the
fire up what is it
does that mean we're good to go
ladies and gentlemen welcome to the june
14 2022 city council meeting here in the
city of bexley ohio uh as always our
thoughts are with the
people of ukraine at this time and to my
fellow elected officials thank you for
the service that you do to our city
mr mcpeek would you please call the roll
here
mr marcellino here
absence uh she has notified me i would
make a motion that she'd be considered
excused
second
all in favor say aye
aye
all opposed same sign
please join me pledge of allegiance
i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
united states of america
and to the republic for which it stands
one nation under god
indivisible with liberty and justice for
all
i've never seen so many people here for
the president's report
oh no wait i see we have something in
front of that tonight
mr mayor
you have a special guest for us
uh yes thank you mr president um so
i do believe we have some folks here to
talk about the parade route potentially
and i've asked don friese from the
backseat celebrations events to be here
with us don thank you for joining us
um
so we put out the word
couple weeks ago about maybe a few weeks
ago about a survey about the parade
route and i want to kind of explain
the reason for that and why i have asked
people to come to council to provide
comment
but before i do that i want to back into
how the parade route is determined and
who works on that so
for many many many years the bexu
celebrations actually as the vexy
celebrations association
was a volunteer group that helped
organize the parade it's now called the
bexley celebration events team
it's sort of an amalgam of uh the main
event planners and then the celebrations
and association that came together
on that uh group uh is
our representative of the chamber of
commerce including the director of the
chamber of commerce
the executive director of the community
foundation
the
head of the drexel theater
the director of the bexley public
library myself
mo harvey who serves as a liaison to the
4th of july evening activities group
the director of parks and recreation
mike price
a representative from capitol university
who's don
and
currently also jerry p peacock from
sherbert so that group plans all of the
events that our city sponsored
throughout the year including the main
event
fourth of july
labor day block party
harvest festival
um
i'm gonna forget a lot of them
you know
the egg hey there you thank you
appreciate that um and uh including the
prairie dog so last year because of uh
coveted concerns and
those of you who have participated in
the parade in the past know that there's
a huge glut at specifically the corner
of
roosevelt and mound and also as you move
a little bit further
west
vernon remington where kids are stacked
like 10 deep and so we were trying to
figure out a way to space people out
more and so we determined that the best
way to do that was to take the route and
go a block further south
to aster
um that change occurred and it worked we
had a
much more spread out uh parade in the
south backs the area and we received a
lot of super positive feedback from
people about that change in the route
and as the group was thinking through
the parade uh earlier this year probably
january februaryish time frame trying to
figure out logistics
at the time we were still
masking up in those rooms thinking about
the pandemic considerations it did not
feel wise to
go back to the old route given concerns
about excessive crowding even today i
mean we are here together
i assume many of us are vaccinated or we
are not concerned about our health
people can choose to mask if they want
to but there is still a concern about
like excessive crowded people and so the
concern was that that continued and the
idea was to continue
the route from last year this year as
well
um
that at some point in time got
communicated by the parade organizers
and we started getting some phone calls
at city hall
and we started getting phone calls at
city hall
elizabeth allman who's helped staff this
i think three or four weeks ago we were
talking about it and i said let's put
out a survey just to make sure that like
you know understand what the what
sentiment is sentiment is around it and
i wish that we had as great of a
response to our surveys normally as we
did to our parade survey because we had
472 responses which was very helpful
um we asked it was a very simple survey
i think people pointed out i didn't have
a whole lot of comment ability it was
just a kind of a binary survey about you
know how do you feel about the this
route versus the other
and i actually um
i i want to apologize because i think as
i was i was wanting to make sure that
people had a say in it but i did not
reach back out to don and say can you
remind me what the logic was because don
very ably reminded me after the survey
was posted that the logic was still
coveted logic and and
had i considered that more i think i
would not have asked that we put out the
survey nonetheless
um the survey results overall 75 percent
of folks wanted the longer route
uh not surprisingly those who actually
are in the parade and walk it
uh 50 of them they were split exactly
evenly between one in the longer route
and the shorter route
those who were
impacted it was 76 percent as in they
were somewhere along the route that
would get impacted by the change those
who were not impacted 79 wanted the
change so
which was kind of interesting i'm not
sure why that was but that those were
the results um
and then uh we have you guys have gotten
some phone calls we've got some phone
calls some of the concern was there's
not a public forum for this how are
these decisions being made
which i'm really sympathetic to i
understand that so i said let's create a
public forum a chance to talk about this
and whether or not it results in a
change this season
i think we are committed to making sure
that we have a more
transparent process in future seasons so
for example as those decisions are being
made publishing a draft route and asking
for feedback
which really shouldn't be occurring at
council because you know i i don't make
the decision council doesn't make that
decision
bc and e makes that decision um and
so having that forum at bcne for that
feedback to occur because these
volunteers put a ton of time and effort
and energy into it they take all the
heat
when uh there are too many gaps in the
parade
and uh
spent a lot of time working on logistics
so that's really the correct form but
you know it is it is close to the fourth
i wanted to provide that opportunity for
public feedback and also provide that
context don or elizabeth do you want to
add anything to that
i think you covered it all i mean
i think it remains you know
okay
so with that i do believe we have some
public speaker slips regarding the um
proposed route for this year
yep we have um i think seven or eight
speaker slips um so the first one is
richard sharp
yours is general okay okay and then uh
the next one is uh marguerite hernandez
and if you could step up to the podium
here uh speak your name and your address
please and thanks elizabeth we're gonna
push that button right there to turn
that mic on thank you thank you hi i'm
marguerite hernandez i live at 728 south
remington road did i leave anything
out
that's good thank you so much for having
me it's my first city council
meeting and time talking to all of you
so thanks so much for giving us this
opportunity
um and you know thanks for
giving us more information now um than
we had before
i don't think it changes the points that
i want to raise that i came up here
first i wanted to tell you i have this
because of the amount of neighbors that
i had i didn't know about the bexley
blast survey somebody else told me about
it so then i talked to a neighbor and
they hadn't heard about it and then i
talked to another neighbor and they
hadn't heard about it so that all of a
sudden raised concerns for me that this
main way of communicating with
the public in bexley is not actually
reaching everybody in bexley
and it came out late very close to
fourth of july it was right at the very
bottom of the bexley blast survey so
you'd have to read through so first you
have to register to get that survey
hopefully it doesn't go to your clutter
box like it goes in mine
then you have to access it read it all
the way down
to to get the the survey a lot of people
didn't receive the survey and in the
time in which the survey has been open
it was closed down for a couple of days
i have a copy of what i saw here where
it said we're no longer accepting
responses for the survey so that was in
the time frame by which the survey was
supposed to be open to the public to
take i talked to neighbors who tried to
access that survey during that period
and they said the city's no longer
taking responses they didn't realize it
was a temporary shutdown of the survey
and that it was going to come back up
soon with other information so that also
limited the ability of people in bexley
to
share their perspective about the the
survey itself
um we i know the survey anybody can take
the survey you know you don't have to
live in bexley you can take it multiple
times um
all kinds of issues with that survey i
think in terms of getting a good read on
how the community feels about it so
after
going through these issues with my my
neighbors i created a
petition i have to tell you this is only
like i think a week or so in the making
just me doing it after work and on the
weekends i had a little help from my
neighbors um so
i think i definitely could have reached
more people if i had had the the chance
but 144 um people
signed this as members of the bexley
community and viewers and participants
of the bexley fourth of july parade we
petitioned the city to use the
traditional bexley 4th of july parade
route from 2019 for the upcoming parade
next month not the what the city had
argued was the temporary route expansion
due to kova 19 which was clearly
communicated in the bexley blast last
year that that change was a temporary
route expansion everybody in the
community had every reasonable
expectation to think that the parade
route would revert to its traditional
route the following year based on that
language we request that you create a
transparent and equitable process for
determining any future changes to the
parade route a transparent and equitable
process will allow for public comment
over the next year to give all community
members enough time to receive
information about proposed changes and
the opportunity to voice their
perspectives and provide input on said
changes so i have this petition i don't
know who to give it to you but i'll put
it there if you'd like to see it and go
through it
um but
in short i mean and i wrote i sent you
all
emails today that held all my points as
i was organizing what i was going to say
today
on it and i know that was
long but going through this process i've
learned a lot of things about the bexley
parade that i think are important to
consider before you make your final
decision here
the earliest parade route which has been
published is in 1960 from the columbus
dispatch and it shows that that parade
started at maryland elementary school it
went past montrose elementary school on
mound and it ended at bexley high school
that is as long as the parade has
existed it that all three schools have
taken part in the parade in some way
based on where they are at on the route
if we reroute it the way that it was
last year
montrose elementary school is no longer
on the route south bexley will be the
only neighborhood that does not have a
school that is part of the route and if
you look along mound street
if you know that area between remington
and vernon that offers expanded shady
area from which to watch the parade and
there's a hill on the back of the school
in which i think you mentioned you can
really like a lot of people can watch
the parade from that area up on the hill
or on the sidewalk
itself so this has been a 60-year
tradition i worked with the historian at
the library i talked to my neighbors who
have lived in this neighborhood for that
long everybody seems to confirm that the
only changes that have seemed to have
happened over time is based on how it
exits south bexley to get to bexley high
school so there have been changes over
time it looks like it started from
cassingham it exited then pleasant ridge
then euclare but those three schools
have always been in the route um over 60
years
from what i could tell based on the
records that are available with the
exception of last year um so
this i think is something that's
important to
consider i mean also we're talking about
expanding the parade route and i did
some research and our parade route
our traditional what the bexley blast
called this year the shorter route is
actually in fact a very long route 2.8
miles
um long so i called around to different
uh cities and talked to folks there or
looked it up online if i could find the
information in comparison to bexley at
2.8 miles upper arlington's was the next
longest at two miles westerville 1.8
hilliard 1.7 columbus duda parade 1.6
miles dublin 1.5 gahanna 1.4 grandview
heights or just over one mile in new
albany um
over
at one mile so our population is 13 805
some of those cities are comparable in
that way but we by far have the longest
route and if we extend the route we're
adding on point four miles to that route
and that does
raise some other concerns just about
length of route and exposure to heat i
looked at the area where we're proposing
moving it permanently on astr that does
offer less shade than what we can find
in mound in a comparable area
and according to researchers at the
university of georgia and the u.s
national institute of health
participants who are children and senior
citizens are more likely to be negative
impacted
with longer exposure on parade routes so
that's something that research is
showing especially for people who are
holding heavy objects like children in
marching bands
they're more susceptible to getting heat
strokes and heat exhaustion so i think
that's important when considering if we
want to elongate the route the the harm
that could happen to people that are in
the parade as a result
of that
um
as i noted before the bexley blast on
may 28th clearly stated that
this was supposed to be a temporary
change so people had every reasonable
reason to think that this was going to
be temporary and not continue
on forward
um i have some concerns about the survey
particularly talking to my neighbors i
have concerns about people who may act
black set access
particularly senior citizens who have
limited access to
electronic communications or seem to be
overwhelmingly unaware that this was
happened this is established in research
it's called the digital divide that
shows how people who are seniors african
americans latinos um working class
people and lower income people are less
likely to be able to access information
through digital forms the city of bexley
only used one digital platform the
bexley blast to inform us of this
possible permanent change it didn't
utilize from what i could tell their
facebook page it didn't use any printed
media it didn't use other means at their
disposal that they could have used to
share that this change was being
considered and again it's happening in
late may as one of my neighbors told me
they had no idea they've lived there
forever their kids are coming down from
new york
to watch the parade from their house and
she had no idea the parades may not
happen at her house right so
i'm just going to ask you i know you've
got a lot of information there but we we
have a lot of other speakers too i
apologize i'm sorry i was trying to rush
through those
points but i mean in ending i think if
you want to elongate the route so it
spreads it out and it goes by more
houses um there is a way to do it that
includes montrose elementary school on
the route but i think we need to give it
time and think it through about how to
accomplish that and not just rush
um a decision so close to fourth of july
so i apologize for taking up so much
time but thank you for hearing me out no
thank you very much if you want you
could hand that to natalie there she'll
make sure that that gets circulated it's
just
one clarification that city council will
not be making a decision on the parade
route
we're here to allow you to i appreciate
that
but we are not making a decision city
council is not uh
going to decide on the parade route
mr mcpeak
um ronnie romito
again if you can state your name and
address sure thank you
i'm ronnie romito i also live at 728
south remington road so i am related to
margarite i will not however repeat
everything she just says you don't have
to worry about that um she went through
a lot of detail which is great um i am
going to kind of hit some high points
that i think are worth considering
um first let me say it's uh mayor
kessler thank you for that background
information on on the process and kind
of the thinking for where we're at today
that's helpful that wasn't conveyed in
the survey um
it doesn't make it clear that's just for
this year that it's temporary makes it
sound like it's permanent
there is no mention of covet all that
stuff so it's great to hear that there
is a process it's great to hear that
it's not actually city council who's
making this decision that it is a board
or i guess the committee and that the
committee is has a process for
considering this stuff so that that's
all helpful to know um it's better than
what we thought that there was no
thought process put into this and that
it was just kind of up in the air i'm
kidding obviously there's thought
process but um that's really what we're
here today to ask right so
in this public forum we want to make it
clear that we would prefer to see a
deliberative process nothing changed
right now because of the confusion with
um how it kind of played out the
expectation that it was just one year in
which we were going to delay this
or have a temporary route let's hold off
let's create a process that is public
we i'd like to know more about the
committee do they meet in public i
understand that there's no
this isn't ordinance we don't have to go
that route but i'm just having that
opportunity to create that process i
think is important
as marguerite mentioned montrose now
being on there for over 60 years i think
that's a key point to consider
particularly if you are concerned about
having more space for people either
through covid to um to kind of spread
out to see it or um
in terms of every single year just
having an opportunity to view it from a
public space there might be other ways
without necessarily changing the route
that we utilize that space to account
for what we're trying to achieve so
again let's be creative and think about
this um kind of what makes the most
sense
um i think the length of the route is
startling increasing it by 0.4 miles
when it's already 2.8 miles
needs to be let's have a thought process
about how we do that
what that means
and kind of how we tie it into what our
other goals are and objectives for what
we want to achieve
and lastly you know i think um as mayor
kessler already pointed out the
beginning of this we we can all agree
that it's important to have transparency
and equity in our public processes i
made a joke about an ordinance but the
city's charter requires you to go
through a process when you pass the law
that specifically is made available to
bexley citizens so that they can weigh
in on whatever decisions you're going to
make right
obviously the fourth of july parade it
sounds a little bit strange that we've
been having this conversation but it
shows you how important it is right you
made the comment that you got more
survey hits than ever right and this is
the july fourth grade so obviously this
is something that's of value to the
community and really what we're asking
is that we take that into consideration
and be a little bit more deliberative
give everybody the opportunity to to
speak today i'm not even sure that um
the folks that are on the other side
that want to see the temporary route
from last year permanent if anybody's
here to to talk about that so um we want
to make sure that that is okay great
excellent so
good there are more than just us here
but obviously there's having a larger
platform for it especially considering
that this is not the public forum where
the decision is going to be made i think
that we would want to make sure that
whatever that forum is there'll be an
opportunity for the public to speak to
that again i'd prefer to see no change
from this year that the 2019 traditional
route would be continued if that's not
the case if we are going to do it for
covet or any other reason
like you had suggested potentially mayor
that maybe there is an opportunity going
forward to make it a little bit more
public clear up front and give us the
opportunity everybody in the city uh to
kind of weigh in
um i think that's it so unless you guys
have questions for me that's just what
the points i want to make thank you
thank you very much
anna warnicky
hi my name's anna wernicke i live at 733
vernon road
i
have to tell you i am on the parade brow
or i was on the parade route something
like that
um we've lived at our house
for
30 plus years
i've been at montrose for almost that
long
the retired teachers often sit right
there
they come back the children love to see
them there
the thing about montrose it's like a
public space it's not someone's house
so
people feel maybe a little more free to
come and sit there
maybe
i just think it's a welcoming spot
that wasn't what i was supposed to say
but those thoughts
occurred to me
while i was sitting listening um last
year i
viewed the parade at my sister-in-law's
house who's you know on the parade route
now or
then
um
and there was a very very
uh long delay i'm not trying to be
cranky about it i'm just saying there
was a stretch of like 35 minutes and we
were wondering like what has happened
along the way
my sister-in-law's neighbor came out and
played the bagpipes up and down the
street up and down the street several
times so we were entertained
sort of but it was um it was just kind
of i i don't know if that was
uh because of the length of the route
or i'm not sure why but
i just thought that that's not how it
used to go at least up to my house
um
my other thought is
trivial but i'm going to put it out
there i'm going to hit you with
everything i've got
the
the old cars that are in the
parade that sign up it's very hard very
hard on a car engine and my children
have wanted to take um
our old car
and i just say no because
it will
it's so hard on the engine and the heat
and and then when you add the length
i know it's tr it sounds trivial maybe
but it is another thing for
consideration
i think i've hit you with most
everything i've got and thank you
thank you thank you miss winky was that
john harriman playing the bagpipes
yes i thought so yeah
i i interrupted him practicing last
night i was like who is that
um phoebe kellerman
[Music]
thank you so much for having me i've
never been to a city council meeting
before either
um so i live at 977 south remington road
and i've been there about eight years
and my daughter has been in the parade
and my father-in-law and my father have
also been in the parade
um last year
my
father-in-law actually had a skin
reaction from being in the sun for so
long so
um he did have an adverse reaction and
had to take steroids so it was not a
good situation
um but i do think that's partially
because of the longer parade route
um
i also wanted to say that
i would i wasn't aware of the survey
i'm not on social media very often so
if there would be another format to
receive the survey that would be
wonderful
male would be great
thank you so much i appreciate it thank
you
linda sowards
um i live at 866 grand and avenue so i'm
from the other side
but i did live on roosevelt on the
parade route for 20 years
so for 20 years i had the privilege of
taking my children out of the yard
morning of parties it was wonderful i
loved it then i moved to south bexley
totally different experience
another 18 years of nowhere to watch the
parade and no i'm not going to drag my
lawn chairs and my babies and everybody
and go all the way to the school i live
in grandin so anybody that lives on
grandin all the way down to livingston
all those streets around there we have
nowhere to watch the parade you have to
go up all the way up to mound and you
try to squeeze in amongst the families
that live there it's very awkward very
uncomfortable
and so for many years i didn't bother
going last year when they brought it
just one street over and i had friends
over there i could watch it on it was
like a whole new world
the point is everybody would like to
pray go by their house we would all like
to have that privilege
but we can't
so
i think the fact that it's been going
down roosevelt and turning on mound and
going back into central bexley that way
for 50 years or whatever that's
wonderful i enjoyed it i know everybody
over there enjoys it but i think it's
time to share
i think it's time to include some of the
people that live
on the outskirts of south bexley down by
livingston avenue where they have to
walk blocks and blocks hauling kids and
chairs and water bottles to find a
little place to squeeze in
personally i think you probably should
even maybe rotate it some like maybe not
have it the same route every year but
maybe every two three years varied a
little bit so other people get to be
included in that i've been on their side
and i know how wonderful it is and i
know how you you have all these
traditions and the parties and all that
and you want to keep it
but it's not really fair because bexley
includes more than just central
backswing as far as the schools it
doesn't matter if you go by the schools
i mean they're not the parade if you
miss a school nobody was upset that we
didn't they didn't see mantras last year
kids go to school every day
it's more the
ability to enjoy that event without
having to drag everything and everybody
to be able to walk out your door and
just sit there sit with your neighbors
and your your good friends as opposed to
everybody scattering and trying to find
a location
so that's how i feel about it thank you
thank you
debbie clary
i i hate public speaking you guys know
this from the past when i've been here
before but
anyway so i printed out some comments
can you start with your name and address
debbie clary 752 south roosevelt
and yes i was on the new extended route
this year it was wonderful it really was
wonderful
um
the thing that i noticed
most is that roosevelt is the only
street in south bexley
that has the wide
uh what do you call them lawns uh trees
they're double if not more
than any other street in south bexley so
that was really wonderful that we were
all able to spread out and i remember
looking toward maine and seeing that one
block that was always where i've always
been how people were more sparse
and then down toward livingston everyone
was more sparse
so yeah i've been here for 12 years and
i go to the parade every year and i get
up
and set out chairs an hour early go to
that next that first block
mark out my spot because it's so so
congested on main street in that first
block
um so here are a couple some some
comments from other people on social
media that i thought maybe there'd be
more people here talking about but i'm
just going to read from them
one that it only goes one block into
south bexley which i think that is
pretty sad because that's such a long
area from that one block to livingston
you know
um
adding extra that extra roosevelt block
involves more south bexley
these are these are individual comments
all residents from astor to livingston
had to jam into that one first block
the corner of mountain and roosevelt
during the parade is is always an
extremely congested area
last year when the parade route extended
one more block to aster it was so much
nicer a lot less congested and i also
imagine easier for the parade to turn
right onto aster as opposed to mount
i for one love the change and hope it
continues so people someone would say
well what's the difference turning onto
mount as opposed to turning onto aster
um
they responded i suspect the ability to
spread people out more with the longer
route decreases the congestion at any
intersection
lots of families on chelsea grandin and
roosevelt
congregated near mound and roosevelt
with the move to astor those families
spread out along roosevelt between mound
and astor
allowing for less concentrated
population of people in one place
what i noticed last year was the number
of parade bystanders
at the four-way intersection of
roosevelt was a lot less congested and
there weren't as many children in the
intersection running for candy
that's usually thrown
it just seems safer to me for the for
both the people watching the parade and
the parade performers on foot
i do feel like adding the extra block
is a good idea
also worth noting that now they take the
route that is entirely residential
in the south part of the route
previously included capital capital
campus areas the stadium athletic center
and parking lot and never had a lot of
people watching past francis
it makes a lot more sense to push it
down in south as it allows a lot more
people to have better viewing
that first block is like five six people
deep
um
last year was wonderful and i hope it
stays that way i thought it was less
crowded last year when the parade
stretched to vasper we are always so
cramped on mound
we really enjoyed the route last year
less congestion
and the tree light tree lawns are so
wide on roosevelt having that extra
block
allows people to spread out more
comfortably
so yeah i love having it in front of my
house of course
but it was just so much less congested
so that's my main concern thank you
thank you
um those are all the speaker slips i
have specific to the parade i know there
were a few people that joined later so
do we have any other speaker sips i'm
sorry speaker slips specific for the
parade
thank you okay um
i didn't yeah would you like to address
any of that don
if you can can come please stand at the
uh the mic please
okay
which which address would you like you
can choose either one okay
dawn freeze
886 health roosevelt or 519 south drexel
whatever you'd like to do um i've been
what is it four or five years
i have i would prefer to speak to these
people
you can do that if you want to but you
have to have the microphone with okay
good all right
so
you know it's pretty much been for the
last four or five years elizabeth and i
and then whoever else but on the day of
it's
us standing there
while everybody lines up and while we
make sure everybody's doing what they're
supposed to do
so my first comment is
i'd like to see all of you guys
sign up to be part of the parade
committee
that's how you make changes that's how
you put your two cents in
okay so we would encourage that we're
taking your names okay and we'll be
that's number one
number two
just uh just a technical thing we line
up in front of
cassingham i'm sorry not casting him
maryland avenue it's not involved in the
parade at all the parade starts a block
and a half down the road but we do line
up there
and
and i think that's all elizabeth to you
yeah i would just say your involvement
in the committee piece of it
because the parade is a piece of the
bexley celebrations and events
it's one of the many events that we plan
and we need lots and lots of help we
really do so we you know you're in
you're you're in yes
sir right here is your woman she'll get
your name before you leave here all
right i'll send you his phone number
oh good
there's a sign up genius that was
put out in last friday's blast
and will be in this friday's blast
through the
blast and also for
you know you talk about the lag that we
have that we've had for one seven years
we've tried so many different things too
to close that gap
[Music]
yeah i think i think this is a
conversation you guys want to continue
offline
don if you have any more comments
step up to the microphone because we
have an audience of thousands
[Laughter]
follow us otherwise i'm just going to
ask you guys to get with don later i'm
going to turn this back over to you but
but what a great success to get people
here city council meetings for the first
time
and uh
see how much fun this is yeah so um
and swell the ranks of the parade
committee
the uh thank you mr president i didn't
know if any council members had anything
they wanted to talk about
before i i just wanted
sure come on once twice okay so i think
next steps um the the i'm not sensing
from don that this is realistic this
year to change the route okay and so i
and again
don't sorry microphone
strap that okay so you know we're on the
rise with kovid
we want to continue that so you know
that's the reason we did it i don't
believe we said it was a one-year thing
we said we did it in the interest of
coved and we didn't mention it this year
you're right you're right
but i will also tell you that and this
never even occurred to me until i
listened to everybody
50 years this one way is pretty selfish
i i think maybe it's time to bust it out
yeah
yeah yeah
perfect and we will so i might my
commitment as a member of bcne and don
i know is totally cool with this all of
us are is to do a better job next year
of
getting some feedback before anything is
finalized and
it's funny uh
i think debbie mentioned
different routes
that came up in a conversation and gosh
it makes a ton of sense but goodness
gracious i don't think there have been
any years left in my life if we try to
do that but uh i think i want to first
off thank the very thoughtful uh
feedback that we've heard today i mean
dr hernandez very well researched i i
love learning more about the route i can
tell you
uh many of us have marched in the route
it's i've done it for 14 years straight
i know uh i know how arduous it could be
because some of those times i've ran
circles around
a jazz truck throwing candy making sure
i didn't miss anyone
i've seen
i've put that was the worst year because
i was running around and also shoveling
and i was by the time i got to mound
street this was 2019 i was a hot mess
and anyone who saw me i think i lost
votes that day for sure it was so bad so
bad but also i mean i've seen every year
i've seen exactly what was discussed in
terms of the glut that has occurred in
terms that just there's no other place
in the route like the corner of mount
and roosevelt in terms of the congestion
and the safety concerns about with with
kids so those are all things that can be
addressed
in an equitable way that has that
feedback and so i think the the
commitment to you is
keep your eye out for communications
from the city in early 2023
um
the blast you're right everything you
said is absolutely right about the blast
it's it's a electronic format it is also
however what we continuously say to
folks it is the most reliable single
source of information that people can
get from the city we try to repeat the
most important information in our
newsletters that are in print and go out
to every household every quarter but
sometimes there are timely things that
pop up like
my hair brain decision that we create a
survey and then you know get feedback
after you guys had uh put a lot of work
into the route um but i think it was
good because i think we got to hear a
lot and have a good discussion
and also we have everyone's email
address who filled out that survey so we
will make sure to reach out to
those who filled it out once or twice
which mostly people just filled it out
once i did scan for that i checked for
duplicates
on the spreadsheet today i was looking
at it so thank you so much for coming
out um and and keep your ear to the
blast and other city communications
thank you very much
and also
i think most of you live in south baxley
i want you to know that the next thing
up on our agenda after troy whips right
through his presence report and
richard make some public comment
is a presentation of this of the
livingston avenue joint plan which i
really if you can stick around for it i
think it would be great for you to hear
what's been going on with that so
thank you so much you know and and and
this is a great lead in because richard
sharp
city council member
has shoveled poop on the july fourth
grade i
will attest to that
and i think we're ready for you richard
if you'd like to come up
richard sharp 845 college avenue a
seventh grade berninian band marcher in
the bexley parade
welcome back very very hot long and
college avenue is has great slopes for
future playgrounds
[Laughter]
[Music]
okay
council mayor auditor directors and
residents of bexley i'm here to share
some advice as you make decisions on
behalf of your constituents and even
more importantly
i got to get my glasses on the impact of
your decision on non-residents visitors
in central ohio as self-proclaimed
thought leaders for other communities in
central ohio
when i was on council we were exposed to
various concepts related to implicit
bias most focused towards racial bias
which i strongly agree should be
considered
but there are other bio biases that this
council administration should strongly
consider and at least give a passing
thought to
the meso
maslow's hierarchy of needs
inverse relationship bias that wealthy
progressives
such
as indicated on this exhibit
sometimes fall back and um
i'm sorry i
got off my train of thought
um progress
maslow's hierarchy of needs is sometimes
looked at inversely
by progressives
and who are wealthier
and that that's a a bias that can cause
problems
for those who don't remember this
scientific theorem
i i can't have copies of that it for you
the the bottom level is psychological
needs including breathing food sex sleep
[Music]
safety and security security of
employment resources mortality family
health property then the middle is love
and belonging friendship family sense of
connection
the next top next to top level
self-esteem confidence achievement
respect for others and respect by others
and the very top is self-actualization
morality creativity spontaneous
spontane
spontaneity problem solving and lack of
prejudice prejudice and acceptance of
facts
the current pres congress and
presidential administration is
exceedingly good at looking at this
inverse
relationship bias putting for example
all else regardless of the cost
and
take and taking the quote
of the existential threat
that climate change represents while
ignoring the individual citizens
existential threat that this abrupt and
uncompromising position imposes on most
of the population whose needs are in the
bottom half of maslow's
hierarchy
who in their right mind thinks that a
pipeline would cause more environmental
damage and emissions and hundreds of
trucks daily transporting oil across the
country or sending billions of dollars
to nations halfway around the world and
then transporting oil across the ocean
and to top it off many of the countries
that receive our money use that money to
sponsor terrorism in africa asia central
america
and kidnaps and slaves and kills
innocent civilians who are at the bottom
of maslow's hierarchy
this council is going to be reviewing an
and frequently accessed
acquisition to various studies projects
and programs in the coming years in the
name of progress development inclusion
and climate change as you do i implore
each of you to think outside the box not
fall into the progressive group think
and use the scientific method ask
questions challenge results and step
back and ask more questions and talk to
people who don't live in baxley and who
aren't in your political and economic
circles
one example to question is why are
people speeding on livingston avenue
bexley is somewhat blinded by its belief
that a walking community is the be all
and it is to our residents hierarchy and
needs level but not to the single mother
that doesn't want to be stuck in traffic
on the freeway trying to get home to
kids in the columbus and whitehall area
that is more than a mile and a half off
the freeway
on top of being stuck in traffic
in one of the dozens of apartment
complexes and neighborhoods that lie in
livingston avenue all the way out
through whitehall
likewise it doesn't make sense to have
link us on main street further from
those high residential population
centers off livingston avenue and then
impede traffic on livingston avenue
[Music]
which will theoretic could theoretically
make the situation worse why not use
your thought leader influence to say to
link us
would better serve the residents of
central ohio on livingston avenue than
on main street
likewise it doesn't make sense to
encourage developers that the city is
working with to look at
not look at lots on main street that
have been vacant for years
and
have them look to
develop affordable housing and utilizing
mixed mixed-use development
and use the city's residential real
estate tax exemptions and working with
neighboring property owners and
businesses that can be good partners and
could assist with the projects that puts
economically at risk people into an area
that is in easy walking distance to
their school grocery store basic
personal care service and directly on a
bus line to a multitude of other
businesses and potential work locations
thereby assisting and meeting some of
their lower level maslow needs so that
they can appreciate and be within reach
of higher level of need fulfillment
so thank you
thank you richard
all right
president's report
i'm going to seed my time to the parade
commentary and
move forward to the
city attorney
i do want to mention one thing just
actually it's a i'm i'm bringing it up
right now
just kind of an fyi um
uh the
ohio general assembly just passed house
bill
430 um which is designed to regulate or
limit the regulation that local
municipal municipalities can place on
rental units um and so
basically no no no caps on rent things
like that and i just want to let you
know that i've done a little research on
it to make sure that in case you hear
about it i believe that our ordinance
um that prohibits discrimination based
on
source of income essentially is n does
not fall within those restrictions so it
but i just again just want to share that
in case you hear it out there
someone one can make an argument to the
the opposite maybe we'll hear that at
some point but i think we're good so
that's all
thank you mr auditor
uh no utter report this week
all right uh we are on to number nine
ordinances resolutions with pr visiting
presenters mr mayor
uh we have with us kim land saeed from
uh nbbj if you guys want to step up to
the lectern and i will pull up
do you want to pull up the powerpoint
that you sent
oh sorry
you whoever is with your team you
whoever you wish to have in front of the
floor is yours nbc
there you go i i should know that i'm on
a planning and zoning commission that it
happens every time
so um we're here uh in front of you
tonight to talk about the bexley and
columbus joint livingston plan uh mr
mayor members of council
we're really happy to have concluded our
effort and we're bringing it forward to
you today to
seek your approval of it
um this has been a a year-long process
over a year-long process and we've
engaged with people throughout the
community and we feel like we've gotten
tremendous feedback and that the
direction and recommendations that
you'll see tonight and you've seen
probably
in packets before
um really sets livingston avenue off in
hopefully a very positive direction
in terms of
safety
uh creating a more
uh calm
street in terms of traffic providing a
more pedestrian friendly environment and
just a greater place in the community
are you flipping the slides i think so
sorry i don't have a clicker here so you
tell me
i usually bring my own clicker but hey
if you brought one i can hook it up yeah
either way say next okay that's fine so
um just again you may have read some of
this but we had a very good working
group which is members of
uh the city of columbus and the city of
bexley working very closely on kind of
crafting
kind of the whole
work effort and trying to get us to a
positive outcome
uh we did have a steering committee that
was a good cross-section of uh city of
bexley and city of columbus
representatives and uh we also had a
number of other ex officios that joined
us
throughout but in addition to the the
working group and the string committee
we also had a series of public meetings
um that were very well attended i would
say and we got a lot of really positive
feedback uh from those meetings thanks
so um this is really the cliff notes
tonight um we're gonna kind of skip
right to the the key recommendations and
next steps you can see a picture of one
of our public meetings uh which we had
boards up and people could come up and
make comments
um you all know the study area uh from
nelson road to james road
and the unique character of that of of
livingston avenue in that zone is
there's a commercial section towards
nelson there's the middle residential
section
and there's the kind of commercial area
at james and then with bexley
predominantly being on the north side of
the street and city of columbus being on
the south side which
in all my years of planning is a very
unique situation to have two
jurisdictions controlling both sides of
the street
um
as we analyzed those sections uh the
first one was the commercial area and as
you know that area today it's a real
challenge um
numerous businesses and a tremendous
amount of curb cuts
so in our the analysis that was done on
the street it was
it was deemed that it would be very
difficult to do anything in terms of
changing
the character of the roadway in the near
term without changing land use along the
street and minimizing curb cuts and so
you'll see that's that's a longer term
recommendation but
it doesn't mean that you can't do
anything and so we've developed this
thing
tactical urbanism which is how can you
come into that corridor and introduce
art flowers benches you know whatever
you can do to soften the the character
and quality of that space
thanks
um and in the residential area is where
we can really we really feel like we can
make change and make change meaning this
year we're going to make that change
according to the city of columbus so the
idea is to put that the road
livingston avenue on a road diet which
is the correct planning term and to
reduce it down to three lanes so a
moving lane in each direction with a
turn lane and we're going to center that
within the existing curb
of the street so there will be a zone on
each side you see the striped
area that will just kind of be there not
to drive on it's not intended to be a
bike lane because nobody wanted to have
bike lanes on
on the street itself so
um the the city has adopted this idea
they're they're moving forward and
they're
when i say this year we don't have a
specific date unless something has been
decided but
this will have a profound impact of
changing the character of livingston
avenue slowing traffic
and really changing drivers behavior and
hopefully making a safer place for the
residents along it
next
so flipping back to the commercial area
you know the long-term goal and this
really um grew out of the south uh west
bexley plan
was to think about redevelopment of each
sides of livingston avenue in the
commercial section
so that you start to bring businesses to
the street you start to create an urban
sidewalk with street trees and all the
amenities that you would see
and then we can reduce the curb cuts or
you know basically eliminate much of
them except for key streets that you
want to connect to
and then you could introduce a median
which would again help to soften
the street it would help to slow traffic
down and create a more pleasant
environment and this just gives you a
an image of what that might look like
this is this is futuristic this is often
you know it will take a while to
implement probably because those
businesses have to change but for each
incremental
change you can make in each one of those
businesses of as they as this area might
redevelop to encourage development
towards the street to really create this
more walkable environment with parking
which you know we still require rely on
parking so parking would be located
behind the frontages on with backer
roads that would provide people access
to those
next
um
and then in the residential area long
term what we really want to do is
introduce a median so again the concept
is still that it's a moving lane in each
direction with a turn lane but now we
were able
um and this is going to take some
further study by the city of columbus
they have to do lots of analysis but we
want to
introduce this very wide median we're
going to keep the existing curb lines
where they are because a lot of the
residents did not want cars moving
closer to their houses so we're this is
the existing street
uh curbed curb
and
with that as the kind of the idea we've
got we've kept the traffic on the edge
by the curb which means we can get a
really wide median and in that wide
median you can have lots of
opportunities for landscaping and really
changing the character
and then in addition to that um we want
to introduce multi-use paths on each
side right now there's a four foot
sidewalk which is a real challenge and
so we want to keep
bikes off the road we want to provide
opportunities for people especially
young people to be able to bike on this
sidewalk on a multi-use path and share
that with pedestrians and just to create
a much more
uh uh pleasant environment this this is
actually um the the short-term
alternative so you can see there's no
median um if we can do something with
the paths in the
short term and widen them that's that's
you know that would be achievable but
long term we introduced the median the
wider paths crosswalks making it a
really safe place to be to cross the
street and we accommodate buses
emergency vehicles everything within
this configuration
there's a couple other things in the
recommendations we just want to
highlight
one is the closing of brook boulevard so
you get rid of that weird intersection
at college we think that's really doable
and it creates perhaps
an opportunity to create a new sense of
place at that intersection
um the alum creek trail we'd really like
to look at putting that as an underpass
and we've talked to the
folks that are involved with that
and they they think it's doable but it's
going to take some further study but
we'd like to not that not to be an act
great crossing in the future
and then you have the railroad bridge
and you have the interstate bridge which
are not very pleasant experiences and we
want to really look at those and how you
can improve those to make them more of
gateways coming into the city and i
guess you could say it's both ways it's
coming into bexley and then
obviously coming into columbus also
so this
i'm not going to read all of these but
this is basically just a summary of the
near-term and long-term recommendations
i think the
key here um is the implementation and
it's going to take the cities of
columbus and bexley working together to
really achieve these recommendations
it's going to take some time and
concerted effort and we think this
study has has plotted the path for each
municipality really move forward in a
positive way
next
and the other thing i mentioned in those
was street design guidelines and so in
our report we've actually created some
design guidelines for for which both
cities can follow and it's broken down
by what could happen in the street what
could happen with medians
what could happen with sidewalks and
what could happen in the pedestrian
realm next
and this is just an example of uh you
know the sidewalk opportunities and
thinking of all of the furniture that
you would introduce to provide places to
park bikes you'd obviously want
places for people to throw trash and not
on the street so
the report has a lot of recommendations
along this line
and then i think the other important
thing is this whole commercial um area
urban redevelopment you know we have
some principles around that you know
that's going to take a lot of effort to
kind of change the the character of that
that part of the corridor is going to
probably take some
uh rezoning it might take some land
acquisition but the goal is to create
that place that that we set out to
achieve in our vision
and again there's a whole series of
development principles around that that
could provide a guide to both
municipalities as they implement that
and as i said it's going to take it's a
it's a joint effort between both
communities and again we think that this
plan really provides the guidance
for them to move forward
so
we're here to answer questions
and if if there's really some tough ones
i've got our traffic consultant and my
colleague
um
to help out
council members any any questions for
our guests ms assad
a few years ago when i was running for
city council is when i got the edge
education that um livingston how it's
split between the city of columbus and
the city of bexley and
as you heard as we heard more from
constituents and the problems that we're
having as for safety and just neighbors
that i knew with their kids biking i
actually was so
um i see it as such a success story that
it was within a year
that we're going to see implementation
because in my few two few short years of
working as
a city council member things usually
take a lot more time than that to
implement so thank you so much for
everybody who's been a part of the
process
and i'm looking forward to this
beautification on livingston for our
whole community
so i'm looking forward to the
implementation
thank you thank you mr marcelino
yes thank you very much and i like uh
councilwoman assad i'm really excited
for this and appreciate all the work
you've done and getting community input
uh a question here is that you mentioned
that for the long-term vision um of this
that columbus is going to have to do an
investigation in terms of the traffic
flow itself
long-term what's long-term how long are
we thinking there would you guess
um the city you know this city will
never say exactly how long but it's it's
certainly going to be a couple years it
could be three to five years i would say
that's kind of a time frame um you know
because they own the corridor
there's all sorts of traffic
requirements that they have to fulfill
and they have to do their due diligence
so that when when you get the final
product they know that it's well thought
through and well resolved so
mr mayor is that your recollection of
time frame yeah and are you speaking
specifically about crosswalks or the
overall the permanent like long-term
permanent long-term juicing so those are
um
i don't know if i i think i mentioned a
month or two ago that we are jointly
applying for attributable funding
through federal funding
um
that is the same sort of program that's
uh funding the north cassidy
improvements north of the railroad
tracks
um so if anyone's followed that you know
that like we started talking about that
three or four years ago it's about a six
or seven year process so
it the good news is though it's a it's a
better it's a much more impactful grant
than what we do through opwc
um but it has a whole lot more due
diligence it's a lot longer term
what's cool is that there will be a
joint jurisdictional proposal
um we've also talked with columbus about
um
the right of way which currently is
columbus right away including the
sidewalk on the north side being
transferred to the city of bexley from
the from the curb which will help us
kind of maintain sidewalk
walkability space within our own
jurisdiction
and then a follow-up question just
really quickly on the short term and
this is actually towards you as i
anticipate that you'll have an answer
for but um with the striping that's
going to be done in the short term
i just have a mental image of trash
accumulating perhaps in that area um can
you speak to how we're going to maintain
that since it is a split jurisdiction
type situation so the residents along
within can be comfortable with that
so i don't hesitate to send our street
sweepers to adjacent
areas including livingston and some of
our ramps we actually sweep those uh
frequently outside of our jurisdiction
so
you know we can participate with
sweeping um to make sure that that's not
an issue and also you can always join me
in a trash pickup as you know that's
open invitation
so i think uh that that is something we
can we can i it's i think it's a
realistic concern i also think we have
the advantage um
of columbus having done a similar
program in a couple different other
areas of the city
the most analogous physically i think is
indianola between
south of morse road where it was the
same thing it was four lanes of traffic
no turn lane
they did almost the same project the
difference is there are bike lanes in
that in that context
um
i i i haven't noticed an issue with that
but i also understand what you're
because i do the trash pickups on
livingston so i understand it is it is
absolutely a concern and i will we will
be on it okay thank you
ms lamke
thank you so much for coming and further
explaining this plan
myself and councilmember robinson had
the opportunity to serve on the steering
committee and in addition to the
many steering committee meetings i know
that your group worked hard to have
three public workshops to engage and
hear directly from
from the public
i want everyone to know that the amount
of expertise and talent that this
group coordinated was truly beyond
anything that you can imagine
they did car counts they had expertise
they did research
they measured curb cuts they counted
things things that you don't even know
that they did
they did so this plan
is the culmination
of a very rich
and well thought out
group of experts and i truly appreciate
it
i also appreciate that when i first was
on the steering committee i kept
hounding everyone saying you know what
long term is great but we need to
add a parallel track and that track
needs to be the short term now call the
near term i'm sorry if i was a pain in
the neck but i knew that by constantly
bringing it up
i needed everyone to know how we all
felt about the constant accidents on
livingston and i really appreciate you
listening and pivoting and presenting to
counsel the two parallel tracks which i
think will really benefit all of our
visitors and our residents and i'd love
to invite you back
once the near term has been implemented
to tell us how it's going absolutely and
and i do appreciate you being vigilant
about short term
and and i think that what your voice was
heard by
everybody and that was really made a
difference in i think the city of
columbus and really understanding the
need to do something soon and we heard
it in all of the community that
that lies along that corridor and
there's stories about all of the things
bad things that happen and so
it was it was really it was really good
from our standpoint to bring consensus
to that and have something short-term
come out of it
quick question in the short term what is
the next action item
from the city of columbus standpoint
does it go in front of their council do
are they going to have their public
service department do the striping
so yeah their public service
not just be stripping they'll be
resurfacing livingston avenue and that's
in their current
year's plan okay so i'm not sure where
that is in the timeline i i'm going to
reach out to some of the facilities see
if they can uh get an inside job just
kidding
i don't think columbus is
has a slightly different process than us
i mean my understanding from speaking
with
the public service department also spoke
with mayor gunther about this is that
the
they don't take plans like this through
council for for ratification it it's
just a different process i've encouraged
them to think about doing that it feels
like a really good thing so if you have
you know if you have contacts um of
other council members in columbus i
encourage you to reach out to them and
say hey we just passed this resolution
where are you guys with yours
because i think it does help establish
something that's lives beyond
necessarily any given administration
ms robinson
this question would be
probably both of you you just mentioned
the resurfacing of livingston avenue do
we see do we foresee any um hiccups any
any issues with that resurfacing or is
that a fairly smooth process i'm just
concerned about you know
meaning um you know is this gonna
you know make traffic down to one lane
like what does that resurfacing process
look like so it's really similar to when
we're when we're doing just a simple
resurfacing of a street that's a like in
and out and a day or two sort of project
it will be fast
famous last words that's how
that doesn't work out that way give
richard sharp a call um
you can i'm just checking
i've lived in south bexley for 25 years
and uh both my kids were born south
bexley near livingston avenue and they
played in the community around there now
my adult children drive
to and from work and social events on
livingston avenue as well so when i
joined city council that was one of the
things when ben kessler asked me what i
wanted to do i thought well i would
really love to see
us do some work on livingston avenue but
i had no idea what to do you know i
i don't want to
create a you know further militarized
you know
area there and so it's it's just really
a a pleasure i'm excited to see a
thoughtful design here uh that unites
the two really great communities as well
of berwick and that south bexley area
there and and slows down that traffic
you know and and and makes that just a
happier healthier place for uh for the
community
mr klingler just one last follow-up it's
more of a technical question
um
you said we're gonna go down to three
lanes on the residential side so i that
intersection is college and livingston i
would assume east of there correct
how do you envision it going down to
three lanes is it east of that
intersection or is it west it goes down
to three lanes before that light i may
have to get through to help but it
literally transitions between it within
a block and so it's a very
gentle transition because you can't just
go from urge right yeah you know you've
got to do that in in the right way so
there's the plan
accommodates that so that it's a safe
transition from four to three the block
east of
college okay yeah
good
i was gonna
say first up true is here from carpenter
marty and they've been fantastic with
our traffic studies so thank you for
that i think um
for talking points because as soon as
that as soon as the the milling machine
hits the pavement and we start to see
new lines on there i think there will be
a lot of questions from people that
weren't aware of the project first off
it is a columbus project i mean columbus
is wholeheartedly
tackling this which is great
secondly
when it comes to the traffic
if you have been out there and and
responded
to these
some of these awful accidents that we've
had and seen what's happened a lot of
that accident activity has been because
of
there's no turn lane so people will be
turning from the left lane
um there are a lot there's some t-bones
people getting driven up on on yards a
lot of it has had to do with turning
action and not having a protected or
shelter turn line
when a car is stopped to turn left on
livingston effectively it takes that
lane of traffic out of circulation so
when we talk about like going from four
down to three
really
in in reality because you're providing
that sheltered turn lane environment and
they're con continue to be through
traffic while you are condensing traffic
to one lane
you're also getting those stoppages out
of the way and those sudden unexpected
movements out of the way um and you can
correct me if i said any of that
incorrectly but i think the point is
there is adequate capacity that turn
lane helps make that happen i was just
curious where it was yeah and i just in
general i just i know we're gonna get
questions and i know that you know this
the first time there's an accidental
livingston after the change which there
will be
there's gonna be concern that you know
it was all done wrong but i think the
key is that in other areas where this
has been done
the before and after studies of traffic
accidents have really proven this case
that it's not this is not an untested
theory this is a
this is something that's been put into
practice in other areas to create
success
i want to echo that too because i drive
so often on there that not only
that that lack of a turn lane is such a
huge thing that when you have someone
turning it it creates a
really really dangerous situation as
other people then try to get out of that
lane to go past oftentimes you'll have
cars both turning you know left and the
visibility is blocked that is just the
number one
cause i think of the the danger in
livingston avenue i'm going to ask
if there's any more comment here
and then just to let you know because we
still have a lot of people here with us
at city council which is fantastic
that when we start to take some action
there that you will have the ability
the people here to uh to comment as well
if you would like to any more questions
from city council
do we have um some action ms robinson
we do but before i do want to just um
tip my hat to monique lamke who served
the majority of time on this committee i
came in right at the tail end and get to
have my name there listed as an
ex-officio member but uh monique and the
mayor and and the committee
job well done this is this is super
impressive and i'm very excited to be
able to say
um that we
were ready to vote on this yes oh my
goodness here we go um so is i would
like to uh motion that we
adopt
um ordinance 2022.
moved by ms robinson second seconded by
mr klingler mr mcpeek hold on
oh
i also need to let you guys know that
the
bees app
hold on a second
because there's a zoning change to this
b-zap needs to review it
we spoke to b-zap about this oh right
this just jagged my memory yep i
apologize we were focused on another
b-zap issue i think bzap said they
wanted to study it before providing a
recommendation
they're still reviewing it isn't that
right matt they did
are we not it's gonna probably need a
table oh well okay that's different then
um and i apologize that was like i was
so excited
and then i pulled it up i was like oh
there's a zoning code change um so we
need we need to do a couple of things
here because
this is the third reading so we still do
have public commentary we need to
what what do we need to do here
with that out on the let's draw the
motion well i i yeah i think if you
would draw your motion
i withdraw the motion to pass ordinance
2022. and there was no second correct
there was a second withdrawal
and you agreed it would draw your second
all right now i think because it is a
little out of the ordinary i i guess i
would suggest you ask council if they
have any objections to allowing folks to
speak
and if the answer is no objections then
you should have let people speak all
right um
you may take a seat if you would like
and uh
and i will entertain speakers if anybody
would like to comment on this mr sharp
thank you um i'm glad the traffic
person's here because i have a a
question regarding the the traffic you
um
i'm sorry i forget your your name
okay
i'm sorry come on
um indicated that indianola was a
comparative um street i think north
broadway has been condensed as well from
two lanes
um are were those traffic volumes
similar to what um livingston avenue is
uh or were they less or
and where did all the traffic
go
or does it stay the same
you know i'll have a follow-up track you
want to just lay out your questions and
then we can let them come back up here
and then the secondary question is from
a safety standpoint the the marked
uh sections when there's no physical
barrier um
is there's
has that been done on other other
streets within columbus is there have
there been a different type of accidents
that have occurred as a result of
those spaces where maybe people at
nighttime perceive that they have more
room and try to
speed past someone even though it is
marked
i know fourth street
has been um
gone on a traffic diet with the bike
lanes and the medians you know just
separating cars parking further in the
streets like that those aren't really
comparable streets as far as that is
concerned
thank you
thank you for graciously uh going to
answer our questions evening everybody
uh drew laurent with carpenter marty
transportation at a 6612 singletree
drive in columbus very good questions by
the way i'll try to address you as i
speak into the mic
i don't know about the difference in
traffic volumes between indianola and
livingston
i do know that as a part of our analysis
we did evaluate the change in the lane
configurations with the volumes through
the residential area of livingston and
it did show acceptable level of service
for capacity um
one other
thing i don't know if anybody's seen the
the actual report that was put together
for this project but there's some really
great graphics in there that show the
reduction in conflict points going from
a four-lane section to a three-lane
section with a left turn lane
um
it's it's it's very uh eye-opening and a
lot of the things that the mayor said
about how
you know a left someone turning left
blocking that through lane essentially
creating
a desire for people to go around those
folks um
really is has helped with this um this
this project
um another another important concern
that i heard um throughout this process
was speeding on livingston um in this
situation when you're down to a single
through lane in each direction you're
really controlled by that vehicle in
front of you speed wise um and without a
major concern for passing things like
that um
remember if that was all your questions
i apologized
the march shoulders yes
and indianola they they do have bike
lanes
um
in that shoulder area on each side of
the road i think indianola is
slightly or was slightly wider than
livingston avenue
and there is a
required amount of bike lane space that
is needed to accommodate a bike lane
which is i believe the reason for not
including one here today
on livingston um
i i can't really speak to
the possibility of people trying to pass
through that striped out area i do know
that creating that additional buffer
between passenger or between vehicles
and the sidewalk is going to be
beneficial to pedestrians
um
but you know generally the expectation
is that people will abide by the
striping of the roadway um you know
you'll obviously get one or two folks
who don't care but um i think
i think it'll be very successful for the
for the city so
hopefully that answers your question
thank you thank you other comments
questions
name and address please
alex silverman 683 vernon road
um
so i grew up in berwick i was on uh
wellesley boulevard
wellesley road that goes into eastman
boulevard so right there at uh christ
the king
then i moved to south bexley in 2018 so
i've seen livingston my whole life
i know that
we have a large-scale senior residence
uh living moving in on
brookwood i believe brookwood and
livingston
that's 2023.
so the development of livingston is
going to continue
to happen so i think addressing it now
is important um
i support
road diets especially in the residential
area
and i think it's going to increase the
accessibility for people to live around
livingston
so i'm just happy that we're able to
advance this and
the investment in the southwest corridor
in livingston is really impactful for
the city so thank you
thank you
any other comments or questions before i
turn this back over to ms robinson for
your next action
we have comp just just one last thing
since it was brought up i grew up one
mile north of morris in indianola maybe
less than and my grandmother lives one
mile south of morrison indianola and i
can tell you i travel that corridor
often and it has made a significant
impact in that community in that area
driving down indianola so
since it was brought up i thought i
would share my experience with that
area of the city
mrs robinson uh so i believe our action
would be to table this until the next
meeting
if that's what you're asking are you
making a motion i am making a motion
that we table ordinance
uh 2022.
by ms robinson second say i gonna buy mr
klingler mr mcpeek
sorry just a minute here
does the
mr president yes mind if i really
quickly i didn't we didn't explain why
we needed to table it can i really
quickly offer that explanation yeah i
thought we did we did well i i alluded
to it
just for anyone who's wondering like why
is that happening
um
the this is not just adopting the
livingston plan it's also a man in our
zoning code to bring the guidelines in
as design standards which is key so it
basically gives these teeth immediately
that's a zoning change so it requires
our board design and appeals and
planning to provide a recommendation to
counsel so this just it's just a little
bit of a prolonged process it's
different than most of our processes
like that did i repeat myself already oh
okay um
and i yeah i'm not gonna editorialize
but i'm excited thank you thank you
so at the risk of sparking a uh mutiny
and being removed as president i'm gonna
suggest one alteration to the agenda
tonight and only because um previously
uh alex silverman was asked to come here
to speak tonight on behalf of one of the
other ordinances that we have i know he
cleared his calendar he's here
are you coming back
oh all right well there we go
never mind we've
we're gonna
let's move on administrative updates
please take us through
mr mayor
thank you mr president mr bayshore is
with us in the virtual format
and uh
i will bring his video over
there he is good evening mayor and city
council
you can go ahead we can hear you
yeah mayor city council uh
mayor is bringing up my report and i do
not have anything else to add to my
written report but happy to answer any
kind of questions you might have
andy would you mind um
because i think
everyone has got to have this question
just
you have it here the drexel project but
if you could provide us a uh a little
kind of update on drexel where it stands
what we can look forward to in the
coming months
sure um we're we're on schedule right
now um
i know it's been
you know inconvenient for some of the
residents um but please be patient the
biggest change upcoming is going to be
monday
uh june 20th that is going to start uh
to where we have southbound traffic only
um
at college in drexel or i'm sorry at
drexel and uh maine the turn lane will
be closed and we'll have to detour to
cassidy but it will be um
yeah southbound traffic only the you
know businesses have been
we have talked to the businesses and
they received letters and the businesses
will be open and we will have parking on
the east side
um but southbound traffic only
and that's probably going to last right
around three weeks
and then when that's done andy i think
we're done with the water line right
right yeah i'm sorry once that's done um
the congestion will start to ease up a
little bit
and and there still will be some um you
know the crews will still be out there
working but it won't be anything like
what we have here for the next three
weeks
uh once we get done with the water
lining or i'm sorry the water line we
have one more um
one more piece of storm um storm systems
on the line
and then uh then we'll start on the on
the other part of the project
so the storm
it's the sewer piece of it will be in
august is that right right well we have
one more piece to line and then the new
storm um install will be yeah probably
august or so yeah
um so i just want you guys to understand
this so the water line will wrap we'll
have the we'll have sewer work coming
through in august
that will wrap
then we will start on the curbs in the
medians so it's going to be
it's going to be fun um so i think you
know just
we're going to put some continued give
updates out to the community but you'll
we'll get some grumpy there's there'll
be some grumpy
because the curves and mediums won't be
completed until next spring or summer
just so you know
right so like
the water and sewer lines i'm assuming
where are those spatially on drexel
i mean they're not they have to dig
you're digging two ditches basically is
that is that accurate or do they share
the same they don't share the same ditch
or we would have done that already yeah
they don't don't they do not share um
the same ditch um the water line will be
on the east side pretty much in the curb
lane
and some of the storm new install will
be around bryden um in the fair area and
that will be a separate ditch
separate dig
okay
um sorry mr klingler has his hand up
first and then we'll go to miss lampy
and then decide is it uh three weeks for
the water and three weeks
for the sewer so three weeks
starting 20th and three weeks in august
as well no uh the the biggest is the
three weeks starting next week for the
water line um in that high congestion
area right there you know between
sherwood and maine
um
the storm
we will have some traffic kind of like
what is out there now you know
dividing the lanes but it won't be as
disruptive as the water line we're
getting ready to start next week
is sad
i don't know that there's much we can do
to the planning process but are we
concerned at all about the fourth of
july and just the height of people
coming to the city to be a part of
our celebration and
and absolutely absolutely
um right around
july first is when we're planning on to
button everything up and make it ready
for the fourth and we will make sure we
have two weight traffic on trajectory um
on that friday
so that week we're kind of
halting and then yep right
very smart andy bayshore good job
any other questions for andy i think you
had one here oh sorry monique my
goodness i skipped you
that's okay hey andy to follow up to
council member assad's question um
what kind of advance notice
may go out or has gone out regarding the
june 20th start date for the southbound
traffic for three weeks
um we started this uh this week monique
monday um our city engineer and
inspector uh went door-to-door on the
businesses and they also got a notice
we're in the process i'll have
metal signs up should be
hopefully
late thursday afternoon friday they say
businesses are open
and i will also have
a signboard in the turn lane on main
street
great thank you
okay
well thank any no one more sorry okay
so andy i have a huge poster at my house
that i forgot to bring tonight that i
will be bringing into the service
department signed by
[Music]
upcoming or rising up fifth graders and
parents and the community to thank you
in the service department for all of
your help with a celebration that hasn't
happened for a few years
with these kids rising up to middle
school and i can't begin to tell you how
many times um parents that maybe are new
to the community who have been here um
said only in bexley and it was so great
to hear that again so a big thank you
and your staff's gonna feel it it's just
with school ending uh
it's been a little crazy but i'm excited
to bring in the poster and some treats
that um the community wants to give to
you guys because you were just so
pleasant all of you to work with to keep
our kids safe when they were celebrating
um
an amazing uh rising up that they
haven't been able to do in a few years
so um send that on to your staff but you
guys are very very much appreciated and
it was just a really positive experience
for the whole community and it was fun
to be a part of that so thank you
no problem thank you and i will pass it
along to the crew
thanks andy all right
andy have a good evening you too
next up we have uh police department and
apologies from chief goff he had to
attend to a family issue that arose
unexpectedly don't worry everybody's
safe just a little little plumbing
emergency
um so i think the one thing that we
really want to highlight is you guys
have probably heard a whole lot about
this
is that as of today or yesterday the new
concealed carry law is in effect
um
there's some narrative about this here
one thing that i spoke with chief goff
about yesterday was just ensuring that
we are
going to be treating every
motorist every person we come across the
same in terms of
asking if they have
firearms on them that will be a
universal part of the police script
regardless of you know what the
perceived threat might be
um and so if you guys were not aware of
this i think we've talked about it uh
it's it basically removes the obligation
of a motorist who has
a concealed weapon on them to disclose
that to an officer
um it makes it much easier to carry a
weapon while driving
um legally so in the past if you
were not a concealed carry permit holder
you needed to have that weapon in the
trunk
um and there are all sorts of different
safeguards against
not being safe with those firearms
now it is 100 percent permissible to
carry
weapons
but from anybody regardless of their
training or any sort of checks
i think that that is something important
for us to know not just as leaders but
as
drivers that the climate will be a
little bit different probably in terms
of driver safety
not to editorialize too much but it's
something that's really concerning to
the police officers and police
departments across ohio i know that it's
a
very
interesting decision to pass that
legislation
um there's some additional information
about um
conditional offers of employment to our
top two candidates um we are expecting
a retirement to be coming down the pike
uh from an officer it's expected
expected retirement so we have decided
to go ahead and because our these
officers need to go to the academy go
ahead and come begin training for a
second officer the swearing-in uh will
be 9 a.m thursday june 23rd any of you
are invited to that that's the police
department um
meeting room
so
please come along if you can
and
i can try to answer any questions you
might have or at least pass them along
okay hearing none
mr price recreation and
parks you mayor
um
i just want to highlight uh one one
specific piece of uh our report which is
the focus on the
staffing levels at the vaccine pool
i was able to reach out to some of uh
city council
but i want to update the rest of city
council regarding
a conversation we had with swim safe
which is our
pool operation pool operations vendor
we had a conversation today around 3 30
in which they indicated their continued
struggles
with maintaining a
safe level of
lifeguard coverage at the pool facility
i want to be really clear
to date uh we have they've managed to
maintain a safe level of guards but it
has required them to close bodies of
water
and also as required
those staff that are willing to work to
work a lot more hours than is ideal
um
the impact of that is the concern
that they are bringing up which i think
is very valid and real concern of the
burnout
and the impact of that burnout is the
loss of some of those guards may make it
difficult to continue to operate the
pool at any level
as a result they have recommended to us
that we move forward with reducing our
hours of operation
uh so that we can
continue to work staff at a reasonable
level the staff that's willing to work
those sort of hours at a reasonable
level
i continue to maintain
safe levels of staffing
uh and
they will all along continue to work to
add additional staff
[Music]
to try to make this as temporary of a
reduction in hours as possible
we had a lot of conversation
about what that might look like
um
about
what the best way to maybe structure
that is
uh about what their efforts are to
continue to try to find more staff
um
you know the general gist although we
are still going to have some back and
forth
is that we're looking at what might
normally be a weekday operation monday
through friday friday of 11 30 to 8 30
being reduced uh to 11 30
to 5 30
and what might normally be a weekend
operation of 11 to 8 being reduced to
11 to 5.
and again those are somewhat subject
to some additional conversations that
we're going to have
you know we we have
continued to try to aid in promoting the
need for guards
they have continued to look at ways to
get more guards this is not a unique
situation to
our facility or pool facilities in
general
but it is a real issue that um
you know we hope we wouldn't have been
in this situation we hope not to have
been in this situation but in in lieu of
you know obviously prioritizing safety
and at the same
time trying to make sure we still have
this access and opportunity for our
community
this seems like
the best
course of action at this point in time
so i wanted to
keep council up to date on that
this is something that we're going to
make a final decision on in terms of
what those hours might look like and
when they'll take effect we'll probably
make that decision tomorrow but it is
something that they are requesting we
look to do
as immediately as possible
to
uh reduce some of the load on the on the
staff and make sure we can maintain
appropriate staffing levels
so with that i know that's a quick sort
of synopsis um
i'm happy to answer questions about it
um
we will obviously have direct
communication with our membership in the
days to come in the community as a whole
um but that's sort of the
where we're at right now and in the
direction we're looking to go
thank you mike um miss saad i think has
a question
so mike as we discussed earlier um in
order if if it were possible to not have
to make these changes we'd be looking at
around 10 guards is that what were
we
talked about a little bit
yeah yeah i i don't want to put a hard
number on it the sense i've gotten is
we're probably looking anywhere from 8
to 10 guards additional
but it's a tough number to sort of use
because
it sort of depends on how many hours
they're capable of putting in right so
they have a staff of
right around 18 or 19
guards but of those 18 or 19 only maybe
7 to 10 are are really picking up
significant hours which is part of the
issue
some of the others are you know are
willing to work when they can but those
their availability is sort of few and
far between so
i say that to say it somewhat would
depend on how many guards uh the number
of guards would somewhat depend on their
ability or availability
to work but yes so mike are you saying
if every council member forced their 16
and older children to work as lifeguards
that we would be fine is that what
you're saying
um i don't have the math on the number
of 16 and over children
um with all joking aside uh mike i could
just see and i know you i know that
you're this is weighing heavily on you
and um i know that uh
you're working really hard on this so
first off
cut yourself some slack
secondly uh i think it's
it takes a village here i think we all
need to put out the word that uh this is
an urgent need
get some lifeguards trained up otherwise
you're gonna see troy and i out there in
lifeguard chairs and no one wants to see
that
no one wants to see that true nobody's
gonna feel safe
about that
just
from just the messaging standpoint is it
has there been discussion about um
essentially giving the the community
notice that this may be occurring to try
and help drive additional
um lifeguards
you know essentially saying hey we need
we need lifeguards um if not we got to
make this change
yeah so i will say we we've obviously
sort of
continued to communicate to the
community that we need guards maybe not
directly connected to the potential for
reduction in hours
um yes
but the timeline that swim safe is
giving us which is fairly immediate
doesn't really allow for a lot of that
type of messaging um
they are looking at
you know we're looking at potentially as
early as thursday
um
and
and uh you know i will say i think it's
important to say uh you know we can
get guards trained
um
uh we're pre swim safe is pretty nimble
in that ability and that they do their
training in-house
so they can set up
training whenever they need to and
if they weren't doing in-house we might
have to say hey contact red cross and
the next training isn't for three weeks
um that's what we're lucky in that we
have some flexibility in terms of being
able to
uh begin that training process as soon
as there's a pool of applicants that
are interested
um and can turn that around you know
obviously fairly quickly obviously
there's a process they have to go
through and they need to be capable of
doing the work
um
but even
you know even in the best of
circumstances it's likely that we would
need to reduce these hours
uh while we're trying to get some staff
trained
and then one other just
quick question um has there been some
discussion of having at least one
evening
availability i know
some families
like mine um from time to time we'll get
a pizza and show up and and have the
evening there so i'm
curious if that's been discussed
it it has been discussed and so when i
when i give you the hours at least the
recommended hours they gave us i want to
be clear we're going to have some
additional discussion on that that being
one of the bigger
concerns uh matt to your point
um
i will say the difficulty
of that operationally
when we talk about these hours we're
talking about the open swim you know we
have swim team we have um swim lessons
which obviously
you know very highly in the value of the
swim lessons
in the mornings and so
part of the issue is the length of the
day
uh for our guards and
[Music]
the ability to get guards to come back
so for example if you had a break in the
middle of the day getting them to come
back can be very difficult they have
also had in general a difficult time
getting guards in the later hours
and that may be that's for a number of
reasons some of which may be
they're in sports and they have some
stuff going on the evenings or they have
other things going on um
so while i i ideally we we are going to
try to push to find some way to have
some evening hours there's some
real
difficulties in
potentially being able to pull that off
um
i will also say
uh you know we so there's there's
there's two groups that we're really you
know we're concerned about in terms of
this sort of earlier time finishing
which is sort of uh you know families
that that come to the pool like you had
mentioned uh uh later in the evening
maybe grab some dinner and kind of hang
out for a couple hours and relax
um which is you know a user group that
this does this causes issues for us also
is you know some older adults that like
to do a lot of lap swimming uh in the
evenings after work or whatever um
that's another user group so those are
two user groups we're aware of the
concerns and we're gonna see if there's
anything that we can do to provide some
outlets
um but there are some real difficulties
from a staffing standpoint with
accomplishing that um
but we are aware and i i appreciate that
feedback and we'll continue to sort of
think about that in terms of how we can
provide some of that outlet
mr klingler
are there any times that during the week
that lifeguards are needed more
so for instance like during the middle
of the week or weekends needed or is it
any they just need more lifeguards
period at any time
yeah i mean they they need a larger pool
in general
to provide for flexibility so when
somebody doesn't show up or something
comes up and they have to cancel or they
you know
that they have somebody they can go to
so in general
uh a bigger pool gives more no punch in
it gives more flexibility
um
we in general the evening hours it seems
to be have been dip more difficult
for them to get consistent coverage on
you know obviously as we think about
what hours we talk about limiting the
numbers we think about the hours we're
thinking hey where can we get guards in
terms of the time of day
you know the other the other
point of of these hours is we're looking
at our you know people counting
we need to do a more in-depth dive into
that but
our initial
look at sort of how many people are
coming and what time of day they're
there
uh
seems to indicate that it's you know
sort of the midday
uh too early to to you know to late
afternoon
um
till five till six is uh you know sort
of that
two to four two to five is
peak usage of the space so
you know
while i know that doesn't necessarily
work for everyone we also want to think
about how we can
maximize
[Music]
the hours we're open for how our
community seems to be using the space
ms lamke
mike i know you're talking about um
swim lesson and lifeguards but um how's
the staffing on camp and concession
so conception um
we have a third-party vendor and they
seem to be you know even going into the
summer we're very confident and have not
conveyed any concerns that they're
having from a concession standpoint so
we have not been made aware of any
problems they're having i'm not we have
not you know
again this is very very fresh
information from a conversation at 3 30
this afternoon
if i'm being completely honest we
haven't even had a chance to reach out
to the concession stand to inform them
so that'll be a call that's going to
happen as well about this potential ship
they are not dealing with staffing
issues camp is also doing
fairly well um
they have uh
you know
one thing that's been interesting is as
we've gone through this process
which is not just the numbers of staff
that we can gather but
what their availability ends up being
and we're not necessarily
especially with the pool not so much
with camp but we're not in a great
position
to have a mandated hey if you're going
to work you need to work x number of
hours because we need the staff
um and
so
not so much with
with camp we're seeing a little bit of
that about what is availability
uh but cancer is a little more
structured in their schedule it's a
little more standard
um it's a little more you know normal
hours if you will uh and they are
essentially at full staff now we have
had conversations with camp or are in
the process of having conversations with
camp staff this is something we've
frankly continued to work on
uh up until even the call we received
today because we understand that you
know we've kept a close eye on this uh
we are starting conversation with camp
staff
anyone who's maybe not getting as many
hours as they would want because they're
a sub
uh or they just frankly wouldn't mind
working some weekend hours to pick up
hours about the potential for cross
training them
and having them get certification and
potentially official hours we obviously
have to be careful about that approach
so that it doesn't adversely affect camp
but there seems to be some capacity
there um but camp and and
concessions are doing fairly well
okay
anything else for mike
mike anything else you want to cover
um no i mean obviously if anyone has any
questions um please feel free to reach
out to me i know there's a you know i i
you know i don't want to spend too much
uh take out too much of the council's
time there there's obviously a lot of
communication that's going on and will
need to go on there are a lot of
questions
as we as a rec department have evaluated
this recommendation from swim safe so
there's a lot of
questions that we have asked and have
received answers on including you know
what other
efforts are they making what sort of
incentives can we be looking at and all
those things so i want to i want to
assure
council that you know while we might not
talk about every one of those details in
this meeting um that those questions are
being asked
and we are doing everything we can to
find creative ways to
make this as temporary of an issue as
possible
thank you mike
all right thanks mike have a good
evening as well
let's kick back and have a coke on ice
all right so yeah for pepsi sorry pepsi
pepsi
um
mr hale
there he is
he's like
this is the longest weight
ever saved the best for last
yeah
or in the dark or you know
the time i had to do it in my car
because my bluetooth would disconnect
but
um because i know i'll forget can you
bring up that motion first
or
um i have them
and i wish i was going first before my
other director so that they could see
that
we hold ourselves to the same standard
um
yes
but what happened was
and angie said to go ahead because i
wouldn't want to throw her under the bus
yeah you can just say what happened
before angie came back to us she spent
several years at whitehall where they
only open up one-fourth of the amount of
the budget each quarter
why they do that i have no idea but
that's their practice
um and so she only opened it up for
one-fourth and um
that did not leave us enough to pay this
and it was more than three thousand
dollars over so i couldn't push it
through so i need councils
approval to expend these funds
even more coincidental it's the firm
that audits us so
so we really want to do that one
any questions or uh comments uh
if not um
entertain a do we need a motion to do
that right
motion to approve the invoice as shown
so moved
second
all in favor say aye
aye all opposed same side
sorry yeah sorry kind of whispered that
one i was just thinking
what's good
done thank you for that
um after the financials just quickly
i'll just touch on the bottom line first
of all because that's the main thing
um we're almost two million dollars
better than i anticipated at the
at the beginning of the year something
that's budget you've seen it in the in
my notes before not budget some of the
timing and you've seen it in my notes
before i'm not going to hit on all the
notes because some of them i've just
kept there because the variances still
exist
um but i don't want to you know go we
went over before
one i'm probably always going to touch
on is income tax because that's our you
know main revenue source
that drives the ship here and um
an income tax for this month it really
looks good
but um i put a
you know almost 900 thousand dollars
higher than budget
year-to-date
um but a little bit of caution the june
advance which will not be infected to
show up until the next budget was a
million dollars less than last year so
it may not be time to celebrate just
quite yet
um
let's talk about that
from the down low
um
keep that two million dollars in your
pocket for right now then that's right
let's hide that um
skipping down to point number six the
uh matt had asked me to touch on this
and actually i'd wanted to because
mainly maybe for newer folks on council
that aren't used to seeing this every
year uh but in may the auditor's
expenditures actually shows a credit
amount if you look back at the report
um
the
credit for the month was 138 000
so unless that's like negative
expenditure reason for this is
um the regional income tax agency peels
off a three percent off of everybody
they collect tax for
um
at each distribution then
at the end of their fiscal year they
actually can calculate your percentage
of the cost on two basically there's two
parts of the formula what our percentage
of um
transactions were and what our
percentage of collections were
and then they came up to
um
what our actual cost of our share was
1.2
7
they rebated back to us the difference
in the rebate is more than the rest of
our expenditures for the month and it
was actually larger wait significantly
larger this year than last year so we
had a positive variance even overall
um the street lighting department is
under budget
by fifty three thousand dollars that's a
new one the traffic and safety studies
and traffic and safety studies traffic
monitoring and alley lighting
enhancement have a combined budget of
eighty thousand combined year to date of
7 500 and 12
the department is budgeted split out
over just 112 because it really doesn't
have
you know cyclical changes so but it
looks like these things are going to be
done later in the year so that's another
incident of a timing
and now the wreck fund is higher because
the rec fund got really low as a matter
of fact got a flag that it was going to
go negative so i had to do the rest of
the rec fund transfer that had been
appropriated for the year which had been
budgeted at one fourth
of the year
due to we had several other new large
transfers in the beginning of the year
such as transfer to the infrastructure
fund
um a large transfer think of capital
improvements which would have really
driven the general fund low had we not
divided out some of these other
transfers or divided out all of them so
but i had to go ahead and do the wreck
to keep it from going negative
and uh
with that i'll entertain any questions
is there anything that anyone else
picked up on they had a question about
usually there's so many questions like
i will say thank you beecher um so yeah
it's a good summary um and mr klingler
did remind me that i have not done my
monthly report in several months which i
am committed to get back to
um but i also committed not to double up
on too many finance things in one
meeting so next meeting
i am committed to
the riveting auditor's report you're
already but chomping at the bit to get
the audit earning the budget time yeah
and then most importantly in beecher you
just can we um much like the parade
route offer
changes in order
of our presenting folks because mr
beecher
is here every day every meeting till the
very end i'm always so
perhaps we would get crazy i say mr
beecher but mr hale um uh you know we we
rotate and let him go first sometimes i
mean that would be provocative
yeah so nonetheless i see all the other
directors would know i had to emotion
and they'd feel better
[Laughter]
anthony listen to all those questions to
the finance director
all right and and all right
thank you beecher thank you guys
[Laughter]
mike is still for the record mike is
still here thank you so now you know
mike we hold the same standard
feature if you stay in every meeting as
long as mike does then we'll start to
rotate iran
oh just kidding
let's volunteer he's like what
he can't get it right yeah
mike mike's still here after the meeting
ends sometimes okay i'm gonna trust you
all
uh as i always do uh to read my mayor's
update um which has packed full of
information much more so than normal and
lots of photos one of them i i've
neglected to give voter credit to mr
klingler for taking
um and i will try it really i will try
to only highlight the most important
things here
i'm going to try it so hard read about
the alley the future contest i'm super
excited about this
we've got a really neat fun program that
we're we're cooking uh that will launch
in august and it's like love your alley
on on steroids
where we're asking
for
allies to dream up what they would love
their ideal perfect amazing alley to be
with street with city infrastructure and
changes to policies where there's like
no drive times and like sensor based
lighting
and all sorts of stuff
water mitigation varied power lines
that they can win
we win city infrastructure funding to
roll out and deploy that that winning
alley so take a look at that we've been
hard work over that past couple weeks on
that
uh coco will be at our next council
meeting to talk about money so read
about that
trail town assessment marcus the intern
has been working on this
read about that
um this is one i want to make sure you
all are aware of crossing guard
requested abroad in cassingham we've had
parents
um we get this perennially a request for
crossing guards there's a little bit
more
energy around this one so i have met
with some parents recently i've narrated
for you what we've done at that
intersection it's a pretty comprehensive
list
but then also you know we've we've
offered to continue conversations about
what to do with that and that's
something that we'll be talking about in
earnest over the next month because if
we were going to have a crossing guard
program it would need to be ready to go
for
august so
um if you have any thoughts after
reading that let me know
lots of dorky photos of
stuff
here with the brewery hat that one yeah
no okay
thanks man i appreciate it uh and um
there is hydrant flushing on june 21st
so that's coming up people often comment
on their water being discolored we have
a lot of information on that i've
attached the newsletter
uh here that has is going out
um reminder there's space in there for
council updates so any time you want or
if you have like photos you want to
share that you think would be good in
the newsletter just let me know let sam
know
um and a couple proclamations we've
issued uh
are there and that's my update any
questions or thoughts
and then finally one last thing mr
president uh kathy rose would like to
travel to louisville
in late september for to attend the
american planning association conference
which she often
prior to covet attendance so we would
need a motion from council to approve
out of state travel
you're asking for that right now does
louisville count is out of state yes it
does count as out of state but you have
to go across the river she has offered
to as long as you provide funding to her
in advance bring back any bourbon that
you wish
national bourbon day
any any questions about uh what one
question i mean i feel like we should
probably what's the cost i mean what are
we talking is it gonna be presidential
suite or like i don't anticipate i know
i mean she probably deserves it and i
have no bra you know yeah no i mean
it would be a hotel room for a couple
nights standard type of hotel room and
and her driving costs okay
okay we don't have any crazy per diems
or anything like that i just think about
the cost of the actual thing and with it
does she do this every year pretty much
okay that's part of her it's in her
budget cool okay thank you
good opportunity any other questions
if not uh entertain a motion to approve
this expense motion to approve
motion a promotion by uh mr marcelino
second
second by mr klingler all in favor say
aye
all opposed same sign
uh 802 let's take a five minute break
and uh get the rest of the agenda gone
here this is this is what happens when
uh
this is what happens when sam marcelino
doesn't have concert tickets you know
[Laughter]
yes sam
okay
let's go get out of here before 10 p.m
yeah some of us have to go to bed
all right
thank you
and now
it's time for mr fisher oh man that's a
long time waiting to talk yeah consent
agenda meeting minutes of 5 24 22.
that is all
oh
okay what happens to you now
any questions over the uh
consent agenda
and nobody in the audience
um
take a motion on the consent agenda i
think this guy's coming to talk on him
he's not coming to talk
motion to adopt the consent agenda can i
get a second
second
thank you second by mr klingler
um
mr mcpeek please
uh miss robinson yes mr klingler yes mr
marcelino yes miss fibal
yes mr markham yes
motion passes
all right we have a third reading of
ordinance 19-22 to amend
1226.19 appeals to council in order to
specify an appeals timeline based on the
date of receipt of a written decision
and posting a written decision to
website to provide for city council's
ability to decline jurisdiction based
upon conflicts of interest or other
cause to provide
the suspension
pertaining to those parts of an
application that are under appeal and to
accommodate additional procedural
improvements introduced by mr klingler
thanks mr official um
mayor yep this is the third ring of this
uh we've amended it based on or i
haven't
we've amended it based on the feedback
from
the
bees app
uh the amendments are highlighted
can you give us the nature of the
amendments
sure they they wanted to add the um
phrasing uh
after a record decision
record of decision has been provided to
the applicant by mail email personal
service or through the city's zoning
application software
whereas before it's said after a record
of decision has been received in writing
by the applicant and has been posted to
the city's website
and i think the one of the two points
was
the word received versus provided
yeah and in the sense that
you could claim not to have received
something
that was provided that makes sense and
then
there are
there are different notification like
routes throughout the ordinance so they
wanted to unify them so that it was the
same sort of
communication matrix which is why it
references those different options
what's the uh how does how is how are
people notified through the zoning
application software is it just posted
ping's an email that's it
currently it's through email yeah so it
sends them a notice i think one of the
keys here is that this would be um
after the record decision has been
provided to the applicant
and this was discussed a little bit any
time there's a bzap decision the
applicant or the advocate representative
has to be at the hearing so it's not
like
that that party knows the decision
so they're on notice already if they
want to appeal it this is just this
triggers
the official timing that it gets
provided in writing and then also
for anyone who
would like to appeal a decision who's
not an applicant is a interested party
that's the city website posting that's
the trigger for that and i
and to add to that troy since you asked
the city zoning software application
software is um extremely user-friendly
it's one of it's one of the best that
i've ever gone through and up arlington
uses the same
its viewpoint or
i forget what the actual actual term is
but
it's really helpful and it's really uh
it pings you right away when there's a
move made with your application so
it's a good change
um and then
right here we strike out the word or
added email and then also added the
phrase or through the city zoning cities
zoning application software
that's it
anymore uh comments or explanation
recommends
but please just microphone with those
changes be zap approved it for a
recommended council excellent uh
questions
i'll make a motion to approve or amend
i'm sorry amend ordinance 19-22
second
[Music]
motioned by mr klingler second by ms
robinson
mr mcpeek
miss fibel
miss robinson yes mossad
yes mr markham yes mr klingler yes mr
marcelino yes and miss liam key yes
so is this a amendment that's happening
so it is amended it is amended
now i will make a motion to pass amended
ordinance 19-22
[Music]
motion by mr klingler
second second by miss sod
mr mcpeek everybody's a little
tired i can't hit a couple seconds
no support for clingling
mr markham yes
miss fibel
mr klingler yes miss robinson
miss lamke yes mr marcelino yes and miss
sod yes motion passes thank you
all right we are on to second readings
second reading of ordinance 21-22 to
unappropriate 75 000 from the pool
management account 14-550-51190
and to remove 75 000 from the swimming
pool fund concession stand revenue line
item introduced by ms lamke
thank you so much
as mentioned at the last meeting um
a couple months back out of abundance
and caution council had appropriated 75
000 in case we could not find
a concession vendor and luckily we did
so this just unappropriates that money
and removes it from the
revenue line item
any questions from council
then it wouldn't be opposed to putting
this on the consent agenda next time
perfect make it so
natalie
all right then second reading of
ordinance 22
22-22 to amend section 1226.19
a to allow alcohol specific community
events conditional
upon approval by city council introduced
by mr mark
thank you and i think we've had some
input from the rec board on this for uh
for tonight right yes i don't have a
proposed amended but i can tell you the
the content of the comments that were
received
um and i'm seeing it mike i think mike
is still here with us so mike if you're
if you're hearing what i'm saying and
you feel like i'm not representing this
accurately
it's very it's possible
but um i believe that we were the the
rec board
um underneath our under our current code
oversees the jeffrey park and um
commonwealth park
and i think they were suggesting that
the
uh any vote about the allowance of
alcohol and commonwealth or jeffrey be
with the rec board and that in other
parks or public areas would be with
council
mike is that is that the sum of the
comments
yeah i mean i think that's fair i think
uh you know as we discussed it's
probably going to bring up additional
conversations uh just about um
some of the codified ornaments um
related to
the overseeing of parks by the by the
board but yes i think generally speaking
that's pretty accurate guys
so the proposed um
amended version that we would be
theoretically looking at would then
uh give
events at city park's ability to sell
alcohol through a vendor approved vendor
by a voice vote of counsel
excluding
uh jeffrey and commonwealth
so that would that's really
we would exclude that from from that
ordinance or you have additional
right so it wouldn't be it wouldn't be
excluded the currently the rec board has
the ability to do to by vote
allow alcoholic community events at
jeffrey park up to two a year yeah
we would add commonwealth to their
purview okay so they would be they would
have the oversight of commonwealth and
jeffrey
and um the way that our code currently
reads
it's it's the recreation board
that oversees
jeffrey and commonwealth
we have other parts like schneider
havenwood
um
uh you know public rights of way uh
where council could vote to allow
actually it's really not even public
what i said was by what i said was not
wrong though it wasn't it was
what i heard
was that it would exclude jeffrey and
commonwealth i wanted to make it clear
that we would add the rec board ability
to prove it commonwealth as well
okay but
yeah
are we then originating that
action here at council or that's removed
from
that possibility
i think you would this council could
always approve anything you want
but the ordinance as written would
provide the route at the rec board is
that yeah no no no i'm asking what is
the recommendation from the rec board
for the amendment it would it be that
any
council action
then would then have to go to the rec
board with that those parks or are we
saying no that would not be included in
this ordinance
the recommendation as i understood it
was that the record would have full
purview so they wouldn't go to council
at all if it was at jeffrey or
commonwealth does that sound right mike
is that what you're proposing
that that would be my understanding keep
in mind though council has already
passed an alcohol framework which does
dictate at least that jeffrey park some
limitations on the scale or the quant or
the the frequency with which powerful
elements can be approved by the record
at jeffrey park
yeah yeah okay
i think i understand where we're at it
really just leaves it because the code
says no alcohol and parks
so the only other parks we have are
haven wood and schneider
i guess you could say that the you know
the pocket park at
drexel or future pocket parks might i
guess maybe be covered by that but well
the point is it allows for that to
happen
either by council motion or by record
motion depending on where it's at
why is there has some parks but not all
parks well we we uh we got bold and we
expanded schneider recently so until
then
the only
city
owned
active space
was jeffrey and commonwealth
um pump house park city of columbus wolf
park city of columbus so schneider
is the is the is the new athletic field
space that the
rec department oversees
and for sure mike and i have talked
about this a lot our code we don't have
a rec and parks board or parks and rec
board we have a recreation board
technically the way it's written in our
code
it dates back to the 70s i think mike
and um hasn't changed much since then
but what about haven wood
havenwood is it you know
so we have two parks departments in the
city we have the parks department that
is overseen by the rec department which
helps
oversee and maintain athletic spaces
and then we have our city parks d and
maintain athletic spaces
and then we have our city parks
department which is through the service
department
they maintain havenwood park
um
they maintain most of schneider park so
it's just it's it's two different two
different functions happening there i
want to stay until 11. i was going to
say
if you really want to talk about it
tell mike to to fill you in on the
meeting that he and bill dorman and i
had about three or four years ago we
really tried to figure this thing out
once and for all
[Laughter]
we didn't figure it out once and for all
in case you were wondering how to
streamline all that and i mean okay so i
also want to clarify like there's a lot
of interplay and work between
departments so the rec department helps
out the service department service
program helps with the right department
they're in the same bargaining unit
slightly different supervisory structure
you know there's a lot of there's a lot
of interchange there but it comes down
to the management of the space
and havenwood is not an active
recreational spaces so
yes
yeah yeah you
why don't we put a survey out on that
one yeah you know
you're ahead right now
that's all i'm saying
uh
so that makes sense to me um and it
accomplishes what we want to accomplish
but i'm just trying to since we're not
looking at an amended or
okay i just want to say what we're
really looking at now with this
legislation is we're saying
uh
havenwood and schneider park by a voice
voted council would would allow alcohol
sales to approved vendor
well
yeah yeah yeah each each action would be
specifically voted on by council yeah
okay um
the only other piece and maybe i'm wrong
on this mayor but it's really more
focused on alcohol consumption just
clarification sales is
maybe not the rest best term for that is
that's correct
it's just whether or not you can even
consume it at all
then the the you know whether or not
there's sales or it's a charitable event
or whatever is is the detail that might
be different between different events
okay
yep uh any other questions
uh and then alex silverman uh has uh
threatened to come back but promised to
come back he promised to come back talk
next time so we'll have here to talk
about smoke and fire smoke and fire uh
actively recruiting teams right now how
many teams
so far no idea we should ask alex before
he left but uh the cookout crew will be
an applicant
yep
yep okay
okay second reading of ordinance 23-22
to repeal section 452.21
skateboards and roller skates prohibited
in parking lots introduced by mr
marcelino
uh yes we discussed this at the last
meeting uh i think that a lot of you be
in violation of this uh ordinance itself
if we uh allow it to remain therefore i
am uh recommending that we uh repeal it
so any
questions concerns
could this one be on the consent agenda
all right
any objections what are you saying feels
like it's good i i want you to know that
this today um
mike price and i did a project where i
biked
through all the alleys on main street
and took photos of dumpster enclosures
there's a pertinent piece to this but i
think i broke the law at least you did i
called the police they weren't able to
catch you you ride too fast
[Laughter]
were you on your fancy electric bikes
sounds like no objections to placing
that on the consent agenda
all right then we are on to second
reading of resolution 4-22 to adopt the
tax budget for calendar year 2023
attached here too is exhibit a
introduced by ms lamke
thank you as everyone knows that once a
year by july 20th
we have to submit the tax budget for the
upcoming year with the franklin county
auditor's office so this is what
this resolution does
any questions
okay hearing none would would this be
appropriate for the consent agenda any
objections
i think this is very appropriate okay
all right well all the way up to first
readings
we have a first reading of ordinance
24-22 to change the status of the
finance and personnel coordinator from
part-time to full-time with a pay range
of
24.84 cents an hour to 35.87 cents an
hour and to transfer appropriations in
the amount of 39 282 dollars from other
expenditures to personal services within
the department of the auditor's office
introduced by ms lamke
thank you council may remember that not
too long ago we did pass an ordinance um
uh regarding the finance and personnel
coordinator position for a part-time uh
person and uh otto dorman peak may wanna
you or the mayor wanna shed some light
on um this ordinance now
yeah i can i'd be happy to talk through
it so um
we posted this position back in march
and the reality is
part-time positions paying this range
for this type of position
not a lot of interest in the market
we did get a
very strong referral in the highly
qualified candidate who
is extremely interested in the position
and we are
hopeful
to extend an offer tomorrow
for
for that position but to do that what we
needed to do is have this ordinance to
change um the position from part-time to
full-time so that is one thing that we
are accomplishing here
and then the second thing that we're
doing is simply calling out that to do
that
and bring in a full-time position
this year we do need to have an internal
transfer of 39 000. so it all sits
within the audit budget we're not taking
it from parks or rec or anything like
that
um and then um so to make this transfer
and then furthermore just to give some
guidance this change um likely increases
our budget next year by about 17 000
by just changing this from part to full
time so um the reality is
you know the market is what it is and to
get the right talent this is what we
need to do so any questions
mr klingler
with the change from part to full are
there any added
scopes or responsibilities
no the scope is going to stay the same
um so
um
yeah i mean it's it's essentially
primarily a finance position
but then supporting the payroll function
and then supporting um essentially other
hr type activities related to keeping
payroll up to date um and
benefits
so same scope okay
let me have a typo in section one
herbie
not i think we're also looking to adopt
and suspend yeah that would be the goal
is to adopt and suspend keep that in
mind with with tonight mr marcelina you
have a question
so changing is from part-time to
full-time are there any additional
expenses in terms of benefits that we
have to provide that yeah so i mean the
option um for care does exist
we do not know until that person enrolls
or chooses not to enroll what they'll
choose to do
any other questions
hey this layup key you have something
i've motioned to suspend the three
reading requirement for ordinance 24-22
ocean to suspend the three reading rule
by ms lampke second protect them by mr
klingler mr mcpeek
mr markham yes miss fibel
mr klingler yes miss robinson yes miss
lamke yes mr marcelino yes miss side
yes
motion passes uh okay ms lamke
a motion to adopt ordinance 24-22
motion to adopt by ms lamke second
second by mr klingler mr mcpeek
mr markham yes miss fibel
mr klingler yes miss robinson yes miss
lamke yes mr marcelino yes
yes
motion passes thank you
okay we are on to first reading of
ordinance 25-22 to amend section 262.02
c3 to include christmas even new year's
eve as holidays and to authorize the
mayor to grant up to four additional
hours i think that's a
poorly worded title of time off
immediately preceding holidays for
non-bargaining unit employees introduced
by mrs lamke
um attorney official or mr mayor do you
want to
further explain this one
yes so um
this
ordinance uh arose as a result of the
library
uh that's not true ben heckman just
walked in mr heckman it is a pleasure to
see you here this evening
um where do you want the parade to go mr
hey
um it arose as a result of an audit
finding where
it was noted that we were looking into
different
vulnerabilities in our system
that
we routinely provide extra hours of time
off going into like a memorial day labor
day weekend so you've probably seen it
in the blast before where it says city
hall closed at noon
on a friday before a big holiday
and that's a long-standing tradition the
staff frequently reminds me of exactly
when it's been done in the past
that precedes me i made the mistake
coming on board as mayor of
thinking
that you know christmas eve or new
year's eve for example should be a half
day
uh when in fact there was a long
precedent of it being a full day and it
was again it was provided by the mayor
it was outside of the scope of the
of the ordinance the ordinance lays out
what days are holidays
and it was just sort of a common
uh
tradition or understanding that there
there was flexibility to provide some
additional time off
when that happened it wasn't just city
hall it's been city hall
the rec department and the service
department
um
police department obviously works 24 7
throughout so it did not occur to the
police department so that's been the
tradition
it is not that is not
reflected in our code
now what's a little problematic about
reflectant in our code
is
as soon as we do that
you know i think and it's formalized and
it is a uniform
provision
then
we're pretty sure that pretty soon the
bargaining units will ask for
consideration or concessions uh because
so that they get similar benefits if not
actual in time uh new renumerative
benefits
so this is written to try to provide for
the continuance of the way we have
provided for time off leading up into
holidays um it provides it adds new
year's eve and christmas eve is holidays
which are not currently listed currently
it's just christmas day and new year's
day
i will tell you christmas eve is a very
dead day at city hall not a whole lot
going on uh same with new year's eve um
i think it's
i think that for our employees it's a
good time of year because everybody is
detached and no one is coming into city
hall complaining about whatever you know
so it's a good time for our employees to
be able to kick back and take some time
off
um
and
that pretty much i think explains the
situation mark is there anything else we
should highlight no i think that that
that definitely covers it this would
just
automatically add the two days that the
mayor mentioned and still give him the
discretion for it up to four times a
year to do a half day usually i assume a
friday before a long weekend
and one more point of clarification from
sam i know you have your hand up is um
like for example um
memorial day labor day are kind of like
the bigger days where this this would
apply um some of our
uh
our like president's day usually martin
luther king jr day juneteenth being
brand new
veterans day
those are not days where we
would uh
traditionally provide for time off
leading up to the weekend
if you're doing it in chronological
order new year's day eve should come
last not first
okay good point
mr marcelino uh two questions first one
is just for clarification purposes it
looks as though the way that it's
currently written that you're allowed to
grant these half days four times a year
this will be increasing it to 12 days a
year that you can do this correct
it doesn't have there's not there isn't
any provision at all for it okay
okay okay so i see down here okay i see
the crosshat sorry that's what confused
me that's fair enough i think that's a
good idea i think it's important for the
workforce i'm sorry that's a crossover
from an initial draft okay thank you
sorry that's where my confusion was but
i appreciate the classification um
additionally has there been any concern
in regards to
any
things that a person might come into
city hall to pay would we move that due
date to the next
work day you know let's just say it's a
water bill let's say it's something at
the clerk of course will we extend that
and how are we going to account for that
it's a really great point
i have to think through that a little
more carefully i've never heard of an
issue with that
i think that our due dates are already
any schedule due dates would take that
into account no matter what because i
think we schedule them knowing staffing
schedules
mayor's court
i'll have to come back to you on that i
don't think it's an issue but
yeah for mayors for for mayor's court it
would if it's it i assume it would be
handled like any other court or filing
deadline which is if it's due
if new year's eve is on a thursday and
where it's due thursday it would be due
the following monday right business day
you can probably pull that language i
think probably from yeah
probably
i'll look into it i don't want to i
could spit ball right now but i think
you could probably pull language that
might help you at the bottom of this
probably haven't already is my point but
we'll check it
i may have i'm sorry you may have a
question uh yes and i may have
i'm going to give you a second i may
have misinterpreted something
mayor that section that uh council
member marcelino looked at that f um
that last phrase preceding one of the
holidays
so basically it's adding the two extra
days
and then a four hour block before
one of those holidays
no um
it's it's designed to proceed
about any any yeah any one of the
holidays maybe the next meeting we may
need to
the intent is that up to four different
fridays or boat days before holidays he
can grant up to four hours off and i got
it doesn't currently say up to four days
and the reason for that was as i was
thinking through new year's christmas so
we just need to make sure that like
we're all on the same page with that
my intent is not to change anything
that's the point this has just been a
complicated way to moralize to describe
what's happened in the past
well you definitely distracted us with
all the strike throughs and things like
that so now
i will consider anything so
yeah
all right clean that up and we'll look
at it next time
all right then we are moving on
apparently to first reading of ordinance
26-22
to amend chapter 1476 unsafe buildings
to amend provisions for unsafe sites
introduced by mr klingler
thank you mr fishel
the city of bexley desires to protect
human health and safety our current
nuisance ordinance protects the
community and its residents against
unsafe structural conditions but does
not provide explicit protections against
unsafe sight and conditions it is also
in the best interest of the community
and its residents if the city provides
for a process to remedy unsafe site
conditions
so we propose to amend chapter 1476
to strikeout exceeds applicable state
and federal environmental standards
and include poses a risk or threat to
human
occupancy or human health
any questions
and this was there's a recommendation
[Music]
from our environmental council
as we have
taken this
shiny new ordinance and and tried to
actually use it uh
environmental council suggested that we
we tweak it a little bit more
um so that we were
not being tied to state environmental
standards which are are
called voluntary action plan standards
so they wanted to make sure that it was
clear that this was
enforceable
and that second where that second
recital is inaccurate because we do
actually now protect against unsafe side
conditions so it was it was just a cut
it was a copy and based on whereas so we
can get rid of that sorry about that
that was mine
i should have looked closer when i
copied and pasted it
there's a lot of mumbling going over
here
up there
okay
all right under first reading of
ordinance 27-22 to authorize
appropriations of 200 000 from the
general fund into the grants account in
order to accommodate additional
appropriations for the grant reimbursed
expenditures line item and the state
capital grant line item of the grants
account for the purpose of funding
additional grant programs based upon
recently awarded grants
as you
introduced by ms lamke i think middle
name is grant
by a coincidence it is it is mayor you
want to uh explain why we need this
ordinance please yes two purposes one is
the state capital fund we put in 250 000
of the budget optimistically we received
three fifty so we need to add another
hundred thousand appropriations for that
state grant
which by the way
we received the state today do we set
the last council meeting
okay we received the state capital grant
for the the pedestrian and bike bridge
at schneider park
that would have been a good mayor's
update that i forgot about
that's how busy we've been the past
couple weeks um so that's exciting um
so that passed through uh the
legislature um like in eight hours i
think like it dropped and then passed so
that's good
uh
then
and then we went to open up pos for the
dog park and realized that we had
already encumbered most all of our
normal grants appropriation on the
projects that are listed in that first
recital so the
first recital shows all the different
projects that we have pos open for
these are all 100 grant programs so any
po we open for directly matches the
amount of funding that we have pledged
from
in these instances of the bcf
so it just allows us to accept
additional grant
money um and use it this year so it's a
little urgent because of the dog park
um and there will be other i know we
have a loi request date for friday and i
know that we have a couple
pipeline grants going through that too
we're thinking this could maybe go to a
second reading at the next meeting or
review yes it could go second but i
would love it if we could get past
before we go to recess
any questions from council
all right
all right then we are on to a first
reading of resolution 5-22 confirming
the mayor's appointments
uh of members to the architectural
review board the board of zoning appeals
and planning the recreation parks board
the training public gardens commission
the board of health the civil service
commission and the community investment
community reinvestment area housing
council ms robinson
thank you mr fishel um it's funny on my
agenda i do not have that attached so
i'm going to throw this back to the
mayor so he can walk us through
sounds great and if you hit refresh
i have done that several times yeah not
sure
this is our annual appointment ordinance
we posted these positions um
may 6th
with the june 6th deadline i have not
completed
interviews on some of the open positions
so you'll see
a couple for example alternate member in
bzap which
has no name next to it same with the
reckon park board we just found out
one of our members is moving out of town
so uh jessica sparks will
uh it will need to be replaced sadly on
the board so
um got a couple of those going on uh the
the other the names that are in front of
you are
members who have served and wish to
continue to serve and i'm supported in
that continued service
um and then
we also have i think i just want to draw
attention to section 7 because it's
one that only comes up every three years
uh this is actually
europe this is an interesting thing a
higher vias code establishes that we
need in a community reinvestment area
housing council
the cra housing council has the exciting
job
of inspecting properties in the city
that have received tax abatements
elevator rights and making sure that
they are still being used for the
purpose for which they were granted the
abatement so that includes the gateway
offices the alexander residential
one dawson residential and gramercy
residential
also all in the door my dad
noted so during that
during that once a year meeting uh
the uh members of the sierra house has
to go to those properties verify that
they are still being used as intended
and make a recommendation to the tax
incentive review council which is
another one of our once a year
groups
um so for bex it's a fairly
straightforward process
orc says i appoint two members you
appoint two members and planning
commission appoints one
these would be your two appointees and
then traditionally there have been
council members because
it's a lot
to bring people in front of you and ask
them to serve on a board for you know 30
minutes every year and it's just simpler
to have council members
good resume
again we have these two come before
council and answer questions yes
i think that's fitting we are thoroughly
unqualified
all right sorry matt they're more than
sexy
so those are the
uh oh one thing to point out larry
hellman um has asked to be
placed in an alternate position for both
he's on air b and he's the
tree commissioner member who's also sits
in a b as a liaison between the two um
so he's asked to be an alternate they're
getting tired
so there's a little shuffling between
alternates and full numbers here
okay
great thank you
um so we've reached the point where we
are at table ordinances i know we have
some activity going on with the solar
code but not ready to take that off the
table and discuss it that's correct
right so maybe next time that is correct
okay
nothing going on with the table
ordinances
let's go to sam
marcelino nothing further thank you
mr klingler zoning in development just
just one thing uh there's an ex uh
excessive heat warning until tomorrow
night at 8 pm for those we don't don't
know
so it's hot outside
jesus
recreation and parks ms
jessica
no report
and off to jen robinson with the
strategic committee and i do have a
report guys mark your calendar this
friday at the library from five to eight
is our second annual juneteenth
celebration
and i have to say it is going to be a
blast we have slap and max soul food and
seafood who will be providing food for
the event as well as too good eats
providing some cold sweets for although
i hopefully we will not be having a heat
advisory i'm living in the land of 85
and sunny for friday so that's what my
calendar tells us we'll also have a
marketplace of vendors uh we will have
performances from afrocentric's nubian
drumline which i have to tell you third
through fifth grade drummers it's going
to be adorable
and tucson is going to close our event
out with an amazing performance with
their
their dancers and drumline
hands-on art projects led by our own
derek kohl's and a gallery of juneteenth
inspired art created by our
students here in bexley city schools
it's going to be a great event five to
eight at the library we already know the
library is awesome and hosts amazing
events and we look real forward to
seeing you guys there
it's not not yet
oh it is in the door isn't it
that's true
thank you ms robinson
ms lamke finance committee
just a quick announcement earlier on
friday june 17th um at 10 o'clock we
have all been invited to
the grand opening of tropical smoothie
cafe which is where the old jenny's used
to be
go over for ribbon cutting maybe a free
sample hopefully and then you go
i think it's thursday
it says friday is it friday okay yeah so
go get your smoothie at 10 and then go
to jen's juneteenth event at five
i could be on friday
yeah what time is it
all right
me make note
um
is that good
all right we are at public comments no
speaker slip required anybody in the
audience could come up and speak up
speak off the cuff with our full
attention
there's a 30 second limit for librarians
i just want to say you guys are all
doing a great job
oh sorry ben heckman i
met the library
i practically live there you guys are
all doing a good job and we love having
you as a partner
and if i don't see you all on friday
we'll be very upset
well done mr heckman
i will take a motion to adjourn so moved
second second second by ms robinson all
the people say hi hi all opposed same
sign
adjourn thank you everyone
that is appropriate