try it again
I'm back on it all right we're good to
go
hey
good evening everybody Welcome to the
November 15th meeting of the city
council of Bexley Ohio as always our
thoughts are with the people of Ukraine
I would like to extend a thank you to
our elected officials for this service
to our city and I'd like to send a thank
you to all of you for your involvement
uh here in the community and for coming
out tonight uh we've never had such
large crowds night after night to watch
the budget be presented
and it's it's it's it's it's great it's
great
Mr McPeak looking good there can you
give us the uh the roll call please
miss lamkey here miss viable here Mr
Robinson here Mr Marcelino here Massad
here Mr Markham here and Mr Klingler
here please rise join me for the Pledge
of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the flag in the
United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty
justice for all
all right do we have any presentations
or special guests no
no that's what I thought all right
Sergeant overly step up here this looks
like
you've got a fantastic uh class here
that you want to just present to
everybody
I've heard this is I've heard you
describe this as your most challenging
class ever which is quite a compliment
yeah I agree with you yeah that's some
challenges
um it wasn't my it was a class that I
was a little scared of
progressing with but um I think we built
some good relationships and it I learned
a lot from it and I'm I'm glad we did it
um so do we want to just start in the
interest of time and just no PowerPoint
tonight because I know that we're
honored
Spencer Calvin
[Music]
Barbara hedler
did I retain
ers
thank you
Lauren leaving
me
thank you
Katie Norton
Burke Reyes
foreign
thank you
hey we can get a picture
everything
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
everybody
[Laughter]
[Applause]
there we give you more of it we have
Seattle yeah
[Applause]
thank you
and and none of the graduates have to
stay for the rest of the meeting is what
I always hear right so
isn't it isn't like summa laude if
they stay for the whole meeting
[Music]
right yeah Ah that's just the rules
yeah
we're getting there fast
okay
thank you
very much
all right
we're told not to
okay
all right uh we are at the point where
we have public comments and we have
I'm not aware of any speaker slips did
anyone leave one and then someone's
cleaned it up
take that as a no that's a no all right
to the president's report I'll make it a
quick one and I won't curse this time
all right
I do I do just want to say uh that that
I know that we have a couple uh council
members who are also alumni of that
Citizen Police Academy uh and I meant to
say this you know when Don was in the
room too but uh Patty and I will testify
we had when we would tell people about
they would be like you are so lucky that
you get to do that being a council
member and I said no no anybody can do
that any citizen of Bexley and so uh it
is it was really it's really a very
enjoyable experience it's I I was just
really really uh impressed by the the
depth and material meeting the officers
it was just really a lot of fun and it
was super super interesting and so I
will tell the rest of you up here
council members I would highly recommend
next year that you take a look at uh
doing that because you will you will not
regret it right Patty it's a good time
good time Brian yeah uh also part of the
president's report and I'm looking at
you because you said something to me
last week that kind of hurt my feelings
a little bit because it was a little bit
true I don't think I did anything wrong
but I did feel a little bit bad because
we have these budget meetings they're
going a little bit late and everything
like that and and I know I went out back
and ate the last donut that was out
there
and
no I I have I have brought Buckeye
Donuts
I'm gonna put them back here you can
grab one whenever you want
right
yeah those are Super Fresh too I just
picked those about 45 minutes ago on
campus on my way here so yeah absolutely
I will uh defer to the City attorney
report at this point I have no report
I think you gotta move us through that
yeah I do you're still up oh I forgot we
did a little different order all right I
Know It's Tricky
okay
um I'm I'm I'm I'm efforting right we're
looking at the same thing right I just
haven't gotten there yet because
sounds like you could use a donut I
could use an iPad but
well you're breaking all of them all
right ordinance or resolutions with
visiting prevent presenters we have
resolution 9-22 confirming the mayor's
appointment of members to the recreation
board the tree and public gardens
commission the citizens review board and
the environmental sustainability
advisory committee executive board
introduced by Mrs Robinson this is a
third reading yes it is the third
reading and we are lucky enough to have
two people here today to speak to us uh
to a proposed appointees first to the
rec board uh Mr Eric Acton if you would
like to come up to the podium tell us a
little bit about yourself and
um answer the hard-hitting questions
that I know Council has for you
go ahead hit that hit that button Mr act
and say Here There You Go how's that can
you hear me there we go uh
yeah I'll tell you a little bit about
myself
um luckily the most of the people that
know about myself left
um
and and now the paper records are
destroyed so um it's been a lifetime
here
um in uh Bexley and um see a lot of
familiar faces then um
yeah I talked with Mr uh Kessler the
mayor a couple months ago and asked how
I could help out the city
and he uh
asked me if I'd like to maybe help out
with the recreation department and I was
very excited about that being that um as
a child in the 60s uh hung out at the
Jeffrey Mansion and hung out at the pool
you know parents if we have five kids
and they kicked this my mom kicked us
out of the house in the morning and then
I had to be home by five and so we ran
around the Jeffrey Mansion uh we thought
it was the coolest thing and hung out at
the pool all day and then got older and
into cross country and ran there and you
know you know that I I'm still coaching
cross country today
um there there's so much that that I
could um talk to you about tonight about
Bexley and growing up here and how
special Jeffrey Mansion is and being
with uh Michael price who by the way
told me there was valet parking and
reserve seating
um not not true
um I I just look forward to the
opportunities and I'm really tied into
it and um I'm just looking forward to it
so you may have some questions for me
um any questions for Mr Acton
yes Miss odd
do you ever take take a break right do
you ever take a break
um I got to know Mr Acton last year when
he stepped in and helped out the fifth
grade when they had a teacher leave
during the pandemic and I watched him
bring together a group of students who
really needed leadership and guidance
during a tough time and
um I have nothing but amazing things to
say about you and I'm excited to be the
liaison of Park and Rec right now
because we get you and you get a uh
serve on that board so thank you for
just stepping up whenever the community
needs you and I'm looking forward to
having you on that board thank you thank
you very much
appreciate that okay that's true I'm
here so my my name says Eric action up
there and
um and that's I don't know how much
action I'm not promising that but I
I'm a good good followers
Name by the way that is a that's a thing
that's uh next to my graduate a question
from the director here if I could jump
in as well I I'm excited to work with
with Eric uh I've had the pleasure of
knowing Eric for many many years
um his uh leadership with our um uh our
Splish Splash and Dash we we started
that whatever it was 10 years ago I'm
making that number up but it's been a
while and uh we were we were desperately
needed volunteers and from from day one
he he with his uh cross country team has
has always been on board and always has
some some great uh words of wisdom for
his his athletes to give back to the
community we've appreciated all the
support that they've given for the the
solution Dash so looking forward to more
of that President may I thank you I just
as the person who's in charge of getting
off right here I can't begin to to tell
you how I am always so grateful I am
always willing to say to Mike yeah I'll
do it because I pray that you yeah we
got to speak past the Finish Line with
my numbers so I am grateful and they are
always so amazing that group of kids
that you have they love it
they do great so thank you so much for
your help thank you you're helping lots
of big and small waiters thank you thank
you
thank you for joining us here tonight
and uh you stick around for a couple
minutes we're going to vote on this
appointment all right thank you thank
you thank you thank you all right we got
another one here we do there's Robinson
appointee to these uh citizen review
board Lisa Kelly hard act to follow do
you have some comedy that you've worked
into your routine here well I'm not
really an off-the-cup kind of person and
when I was practicing at home with my
husband and I said I'm gonna try off the
cuff he stopped me repeatedly and said
that's not working so I have it in my
phone and I'm just gonna go through and
you guys can act like this is very
natural for me okay so I'm Lisa Kelly
I've been a resident of Bexley for 10
years with my husband Justin and our
kids Wilson Foster Edison and Vina who
are all here with me tonight
um to support mom and I'm a licensed
school psychologist I've been in the
public education realm for 19 years I
have served a variety of roles I have
been a special education director
um a behavior specialist and right now
AI coordinate Mental Health Services for
Gahanna Jefferson Public Schools I am
passionate about providing high quality
counseling supports to at-risk youth I'm
also very active in the Bexley minority
parent Alliance and with the help of
Bexley City Schools created a
peer-to-peer mentoring program for our
students of color and we're in the third
year of that program right now
I was very interested in serving on this
board because I believe all Bexley
residents and those who pass through our
community should feel safe and supported
by law enforcement I am passionate about
Equitable and fair policing and feel
that being sensitive to our community's
culture and diversity is a very critical
component of that and I'm excited to be
part of the checks and balance system
that bexley's created and I'm very
honored to be selected for this
appointment
so I will entertain questions
Miss Kelly the assistant Review Board of
course has a very special responsibility
in the community and I would really
appreciate you bringing your expertise
and your enthusiasm to serve on that
thank you
any other questions for Miss Kelly
I just want to highlight that um in in
proffering Lisa's appointment
um you know I think your background
speaks for itself and I think one of the
things that is really great about our
crb or what we're trying to create with
that crb is a pretty well balanced
group with different backgrounds and
think that you're I especially I think
what I am so impressed by with you and
appreciative is a parent even though I'm
not a parent but Gahanna Jefferson
School student is your focus on Mental
Health in a time when like our kids need
that more than ever so thank you for all
of your service to the kids of Greater
Central Ohio thank you
thank you any other comments questions
thank you Miss Kelly thank you thanks
for coming in
thank you
and Mr President I didn't want to say I
made a joke about a hair hairstyle but
what I did want to go back to Mr Acton
and say
um that in in knowing Eric over the
years uh his compassion his connection
to our kids his passionate belief in
community I think will make him an
excellent record member so I said that
in Jess before but obviously uh thank
you so much for being willing to Surf
excellent thank you Mr President uh any
other comments or questions on this uh
resolution from City Council
and we do this as the third reading we
do allow uh comments questions from the
audience is Kelly your families too they
can speak and support for you or even in
opposition
there it is double thumbs up
do we have a motion then I I move that
we accept resolution
922. motion to adopt by Ms Robinson
seconded by Ms fiebel uh Mr mcpeek
please
yes Mr Klingler yes Mr Markham yes Miss
feibel yes Miss Robinson yes Miss lamke
yes Mr Marcelino yes resolution passes
thank you
foreign
to a third reading of ordinance 42-22 to
create section 265 naming and renaming
policy and to adopt the naming and
renaming policy attached as exhibit a
that was also introduced by Ms Robinson
yeah hello again uh Jim Wilson we are
lucky enough to have Jim Wilson here
today who was instrumental in creating
um kind of as he called it herding cats
but I think it was probably a little bit
more than that organizing and
formalizing the the policy that has kind
of been Loosely in existence for a while
so he's here to kind of share with us
his process and answer any questions we
may have Mr uh Wilson is it new to
Bexley welcome
last time I was here you wanted my
address
yeah so I guess the warrants have been
resolved
um I'm grateful to be before you and I'm
grateful that you all are considering um
this work that came out of a group it
was sort of an ad hoc group that
consisted of representatives from the
tree commission Parks and Rec and the
Bexley foundation and Ellen Andrews
served as our staff support we met a
number of times
um uh to try to come together about a
policy that would work for both the
parks and the pre-commission and for the
city as a a whole
um and we think that the policy that you
have before you we hope accomplishes
that I think the most important thing
about the policy is that it keeps the
ultimate control over decisions as to
naming in the hands of the council so
any recommendations that come through
the process will come to you except for
one exception which I'll come to in a
moment
um what we think is good about the
policy is it provides for orderly input
with both the broad representation of
this sort of ad hoc committee that will
be created that contains representation
from Council the mayor from the
different boards to sort of serve as as
an initial filter as to whether a
particular project is something that we
want to assign a particular name to and
then it goes on to the board or the
commission that has sort of
responsibility for that area in our city
whether it be Parks and Rec or the tree
commission and then if those groups all
recommend it to you you vote on it you
don't have to go through the ordinance
process you can do it in a single vote
we think this process is important not
because we have a huge number of
opportunity for naming in the city of
Bexley but because we have relatively
infrequent opportunities for naming in
the city and so we think it needs to be
done with some care
the one area as I mentioned a moment ago
that's an exception is we have in the
policy
um a uh exception for what are called
minor features have be things like park
benches trees neither parks in a wreck
or the tree commission thinks those are
minor but we had to come up with a name
for them and that allows each of those
boards or commissions to have their own
policy about naming park benches or
naming trees that are donated to the
city things that are sort of the routine
kind of things that wouldn't want to we
wouldn't want to come to council but
otherwise it comes up through the
process
importantly hopefully we'll never use
the provision that allows names to be
revoked for malfeasance but we thought
you know given what we see in the world
that that needed to be necessary and
last but certainly not least there the
there's an appendix to the policy that
sets forth standards for naming so that
anyone that has an interest in naming
something connected with the city sort
of knows what the process is and know
what's what our standards are so we're
grateful that you're considering our
work and as always I'm more than happy
to answer your questions
questions from schools
yes mazad so would this have any effect
on anything that is on school property
this is City Minnesota city property
which is mostly
um this right-of-ways and the parks in
the city the city hall I think is yours
yeah
any other questions for Mr Wilson I
think there might be a just a small
exception to that which not exception
but maybe not with schools but if
there's like for example
we are we have easement over Capital
land
um so if we have if we have a right to
the property
then I think
um it would kick in areas where we have
a license or an easement Pump House Park
we named Pump House Park it's in the
city of Columbus it would probably fall
under this policy I would imagine
because it says I think it's properties
controlled by the city I think that's
how I understand it but um to answer a
little further we had invited the
schools at the beginning of the process
and ask if they wanted to join and they
said they already had a policy and they
didn't want to revisit it so yeah
there's lamp key this will seem like an
odd question but when you talk about
rights away in public areas
could this include like naming rights to
alleys
we never discussed that as a concept
when we were
um
looking at the policy I suppose that if
um if someone really wanted an alley
named after them it could go through the
policy although I think that would be up
to sort of the City attorney as to
whether councils made the alley subject
to this policy or whether it would go
through the sort of same processes
naming the streets I mean I don't think
to the extent anyone wants to rename our
streets that this policy was I don't
think it applies to at least I don't
think it was intended to apply to Ali's
I think you could apply the same
criteria to alleys
um but that's just my opinion at this
point you might have a different City
attorney who disagrees
things
any other questions I'm relieved because
I was we just free named Bexley Park to
Wilson Boulevard oh so is that how it
worked out she was by attacking a large
show up I'm sure
[Laughter]
thank you Mr Wilson this was easier than
the last thing I brought to you oh
okay before you walk away Jim I I just
want to say this has been a labor of
love for you and and uh you've had to
herd some cats in getting this to the
point where in front of council so thank
you for your persistence patience and
good diplomacy throughout yeah exactly
because the mayor and I were two of the
cats I know different points in the
process so I take back what I said
earlier clearly you were hurting cats
uh do we have any uh more uh comments or
questions from up here
comments or questions oh yes just just a
real big thank you Jimmy's always we are
so I was listening to us talk to those
other two volunteers earlier and I'm
just
always Blown Away by the willingness for
people to be a part of our community and
this is what makes Bexley special so
thanks Jim
we worked Jim Wilson especially hard I
think yeah you're not allowed to ever
leave or retire or anything like that so
questions or comments from the audience
uh do we have action on what we are
referring to as the Jim Wilson ordinance
yes I make a motion to accept the Jim
Wilson ordinance otherwise known as
ordinance 422 question to adopt by Ms
Robinson second by Mr Marcelino
Mr McPeak and Mr Marcelino yes Mr
Klingler yes Miss lamke yes Mr Markham
yes Miss feibel yes Mossad
and Miss Robinson yes ordinance passes
thank you
all right we are now on to our third
reading of ordinance 41-22 authorizing
Appropriations for the calendar year
beginning January 1st 2023 to confirm
the appointment of Mark Fishel the City
attorney and to authorize 2022 transfers
to the economic Bond development
retirement fund the Capital Improvements
fund and the infrastructure development
fund of 694 328 500 000 and 500 000
respectfully respectively and
respectfully
um MS lamke
thank you tonight is the third reading
of our budget it's my understanding
tonight we're going to be hearing from
Mike Price regarding Parks and Rec and
also the capital budget from the mayor
it is my anticipation that at the end of
the budget discussion that we will
likely table this budget onto our next
meeting
and with that I'm going to turn it over
to mayors that come to you or tonight I
will uh get started just to introduce
the Third Edition of our budget
I think you'll notice uh B Trip chose
the cover again this time he he
suggested birch trees so then we named
it the Marcelino Berks Edition
I thank you very much and just for the
history that was uh the the lake house
that my godmother had the railings were
all paper birch trees so that was my
Affinity it reminds me of my childhood
so thank you
okay
so for some reason we're having issues
attaching the digital version of this
but you guys
you guys are waiting can I tell you yes
please please do so I will never forget
the day my dad cut down the White Birch
in the front of our house which is my
mom's favorite tree yeah
are they still married they are 50 years
later did he plant a new birch tree he
planted a new tree I some I he was just
cutting down trees and he
is replanting and and the white birch
and yeah I'll just never forget that as
a child that day
well my Birch story is that I read the
Robert Frost poem Birches and I became a
huge thrust fan after that so it was my
it was my Gateway poem and now I can't
pass the burst tree without thinking
about it so in the birth tradition of
our budget uh we have several we have
actually I should say something we have
some changes not a ton of changes and
Beach is going to Pitch hit for me I'm
going to first say that our capital
budget has some tweaks
but sorry the interesting thing is I
didn't know you were going to bring that
up first there's a run back and print
them because while we were working on
that and we'll tell you any other
changes that we had here in a moment
um I do know for example our health
insurance rates are coming in lower than
we had projected so uh we're looking at
like a one or two percent increase
um normally we just flat out budget
seven as we're going in so that's good
news um so that did impact some numbers
throughout uh but betrayal will come up
with other changes there are not some
there are not major programming changes
in here other than uh
the capital budget and some probably
some in Iraq I would imagine that we'll
cover but I don't think anything that we
have covered in the past although
Beecher will jog our memory here in a
moment so I I hesitate to have Mike go
first because
um
he will outshine my presentation of the
capital budget and others but
nonetheless Mike
the floor is yours you just tell me when
you want me to Advance it's perfect on
the screen here thank you mayor good to
see you all uh I'll try to go through
this as quickly as I can there's
obviously a number of pages on this
budget but
um I want to give a quick sort of
overview uh in general and then we can
go through Page by page but hopefully
this will cover a lot of it on the front
end
um just some some Financial trends that
I think it's important just to keep an
eye on terms of Revenue and expenses in
the rec fund
um you've got a five-year period there
six year period a couple years before
coven a couple years during covid and a
couple years sort of on the back end of
covet if you will
um a couple things that uh I I think is
important to take away from this as
you'll see in 2018 and 19 we saw
um net positives for our rec fund uh we
also saw that in 2016 and 17 but uh
historically the expenses of outpaced
Revenue results being in a regular need
for general fund subsidy uh with covid
the covid pandemic especially in 20 and
21 we saw a significant the impact on
the budget really was on the revenue
side so especially in 20 most of our
programming went away a lot of it went
away
um and so we saw a drastic decrease of
60 in Revenue
um 2021 we started to see that number uh
improve and get back to pre-pandemic
numbers but we still were um below
pre-pandemic Revenue numbers in 2019.
what we're seeing in terms of a shift
over the uh 2022 and and we projected to
see that in 2023 is as opposed to it
being a uh a reduction in Revenue impact
we're seeing a much uh higher increase
in expenses our revenue is starting to
uh creep back up to uh actually
surpassing we're expecting it'll surpass
this year that pre-pandemic Revenue
numbers and next year pre-pandemic
Revenue numbers but our expenses have
gone up fairly drastically and that has
has been driven mainly by increases in
in payroll and and seasonal payroll for
the most part
um to give some perspective uh Jeffrey
summer camp in 2018 had a starting pay
of 8.30 uh we're expecting to be 12.50
and 20 823 that should say 2023 by the
way
um uh preschool uh an average wage of 12
15 and 2018 will be an average wage of
1830 and 2023.
um same thing with our pool we've had a
lot of discussion about that 880 in 2018
and and 15 in 2023 so we're looking at
51 anywhere from 50 to 70 percent
increases in our seasonal payroll within
some of our major programs
um and obviously that's driven by you
know what it takes these days in order
to get staff and be able to run those
programs
um so uh
outside of that our cost increases are
are fairly fairly flat in terms of
operational stuff there's some
inflationary costs but it's fairly
normal we are hopeful
um uh we are hopeful we're starting to
see sort of uh uh a stabilization of
costs for staff uh now that we've made
these increases we're hopeful that we're
going to see sort of a year over year
back to maybe a three four percent type
of adjustment as opposed to 10 to 12 but
like time time will tell on that
um some of the impact of you know sort
of what we've seen last couple years
obviously in in an effort to support
families during that time we really
didn't increase the cost of these
programs to the extent that the uh
operational costs were going up so we
had increases in operational costs of 10
to 12 year over year uh we did not
increase the fees for those uh programs
accordingly and a lot of that was sort
of a philosophic dealing with you know
families dealing with coven everything
that was going on with covid we didn't
think at that time it made a lot of
sense to jump those uh programs based on
those fee and uh those cost increases
also uh you know we've had a lot of
discussion about covid relief money
that's helped uh offset a lot of the
expenses that we've or losses that we've
seen uh within our programming and
within a lot of different services
within the city
um
uh but just again to give you some
context in terms of B-side our summer
camp in 2018 was 168 dollars a week very
affordable 2022 was 179 in order to
match that sort of 51 increase in
operational costs we would need to
charge 253 dollars in 2023. uh preschool
similarly 650 in 2018 765 in 2022 we
would have to be as high as 982 dollars
that's for a five-day full program in
2023 uh so you know obviously as needs
you know needs-based programs were
really sensitive to those hikes and and
so we've had a lot of discussion about
how we can
um address uh some of the additional
fees that we need to we need to pass
along but uh feather it out over time as
opposed to hit families all at once and
have them to deal with a you know a 50
increase in in needs-based programming
um
uh again like as we talked about we're
hoping we've seen some stabilization and
Staffing time will tell
um but you know the hope is after 2023
we'll start to see four or five percent
increase as opposed to 12 13 14
increases
um So the plan moving forward in an
effort to support uh I'm sorry thanks to
the large part to the co-relief money
the rec fund balance is strong uh we'll
see that when we go through here and a
lot of that is due to coveted money that
has helped offset some of these losses
um this is going to allow us uh
philosophically strategically to again
feather out those expenses those
increases and program fees uh
recognizing that we'll probably draw
down that Rec fund balance over the
course of a handful of years with the
goal of trying to work back towards a
more flat you know operational versus uh
Revenue
um you know cost versus expenses uh will
hopefully work towards that over the
next three or four years to try to get
closer to and a balanced budget if you
will
um having said that I think we will
continue to have philosophic discussions
about kind of what the future is as it
relates to rec fund transfers uh with
the with the Department
um
I think it's uh I think it's realistic
that you know the idea of of the rec
fund or the rec department covering and
in the last four years in 16 17 18 19 uh
generating more money than they than we
spent is uh is going to be a much
tougher task to complete uh without
thinking very differently about how much
we really need to charge for these
programs so I think we'll continue to
discuss about what is maybe the right
sort of Rec fund transfer and subsidy uh
to the rec fund
um and subsidizing the services of the
rec department uh provides but that'll
be continued discussion over the next
three or four years as we we move
forward
um
some other themes sort of within the
context of this budget
um full-time Staffing level changes this
budget does work to address and the
impact of covet specifically on
full-time staff we've talked a lot about
the increases for seasonal staff that
we've dealt with uh in order to keep the
doors open keep the pool open keep
different uh programs operating
um those are
those efforts did not have anything to
do with a full-time staff it's a
different process
um but the reality is uh the impact of
covid on full-time staff has been fairly
significant
we've considered the following and
trying to address that the direct impact
of the workload and the stress as
daycare staff work to keep operations
open and running during the height of
covid which they did a tremendous job
with doing
um staff retention concerns a lot of the
coveted relief money that we have access
to talks specifically about staff
retention and things that it can be used
for
um significant increase in pay for staff
working under our full-time staff so we
talked about this I think in previous
meetings about the potential for a
trickle up effect when you have a
seasonal staff member who's coming in
the summer and was making nine dollars
now making twelve or fourteen dollars an
hour and their boss is now these their
the director of Camp now needs to be
making 16 to 18 an hour and then their
boss is a full-time employee is making
18 to 19 an hour you're gonna have some
triple trickle up effect
um again we talked about cover relief
money as being uh intended for
supporting this staff specifically uh
when we're talking about the okra and
we'll get into that but the okra money
is is earmarked for that and then
frankly the market the market pay for
similar positions has changed
accordingly
um So within the context of this budget
we have five uh daycare full-time staff
um uh and that is all of the full-time
staff uh that are associated with
daycare the process has been we have two
tier two Rec coordinators that we're
gonna move to tier one uh we have two
tier one Rec coordinators that we're
moving to tier two Rec supervisors and
one tier one Rex supervisor moving to a
recreation superintendent so that is
what we're going to propose and we can
get into that as we go through the
lineup but that's what we're proposing
in terms of changes uh to pay rates for
existing staff and steps for existing
stuff
um and that would be within the context
of the pay scale so where they fall
within the context of the pay scale with
the new title
um this budget also includes an
additional Parks maintenance staff
member
um we have seen obviously an increase in
community events uh that the department
is supporting we've seen an increase in
in programmings we've seen an increase
in facility upkeep adding Schneider Park
expanding Jeffrey Mansion uh Jeffrey
Mansion has gone from roughly about uh 8
000 square feet of facility that we
managed to uh closer to 15 000 square
feet with the addition of the lower
level
um edition of pickleball courts uh
increase in maintenance standards we've
added landscape improvements through
grants we also have the Bloomers
volunteer support group that has been in
in a tremendous asset uh but it's meant
improving the standards of of how we're
keeping the facility uh and keeping the
grounds and so we wanted to be able to
support them as well
um
the other the other thing that you'll
see in terms of
um teams within this is uh support for
significant Investments we've made some
significant Investments within the
department over the last three or four
years specifically talking about uh the
management expansion
um the creation of Schneider Park the
athletic fields there and the
improvements to the athletic fields at
Commonwealth Park
um and so when we talk about these in
these you know significant Investments
millions of dollars of Investments we
need to be more intentional about our
contractual maintenance upkeep of these
facilities
um you know I'm talking with uh uh Ryan
Demay which is our consultant on our
athletic fields he said it's pretty
normal to have a uh two to four percent
um uh maintenance contract uh of your
Capital so if you invest a million
dollars on Capital on a project you
should be looking at two to four percent
additional uh ongoing maintenance to be
able to keep it up at the level you want
so uh we have been looking as it relates
to the Mansion at some cleaning
contracts we got glass uh you know we
got a glass Atrium uh we have different
areas we have more carpet we have uh
different areas of cleaning that we need
to we need to just ongo uh ongoing do a
better job with and and so we look at a
cleaning contract uh we're looking at
ongoing
um uh maintenance to our exterior doors
which we have done more of recently but
we need to extend what we've been doing
with that we have all wood exterior
doors they are out in the elements they
wear very quickly we've got to take them
off get them sanded get them redone uh
we're dealing with that also in the um
in the back room the guard room which
has a lot of exposed wood that that
really the wet the weather the sun uh
does a lot of work does a lot of damage
on it we need to do a better job of an
ongoing maintenance program so we're
trying to include that
um ongoing window repairs we've got all
lead old windows that really need
ongoing repairs uh and so we're trying
to get that on a schedule where we're
doing that and then tuck pointing you
know we did a multi or million and a
half dollar tuck pointing project in
2010 uh but we really haven't done a
good job of
sort of ongoing tuck pointing uh with
the building and as many of you probably
have noticed with the um the stone
retention wall needs some needs some
attention
um and so we we're instituting some
ongoing maintenance contracts to to keep
those facilities up
um same thing you'll see in here on the
athletic fields uh we have put together
uh working with field Source who's done
a tremendousive job on getting if you
haven't been over to Commonwealth field
to take a look they look amazing uh he
helped us uh Ryan helped us through some
issues with Schneider Park and it has
really improved dramatically he put
together a field Turf maintenance
program for us types of things that
you'd see in as chemical application
overseeding aeration ongoing soil
amenities
um and so there's a contract in there
for 42 000 so that we can keep those
fields up we last thing I want to do is
have us spend you know between those
three Fields nearly you know a million
and a half to two million and then have
it fall apart because we're not giving
it the ongoing maintenance that we need
to
um
and then increase budget to support
again as we talked about the Bexley
bloomers and the landscape installations
that we have
with that if it's okay because I think
it might make sense to come back to the
pool as a separate
um mayor if we can sort of start going
through does anyone have any questions
sorry I'm running through quickly is
anyone have any questions about
the themes within the budget
not a question just a um quick
um support piece to the maintenance that
you're talking about in a lot of these
areas I think it's really important that
we're looking at how we uh sustain and
maintain like you're mentioning the
capital Investments that we're making so
I really appreciate you highlighting and
taking through why
um and I like seeing that that we're uh
considering the future and maintaining
what we're putting and now and these big
Investments that we've made so thanks
for all your hard work and breaking this
down to share with everyone those
numbers and with all that looks like
yeah thanks in regards to the financial
Trends since 2018 is that something
that's happening Statewide or Nationwide
is this it just seems you know the
numbers climbing
um if we get to you know
what are you seeing I guess Nationwide
is there well sorry yeah so in terms of
the the financial Trends uh
uh what we saw in 20 and 21 was what
everyone was saying uh with coven
um this is the one thing I would point
out on 22 and 23 that I just want to
make sure uh everyone's aware of those
are projections and don't include
unspent Appropriations which we put a
number in there of about 100 to 130 000
so I expect those to be a little bit
lower but yeah I mean you know in terms
of our discussion with other
municipalities other Rec departments
they're seeing similar impact and uh
obviously uh definitely from the expense
side everyone hiring is is difficult in
every facet obviously uh there's a lot
of tension going to the pool uh but it
wasn't just the pool that was dealing
with that it's our daycare programs our
our Preschool teachers are our summer
camp programs
um so yeah that it's pretty consistent
everyone's sort of dealing with the same
issues and you know we're we're lucky to
have uh some covered relief money that's
helped sort of see us through this time
I think what we really need to focus our
efforts on is when that money's not
there how are we positioning ourselves
and and what do we need to do to to
continue to provide this service at the
level I think we want to and I guess and
that's just the next question is that
the only other way to cut that figure
would just be to have less offerings
correct yeah okay I mean it would be
about reducing offerings yep
so yeah yeah and I've got I've got
questions just around I don't want to
get too far into the weeds but like
Revenue assumptions and then expenses so
I'm not sure I want to kind of respect
how you would plan to present this so
what is it
on the revenue side of things is it
better just to kind of talk high level
now on the revenue and then as you go
through the funds talk through expenses
assumptions okay sure and and just uh
mayor if you don't mind going to the rec
fund summary page which should be I
don't know six or seven on here
yeah
so so again like and again I'll try and
keep it high level and then maybe follow
up questions but when we talk about
Revenue I mean I think there's two
things that drive Revenue it's counter
participants and then the fee structure
sure so you know at high level
um do we assume the same number or
similar counts of participants from this
year to next year or do you expect an
increase good question so it it varies
depending on the program to some extent
yeah
um
um preschool for example uh we have a
really hard cap on our Max of 59 kids
um uh we have generally had a really
pretty extensive wait list in that
program uh so we're making assumption
that that's going to stay at 59 kids now
having said that as you'll see in these
notes and we're going to get to this we
the board approved a 20 increase to
preschool
um and like an account or in terms of
the fee say the fee okay so the it was
uh
stuff I got somewhere 700 and some odd
dollars a month it's going up to 900 uh
for five day full and
um so we're accounting for the idea that
we're gonna have 59. so that so we sort
of look at these as individual programs
in terms of making that termination we
don't go hey we're just going to make
this assumption across the board
um uh when we look at programs like Camp
right when we look at a program where we
do maybe a bigger increase than we've
done before seven percent is the biggest
increase we've ever done in one year on
Camp
um
okay okay so when we look at something
like that we also make some assumptions
uh in a program that that you know has a
quasi-hard you know Max but there's some
room uh for what our Max is uh we we
make some assumptions that while the fee
is going up seven percent you'll
probably see some reduction in
participation too at some level so in
some of those programs we might look at
that and go you know seven percent is
going up but we also feel like we're
gonna probably lose maybe one or two
percent in participation because now it
doesn't make sense for them financially
or they decide to go a different route
um and so we make some we take that into
consideration as we make those
assumptions
um the for example the the uh mansion
and Rental uh facilities were you know
we're sort of seeing a steady climb
um uh as we've sort of coming out of
covert we're seeing more rentals uh we
we saw 2021 81 000 95 000 ish maybe
closer to 100 000 this year so we're
making some assumptions that we're going
to continue to see that climb because we
have room in terms of capacity for the
rentals uh it's not like we've had met
our Max Capacity for rentals so
therefore there's some room for growth
there
um
so it varies I say that to say it sort
of varies uh depending on the program
what we're seeing going on what we're
expecting in terms of an increase in
costs and how we think that that'll play
out yeah how about on the like the rec
programs themselves direct programs one
uh is a is a difficult one so because I
I can't you know I I'm not going to sit
here and say we've decided exactly every
single program that we're going to offer
next year at this point in time yep
um obviously we're constantly talking
about providing more opportunity about
adding more programs within our building
uh in terms of the capacity that it has
to add programs
um so that's a that's a tough one
because it includes hundreds of
different sort of smaller programs
um uh obviously we we look at all those
those are smaller programs where you're
talking about somebody that might spend
50 or 60 dollars on and we might go to
62. or 63 those don't go through the
same process with the rec board in terms
of approvals otherwise we'd be spending
a lot of hours in time
um trying to figure that out so we take
those Case by case what's going on with
each individual program what's going on
in the uh you know if it's dance for
example what are other places of doing
dance what are they charging
um you haven't like at this point time
I'm gonna say hypothetically basketball
um you haven't determined if you're
going to do a rate increase next year
compared to this year
for basketball but we haven't yeah yeah
and we'll take those uh obviously I
think across the board we'll be looking
at increases at some level with most of
these programs unless we determine it
it's it's going to impact the viability
of that program uh and so we just we
look at those Case by case some of
that's driven by hey look we barely have
enough for this program to go and
increase might mean it doesn't go so
this maybe isn't a good time to increase
it so in some cases that's driven by the
instructor right some of those a lot of
the rec programs as you see there are
instructor-based programs uh and so if
the instructor comes back and it's like
look I need to I need to increase the
the dollar amount I get on every
participant by five dollars and then
we're going to pass that along at some
level to the to the user okay so at a
high level like the preschool you have
to determined the rate increased and we
have account for the camps you have
determined the rate increase and using
similar estimates maybe even a decrease
but on the rec programs it's it's
um more malleable as the year goes along
to just assess what the market is and
what what others are doing and then
assessing what the instructors are
requiring okay for sure okay that that
after care is one that uh is going in
front of the board in in December now
that wouldn't impact it until the fall
of next year
um I I you know that uh that's we
haven't quite gotten to the nuts and
bolts of that that could potentially go
up I will say this when I'm doing this
budget process I'm more likely to
underestimate revenue and overestimate
uh expenses because I'd rather Council
see a worst case scenario hopefully with
what's going on
um so you know for example the Mansion
you know we we could probably go back
and forth on some of these and say yeah
if you want to say that that number
could be 120 you know we could probably
make a justification for that but I
would rather again sort of err on the
side of underperforming on the revenue
side so that we're not in a bad
situation because we we missed I'd
rather missed
uh on the low end on that
okay okay yeah that this was what I was
hoping to do
um and just get the high level view on
just participant count and
um intent on on um you know rate
adjustments okay
mayor if you don't mind going to seniors
any other questions
yeah
Mike I know I've told you before but I
think that our Parks and Rec Department
provides such a great service to our
working parents in Bexley
um you do that not only through summer
camp but through
um preschool as well and I certainly
appreciate that one of the things I
would love to know and I you may not
know the answer I don't know if anyone
here would know the answer is with more
parents working from home
um
you know sometimes the need for for
child care preschool or even Pre-K may
change I know that a while ago I think
Green Meadows Schoolhouse was setting up
and I don't think that they're open yet
but have there been any projections by
your department on what kind of need you
think you're going to have in 2023 from
working parents
so
you know the before and after care in
Camp would I think at least going into
2022 gives some pretty good indication
that uh the demand has come back uh
pretty strong in both of those programs
um you know in terms of from a revenue
side you know we're looking at going
from 351 000 in Camp in 2021 that's an
actual to a uh projected 509 000 Without
Really it wasn't based on a significant
increase in the costs of the program
that was really driven by participation
um and we saw the same thing we're
seeing the same thing before and after
care with 316 to 445. I do think there
is there has been some shift in terms of
how daycare is being used because of
working parents now working from home
um but on the flip side I think what we
have definitely seen and we've talked a
little bit about this especially in the
before and after care is
um
uh uh and I'm gonna I'm gonna make some
educated guesses as to why I think this
is happening so I I don't have this this
isn't based on any other data other than
what we're seeing happening in the
daycare and the before and after care is
uh you know we've seen cost of House
cost of housing in in our community go
up pretty dramatically even over the
last four years
um and what we have noticed uh is in for
example our daycare our before and after
care at cassingham the numbers have
jumped to where it's now I think the
biggest of the three schools in terms of
the need in terms of the number of
students that use our before and
Aftercare when we first started we'd
have 10 15 kids coming from casket and
we saw that grow we bought buses so we
could help transport them
um they now are up to 70 kids coming
from before and after care in uh in
cascia to me that's somewhat an
indication of a lot more dual houses in
cassium uh dual income houses because
the cost to live in the houses or or is
has gone up and
um so we're seeing it's it's interesting
we're seeing some of that sort of I'm
working from home so I don't need the
daycare but we're also seeing more you
know both parents are working and they
need more support because of other
Financial constraints that they're
dealing with
feels like a lot of uh the things we're
talking about here you know as as uh the
landscape shifts a little bit too uh our
um Trends and we're talking about sort
of philosophy and and and uh
it feels to me like a discussion that
also we probably want to continue and
extend into our strategic session and
the spring with Council in terms of like
you know a lot of these things we're
looking at are sort of big picture uh
philosophy on how you know how this
should be run what budget wise we should
be you know how we want to see that uh
so I would just maybe put that on
all right mayor if you don't mind going
back to uh seniors
um nothing you know nothing major on
this obvious you know Staffing level
changes
um professionals reduction uh is if you
went line by line I'll just kind of
highlight the ones that I think might be
of interest because of significant
changes
um uh professionals we had a reduction
from 60 000 last year we obviously are
not gonna use anywhere near that down to
30. uh if you you may remember last year
was the first year we took on all of the
uh finances associated with Senior
Services Under the city they were down
through the VAC before that and so we
made some estimates uh on the amount of
events or trips that they would be going
on how much money we would need to spend
because what would happen before is that
was covered through BAC in terms of
upfront and then participants paid for
it and that money went back to the BAC
accounts uh so we made some estimates
um we we have not needed that amount so
we're going to reduce it uh part of that
is also because
um we've done more programming at the
senior center which means a few less
trips than we maybe would have done
before uh and so
um we're trying to adjust accordingly
into what we're seeing
um
senior due diligence that was uh twenty
thousand dollars we did not spend we
only we've only spent I think about 5
000 of that we would like to
reappropriate the other we're not going
to appropriate the other 15 but the
other 10 because there's still some some
cost associated with that facility that
will be ongoing that we want to look at
some additional improvements so we were
asking to uh not if not as I view it
it's not 10 000 new because I don't
expect to use that that 20 000 but to
have some of that money still available
for us for next year
um any questions on Senior Center or
senior stuff
all right Mansion you'll see some of the
stuff we've talked about so I'll try not
to you know be redundant
um the biggest things you'll see in here
uh are associated with the contracts
you'll see contracts has increased uh
dramatically and again that's dealing
with a lot of contracts associated with
upkeep of the mansion and the um in the
retaining wall
um and so uh uh whether it's the tuck
pointing whether it's
um a cleaning service
um uh whether it's window work
um that's built into into the contract
side of the Mansion
um
a repair and maintenance uh we are
seeing you know we're going to have to
continue to have discussion about our
HVAC system and we're having a lot of
failures on a system that's starting to
get a little bit older we have and I and
I appreciate help uh with from Matt
Klingler who's who has lived in that uh
lives in that field uh we have had a
third party come in uh to do an audit
assessment of our uh our systems
um we are we currently work with a
company to upkeep it but we want to have
a third party come in and take a look at
it fresh eyes on what's going on with
this system we should be getting a
report back uh in the next couple of
weeks that'll give us an idea of whether
we need some wholesale uh changes to the
similar weather we're talking about uh
you know sort of muddling along and
fixing units from time to time as they
go down but
um we are experienced experiencing more
complete failures of some of the units
in our building that need to be replaced
and they're anywhere from five to seven
seven thousand dollars a piece so uh
that's something that we need to keep an
eye on any questions on that
on the contract side of it how much is
it tied to just we'll say having a new
facility
um and expenses that were likely
contemplated when the improvements were
made versus
I'll say like deferred maintenance or
yeah because I mean it's a pretty it's
just a big big increase and
um you know I'm assuming some of this
was contemplated when we made the
improvements but if you could help paint
a picture around that that'd be helpful
yeah I think it's a great question some
of this was contemplated I think I think
what it did was also brought to light uh
eras in which we were falling short
um uh in areas that if we hadn't done
this
um because we got into the nuts and
bolts of the building through this
process that were like wait a second uh
these are some areas that we need to
spend more time on that had nothing to
do with the expansion uh tuck pointing
be a big being a big part of that an
ongoing effort to tuck point the
building
um and think about it being you know a
percentage of the building every year as
opposed to going well we're going to
wait till it really gets bad and doing
the whole thing at once
um uh so so what I would say about that
is a lot of the the difference is more
about uh the difference uh some of it is
is some cleaning stuff
um uh uh that is associated with the new
space but we did increase that contracts
number over the last couple years uh
recognizing that some of that is
associated with upkeep of an of a new
space the the bigger the difference
between this year and net and and next
year is more about really uh assessing
the areas in general that we need to do
a better job of of maintaining within
the facility does that make sense that
answers the question yeah yeah I think
it's just painting that picture and then
the the other thing that I I just I'm
always mindful of would be the count of
volunteer hours that we have and I'm I
think about the Bloomers the the Boomer
and all that and I think that's
something that
um you know I know I I think we talked
about trying to
um quantify those hours and frankly
monetize it because I think
um
the reality is that's part of your
budget I mean it is just all of those
volunteer hours that that are supporting
that so I would be interested in
understanding
you know what and I'm not sure it's you
know relative to here but when we talk
about maintenance and all the work that
that group does um to beautify and
maintain that
I'm just interested in understanding
you know put a cost to that because that
is a pretty significant I'm sure it's a
a significant expense did Mary I think
she said last was it 700 hours
yeah I mean that was Bloomer specific it
wasn't all the different volunteers I
guess that's what I'm like I like the
whole the big picture of all the
volunteer hours because I think you your
your group benefits tremendously from it
and I think it's important that the
community understands just how important
it is to for your your um your area that
the the that we have a a significant
number of hours to to augment
um these costs or or you know frankly
the operating losses that we're looking
at would be much worse yeah um so I
think that's important to
um call out
now just a reminder I mean for Council
the obviously the mansion and the parks
are not part of when we talk about the
operational losses if you will uh in the
rec fund those are not part of the wreck
fund just a reminder uh to council
um but but to your point our volunteer
coaches would be a great example of
volunteers that are associated with Rec
fund uh cost items yeah
any other questions on the mansion all
right uh Parks
um
this is where the position that we
talked about in additional position
within our Park staff
um so that's one of the the changes that
you'll see from a salary and wages
perspective
um Parks planning uh I'm sorry contracts
uh the contract I talked about with um
Athletic Field uh upkeep is why you see
a big jump
um in the athletic fields from four
thousand forty forty nine thousand
um uh there's also some irrigation
maintenance that we have to do with the
addition of the irrigation systems
um
the park planning this is uh something
that we put in as a
uh in an effort to put some master
planning uh uh programming together
within the the parks which we frankly
didn't get to this year I'm still
hopeful that we'll get to it uh early
next year uh but I don't think we need
80 000. we haven't if you can see we
haven't spent any of that money don't
have any intention it's depending on
that money but I would ask that we have
uh some of that money reappropriated in
2023
um as we hopefully we'll sort of dive
into that effort
um
uh the other thing uh you'll see is is
some of the athletic field costs have
come down because obviously we're doing
some Turf maintenance the last couple
years so that that's been moved into the
athletic field contract the landscape
you'll see has gone up
um uh to some extent to Matt's Point
um obviously with the the volunteers uh
the Bloomers there's uh a lot more uh
staff getting work done a lot more
volunteers getting work done
um and we need to be able to support
them with supplies that they might need
in order to uh do the work that they're
doing uh and so we've we've asked for an
increase in there uh obviously I think
uh again to Matt's point that increases
uh a small amount relative to the amount
of the value of the volunteer hours that
we're getting as a result of it any
questions on on Park expenses
all right Rec fund uh we'll come back to
here and just sort of this is uh high
level view
um of the record when we've talked sort
of on the expense side
uh I mean on the revenue side you'll see
the total expenses uh as we talked about
is really where we're seeing the hit uh
of going from uh 1.9 uh in 2022 to 2.2
in 2023.
um and a lot of that is is frankly just
driven by salary wages
um and the vast majority of that is
driven by the seasonal uh increases that
we we're seeing
um
uh I will also say in both those you
know you'll see lower down that you know
those are the budgeted amounts we'll
probably have some uh unspent
Appropriations as we do every year in
those accounts so if you compare them to
you know actuals in previous years those
are actuals that already have taken into
consideration the unspent Appropriations
so keep that in mind
um
so what we're we're projecting is
somewhere in the neighborhood of a two
hundred thousand dollar loss this year
um again I expect that to go down
because of unspent Appropriations will
know more you know when the budget books
close for the year
um uh next year we're projecting uh
a 376 thousand dollar
um shortfall in in costs associated with
operations uh again I expect that to go
down with unspent Appropriations but um
you know we'll see how that plays out
mayor if you don't mind scrolling down
on that page I do want to highlight
you'll see
um uh some additional coveted relief
money that's come through uh okra
um and gosh I should have I'm drawing a
blank right now Ohio
a Child Care Resource something
Association
um so that's that's who is administering
coveted money that's going specifically
to daycare programming so we have uh
uh we have deposited I think 575 and
maybe depositing about another 100 000
before the end of the year so that
number probably will actually go up
um
just to talk a little bit about that
program uh you know with uh the way that
was structured was really like hey
you're a licensed day care facility and
this money is available and based on the
number of kids you have this is how much
you can request in terms of uh Grant
support through okra uh and we'll figure
everything else out later right so
um so we received the Maxes we could
through the they've had three different
uh rounds
um there's some talk to they're maybe
around a fourth round in uh 2023 but
that hasn't been confirmed
um so I say that to say you also will
see in 2023 a 200 000 okra expense side
uh because there is the potential uh
based on how we have to use that money
and limitations on how we can use that
money that they send us a check and then
there's auditing that happens afterwards
that we might have to say hey some of
this we couldn't use in accordance with
the rules and regulations of this grant
program and so we have to give some of
that back I think 200 000 is extremely
high to what I expect would happen but I
would rather have that in place and
understand what that potential impact is
in a worst case scenario
um but the reality is that that you know
as we talk about sort of what's going on
with our rec fund that bolsters our rec
fund pretty dramatically which allows us
to feather out these expenses or these
uh additional you know I'll say losses
um over multiple years instead of saying
hey we really got to recoup all this
money in 2023 by increasing these
programs dramatically hoping people
still sign up right because you have to
take that in consideration if you
increase Camp to 250 dollars a a week
you're going to also have a reduction in
participation and what does that do to
your overall budget
um but again that it positions us to
think about this over a a multi-year
sort of approach which is I think really
helpful
um
any sort of General in questions about
the rec fund summary page
got just some like high level questions
so if I think about expenses they're
typically driven by wage increases and
new head counts so if I if I heard
this like as you walk through it I think
we just really have one new head count
that's
being added to the organization here is
that
when you say one new ad count well it
was that setting is actually that's is
that sitting in the Parks
um oh stop member yeah that's in the
Parks okay so that's not part of this so
there's no new head count correct um we
have adjustments to uh titles so so we
have five I think five total
re-levelings
um of positions and then the reality is
the bulk of it is just those wage
adjustments and the impact of inflation
yeah okay and and the impact of
inflation is for us in terms of how it
hits us our budget is is the vast
majority isn't salary wages for the
staff yeah so I get the the other kind
of questions I have just do how much
overtime are we paying in
this in in this fund now do you know
like how many dollars yeah almost zero
okay so it really is zero okay and then
um there's a lot of exemptions to over
time for specifics staff based on their
titles within this one okay okay
and then um
for salaried people and I I I like
seeing the parks person that you've
added just because I'm aware of just the
addition of programs that are coming out
and need for more support to help
um
carry that across the salaried folks but
I guess do you track
um
I don't even know the right way to ask
this question but for the salaried folks
that are working above 40 hours a week
or can they do that or do you give that
when these events occur I think you give
them time off during the week to
compensate for that is that accurate
yeah it's yeah it's a good question so
uh the parks staff they they would get
overtime they're not exempt from
overtime Union stuff yep okay uh in
terms of the rec fund so we have a
couple ways to help support staff so
that they don't work you know you know
50 hours in a week and
sorry about your luck kind of
inappropriate
um they can Flex their times so the
first approach is try to flex your time
when we have these discussions all right
if you've got a busy week and it's
within the pay period the following week
is within the same pay period if you can
take a day off here or there or come in
later uh to try to to balance that 80
hours over the two weeks that's the
first approach if they can't it's a busy
week or they have something come up at
the end of a pay period and so they
their hours go above
um then they can comp that they can Bank
comp time and they can carry I think
it's 40 hours of comp time at a given
time and so then if they decide you know
a week later or a month later that they
can take a couple days off they can use
their comp time not have to use their
their PTO so that's generally how we we
try to deal with in some cases they work
overtime and don't get compensated for
it and it gets lost
um but those are some mechanisms that we
put in place to help try to support them
and give them the flexibility okay okay
thanks
all right wreck admin
um again there's not there's not really
there's no changes in number of Staff
some of our daycare staff have some uh
admin functions and so a percentage of
their their pay is in there so when they
have that increase you'll you'll see
that hit there a little bit
um
otherwise uh you know the only other
thing is is Staff training and
development we want to get back to our
opra conference which we haven't gone
the last couple years uh we think that's
important uh edu from an education
perspective and frankly from a morale
perspective and uh Team Building
perspective as well so that's a that's
an event that happens in in February so
that's the increase there otherwise it's
fairly fairly flat any questions on Rec
admin
all right Rec programs same thing we
don't have a lot of Staff full-time
staff associated with the rec programs
um and so that number is is uh you know
frankly uh we haven't we haven't really
pushed the envelope on that number so
there's no reason to make any increase
there
um in terms of some some changes you
might you might see uniforms there's an
increase there because next year we're
going to do two sets of uniforms for
basketball in the calendar year because
the program is going to start next year
earlier and they want to purchase
uniforms earlier next year so we're
going to have it's a cash flow sort of
uh expense issue
um which will level out the year after
you all see in professionals a large
increase
um that 215 000 is I don't believe
reflects the twenty five thousand dollar
additional appropriation that was part
of ordinance 3922 so in actuality a lot
this year we'll be at about 240 000 for
uh professionals
um so that allows for the increase
allows for the potential for increase in
the costs of some of those programs uh
it also gives us some flexibility to
look at adding programs uh the
professionals just a reminder for for
Council you know we've got a lot of
different programs to structure a lot of
different ways basketball is is driven
by volunteers and driven by seasonal
staff uh professionals program is would
be like a coach Chris in which we have
one individual instructor who has got a
skill set that they're teaching
um and generally those contracts are
what we call 75-25 where the instructor
gets 75 percent of those fees the 25
coming back to the rec department uh and
so when that number goes up it's usually
a really clean uh um Fair statement to
say that that's that coincides with the
direct increase in our revenue and and
it's completely offset by the revenue
um so whatever it's worth as that number
goes up it's it's helpful because it's
usually your Revenue increase as well
um any questions on Rec programs
referees is another area where there's a
shortage for anyone that has kids in
sports you probably hear about that so
cost for referees has gone up pretty
dramatically over the over the course
last year yeah Sam just because you
highlighted I do have a question about
the Jersey so that's just two jerseys
just because we have two seasons correct
no so
we're in there we're starting basketball
right now uh they're gonna buy jerseys
in that that cost will hit us in January
and next year's budget yeah
but going into the following year they
want to start the season a little bit
early and buy jerseys for next season
also in 23 at the end of the year okay
we have two two years of purchase in
that year does that make sense no it
does and that's not a cost that can be
pushed back
well because we want to start earlier we
need to have the jerseys earlier in
which case we have to buy them in 23.
okay that's this I see thank you
all right
um
foreign
preschool
um again we've talked about the increase
in the selling wages
um that we've seen and we'll continue to
see we had an ordinance uh again 3922
that also uh approached appropriate
additional 30 000 which I don't think is
within that revised 2022 budget
um we're projecting an 11 increase uh
for Staffing costs in
2023. so
um that reflects those increases
um other expenditures there they've
increased some that uh some of the other
expenditures a little bit and we're
going to use some of that okra money to
help offset those costs uh buying some
different pieces of equipment uh for
preschool any questions on that
yes not
is the health insurance a typo it's down
65.8 percent on personal services
but your salary and wages is up
they're not necessarily connected
specifically
um because it depends on who actually
takes advantage of the health insurance
within our our thing our that is correct
but it's a good question yeah that's a
whole that's a drastic
that looks like a typo because of our
year to date I think we should uh
possibly
we'll check it out
yeah that's going to be there's
something wrong with yourself we'll know
everyone just concatenate
any other questions on preschool it's a
good one
it's a real good all right before and
after care
um
um we're going to see an increase there
with staff as well again kova relief
money will help offset some of that uh
otherwise
um the uh other expenditures is going to
be uh pretty flat we don't have
um
dollar amount expenses are not it's only
about three percent so it's sort of
inflationary costs are there questions
on before and after care
that amount should have been eleven
thousand two twenty
a little cell formula problem
Jeffrey Camp mayor if you don't mind
sliding down a couple I think
um again same thing
um we're going to see an increase in in
seasonal staff pay rates
um otherwise the you know the additional
expenditures the other expenditures we
expect to be fairly flat we've
eliminated refunds as an item because
99.9 of people are now paying with
credit cards so we do refunds through
the credit card system and so we don't
really need to be able to write a check
back to somebody so
um and if if we have an incident that
comes up we'll just we'll take care of
it out of operating
questions on Camp
yes like Mike remind me a couple years
ago there used to be maybe like a maybe
a week at the beginning or maybe a week
at the end of camp where we didn't offer
camp or something like that do we now
off for Camp
um steadily from the time school gets
out to the time school starts so I think
what you're referring to is
um so generally Yes except school
doesn't usually start at the beginning
of the week it usually starts sort of
midweek and so there's sort of a couple
days usually where uh or or it ends so
in in June it might end on a Wednesday
in which case we don't really have camp
on Thursday and Friday then we start
that following week once it's a full
week and we'll run it all the way
through the last full week of Summer uh
recognizing school starts on has been
recently starting on a Thursday or
Wednesday so there's a couple days on
both ends uh that we don't have camp but
the otherwise it's covering the entire
summer okay thanks
all right any questions on that all
right the pool
um because I know there's been a lot of
discussion on that I I want to sort of
uh address that separately
um
uh Pool Management plan for 2023 I know
it's been a a hot button topic and we've
had a we've spent a lot of time
assessing that evaluating that talking
about that and I appreciate that you
know I've had a lot of great
conversations with councilman so I
appreciate the interest and I appreciate
the
um the communication on it um we did an
extensive evaluation which looked at a
lot of data points
um included but not limited uh multiple
years of Patron uh surveys and staff
surveys budget analysis meeting with
fellow Rec professionals and reviewing
other community pool models we did
recommend to the board at the last board
meeting to move forward with the third
year with swimsafe uh which was uh
unanimously approved by the board
obviously it's contingent upon council's
approval of the budget
um so the rec board did approve moving
forward with swimsafe I want to talk a
little bit about that process
um some general findings as we went
through the analysis from a cost
perspective from a budget perspective
um it's sort of a wash we didn't
analysis on what it would take us to
take the pool on and from a cost
perspective
it was very uh pretty much the same you
know it was within five thousand dollars
I think
um uh yeah our in-house was 430 000
estimate and uh swim safe would be 426
000 estimate so uh that was one of the
first things we looked at frankly based
on that this decision really wasn't
driven by the finances because it
doesn't really impact us either
Direction all that much
um
uh you know while it was clear as we
evaluated that swim safe
um uh their their uh culture they
developed with their staff in 2021 2021
was our first year with swimsafe uh did
not that their culture with their staff
didn't meet our standards I think that
um exacerbated our staffing issues in
2022 because we had really low retention
rate from 2021 to 2022. uh and we
conveyed that to swim State going into
2022 and made some very uh strong
recommendations about changes that they
need to make culturally in terms of
their management and style uh and they
did make those changes
um the survey with staff in 2022 was
fairly strong fairly positive so it
seemed to have while we recognized uh
that there were some really legitimate
concerns in 2021 the adjustments seemed
to be better in 2022 we're expecting
coming out of 2022 uh based on the
survey somewhere between 60 and 70
retention rate which would be uh really
really good
um for the pool program we had about
20 percent that said they weren't coming
back and the feedback on that was pretty
consistently uh you know I'm I'm
focusing on other things or I'm going
off to college or just sort of the
run-of-the-mill reasons why people don't
come back to a seasonal position uh and
we're not necessarily driven by not
being happy with the work or not being
happy with the people they're working
with or for
um so that was an improvement they made
but it's an area that we want to
continue to focus on with them
um
uh we also look at the patron survey and
uh we could not get a hold of our most
recent Patron survey we went back to a
2017 Patron survey and frankly while
they're not Apples to Apples comparisons
in terms of how the surveys were set up
and the questions that were asked in the
scoring system
um uh they were essentially almost
identical in terms of the responses in
terms of areas of improvement that we
needed when we were running it versus
when swimsafe was running it in terms of
uh the scores
um uh in areas that we did well
um uh so as we take that data point the
takeaway there was you know while we
have things that we always want to
improve on and why the things that
swimsafe was doing that we want them to
improve on the the feedback from the
community was pretty consistent whether
we were running the pool or whether
swimsafe was running the pool
um
uh
uh the other piece of that is is frankly
looking at um
you know what environment swim safe was
managing the pool over the last two
years uh year one they were in the midst
of obviously we didn't run the pool in
2020 at all 2021 we ran it in the middle
of you know the pandemic uh with a
completely altered sort of structure to
the pool we had a limit on the number of
people that could be their pool was
closed during the camp time when they
were there so there was a lot of sort of
uh adjustments that were made and
frankly uh you know we're having staff
that's working in the height of a
pandemic and concerned about their own
safety and things that they have going
on in stress levels that they have to
deal with in year two 2022 uh it was in
the middle of a national uh lifeguard
shortage which obviously drastically
impacted their operations so one of the
discussions that we had with board and
board members was our ability to feel
like we were able to get an honest and
fair evaluation of their ability to do
the work given uh some of the outside
uncontrollable factors that were
impacting their operation and so
um one of the takeaways too as we made
the decision was
you know 2023 hopefully can be a year
where we can get a really honest fair
assessment of their ability to do this
and manage our pool facility and be able
to walk away going whatever that
determination is whatever that decision
is that we feel like uh it's based on
the merits of their abilities and their
abilities only and not so much impacted
by the environmental exterior factors
that are impacting their ability to
operate
um so for those reasons
um we we decided to move forward with
the recommendation to use swimsafe in in
year three
um does anyone have questions about that
process or kind of
decision making on that
all right
um membership fees so this is the other
piece that we had a lot of discussion on
and I'm going to have the mayor jump in
here in a little bit but
um
we had discussion at the last rack board
meeting about membership fees
um you know understanding that the cost
of running the pool has gone up pretty
dramatically uh with with salaries with
pay going from whatever nine dollars
nine dollars and fifty cents an hour and
uh 2022 to uh at least going into 22 22.
what ended up being at 14 but to go into
fifteen dollars uh for 2023
um cost has gone up dramatically uh the
history on the pool we build a new pool
in 2007 uh we saw you know net positive
and operational Revenue against expenses
um for the first
or five six years but you sort of saw it
Peak after year two or three and sort of
slowly decline where it was maybe 70 80
000 at its peak and then became sixty
thousand and fifty thousand forty
thousand so on which is a fairly typical
curve
um when you're talking about new pool
facilities
um
uh last couple years before covid we
were basically breaking even on the pool
operation
um obviously we're not projecting to be
able to do that moving forward
um now the question then becomes how
much of that do we want to pass along uh
to our members and how much of that do
we think is right to think about subsidy
um from general fund dollars we also
analyzed uh a number of other pool
Municipal pools and one of the things
that was was very clear was that we were
one of the top two highest pool
memberships within the community within
a Greater Columbus area in terms of
costs
um so our membership is relative to
other communities it's fairly High I
think uh Gahanna was the only one that
was higher in some areas depending on
it's not you know family of five or
family of four and so on
um in some areas we were significantly
higher than other municipalities uh
we've had conversations with leaders in
other communities about you know how
what is their philosophic approach to
their pool management are they expecting
to uh you know you know recoup dollar
for dollar their expenditures
um are they going into it with the idea
that there's going to be a subsidy a
good example would be Grand View and
having conversations with them they
built a pool recently fairly recently
they build a new pool
um their philosophy is that they have
not charged it at a rate with a goal of
covering all of their expenses and
generally that's what we're seeing uh
across the board is that that's not an
expectation that pool facilities are
making uh and so then the question
becomes to what level do we want to
subsidize
um you know we're already seeing
obviously know we're going to be dealing
with a subsidy based on the fact that
you know we're seeing such huge increase
is the question is do we want to
increase our pool membership or do we
want to think differently about the pool
and think about it strictly from a
service understanding that we want to
recoup some of the expenses but we want
to subsidize that at maybe a higher rate
uh and the mayor and I had some
conversations with the board about it at
the last board meeting the board
ultimately
um and I'll let the mayor jump in here
the board ultimately gave some
flexibility in what they approved they
approved anywhere from
current rates of 2022 carrying those
into 2023 so no increase but have the
same exact rates in 2022. to a
completely different sort of approach
which is a maybe a more subsidized
approach and thinking about a per person
membership structure of uh as low as
fifty dollars per member
um
so with that mayor hopefully I've set
the stage a little bit you can talk
about your sort of the concept and what
you're thinking yeah and I it's more of
just like a discussion
um so do you and do you have Natalie's
pool survey here with you would you have
enough copies for Council or
I think it might be helpful
so while we're making copies I think
just the general concept is that um as
we've looked at at ways to like make
city services and City programming
affordable to a greater segment of the
community Mike and I had been talking
about having a different rate structure
for the pool that was a lower flat rate
per individual as opposed to our current
tiered system which has to do with the
size of your family and the larger your
family gets the cheaper per person it is
and so it really it favors larger
families which is great it's good if
you're a large family get that bulk
discount but it makes it harder for
um you know the the single mom of one or
two kids to afford it and we think about
like just in general like affordability
and we fall I think you said already
kind of higher end in terms of cost of
our pool we are already
um to a degree offset in the cost of our
community pool and that's not at all
unusual among other cities uh an extreme
example of that is the city of Columbus
where it's free for anyone to use their
pools so they're fully subsidizing their
pools and then every other community to
some degree or another
there's no way to do this business
without offset into degree so the
question is like what is what is the
degree that we should do it at
um so we looked at some some models and
we kind of threw out the idea of like
what if
uh pool membership was 25 per individual
for the season and for some reason that
number just kind of felt like it would
make it much more accessible to some of
our residents who have a difficult time
affording that season pass the record
discussed I think they were concerned
about the idea that at that lower rate
we would have such a potential influx in
membership but we might dilute the
quality of the pool experience and it
might be harder for us to manage the
pool and so I think they've they
approved uh fifty dollars per person as
low as
um which is uh you know ranges anywhere
from kind of comparable I think for
larger families comparing if I'm wrong
to a a good a good discount for smaller
families
I do let's we'll pass it around a second
one more thing I want to say is and I
don't mean to
um
I mean if this is something the council
feels strongly about I know that it's
something that we can continue
to discuss I don't think the rec board
meets in December or do they meet in
December you know okay so they do meet
in December and ultimately frankly
Council sets
ultimately Council controls what goes on
in terms of rate structures at the pool
so I just wanted you guys to think about
what would uh be a uh is there any
appetite at all for that concept
um I I do understand the records
discussion about like a take it slow
attitude
um
and certainly not a rush to just over
subsidize things but when I look at the
programming that we provide to the
community and what builds community and
that was kind of the Genesis of this
conversation was what builds community
in Bexley and where are we leaving
people out of that experience and just
incidentally from talking to different
residents and also looking at
you know the number of scholarships that
we get versus the number of families
that we know that are in need we are
absolutely leaving families out of this
equation I know that we are
um so just something I I wanted us to
talk about if you look at this uh this
analysis
and it's just formatted a little bit
differently from what I had seen before
but um well this is just the one you're
looking at is just the membership
comparisons there yeah
um and it's resident and non-resident
yep
um is the the difference so you'll see
for example a family of five for
Backseat 327 for a resident compared
again at 350 Grandview at 290. he'll
read at 210 30 grand 275 190 for
Westerville
um almost across the board you'll see us
higher than everyone except Gahanna in
terms of where our membership rates are
currently
yeah
so this isn't really coming in terms of
a concrete proposal more of a discussion
whereas I think we should be or are you
guys comfortable with this
do you want us to look at alternate
models
and can you just can you go over what
what are you proposing you're proposing
a flat rate of 50 per person with no
discount through the family so a family
of three would be 150 is uh what do you
I was proposing a flat rate of 25 per
individual okay uh the rec board felt
that that was
um
open this up to the risk of having too
many uh memberships I think we've done
some forecasting we felt it was
manageable we did feel that there would
be a difference in terms of the way that
the pool felt During certain times
I don't want to put words in Mike's
mouth no I mean I think I I think the
rec board brought up which I I would
Echo to some extent that we need to be a
little careful in terms of if you know
I made projections we can make
projections we really don't we'll be
honest we try to make as good a
projection as we can but we're talking
about a significant decrease in the
membership fee and so how that impacts
our number of members is sort of tough
our initial uh projection was at least
25 increase in memberships that sort of
level I think is probably very
manageable the problem is if we don't
know if that ends up becoming 50 or 60
or 70
and uh you know there was some concern
from the board that how would we be able
to handle that influx of additional
members in terms of safety in terms of
operational stuff and so I think their
perspective was I think they were open
to working towards that but they felt
like maybe stop started starting with
going to 50 which would be a fairly
significant uh reduction in cost see how
that lands and then maybe continue to
review that in subsequent years was I
think generally their perspective on low
yep definitely and so if if we went to
50 we would be a little you know we'd be
above generally a
below Hilliard and Westerville at the
lower levels but as you get larger we'd
be slightly above Hilliard Westerville
um at least in line so it you know it's
not like we're totally out of whack with
other communities
um the cost of us to go to 50 is
the cost starts to go to 50 would be an
additional about 25 000 loss okay so
you're going a little faster way there
sure when you when you say
that comparison you just made you're
talking about when you get to a family
of three and four then we start to draw
even with those municipalities as
so at a family of three four or five
yeah so two two like who that's was the
prototypical family of two parents at
least one child we are uh a little we
would be a little higher than Hilliard
or Westerville at 50 per fat
but when you are in the smaller smaller
family a little family one or two
um we would be uh lower than them
I guess I'm not that doesn't my math
doesn't
come up the same as your mat if a family
of three that would be 150 we'd still be
below Hilliard in Westerville right
uh it's three yeah four I was looking at
the four or five band and above yeah so
we start to get to the
we start to get to the uh
The Tipping Point at maybe four
or some of these then right because we
would be at 200
that's that's just that's just one
comparison so it's just looking at two
different cities no I'm just trying to
follow your what you're saying what I'm
saying is it doesn't and you're right
okay maybe I'm not going to get this
clear enough it'll it's not like it puts
us at the the cheap quote-unquote
cheapest suburb in a family of four or
five or more
I didn't make that point very much very
well I guess I think you were making it
I just wasn't it didn't I wasn't sure
what you were saying honestly uh what we
want what I would like to have in this
conversation is in in general as we go
as we know that I think we projected
something like uh 25 000 loss it just
like Mike said that's what's getting
passed around if we went down to 25 it's
it's uh
more in the ballpark of a hundred
thousand traditional just be clear when
we use that now it's additional yep from
what we're looking at now is there
appetite to look at price adjustment
with this philosophy or is is there not
but yeah
I don't raise my hand sorry
those who raise their hand please go
first
I guess my mind so that I can understand
this a little bit better I'm wondering
like if you guys
I'm wondering if the pool and I'm
guessing it yes has a capacity it does
okay and and I I'm guessing that you had
a conversation with the board about
what happens when you're at capacity and
do you have to turn people away and I
guess we would have to weigh the pros
and cons I am
I am convinced that this is one of the
best services in the the rec department
is is an essential service to our
community and I also remember as a child
that school days were my favorite
absolute favorite and I lived for them
and I do believe our world's community
and a special way but I guess my concern
is that if we
and yes I would love it to make it so
that everybody could go to the floor I
would love for it to be
free for everyone but my also my concern
is the disappointment in people when
they get turned away because you're at
capacity and that being happened to be
really strictly followed and how would
we handle that and what I just that that
I guess my mind is more of a question
how do we handle that so the legal
capacity buyer code capacity if you will
uh is way higher than we will ever have
to deal with I think it's 2 000 plus
okay
um and so what we what we've seen is you
know when we went through coven and we
put a um when we put a Max I think we I
think it was around 400 is what the max
was at any given time during 2021 uh I
don't think we at any point even met
that Max in that year obviously people
were less likely to go out to the pool
um the perceived capacity is closer to
that four to five hundred where you feel
like you know while we legally can have
more people in there it starts to feel
like uh is this the right way to operate
the pool
um and so then the question is how often
do we think we would hit that uh you
know if we're talking about a 25
increase in membership in the number of
members people that buy membership
um I don't think it's gonna sort of have
a drastic impact on it the concern is
we're not exactly sure what a 25
membership fee structure would do I I do
think uh to the mayor's Point as we
think about who we're serving with the
pool we have very few middle schoolers
and high schoolers and oftentimes it's
like it just doesn't make sense to buy a
hundred dollar individual membership for
them
um and their families are maybe older so
they don't have a lot of younger
siblings so the whole family doesn't buy
a membership they're thinking about it
in terms of an individual and I think
that's a in terms of service this sort
of model really helps maybe include some
of those you know some middle school and
high school age kids which I know is a
demographic that we want to continue to
try to provide more services for
um but it's hard four to five hundred is
sort of a number that feels like when
you start to hit that number it becomes
a different experience and uh an
exponential impact on you know
cleanliness and safety and those sort of
things it's tough for me to say what 25
does to that
um a normal day a normal busy day would
even now at a give at any given time
will be sort of high 300s uh on a busy
day normally
Sam go ahead uh two questions in there
and a proposal to an extent
um first uh do our pool offerings sorry
mimic those in these other communities
if they're lower do we have a nicer pool
do we have more things to offer to the
community is there a difference there
I I wouldn't equate the two okay uh
Grandview has a brand new pool uh
Westerville has
amazing Recreation facilities
um but ours are the best but Westerville
but no I wouldn't necessarily say well
we have X Y or Z and therefore we should
be charging more okay facility does an
increase in number of people uh going to
the pool increase Fair costs on the
swimsuit side of things no okay
um proposal in my opinion here is that
you know when we're tiering
organizations I'm a part of oftentimes
uh you know an older member frankly just
has to pay more if you've been an
attorney for more than 10 years you pay
500 versus a new attorney you're paying
25.50 would make sense to just make it
so all adults that want a membership you
set it at like 100 seniors you can say
75 if you choose or whatever and then
just make it 25 or you know student or
whatever or minor I almost like a system
such as that because with all due
respect to adults I don't care as much
pay the money join you know to join the
pool but for the community for the kids
I would hate to see a kid turned away by
cost
um along whether they're in high school
or in elementary so the only the only
sort of initial reaction to that sort of
approach is um
the vast majority of our kid
participants are under 11 years old they
have to have an adult there all right so
in terms of how you're thinking about
that structure when they when they buy
those memberships they need to think
about buying them as a full family
because they need to be there to watch
the kids that are 11 and under so that's
I mean philosophically is something that
was and we did review that and that was
a question a conversation with the rec
board is what is the age that they can
be there alone
um so that they we were talking about
Summers where do you go and have a safe
place to go have fun but
legally they have if they're 11 and
under they have to have an adult with
them supervisors but I but I I think
you're on to something though I mean if
that was the case then we'll say there
was one adult membership and then three
kids you're still at 175 bucks as
opposed to a family of three
two seven I mean so there is a an
approach there that could drive savings
then
um I think making memberships more
bite-sized particularly at the team
level and it is what it sounds like that
that's a goal to drive participation so
that you know I think there might be
something there
yeah I mean I think I think obviously
there's a lot of ways you can adjust the
way you structure
um the membership fee I think that I
think the bigger question is just to the
mayor's points what's the appetite from
Council to subsidize and at what level
you know I think we can work through
some of the you know how we want to
structure it understanding we're trying
to subsidize that X Y or Z level
um but there's a lot you know for
example one of the things we've had
discussion with in doing this is right
now currently two and under uh or under
two are free right you don't have to buy
a membership for your one-year-old or
your 18 month old
um you know do we change that structure
if we're going to go to 25 that everyone
does does does pay for just a Simplicity
the other thing that we will have to
keep in mind when we figure out exactly
what we're comfortable with uh
philosophically is how our software also
allows us to actually that you know do
the back end sale of these memberships
you know some things that you try to get
to sort of
you know this structure with this person
and this structure that person some of
those things can become a little bit
difficult uh in terms of the system to
manage but I'm sure we could figure it
out but I just want one I want to be
aware of that too test did you have one
just another because I've had more
um time with these numbers uh since I uh
get to chair park and rec but one thing
I want to bring up too is remind me 200
shares of the pool
so that's something that we were
discussing too if we're increasing
capacity if we're engaging teens you
know
um and we're wanting to make sure we
have that correct experience that we may
need to also look at chairs for these
families as well as let's be honest
teens are going to use that as a place
to congregate be social so I would
definitely propose if we're looking at
more participation at the pool that we
look at expansion on not just new chairs
for chairs that are damaged or need to
be pulled but more cheers
Mike
I was just gonna say I I know it's
budget season and that's why we're kind
of trying to project what goes forward
for 2023 but I feel like a discussion on
what should be the membership fees for
next summer is is a little premature and
I say that for a few reasons
um the main one is that we have no idea
what kind of Staffing levels we're going
to be able to get I realized that from
January through March or April
um you'll be actively getting lifeguards
and swim instructors and folks to staff
the pool but if it's anything like it's
been for the past two summers uh I don't
think I would feel comfortable
encouraging more people to come to the
pool unless we could safely guarantee
that we would be able to have staff
there to watch them to care for them
um that we would adhere to whatever
ratios I know that you you value so much
um
I'm sure that Council saw and the
information that Mike sent
um
you know I I do have big concerns about
swimsafe coming back for a third summer
but I also appreciate the hard work that
Mike and Natalie and the rec board have
done in putting forth a recommendation
and them wanting to have swimsafe come
back for a third summer but if you look
at the surveys that were circulated in
the materials that Mike spent if you
look at what the staff that worked with
swim safe and just this past summer
there were some comments that some of
them didn't feel adequately trained
you also might recall that in the summer
of 2021 there was a child that had to be
rescued from the dive pool and that was
under swim safes management
so I think that there's opportunities to
improve
the level of training the level of
Safety Management
the level of cleanliness that we have at
our pool
because if I had to grade right now I
would have graded swimsafe swimsafe in
the summer of 2021 as a big fat f
they failed miserably they lost their
survey results from the summer of 2021
they have lost them
and because they've lost them I kind of
have to assume that they're pretty darn
bad
it was an improvement to have them back
in summer 2022 but still we had Staffing
shortages that made our Parks and Rec
have to scramble so much and get more
people to come and work at the pool
so I would love to kind of just hit
pause to see what the scenario is going
to be like in the spring make sure that
we can have enough staff enough
instructors enough
lifeguards there enough chairs before we
would consider encouraging more people
to come I think our pool is a big
Community Asset it's also a great
Community experience but it really has
to be done safely that's got to be the
number one goal
um and given that 21 and 22 were kind of
unusual Summers I I really would love
for 23 to be a very normal Baseline
summer to get back to what our community
usually has felt at least as of you know
2017-2019
um so those are just my thoughts I feel
like it's a little premature to to talk
about this
um now because we don't know if we're
going to have if we're going to be able
to have the ratios and the staff that I
know all of us value for our community
just my thoughts I see you chomping
there make Peak
we can Mike address that real quick
sorry yeah so it's from the time from a
time in perspective historically we're
selling memberships at the start of the
new year right so um I understand your
point
uh you know
we are we're usually selling the early
bird in January through end of March
start of April
um followed by the regular rate after
that point so to some extent in terms of
promotion in terms of getting it out
there in terms of when we normally do it
um that there's some timing issues in
terms in terms of that
Matt then Matt
um just
first thoughts I guess I'd be in favor
of
um
probably lowering if our goal is to
drive participation from middle school
and teenage students
um to maybe just lower the cost for uh
those students but then also do we do we
maximize our scholarships or the do
those that can't afford it
those that we have more scholarships
that we can give those that we know
can't afford it we have gotten in every
time
so
um you know one thing that's somewhat
unique about
um a pool operation versus a summer camp
versus a preschool versus anything else
uh ratios are
when we talk about ratios of the pool
it's really about making sure we have
all of the position guard positions
covered and once you've done that the
ratio I mean obviously the more people
you have the more more safety issues
that can come up but uh it's not like uh
we have to keep adding as we're adding
people so if we
um unlike camp we have an H1 ratio if we
have 12 kids we have to add a second
counselor it doesn't work the same way
with with pool we just need to make sure
we have every single lifeguard position
filled and covered at a given time and
then so from a cost standpoint adding
somebody in from a scholarship
standpoint it doesn't cost us any more
to Sam's question we're gonna we're
gonna spend what we have to spend on the
pool to run it it doesn't change if we
have 10 more scholarships families or 20
more or 100 more so we're able to
scholarships yeah without changing the
fee structure correct and yeah yes we
can and we do so we've never turn anyone
away never been like we're out of
scholarship we can't have this family
and that we know needs it uh the bigger
issue with that is generally and this is
across the board with scholarship is is
frankly identifying families that
actually need the assistance a uh
because you know a lot of families don't
want to ask for the help uh and so so
you don't ever know what you don't know
you don't ever know what families you're
not servicing that can't can't afford it
because it'll ask we have consistently
across the board any family that needs
scholarship whether it's pool whether
summer camp whether it's anything else
we've got them in we've never turned
anyone away because of their financial
constraints that's great
okay
um how many memberships do we sell a
year
um uh we had in 2022 we had 3
000 92 uh individual individual members
okay so that I mean is that like a
quarter of our population
yeah so what plus or minus a bit so I
mean it so I guess I I just when I think
about
making decisions to subsidize programs
yeah I think it's important to
understand the percentage of people that
benefit from that and I think it's a
quarter of the population so I think
these are important questions to ask
um and and make sure that we are aligned
on because it's not 100 of the people
don't participate in the pool program I
mean I'm there all the time so
um you know but but I'm not you know
representative of the entire community
so again I think it's important that we
ask these questions
one of the things that as I look at the
comparisons
and I was trying to hop on you know
grandview's budget for example but I am
curious
um as we have more conversations on this
if they also have other Revenue sources
that subsidize their lower costs because
to me I think it's important to look at
the total revenue that the pool
generates so I don't know if they have a
very different
um
food program or they have
you know some other you know Monday
night movies or I'm making all of this
up but I just don't know if they have
other ways that they subsidize these
these programs to help um
um you know we'll say drive to a break
even or or a a profitable pool so I
guess I I would want to make sure that
as we're talking about subsidizing rates
that we're also we're looking at
holistically
um the revenue sources uh both of
bexley's pool and and some of these
others that we're using as benchmarks so
a couple comments to the to those
questions or points uh
just so we're aware when I say 3092
we're talking about memberships
obviously there's a number of people
that come on dailies that are are being
serviced by our community too that are
not part of the membership pool so
that's something to keep in mind
um in terms of uh without being able to
say specifically whether they have other
Revenue sources or not I can speak to uh
generalities which is to say that uh
Grandview for example and most others uh
that we've talked with have indicated
actually all others that we talked to
have indicated that whether or not they
have other Revenue sources they are
still subsidizing their pool operation
costs
um
um I'm sure they're all ranges of
whether that's 50 whether that's 75
whether that's 25 but they are all uh
subsidizing those costs and are not
they're their philosophic approach isn't
how much does it cost to run this pool
how much do we need to charge to cover
those costs they're understanding that
they're going to subsidize it at some
level
but I yeah so I just think understanding
what other communities are doing
um and how they're managing that Subs
that subsidy level
um I think just would be helpful for
um the council is you know making
decisions around this
as we're kind of
talking through this after Matt mcpeek
just spoke on um and we're discussing
daily rates something I hadn't thought
of we could also just throwing it out
there because we're exploring
brainstorming what about a you know a
punch card for teens that are 12 and
older
um showing student IDs or whatnot and we
do you know five daily passes that we
give them for the summer and then we we
start with monitoring that to see how
much more they're using it
um and subsidize that which kind of
equates to talking about people who
don't who need the scholarship you only
know what you know they're not applying
for it you know something to think about
maybe we act we put that through darn
um and let them pass those out maybe
it's for every student but just another
thing to explore
uh Punch Cards for teens
so Mr President just to respond to that
and kind of a lot of what we're hearing
here it's first off really excellent
ideas being generated in lots of
different models that we could talk
about
um it and I know that there are more
comments here with Council I think we
can come we can synthesize some of
what's been said here tonight and come
back to you guys with some revised
Concepts if there generally seems to be
interest in
and this concept that we're we are
making the pool more accessible to more
people not to flood it so that it's you
know inaccessible all together but uh to
to lower that bar a little bit for entry
just to back up what Mike said having to
talk to others Mayors and city managers
over the years and Rec directors there's
not a pool around that isn't subsidized
and it's just a philosophical question
of to what degree and I know that Mike
and his staff are constantly looking at
innovative ways to offset expenses and
new programming and ways to bring in new
Revenue to all programs including the
pool so we could continue to look at
that and what we'll find is
that
just like we opened up with you know
Columbus has decided that that's going
to be a 100 subsidy uh Bexley has Bexley
and and Gahanna have decided that we're
going to try to recapture a little bit
more of those costs and then there are a
lot of communities somewhere in between
um and so I I am favoring that we take
um the assets that we have as you guys
know and I'm not saying that we should
squander any resources but we have we're
sitting on a a pretty substantial budget
surplus from many years of very close
Financial stewardship and also some very
favorable Trends in terms of Municipal
finance and so those two things together
give us the opportunity to talk about
this sort of thing where we're looking
we're talking about twenty five thousand
dollars you know when we're talking
about a fifty dollar uh rate here in
terms of
what what value can we bring back to the
community so um and I'm not trying to
stifle any further conversation but I
think it's logical that we regroup take
some of the feedback we've received and
come back to you guys with some updated
um Concepts
and you have a published State though
for the Rector which is
supposed to go to print November 28th
okay so I mean it okay it's
it could be something we just pushed
back and we promote differently I mean
there's there will be some impact to
that
um
but if that if the feeling is we need to
we want to wait we'll make it we'll
figure out a way to make it work yeah I
do share
um councilwoman lamke's concerns of
making sure that we are staffed safety's
number one that we we can fulfill that
before we're looking at rates I think
that her everything she said
um
is what we do need to consider
yeah so then I would
urge that we think about taking it
taking it slow because I I too
that's scary I mean it's the idea of yes
we would love more people to be able to
access the pool because it's a special
special service but at the same time we
have to make sure that it's safe and
that balance between doing that and um I
have full faith in the right
Department's decision to to take on
uh this company again
um but at the same time you know they
need to make sure that they prove
they're proving themselves so I think
it's just to tiptoe into it rather than
to go for the war makes it a little
scary
again I will reiterate in terms of the
timing it'll be difficult
whether we're running the pool whether
swim state is running the pool the
reality is uh the process usually starts
the hiring process starts in the next
month or so and then you go through the
start of the new year but the reality is
you don't get commitments from a lot of
people until closer to
uh March
um and so you know if if the thought
process is we need to wait to make any
decisions on some of that until we know
for sure that we're gonna have X number
of guards and X number of coverage it's
going to be a little bit difficult from
a timing perspective to put out what our
rates are contingent upon our staffing
levels just to be really honest in terms
of the process Mr President if I may I
mean I I'm a little concerned about the
course of conversation here if we have
any concerns about the safety of the
pool operations we would not be going
forward with swimsafe I I want Mike to
maybe reiterate that yeah do you have
any safety concerns with this operator
here's what I will say I as I've told
you ice when the pool is operational I
will be up uh wearing at all times
because of the nature of a pool like
that's not going to change whether we're
doing it whether it's Ohio State's
Aquatic Center is doing it or whether
swimsafe is doing it obviously we would
not be recommending to move forward with
swim safe if we felt like it put us out
of safety disadvantage so to speak uh
when I'm talking about I'm talking about
just specifically numbers of stuff
um and if if the idea is we need to wait
to make sure we have let's say it's
going to take closer to 40 or 50 bodies
individual lifeguards to have a full
staff for a given summer if we're going
to wait to determine our rates based on
whether we have enough of those staff
it's going to be sort of difficult in
terms of the timing of when staff
generally commit and get hired
but we don't need more staff with the
model you're talking about we don't I
mean our goal is to be fully staffed
regardless of the model we pick right is
to have 19 staff up at a given time
right covering all all facets and if we
don't have a full staff that results in
closure of either changing of times or
closure of certain bodies of water or
not correct it's not a capacity issue
correct
I'll just say for my part I and a parent
that used the pool a lot with with my
kids through various Summers some some
years we had membership some years we
did not I would say for me if I could go
back and this would be a bottle I think
breaking that down like that would be an
entry point for for it would have been
for me for a membership or not because
usually you know in a family of four
there was usually a child that was
either too old or too young and you know
there's a lot of like that movement like
that so you know for me to be able to
price at fifty dollars per you know
family member or something like that
would have certainly it would have been
an entry point for me A lot of times
maybe when I when I didn't purchase a
pool membership for for us for a family
or whatever I would also say though I
think uh fifty dollars per person is a
really a great bargain I mean and and I
don't know that people would notice a
difference between 50 and 25 in terms of
that's just my opinion I wouldn't have
but I would think that that would be the
flexibility of being able to do that
would lower the cost uh VX Festival as
well
anybody else yeah
just real quickly um I completely
appreciate the conversation here we made
the mistake of having the third child so
you know that just threw us right right
out of the water yeah it is yeah she
knows she's the accident poor girl
um but um I I really do appreciate
because that the conversation of having
like a fifty dollar I appreciate the
records concern about 25 maybe being too
low given that we haven't done this
before I really that 50 feels
comfortable to me that said I'm really
curious to kind of see what you guys
when you kind of regroup and kind of put
together some of the things that we've
discussed I'd be interested to kind of
see all of those
um kind of potential options in front of
us
um I think it would be really really
hard to make a decision today I don't
think we need to
um and you know I I'm really interested
to see how this goes forward
thank you all right where are we at here
with Mike
uh at the end of the at the end of the
lane
at the end of the lane do we see the
smoke no no I'm I'm done he's walking
out of them right now
I feel great great I I think in
appreciation for our uh our other
members of uh the directors here we're
going to pause the budget uh for just
five minutes and let our chief give his
report and feature give the report so
that they can
enjoy some some part of the evening well
beechers stuck here who else do we have
Andy oh Andy's hiding back here he's
assimilated in with city council you
can't leave now here yeah
uh Chief do you want to do you want to
I'm sorry this is your this is your
thing
Chief I know you got it you got it
handled
Chief do you have a a lengthy report to
uh to give to us um the report has been
submitted yeah
um really want to focus on
um aquatic safety
[Laughter]
um really the only thing that's not
included in the report but I do want to
highlight
um past 24 to 48 hours our team has has
been working very closely with CSG and
St Charles and doing some full skill
exercises on the Ohio Department of
Education requires that our high schools
conduct full scale exercises at least
once every three years also part of that
Cadence are tabletop exercises so we are
in the process of doing that with both
of them in the next few weeks so there
will be some more correspondence but um
it's it's been very um engaging very
productive and and working with them on
some Partnerships to to do some safety
drills
do I have questions for the for the
chief area
just a question I guess I could have
done this any other time but uh every
once in a while we'll come in here and
we'll see that there's been a new
recruit somebody else that's getting
sworn in or anything can we get a little
bit more notice in regards to that I
think that is Council I think a lot of
us like to welcome them absolutely
that's a good point yeah and uh January
27 2023
we will be swearing in so this young man
will be graduating from the Columbus
Police Academy and so we will have um
there'll be an official ceremony there
at Columbus Police Academy and then
we'll do something official here
potentially um that day as well thank
you all right Sam you're in charge of
reminding the rest of us about that
and to the more recent ones just the
past couple have been um have been um
reservists so it's just a little bit of
we don't typically do a larger notice
with those but we can certainly do that
if you would like as well
anybody else got a question for the
chief
all right here
Chief would you like to stay here a
little longer yeah
that's a question I have he wants to
hear the Auditors yeah yeah he's been
waiting this whole time Mr Bayshore
and we're gonna let Andy go
sh it is all about Louise
um I know leaves have been a high uh
topic discussion
um I promise I'm pushing the fellas as
hard as I can they've been working
evenings and Saturdays um
Luckily everything come down at once but
that has made it very very slow first
round
um which means our second third round
will be fairly quick and fairly light
um
other than that I will get with Sam
tomorrow there will be some closures on
Drexel starting tomorrow
through next Tuesday it'll be um off and
on and I will get that on the website I
will talk to Sam and he will get that on
the website
happy to answer any questions
Andy in Chief there's there's Donuts
here you can grab on the way out too by
the way yeah
um I take offense to that yeah
I can't win here hahaha
all right
um
yeah yeah you you should go now you're
welcome to make it timely run
um
do we need a break do we need to yeah
all right a couple minutes
yeah that ain't gonna happen but we do
I'll open the box of donuts
thank you
it is
oh yeah he's going to give his report
yeah
so we are well we kind of are on recess
two minute recess
okay okay we are back up all right we're
back up guys
we're live
you're on the record
okay
so
um
before we continue on our budget I
wanted to give Mr Price an opportunity
to give his staff update so he could get
out of here as well oh yeah Mr Price
um
it is now
um encourage everyone to get involved in
our holiday events letters to Santa the
the Santa boxes is going out uh the
mailbox is going out on Friday so uh
tell your young people uh they can send
a letter through the rec department of
Jeffrey and we'll make sure it gets to
uh Santa himself
um uh tree lighting is going on this uh
December 4th
um we're excited we're gonna have the I
I think I just found out we're gonna
have the Middle School choir as well as
as well as the preschool and the Bexley
High School vocal Ensemble so that's
always nice and the pancake breakfast
everyone should have gotten an invite to
volunteer thank you all uh we are so
excited to be bringing that back first
time since since uh covid and to do it
in the new space is really exciting as
well
um so uh hopefully you all can join us
in some capacity one capacity or another
um and uh the only other thing uh since
the chief mentioned January 27th we are
going to be bringing back with the basic
community Foundation is going to be
bringing back uh the poker a poker
fundraiser at Jeffrey Mansion
um so we are excited about that so you
can uh welcome the new officer and then
join us for uh join the Community
Foundation for some uh poker uh with the
uh half of the proceeds going back to
the Community Foundation so hey um have
you have you decided what the call rates
are going to be
well you know what actually I just did
that two-minute recess was very
productive
no further discussion needed
anything for Mike
you said quite enough this evening thank
you Mike good you've said it all
right
uh Mr President at your uh your your uh
your pleasure I will continue with the
budget presentation let's go
um
we're gonna have Beecher provide the
auditor's budget and then we have a uh
celebrity guests permits so I'm gonna
um I'll skip to a presentation or you're
the parks which is part of the whole
budget presentation in general so
we will now go to
the auditor's office budget auditor's
office which you can find on page early
on
seven eight eight there you go
well unlike Mike we I don't have a lot
of exciting stuff to discuss and I only
have one sheet and a lot of it's um
somewhat fixed all the way fixed or at
least out of control
um we have we're out of my control no
get to why I say that um
we
we have somewhat fixed in salaries and
Wages that's fixed if you'll notice
we're up we're raising at 19.3 percent
just to refresh your memory now we'll
have the uh payroll and
um HR coordinator for the entire year we
only had it for a partial year
um last year
you'll notice also just a cop my eye 60
increase no purse 60 percent increase
workers Cup this is because we did not
increase the appropriation for those
items when we hired her
um but it's an allocation we'll have
plenty of general fund and specifically
for my concerns audit purposes we'll
have plenty of General General
government oh purse to cover that so
we'll be good there and when I say um I
was talking about expenditures out of
our control I think we have like what I
call city-wide expenditures and then I
call them derived expenditures
um city-wide would be like Bank fees
because we do the banking for the city
and we pay for all the you know the
charges for the bank accounts including
um the merchant fees charges for
processing credit cards so
um Citywide would also include the
Property and Casualty Insurance which is
titled Insurance Dash City that's been
there for years maybe I should change
that to property and cash to be more
understandable
um also uh post is we have all the
postage so those are city-wide expense
and property taxes for when we purchase
property we purchased one recently we'll
pay the taxes on that until we get the
exemption back and then we'll get a
refund
um then I have what I call derived
expenses which is this is where I say we
have little control over
in really especially with Rita Rita fees
um it only goes higher than anticipated
if our um if our revenue is hard just
then anticipate because it's derived
from how much our revenue is it's a
percentage of that
um
then also property tax fees
um you know we paid the property tax
fees and refunds so if we got hit with a
big refund of course we we would have we
would have to come back for more money
we don't really have have any say in
that
um
the other thing though you will notice
that we have a big decrease in the
professional contract that's because
when we took on
um the accounts pay or excuse me the
payroll and ahr coordinator we were able
to then significantly reduce the
professional contract I actually
probably anticipated I hope to keep it
to like 15 000 but I thought twenty
thousand was a good number
um to put that at and still have some
cushion there
um and then the other thing I'd say we
have in our budget is just the required
we have to be audited
um have you know control that we have no
choice whether we're going to be honest
or not so
um
I don't know if there's anything you
know that jumps out at anybody that's
because it's pretty as uh Matt just used
the term flattest pancake it's not going
it's a matter of fact that's going down
in total so
um oh no it's going up twelve thousand
dollars I'm sorry
any questions yeah I mean it's going
down and total from where it was at the
last meeting but you guys didn't get to
see that but I made some reductions
since then
anything on as exciting
and delve into audit fees or um
any questions for Beecher
all right
okay it's always the most good work
Beach Joel thank you
Everyone likes me a parties
so um
this is a little bit out of order from
how I was going to present it but it's
probably merciful to you guys because
the uh we have a lot of accounts to slog
through this evening
um and so this is a moment of creativity
Artistry and Great Expectations to talk
about
the project that we've been talking
about a lot over the past year the year
the parks and get delving in a little
deeper into the financial backbone of
what this project has been is and may
may well be
um know that
year of the Park's funding
as we've said before is coming from a
variety of sources grants that have
already been received grants that are
yet to be received hopefully
Capital expenditures from this year's
budget Capital expenditures proposed
next year's budget so I want to go by
project by project and talk about how
those projects are funded and what
exactly they are
and joined with me today with all of us
is uh our library director Ben Heckman
who is here to also share a little bit
about one of the projects that I'm sorry
Ben doesn't show up until the close to
the end of this presentation but I'll be
quick
um so uh
as you as you have seen the map that
kind of shows the different projects
these are all the projects we've
identified as part of the year the parks
and I'm going to go project by project
um the first few projects are all
happening within Commonwealth Park
um and we are kind of designating them
as separate projects based upon their
scope being somewhat unique so an
arboretum built out on the west side of
Commonwealth Park
I know you've seen the renderings before
they're also at the end of this
presentation this presentation is
attached to the agenda you might have to
refresh on your screen because it's a
quad upload
um But it includes an arboretum walk a
new Arboretum trees perhaps a birch or
two uh and a pond in Commonwealth park
with the with the bridge over it
um we're estimating the budget for this
at around 400 000 that is a informed
estimate based upon some early takeoff
costs I mean we believe that this
project will be almost entirely funded
through a grant
um we hope to commence in the spring of
2023 and complete and fall of 2023
and it wouldn't really look uh it
wouldn't really mature into place
probably until uh the next spring of 24.
Commonwealth Fields you guys are very
familiar with uh we are in in wrapping
up field number two East Commonwealth
um so that is a project that is uh
completed substantially and we are
claiming it as part of uh you're the
parks well we can't start playing on it
until the year of the parks so
um the Commonwealth Connector is a
really bold and important piece of the
Commonwealth plan and some of the
funding uh for this project is included
in our opwc grant which is funding work
on Columbia Avenue
along all of Colombia and that so the
street itself will be narrowed as it
approaches or as it connects the two
sides of Commonwealth
um there will be a raised pedestrian
Crossing in the middle it'll sort of
bring that middle Central section at the
grade of the rest of the park uh flanked
by pergolism both sides mediums down the
middle sheltered parking
um and uh a surface probably brick along
Colombia a little sort of slow traffic
and the goal with all of this is to
unify both sides of the park and to
create a safer environment for users at
the park so that crossing the park is
safer and um that becomes especially
important because as you know the
Gateway features which we've discussed
and are coming up in the next slide one
of them has a restroom on one side of
the park so we've been across the park
both sides is pretty important
um the proposed source of funding is
going to show up in our in our Capital
fund for 2023 so you'll see that coming
up and also opwc which has already been
secured
uh we would hope to commence that in
this summer of 2023 and complete by the
fall of 2023. and that is ambitious just
so you know the the entire thing yep
that's a hope I said hope and then I
said ambitious so
I didn't promise no uh the Gateway
features um would be located uh the
image here isn't isn't you know super
clear but they will be located in this
area here on the south side of
Commonwealth Park
uh that's scaled up really well
um and these have already been uh funded
through our budget we are estimating
that the budget that we uh allocated in
2022 is adequate for these based upon
current contractor takeoffs uh we are
still going through design review ARB is
about to review these we hope to
commence them uh winter spring of 23 and
have them completed by the spring
especially because some of those
Mechanicals if you've seen the
Mechanicals at Commonwealth Park that
are sticking up out of the ground those
are designed to be housed in one of
those units on the uh on the west side
so the footprint everything was set in
advance of placing anime Mechanicals in
place
Havenwood Park refresh uh is coming in
under budget as well we have executed
the contract hope to start it uh anytime
now so hopefully that's completed by
uh the winter of like later this year
early next year
Schneider Astor bridge is another
complicated project we did receive 350
000 in state capital funding
um it would be a bicycle pedestrian
bridge at the Astra entrance to
Schneider it would have all paved access
get into the bridge it would connect
across the creek and then access the
Allen Creek path right around where the
pedestrian Beacon is on Elm Creek Drive
or Hanford Village Park
we do need additional funding for this
we expect that it we're trying to get it
from an ODNR Grant if unsuccessful then
we do have adequate uh runway in the
Tiff which we'll be talking about later
on tonight our Main Street streetscape
Tiff to help fund the rest of that we're
hoping to commence it in the summer of
23 and complete it in the fall or winter
23.
the Bexley natural dog park a long time
coming
is under construction we've put in
drainage we put in fencing there's some
additional hardware and site infilling
to be done we hope to open that in the
spring of 23. and let the grass grow in
a little bit and then open it up to the
public
that is funded already through a grant
there's a small additional ask in the
capital fund for 23 for
uh some some additional hardware for the
the park
and then we move on to the main street
streetscape trail of parks so when uh
our our forefathers formed the Main
Street streetscape Tiff and I think they
it went into effect at around 2005. the
idea of that Tiff was to set aside money
each year to improve the main streets
streetscape uh the first major project
that was done with that Tiff was in
2012. it was medians along the street
brick crosswalks
um some tweaks to certain areas there
was a new Gateway feature added at Gould
and Maine
uh there was reconfiguration of where
Piccadilly was that section I don't know
if you remember where the when the
parking blocks used to be tumbling onto
the side to walk there but that area was
reconfigured
um and we did a lot of plantings and
that was the major major project it was
a 10-year note and 2023 is the last year
that we're paying off that note
and so it's as we think about 23 near
the parks we start to think about what
is the next phase of the Main Street
streetscape Tiff and actually the whole
idea of year of the parks was launched
out of this concept of Main Street uh
streetscape 2.0 and so we started
talking about these trail of parks that
as you walk along Main Street not only
are you interfacing with businesses and
institutions but you have an increased
access to interactive outdoor Community
Gathering space
um so one of those spaces has already
been
um I'm skipping ahead so I'll get there
so I'm going to walk through some of the
parks that have been identified or the
parks that have been identified to be
part of the scope of this project
um one is the Schneider Park Main Street
Trailhead now it is just a Trailhead to
that Park
um but if you look at
this rendering down here you'll see that
the Schneider Park Trailhead is actually
designed to be part of a larger
potential tie-in to commercial
development that may happen hopefully
at the Gateway South site in general so
it's designed to be tied into a future
commercial maybe Plaza maybe there's a
restaurant patio so as it was conceived
it was step one for some future tie-in
we've put in the main walkway there's
still uh some columns to be added to
that and some other features we're
calling it phase two it looks like I
didn't finish filling out the budget on
that so I need to come back to the slide
but the uh the so I can't even actually
I'm not gonna make numbers up right now
and stuff my head which is I know
unusual
it's about four X's of dollars
uh but it actually of the projects we're
talking about other than the dgb park
which is already opened this will be one
of the Lesser uh expenses
the kindness Park Robin cutting was a
couple months ago
um so that is in place but we are
claiming it as part of our 2023 year of
the parks it was a project that we've
been kind of started to plan more
aggressively as part of this
the 1876 Plaza
is going to be a really amazing addition
to Main Street it'll be across the
Drexel Theater
um it will have room for Adirondack
chairs and Bistro tables and an outdoor
fireplace during the winter and some
water features in the summer
um space for outdoor ping pong tables
and foosball tables a small very small
kind of stage area where you could
imagine some live music is being played
and in general when some of those more
active uses aren't happening it'll be
really excellent passive space and as
well and a great place to kind of to
gather and rest as you're grabbing some
food from across the street or or
whatnot maybe waiting for a movie at the
Drexel
um we think that the interact the water
feature part of this which will be
um
kind of flanking a future Christmas tree
uh we'll be really appealing in the
summer
and then the idea of a seasonal fire pit
it's not drawn in there but it's
accommodated with the plan
um that could be programmed in certain
ways obviously there's some details to
be worked out with when do we have fires
so in this drawing let me let me go to
the larger detailed one
uh
Drexel's right here
here's main The Drexel Theater is is
right over here roughly
yep
and the sycamores remain they're there
so there's no sorry the London Plane
trees there's no change to the trees
along Main Street
it is so we've been working with capital
on it and they are uh they have
tentatively approve the concept
providing us with an easement for it
um and we're asking them to financially
participate as well so we'll see how
well that asks goes
um I'm not sure their exact financial
situation but it would be wonderful if
they were Financial Partners in it they
love the idea and there's we met with
their student Senate first a couple
years ago about this uh they gave us
some great ideas this project has
morphed as more input has been received
yeah uh the I think the first one I
think you know there would be menorah
lighting as well
yeah it is thank you uh
sorry I'll step up uh so where will the
menorah go if that existing tree is
going to remain I think we picture the
menorah being on this corner of the park
cool uh the the this set this little
curve here is to accommodate the root
ball of a uh existing tree that's on
site cool thank you yep
yeah
where's the refrigerated ice rink going
in this concept well that's all that's
um that's the bigger conversation uh
that has not been accommodating or year
of the Park's plan today but
we could keep going in depth on that one
we did look into an outdoor ice rink on
Main Street about five six years ago and
it was a at the time it was I remember
seven or eight hundred thousand dollars
to install
which is at ice rink oh with
refrigeration but one of our big
challenges was finding a place to put
all the Mechanicals because they're
substantial so
hey let's keep let's keep brainstorming
it's yeah
um
and then we get to this concept of the
Main Street Reading Room
and Mr Hackman would you like to come up
and talk to us a little bit about that
please state your name and address uh
Ben Heckman 2411 East Main Street
actually Public Library
I am there enough to live there
so I I we have the honor of having you
here oh yes thank you um and and really
this is a project that um I first saw a
drawing of this concept on the wall
and your predecessor's office so it's
I'm not sure how it got there but uh it
was there and uh I think it's something
that the library's dreamed of for years
and as we were discussing what is the
Tiff on Main Street how does it help out
the community
um and the the desire by uh the city or
at least
um
most of us I think who have talked about
this before to see that space between a
library and the synagogue to come alive
with something that's more than a
driveway to Nowhere
um we discussed you know a tiff is a is
is designed for public improvements
designed for public spaces and can we
take this drawing that has been on the
shelf for a little bit and see if we can
make this part of our project and so
here we are today and if you want to
give some more background sure we have
to do you have the design I don't know
okay I don't because we're that and then
maybe that's I was gonna talk about the
pro or have used to talk about the
process in terms of where we are with
taking an old idea and making sure it's
fresh and involving the community yeah I
so we at the library think the year the
parks is wonderful uh we think this is
the best park idea
here at the outside of the library
um we like it because we'll be able to
program in this space we have had a
preliminary design
um where we're trying to create spaces
where we can have uh
a puppet show story time outside we'll
be able to have music outside we'll be
able to put food trucks on Main Street
and use that whole front of the library
and the reading room in between
so I think that working right there on
that corner we can get lunch in a lot of
places but on a beautiful day there's
nowhere to eat outside right there and
so I think we're hoping to kind of have
the library start at the street and be a
welcoming place for people to come and
eat lunch people to get a book outside
people to Hear jazz outside uh and so
we'll be able to program that space and
have it just be I think it's going to be
a great place in the evening we're gonna
have a we're going to light the building
more beautifully than what we have now
we'll have some nice low lighting there
uh with new hardscaping landscape I
think it's going to be a really
welcoming Corner in a very kind of
hustle bustle area with what all the sub
shops right there and the multiple
coffee shops so we're looking at it as a
way to kind of extend our welcoming at
the street
so the is the lot itself owned by the
library how much use will there be
between the library and the synagogue is
this like a joint so yeah if you uh zoom
in there pretty much if you draw a line
right through what we're looking at here
right
um the synagogue owns probably where
that line cuts through those two trees
okay
um and so we have met and have been
working
with some regularity with uh Rabbi Zach
we met with his leadership team
um and we have talked about entering
into an understanding of their use they
have interest in using it on Saturday
mornings
we're very open about using it all the
other day parts of all the other days at
the library and so they are interested
in doing some other things behind this
space that would be with Library land so
we're having some conversations about
some easement to each other for the use
which again would be open all the time
yeah so it would be a public park that I
think you know the library would keep an
eye on and along with synagogue great
thank you
am I do I just yeah go for it okay yeah
so this is your floor being president I
don't want to step on here
see you guys uh yeah well maybe we'll
put some permanent outside speakers and
we'll just have that going all the time
um and if you can zoom in again I mean
this is the best that we have to work
with here uh this is not really what it
looks like now but back here in the
lower right hand corner uh we're talking
about putting a stage uh if you're
familiar with it now there's a stairwell
there
um so we would be able to put up like a
temporary curtain rod with a curtain and
have a backstage and have a puppet show
up that little window uh do story times
out there uh it would just be such a
wonderful addition to I think Main
Street and how people interact with Main
Street even outside of the library
and we do have like some sketches of new
Concepts but they're
they're your border is taking a look at
it the
leadership Public Gardens gonna look at
it I think so the leadership of uh Dora
Emmett looked at it yeah um I think they
they're very excited I think they're
very pleased that we can you know they
said it's a very important to them that
they're welcoming into the community as
well
um and then I believe tomorrow we go in
front of the
tree and garden commission and uh
hopefully uh you know I think it's
preliminary so hopefully we'll get
through that and then on December 1st
which is the Thursday at the library
everyone's welcome to come we're gonna
have a community Workshop
um we're hoping to have the press
release
tomorrow we've got some posters so we
can have the community come and share
some thoughts and feedback to this part
of it but then also if you think of our
Courtyard that's directly in front of
the library we're going to revamp that
whole space as well
so
you can't really see on the screen but
it's very faint
and
um
it's almost a joke now I start every
meeting with this with uh we would
really love this project to be complete
by like February of 2024 uh that is our
100th birthday the library will turn 100
so if we can have this space you know if
we need to bump Commonwealth and get
this done in 2023 just that so that we
can have a full year of events and
birthday celebrations of 2024
um that would be really tremendous
we could make some maple syrup we can do
we'd go to March or April but I know if
we leave a few months we'll really land
the plane in the right time frame now
the these preliminary sketches you speak
of is there an outdoor ice rink like a
permanent ice rink in those sketches
if the water feature is left on and
freezes I suppose there could be a very
tiny area of an ice rink as someone who
doesn't
skate and seems like a lot
anyhow yes I support the ice rink as
well
anything anything else so um I actually
don't even I was going to try to pull up
the rough sketches I don't have them
because they've been presented kind of
in these Concepts we're going the public
Workshop will be there will be a more
refined sketch I think from some of
those conversations and then yes and
then we'll start to have a feel for what
are the costs how would financial
responsibility be divided up
um and obviously there's a much bigger
conversation that you're having about
your front space as well so I think we
we would entertain some understanding
where uh you know we we could
potentially manage the park maintain
maintain the
cleanliness of it and and have that be
part of our normal rounds at the library
maintenance staff yeah so
Public public
private partnership
yeah
okay I hope that Tiff money shows up
okay any questions from Mr Hackman while
I have him
thanks everybody
appreciate it thanks for joining the
rest of the meeting tonight
yeah so and then this is my final Slide
the last component of the year of the
parks uh is active spaces for use and
what does that look like we're not Final
on that yet we've been engaging with our
kids
yeah
I told you about the fond of
Commonwealth right
I was finding some sand volleyball
photos
realistic it is
um
yep yep they're realized they're totally
realistic so I mean I think their point
was the setting might not be realistic
uh
um so I mean we're looking at a variety
of options based upon workshopping we've
been done with their youth as well as
physical limitations of space that we
have and can we accommodate some of
these uses so that's that's being firmed
up
um we have some rough sketches of what
some of these items might cost and we'll
be uh we'll be building those those into
budgets in the future so that I wanted
you to have that background and I'm
happy to answer you just overarching
questions but when we go into the Tiff
and capital funds section of our budget
you will find
some parallels between these
conversations Mr Clinton I did have one
question about the naming of the parks
uh the 1876 Plaza what's 1876. well the
naming committee has not uh uh affirmed
this name yet but 1876 is the year that
Capital first had held classes in Bexley
okay so the idea is that it's like a you
know it's a Founder's kind of Plaza
concept what about the what's the
natural in the natural dog park so our
our dog park is is quite natural and
what's natural about it is it will have
a primarily mulch uh surface yeah so it
will it already you can go and see the
obstacle course it's built out of uh
logs that were filed on site so kind of
just has this natural uh natural Vibe it
won't be you know we're not going to be
trying to keep up the other race with
the grass because grass in general is
going to be difficult in that area and
in smaller dog parks
so the theme is it's a natural
Blackboard
okay
so with that context
um
and I want to be mindful of time
and I want to understand like I
understand that we have a lot to cover
here so I'm going to try to get through
the budgets that we haven't covered yet
got a couple of them here
Ms Robinson um I did clear this with
President Markham beforehand but I do
have to leave and pick up a child from
downtown so I will be listening in okay
what you guys cover from here thank you
I take that as full approval of
everything I'm about to talk about and I
appreciate that of course
thank you
it's gonna be your own child though
you're not just going downtown
right yeah
all right
if you could turn to page 13 of your
budget
I'm trying to do some cleanup here on
ones that I don't think we have yet
covered development and Communications
development Communications and Community
Affairs office
um
there are
this is a fairly static account
there is one
there are two things I think you'll find
in this budget that are new and
different
let me try to zoom this in so it's more
legible
um and the first is a concept that I'm
actually going to ask to move to a
outside of this account but I want to
talk to you guys about it there's not
enough detail yet and I was hoping there
would be by now and there isn't
Columbus region through Columbus
partnership and smart Columbus is
proposing a regional grain fund
um
city of Columbus has apparently
committed up to five million dollars to
get this thing off the ground they're
asking other Suburban municipalities to
participate in it the details are still
scant on what exactly it's basically a
bank to encourage
um uh renewable development within
Central Ohio among City facilities and
and non-profit and government facilities
but there's just not enough information
and they need to present to you guys
about it
um so that you can understand it so what
I'd like to do is move this into the
front pages of our budget where we talk
about like
um
possible basically it's almost like a
place order does that make sense it's
not an appropriation but it just says if
this money were to be allocated in 23
this is how the budget pans out does
that make sense we have a couple of
those items what would we call those
features
I'm not quite sure
like for example unspent Appropriations
oh gosh yeah another example is on
unexpected Appropriations where we just
say there might be some more money that
we might need it helps us balance out
the budget knowing that there's a
potential obligation
so I would call that
um estimate you know we'll put it in
that section where it says possible
green fund partnership move it out of
here because there's just they need to
come present to you guys I wanted to get
that Concept in front of you in time for
the budget which they said they wanted
to as well we're not there yet and I
don't think Columbus has yet passed it
either so we have to wait on that so not
wasting any more time that you guys with
that if you guys are okay with that
the land use strategy update
um
was last language strategy was last done
in 2011.
um we have a couple plans that we're
hoping to refresh in 23 one of them is
land use strategy yeah there's the Main
Street design guidelines
and the final is having a Jeffrey Park
plan I know that's something Mike has
talked about perennially but all these
plans
obviously there's some funding needed
the way that we're hoping to do land use
strategies is in-house where it's like
it was last time it's a group of
volunteer professionals developers uh
planners
um and then the document was created
in-house last time the money budget here
is a smaller amount of money than our
normal plans that we would do for
Technical Services so as there are
exhibits needed or
um nutritional Design Concepts that we
would have some some funding to work
with
artists or professionals to help kind of
Flesh those ideas out
so
other than that
happy to discuss especially for some
newer members just remind you what some
of these are
we have development programs which fund
facade grants at Maine and Cassidy our
income tax incentive Grant there's only
one remaining it's to the Ohio State
Bank the others were for usrc that has
matured and also for
um
I am all of a sudden blanking
Raymond James has matured uh tax sharing
2023 is the final year of tax sharing
with the school district for the Bexley
Gateway South project so this will be
the last year that you should see this
in the budget
the when that was negotiated in the
early 2000s 50 of income tax goes to the
schools and 50 is retained by us
so that's last year for that and this
does include money here to in continue
to uh support the Main Street Sid
however we have it has been some time
since we've received Main Street set
updates as you can see we haven't funded
it all this year
um so I think we're going to do that as
well
make sure to bring in like 130k and
instead of five days exactly
so every year we send out a letter to
every tenant in Bexley Gateway South and
we get their payroll figures and how
much income tax they've generated we
cross check with Rita to make sure
they're honestly reporting uh and then
we convey about half of that we get to
there's we get to deduct Debt Service on
a sewer line but other than that we send
send a check to the school district
yes
mayor the Sid goes from Gould to
Roosevelt on Maine is that right
I need to clarify something real quickly
that comes completely off in 23 but now
that I'm talking it's an it's it's retro
so right now we just paid 21. so
probably it'll still stay in next year's
budget but next year's last year year of
it yeah sorry Monique was that
if I recall correctly the Main Street
Sid runs from ghoul to Roosevelt
Roosevelt on East Main Street yep
and
um I have we heard Natalie not to draw
you into this but have we heard anything
from them in terms of usually they've
sent invoices in the past or given
updates
I'm gonna Circle back we have a
representative on that board I'm going
to circle back and get an update
for you guys for the next meeting
or before
anything on development
okay
next is technology
the budget notes should be sufficient
here in terms of what's changed but in
general we're seeing two things
happening here uh increased utilization
of software contracts as opposed to
expensive servers and Hardware
I don't know if you remember five ten
years ago we would ever now and then
replace some server and it would cost a
gazillion dollars we're not doing that
as much anymore but in in turn we are
doing more cloud-based services so we're
going to continue to see software
licensing increase
specifically we're adding this year
property room software
for our Police Department Zoom which is
relatively minimal um and the website
also relatively minimal are coming
online they were being used through ARP
funding
um until now until more recently this
year
um we have also done a security audit
and in order to implement the
recommendations which include Network
equipment and security software we have
a new line for cyber security that is
feeding most of the increase in this
fund so you can see that on under cyber
security
other than that the the use of
technology in the city is a fairly well
defined use we are constantly evaluating
software platforms I will tell you they
are not getting cheaper
um that's just not the trend uh but uh
and and you know we are happening to
replace uh platforms as time goes on I
know the other day somebody was talking
about
um and we were taught we've been talking
internally about well why isn't there
software to let us know when our water
use has gone up real quickly that's a
that would be a dramatic overhaul for
example that's the sort of thing that we
get into and then it creates a new cost
center so
any questions on Tech
okay
we're going to go to the next page
builder and zoning
there is a decrease being shown in this
account I want to explain to you because
you probably remember we had a couple of
preparation ordinances that are
supplemental some of those included a
catch up on costs from 2021 so that's
why you're seeing a net decrease in this
account because it's reflecting some of
that catch up from 21. so that don't be
deceived by that although I'd like to
claim that it looks great
um we are we do have an additional
service that we're calling for in this
budget
under building official and inspection
services
we are looking at a
additive inspection of projects as they
are under construction for architectural
design review we've had
a lot of our ARB members very frustrated
and I'm sure you guys have heard about
this with
plans that are approved and then they go
out and they see the finished product
and it's not matching what was approved
in the drawings so we're doing a fairly
good job of reviewing the plans to make
sure that they're consistent but then on
the in the field decisions are being
made that are changing plans extreme
versions of those changes I think you'll
recall there was a house on Columbia
there was an extreme version of that but
there are much lesser versions of that
that are happening all the time
um
architectural terms I don't I can't even
rattle off the top of my head but uh
bill heyer could and he would tell you
all about them so yeah box column
it's the top yeah that happens a lot
absolutely whether or not the the siding
is monitored at the corner as opposed to
you know
but there's a word for that too
um so those sorts of things
um
in tandem with that the tree commission
feels very strongly as well about plant
material not be installed as promised
and not being maintained so for example
plant material might get installed but
then a year later 50 of it has died out
and it's not there anymore
so this would cover uh additional
inspection services for that
I also told you guys we're looking at
permit fees we're still looking at
permit fees I'm not ready to present
that to you that will be a next meeting
thing there's a lot going on in this
budget so
be patient but that will help cover uh
some of these increased costs
sorry Matt reasons no is the software
for that we use for building zoning is
that in technology audience and
Technology okay
I don't anticipate any staff changes at
this point I know that we've had
conversations about you know maybe some
employees in this department may be
retiring I don't have any knowledge of
that at this point
Mr yeah it's just on the software do you
go through and
um kind of evaluate
that frankly what has been purchased is
being used to its maximum capacity
because I that is something that
you know yep needs to be done so would
be curious if
um over the past year or so you've
identified software that just hasn't
been used as expected and and if you've
terminated those agreements
um so
yes we do that and
um one of the that's one of our uh sort
of standing
um conversations with Eric who's our
Tech manager an example of software that
we don't use that we have offline over
time
um
open gov was one where it just wasn't
getting utilized that much so we let
that roll off
we keep on telling you that we're going
to try this out but this has been so
busy at Castle I think we're hoping to
get away from Civic work that's an
example of a software platform that we
don't think we need
um and we want to replace it with
Dropbox which we're already paying for
and we think we can give the public and
you guys
as good better at times worse at times
of a uh of a platform than Civic clerk
with with without some of the
limitations of Civil clearcast for
example we couldn't get a packet to
publish tonight because
the budget was throwing an error or
something on the packet so
um
we're going to be trying that out I'd
really like for us to do the next
council meeting we have enough time
hopefully between now and then uh for
you guys to try that out but that's an
example of a piece of software that
we're like you know we don't really
think this is doing what we needed to do
um the larger software that we have we
feel quite obligated to have it
um Police Department cat rmms that's a
really vital piece of software Viewpoint
which is what matches spread up all sets
still in the Department's budget it all
sits in the tech budget so we're
skipping back to Tech budget
um
I you know I could give you a complete
list but we're not
sorry I don't know that um
I can I'm confident there's not a piece
of software that we're like letting kind
of sit in the Wayside the one other
piece of software that we're keeping an
eye on to make sure it's getting
adequate utilization
is what we call Bexley base for c-click
fix and it does get used a lot still um
but it doesn't also seem to have total
like Community penetration in terms of
everyone knowing about it so I want to
make sure we're getting on the value but
it's also a platform that I think we
want to make sure to continue to invest
in and use
any questions any further about the
building department
no the the only reason I brought up
Viewpoint is that I thought there was
some in in listening to some bizap and
ARB meetings I thought there was maybe
some more utilization of that it could
we could get more out of it I don't know
if Eric or somebody or somebody from
them could come in and
to make us more efficient yeah that is I
mean so that's a relatively new software
yeah and you know staff is still really
learning how to maximize its potential
um an example of and this isn't quite I
think what you're talking about but an
example of how we're using Viewpoint
differently uh is we're about to offer
like you know you can buy a toter at
City Hall we have to come in and write a
check or give cash we're going to be
putting that on Viewpoint there's lots
of other stuff that we can put on
Viewpoint we put um
garage sale permits on Viewpoint I think
um so there's a variety of things we've
been adding to that and using that
platform more than we were in the past
and then approval flow I think is what
ARB zap talks about
that's perennial process Improvement and
yes there's more to be extra extracted
from that software
I don't think we're going to be getting
any new different type of software
anytime soon for building department
if it's okay I'd move on to the health
department which is on page 22.
[Music]
um
the health department
is contractual and actually Beatrice do
we have an increased rate on that yet
I'm not
yeah I usually get a letter
um and I don't think we've received that
yet okay we need to double check that
but there's a budget comment here that's
actually in the wrong line uh regarding
social services that should be on the
second line down so we do have a place
soldering in here for social service
contract which I outlined with you what
that might look like in terms of um
support for kind of Mental Health crisis
issues in the population dealing with
residents who have had
um you know assistance with victims
um
connection to Social Services for
financial distress
um
aftermath of certain types of police
interactions so that is not yet defined
because we don't have the RFP completed
and we don't have a full budget member
for that another we could handle this
line item the same way I'm suggesting we
handle the green fund where we move it
into a
planned program for 23 that doesn't
actually yet have a full scope defined
out yet I like the idea of having it
somewhere in the budget I'm very
comfortable with us not appropriating
and so we have a defined plan
and if I were sitting in your seat
that's what I'd be asking me to do so
I'm offering that up front
okay
any questions about health department
all right
okay guys
first person to say with the acronym for
Tiff means
got it tax instrument financing
there is a fund but this is actually
yeah
okay page 65
go past the pool
Go pass behind retirement
and you end up
that's Economic Development Fund oh gosh
I'm not even close sorry I'll stop doing
this in real time
okay
on the right one
63 sorry
um the
63 the Tiff fund is we should probably
actually rename just have that renamed
for a budget called the street Escape
fund because we now have more than one
Tiff fund we used to only have one to
fund
um but this fund is as I said earlier in
the meeting
um funds that are coming in from
properties on Main Street specifically
designed for streetscape improvements
and related uh public improvements so it
can it can for example make improvements
to a park that joins Main Street
um
we are bringing in about three hundred
and forty thousand dollars give or take
from the Tiff
the way Tiff revenue is generated is
it's when the value of a property
increases above and beyond the base year
which is around two thousand three or
five
that extra funding first off the schools
are made whole schools get all the money
they would have otherwise received but
then everything else which is about 30
of normal property taxes gets set aside
into a special fund so as new
developments have occurred on Main
Street and as properties of increase in
value more money has been diverted into
the Tiff there is at this point in time
approximately uh 10 to 15 years left on
our Tiff
um we we are paying off our Tiff uh note
there's that's what this 164 640 that's
our final debt service payment
um coming out of the Tiff from that
10-year project that initial project
foreign
this budget has it set up so that the
Tiff would
get funded by a loan into the
streetscape phase 2 account
that would be funding essentially that
would allow us to
to create those year-of-the-parks
improvements along Main Street it
wouldn't just be the parks it would also
be some site Furniture along Main Street
not in some other areas that exist today
but that's the parks are the vast
majority of it
the way that would work is we would have
a line item in here
or Main Street Trail the parks here at
the end
this this couldn't be spent until we had
generated the funds for it obviously so
there would be a future Council action
that would
fund that either a loan or an alternate
concept that I discussed with Matt
McPeak this week
which is where the city would from the
general fund Capital fund and
infrastructure fund potentially
Advance money into the Tiff and the Tiff
would pay the city back
but those are details to be to be
determined because as we look at this we
don't know what interest rates look like
the first quarter of 2023 we don't think
they're going to look great we don't
think it's a great time for us to borrow
money but we could just at least
temporarily fund it from existing
Reserves
at any time we could then issue debt if
we needed to but it would be a more
financially responsible way to do it
so we're not really voting on this
concept yet because that concept would
have would be a future action of counsel
we're just showing that this is the
concept is there would be an income
money coming in money going out as part
of uh the Main Street uh trail of parks
if Council would like to leave that out
of this budget
I totally understand that as well we can
do that but I wanted to show where that
would fit in within the within the tip
because that's information that needs to
be finalized no matter what and will
will have to be we will have to require
future Council action but again okay I
think you just answered my question even
if it's in it still requires future yeah
you can't you can't spend the money
that's not there right it's kind of a
placeholder at most right now which is
not which isn't normal we did the same
thing when we did our Jeffrey Mansion
project we we projected the income from
a loan and we projected the expense it's
it's normal for us to do that uh what's
a little bit of a Different Twist here
is I'm not totally convinced that we
want to borrow but that's has to be all
discussed in the Future No Matter What
so I guess is the year of the parks
or the Main Street year part of the year
of the Park's dependent on
this it is dependent on oh yeah there's
no other way like not dependent I mean I
mean the infrastructure fund or
something yeah you could fund it
somewhere else you could fund it
somewhere else the streetscape Tiff is
designed specifically for that sort of
improvement right and and the added
advantage of paying it back with
the Tiff money that's coming in year
over year
it's what allows us to kind of
imagine those sorts of things or ice
rinks in the future well we could do
that here
if yeah I mean I
if we can find the right spot for it
this this would be where Council become
realist activities to put it in there
other I know other municipalities this
is they've taken tiffs to help support
this kind of development there is most
likely capacity in a tip for that
that is not currently part of the
current year of the parks concept though
just to be clear yes
[Music]
is bringing it back to ice skating I am
there's a lot well ice as you guys saw I
recently sent the splash pad that
becomes an ice skating rink there's a
lot of
since the pandemic hit we are we're
becoming Canada
okay
hey
okay the other thing we're doing here is
just in the budget for purposes of
presentation and you can see our overall
expenses got dropped because we're just
pulling out what the Agreements are so
that it's just a little clearer for you
guys because there there's the mrmj Tiff
agreement and then there's the East the
the bank agreement that still exists
with the reimbursement
any more conversation on Tiff or
discussion of that
concept okay
where is the total of where's the total
of how that 1.6 million is broken out
it's not there right now okay I have I
have the if you took the the the
presentation I gave before the total of
those parks would come up to that number
and I have a spreadsheet that shows up
but it's not that budget does not
when I was trying to map that out but is
that
um
net of Grants
or does that include is that the total
cost and then there would be grants that
would offset that when you look at the
funding stack for all of these other
products improvements the Main Street
pieces would be Tiff funded entirely
I mean not obviously the
okay so there's no grants that would
come from that this would all of the
Main Street stuff would be is is
intended to be
the working assumption right now is that
it would be funded through a tiff or
majority of the majority okay okay
there's a lot more detail that needs to
follow it will have to fall no matter
what in order for us to do the funding
piece you guys we're going to get real
numbers right so right now we have some
contractor estimates we have some
internal estimates and we have some
where it's like there's a very rough
internal estimate but we're still
finalizing for example the
reading room
okay
and it can again that does not have to
be in this current this piece of the
budget I think it's perfectly reasonable
to say we've talked about this we know
in concept we're coming next year with a
lot more detail
it's in a tip it's not in the general
fund so it's not like we're putting
ourselves in a situation where we might
be representing a deficit or non-deficit
budget that goes deficit because that's
not how it works in the test
um I'm very hung up on deficit budgets I
think you guys know that uh Urban
Redevelopment Tiff so this is our second
tip this is a specific Justice City Hall
Redevelopment
um this Tiff is real simple money comes
in from the Giant Eagle
30 of what the schools would have
otherwise have gotten are given to the
schools and the forms of a pilot that
shows up on the the expense detail here
SD pilot that's what that means
and then um the rest is property tax
collection fees
and offsetting uh debt that exists for
when we built the service garage and
when we built out this site right here
foreign
really not a whole lot more we can do
with it than that
and that coupled with the economic
payment from Bexley Square more than
pays for the cost we hadn't relocated
any questions about the economic the
urban Redevelopment Tiff
AKA City Hall Tiff
okay
finally if we could turn to page 70 or
69
well for this section of bun
the Capital Improvements fund
so this budget calls for 1.2 million
dollars going into the Capital
Improvements fund
we've we funded 1.4 million dollars into
the Capital Improvements Fund in 2022.
um some of the reason that we have
fueled that much investment into Capital
Improvements is to assist with some of
these Parks projects and other
infrastructure projects that we have
if you turn to
um page two that shows actual expenses
outlayed
you can see that we're actually calling
even with what we're discussing here a
slight decrease in capital spending in
2023
uh page
70.
sorry page 70. and also on the agenda is
a more detailed capital
budget
so it's called Bexley capital budget
detail
and so I'm going to actually refer to
that document which I have pulled up and
those numbers should track
if we did it all right with uh what you
see in front of you and although it's in
a different order just to complicate
things
um so the first one is police equipment
we have a um
we have a police cruiser assessment
policy it's very similar to other cities
where we we see how many miles there are
on Cruisers but the maintenance record
is for them
um overall assessment of the vehicle
before determining replacement based on
that we have two Cruisers are indicated
for replacement
uh the chief is proposing
a golf cart or OHV for community events
so officers can get in quickly into
community events and out have some
carrying capacity
um just more more friendly and Nimble
interface for those
um we are
budgeting for additional EV Chargers
both for existing EV vehicles for our
police Fleet and also for those to come
because we expect that the
EV Cruisers that Ford has announced will
probably be available to Market in the
next year or two
and then evidence software so uh
evidence property room software helps us
Manage Property that comes in
disposition of property where it needs
to go it's a specialized piece of
software this is The Upfront cost of
that software the annual cost of it is
included in the tech budget that you saw
already
the chief if you have any questions in
this can speak to the relevance and need
for these individual items but they are
part of our capital budget and we can if
you have specific questions I can make
sure they're addressed
for a service department
um they're asking for a spider lift for
the Forestry Department
um it's a type of lift that can get into
remote areas so if we're back in a park
or if we're in a harder to reach section
of a of a like in the back alley or
something it allows us to deploy a
bucket and get up and access trees for
tree maintenance have you guys seen
those before
yeah either the it's for yeah they would
either climb it
um
and honestly that this is a good usually
we would have department heads here but
I think it just everything ran kind of
late so this is a really if you have
specific questions I'm pitch hitting
right now with this grant
Grant has been asking for this for
several years he feels like he'll really
help him out but I don't I really would
like him or Andy to explain that more
um front end loader is a piece of
equipment which will allow us uh much
more effectively to navigate uh our salt
environment in general and soil and
gravel and loading up dump trucks we're
about to say this is in lieu of
replacing an old backhoe
um it's just a better piece of equipment
um and again Andy can address that if
you look at the way this is split up
some of this shows up in our general
Capital fund and then it's split in
thirds between General Water and Sewer
based upon this piece of equipment being
used for also Water and Sewer work
it was a concrete buggy which allows us
to get concrete in two areas where a
concrete truck couldn't otherwise pour
we were renting them right now they cost
a lot to rent and this would allow us to
save some money
we have an additional pickup truck
needed and then we have site
improvements for the the property that
was recently purchased following is
demolition where we would put up some
gates and Landscaping and surface
so that's the service department capital
budget access is that additional pickup
truck in addition to the two lightning
trucks and is this an electronic truck
as well electronic vehicle yep so this
is an EV Ford EV and it would be the
third pickup truck can that this may
have nothing to do with it if you'd
rather than talk about later how are you
getting a 47.5 it seemed like use for
sale for like a hundred and five
thousand dollars so there's three trim
levels the one is the is the like the
base work truck and it was 40 last year
and it's 47.5 this year
yeah thank you
not yet but we're
two
and we're behind I mean we're waiting on
those and our trucks are rusting out so
these are needed it's not like you know
we're not just out trying to buy trucks
to buy trucks and
they have not yet canceled our orders
but they have Kansas mortars yeah
the city hall cap yep well and I
realized we're kind of segue so when I
look at these expenses I I would just be
interested in understanding like
if we the the incremental costs that
we're spending to go electric versus
Fossil so just that that would be
helpful to understand that
um and then two
you know when I look at spider lift and
front end loader and the concrete buggy
um clearly I mean that that's we'll call
it 250 000 of expenses
um I'd just be interested
I mean it sounds like what we're doing
now is renting
items we've rented spider left so we've
rented a concrete buggy before I I
really need Andy your Grant to address
those yeah and I would have an address I
would just like to see over the you know
over the past two three years how much
money we've been spending to rent those
three items and then help you know I'd
I'd like to see if there's a payback I
mean on it because ultimately if you
know we're spending a couple thousand
dollars a year on renting I'm making
this up we should probably continue to
rent yep so okay
and I totally agree with you and I know
that we've discussed it in the past but
I did I need there more I need more
specifications
um City Hall
we have uh
several different projects here
um slated one is a security enhancement
that came out of a recent uh security
training that we had
um that allows uh reconfiguration of
door access in this area of City Hall
um I realize I'm going backwards
um yeah
um so so pretty good idea came out of
that which would allow us to uh change
the way that this door works and I can
explain that more in depth if you guys
would like
um
digitization and building department
files this is pending actually getting
quotes on this and we do quotes on this
but we have uh most of our files that we
have on our Stacks our building
department files
um a couple things they are historical
record they're one of those files that
go back as far as we have them we had a
major fire uh in the city hall
basement many many many many many years
ago was a flooding or a fire I can't
remember what's been flooding somebody's
supposed to be fire anyway where we lost
a lot of our building department files
and that's they're they're pretty
invaluable because the historical
context matters a lot when it comes to
designing as we've learned so I'd love
to digitize those
um keep a hard copy off site
uh but have those digitized and be able
to clear that space out
um to make way for different uses here
in split it all
um and then the front entry is not it's
technically Ada accessible in terms of
the width of the doorway but it's not
accessible uh you can't push a button to
open it so I want to automate that so
that it's accessible also make it two
doors instead of one
um so that we can get equipment more
easily in and out it's been a challenge
so those are those items
we have payroll and scheduling software
um be sure you want to speak to that a
little bit
yeah actually a more accurate I guess
description be time keeping um because
we've been process our payroll through
our existing software
um
it's we went a little more expensive
than we originally looked at because the
police ought to speak for the police
chief there 24 7 operation with a gaggle
of pay codes and everything is getting
done by hand all the time sheets and
even Natalie could chime in on this we
do a lot of stuff just we're passing
paper around all all the all the time
and and things to get lost and there can
be errors and this is just it's an
Autumn what we're looking at right now
the product we're looking at right now
is
um called right stuff software
um and it was
developed specifically well originally
specifically for police departments and
now is they they it's a niche for just
Municipal company or Municipal clients
and they basically take our contracts
and program them in for all our codes
all our
um and so then people will have the
ability to clock in and out off-site
automate aided and we'll just get rid of
a ton of time wasted on
Natalie's and Natalie and the Rex and
everybody just passing around time she's
getting them signed and and also I I
wish the chief were here to speak to the
just the scheduling aspect of it that's
probably not as significant for us in
City Hall where eight to five
or eight to four thirty as it is
um but for the 24 7 operations it's it's
become
you know it's the really good service
anything that Natalie you were she was
really keenly involved in this I and is
really burdened with a lot of the
um
and paper
are the um like I'm assuming this is a
deployment
fee the cost to deploy and of course
in the technology departments they'll be
um the I think it's eighteen hundred
dollars a month what was it 1800 a month
yes so is that part of the budget now is
that included in the budget yes I think
it should be it should be okay but why
would we tell Eric to do that I'm just
kidding I know we just had this
conversation cabinet so that's right
let's double check that yeah
um
I kind of feel like you're getting a I
mean by automating that stuff it's
almost like you're getting a part-time
employee that organizes all your
paperwork for you
okay
um and then we come to Parks Capitol
which is where the remainder of the year
of the parks lives as well as uh several
other Parks Capital Improvements
um
the Schneider Splash Pad is proposed for
next to
the um uh the the shelter house at
Schneider
um we have preliminary designs and
estimates from landscape structures
which uh installed and designed the
playground as well
um you know it would be a really great
amenity to add to the park it is part of
our active spaces concept for year of
the parks
um site Furnishings when we
um redid the pavement at Schneider Park
between the athletic fields and Astor
roughly we also pulled out a whole lot
of rotten benches and some chess tables
and such so this would allow us to
replace Furniture chains that have been
taken out of Schneider
Mike will tell you more about this or
actually I believe Matt could Mr
Klingler the Jeffrey Mansion HVAC
engineering we've long struggled with uh
issues with HVAC at Jeffrey and we're
hoping to get a third party assessment
of that system because it's just not
it's not performing the way it needs to
uh that's not for the new edition by the
way that's for the existing older
portion of it anything to add to that
are you but I it needs replaced yeah
um there's additional expense with the
dog park for signage and entry point to
finish that off uh because the fencing
um came in pretty much at what we had
received a grant for
um Commonwealth pergolas Plaza and
median those are currently rough
estimates that live here we have done
pretty well with our rough estimates uh
they they were they were the foundation
for um some of our other estimates for
the past year with year of the park so I
feel that between those three combined
we're probably in pretty good shape
um but and those are with the with the
consultation with uh Landscape designer
and coming up with those rough estimates
Mike did not end up doing the four
student shelter design so this is a
reallocation of an appropriation from
2022 coming back for 23 so it's going to
be abandoned
um I might mention by the way sorry
Schneider splash pad
we can fully fund with the Havenwood uh
budget being lower than it was
um instead of going ahead and taking
that out of the 22 Capital fund we're
putting that in the 23 Capital fund
sorry forgot about that Capital repairs
Mike Price uh has suggested that there
he needs to do some additional Capital
repairs on various areas of the parks
he's going to need to present on that
and then the Park's signage this would
totally replace Park signage throughout
all of our parks with the unified sign
design we've been working with the sign
consultant for the past year to come up
with this and we can present this once
totally completed but it calls for a new
way finding signs new overall park
identification signs
easier to read more useful for those of
us who have lived in the community for a
long time we know where the tennis
courts are you know we know where the
pickleball courts are and where the
athletic fields at Schneider are but a
lot of people don't you know and Google
Maps isn't always accurate about where
things are so this would be a really key
Improvement and I think what I probably
should have led with when we first
started when I first did the year the
parks presentation tonight
is that
there are a few things that we can do in
our community uh that are enhance it
more and there are other things that are
really important and creating these
amazing public spaces and if you look
throughout the region and you visit
um what Dublin has done at Bridge Park
and you visit what New Albany has has
done in their downtown area in the parks
around it and you look at all the park
improvements in Upper Arlington and in
other communities what we in Columbus
what we see is there's so much amazing
new value being added you talked about
the splash pads and obets the double is
the nice Rank and so this is our
opportunity we do a really good job in
general I think with our Parks but um
we've been talking for years about how
to really enhance them and make them pop
and so this budget accomplishes that
entirely throughout the Tiff throughout
our Capital fund throughout previous
Capital funds throughout the grants that
we've worked really hard to receive it
really takes all of this program I mean
to the next level and I think it's gonna
be a huge value out of the community
so
that's my Capital fund presentation
ended on aspiration and happy answering
questions thank you
that was great
now I know that we're going to be
tabling this tonight uh there's still a
lot more work that I have to do from
some of the comments and questions
tonight
um I know there's some some question
marks here just to ask
um double back get that one question
Eric said that uh it is not in his
budget he wasn't sure what options we
were going to accept so that'll be a new
a new item in there too
questions from Council yes Mr Klingler
just a quick thought I know in city
Columbus building department they um had
an intern do all of their building
digitization I know that was a thought I
have an intern do it I know we hire one
usually every year so we do and I'll
tell you what I don't tend to give them
automated tasks like that one of our
philosophies with internships is that
they should be like real value-added
professional development but maybe I'm
being too principled about my use of
interns I guess
[Laughter]
do they believe
I'd love to learn more about that yeah
other questions
this is a third reading so we extend
questions to the audience
you're not allowed to go
Connie might have a question for you
I don't have a question for Mr Hackman
um Constance who is 663 Claire
this this year the parks is real
exciting
and I'm looking forward to that
um but the one thing you had on there in
the last slide with something you said
that that Mike didn't have in or didn't
do that the the Four Season building yep
what is that about why is it not in
there where would it be
so um The Proposal was to design a Four
Season shelter house
where there's a patch of pavement
yeah where Camp pickup is but there's
like the what we call the parks cabin
which is really a shed down a Lower
Meadow at Jeffrey Park there's there's
pavement there sometimes like in the
winter there's picnic tables on the side
kind of stacked right next to the public
restroom
is it where you you
um boil down the syrup no it's strong
no pickleball courts north of there
the other side
where the
so
yeah there's a lot of trees but it's
right here
this area
um exploring a Four Season shelter house
similar to what is at Wyman Woods Park
and in Grandview
that does not exist today that's just
conceptual today that's uh this is
pavement that you can't tell but it
extends more and there's a shed this is
a shed right here okay
it's like it has like a
a fridge in it and some
storage shelves
okay so that was in last year's budget
to just to do to do a design it was in
last year's budget to do the design
and he doesn't have it in this year's
budget he's it didn't get done this year
so he's he's take it we're not spending
the money and we're putting it back
again at next year's budget hopefully
getting that done this year next year
okay and
um my other question is for the
Commonwealth Park
um
bathrooms that sort of thing it was
supposed to be on the ARB agenda this
past week and didn't get to it
um because of what was going on down at
St Charles but
um
do you have it planned to have slate
roofs yes so um and there's actually the
same renderings right there in the
hallway but this is a stone structure
with slate roof and
um
I don't have the full plans right here
in front of us but essentially this this
acts as a Gateway and
um and a kind of a flange wall and then
behind it integrated and structure it's
kind of a wall on both sides would be
this a restroom on one side and a
mechanical Upper Room on the other just
one restroom One restaurant for everyone
for all the people One Restaurant okay
that's lovely
um and when it comes to
um the
the pool that you talked about as far as
membership goes
mm-hmm
we don't I don't even swim
um and we don't use the pool but if
there was any way in the budget that the
city maybe this is too much that the
city could pay for that it would be a
huge amenity to our community
so rather than than charge
a membership
just free
that's all I have to say thank you thank
you Connie thank you
do you have a motion Ms Lemke
I do I just want to make sure no other
questions before I make my motion
I motion to table ordinance 41-22
second motion by Ms Lampe second by Mr
Klingler uh
Mr McPeak
yes
viable yes Mr Marcelino yes and Mr Marx
yes
I try to fool them by looking at someone
and calling someone else
all right so now we have about 45 minute
Mayors report we haven't heard that yet
we have we did we we're actually on the
auditor's report
believe it or not we you have not had a
chance to give you a report no reports
so now now we are at the administrative
update we have gone through most of
these except for the mayor's report uh
president Markham my report is in
writing uh I will have I'm happy to
answer your questions
I have a question to remind me is the
the mayor's solicitor part of the party
December 8th December 8th I thought so
for sure better put it on my calendar
brain or Shrine rain or shine baby it's
gonna be in the fourth season shelter
and get to that interface
that is your report
that's what's attached an image of Civic
Clerk
that's what I think of y'all
there is a report it looks like this
and I will up and it has beautiful
photos from the past you know the report
was correct until 9 30. after 9 30 it
goes to bed I guess uh I will have that
uploaded here in the next
couple minutes
it broke it was such a beautiful cover
that it broke the internet
[Laughter]
we're getting it all right it's it's
promised all right let's move on send
agenda a million minutes from 11 8 22.
see how I shortened that
any uh questions on the consent agenda
the meeting minutes from the last
meeting
questions from the audience
uh can I have a motion for the consent
agenda motion to approve the extension
motion to approve by Mr Klingler second
by Mr Marcelino Mr McAfee Mr Markham yes
Assad yes Miss lamke Mr Marcelino yes
Miss feibel yes Mr Klingler yes and Miss
Robinson
consent agenda passes
all right no third readings under the
second readings we have a second reading
of ordinance 43-22 to establish the
water sewer and refuse rates charged by
the city of Bexley introduced by Ms
lamke
thank you it looks like we have some
proposed amendments for this ordinance
uh mayor do you want to walk us through
some of those proposed amendments plot
twist
um
this ordinance
I'm pulling up here
um
okay uh actually we'll need the
amendment to if I apologize to do this
to you but if you would disregard the
proposed amendments that I didn't have a
chance to really look deeply at this
until today
um
what is true is that the way the initial
ordinance right here was section three
our refuse rate is more complicated than
that and um we had did we used a I used
a draft or I used the first version of
an ordinance from last year and updated
it not realizing that we had this same
realization last do you remember that
so so but what is what is true also is
that last year when we did this we
passed our refuse rates for four years
into the future three years into the
future knowing that remember we needed
to catch up on our refuse rates which is
what we were just talking about so
um my apologies for not remembering that
more quickly or astutely but that has
already happened so you have passed
Refuge rates that are increasing over
time
um they're codified there's no need to
take any action on reference rates
unless anyone wants to lower them or
raise them I guess differently so
section three is going to go away in a
proposed amended but it's not in front
of you
and that's all that the change will be
okay sorry no I was just going to say if
this is just the second reading I assume
we can just wait till yeah
because it's going to affect one one
so um if so we need emergency language
to make it effective upon passes it is
in place okay I just didn't remember
yeah and it's in the title too and
declare an emergency sorry that's fine
so um yeah we're good
okay
all right should I move on
probably okay we have a second reading
award in his 44-22 amending chapter 291
of the city of Bexley codified
ordinances to add section
291.02 authorizing certain city
officials to issue subpoenas and
furtherance of Investigations of
misdemeanor crimes that was introduced
by Mrs Robinson
um I can tell you that I spoke with Ms
Robinson I think I included you on the
email too today
um that um the question that was asked
is whether or not there are certain
there are pending investigations in the
police department that would benefit
from emergency passage and a suspension
of the third reading and the answer is
yes there are
um and I know the police department or
at least detective Riley would certainly
appreciate that I can tell you Jen was
okay with that so there is a proposed
amendment to add emergency language so
it would go in effect upon signature
passage of counsel and signature the
mayor so two questions are what one are
you well
I guess the first thing would be to make
to amend
um ordinance
44-22 to reflect the new emergency
language there and then a suspension of
the three reading requirement if Council
Stone Klein and then approval all
tonight yep that's
that's a bunch of stuff any uh any
questions about what Mr Fishel has just
uh just said
uh if not I will uh move to amend
44 20 ordinance 44-22 as shown
second seconded by Ms lampke
um
yeah um Mr McPeak
Mr Markham yes Assad yes yes Mr
Marcelino yes Miss viable yes Mr
cleanler yes Miss Robinson Amendment
passes moved to suspend the three
reading rule for ordinance 44-22 second
second by Miss viable Mr McPeak
Mr Markham yes Mr Klingler yes Miss sod
yes Miss Robinson
miss lamke Mr marcellino and Miss I'm
sorry yes that's fine yes
um something just passed that's the uh
motion requirement is
waived yeah uh something has passed
uh oh he's getting slapped happy move to
adopt ordinance 44-22
second
second by Mr Klingler
um I think
I think we need to extend the
opportunity to comment on this too or
Mr mcpeat Miss Todd yes Miss lamkey yes
Mr Klingler yes Mr Marcelino yes Miss
viable yes Miss Robinson
Mr Markham yes and ordinance passes
there we go all right we are now on to
this second reading of ordinance 45-22
to establish the salary for the office
of mayor for the years 2024 through 2027
introduced by Ms lamke
um thank you I circulated to council
earlier some additional information
regarding
um pay for uh Central Ohio Mayors or
city managers hopefully everyone had a
chance to look at that we do have some
proposed amendments um
and
I think
if you want to scroll down that would be
yeah
the acting mayor will do that yes
the first change is obviously in the
title uh the second changed in section
one is to codify the mayor's salary
additional amendments include new
amounts for 2026 and 2027 as shown
that's in consultation with our city
auditor regarding appropriate
and reasonable salaries for those two
years and then section two further
codifies the annual vehicle allowance
allowed for the mayor for 2024 through
2027.
any questions from Council
do we feel comfortable amending this
tonight and then letting it go to a
third reading next one
okay I motion to amend ordinance 45-22
as shown I'll second
by Miss sod
um
Mr mcpeek
yes Miss lamke yes Mr Klingler yes Mr
Marcelino yes missifiable yes Miss
Robinson Mr Markham yes Amendment
pastors so amended
all right we are now on to a second
reading of ordinance 46-22 to create
chapter again mayor thanks to create
chapter 220.04 compensation and to
establish the salary for the office of
city council member for the years 2024
and Beyond introduced by Ms lamke
um thank you this again is the second
reading for uh Council of compensation
for the years 2024 and Beyond at our
last discussion
um
there was some information that we
circulated regarding what compensation
for city council members are in central
Ohio so that's been hopefully
digested as well does anyone have any
comments questions
um I think at the last meeting uh
council member fieibel had maybe a
possible Amendment for the next reading
you want to go over that I I don't have
um the verbiage but I would like to see
that this is looked at on occasion I
think this is what we we talked about
last time around
so that it's something that's Revisited
and it's a it's a must revisit
on occasion so I don't know what that
would look like and um
maybe Mark you can help me with that
yeah I mean I just need yes absolutely
we just need to figure out what
intervals you want to reviewed and we'll
just make the section
220.04 A and then make 220.04 b as the
okay you shall do it but yeah we can
come up with that easily so we'll we'll
bring an amendment at the third reading
yeah I would support that too I I tell
you I think because it's kind of weird
and it's kind of awkward and I don't
really want to you know address uh you
know council salary I remember my my
first year which has been six seven
years ago and we did the marbc study and
Tim Madison said well you know city
council was underpaid compared to other
city councils but you know it's awkward
you don't want to sit there and take it
on when the charter review met I went
and talked to Charter View and I said it
would just be better if there was some
sort of automatic you know you know
thing or whatever that could take place
so I think you know nobody does this for
the money nobody's up here doing this
for the money but uh the last time it
was changed was I don't know two decades
ago or something like that so uh there
there should be some sort of you know
some sort of mechanism to sort of prompt
this and and I appreciate the work done
by the auditor and the mayor here these
these look you know these look
reasonable to me so I would support this
and I would also support adding that
language in there that just says do a
study you know consider this or whatever
and obviously and it goes without saying
one of the reasons that we're doing this
is because we're not raising our own
salaries we're raising uh for future
council members yep and that is why I
actually would even maybe limit that
more for the time frame that you're
talking about because again that study
that was performed I don't think we know
when those were raised
uh so far so that could be we might be
on the low end right now in our
evaluation of everything is to where
City Council salaries will be so to make
sure that we can continue recruit strong
Talent strong community members I think
that that figure maybe we should stop it
after 2028 and do a review then leave
out the final two reviews just to make
sure so that way we don't box anybody
into a corner
the address
I think um also and I don't know if this
can via our Charter be changed but I
think the other awkward piece is that it
affects half of the seats and not the
other and I know 2026 would affect
everyone seats that are sitting here in
the room whether
we're sitting here then or not so I
don't know if that's something we want
to look at as well
a way to address that Mr President the
way to dress that I think is if you
leave like that 30
2030 blank but then you say in 2024 we
need to revisit 2030. so council's
always you know six years ahead in terms
of analyzing this so you're making
changes that wouldn't occur to you at
all necessarily
um but
we'll make sure that no one gets
unevenly like this would happen uneven
in 2024 right so that's probably the
only thing I have the biggest problem
with
yeah that wouldn't happen again right
you would solve that for future
Generations so that would that's my
bigger concern that you just addressed
the questions
all right let's move on all right we got
a second reading of ordinance 47-22 to
establish compensation for non-barging
unit employees for the city of Bexley
effective 1-1 23 Ms Lemke
uh thank you I'm going to turn this over
to our mayor
um to maybe briefly highlight and answer
any questions that Council may have
uh yeah so I have nothing further to add
beyond what we discussed at the last
meeting
um other than to say there are some
specific items that we have an executive
session coming up later this meeting yay
because we need that tonight
um we'll keep brief but nonetheless that
would address some additional
conversation
that's good any questions from Council
all right
so we lost our attorney
against uh Mr McAfee can read it go
ahead and read it oh boy
um first reading for ordinance 4822 to
create chapter 837 tobacco retail
license and regulations and to remove
chapter
636.16 of a codified ordinances illegal
distribution of cigarettes and other
tobacco products
or alternate nicotine products
introduced by Sam Marcelino on November
15
2020. I know I know you all are thorough
members of council so I anticipate that
you've already reviewed the 10 pages of
this uh in general we're just trying to
make sure that we limit the ability of
minors to be able to purchase uh certain
types of tobacco as a whole I think we
already have the flavor ban in effect
here we're already at 21 it's really not
changing much in terms of what this
changes but it also puts the
responsibility into uh Franklin County
uh Public Health to assist in making
sure that everything is licensed and
forced uh penalized
Etc
it being first reading late I'm happy to
answer any questions otherwise I would
encourage you to continue to take a look
before next meeting
and there will be a guest presenting at
our next council meeting perfect
did you fixed any of those other things
like there are different
there are a couple of questions that
were still
we were still unsure about well one one
wasn't a question one was that there was
references to different health I think
it was supposed to be references to the
health department but it was called
different things throughout and then
there was that one area that I can't
remember off the top of my head where I
pointed out I thought there was an
inconsistency yeah that we you know we
worked through everything else that was
fine but I just want to make sure that's
still on the radar yeah I think we yeah
we'll probably have an imagined version
of it okay okay I just want to make sure
sorry I didn't realize you were going to
be so quick on the payroll earnest
we just slashed paid ten percent
that sounds reasonable
shall I move move on all right we are
now a first reading of resolution 10-22
to schedule the Baxley city council
meeting dates and times for the year
2023 introduced by Troy Markham yeah
thank you Natalie for reminding me that
we should meet in 2023.
we have an obligation to do that so
these are these are the dates and and
please take a good look at these and and
and because I came up with these like in
10 minutes and then Natalie took a good
look at him and I think she caught a
couple mistakes that I had made in there
um but um please take a look at these
dates make sure that they make sense uh
make sure that they are accurate as far
as you know uh these would be the
meeting dates for next year and I've
tried to uh keep to the uh second and
fourth it Tuesdays where possible uh
obviously the end there yes Mr Marcelino
November 7th will be election day uh and
I think that hey we have some people
that I believe will be running yeah
potentially and so if there's a way that
we could potentially could modify that
now
yeah we can push that
well we've got Thanksgiving to kind of
watch out for too
uh that we could do Tuesday before
Thanksgiving
Tuesday you know I also do the Tuesday
after Thanksgiving weekend and you see I
mean you'd have one week between either
way
you could also just do a really fast
meeting on the seventh the problem is
it's budget season
right so simple it will write itself
this film is pretty good until the night
yeah so that's that's uh maybe think
about like what is the preference there
after Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving
that would be my preference what would
be the 28th perhaps 14th from the 28th
yes much better maybe the 14th and the
28th and then we just slide the fifth
right behind that
all right three weeks in a row
well sort of yeah no but it's better
than an election night don't you think I
mean yeah I mean given that we're going
to have council members right that would
be odd yeah I don't think it's ever
happened yeah that's a good point good
catch Sam
Natalie can you kind of remind me of
that or check change that or
records you know Ben Kessler is finally
on it yeah
um all right let's move on then let's
keep going we got I think that's it I
think we're under table ordinances here
do we have something that we're needs to
come off to the table
leave on the table
please
that's so nice
uh
speak now or forever hold your peace
it's not sunny out you don't need solar
panels oh solar panels
all right no that's you've heard it
he said moving on committee reports Jen
Robinson is not here how about uh
service and environmental committee
report okay well today is
um happy American Recycling day and I
had a whole lot really I had a whole lot
of information on it but my computer
died so won't be getting it
you'll have to hear it next I have your
question right oh yeah yes but we're
going to do sir we're doing these first
right yeah yeah yeah
so no other report but to wish you a
hearing nobody's excused
happy American Recycling day all right
now we know about that all right uh
finance committee report I'm thankful
for all of you happy Thanksgiving
[Laughter]
safety and health committee uh January
27th new police officer will be sworn in
so uh make sure you mark your calendars
hot off the press all right zoning and
development nzr
uh recreation parks Jessica sauce if you
want to come flip some pancakes at
Jeffrey Mansion let me know let's get
everybody signed up and uh
gobble gobble Happy Thanksgiving
and there's just a lot of things going
on with parking Rec for the month of
December so excited to see you guys out
there because I'd have it back and to
report
all right we're getting a little punch
drunk
we have public comments uh we have no
public comments and so I uh will move at
this point to uh moving to Executive
session to consider the appointment
employment special discipline promotion
emotion or compensation of a Public
Employee or official or the
investigation or charges complaints
against Pelican Boy official licensee
regulated individual unless the employee
official licensee regulated individual
request public hearing by division C1 to
section
121.22 of the rise code
second second by Mr Marcelino uh we need
a Voice vote for this
Mrs slampke yes Mr Marcelino
yes Mr Markham yes this fiable Miss
Robinson and Mr Klingler yes as past we
will move into executive session thank
you for turning that off for me
thank you
I was speaking about something else
entirely anyway uh motion to uh return
from executive session so moved all in
favor uh
well I think he seconded it yeah
seconded by uh Miss Bible all in favor
say
same sign
I will take a motion to adjourn motion
adjourn motion
second and by Ms lamke all in favor say
aye
aye all opposed same sign