it's
starting all right
we're good all right we're on
i saw that tiffany just joined us thanks
for having me
tiffany we can't wait to officially meet
you
and um our city attorney has signed on
we're so glad to see you
still looking for um richard sharp you
don't see him in the attendees do you mr
kessler
no no mayor all right well i don't think
that there's anything
wrong with us going ahead it's 602
and we're gonna go ahead and um i would
like to welcome
our two special guests especially uh
tiffany and glenn we're thrilled that
you're here
um we are thrilled that there are um
at least 12 other people in attendance
this evening
welcome glad that you are here as well
um this is our last council meeting in
february
and if you are close to a window you
will note that it is
still daylight which is a rarity when we
when we start our council meetings so
spring is
on its way and i am excited for that and
hope you all
are as well please let's all remember
while we're here
um we are here for the good of bexley
and i would ask
that our kind auditor go ahead and do
roll call
please mrs fiable here mr klingler
here ms lamke here mr markham
here ms robinson here mossad
here mr sharp
having problems with the link lorianne
did he did he
write you or text you yes so i just
squirted him our email okay all right
well let's let's hope that he um
he uh gets on let's do the pledge and
see how
where we are after that okay so
hopefully mr kessler's screen is
somewhere you can see it
and we will uh stand and uh do the
pledge please
i pledge allegiance to this flag the
united states of america
america to the republic for which it
stands
one nation under god indivisible with
liberty and justice for all
all right if i were still teaching i
would give bill harvey an a
plus he does know his pledge i could
hear his voice most clearly
good job sir since you're a vet we're
really excited that you know the pledge
uh it takes a lot to get into grin but i
did get him to grin
so any luck with richard sharp on
um hey mike would you would you mind
giving richard a call and seeing if you
can help in any way
while we go ahead thank you i saw a big
thumbs up
well we do have two special guests today
and
um i am going to since they are
actually here invited by the mayor um
and and i can't wait to meet tiffany i
do know glenn
um and and wow your resumes look great
um but we're looking forward to meeting
you so i am going to turn it over to
um mayor kessler so that he can perhaps
introduce you guys
thank you president so um as
as lorianne just intimated tiffany hunt
and glenn soden are here
um they are two of the new appointees to
the crb and the
proposed resolution appointing the
formal crb
the other three appointees in that
resolution are existing
uh crb members from the crb that was
created back in june of 2020.
um i want to thank monika williams
and jen robinson who helped throughout
the interview process
uh thank you guys it was very helpful to
have a second set of
and a third set of eyes and ears to help
think through it we had a lot of really
great applicants
um many more applicants than we had
positions so i'm gonna thank everyone
who applied
and as as with any board or commission
you know we are always
benefiting from just such a wealth of
really qualified residents and so it
comes down to
how do you balance the board in a way
that
makes sense in terms of life experiences
professional backgrounds
qualifications temperament i mean
there's all sorts of different things
that go into
trying to provide a well-balanced
board and certainly i think the crb is
uh going to be a very important one so i
thank you both
for your willingness to serve and i
thank those who also applied
um for their willingness so i'll start
off with tiffany uh tiffany
um you know i'm not gonna give too much
of an introduction i'll let you guys
introduce yourselves uh so i don't get
anything wrong
and i don't miss anything so tiffany if
you would want to talk a little bit
about you
you your background and um then any
questions the council might have
thanks you're muted tiffany
sorry thank you
i know that's a meme i've seen probably
a thousand times okay
so it's very nice to be here and it's
very nice to meet everyone
um so again tiffany hunt i am
been living in bexley really since i
moved to columbus i moved
relocated to columbus from michigan to
work for nationwide back in 2011.
i've been in bexley for about 10 years
my daughter goes to csg she's in the
sixth grade there
uh we love the the community here and
have enjoyed uh
being a part of this community and
living here in terms of my background
i'm originally from ohio uh shaker
heights ohio
and i went to michigan so for the ohio
state
folks on the call a little bit of
rivalry there but
and i started my career off as an
engineer a product design engineer for
ford for about eight years before i went
to consulting with deloitte and their
strategy and operation practice and so
left deloitte went into
uh business transformation which is
internal consulting for
american express uh whirlpool and now
i've been at nationwide like i said for
about 10 years where i lead
uh our business transformation office
for nationwide um which
uh business transformation is as it
sounds um
any thing i'd say that impacts people
process
technology that is large in scale
uh the business transformation office is
responsible or charged with
executing and so that that's the work
that we do for nationwide
i am super excited to be a part of this
board as i said i've been a part of the
community i want have always wanted
and mayor kessler and i have talked
previously about
you know my wanting to get more involved
in the community and and i you know
think this is a very important
uh cause i'm super excited that bexley
is doing this and so i'm glad to be a
part of it
are there any questions
anybody have any questions for um miss
hunt i do
see um one of our council members i
believe has their hand in the air
mr troy
thank you um all of our board
prospective board members are important
and valuable to us
uh you and mr soden are maybe especially
because you both uh applied for this and
interviewed for this
uh to be a part of it uh as the second
phase comes into place
and for that i thank you very much i
would ask you
why did you want to be a part of this
board
so you know i think for a couple of
reasons one
i you know i care about the community uh
and so
and as you know this past year has been
um unprecedented i'd say in a number of
ways
and um i think where there's opportunity
for
us to um you know i'd say
better improve i think some of the some
of the
the narrative right with respect you
know a lot of the things i saw
in the news in the newspaper are on a
particular narrative with respect to
bexley and so
and as a member of this community i
don't feel that or experienced that at
all
and so you know part of it um is you
know being an ambassador for the
community and certainly when i hear that
i address it but also part of it is
where we think that there's
opportunities to address it from the
inside
you know i want to be a part of the
solution with respect to that as well
and so
um that's you know it's it's really just
wanting to be of use
you know quite frankly to the community
as we address what you know
we believe are important issues
does anybody else have questions yes it
looks like um assad does
jessica yes uh tiffany i just wanted to
welcome you
on to the advisory board and say that um
you know thank you for for sharing
yourself and your time
your busy lady you have quite the resume
a lot of your business background
i can um you know i find similar to some
experiences i've had so i know that the
training that you've gotten in corporate
america will help you
um in this position as well as you're
bringing some diversity to this board so
um just wanted to say thank you for
putting yourself out there and
keeping up and wanting to um help in the
community
i look forward to having a cup of coffee
with you
great back to doing that so thanks very
nice to meet you tonight
awesome thank you so much thank you i
really appreciate that
thanks miss sod um tiffany monique lamke
has a question for you
money you're muted oh
thank you miss hunt i just wanted to
echo what council member saw just
mentioned and looking at your background
in your resume not only is it impressive
but it shows to me
years of continued service so the fact
that you would want to
again serve your community after serving
children in our county is beyond
oppressive and i thank you
thank you thank you i appreciate that
i don't see any more hands tiffany i am
so encouraged and and hopeful
by listening to the words that you
shared and
um it is such a pleasure to meet you and
i'm excited that you are going to
be a part of this this historical this
historic board
you know um bexley is trying so hard to
be
um progressive and and you know
thoughtful
as we move into the future so thank you
for being part of our future
we appreciate awesome well thank you for
giving me the opportunity
ah thank you thank you so much thank you
tiffany if one i guess one thing i would
add to the
the this conversation about i think why
i uh why i
and the with the consultant of jen and
monica of proffered tiffany's name is
back when
tiffany i sat down in 2018 you know her
background and
business strategy and process
improvement is really impressive
and yet doesn't necessarily line up with
like our zoning and architectural review
boards
so after i unsuccessfully tried to get
tiffany to get an architect's
license to be on arb
i just felt like this you know she
brings a really unique perspective to
this board with
with business and process improvement
and obviously a very high caliber
level of expertise in it and i think
she'll have a very unique and
uh important voice so thank you tiffany
awesome thank you so much
okay we also have glenn soden uh with us
um glenn has worn uh
historically uh has worn uh a hat
recently with the historical society
um that's where i've interacted with him
the most recently
uh just in terms of his leadership there
and glenn it's been appreciated as
you've worked
in the historical society and helped uh
get the word out
and uh especially we've worked really
closely on our camp bushnell plaque
which you guys would think it's just a
very simple plaque but it's actually
much more than just a simple black but
um i digress
glenn uh beyond being the chair of the
historical society has a very impressive
background
also in customer service
and law and uh just thought he could
glenn if you could
share your background and let council
get to know you a little bit more it'll
be great
sure thank you ben appreciate that and
thank you all for uh having us here
and listening to us for a few moments uh
so i'm a 44-year resident
of bexley um although i was born in
colorado
uh two world war ii parents who met out
in colorado both in the service
lived in a chicano neighborhood there in
western part of colorado springs
and my parents were both from new jersey
so
i grew up in three different cities in
new jersey as well
so uh one of which was very diverse uh
40 black and about 40 percent white and
then we had
a mixing of other cultures and
racial ethnicities um so i've had some
nice background i think which kind of
led me into
what was i going to do for a life career
so mediation
has really been a big focus for me
the law i worked in community
programming with a cable tv station
for a while before i went to law school
at nationwide
and i know you've heard that uh company
mentioned a couple of times tonight but
i was there thirty and a half years i
left in 2008
to teach business ethics at ohio
dominican so i taught business ethics
for
the last 10 to 12 years and corporate
social responsibility
um but at nationwide one of the most
significant pieces i
felt that i enjoyed i spent 11 years
heading up
the consumer complaint area and consumer
affairs
so i worked with any of the complaints
that escalated
to the ceo's office and my role at that
point was to help mediate
negotiate find solutions and
two lessons came out of that number one
listen to people
hear what they have to say because
sometimes they've been disregarded for
a long period of time and the second is
educate because
oftentimes the reactions come from
people is because they don't understand
the process
they understand the communication so
those are two of the life lessons i got
there
i did go through the community
mediation services training offered by
that central ohio group
and felt that was helpful and
significant
i participated in settlement week with
the columbus
and the franklin county courts so
for me this is kind of a an opportunity
to again
help to discuss mediate
make sure we get proper solutions for
everyone engaged
i add a little blonde hair perhaps to
the board
i keep saying it's blonde white but not
too many people believe me in that
regard
but that's pretty much my story and
i'd be more than happy to answer uh
troy's question or any others who might
come forward
well have have at it glenn go ahead and
answer troy's question because i think
that
that one was a a really a good one and
tiffany
really um her answer was really great
and i loved it so i'd love to hear yours
as well well it is i think uh
significant in terms of why seek out a
position like this and for me
i saw it as an opportunity really to
kind of bridge the gap
in terms of complaints that might come
forward
it has been a horrendous year i mean
even going back to the colorado case in
aurora
a while ago so you know we have those
types of situations
i think sometimes emotions get involved
and you need to look at the emotional
aspects of it as well
i think it's a balancing act in terms of
what do we listen to how do we hear how
do we investigate
how do we bring a group of five people
together
with varying viewpoints and perspectives
hopefully to reach unanimous decision
in these situations and provide proper
and adequate advice to the mayor so
my feeling is there is a real
opportunity here i think as a
as a community to show that we are here
for people not only for residents but
for people that are transient through
our streets
through broad street livingston avenue
on main street
we get a lot of interaction in that
regard as well so
that's really why i sought out the
position and
having served on a college judicial
board way back when
um i've just found it's a great
opportunity for
uh varying parties to get together and
really find some common ground if at all
possible
thank you glenn troy yeah do you have
any other questions
we had him answer yours already no
thank you thank you for anticipating and
answering the question and thank you for
bringing your
uh your valuable experience to this to
the sport
thank you mr marcum um glenn um
jen robinson has a question question for
you jen
i actually don't have a question i just
wanted to to take a minute to
recognize both tiffany and glenn for
being here today it's nice to see you
again
um and i as as counsel now and those who
are in attendance can hear
um we are so fortunate in this community
to have people who have such
uh varied and deep knowledge in their
chosen careers and in their life
experience and i'm just really grateful
for you guys to have stepped up
and to join the additional three people
on this board
i think bexley really has something to
be proud about here and i'm glad that
you put your names forward and that you
said yes when
when called so thank you and really good
to see you too again
does anybody else have any questions for
mr soden
i was peddling off of bexley historical
society and
overlapped just a little bit um with
glenn
as he was pedaling on to the bexley
historical society
so i knew him as a wonderful organizer
and
somebody who was able to um
to reach compromises with some
headstrong individuals who
believe history and bexley should be
portrayed in
different kinds of ways and um
i was really um taken aback by not
surprised by
but in awe of all the different hats
that you've worn throughout your life
glenn and i think
that the educator the mediator the
person who has a great knowledge of law
is going to be
really beneficial to to the board so
thank you
for volunteering your time thank you for
while being retired not
really retiring and sharing all of your
all of your wisdom and experience with
us we appreciate it
all right nothing else for
these two i will say to you glenn and
tiffany
we run a really exciting council meeting
but you don't need to feel obligated to
stay if you don't
want to or you don't have the time to
so thank you so much for being with us
tonight
all right can i ask a question sure
tiffany absolutely
so is this the time that we meet so we
meet on the
fourth is this the meeting uh that we
will be meeting i got a calendar invite
for this meeting
the fourth tuesday of every month those
are council meetings
tuesday every month those will so we
don't join that your meeting
no okay perfect i mean you're always
welcome too no no i appreciate it
i saw them all come through and so i
thought you know i just wanted to
clarify that because i i did get the
initial impression that the crb
you know would be separate but okay it
will be okay
and you'll get i'm sure that um the
mayor will follow up with more
information
for you with that okay thank you
thanks again and that's a great question
so thank you so much
no problem all right council if
if you're okay with it i am going to
move on to um to the portion of
our meeting that we call public
comment and i will remind um
those in attendance um and those who
perhaps have never been in attendance
that
um it would be wonderful if you could
please announce your name you can just
simply raise your hand with the
with a hand icon to tell us that you
want to speak when you're called on we
would ask that you give your name
and your address and you will have
five minutes to speak with us um we're
looking forward to hearing what you have
to say
we will answer any questions that we can
um
anything that needs to be more in depth
we will direct to um
a director or um the mayor will direct
to someone to answer so we do have some
some hands in the air and um these
are subjects that should be that are not
um
a public comment is supposed to be um
items that are not on the agenda so if
there's something that you're wanting to
address that is on the agenda if you
could wait till that piece of
legislation
that would be great um i believe tim
madison had his hand in the air
um first mr madison unmute yourself and
you
may speak
there we go am i unmuted you are
excellent okay
tim madison 956 pleasant ridge avenue
i've been attending bexley city council
meetings for about 45 years
every single meeting that i ever
attended until last year
residents or anyone for that matter was
able to ask
questions of city council and to discuss
issues
with city council and with um
with the mayor with the auditor so forth
and so on
that ended abruptly last year the
process
for every meeting that i was at
including when the first two years of
president bible's presidency
when richard uh sharp was president when
ben kessel was president when i was
president
is after the mayor would give his report
the president of council
would say any questions for the mayor
for
from council and then the president of
council would say any questions
for the from the audience for the mayor
and that would go to the police chief
into the recreation department chair
into the service and every time
the president council would say any
questions for that person
um from council and then they would say
any questions from the audience
okay and that's happened for about 50
years
and talking to all long-term council
members there has never been a resident
or a non-resident
that has been not denied the opportunity
to speak
at a city council meeting to ask
questions and to discuss
discuss issues and in fact if the
president of council would forget to say
hey are there any questions from from
the audience
someone on council would say dear
president hey
you forgot to do that and the president
would openly say any questions
from anyone from the audience so uh that
worked really well
it worked great for 50 years as i said
it worked well during the first two
years of president fivel's presidency
uh and then what happened was i attended
a meeting on february excuse me on
september 20 um
september 20
uh fifth of 2020 and i raised my hand to
ask a question
the first time that i raised my hand it
wasn't even responded to
the second time i raised my hand i was
told
no and i quote no questions during
committee reports and we do not take
public comment
on old business new business or safety
committee reports we take comments and
ordinances only
so i tried to figure out what happened
how did this happen
so i did a public records request and i
found out that what had happened
was that upon one reading and the agenda
for that meeting on february 22nd the
agenda item was
four six nine two underscore zero zero
one
hype uh uh parenthetical one so no one
even would understand what item was on
the agenda
council passed by a seven to zero vote
to eliminate questioning
from council from uh residents at that
meeting and of course
the 7-0 vote wasn't even recorded in the
minutes so someone looking at those mets
would not
even know what council did so i want to
take you back to the
ethics ordinance which was passed three
members of council sitting here
voted for that ethics ordinance council
members markham
lamke and fiber all voted for it you
should know for those of you that
weren't involved in that process it was
about 3 500 words in that ethics
ordinance
they refused to change one single
solitary word despite proposed revisions
from my
myself mary goddessman and richard sharp
they
refused to change one word and here's
what the ethics ordinance says
the citizens and businesses of dexter
entitled to have fair
ethical and accountable local government
practice civility and decline with
discussions
and debate this is in public meetings
difficult questions tough challenges to
a particular point of view
and criticism of ideas and information
are legitimate elements of a free
democracy in action members have a
public stage to show how individuals
with disparate points of view can find
common ground and see a compromise that
benefits the community as all
making the public feel welcome is an
important part of the
democratic process every effort should
be made to be
fair and impartial listening to public
testimony
by testifying uh while treating the
speaker's ability
members shall actively listen ask for
clarification
and avoid personal attacks you can't do
any of that when
residents can't ask any questions
so the question i have for you oh one
other point i want to make
sorry grace is that when troy markham
had prepared the um
this council meetings procedure he had
included a provision that says
and i quote council welcomes comments
and input from all
citizens and this policy is designed to
maximize the quality
and quality of feedback while
maintaining an efficient and accessible
meeting atmosphere for all attendees i
got this through a public records
request
councilwoman lemke deleted that she
redlined that out of this
of this guideline i think that pretty
much says it all
so the question is why am i raising this
now i'm raising it now for two reasons
one is because i'm sick and tired of
telling people who ask me
i have an issue with city council what
can i do well i would say before
uh february of 2020 you could have gone
to council and you could ask questions
and debate but now you can't do that and
the second reason is
there's an election coming up and i want
all the residents to know
that what this council has done by
decimating 50 years
at least 50 years of tradition of
allowing people to ask questions
and raise issues of counsel they need to
understand that is
not the norm it's incredible to me mr
madison
i am so sorry to interrupt you i'm sure
you are and i'm hoping that you can
maybe finish up in a minute or so unless
um
council objects to that extra minute
you're well over your five minutes
at the end of the meeting if that's
what's necessary in the five minutes to
the extra minute
let's see seeing no one go ahead mr
madison okay so i'll finish by saying
within a week of three count
experienced council members with 20
years of council experience
leaving and three new council members on
the
first order of business by the mayor
and by president fibel and ultimately by
the seven members of buddhism council
was to eliminate questions eliminate the
50-year tradition
of residents coming into council asking
questions
having questions answered and raising
issues and i think that is an
embarrassment for city council
and i'm asking that city council go back
to the 50-year tradition
of allowing residents to ask questions
debate
and talk to talk to council during the
meetings remember
there's very very few committee meetings
at all so there is no opportunity
for residents to ask questions of city
council thank you for the time
thank you mr madison um looks like
taylor stewart has her hand
raised taylor
can you hear me yes hi um taylor stewart
2700 columbus
um i really appreciate you giving tim
the extra minute because i think what
he's saying is really valuable
i'm a resident i haven't lived here that
long
i came from columbus and i didn't
understand
what sort of atmosphere i was moving
into
i came from a place where when you
called the police because
somebody was being too loud you were
lucky if they came two days later
so it it was a very rude awakening
when i experienced violence at the hands
of our police department
one in four women are a victim of sexual
assault and right now
our law a lot allows the police
to essentially arrest anybody for
arguing with them and once they're
arrested
they're subjected to a strip search at
the franklin county
jackson pike facility there is not
a bexley jail so when
when you send your police out and they
arrest women for
asking questions or for arguing with
them
we are subjecting them to an additional
trauma
at the jail and i was denied
an opportunity to ask questions on
january 12th
i was subsequently denied the
opportunity to ask questions via email
because i had been alleged to had
committed a crime
so essentially what you guys are saying
right now
is you don't have an opportunity to ask
questions about our
police department if you have been
quote unquote charged with a crime and
police officers can charge you with any
crime
they feel like i was charged with
protesting on my street
despite something that happened with
armed protesters that was much
more dangerous nobody's listening to me
nobody's caring
i am getting threats and the threats
have been increasing for the past six
months but nobody's listening to me
nobody's allowing me to ask questions
because i've been
accused of a crime and the story is that
i'm
crazy so when you take that public
questioning
offline and you refuse to speak to
people that's one of the ways
that non-white residents are terrified
into never speaking again
the first message i got from my lawyer
after i was arrested by your police
was oh my gosh i am never going to speak
at city council again
because whether that was communicated
directly or
indirectly that was a threat i received
and not a single one of you
are interested in asking me any
questions
about the ways that i have felt
threatened as a bexley resident
with a non-white child in my home thank
you so much for the time
thank you taylor jeff rosenberg
has his hand um raised jeff
um jeff's hand is is down maybe
jeff has decided not to talk jeff are
you there
um i think we'll go ahead and go to mark
abramson mark
thank you can you hear me we can mark
thanks okay
my name is mark abramson i live at 243
south stanwood
road i just have a point of
clarification so i'm
following the correct order um i would
like to make comments regarding the uh
resolution zero 121 confirming the
appointments of the citizen review board
and i was planning to hold my comments
until after that point of the agenda
correct
that is absolutely where you need to
talk mark and we'll welcome
thank you mark so much all right anybody
else have any comments
in public comment doesn't look like it
all right council if we may we're gonna
go ahead and move
on to um my report
which i do not have a report for you
this evening i just want to um
thanks uh thank um ms lamke for
organizing our retreat on friday
thank you so much for taking into
consideration
all of our um agenda items so that we
can
have a productive uh a productive
retreat
um i will move on to um
our city attorneys anybody have any
questions for me
all right mr city attorney mark official
no report this evening thanks all right
thanks so much
we'll move on to um administrative
updates and
may i interrupt madam president
absolutely mr
mr um got another word that
a resident couldn't raise their hand
could we backtrack a little bit for
laurie
scoglianco i'm not sure if she's under
her name or larry's name
absolutely i'm so glad that she um
touched base with you
um lori are you
are you out there i'm looking to see i'm
guessing you
might be under larry's name but i don't
see
you listed unless you're
a phone number by chance
uh richard you don't know which one she
is do by chance because i saw
larry's name earlier i'm looking here
and i'm not seeing it now i do see two
telephone numbers that are potentially
hers um uh ben do you want to unmute
that
uh i don't i don't see her cell phone
number
okay if phone numbers have been
can you hear me now can you hear me now
uh
thank you thank you thank you for
sticking i really appreciate this
um so uh i did not hear the second
the second speaker i did hear tim and
that adds some timeliness to what i
wanted to say
i i am frustrated at the difficulty
in finding information especially about
the two housing projects
that seem to be rushing through very
quickly
there was snafus and obscure information
raised suspicions
among a lot of people and
i had i when i finally was able to ask
last time
where to get information i was told to
contact the builders
that's when the problems really began
because the information that i was able
to get from them
after having to form
very specific questions i
it really was in conflict with the
information that's on the website from
the city
and press releases and i can
i will circle back around and and give
those specifics
uh one of the things is uh that was
talked about was
how the traffic on livingston
is in the process of being fixed and
while it may be closer than it has been
in the last 15 plus years
since it's been a problem i'm most aware
of the last seven years where it's been
on the strategic plan
this is in columbus's hand i've not
seen how we have any power in this and
what makes it different
from the previous five years so i'm
seeing
the possibility that we have a large
development
being placed on a street that has been a
death trap and i don't mean to sound
overly um dramatic here i mean we have a
a boy who lives on francis a young man
who had
a long-term recuperation from being hit
by two different hit and run drivers
as he was making his way to the other
side of livingston
we have almost weekly car accidents
people go into driving through people's
living rooms garages i can go on this is
a serious problem
and um i'm very happy that tim brought
up the fact that we need to be able to
talk about
things as a community again it's a um
i know everyone here has integrity and
i'm sad to
think that this has such a bad taste
because there is so much misinformation
and no city opportunity to uh
to clarify anything some of the answers
from
tcb include the idea that
um my husband was told
that excuse me at a cic meeting he asked
if there is low income housing or
section 8.
the leader of the meeting said um
please correct me if i'm wrong to
everyone on the cic meeting he said
no this is not low-income housing
and the leader of that meeting also
confirmed that
people need employment not just
income from government subsidies when i
ask the right
questions to the c um to the community
builders
both of those information both of those
things
are absolutely false and it concerns me
if the people in the city who are making
these determinations
and and guiding us by saying these
projects are good
don't even seem to have the basic
information
that's true in talking with jeff of
community builders he explained the four
tiers of income
that are expected there are
um there are minimum
at each tier minimums income starting at
less
a little less than eighteen thousand
dollars for one person
twenty thousand dollars for two however
if somehow other people don't want to
move into that building
then the the builders are free
to rent those spaces at any price point
so the markets
the market price will drop and there
have been a number
of housing projects where that exactly
happened
in talking to community builders i have
asked in all kinds of different ways
to see comparable sites to bexley
comparable projects that have worked
jeff told me that the times that
projects don't work
are few but they are when the housing
project
is put on a area that is
transitional meaning there is
low income housing moving to higher
income housing and what tends to happen
is rather than the new
apartment building coming up to the
standards of the neighboring
bexley it is more likely that they will
go to the standards
of the west of bexley
that um that i don't think is what we
want for our city
we want to bring people in and give them
opportunities and provide affordable
housing
but we don't want them to uh to change
the good things of bexley the safety
the emphasis on education the feeling of
community
cic couldn't even tell me how many
lower income units we have
already in the city so i don't know how
people are determining how many more we
need
the way it came to the number of
community builders is
that's what they needed we need
affordable housing
but i don't think this is the project
that
is right for us and i'm especially
concerned
that it's getting pushed through without
any way for people to talk
thank you if i took time i was just
gonna say that you were like well over
your five minutes but i
i'm sorry i appreciate it thank you
bye-bye
thank you so much for sharing um i first
would like um
mr um fishel to please address
address the fact that council
is not able to to speak with
our constituents about these potential
developments and i'd like you to be able
to explain
to everyone why why that's um a fact
so that's partially true um and i don't
want to throw some people under the bus
but so there are seven council members
three of whom sit on the cic
the cic has been um the
one of the opportunities where people
have spoken in public had questions
answered
to the best of their abilities um and i
assume we'll continue to do so
um the three cit the three members of
council who are by
ordinance sit on the cic are the
are monique troy and
jessica because of their
because of their status as a their
particular committee members
since they sit on the cic and the cic is
involved with these two projects both
the cassidy avenue one
and the livingston avenue one they will
not be allowed to
hear any any a potential appeal that may
come before city council
from any decision of bizap so um
i don't want to say that they're free to
talk and say whatever they want
but they don't have the same
restrictions sorry guys um
the other four city council members and
in the context of this
formal city council meeting uh city
council should not be discussing
unfortunately the way the system is set
up you will
you potentially will hear an appeal
uh from a quiet you sit in a
quasi-judicial capacity
and hear an appeal potentially hear an
appeal from either
any side who's disappointed and unhappy
with the cia
with the uh bezap decision on these
projects
um i know there's been some some more
delays
on so so that's one point the other
point is
um i just want to point out there have
been some delays um
and so there are additional
opportunities for public input
um at the appropriate committee meetings
whether it's bzap arb or cic
um i certainly don't see any final
decision being made overnight
uh or in the super near future um just
as an fyi
so um
i do believe that i i would love for um
the mayor to potentially give um
mr bianco a call i think that that um
that
he might be able to um help out with
some of the questions she might have
um mr kessler would that be okay with
you
i'm happy to do that and uh actually i
think jeff
also called me yesterday i owe him a
call i'm aware of that um it's been a
super busy day but i'll be
i'll be calling the household uh
tomorrow all right thank you so so much
all right participants if you've already
spoken once i will welcome
a second um opportunity for you to speak
um at the end of the council meeting
when we have
another agenda item
entitled public comment um
all right i think we will move back to
our administrative
updates now and um we are i believe to
finance so that would be mr beecher hale
or our auditor bill harvey i know that
you have your reports
um online
with us would you like to um highlight
anything sirs
sure um i have the december and the
january report on there
i guess the only thing of
real significance is we budgeted less
money for
revenue this year and our taxes we than
you did
when you approved the budget but in
january the revenue that we collected
through income taxes was even less than
what we budgeted
by i forget 90 000 or so
it looks like that number is going to
catch up in february so i'm a little
less
worried about it looks like our february
number will be up by about that same
amount
so we should be okay with our revenue
again so far this year uh hard to tell
after just two months but
um and actually this is only obviously
one month
but i'll be happy to answer any
questions there's really no nothing
significant
on the report since it's just a one
month report
right we do have some questions for you
mr auditor
um looks like um mr sharp um has his in
the hand in the
raised richard yes um
just a note about the senior programs
that looks like the two
far right columns are missing formulas
uh just a little correction there okay
thank you and then i had a question
about
the um
year-end statement that was also
attached
to the agenda tonight
okay and my question related related to
the
fund balances at the bottom of the
second page
uh the ending 12 31 19 cash fund balance
the last line at the bottom second from
the right
far right column um
oh sorry the second page of the main
income statement not
yeah that page um if you go
to to the bottom second column from the
right
the ending year balance is three million
four thirty three
eight one eight that's the actual
it looks like and then um but that does
not match with the third
line from the bottom fourth column from
the right
which is three million seventy nine
thousand five nine nine
so i don't know what that issue might be
but
if that can be checked i don't need an
answer right now
okay and then i had a general question
about the
police department budget it's generally
around
five and a half million i believe for
the year
and i noticed it's 1.2 million
for the january um statement i'm sorry
i'm going back to the january
statement now but on this one it's one
about 1.2 million so that seems high i
don't know whether the police
pension transfer is in that that bumps
that up in january but
if sometime you could let us know what
makes that month
particularly higher compared to the
other months of the year
the expenses for that for january for
the police department
bill i can jump in there with that he's
spot on that is
that is the transfer to the police
pension fund um
as well as the transfer to health
insurance fund from police department
but all the other departments have the
health insurance transfer too so january
is a little bit high in the other
departments as well
okay so the expenses so that's good to
know that our expenses are a little bit
high it's not really annualized on a
monthly basis for those categories so
right thank you all right richard you
good
yes i am thank you all right thank you
so much um
troy also has his in hand in the air mr
markham
thank you mr harvey would you say that
uh you know they're lower for january
but look like they're catching up in
february
i know maybe you've spoken on this
before can you educate us again a little
bit how that
money flows and uh why we see these
little
shifts and things like that well
some of its timing we get the money from
the county
when it comes in and
they they many times give it to us like
at the end of the
month versus the beginning of the next
month and that would cause a problem
i don't know why january was so low
but i assume there were expenses there
was income that came in in january late
january
that didn't get posted to our account
and that's why we're catching up in
february
we don't know what that number is we get
a payment from the county
and we just post it so until we get it
from them we really don't have any
way of doing it we sort of guess at it
and try to spread that out over a
12-month period
but the numbers vary somewhat
dramatically
and i'm guessing they had some struggles
this year just because of what was going
on with the taxes throughout the
throughout the year and i think we'll
see that going forward for the next
two or three months it sounds like maybe
we uh
have a better handle on this after we
have two or three months uh
to look at is that true right and i
think the good thing is we lowered our
our anticipated budget revenue so
we should be okay based on the two
months we've seen
you good troy okay miss lampke
has her hand in the air monique bill i
had two
quick questions for you um as i
understand it the
karzak money from the federal and state
government was only
for 2020 do we know
if there uh might be some 2021 kirazak
money coming in
there will be a little bit of karzak
money coming in
and of course i haven't seen anything
and the new covet
ruling which everything i read is
there's three or four hundred billion
dollars for
small communities so we should get some
of that too but
until that passes obviously that's just
a guess okay
madame president if i can further
clarify that just to remind council the
the cares act money was actually
extended through the end of 2021
that that cares act that we had that 1.6
million
so there are going to there's going to
continue to be some
cares act money going from the cares act
fund into the general fund
this year a little bit a lot of it
already occurred last year but there
will be some more this year as well
maybe that was what bill was saying i'm
just clarifying that that is still
a component of what's going on
right okay great thank you both so much
then my second question was with state
budget cuts
being announced are we able to predict
if state grants or oh i think it's owpc
grants
would still be available at the levels
that they previously were
it's opwc ohio public works commission
and right now we don't know that money
comes from
the federal government to the state so
again not knowing what the federal
government is going to do
i'm not too worried about that money
anything we've already been has been
committed to us
i'm certain we will get it's really more
a matter of
going forward how much money they will
have for the various projects
um but that that's really a guess
okay thanks phil
counsel anybody else before we move
anything else lorianne i can't see
anybody else i
don't think so mr harvey thank you so
much and thank you beecher hale we
appreciate you
please know that um all right
um we can move on then to the police
department please
um
larry reinhardt are you with us yes
ma'am
hi there sir um do you
have any comments other than your
written report no ma'am i do not i
thought not
so i will ask my council members if they
have
any comments or or questions for you
and it looks like mr markham has his
hand in the air mr markham troy
yeah just a quick question i saw your
report um
mention a lot of uh unemployment fraud
and i've been hearing about this
uh too i'm just curious um
is that something that you take reports
on and you
pass that along to the federal agency if
people have
experienced some problems with uh
their unemployment uh their identities
being used for unemployment
uh should they call the bexley police
should they would you refer them to
somewhere else can you
advise us on that they should call us uh
and we're not taking full reports
because there's no federal agency
receiving full and complete reports
it's so widespread but we do have
contact information that we give to
people
uh and a course of action recommended
for them to take
it's a really great question um mr
markham and i have to
um along those same lines i have to give
a big thank you
to um officer jonathan bird he spoke
um last was it last friday it might have
been two fridays ago
he spoke to um the white hall bexley
rotary
and shared just this exact kind of
information
as many of you may know our rotary is an
aging population who are very vulnerable
to a lot of this type of
of a fraud and um
telephone scams etc and he was really
informative so
while i know i said a big thank you to
him i'd like to publicly say
say thank you i know that jen robinson
also has her hand
um raised ms robinson jen
thanks president fibo um evening chief
how are you
good ma'am how are you tonight good
thanks um i wanted to ask you about um
officer josh davis i understand he has
graduated from the
uh columbus police department department
academy and has begun his field training
can you tell us when he will be joining
the force and working
in our city well the the field
training program to some degree is
task driven as he masters different
tasks
he'll move forward if everything goes
goes perfectly
within about three months he'll be so
low on the streets
so far he's doing very well uh very good
new hire for us
and we're really excited to have him so
best case scenario about
three months and that's what we're on
track for that's fabulous can't wait to
see him in action thanks so much great
question jen i had the same one
um miss sod has a question for you chief
jessica
yes um well i concur with jen on that um
and then i you know after lori ann you
just brought up that officer byrd did
that training
and education it really wasn't a
training it was just a
question answer but it was really it was
super informative he just bullet pointed
have conversations with us it was really
great but go on i'm so sorry
um with that being said i thought it
just um made me think that maybe that
could be something that we offer to
more of our seniors in the community i
know my husband and i have had multiple
conversations with our own parents about
those calls
um so maybe that's something i
can look into with you on that explore
more
we're glad to speak to any community
group and that's how that came in
i believe sergeant overly coordinated
that but any community group that would
like
any member of the agency to come out
speak about any topic
and certainly this topic with officer
byrd he's working the detective bureau
now
uh we're very glad to send uh to send
officers out to do that
sounds great thank you
thank you it really would be a
beneficial one jess i mean you're right
i mean it really would be because there
are scams that we don't really even know
are happening and it just would give
people the alert
so all right thank you doesn't look like
anybody else has any questions for you
chief thank you so much we appreciate
you please stay safe
thank you ma'am um we could please
move on to um the good michael price
from the recreation department michael
you bring in fireball nothing to add to
my written report
ah i'm sad to know that the ice rink is
slushy now
yes it is melting and uh we had we had a
good we had a good run
you did have a good run thank you for
all of that
um so does anybody have any questions
for michael
doesn't look like it michael price um
and then we move on to the service
department mr b
sure andy yeah madam president
um i really don't have anything to add
to my written report
other than i will have the street
project bid back soon
and also um the annual sidewalk project
uh is going out to bid also
please thank all of your um all of your
um
shovelers and and salters etc etc for
all their weary hours we are grateful we
are ready for springtime
i know you are get the lawn mowers out
get them gassed up
all right anybody have any questions for
mr bayshore
i'm not seeing any okay council we can
move on i believe to
our mayor's update
mr kessler thank you madam president um
a couple things to highlight in my
report first off it's not in my report
but thank you all for your participation
in the state of the community
and uh specifically for being such game
participants in the uh
little video at the front end uh
providing
uh some a little bit of background our
projects
i uh also so appreciative of all the
organizations that joined us i thought
it was a really
informative evening we had a couple
technical hurdles at the beginning
uh so thanks to sam metcalf for uh
helping us navigate through those we're
going to be
posting a a version that doesn't have
the technical glitches at the front end
to our youtube channel by
next by the friday blast so it'll be up
for anyone who wants to see the full
complete version without some of the uh
redos and such that we were working
through other videos streaming
uh so thank you to all of you um where
our community events season is going to
be kicking off here pretty soon
um it's going to be retooled for our
pandemic conditions
but we have a lot of things to be
looking forward to we have our jeffrey
woods festival that kicks off our season
um on march 6th uh that starts at what
five a.m mike so we'll see you guys out
at 5 a.m
and we'll be going strong through the
mid-afternoon on that day
and then we have a lot of activities
we'll be talking more about for arbor
day uh
greater bexley cleanup and d.a drug
take-back day are being planned for
april 24th that's
earth week and uh we're looking at may
15th for the for sale free cycle day
and then we are looking at a jazz in the
park a memorial day ceremony on the 31st
of may and
a june 4th main event so those are all
be as we talked about before they're
going to be scaled
to whatever the appropriate public
health guidance is at the time
probably early on our most cautious look
at that would be sort of what we did
last fall
with registration based events and and
some of those guidelines in place
so looking forward to that calendar um
our residential sewer remediation
program launch
is due to be taking place in a matter of
days we had a great meeting
internally this week where we uh put the
finishing touches
we think on our faq and on our
application form and
if you want to kind of get a look at
what that's looking right like
right now you can go to bexley.org
flooding and you can see a full write-up
registration form we'll be live soon
we're gonna have
mark provide some
overview of what's written to make sure
that we're all on the same page and
we're
saying the things that we need to say so
uh that will be
uh launching after he has a chance to
look at that and so we imagine
maybe later this week um
our rfp is out for our renewable
community choice aggregation
due march 5th already heard some
potential respondents asking some
questions so that's good news
um i didn't have this in the written
report but the livingston
study group which is just to remind you
and
anyone who hasn't heard this before the
city of columbus has agreed to join in a
joint
traffic and development and streetscape
study for livingston avenue
in fact they're really invested and
they've asked us to expand the scope to
go all the way to james road for the
traffic study so we're finalizing an
expanded scope
which columbus will pick up and um
what's really encouraging about this is
that columbus has
been authentically engaged it started
off as us asking
can we do this joint project and uh
them sort of gamely agreeing to it and
now it's very much being led
jointly by them and that's been an
encouraging advancement in the
in the program so we're looking at
probably launching our steering
committee in the next month or so
already been talking to different groups
but who they might want to have
uh involved in that steering committee
so we've reached out to the livingston
residents
group that was formed the jcc
different boards and commissions of the
city and then columbus with their own
set of stakeholders so that's that is
moving forward and i'll have it
i'll continue to flesh that out with
more information as it as it arrives
um just a couple fun little photos here
this is our third grade tour of city
hall usually that happens in person it
was a zoom tour and it was just the
cutest
so that that went well and actually a
little bit better than i would have
imagined
uh there's a photo of our police food
drive so thanks again to sergeant
overlay and the police for
for organizing that and then this uh
this picture is actually from this
afternoon
um you see here this uh this gentleman
in a wheelchair is a veteran
of world war ii joseph edward jeannette
turned a hundred today
and uh he was driven to the t.a.t
by sam schamanski and his ferrari and
received a proclamation and today is
indeed
joseph edward jeanette day in the city
of bexley so i want to recognize him
as one of our decignarians what's the
word for that
i see this collapse i'm not sure what
the phrase is but
um that's
i mean i'm sure i could keep talking but
uh any questions
counsel any questions for the mayor
i don't oh mr klingler has one
matthew thank you council president uh
mary kessler i just i saw on something
you've been up to you spoke to the
chamber of commerce about the dora uh
did you have good feedback
no they were like no just kidding they
uh they actually voted to
endorse the concept as presented and so
they're on board so far
anyone i've spoken to about this from
our you know potential partners
restaurant partners and
and commercial partners it's been a
pretty enthusiastic yes so yeah they
were
they were anxious to see it happen so
great
good work piper's at the chamber
what's that no snipers at the chamber
yeah right
i did it again okay or i tried clearly
everybody doesn't know that anyway
moving on
anybody else have any questions for um
mayor kessler
nope all right then
with council's permission unless there
are objections we are going to move on
um and ask that um our city attorney
lead us through the consent agenda
please all right
two items on the consent agenda the city
council minutes from february 9
2021 and ordinance 505-21 to
unappropriate 35 000
from the salary and wages line item of
the vehicle
and grounds maintenance and urban
forestry account and to appropriate
thirty five thousand dollars
into the turf maintenance line item of
the vehicle and grounds maintenance and
urban forestry account
that was introduced by mr markham
all right um council are there any
questions
regarding the consent agenda
uh those in attendance are there any
questions
concerning the consent agenda
i'm seeing none do we have uh can i have
a motion please
adam president i see a hand raised among
the attendees oh
okay sorry missed it
taylor stewart
hi i'm sorry so is nobody gonna actually
like address
the issue of like are we allowed to ask
questions or not
because you know tim sort of put it out
there
are we are we ending the process of
question asking or no
nobody really addressed that can i
address that madam president
um uh i you know what i would prefer
do it at the end of the meeting at the
end of the meeting right right
answer that at the end of the meeting so
like 3 a.m i'll be here thank you
um so we have a motion
and we have a second um is
uh mr um mr auditor please roll call we
don't have we don't have a motion in a
second oh we don't have a motion in a
second is there a motion please
almost emotionally yes okay i think
jessica has a first match you want to be
the second
yes all right thank you we have a first
we have a second mr auditor
mr markham yes ms lamke
yes mr sharp yes
mossad yes mr klingler yes
ms robinson yes ms fibel
yes passes all right thank you
all right um moving on to third readings
mister all right we have a third reading
of ordinance 0 4-21
to 1 to authorize oh i'm sorry look
right
went too far down see my eyesight is
terrible an
ordinance 0-4-21 to allow for vacation
time buyouts for unused vacation time in
excess of 10 days in the instance where
a staff member was unable
to take vacation leave due to
extraordinary circumstances in their job
impacted by the city's coba 19 pandemic
response
introduced by mr markham i think we've
had a couple readings on this uh
any questions or comments with this
um uh mr markham or madam president if i
may real quickly give an update uh one
of
one of you guys have i can't remember
who i'm so sorry
ask the question as to what will this
cost us which is a really logical and
valid question
and our best estimate is it's a it's
around the 16
17 000 mark that is a care funded
item scares act funded items so it's not
coming from the city's funds
but um nonetheless that is our best
estimate of the
expense from this i think that was a
question
from mrs ms robinson hopefully that
answered your question mata
it did thank you all right thank you um
any other questions um regarding
this piece of legislation
all right um i'm gonna ask mr markham if
he has a motion
yeah at this time i move that we adopt
ordinance
4-21
mr clean little second all right was
that you matt
yes ma'am thank you mr klingler okay so
we have a first from troy and a second
from matt
any questions from the from the
panelists
or those in attendance on this
particular piece of legislation
seeing none mr auditor ms fiable
yes mossad yes mr markham
yes mr klingler yes ms lamke
yes mr sharp yes
ms robinson yes
all right thank you um we can move on to
our second ratings please
sure we have a second reading of
ordinance 0-6-21 to authorize a transfer
from the road and alley fund of 5256
to the bond retirement fund or fudd as
the case may be
and to appropriate 5 256
from the bond retirement fund to
appropriate 52
559 from the water fund to
appropriate thousand eight hundred
eighty four dollars from the sewer fund
to pay debt service related to the south
roosevelt
and ashborne uh
improvement project
yeah that was a test
yeah i failed yeah and again this is to
uh
pay start payment on the debt service
for that project
uh any questions or comments
any questions from those in attendance
on this piece of legislation
if not i propose we move this to the
consent agenda for next
meeting any objections to the consent
agenda
looks like it's consent agenda thank you
mr markham
if it's okay with you we'll move on to
721
okay second reading of ordinance 07-21
to establish a special fund designated
the south drexel avenue and grandin
avenue comprehensive improvements fund
to record
all revenue and expenses associated with
the south drexel avenue and grand view
avenue project to appropriate
five million one hundred fifty eight
thousand eight hundred seven dollars
from this fund
to pay for the cost of the project and
to authorize transfers from the water
sewer and road and alley funds of one
hundred thirty four thousand one hundred
eighty one dollars
thirty one thousand five hundred seventy
two dollars and ninety seven thousand
three hundred forty seven dollars
respectively to the south drexel avenue
in grand view grandin
avenue comprehensive improvements fund
to pay the city's portion of the project
mr
markham so well done
the very large positive i'm tired
take a break for just a second uh very
large uh
project uh really uh great benefit to
the city
and a great opportunity for us to uh
receive help from the federal government
uh for this
we just need to create the um the fund
for it
and set up set it up to receive that
money and contribute our share
to it any questions or comments on this
i don't see any mr markham any anyone in
attendance have any questions or
comments on
this piece of legislation if not i would
also propose a consent agenda
destination for this so that mr fischel
well he just still has to read it anyway
doesn't he
he does he does but we'll let him drink
water in between
i do see someone has their hand um
raised let's see who it is it's um
richard sharp
richard thank you madam president
um i was wondering
if uh when we have guests it occurred to
me as i was
thinking of this and um moving
resolution of 1
21 to the consent agenda that if we have
guests in attendance it might be a good
idea to
allow them to or suggest they may stick
a lot
stick online for resident comments
because there may be
comments and concerns that residents
might have regarding the position that
they might be
appointed to that it would be a good
opportunity for those applicants
to hear those comments
okay well in the future we can certainly
ask them to
again certainly ask them to stick around
i don't believe that they
uh that um are too awesome
are on although maybe no i know they
aren't on right now
and i didn't raise that point earlier i
did by chat but i didn't
raise my hand to bring it up publicly so
thank you i missed i missed your chat
forgive me i'm sorry
again we just took the it's resolute
it's ordinance zero 721
that's proposed to go and consent agenda
we haven't read zero twenty
01 21 yeah just correct
we're on the same page okay yep for sure
okay any any questions then um for
about this particular piece of um
legislation
i'll take that as a reference from
richard that go on the consent agenda
um there it looks like there's that one
and uh ms stewart do you have a question
about
um ordinance 721 drexel and grandin fund
creation
just a comment about like when we have
guests um
you know you sent these special people
away who are members of the citizen
review board
there's nothing to say here
i'm sorry so that they didn't even hear
madam president can i interrupt uh as as
a director
i mean again we have certain rules and i
think that folks have to follow those
rules
obviously if people want to make
comments when we read resolution 0
1-21 which might be what ms stewart is
trying to get to
then those comments would be appropriate
at that time
thank you for your point of order mr
mr fishel all right
are there any objections from council um
to mr markham's suggestion that we put
721 on the consent agenda
i feel strong support for the consent
agenda on this one
i think so people want to move on i
believe so so 621
and 721 ms maynard can you make sure
that those go on
our consent agenda thank you so much and
if we could mr
um official move on to resolution 121
please absolutely resolution zero one
i'm sorry i lost my space there it is
resolution 01-21
confirming the mayor's appointments of
members to the citizen review board
that was introduced by ms robinson
so we had the opportunity to meet two of
the
uh newest members of the citizen review
board uh tiffany and glenn i think glenn
is still hanging on i see
his uh his screensaver on on our big
screen
um i think we there were some questions
last week
about the terms all lining up and i know
that the mayor addressed that that was
is something that we can
um amend once the
this ordinance is passed does anybody
have any further questions i guess any
conversation about
this particular ordinance looks like mr
sharp has his hand in the air richard
uh madam president i want to clear clear
the air and apologize
i when i made my comment i had looked up
at the uh
agenda incorrectly and so i
i wasn't trying to suggest that this be
put on the consent agenda for the next
meeting so
i apologize for that confusion thank you
mr sherpa no we're
good richard no worries um
looks like miss sod has um uh her hand
raised miss sod
yes uh jen you brought up um what we
discussed last time with the term
ex expirations all happening at the same
time and
mayor kessler supported that we would
look at that um
since we discussed that this past week i
was kind of looking at it and just a
suggestion tonight
that maybe we take our original um
selection of the three that or
was it three originally yes our first
three
and um you know go ahead and
and um set their term first and then
the other two uh new members would be
um you know the the next just food for
thought
since we had three and then two so just
wanted to make sure
that was brought up tonight
great i'm sure the city attorney or the
mayor could address when the appropriate
time for that would be but um that's
certainly something we can consider
can i check i'm sorry go ahead mark mark
just chiming in there i think it makes
sense to leave these
five folks the way they are and then
address it
when we re-up people down the road
um i think that's going to be the the
cleanest way of doing it
right now because really the idea is to
have
the new this new uh board up and running
july one
three-year well actually it's
technically two-year appointments
they would have and then it leaves
options later on
plus there's some charter review changes
being proposed that might address it as
well
so i think it just makes sense to do
them all on june 30th 2023 as
expiring but then we can fix it down the
road even as early as you know
next year um if the charter review stuff
gets changed
yeah i was going to say is as long as we
can look at it within the next year i
guess
that's that's my only concern
it happens quick that will be at 20 23
you know
you're right about that
thanks for sharing your concerns jess
anybody else have any
any other council members have comments
on this specific piece of
legislation all right then we will move
over to our attendees
um ms stewart
um well i actually i had a question for
tiffany hunt is she still in attendance
or no
i don't believe she is of course
um never mind then thank you
thank you mr mr um abramson mark
yes can you hear me we can good evening
my name is mark abramson and i live at
243 south stanwood road
i'm one of four generations of my family
that have lived in bexley
and i have a vested interest in this
city i'm going to read my document
because i want to try to confirm
conform with your five-minute ruling
upon learning
that the mayor created the bexley
citizens advisory board and that he had
appointed the first three members of
such board
by contacting him at that time to convey
my interest in joining the board in the
future
at that time i met with the mayor and
the city council president
miss fibel to show my interest and
provide them with some general
information regarding
my experience at that time i was advised
there are no current
openings last year when i learned the
board was expanding by two
i contacted the mayor who advised me i
did not need to submit
a formal application and that he
understood my continued interest in
joining the board
i was quite surprised to receive the
following email earlier this month after
not having been contacted about a re
an interview or request for references
during this
second group of people i quote
we received many applications for the
two vacancies and selected glenn soden
and
tiffany hunt to fill the positions there
were so many great applications
you among them as we as with any board
selection process
emphasis was placed on ensuring a
balance across the board
and had less to do with anyone's
individual merit
upon receipt of this email i expressed
my disappointment to the mayor who
followed up with a second email
and i quote criteria included
professional background
personal background to the extent which
member helped
round out the board by ensuring a
diversity of perspectives and
backgrounds
as with any board it is less about the
individual per se
and more about the balance of a whole
end of my quotes
in order to do my due diligence and
research before making comments
i decided to submit a public records
request which i have yet to receive a
response to
however since city council and the mayor
have decided to move this forward
i decided to do my own due diligence as
best i could
please keep this in mind as i present my
research
one i quote emphasis placed on ensuring
a balance
across the board two and had less to do
with
any one individual's merit three extent
to which member helped round out the
board
by ensuring a diversity of perspectives
and backgrounds
and four it's less about the individual
and more about the balance of the whole
before i present my research i'd like to
say that i personally believe each of
the three current members
and each of the two proposed members
appear to be
to have stellar backgrounds as
individuals and individually they would
be an asset to most boards
i will remind you of the criteria
presented by the mayor
it had less to do with anyone any one
individual's merit
and it's about less about the individual
per se
and more about the balance of the whole
and the diversity of the group
now for my research based on my review
of three current and two proposed
individuals
i learned that one of the current board
members and one of the proposed board
members both work for nationwide
insurance
in addition the other proposed board
member retired from nationwide insurance
after 30 plus years
i believe you will agree that when 60 of
a board works for
works for or has worked for more the
same corporation for more than 30 years
that does not meet the criteria for
ensuring a balance across the board
nor ensuring a diversity of perspectives
and backgrounds
i also contacted the franklin county
board of elections and i learned that
four of the five
current and proposed members are all
registered democrats
with one being unaffiliated please note
there are 95
9598 registered voters in the city of
bexley
33 only 33 percent are registered as
democrats
like the data i presented regarding
employment i believe you will agree that
appointing 80 percent of a board with
the same political affiliation
when such affiliation city-wide is only
33
it does not again meet the stated
criteria for diversity
and balance across the board in closing
i would like to emphasize that i would
be raising these same issues if 80 of
the appointees were republicans
or if 40 or 60 percent work for any
other single company
whether it be wendy's the limited or
macy's therefore i respectfully request
that city council not approve the two
proposed individuals to the board
not based on their individual merits but
rather because they do not quote
ensure for a balance across the board
nor do they
quote ensure a diversity of perspective
and backgrounds
per the stated selection criteria
presented to me
thank you for your time and your
consideration
thank you mr ibramson
anyone else have any um comments
on this piece of legislation prior to
moving on
um madam president if if it would suit i
wouldn't mind addressing some of the
questions that were just raised if
that's
that's an option absolutely go right
ahead so
um first off i have the utmost respect
for mr abramson i've said that to him
before i'll say it again
and um uh i don't want to
make this about any one individual
person but i do want to address
the thought process and i i guess i want
to say i respect
his perspective that this is not a
well-rounded board and i respectfully
disagree with that i mean i think
um that being it is it is interesting
and true
that two of these members are currently
employed by the same employer which is a
massive
employer and does employ many of our
residents
probably they're not proportional but
from my perspective it was much more
it wasn't about who was your employer it
was about
who you were as an individual in your
particular professional background which
is different with all three of those
individuals he mentioned
um i don't look up political
registration nor did i in this case nor
will i
it's not we are nonpartisan in our
office this is a nonpartisan thought
process
but i appreciate what the points you
raise i still feel very strongly that
this is the best board
for the city and that this is the right
board
given those who uh put their names
forward
and again i reiterate very authentically
i think we could have
you know pretty much anyone who who
requested the membership of the board
do a fantastic job and so it's always a
difficult decision and
um nonetheless i especially feel secure
about this one because i did have the
benefit of
additional eyes and ears and support
through that process and making that
decision
so thank you very much madam president
thank you
um seeing no questions any for any
further questions from
council i'm going to ask that we um
move on please
to our looks like our arch
where are we i'm sorry our first
readings
our first readings please all right so
we have a first reading
of ordinance 08-21 to certify special
assessments for the repair
of sidewalks where the work was not done
by the owner after being ordered by the
city in accordance with bexley code
section 1
1490.15 b4a or bexley code section
1492.04
uh b won and it was necessary to do the
work and it says the owner introduced by
mr
sharp richard
yes um for for the benefit of
the residents and for council could the
mayor
give a history of the assessment program
this this year and
maybe address the
larger number of people on the list this
year as compared to
past years i know we were in a tough
economic time that might be part of the
reason
it might be uh due to
financial concern that people it's just
easier to put it on their property tax
than to
try to make payments and
it's not that they were neglectful but
they
made a mindful decision to finance
the that expenditure in this particular
manner
so thank you mr sharp and um i'm going
to ask
andy to supplement what i'm about to say
if i'm if i'm not
saying this correctly i think andy is
still on the call um
a couple things i think this represents
more than just one year
i think because of covet 19
we held off on billing
until after there was a little bit more
stability in the economy
and then we made it clear that uh
that this could be assessed over a three
year period
um for some of the larger bills and in
fact
this is the first i've read through this
ordinance and i think we need to make
sure we stand by what we said
it looks to me like these are all simple
singular assessments so i think we're
gonna have to write this a little bit
differently so you can expect an
amendment
so that's new as well i think from some
past
feedback we've received we have some
residents with large corner lots and
several you know pads of concrete
and uh our desire was to spread those
assessments over a three-year period
which is the number of years between
inspection points for those properties
uh andy anything else you want to add to
that in terms of
the size of the list compared to normal
no mayor um i mean we jordan has
has talked to quite a few of these and i
you know i have also the residents
and um you know we were just trying to
make the best out of
um you know the year and try to help out
the residents if we could
it's also possible we made the
assessment option seem a little more
attractive
this year in the way that we wrote the
letter i wonder if that's the
possibility i'm not you know
every year we kind of retool the letter
just a little bit to try to make sure
our word is proper
correct so to richard's point this is
not a wall of shame this is
a very legitimate way to pay for your
concrete panel and uh
you know there's nothing wrong with that
so
[Music]
i i i think it helps as a reminder that
um that this is two years of
uh residence
rather than the normal one-year listing
does anybody have any questions
concerning this
um it looks like somebody has their hand
in there i'm sorry i'm on the
attendees ms lamke monique you have a
question
andy or mayor i noticed that there was
one assessment that was substantially
larger than the other
can you just share with me um why that
why that one's
so much bigger
leave it with six thousand some
ben i can't see the list right now oh
it's actually house apartments
yeah okay uh sorry i haven't um i pulled
it up in a separate window
yeah so it's just a massive it's not not
math
massive by vexing standards it's a large
property so
it had a extensive amount of sidewalk
panels unless andy is there something
additional to bexley house it's
different than just the largest
no mayor it was just the size of the you
know the property and
a lot of sidewalks out there
okay thanks any other questions about
this particular piece of legislation
from um
council members mr mr klingler matt
yeah thank you andy just a quick
question what is um
what does one square of sidewalk cost to
replace in case
you know can any residents say oh my
sidewalk
i'd like to get it replaced when you're
doing sidewalk replacement projects
have the concrete guys stop by is that
enough is that an option and what does
that cost
absolutely matt that is an option um
if the resident is wanting to do that
you know we have the information
and the contractor whoever that year has
the project that year will
give that resident the same the city
prize so they actually can save
you know a little money um compared to
you know a normal
non-contract um city contractor
an average cost of one sidewalk panel is
right around
175 to 200 dollars okay
thanks and also i think and maybe this
was just answered but the um
if a resident wants to have their own
contractor do the work they do have that
option that's a there's a notification
period where they can exercise that
option
um looks like we have a couple more
questions in regard to this um
mr sharp richard i prefer to miss
uh assad since um i've already spoken
thank you richard um miss sod
jessica thanks richard thanks uh
president fibal this is just off of
matt's great question there for the
residents that are listening tonight
and for those of us who don't know so
um a resident would just pick up the
phone and call city hall
andy to understand who that contractor
is if they want to have
their sidewalk panel replaced by the
city
correct correct they call city hall or
the service department
you know and i could i could get them
the information needed
thank you all right
um it looks like um i'm gonna
go ahead and have our auditor um ask his
question if that's okay richard
andy that's only if we're in the middle
of a project they can't call tomorrow
and say
send somebody out correct correct yeah i
was unclear on that but yeah it's only
when the city has a project going
on um but yeah
when the when it's not um you know
construction season and the contractors
not working for the city
they would not get you know the city
price it would have to be
in conjunction when they're working for
the city
regardless someone could call you andy
and you could be able to give them an
information that they need regarding
that
so absolutely all right thank you
um mr sharp
and since there is two years involved
if there are residents who are listening
or who
um hear that their names on the list and
maybe they were in this year's street
program and their payment
is in route or something like that this
list will be updated um
through the final final reading so if
there is any miscommunication
or or delayed payment then um
that will be taken care of
good to know richard thank you so much
for that additional
piece of information um uh
is there anyone in uh any other of the
council members that have questions
regarding this specific piece of
information
this pers this piece of legislation
seeing none and seeing none in the
attendees having questions on this piece
we could move on to
921 please mr official
mark are you there
i was muted sorry all right 009-21 to
unappropriate 60
86 600 again
nine hundred 86 one dollars from the
urban redevelopment tax increment
equivalent fund more commonly known as
the city hall tiff fund
introduced by mr markham thank you so
unfortunately this was an appropriation
that we made based on projections
for the tif fund uh that came in below
what we projected so we now must
amend this by unappropriating some of
that money
any questions from council on this
any questions from anyone in attendance
on this
this piece of legislation all right
and with your permission um mr markham
we'll move on to ordinance
10 21. hear from mr klingler yes
laura yeah all right so we now
have our first reading of ordinance 1021
creating a designated outdoor
refreshment area
in a spec specific specified portion of
the main street district and enacting
regulations and declaring
an emergency mr klingler
thank you um we've we've spoken about
this
in quite a few past meetings
i'll i'll let the mayor
speak to the application he put most of
it together uh mayor would you like to
take it away
you're muted yes okay i'd love to take
away thank you um also a note we're
having
some of these pdfs aren't loading off of
our online system
so for the public and council members if
you are having a hard time they're also
located under
public documents on our website under
city council in today's meeting
subfolder so you can
open them that way alternately and we've
made our system
vendor know that this is an issue and
they say they'll have it fixed by the
7th of march
so um let me just real quickly run you
through the actual presentation so it
feels a little bit like
a uh you know not as much of a big
announcement because we've talked about
it so much
already but you do have in front of you
the statutorily required
application um in accordance with a high
revised code 4301.82
for a designated outdoor refreshment
area in the city of bexley um
the uh there are some updates since you
last saw this
mostly it's um we updated some of the
branding we've worked with a local
artist
to get some branding put together for it
filled in some blanks um the map has
changed
slightly um we've kind of gone back and
forth on this
but we noticed that first off the bexley
bed and breakfast was not included
initially so we made sure to include
that
and then also this final block
next to mantras elementary is currently
included on here
and um you know i think that's gonna
that's something i'd like council to
talk about a little bit and get a
comfort level with
even though the hours of the door i do
not intersect with school hours
anytime there's been a liquor permit
application near montrose or any well
near the school
mantras is the only school really close
to liquor permit holders
it's been you know obviously a sensitive
topic topic and
one i think needs some good uh
conversation
um the reason that that's currently
included is there is a
restaurant that was at least recently
opened in that area that has a permit
and so it felt like
um that continuity should be would have
them be included
but again i think that's a good point of
conversation
um the restaurants that have so far
been approached about
the dora and have agreed to participate
and again there's not a cost
extra cost per say to the restaurants
our brassica giuseppe's harvest and
kitties
and frankly that's just because we're
still getting through the list so
everybody we've talked to so far has
been
a yes on being a participant
and actually four is an important number
because by the statute four is the
number
the minimum number of uh participating
restaurants or permit holders that
we would need so we're there but we
expect
to flush out that list so everyone
currently grayed out we're still
talking to um
there is a safety plan and a sanitation
plan as part of the requirement for
a dora application i think at a future
meeting
and specifically maybe the public
meeting on this which is going to be
slated
if it pleases council for march 30th
which is our second meeting in march
at that point i think we'd have a
presentation from our police department
and from our service department because
the safety and sanitation plan are
required
by a higher advice code our police
department has already spoken with other
cities that have doras
and has gained some comfort and
understanding of the concept
so they'll be prepared to speak to that
but it's fairly basic you know what any
any
additional safety concerns or
essentially trash
litter cleanup concerns this is an area
that already has very well
covered trash receptacles and um
obviously
a strong police department so a signage
is part of this as well this is the
example of what the signage might look
like when when folks are
leaving and entering the boundary just
gives them the idea of they are
coming and going from within this area
no alcohol beyond that point
um the proposed hours have not changed
since our last conversation
uh 4 pm to midnight monday through
friday and 11 a.m
to midnight on saturday and sunday
and uh slightly updated look here for
her cops
a little bit of a of course a bexley uh
flavor to this would be that these would
be compostable cups
and one of the things we will be working
on is finding a way to
have them composted which will be a
little bit of a challenge but we're up
to it
and that
i think you know we have a signage
location map i'm not sure if that was
part of it before and here's the fact
sheet that went out to
restaurants that we've approached so far
and again we're still working on
getting through that list so happy to
answer any questions
before i do real quickly the way that
the ordinance
interacts with the application the
application is presented to you guys
the ordinance is the opportunity to
solicit your feedback
and public comment and then make any
changes
and then approve once approved it would
go
through a process where it goes to the
state
to the state division of liquor control
to have on file and then within a
certain period of time i think it's 30
days
goes into effect so we're hoping if we
pass it by the end of march
that we're looking at a may effective
date for the dora
so that is uh that's it in a nutshell
wonderful it looks like we have um two
uh individuals on council who would like
to
um ask some questions or share a thought
on mr markham
troy no straws with those cups right i
assume
i i i have a question about
the physical boundaries so if you have
businesses that opt out
does this have to be a continuous area
or could you
potentially have even like a
checkerboard type pattern of
of places there where it would not
extend to in front of other businesses
great question and actually as i'm
looking at this i noticed
i i thought i had used the most recent
map but this
we had intended to fill in this parcel
right here at trinity because continuity
is important
so if a business opts out what that
means is that they're not going to sell
you a beverage in a in a cup that's
that's required for the district all
that means is that
if you go to restaurant day
they don't participate in the door
they're not providing those to go cups
specific to the dora
and therefore you can't take beverages
they're alcoholic from that
restaurant and walk down the street with
them
you can certainly traverse anywhere
within the district as long as it's
within that designated cup
and the statute really does specify that
it's a single-use cup
that it's um that it's
branded or at least that it's identified
so that it's
definitely belongs as part of the dora
um so you could walk you know
if you wanted to you could walk from
moshi sushi down to to roll across to
jimmy john's and back around and
hang out in the gateway south parking
lot uh
for all we care troy as long as you're
following all the applicable laws and
regulations
so it doesn't long story short
continuity important because it gives
you that
passage along the sidewalk and some
consistency but doesn't require every
business on that area to participate
sounds like you know my routes already
so we're
so i have two more questions then one is
uh so where
would you post the signs physically um
would they be on
like lamp posts or how how would that
work
well in whatever manner requires andy to
dig the most new holes and just kidding
um so if there are existing
vertical poles that we could mount to
we'll do that
just like any other signage um you know
so there i could imagine that in these
areas for example let's say we go on
you know cassidy and there's an existing
no parking sign or parking restriction
sign we could co-locate
uh man co-locate this sounds like we're
talking about the small cells
um or we could simply move i will
we will sequester if we can so we might
find situations where we're going to
move
a hole so that we have more than one
sign so that we're not creating a bunch
of signs
so we'll use what we can we might move
some in order to
consolidate signage but i could i'm
you know fairly certain we'll have some
new new vertical poles going up
to support the signs that's that's a
picky question i was just curious the
the last question though is
now there are some businesses um
east of that boundary that do have
liquor licenses so is there
consideration to extending that down
to their area as well so
the only one and correct me if i'm wrong
about this
piada has a license and uh i believe
that bexley pizza plus has a license
those are the two i was thinking of
so on our to-do list is to contact
bexley pizza plus at the local business
which would sort of be a gatekeeper
question for piada i think the the issue
is that today
first off we might get into an acreage
maximum although i think that's really
unlikely because we have a
35 acres and we can go up to 100 or 150
so forget that comment
but i think the other thing was bexley
pizza plus
doesn't seem like it has a ton of
on-site
consumption and so you know the
additional signage that would be
necessary the additional infrastructure
to put in place
maybe isn't worth it but uh it is on my
to-do list to reach out to that business
owner and talk through it
all right troy are we are you covered
with your questions sir
yes thank you i guess i would know both
of those businesses do have
patios so that i that may they may have
less need of that but uh thank you
for good questions um
miss sod has her hand um raised um
jessica
yes thanks president fiable all right
mayor kessler just a couple questions
um if we can go back to the boundaries
the description of
description of boundary and if you could
walk me through again just
um how we and how we came up with
how you're envisioning um this flow
like why did we go with the span that
we're going with from
drexel avenue just north of main street
um
[Music]
north and south kind of give me a an
idea is this something that we've seen
in other
communities like ours um what's what's
the thought process here to such a large
um boundary
um well it was trying to encapsulate uh
the majority of the users in the
district
so you look at the restaurants that have
uh permits and there's you know moshi
and
rusty bucket over here brassica
and then walking down the line you get
to harvest
and cobb india and
cafe istanbul i'm probably missing some
of the kitties over here and then
the russian premier restaurant sorry the
bexley premier restaurant
at the far east side so it that's
that's the bulk of our especially that
that encompasses every
sort of formal dine-in restaurant with
service in bexley
i think unless i'm missing something um
and then going north to incorporate the
lake of drexel where
currently we don't have any liquor
permits except for kind of a giuseppe's
there so i didn't even mention
giuseppe's
um but then the bed and breakfast on the
north side that just kind of felt like a
natural
tie-in so it's not you know actually
it's it's well below the state maximum
for a community our size in terms of the
size of the area
and again it just felt like it was
incorporating the sit-down service
restaurants
that was that's the district today now
that doesn't at all prejudice against us
from expanding it down the road so if we
have a
restaurant renaissance that moves
further to the east absolutely 100
percent
you know we'll have some experience
under our belt makes a ton of sense to
expand it
the other reason that i you asked the
large question i'll tell you why not
larger
is i was a little reticent to
physically incorporate the mantras you
know property into it i just felt like
that's not really the right fit
and i felt like that would be a good
place to end because of all those
reasons
and then the thought would be like foot
traffic could come back around
as to why we have it on north and south
well we have restaurants on north and
south
right and the the idea is that you know
you can walk down the street and shop
you can
you know toss a frisbee in the lawn at
capital university
potentially although capital also i mean
there's there's still conversations
happening around this
um and then you know future development
gateway south
will hopefully include a uh retail
restaurant piece to it
and it you have to have four
participating members will you help me
understand that better
but in order to even submit it to the
state you have to have four
just a question yeah if you were to type
in your browser orc
4301.82 it's a good read kind of lays it
out
talks about what's required and that's
in the in the wisdom of the state
legislature they came up with a
minimum number of participating permit
holders of four
for a community our size they came up
with a maximum acreage
um they came up with the require some of
the requirements that are in here the
single-use cups
so you can just it's you know it's
pretty easy to read through and get a
feel for what's required and we
point by point uh just met the
requirements of the high revised code in
this application
and then i get just another question is
just cost a city clean up and
officers yeah so
um i'll let the chief speak to that at
our future hearing on this but i think
the
experience from uh gahanna which most
recently put one in that's
probably the most comparable to ours has
been that it's not put an
additional burden on public safety
officers that
you know people who want to abuse
alcohol and
break the law are doing it already so
this isn't really going to encourage
that or increase that specifically in
the confines or
in the context of our types of retail
environments
that's been their experience but i'll
let the chief speak to that um
and then from a litter pick up trash
you know i do expect that we will have
additional cost specifically because i
hope to
find a way to collect and compost
the cups that we are distributing that
will be an additional
cost nothing substantial but something
that we'll have to keep in mind we have
existing staff that
several times a week picks up empties
trash
bins on main street so it won't really
be a big
additional cost for that piece of it
but i think we'll probably have a little
bit of extra composting expense
and i would imagine a little bit more
volume than we
currently have and most of that volume
by the way
you know won't probably be cups but it
would be additional business
and that's a good thing so i think one
of the hopes here is that it's an
economic driver
and that we're helping to support our
restaurant
users at a time when it's a very
difficult time for them and also
provide an amenity to the community and
a way to more safely distance
right and i i like the i like the cups
and the wristbands
um both so the wristbands you would get
from the restaurant as well as the cup
and you'd have to
you don't you get a new cup every time
but you would be able to keep the same
wristband
i believe so yeah um and then just the
last question
midnight when we came up with our um
hours of operation
do we is we have restaurants open until
midnight is this new
hopefully no we don't i mean actually
i've
i might have helped shut down giuseppe's
past midnight in the past there's not
uh still to be clear
uh the we don't have an ordinance that
requires our restaurants to close at
midnight
um we don't currently have
you know we have i think really it's the
only giuseppe's is the one i think of
that from time to time we'll stay out
open past midnight i don't know that
there's a super lively night scene in
bexley
midnight felt like a a time when matt
and i were talking through it that
seemed sensible
for what we're talking about but
certainly that's
one of the things one of the many things
that's open for debate and conversation
thank you great questions
if i could just chime in am i impressed
yeah i had an hour-long conversation
with lou griffin
um he's a part of the the creekside
business
alliance the cba over there for hannah
and he
um he said they didn't have really any
issues
with uh policing or police officers or
any
any additional burden to the area
because of this and
it was quite the opposite it really
helped their restaurants and businesses
in the creekside area
and for us we don't have our restaurants
don't have a large
bar areas or gathering areas um it gets
sort of congested so it's just another
way that you can go in if you're waiting
for a table
you can go in get a drink and then wait
outside on the sidewalk
or hang out um while you're waiting for
your table so sorry
my dog is working um that's all i have i
just wanted to add
that piece thanks matt
anyone else um from
council that has any questions any of
anyone in the attendance have questions
about the dora
all right then i think that we um
are left with the last piece of
legislation is one which
is on the table and belongs to
mr sharp mr sharp
thank you madam president um if i may i
would like to
make a motion to remove ordinance 36-20
from the table
for discussion there's a first and third
second
second of that mr markham thank you mr
markham
all those in favor of um removing
ordinance 3620
um off the table for discussion please
signify by saying aye
aye same signal
all right mr sharp it's all yours madam
president i would
like to publicly thank the mayor for um
spending some time looking over
the ordinance and proposed changes that
um i had to this tabled ordinance that i
sent out
to counsel just for your information
yesterday
and then uh revised alternative
proposed amended ordinance that i sent
out today after
thinking about it and discussing it
and i want to make perfectly clear that
this ordinance
has nothing to do with the um
the way the administration has
or the advisors to the administration
has
handled the current
pandemic emergency that we've been
living through this past year
the ordinance is about protecting the
rights of council and the residents of
bexley in the future
when this mayor who goes out of his way
to work through situations with council
and
residents is no longer here
and because this has been such an
extraordinary
situation this past year
a lot of a lot of
government entities are looking at the
emergency powers
authority and um and my proposed
amended um
ordinance that i'm going to recommend uh
that we
amend the initially introduced ordinance
i've removed the time constraints or the
time
periods and just the purpose is just to
make it
clear that council does have the
authority
to end an emergency or
to make changes to
proclamations or executive orders that
may have been made
under the authority of the state of
emergency and
the reason is if if we're not looking at
it right now
i would hate for a future council to be
put in a position where there's
an extraordinarily new type of emergency
that comes up
and the mayor at that time um
maybe makes decisions that the residents
don't approve of
and um council gets into
an argument during the middle of the
such an emergency and
be put in a position where that
particular mayor says
well there was an extraordinarily
emergency back in
2020 um
our or your ordinance granting
emergency power say nothing about
council being involved in the ending of
those powers
and if the if prior councils
were concerned about this issue they
would have put it
in the ordinance so i want to eliminate
that
particular type of confusion and
angst that future residents may
or councils may go through my
proposed amended ordinance simply states
that
a state of emergency and executive
orders issued there under may at any
time be rescinded by council ordinance
or resolution
so my proposed changes
to the introduced ordinance is
just to add that phrase to make
some wording changes that make the
meaning and intent of the um
existing ordinance a little bit clearer
to remove some gender-specific um
references like he fireman
policeman things like that
and um just update some
language to um the way that
we speak today versus back in 1968 or
earlier so um the mayor has put
up my proposed amended ordinance
on the screen and we can just go through
it real
quickly the red items are
what i what the originally introduced
36 36-20 sought to change
the black wording is what our existing
ordinances say the strikeouts of black
is removing those references in the
existing
ordinance the red
strikeouts are
sections that were in my originally
introduced
3620 that i am willing to delete
through in this amend in a proposed
amendment
and the green items are things that i
have added
from the originally introduced 36-20
i did send the mayor a cleaner copy
that gets rid of all the red
strikethroughs
if he would care to put that on the
screen
and it might make my proposed amendments
a little bit clearer
can we scroll down is there is there
i can't see so i referred to the time
i removed the or i'm planning to
propose amending my original ordinance
to delete the references to the 45-day
period the second 45-day period
i'm specifically including a line
that the mayor is authorized to suspend
local ordinances and regulations it's
inferred but not specifically stated in
our
current ordinance
so again
my proposed amendment to
36-20 is to
delete the red strikethrough line items
to add the green items
and to leave the red
unstrucken items that were in my
original ordinance
hopefully that's clear as red and green
mud
and i'm more than willing to get give
people an additional
time period to uh ponder
these changes um i would request that
um i i'm gonna suggest that we for this
sake of simplicity and for readability
that um i will
be proposing to amend the ordinance
as i have discussed and then
if council feels they need more time to
review it
i'm open to that but um
with my discussion from the mayor and i
don't want to put words in his mouth and
he can make his comments
we came to a this seemed to be an
agreeable
compromise to his concerns
and to mine before i take questions
i would like to hear from um uh our city
attorney
on on the um potential changes and
and then i would like to hear from um
the mayor if he doesn't mind um
yeah um i had an opportunity to review
this this afternoon i think
it looks good to me i think it's i think
richard did a really good job of making
the the current ordinance much more
readable
um i'm perfectly fine with it from a
legal standpoint
okay that's what i wanted to hear um and
mr
um mr kessler would you like to um yeah
mayor i want to i uh echo what mark says
i think that um
my the earlier version i was concerned
as you guys know that it was um
would would put with situations would
present themselves
where the restrictions that were in it
would be detrimental potentially to
the city and the operation of the city
so i think this
reiterates the right the council has
today to
rescind these orders i think it provides
so a clearly communicates those checks
and balances which i agree are important
i also think that it modernizes
antiquated ordinance and provides
clarity in a helpful way so
i see it as an additive change and i
appreciate
richard's uh you know working with it
with with me on it and talking through
it with me and uh
it was a i think a very productive
dialogue so thank you richard and
um i would you know not i'm not the one
voting but i would i would
i would encourage the the vote for this
as uh proposed
thank you so much both of you and and mr
markham i know you had your hand in the
air and so forgive me for asking them to
chime in before you
uh got your q answer your question
answered or or your comments
said um but would you like a chance now
mr markham
yes no i appreciate the timeliness of
you having them
weigh in i feel like uh
i feel like i got led through a forest
for a while and then
left somewhere for a few months and now
i'm being told to
find my way out with the red and green
uh sign so i'm
kind of taking a look at this mr
official my question is for you
what effectively does this change
i do not believe it changes anything as
richard said
i think i understand i understand
and certainly don't disagree with the
idea of having it
clear in the future so there's no
misunderstandings about what
future city councils have the authority
to do especially as they're trying to
figure it out
in the middle of potentially in the
middle of an emergency but it does not
add to take away or or
modify either the mayor's rights or
council's rights regarding these
emergency orders
in my in my view
thank you all right
council is there anyone else that has
any um
questions on this piece of legislation
um uh looks like ms lamke does
and um ms robinson monique
uh mine's more of a comment i wanted to
uh thank council member sharp for
kind of revisiting this especially after
having been
tabled and for willing to engage
in a discussion i believe that when we
had the discussion on whether or not
you know to to proceed i had mentioned
that i
i thought perhaps darker times were
ahead by way of covid
and potential flu season and i think
when i made that comment i never would
have imagined that we would have
second health such a
wave sadly that prediction did come
through but i thank you rich
for revisiting this and for working with
the mayor
i strongly believe that checks and
balances between different branches of
government are extremely important
we are so fortunate that we collaborate
so well
but i know that perhaps going forward or
in the future
that may not always necessarily be the
case
so i intend to support the checks and
balances
laid out here and i appreciate your
being so diligent
thanks monique ms robinson
well monique got her hand up just a
fraction of a second faster than me but
richard i
i wanted to really echo what monique
said i really appreciate you revisiting
this
and um for helping us to really have an
ordinance that leaves no question as to
um
what we can and can't do and and the the
um the power of the mayor and and
running a city effectively so thank you
for revisiting this
and uh thanks for all the effort you you
put into it it is
very much appreciated i want to echo
what
um my colleagues have said and also add
that
um um in in
typical richard sharp style he also went
to
the added extra mile to make sure that
it's a little less antiquated as well so
thank you for
always being um the council member that
we can count on to be
on top of all the details looks like mr
klingler might have a comment or a
question
matt my only thank you my only question
is
why is federal crossed out under law
enforcement officer
that's it you list every other one but
like
right there at c that was my only
question
the previous ordinance referred to
militiamen which
is most often in natural disasters the
national guard
um each state has a national guard and
uh
generally federal law and or um
federal law enforcement isn't
generally involved in in emergency
situations
okay that was all great job richard
i agree with the rest of what was said
excellent work thanks matt um mr markham
troy
i will also say that i appreciate the uh
cooperative work done
uh and it is what i've come to expect
from uh
the members of this body i don't
mind being the grouchy old man on city
council though and i will tell you
uh as much as i feel like i can support
this i am not a fan
of introducing a bunch of amendments
an hour or two before council meeting
and voting on it so i would
ask that we table this again until the
next thing to vote on it so that i can
actually
i do not believe this is the document
that i read earlier today
all right and uh mr and mr mark
um just so that you have a context there
was a
email i sent out yesterday that did have
a number of different
attachments and today um was
my response to the mayor's response last
night
and had the single attachment um
to it so if
it may have also because it was
forwarded and or replied to a number of
times
it may come across as being this looking
like the same
one as was yesterday but it's
slightly different yeah i don't want to
misrepresent
uh my intention there i i understand
that the work was done
you know i believe that that was a very
admirable i i'm
support the fact that there was some uh
late work done on this i
just on principle do not really want to
vote on something that is potentially
very substantial
as a checks and balances uh change
without
being able to to really take a look at
it i i'm reading it now
it looks fine i definitely trust mr
fishel's judgment on that
if you decide to go ahead with this i
don't see any reason to not support it
uh however i do think it would be
prudent to be able to
have a review period and i would be in
favor if you wanted to
of passing the amendments tonight
all right madam president before i
propose
to make the motion to amend this
ordinance
do you mind asking the audience if there
are any questions that they have
absolutely i do not mind um
it looks like we do have a hand up um
from our attendees um please um
remember attendees that this is a this
is
an opportunity for you to speak um
solely on this piece of legislation
ms stewart hi when it says
uh no person shall fail to obey the
lawful
order of any bexley local county state
law enforcement officer
[Music]
um this seems to me to be
further infringing on our first
amendment rights
um can somebody explain to me how this
is not
something that continues to allow the
police to arrest us when we um express
our views
thank you for the question mr um
official would you like to handle that
one please
sure so first of all this um
this this is not a broad-based or should
not be interpreted as a broad-based
ordinance
that simply allows law enforcement or
city employees to just tell individuals
you must do this or you cannot do that
it would apply only in emergency
situations
and it clearly needs to be read
consistent with
individuals constitutional rights so
to the extent that an individual's right
to engage in first amendment activity
um would
supersede this ordinance this ordinance
again cannot take away those rights
and i don't want to speak for richard
but i'm sure they are not intended this
ordinance is not intended
to take away those rights thank you mr
fishel
um looks like we have um a second hand
in the air um mr abramson
please i'm mark abramson i live at 243
south stanwood road
i'd like to better understand this um
ordinance um
aren't there laws that are already
enforceable to uh
these issues
mr fishel i didn't understand the
question i'm sorry
well the question is it says no as an
example no person shall fail to obey the
lawful order of the police
etc etc we already have laws against
that i'm trying to understand what the
ordinance itself
is oh there are you are correct there
are already laws
in that regard there are um
i mean so the language that you're
citing to first of all is really on
is really no different than the current
ordinance and
what it does is it allows
as i in my opinion my interpretation it
allows
the um police office all of these
individuals listed there in paragraph c
on the screen to also uh be permitted
to enforce under penalty of
you know criminal sanction certain
executive orders
issued in the event of one of these
emergencies
by the mayor without necessarily the
approval of council
so you're right the but the the lawful
order
for example the lawful order of a police
uh i'm trying to look at it closely
uh the lawful order of a bexley law
enforcement officer for example yes
there are there are statutes um and
ordinances that currently apply
to those situations but and again i'm
sorry i'm being a little redundant here
the this this ordinance is specific to
those situations when an emergency
declaration has been made
and the mayor has issued certain
emergency orders
with or without counsel's legislative
approval
thank you miss thank you um mr official
is that anybody else um in attendance
who
has um who hasn't spoken already that
has a question
i don't see any all right so we'll go
back to the panelists then jen robinson
you have a question please
yeah just hopefully this will be a point
of clarification
um but i did ask the mayor uh yesterday
how many times he's actually enacted you
know his
his ability to use his emergency powers
now you've been mayor for
i should know this off the top of my
head how many years and how many times
have you
actually created um some sort of
emergency order
um so this is the first time um
there was we looked at it back when
there was a pretty extensive power
outage in the city back in 2012 but it
didn't
it didn't really make it wasn't
necessary at the time
um so this is the first time to answer
your question
and also the current if anyone's
wondering the current
orders are on our
city website under public documents
under
[Music]
i believe covet 19 resources
and you can see
the uh the current ones there it's it's
largely we're at this point talking
about you know restaurant patios
temporary signage
um the most recent one was order
regarding temporary facilities for covet
19 testing and vaccination
um so we're
you know continuing to pro prohibit
refusing service on the basis of face
covering so that's
that's a protection against historically
marginalized members of the community
that might feel
insecure about wearing face coverings so
that is the current uh version
and again just kind of has changed as
the needs have changed we didn't have a
need for
a temporary covet 19 vaccination
facility until
cvs popped up wanting to expedite one
and we had zoning laws that would have
required a lengthy
process so that's just kind of an
example of where we're at today
all right um richard do you have any
action on this piece of legislation
um madam president i would like to
propose amending ordinance 36-22
um
with striking out the red
strikeout lines adding the green
font um phrases and words
to the existing 36-20
coordinates we have a first is there a
second
second though thank you mr markham mr
auditor
miss fibel yes ms robinson
yes ms lamke yes assad
yes mr sharp yes
mr klingler yes mr markham
yes yes thank you mr
president before making a motion to
re-table
this ordinance um there are a couple
additional questions from the audience
and i
would be happy to hear those now um
panelists do you have your hands in the
air still
or do you have your hands in the air
again
i believe i saw them go down so i think
they're back up again
all right mr abramson
thank you yeah based on a prior slide
that i briefly saw and then it changed i
just have a question for
mr official is this ordinance actually
going to try
and allow the mayor to prohibit the sale
of a fire a legal firearm
under legal constitutional right
uh the answer is probably
the answer is it depends it is on i
would i would grant you that would be
unlikely
an unlikely order that could be enforced
necessarily
i don't want to limit myself to certain
circumstances
that might we might not be contemplating
but as i mentioned
in conjunction with or in connection
with the prior question about first
amendment rights
this ordinance just like any other one
needs to be
read consistent with uh everyone's
constitutional rights
and consistent with any state law that
might govern a particular issue
so the answer is probably not but i
don't want to foreclose that possibility
depending upon the nature of what an
unintended or i'm sorry
unanticipated um
emergency that might arise
think that you've put in way too many uh
limitations that you think are uh
legally enforceable but i'll leave it at
that
thank you mr irison um miss
mr and mr abrams um those are
uh that's terminology that's in current
law so we're not adding anything
mr stewart
thank you i was actually muted before
my question got answered previously and
we just sort of
floated along by it um currently
as it stands when our first amendment
rights or state law is
violated this is going to play like at
least
a year out in the court to mitigate so
as a citizen i'm reading this as
an enhanced power of the mayor to
violate our civil rights
i'm not understanding why this is needed
or appropriate at this time at all
when we have yet to focus on limiting
the harm that our police force
is able to inflict on our citizens like
i read this
is doing the exact opposite and i'm
really confused as to why this is
necessary or needed
thank you i i will answer the
question um it is
most most of what is in black
on the ordinance is our existing law
we're not enacting anything new the main
part of the ordinance is to allow
council
to make it clear that council has the
authority
if there is overreach by the mayor
that we do have authority to
revoke or to
rescind any
state of emergency that was declared or
to rescind executive orders
by council vote so this
adds specific approval
so that a mayor in the future does not
say
council left this
action open to me and me only
you did not indicate that
you could rescind my orders so
i'm arguing that the orders are
mine alone and so this
these changes seek to clear up
that potential overreach by a future
mayor
thank you richard
all right um
mr sharp do you have
um actually president i would make a
motion
in difference to mr markham's request
that we table ordinance 36 day
amended ordinance 36-20.
i think troy did that um thank you
all those in favor signify by saying aye
aye
aye opposed same sign
thank you thank you richard for walking
us through that thank you for your hard
work on that we appreciate
it we appreciate you we um
i love um the coordination and
compromising
that this that this body that this body
does
thank you so much um and richard it's
still in your court sir because service
and environmental committee is next
do you have any um report or
new business or old business i have
uh no new business or old business i do
have a report from the esac
um they are
rolling out a pilot program with a
a restaurant to do composting
on a commercial basis in the city
with brassica they'll be participating
in the pilot program for their
back office so to speak or kitchen waste
right not initially with patron
waste and also um
they will be um i don't know whether
they're taking over
or adding to the mayor's previous
love your alley program but they're
going to reinstitute that in may so
um residents who like to beautify their
alleys can be
ordering from the seed catalogs that are
coming in the mail and online
and and look to
go into lowe's and and buying things to
make their
their garages and their alleys look
really nice
as the kids drive through the alleys on
their bikes
it's a hostile alley takeover just to be
clear
matter president if i may also add to mr
sharp's report that newfangled is also
going to be participating in our
composting pilot program so great
all right thanks richard um finance
committee troy markham
old business new business report sir now
just to report
uh and most people probably already know
this but there's a lot of
you know questions from the community
about the livingston avenue project
north cassidy project uh community
builders held a forum
last week last week with south bexley
neighborhood association
they continue to be available to the
public to ask questions i was very
candid
very candid meeting very candid
conversation
i know sometimes it's confusing whether
you may have questions about
zoning or architecture or the operation
or proposed operation but
the community builders has been
available to the community
uh that was one meeting i do not know
for sure if they will be
scheduling others but i wouldn't be
surprised if there are other
opportunities as well
thank you mr marcon we appreciate that
um safety and health committee jen
robinson
thank you you have two quick updates um
one is i will have
um hopefully confirmed information about
the
march 20th coveted testing pop-up at st
charles
um there was some question about whether
that was going to happen
inside or outside but as only elizabeth
will ellman will
will do she checked her trusty weather
app for uh
for march 20th and it's supposed to be
55 that day so
we all have something to look forward to
so being outside hopefully will not be
an issue
i am holding her to that me too it
better be sunny too
is all i have to say um i also wanted to
let everybody know that
the police department in partnership
with the ohio
highway patrol is offering a free
vehicle maintenance and roadside safety
course
there are several sessions available um
on two i think they're saturdays the
27th of february
and the 6th of march um check out
i think the information is listed under
recreation and parks but also in the
bexley blast
check it out you'll learn safety tips
how to
change a flat tire check fluids jump
start a vehicle and several other things
that
um are are really
good to know and it's open for people 15
and older so
those of you like we have a soon-to-be
driver um
get them registered and they can be
self-sufficient
so that's it i'm out great
thanks jen so much um
jessica saad zoning and development
committee
old business new business or report from
you madam
thank you president bible um just a
couple things to report
the bexley education foundation has
announced
that april 21st is going to be a virtual
gratitude event at 7 pm so i hope that
we all can tune
into that they will not be having their
bravo fundraiser this year so they have
decided to
um turn that event into a virtual
gratitude event
what does that mean that means that it's
going to be a night of recognizing
our leaders in our community um a large
focus on our educators
and showing gratitude for them and and
the year we've had
so i hope everyone can tune into that
i'd like to also say congratulations
to dr joy walker she is a new
bexley education foundation board member
so congratulations to
uh joy um wanted to let council know
that um we have been working with a
subcommittee
um of arb for
a look at you know a new garage
ordinance changes
so um we are working on that we've been
working on that
and we hope to have something in front
of
council for first reading by our next
council meeting
so wanted to let everyone know about
that and where we're at as
you guys have been notified that we
would be working on that
um bzap will be meeting this thursday
february 25th at 6 00 p.m
wanted to just kind of remind the
community that our bees app and our arb
wonderful boards have
been receiving even more requests with
covin
for variances and
you know additions to our wonderful
bexley homes
so let's all just be very patient with
these wonderful boards
and that the work that these volunteers
have on their plates for those meetings
um but again this thursday february 25th
at 6 pm is the next visa
meeting and then the next arb meeting is
thursday march 11th at 6 00 pm
and also just wanted to remind the
community that these boards meet once a
month
so with that addition and more
projects being brought to them um they
can have
their work cut out for them on those one
night meetings that they have once a
month
that's all i got thanks jessica so much
i think richard sharp might have a
question for you or
or perhaps for jen i'm not sure he had
his hand when he put his hand up so
richard forgive me
mr sharp um madam president it's not
necessarily a question for
jessica it's just relating to zoning and
development
some announcements that i wasn't sure
where i should
bring it up at but i wonder troy
reminded me
sbna is having a meeting thursday march
4th by zoom they're going to be
discussing
um that community's um
feelings regarding the proposed sheets
station that while not in bexley
it greatly affects bexley likewise
they are participating in bexley
residents
can participate as well at be
in the mid east area commission meeting
that's going to be held on
zoom on march 10th as well
that is the columbus
commission that encompasses berwick um
the berwin area some eastmore
and some other areas on the near on the
in our area of east columbus again
talking that commission is going to be
voting that night
on their recommendation for the sheets
development at the corner of college in
livingston
and i will try to have
megan northrup with sbna get to the
mayor
the link information so that we can put
it on the city website
for residents that might be concerned if
nothing else to
hear about that proposal and then
lastly um it was just a thought that
came to mind that
it might be worthwhile um
depending on timing and availability
which
can be pretty tight is whether there
should be a
separate public meeting with community
builders
open to residents outside of a
regular approval type board
just to disseminate information about
the project
so that everyone gets one answer
and it doesn't take a lot of time for
the mayor to email residents
individually about the issue it's just a
suggestion
that's up to the administration and
community builders decide whether that's
a worthwhile suggestion
thank you very much thanks richard
i think we'll let um the mayor ponder
that one and
um and get back to richard on that
um i think we can move on if we could to
matt klingler and his committee with
recreation and parks sir
matthew yep just a couple announcements
thank you um
jeffrey care backpack update with the
bexley city schools decision to move all
in
learning models starting monday march
22nd
they are working on transitioning the
jeffrey care program back to before and
after care
for all of our parents of bexley
students out there
they're currently gathering information
on community demand for the program
as well as working with bcs to identify
space use
um as the mayor mentioned i just want to
highlight again the maple syrup workshop
is coming up february 27th and the wood
shop shop is coming up march
6th so um put those on your calendars
and then from our best activities club
announcement uh book club reminder
starts
starts up tomorrow wednesday february
24th at
for those 55 and older who participate
in the bexley activities club
and that is all i have great update
thank you so much
um can we please move on to a
judiciary and strategic committee
monique lamke madam
great thank you just a couple of brief
updates um thank you to
richard for pointing out the sbna march
4th
meeting regarding i guess up and coming
sheets i appreciate you
specifically mentioning that i did have
a great meeting
not too long ago with raquel armstrong
who is the
new bexley middle school assistant
principal regarding
diversity equity and inclusion so i'm
looking forward to picking that
discussion back
up again we also have our city council
retreat on
february 26th i will be
sending out probably a revised agenda
shortly
but i'm looking forward to having a
frank and honest and
healthy discussion with all of you so
looking forward to that
and then finally our committee on the
charter review commission's proposed
amendments
uh met recently and our next meeting is
going to be
march 3rd at 7 00 pm i think the mayor
had that in his
timeline we had a great first meeting
and we are looking forward to continuing
our work to eventually bring
recommendations to council
our thought is that we will likely
introduce an ordinance
for council's consideration on may 11th
and have a second reading on may 25th
and a third reading impossible vote on
june 8th
and if it needs to be tabled then we
would still have the june 22nd meeting
to have a vote go forward but obviously
recommendations and discussions would
occur
uh prior to that and we will make sure
that we keep all of you informed
so that is my update
all right massage uh looks like her hand
is in the air jessica
nick could you send us an email with
those dates
yes i will do this trying to write them
down but i was like if you can't
i'll take you up online i will gladly do
that
thanks jess great question thanks
monique for following up
all right is that it ms lamke that is
all
all right council with your permission
we'll go on to item number 21
on our agenda which is a final public
comment
i think that um i got word in the chat
that maybe laurie scoville uncle would
like to speak again as she cannot
raise her hand
hi thank you i just um i really
appreciate the chance to talk and
everybody doing
such good work i i think that there is a
crisis at least among the people that
i've been in contact with
of um feeling that information is being
hidden and i i hope that the city
will put up some sort of site where
people can write
questions and get direct answers because
the
the community builders for example they
don't have any accountability
our city has accountability to us um
and i hope that there's also a way that
people can
i write to write out not just what are
the
questions factually that should stay on
one side
people's opinions and feelings are
legitimate and need to be heard but i
hope they're separated from facts
and i also hope that there will be some
consideration for mark
abramson i was really shocking to hear
that uh after you know someone who came
forward
so early on was not seen as an integral
part
and that so many people from one
company have been hired just something
doesn't
the visuals on that aren't good there
may be good reasons
but i hope that that it could have at
least be
revisited and also i know that the head
of bees app has
talked about there's too much
information on the bezep
um agenda so that the last meeting
went till two in the morning and
especially regarding these housing
projects
it just the visuals are really bad on
that and i hope that they will have
their own
uh their own meeting so it's not at the
end
of you know a long day past midnight
thank you very much
thank you lori we appreciate you um
staying on with us
and and sharing the thoughts again um
anyone else in attendance like to share
um any further thoughts with council
this evening
seeing counsel do is there a motion to
adjourn
oh taylor has her hand in the air ms
stewart
i'm sorry so can we go back to you with
the question
asking thing is nobody gonna address
that are we no longer
allowed to ask questions anymore
uh i i believe that there's um
that council has set up um
rules regarding uh questions
um there have been um two opportunities
both
public comments at the beginning of the
meeting and then
again at the end of the meeting
both of which you have taken part in and
we have also had
opportunities at each and every piece of
legislation
for citizens to speak um there are
lots of different opportunities for for
that to happen
that was going to stop so is that not
going to stop
that's not that's that's not going to
stop we it's not going to stop you
you have had as you know you had at
least five minutes the beginning if you
wanted to talk
you've you you can talk for five minutes
now specifically about questions because
nobody has actually
bothered to answer my questions about
police reform
and why we as bexley are arresting
people who have been accused of
misdemeanor crimes when columbus is not
doing that
we are putting women through trauma and
nobody has bothered to respond to me
miss stewart mr i'm scared and am i
allowed to ask questions about that and
actually get an answer
absolutely you can ask questions about
that and get an
answer but this is such
asking since the 12th the people of
course
president tonight president
may i speak uh yes you may i was just
going to
um but but but ms stewart wasn't
allowing me to i was just going to
suggest to her that this is such an
important
conversation such a big conversation
that there is not even um
a remotely enough time for us to get our
jobs that we are doing
done this evening and have that
conversation with you
it would do you such a disservice for us
to have that conversation
about police reform when does anybody
get to ask questions about that
all right mr mr official i will um
i will move this on to you please
so again i guess there's a couple things
i want to point out here
first of all i think the way that
tonight's meeting is
went it was clear that there were
questions asked
and answered by me mr
sharp and other other other city
officials participating
so clearly this idea that we can't ask
questions
or have answers to questions right then
and there at a particular meeting
is a um is not true
um and the fact that we might have done
something one way for 50 years or 20
years or whatever
you know everybody well
i don't need to say anything more on
that i do i do need to
no but that that's my question though i
am speaking miss stewart
sorry i apologize i apologize that is
fine
now ms stewart and i am sorry i have to
say this in public but you've raised the
issue enough
and i want to respond and let city
council and anyone else listening
understand currently there are
i was i i believe eight criminal charges
pending against ms stewart
relating to various arrests that were
made up
by the plea bexley police department
against her
those those criminal charges are being
handled
in municipal court in franklin county
municipal court
the city is represented by a prosecutor
that we retain
kevin mantell miss stewart is
um is represented by legal counsel as
well
and up to this point ms stewart has
asked very specific
questions relating to her own particular
circumstances
no not my own particular concerning
concerning her arrest
at least in the emails that she sent to
mayor kessler and me
and i have been advised by and i agree
with this advice
that those should not be topics of
specific conversation
at this point while those criminal
charges are pending
in addition ms stewart has filed three
complaints
through the complaint process that has
been set up by the city
and again the i have been in contact
with ms stewart's attorney about how to
hit
how the city intends to handle those
complaints and i don't believe a city
council meeting is the time
to to discuss these specific
issues and i would encourage you folks
not to listen to what ms stewart has to
say has to say
as she has the right to speak as any
other citizen does but
it is again it is not the time to be
debating
whether or not the city has
met expectations or what the city is
doing to meet expectations
about police reform so
essentially anybody who has criminal
allegations
made against them does not get a voice
when it comes to police reform that's
what i'm hearing you say
please correct me if i'm
misunderstanding you are a 100 percent
incorrect that and and i'm sorry i can't
explain it any differently to you right
now
there's a process in place and the
process is is running its course
and again you're represented by an
attorney
and i don't want to step on your rights
or his rights by discussing
these issues in public and and again
from the prosecutor's standpoint
he does not want to discuss those issues
in public because
this isn't about me though this is about
you're not answering it
i believe that there's a point of order
there is a certain kind of decorum that
we have to follow
and we've gotten to the point where we
are debating
and our council does not allow
um debate and so i am
um i am going to um
ask if there is anyone else um in
attendance who has
anything further that they would like to
say prior to
me asking counsel if there's a motion to
adjourn
okay seeing none counsel is there a
motion to adjourn
a motion to adjourn thank you miss sod
is there a second
a little second thank you mr uh klingler
all those in favor
please signify by saying aye aye aye
all those opposed same sign thank you
council thank you so much for all your
hard work tonight
um thank you for your collaboration your
cooperation
um and i look forward to seeing you all
on zoom on friday
thanks so much take care