing is lampke
richard can you remind me what was the
amount uh per grant
i i was looking for that and trying to
go on my memory was it five thousand
eight thousand
yeah we put a monetary figure
on it but i'm just not recalling what
that was
let me look it back up here just a
second
ugh in the original ordinance it was
um ten thousand a maximum of ten
thousand dollars
um
and the um grant was 500 for the first
property unit registered
with cmha or another housing voucher
issuing entity
and 300
for the second property with the
total payout
on to any one property owner under the
grant not to exceed 800 dollars
great thank you the 10 000 figure kind
of refreshes my my memory but i just
wanted to double check thank you mr
klingler
did what was the success rate
of the program or what was the did we
none it didn't happen it didn't happen
oh it didn't happen it didn't happen
covet hit and it made things very
difficult and
and no one applied
but gotcha doesn't mean that
it won't happen
any other comments questions
anyone from in attendance have any
comments or questions
mr sheriff do you have a motion sir
make a motion to
pass ordinance 55-0
[Music]
um is there a second second second
i think mr mark can beat you to it we
have a first from mr sharp and a second
from mr markham
um
with no comments mr harvey please
mr markham
yes mr sharp
yes mr klingler yes zlamke
yes assad yes survival yes ms robinson
yes asked
5721 please
all right start reading
ordinance 5721
to establish rates for the police chief
and police captain of the city of bexley
effective as of january 1st 2022 and to
approve the revised pace test schedule
attached here to as exhibit a introduced
by mr markham and i think we were
looking to attach
exhibit b to this right last time
the part-time
it was attached so we just need to amend
it with the attachment
exhibit b sorry
there it is yeah
there was
buildings built
good
okay
one that we're not qualified to make
right so we'll move on
okay so
this has been amended or this has not
been not yet
not yet that's what i thought okay
um
mr harvey did you have your hand up oh i
was gonna make sure we talked about the
amendment okay so are we gonna talk
about the amendment
[Music]
do we need to talk about the amendment
no no i mean we just amend it right
i thought we had all right bill harvey
holding up the meeting once again okay i
know right
mr marco would you like to amend this
ordinance
into uh amend
ordinance
57-21 we have a first for mr markham and
a second from second from mr klingler
any questions on the amendments from
either council members or those in the
audience
mr klingler
yes assad yes markham yes sharp yes
zlamke yes robinson yes survival yes
okay um further action on 57 21 please
motion to adopt amended ordinance 57-21
we have a first from mr markham and a
second friend second mr klingler
um any questions from those in
attendance on the piece of sludge this
amended um
piece of legislation
anyone in the audience
this bible yes ms lamke yes mr markham
yes mr sharp yes mrs robinson mr
klingler yes assad yes fast
all right third reading of ordinance
5621 to authorize appropriations of 55
000 from general fund into the grants
account for the purpose of funding the
kindness park and senior community
center projects mr markham thank you
this is our ordinance to uh for our
grants appropriation do we have any
updates on this mayor kessler no um
i gave you guys the information i
provide in the past is the same so it's
there are two projects
we didn't have adequate appropriations
to start the process i know that the rec
department really wants to get going on
senior center
equipment purchasing and then the
kindness park has a quote and is waiting
on commencement as well so those are
these are both projects that
we'll get a little bit of an edge on by
by beginning before or next year
mr markham you've got to love an
ordinance that has both the word park
and kindness
good to have kindness
do you have any motion on this
uh motion to adopt ordinance 56-21 we
have a first from mr markham and a
second from
mr klingler um any questions comments
from anyone mr harvey
uh ms robinson yes mr markham yes slam
key
assad
yes mr sharpe
yes mr klingler yes survival
yes second readings please all right we
have a second reading warden's 58-21 to
revise section 432.38 of the bexley city
code to restore regulations relating to
weaving and full-time
full-time and attention
full-time attention while operating a
motor vehicle or motorcycle that were
inadvertently overwritten
by ordinance 2716 ms robinson i think
you did a perfect job explaining what
that is
so this basically puts language back in
in our code that was inadvertently taken
out several years ago so
i don't think it needs a ton of
discussion unless anybody has any
questions yes
i was going to make probably the same
thought that you would if we could add a
language to the mende ordinance to make
it
emergency legislation so that we can
pass it this evening and have it
effective
i'm sure the mayor can find that
language
and um
or you just mean
sorry madam president
why not just suspend and adopt it
doesn't need to be murdered doesn't it
still take 30 days to take effect yeah
but it's i mean
i mean i mean if there was a health and
safety issue that needed
to be addressed so that something didn't
fall through the cracks
okay
okay well then that's fine that's a good
idea
whatever your pleasure i just
i'm
fine with this spend and adopt then and
it's okay i'm just
i think
in order to
motion
i moved
suspend the three reading requirement
thank you bill harvey what are we
getting
yes
mr klingler yes markham yes ms robinson
ms fibal mr sharp yes ms lamke yes
yes i um
move
it's hard because matt's taking all the
motions so
i'm i'm moved that we
um adopt ordnance 5821. that's why you
needed the extra calories that's right
mr markham
yes mr klingler
yes mrs lamke yes assad yes
mr sharp yes ms robinson yes fast
and madam president now i can say
the council will start the year fresh
with no
no second or third greetings
thank you richard
thank you so much
all right so no first readings um
the tabled readings do not require any
action do not have any action they're
not coming off the table tonight um mr
um
mayor i'm sorry when you were giving
your report did you make any
comment about the the uh aggregation
he's you said you were going to but i
was looking at other things yeah it
wasn't it was written out um so there
was an up narrative a written update so
please reference that um
okay that's cool
uh service and environmental committee
richard sharp chair
um nothing to report except
service
the esac committee is having a
just a general discussion
by email in lieu of the
actual meeting they're just sending
brainstorming ideas and throwing them
all to um
elizabeth so there's not going to be
there's not going to be any action based
on those emails it's just ideas
being sent to her since a regular
meeting is
during this latter part of december
trian public garden commission is
meeting
tomorrow for their last meeting of the
year and
as
i'm going to applies
to susan this way that i cannot attend
so
um
i feel sad that i won't be able to do
that because
they do a good job in their work and i
like to do that personally but i won't
be able to
and then i'd like to make some parting
comments
for those who know me i frequently get
tongue tied in my public speaking
primarily because they have so many
thoughts bouncing around in my head
making it hard for me to settle any of
them down to come out in a logical order
writing thoughts down ahead of time as
you sometimes see or may have seen this
evening is only slightly less painful
for audiences hearing them
because it's still hard for me to narrow
my focus to pick out the key points they
all seem key to me
so i tend to write run-on sentences have
poor transitions and branches of thought
going from one related issue to another
so for those who have endured this for
12 years
then and a lesser number of years
bill
and the rest of you who are fortunate
enough to have endured it for even a
lesser amount of time i thank you for
your patience and attempts at attempts
at listening
but on the positive side at least you
haven't had to deal with it on a daily
basis like my kids adam and abby
have
or even the longer period of time that
my wife debbie has had the bear
she is
a true saint if there ever was one
there's one trait of my speaking style
that i hope that i have never displayed
at this council
that is speaking with my hands
uh
according to adam and abby
that is the sign of the 98 rule
for even though i may seem clear of
tongue and composed
95 98
is full based
and 2
is fact just to give a sense of
legitimacy
so if there was
an obvious similar um trait displayed by
others in leadership positions the
public would have a much easier time in
deciding who to vote for
i'd like to thank my colleagues lori ann
monique troy jenn and jessica matt
other elected officials city department
heads ben bill beecher chief reinhardt
mike kathy andy eric and all the other
dedicated members of the team city of
bexley
including commission chairs that have
worked most closely with susan quintense
elizabeth ellman
and i'm doing all that you have done to
make representing the residents of
bexley easy
at least
at the risk because someone may be
seeing my hands move at least relatively
easy
through your outstanding efforts into
taking care of what needs to be done to
keep bexley the place that we all
consider home
thanks also goes to those who i've
worked with in the past mayors madison
and mayor brennan
dorothy pritchard gary qualman larry
heiser doug jackson don boscis mary
ellen o'kelly debbie maynard final
council members and i know i forgot a
city attorney in there
and i'm 60 so i now can forget a few
names um john offenberg monk master jed
morrison jeff mcclellan ann porter and
louis
robin jones matt lamke rick webber steve
kais tim madison denise owen and mary
gosman and i know i probably have
forgotten some so if i
forgot any other than the city attorney
that i can't
still can't remember
um yeah
oh two city attorneys in luchadish which
i meant to include and the one before
him
jim gross thank you very much
he was
i think still involved
um in some aspect that
i remember i appreciated his leadership
lastly i wish our incoming council
member and auditor sam and matt
um
administrative assistant natalie and
clerk of courts marquan success in your
efforts to keep up the traditional
tradition of making bexley a special
place
since 1908 and by doing your part to
keep it updated daily thank you
thank you richard
finance committee oh i've got a brief
update
there's going to be a lot of talk
tonight i guess about
richard and bill
but i kind of want to talk about me
okay
because
it's going to be hard for me to imagine
uh city council without these two
they've been here ever since i started
six years ago
it's hard probably for the average
citizen here in bexley
to imagine the
resources
that these two provide for all of us up
here
bill harvey
with his
in-depth knowledge of finance how the
city works how
all parts of the the city work here um
it would be
very difficult it would have been very
difficult to be financed chair without
having him here and being able to
call him all the time and ask him every
dumb question that i had
and have him tell me that it was a dumb
question you know
he also
has a lot of opinions on
the ordinances that we work on and
things like that and
he
shared those with me and i actually
never called him to ask him about those
but i still
heard a lot for those
richard was the president of city
council when i was running when i ran
the first time
and i just remember he reached out to me
immediately i remember he
invited me to go have coffee and talk to
me about running for city council and
what that was like and
i just i
even from the beginning i appreciated
this personality that richard has where
he's very frank but also
he he is a very uh
uh he's a gentleman he's very respectful
and uh as we've worked on things i've
reached out to richard time and time
again
because he is also a repository of
knowledge in here
he has got a mind for detail
he is a very hard worker
and like i said i've i've never
hesitated to call on richard for help
to meet and to talk things over
and richard has always said yes we've
found places to meet and talk he's come
over to my house and on one memorable
occasion when i was walking through the
city he pulled up in the beat bus opened
the door and i stepped inside and we had
a meeting there
um i i'm really going to miss you
richard because i just i just think
uh i appreciate
your bravery and your candor and
bringing up issues for us to consider
and i know tonight we had a
a discussion about ordinance for
emergency powers but i also want to say
earlier this year you did
bring up a a another issue about
emergency powers and you know what it
really led to some
thoughtful discussion and productive
reform of of that and i think
that's the sort of thing that sometimes
it's good for us to have people that
maybe we
disagree with a lot of times people who
bring up ideas that maybe make us
uncomfortable or make us think and so i
will really really miss you richard and
i really really appreciate having you
these last six years
and uh
i got you to borrow red wine
it's it's it's a italian sans and uh
i know you don't like red wine richard
but if i uh if you keep this at your
house
i'll come to your house
and drink a red wine
he also knew it was a gift that i could
rarely
use because of my driving so he knew it
would be there when he
came over
all right
uh safety and health committee jen
robinson
i have nothing to
report um however i would like to just
say a
heartfelt thank you to both bill
and richard
um not only for your service to the city
of bexley which is as we've heard
vast and
we have come to rely on you guys so much
for what you do
uh for our city but
it's funny um much like troye i'll
make this selfishly about me for just a
minute because for the last two years
we've come in or zoomed in or whatever
the the
situation allowed us to do and these
were the faces
for for me these were the faces that i
saw
and
to think about this council without
these two faces these two people these
two humans who have
given selflessly of their time
to
be committed to making a city better i
thank you i thank you for that that
example to all of us who are here that
it gets tough sometimes we it doesn't go
the way we want but you show up and you
do a job because you said you were going
to do it and i thank you both for your
time and i thank you both for your
commitment to the city and it's going to
be really sad without you
so
we'll enjoy the last few minutes of this
meeting with this group of people around
this dios and um i thank you
is a tentative meeting scheduled for
next tuesday
[Music]
[Laughter]
zoning and development committee jessica
chair
all right i'm gonna turn it back to
business for a second here
um so i just wanted to as laurie anne
spoke at the beginning of the meeting
just wanted to remind um our residents
that we have an appeal hearing in our
council um tomorrow wednesday december
15th right here at city hall at 6 pm
this uh this is where we will hear oral
arguments by parties on the notice of
appeal of the decision of the bexley
board of zoning and planning concerning
a proposed three-story multi-family
residential structure at 2300 east
livingston avenue
council i believe everybody has gotten
the emails and you're aware of
everything that we will be doing
tomorrow nights i haven't heard from
anyone which i think is good because
we've
done things like this before so we are
we're ready to go
i just add something to that yes i just
want to for people who are listening
understand obviously it's over to the
public it is extraordinarily unlikely
that council will make render a decision
tomorrow night um council when when
council renders a decision that decision
will be made in a public meeting where
people can't attend them i just want for
people who are listening wonderful
um
there's no way i could go with my report
without saying something about these two
people here
in front of me tonight who as a new
member to council
and
uncharted waters during a pandemic
there it helped me change my mind on
what i believed
should happen on with elected officials
it made me realize that
it is really important to have history
and colleagues that you work with to be
able to go to some people and be able to
say how did this work you know a few
years ago or four years ago or 12 years
ago um
because of your service and your time
that you have given the city
i think that i was a much better council
person
because i was able to
lean on and look to both of you to you
richard and to you bill for some history
and a lot of questions i had you were
always very open
so thank you for that
um so i don't believe in term limits
because of that because of you two you
guys helped change my mind on that you
are my example
um any longer in municipalities i may
feel differently about other offices but
not here in bexley and municipalities
the one thing that i've heard a lot of
people say and i wrote this down because
i think so much of both of you with this
is the word help
i remember as an early new council
person richard stopping by the house we
were discussing an ordinance and he
stopped by the house to help me fix my
garage door
and i can't tell you how many times
richard has picked up my family of five
at 4 30 or but we like to go on early
flights so he's been there or just this
past saturday night lending an olive
branch um on a ride home from the
airport for my daughter and i so
you are just uh you know we're all
sitting up here as elected officials
richard but you're just a really good
person
and i've been really proud um to have
that person sitting across from me and
you are going to be missed but i know i
will be seeing you as i always do not
just here in council chambers but out in
the community
as i always say i'm just out there so
are you so i look forward to that
um bill i like to call you the real deal
i remember sitting where sam and matt
are over there with jen robinson multi
yes
and um
i remember you just calling things out i
remember some things you said are you
running or not early on and i thought
wow he really uh he's very transparent
and i loved that about you from the very
beginning remember you saying to me at
one point it's not a popularity contest
and i listen
i also loved that as much
love that i got for the artistic bike
racks when i said bill what do you think
about him he said jess i don't like them
i said that's okay bill not everybody
has to like him and i just really love
that about you
i love that you're just the real deal
and you will absolutely be missed but
again just like i said to richard i know
i'll see you and mo at many st
catherine's um events and uh and all
those good things so
thank you for your years of service
thanks
jess
recreation and parks
uh just a couple things um it's been a
pleasure to serve with mike price and
the parks and rec board over the last
two years i will miss
that board and those board members
they're a fun group good luck to the
next
um
council person who gets to serve with
them
uh richard it's you've been a mentor for
me for the last two years um i
appreciate your thoughtfulness your
kindness your attention to detail and
the way you think
um you
you've been awesome
in helping
helping me bounce ideas off of you
and just being there for me
over the last two years so i appreciate
that
bill
i'm going to miss
when you say
you ought to think
um i'm gonna miss that i love i love how
you play devil's advocate you see a
macro level you see all angles uh for us
um you're incredibly smart
and uh i'm i'm gonna miss that um you
bringing a lot to council and helping us
make decisions
um but thank you for all your service
and uh and good luck in retirement
um
that's all i have
oh and thank you
to lori and fibo for the last two years
as council president
you've got big shoes to fill markham
money claims
uh judiciary and strategic committee
[Music]
i want to chime into to to thank uh
to thank our outgoing
members up here i remember
bill harvey when i first got elected to
council
he came and sat at my kitchen table and
very profoundly said
in response to some of my questions
no that won't work
or no you can't do that always with the
hand up
and i've always loved that he he kind of
gives it to you straight uh not everyone
remember but before bill was our city
auditor he was our city service director
um so to kind of have that institutional
knowledge where he both uh was an expert
in city services and then
still wanted to serve again his auditor
has been profound
i've also sat at bill's dining room
table several times
asking him about things and he's never
hesitated to be generous with his time
and a special thank you to moe harvey
too for lending us your bill for for so
many
hours and meetings
um richard you have been
one of the kindest
people
that i know
you won't remember this but years ago i
was walking on an allegedly uneven
sidewalk in bexley on drexel
and i was not watching where i walked
and i fell flat i fell so far fast and
so hard i didn't even have time to
scream by the time i looked up there's a
hand extended out and literally richard
sharp picked me up off the sidewalk
you have such a great
heart
i love your perspectives even when i
don't agree with you
i always love that you let me know
it's okay
that we
disagree like tonight we did that with a
smile on your face and i'm so honored to
serve with you thank you
we love the spies we love the spots
and finally to our president lorient
fibel
who has been our president now for four
years
um however much time
any of us think that we have served as
council members have given
i guarantee you she's given so much more
than you can think of
she likes to talk about her dad
and i guarantee you that your dad is so
proud
that his daughter
was council president not once but twice
consecutively for two terms
i have always felt as if we are equals
even though you've been president you've
always i think created a very inclusive
conversation with us
and like richard always let us know that
it's okay that we can disagree
and take different positions so thank
you so much for
for serving four years as our council
president
um
and that is the end of my report
thank you just had to mention walt
i was good until then
um
bill
and
richard i am i'm not going to repeat
what i said earlier
but clearly i'm not the only one that
thinks you're lovely and that you're
kind
so
i thank you both from the bottom of my
heart for being real
to never being afraid to just tell me
how it's how it is and that above all is
what you need
when you're trying to serve a community
you need to know what people what people
think
gentlemen these guys are awesome
you're going to be awesome you're going
to be wonderful
we
are going to bring you into our fold
and
make you part of this wonderful culture
that we have worked really
hard
to create it has not been like this the
entire time i have been on council
this is a safe place to disagree this is
a safe place to argue
this is a safe place to share your
opinions
and think that the person next to you is
sharing bunk
and then they'll drive you home
that is how we have worked this and this
is what i pray
will continue and i have every
confidence that it will
so
bill
and richard thank you so much for
helping us to create that i appreciate
it
i know that um
a good mayor has a few words he'd like
to say as well
thank you madam president
i'm going to miss saying that i'm going
to miss you saying that burger meister
and typically
typically this might be a meeting where
we hand the gavel back to you
to keep in professional sake so that a
fresh new gavel arrives for the next
president
but do you unwisely schedule a council
meeting tomorrow night so you're gonna
need that gobble for one more day
she's gonna need to borrow that devil
just to go on record i wanted that
meeting to go what happened on january
but i i've said it's a democracy here
darn it
said it before but um
you have
uh first off there are a lot of firsts i
think with you
you're not the first female council
president
but i think you're the first
to
consecutive female president
and i think that in modern history you
were the first president to to have two
consecutive terms and i think it's a
testament to your leadership but also to
the uniqueness of the times and how
you've navigated through them and um
we've all
i think benefited from your optimism and
your kindness and your heart and your
warmth as president of council
and
it has been so appreciated and it will
be so missed and i can't wait to
remember what lori ann fiable normal
council member is like to work with
i'm also looking forward to that i'm
going to be very chatty with whoever you
set me next to
[Laughter]
thank you for your problem thank you for
your hand on the helm over the past four
years thank you for making it easier
jessica assad mentioned institutional
knowledge which i appreciate because i
don't know that you guys all remember
that bill harvey ran for mayor in 2007.
maybe you do
well i've said this before maybe not as
publicly but i voted for bill harvey for
mayor in 2007 and i still think he would
have made a better mayor than myself
just kidding maybe i don't know who
knows but what was ironic was four years
later i found myself uh
you know i wouldn't say uh your
supervisor because bill harvey always
alluded to having a supervisor as
service director he sort of was his own
uh you know he's kind of there on his
own terms right he was like i'm i'm the
service director but i hope you
understand i'm overqualified for this
position and
you should really
listen to everything i'm saying which is
true
uh your your guidance and your wisdom
and your friendship has been so valuable
over the years and i'm really gonna miss
it but i know that you will not hesitate
to pop over and share your perspective
on things
so
that's all good
um
bill harvey and i have a
tradition that
seemed
more scandalous when we first started it
i think back in 2012 but on new year's
eve
we enjoy a small little bit of scotch in
my office
to toast the year so you are not off the
hook for that because you are still the
auditor on december 31st my face of us
joining i also would invite anyone else
to join us and i expect macbook peak to
carry on that warm tradition
um and you're always welcome to join for
that as well so um
uh i thank you for all of your time and
your service and everyone else has said
so many great things very appropriately
what they did not say about richard
that i have appreciated about you in
addition to all the things said
is richard
is a is a small business owner
he's a transportation and logistics
expert but he's also an accountant
and richard's accounting brain has been
so helpful over the years
uh
weirdly i'm an english major but somehow
we share we share that in common the way
that we look at numbers and love numbers
and
richard constantly finds things
and sees things that some of us don't
see
and your proofreading and your prowess
around
uh numbers accounting and understanding
our budget which is a little bit of a
multi-headed beast especially when you
first start to get to know it has been
so helpful having you as that resource
so thank you for that in addition to
everything else everybody else has said
i can't say i'm going to miss you
because you're right across the street
from me so uh
and one of those narrow windows of time
where you're able to enjoy a drink on
the front porch between driving gigs
and may you not have many of them
because i know that you if one of the
thriving business hopefully we can uh
grab a glass of troy's wine
and enjoy it together so richard best of
luck and i'll be seeing lots of
you thank you madam president thank you
so we have one last item on our agenda
public comment is there anyone in
attendance who would like to
share with us anything that's on their
mind
all right i see head shaking no so i
guess we'll go to
item number 22
and we will adjourn this puppy
motion to a jam thank you is there a
second
my nature is not to be the center of
attention but all second thank you
we had a first for mr klingler a second
from mr sharp all those in favor please
signify by saying aye
aye
those opposed same sign