right
I almost don't wanna
make you all stop chatting because I'm
loving I'm loving hearing all of this
and I I want to welcome all of you here
we are
this is our last meeting in November so
that we can so Council can enjoy the
week of Thanksgiving I know I am really
pumped I have two two daughters coming
back from their uh their educational
spots and um
and I wanted to just start our meeting
with just a little bit of piece of
gratitude
if I could
um Ellie Wiesel says that remember
um it says he says for me every hour is
Grace and I feel gratitude in my heart
each time I can meet someone and look at
his or her smile
and it's a little ironic because none of
us are looking at each other's Smiles
right now
nonetheless I am so uh grateful for how
far we have come last year Council was
meeting at our homes on Zoom at least we
now can see each other and see how we
react and I can't begin to tell each one
of you how grateful I am for each one of
you and to be able to serve you and to
be able to have the honor of serving our
amazing community
and to be able to work with our our rec
department our our service department
our police officers who we are
celebrating in a way this evening and
um and know that they are so good to us
all of our departments are so good to us
and we we owe them a piece of gratitude
as well
so if you will please remember with me
why we are here tonight and it's for the
good of Bexley and with that I would
like you to please join with me welcome
roll call I always forget roll call
before we do the pledge I always jump
right into it here Mr Klingler here Ms
lamke here Mr Markham Miss Robinson here
miss sod here and Mr Sharp here all
right now the pledge please
with liberty and justice for all
okay
all right we have a whole uh Council
chamber full of uh special guests who
are graduating in a special way tonight
and we even have some uh some family
members joining to uh cheer you on and I
I love to see young people in the
chamber with us um it's the best to see
you guys here so I'm glad that the two
of you came with Mom and Dad and um I
love that you're here so I think I need
to turn this over to our sweet Dawn
overly
who uh who is uh
an amazing
um
an amazing part of our
um police department and does so much uh
what I love I'm a former educator and
she does a whole lot of educating in
this community and I am I am grateful
for that
so do I turned over to you and your turn
around to you Mr Mayor I turn it over to
the mayor all right Mr Mayor
I forgot I forgot that that's her
favorite thing
we are so honored and privileged to have
our graduating class this year from the
citizens Police Academy always but
especially this year because of the fact
that due to all the pandemic
restrictions we kind of missed out on
here so it's so wonderful to welcome you
guys back here I'm not going to speak
any longer but to say that Sergeant
overly does such a fantastic job with
this program and it's such a meaningful
and valuable way as you guys know to
connect with our police department and
learn more about its operations and its
people and um I am so grateful to you
and for what you do and putting this
together
although I have not yet
[Applause]
I would say my only complaint is that I
have not yet been asked to help out with
the drunken driving goggles
Becky Gooseman just won't give up
without further adober yeah I just want
to tell you guys even if we had a small
class but we had an outstanding class
um you guys had some
great questions especially when Becky
came in and did her Obi and drinking and
then the following week she did her uh
post feel on why you don't do filter
writing tests I hope you guys all
remember that
I hope you felt felt relationships
because that was really the key of this
understanding what you need and what we
need and that we can meet in the middle
so I had a great time I hope you guys
did and you uh will encourage others to
participate next year
so so we're going to call up your name
give you a certificate and then we'll
start to kind of form yes I present
around here is that right okay Jill
Bubba
Alicia I'm not going to butcher your
last name
thank you mayor there you go
Carmen Franco
thanks so much thank you Lori Jenkins
thank you
Genie long
foreign
wants to be a police officer now
Renee Robbins
thank you Brandy's so cool
okay
foreign
ER
[Applause]
all right now it's photo time right it's
photo time so everyone has to squeeze
together as much as possible no social
distance
probably
Okay so
oh no
I don't know
just look in the middle
[Music]
sure don't breathe
all right
yeah
[Music]
all right guys thank you so much
real quick
real quick before all of you leave
um I don't know I gotta brag that I'm
also a graduate of this group yeah and I
have a fellow graduate exactly the same
the same uh class Monique lampke and I
am gonna just she has a few things she
wants to say real quick so but I'd love
for all of you to hang around while she
well she says what she
what hat is on her mind Ms lamke what is
on your mind tonight
thank you so much president Bible
um as lorian mentioned she and I were
graduates a few years ago the Citizens
Academy and it was such an amazing class
so well run
um and I wanted to share my note of
gratitude and thanks along the lines of
the opening comments by our president
for not only all of you but also
Sergeant overly and everyone who
participated in this class I am beyond
grateful as I look around I see so many
friends that did the academy with me I
see so many of our seniors so many of
our families who participated and I see
just so many of you that I love so much
I see Joe I see Willie
a couple of months ago
we made sure that the seniors in our
community felt valued and appreciated
and I remember just in casual
conversation with Joe Doherty she
mentioned to me you know what we love
Bexley so much she doesn't even live in
Bexley but she's like our Uber volunteer
and I know that so many of you give back
to this community
just jokingly Joe mentioned to me that
one day before she dies
she would love to receive a proclamation
from the mayor so mayor I think you have
something to read
come join me please
so uh when Monique called me
um she said you look yeah here we are
she said you know you know Joe and I I
immediately of course of course I know
you you're like a legend Joe takes about
half the photos that have ever been
taken of me
efforts and post it to social media so
it was a no-brainer and so I'm gonna I'm
gonna sort of cut to the chase real
quickly
in case you didn't know it today
November 16th I'm right here
2021 is Joe Doherty day and
honor of which
[Applause]
in honor of which I have this
Proclamation
bexley's fortunate to have many
wonderful volunteers making a difference
in our community every day and Joe
Doherty is one such volunteer who truly
inspires us with her generosity and
devotion Joe has generously dedicated
her time and talent as a long time
volunteer in our community supporting a
variety of organizations and initiatives
and Joe has positively impacted the
lives of many people through her
volunteer efforts with the Bexley
citizens Police Academy alumni welcome
new graduates the main event Drexel
Theater and other Bexley organizations
and whereas Bexley has been greatly
enriched by Joe's selfless efforts and
her Generous Heart we are grateful for
her love and support of all things
Bexley therefore I do Proclaim I'm sorry
it's not today
no no it's not today we talked about
this I was wrong we talked about this
it's Friday you know why because I
figured it's not fair for you not to get
a full day don't you think so Friday
November 19th 2021 is Joe Doherty day in
the city of Bexley may you all celebrate
it vociferously
[Applause]
well
anybody who knows me knows how much I
love Bexley and
um they'll know I love this
and I think it's pretty cool
and I remember the first time I was ever
up here I have a million cousins misses
back in the 90s and I said wow if I ever
moved to Ohio never dreaming that I
would I thought I would like to live in
this area
and then I did move here and in 2000 end
of 2005 and then when I bought a house I
really felt like I lived in this area
and I was so much to I was driving down
Main Street and I was about in front of
the Bexley Library I'm in the car by
myself and I said I live here
and that's how I feel every day I live
here so thank you
we love you Joe please feel feel
appreciated we we do appreciate you so
thank you thank you
[Music]
only when you go to one of our watering
holes and have something special you'll
you'll pay a little bit of a tax
[Laughter]
thank you so much
I I I I think that you guys have
celebrating to do
yes okay all right
you're not going to stick around anymore
right
it's okay
[Music]
oh yeah my right hand right
seventh year of the academy because it
would have been our race but because in
2020
and I was scheduled to go to Virginia
Beach to receive this award for you guys
um but Carol with uh westerville's
Alumni Association that got us started
this year she is now with the national
Alumni Association and she has an award
to give to you guys for your hard work
and dedication to this police department
and some of our communities a lot of
that which goes unnoticed because people
don't realize what you're doing but you
do a great job and uh I I am
I've just been overwhelmed by the
friendships that I've made
of these patterns so Carol do you know
Lee would you like to accept your word
please
you too
well I want you to to get together and
alumni why don't you stand because this
is also for you so click stand and this
we give um through the national citizens
Police Academy
who just graduated today
[Music]
Alumni Association if you haven't
already before I leave you will be a
member
yeah
exactly but on the national level we
give out four different Awards each year
and somebody I won't mention who
nominated your Alumni Association for
the uh the award and she was going to
pick it up but we had to cancel because
of the pandemic and everything so I'm
going around and actually hand
delivering these Awards which will
really realize your picture will be in
our newsletter on our website if it's
okay with you guys but anyway it says um
this is uh from the national citizens
Police Academy Association it's the
achievement World Achievement award
given to the vet-free citizens Police
Academy alumni association for their
continued support to their law
enforcement department and Community
respectfully presented by the ncpaa
board members
now November 2021 even though we because
the conference was supposed to be in
October but anyway I'll give this to you
to enter the president and this is all
for you guys congratulations
thank you
you can hold it you're the president
ials
yeah everybody's standing back here
[Applause]
that's going on
I'm really
ready
[Applause]
thank you
what
thank you
thank you anybody else
[Music]
[Laughter]
okay we have something really quick to
say yeah
guys I think Lee has a little real quick
words to say and uh our meeting needs to
continue so I wanna if we could just be
quiet for
a couple seconds so he can
so go ahead sir
my name is Lee Nathans uh I'm the
president of the Bexley Citizens Academy
alumni association and I am a graduate
the first graduating class
from several years ago when we weren't
even in this building yet but
my experience with Bexley police
citizens Police Academy has on giving me
some thoughts about what I uh means to
be a resident of Bexley and when I think
about it I think about the transparency
that this
training gave to us is really a
foundation of community policing
everyone talks about community policing
but this is really one of the primary
elements of what it is
and the things that I've learned that
I've carried with me is that policing is
a reality-based profession it's not
necessarily academic it doesn't get
based upon Reams and reams of data and
Analysis that way it's what happens when
uh our police officers every police
officer encounters citizens and our
department has continually improved the
training has continually improved since
Paul and I went through the first class
the policies have continually improved
and our accountability is continually
approved thanks to you the safeguards
that you put in mayor Kessler and
everyone on Council in terms of making
sure that our Police Department is
continually accountable for all their
actions
and
we know everyone who's been through this
class and I believe everyone who lives
in this community knows that our police
officers have been hired because of
their integrity because of their
character and because of their abilities
and because of that when they use
discretion in the performance of their
Duty we should trust them and I think
they have earned our trust continually
day after day after day so that's
something that really we take away from
being residents of Bexley and I
personally enhance the experience even
though I've had background in law
enforcement it's it's been enhanced
through my experience and the thing that
we should always remember is that every
man and woman who reports for duty at
559 North Cassie hand for every single
shift
comes with the recognition that they may
not see their families at the end of
that shift and that is something that we
should be continually grateful for
because it's through their service that
we live our lives and comfort and safety
thanks
thank you so much all of you for taking
the time to be a part of this
um
these classes and and learning more
about our Police Department we are
grateful for all of you and I think this
is your opportunity to get out of the
door fast
unless you want to stare stick around
and talk budget it's a good budget it
was a good budget
congratulations everyone thank you so
much
we love you
Monique and I owe you drinks yeah for
sure
let us know Joe we may all have an
excuse yeah that's right
we might need a Friday excuse do I need
to hire a babysitter yeah
we know you do
glass could please shut the door so you
all can be as festive as you want to be
well we're trying to get some work done
in here
yeah
that's it that's a wrap
let's do this alternative
yeah right that's right
that's okay
all right we are to the point in our
meeting uh where we hear public comments
is do we have anybody who is signed in
for a public comment at this time one
people
later what do you mean later the end of
the meeting you mean
you're going to speak now or at the end
of the meeting
yeah go ahead
first of all thank you for having me
here and letting me speak I am concerned
about two parts of the budgets one of
them is the expense of the 1. million
dollars 1.1 million dollars that I'm not
quite a hundred percent what it's for
but I suppose that it will be given to
us but it seems like an awful lot of
money to go from a hundred and thirty
thousand dollars that was going to the
cic
to over 10 times the amount of money so
I'm really concerned about that kind of
money the second issue I have is
regarding well I can't remember whether
there's an ordinance otherwise but
there's a discussion about giving the
board of control discretionary spending
between fifty thousand dollars to 250
000 I think that's a mistake quite
frankly to be very honest with you it
gives just a couple people too much
control
I don't know why we would be bypassing
city council which is what's been done
for many many many years so those are my
two concerns I thank you very much
thanks John we we will address those uh
yeah I think those are third both of
both of those items are third readings
and we will address those
questions or concerns that you have
in those
um so I also have Connie Lewis
on I may have questions and I didn't
know how to fill out the slip so can I
just raised my hand if
yes the rule is that if you have a
question during a third reading you are
welcome to come up
you can raise your hand if however it's
a first reading you're concerned about
or a second reading that you're
concerned about you need to fill
something out specific to that ordinance
okay
and if it is a third reading then I will
say yes yes Khan you can come up if it's
not a if it's not a third reading I will
have to say we're not taking we're not
taking questions right now unless you
filled out a form
you have to fill out a form specific to
the ordinance that you're concerned
about
it's not a third reason if it's not a
third reading if it's a first or a
second reading
okay that's what the rules have been for
probably two years now
I also have Larry Katz
the gentleman uh before me addressed the
the same issue that I wish to uh address
the 1.1 million I I'm sure everything is
appropriate and correct but uh a lot of
us out there just don't know all the
details they're not sure what even a set
aside means uh does it take the rest of
the budget into consideration uh or not
uh just like to have more information
more transparency
okay we're gonna have a presentation on
that today Mr Katz for for Miss valders
records could you state your you have
his address do you have it okay never
mind thank you thank you madam president
that's all the names I have all right
perfect thank you so we will move
um on from uh
to my report really quickly
um I want to remind everybody we don't
meet again until November or December
7th that's December 7th and remember
that we have meetings back to back
meaning we have one on the seventh and
then so we have one then again on the
14th
um
which leads me to talking to you about
uh the appeal dates we had suggested
that the 15th was a day that each one of
us is available to hear uh the appeal
um I I
um know that there are some of us Among
Us who have said that they'd rather wait
till January
I will also mention to you as I believe
Mr Fishel mentioned to us last time
that if we do it on the 15th
that would mean probably the soonest
that we could get Catherine Cunningham
to do her turn around and write up what
and summarize our thoughts about our
vote would be the first would be that
next Monday which would be the 20th
squeaking us very close to the holidays
so
that being said
I would like to know do you and I guess
I want to show of hands do you still
want to do it in December or would you
prefer to do it in January those that
would prefer to still do it in December
please raise their hands
you know okay all right so we're going
to do it on the 15th we will then on the
15th discuss with Catherine
uh when she will have an opportunity to
be done and I think that that that
follow-up meeting will be a short one
correct it can be it should be
it should be okay it might even be that
we could meet for lunch not not not to
eat but we like at lunch time maybe a
certain day we'll just see how quickly
she can she can get it together in all
of us as everybody in town the week of
the 20th
oh you're out of town the 20th
so I was just wondering if we could meet
on the 24th
great idea okay well we will we will we
will stay away from the 20th I
appreciate that okay all right
good to know all right well then we will
uh we will send um Miss Cunningham
look at her shaking her head already
she's on it Natalie is on it she's gonna
she's sending
um Catherine uh word right now that we
what we have decided on the 15th thank
you everyone for
staying with me on that um also put the
Third on your calendars gentlemen
there's two of you in the audience that
also need to make sure you put the third
at seven o'clock January January I'm
sorry January 3rd at seven o'clock okay
um
the auditor also shared uh with uh I
mean I think Troy maybe that we need to
keep our minds on a sunshine
um training session and um I think I
thought we had to do it every two years
maybe we have to do it every year I'm
not 100 sure but Monique knows so we're
gonna I think it's once per term is it
once per term
oh that's beautiful
as a Refreshers yeah okay sorry we will
have I will have Monique pass us the
number or she'll hang on to it until we
have our strategic person
um come up with that so I think that's
all I've got so I want to make sure that
everybody I'm gonna wish everybody real
quick right now Happy Thanksgiving and
before we meet again we will be lighting
the lights of the Aurora so happy
Hanukkah as well so uh that's all I've
Got Tonight Mr City attorney I didn't
forget you tonight not
nothing
I love it moving on to administrative
updates let's hear from the man with the
leaves
Mr Bayshore are you there
[Music]
I have nothing to add to my written
report uh tonight
um the guys are out and working on the
leaves pretty much non-stop so just be
patient we are working as fast as we can
with them
me no we know thank you I thought about
you when the first snow fell
I'm thinking if I wear my mask I could
do a ride-along thought you could do it
right along I'm wishing for summer
already though for the snow to happen
yeah I I have a question sure it's
since I I am not very good at Bexley
base reporting issues
um could could the left turn signal at
College Avenue and Main Street be
checked um it doesn't seem to actuate
all the time when people were stacked
yeah sure
anybody else have anything for um Mr
Bayshore
all right thank you so much sir no
problem thank you thank you
all right who is next I believe it is
why do I not know right Officer so the
chief the chief is uh ill today oh so
his his update is attached all right um
and if you have any questions for him or
or me we'll write them down yeah write
them down that's right
um
yeah yeah
so the chief put in his report just to
kind of bring this up to
um residents that there are
impersonators that are um reaching out
um
on behalf of the police and the IRS
asking for information so just wanted to
make sure that that is on public record
to remind our citizens that that is not
true the IRS and the police department
would not reach out to you and ask for
you to pay any fines or debts um with
gift cards so please you know community
members do not take those calls and you
are welcome to call our department if
that happens to you so I would love to
see some of that and I will mention it
to Sam I should see Sam tomorrow and I
would love to see some of that mentioned
in the last I saw it too and I thought
it was really good food for thought some
of us are more billable than others and
um
and and can get caught in a whole lot of
trouble because we we are just trying to
be kind so we'll add that to the list
um all right we are on Michael price
we're gonna hear a whole lot from him
tonight
thank you madam president nothing to add
to my written report anybody have
anything for Mike for now you can hold
off
Jessica I I just wanted to do a quick
highlight uh because I think it's really
cool that with the expansion of the
Mansion we're able to add new
programming and I love to see that even
though a few of our local female
business owners no longer have their
front storefronts here or with Anna and
Piccadilly are able to use that
expansion of the Mansion space so that
is awesome just wanted to a great
partnership yes it's awesome so thanks
for making that happen it's great for
everybody Allison Moreno is a is a
member of the the main event committee
she has been so for the last gosh how
many seasons are we to eight is next
season going to be our ninth I think
it's going to be our ninth season so she
has been in fact I've lost very few
members of that of that committee
because they're all dedicated and really
enjoy you know planning the fun and
executing the fun and um
but we told Mr Mr I told um mayor
Kessler who's in charge completely in
charge of trying to find the funding for
the fund this year he doesn't know this
yet
yeah I bet you are anything else for
Michael
no all right
good show yes we would we would be
nowhere without Miss Allison Marino all
these volunteer people who don't live in
Bexley that are just
nonetheless in love with our city so a
wreck creations and Parks is good
finance department update Mr Harvey
anything
no update all right thank you Mr Harvey
and mayor
your answer
thank you
um so it's been a it's been a week since
our last meeting so it's not a super
extensive update
we've been busy nonetheless a couple
things to highlight
uh work continues on concepts for Drexel
Avenue uh road diet and I wanted I
shared
a little workshop that we had with our
engineers and uh our Traffic Engineers
and our city engineer last week we are
working on Concepts based upon our first
public Workshop that should have a draft
plan put together in early December and
then a public Workshop to follow with
the residents probably mid December or
January just based on how
much the holidays calendar makes sense
with that but
um I took a photo of just sort of a
sliver cross-section to kind of show
what's being contemplated um and
primarily it's um looking at the
intersections for safe Crossings for
pedestrians now this doesn't actually
show a pedestrian cross and that would
be on the other leg of this particular
intersection but narrowing the street
when it comes around those intersections
where The Pedestrian crosswalks uh to
slow traffic a and create some Landing
spaces for pedestrians so Engineers are
working on completing a draft concept
for that and I'll make sure that you
guys have a look at it first and then
we'll present some ideas to Residents
again there was an earlier workshop with
them that kind of fueled where we are
right now with with some concept plans
so yeah um every intersection is a
little bit different but um it would we
would try to accommodate that sort of uh
throated intersection if you will with
every intersection having a crosswalk as
well uh just would improve Crossing in
general and on Drexel and provide a
safer Crossing interface now there are
some areas where those medians which are
those are five foot medians that are
drawn they're sort of similar in
Geometry to if you've been to the
neighborhood launch area downtown uh Gay
Street those are the narrow ingredients
so be sort of that size median there are
a couple areas where they could they
could happen where there are no
driveways but for the most part
there are driveways that you know unlike
Bexley Park in Brighton which are
actually wider right-of-ways you can't
circulate with a u-turn on Drexel well
can if you're driving a Chevy bolt just
for the record
or to get much larger than that yeah
like Mini Coopers so not a Suburban uh
yeah probably thinking yeah you know
Amazon delivery trucks all that good
stuff so
um that it just wouldn't get the same
treatment
I think Richard was at his hand yeah I
was just going to say I noticed in my
travels or travels that um
at Burlington put some of those in on
McCoy Road West of um uh Reed and near
their Parks so
um it might be worth getting feedback
from Arlington now while they like that
and if there's been any noticeable
change in speed great we'll check that
out
and and to reiterate so Drexel's
currently 35 state route
it can go down to 25 but traffic Studies
have to Warrant that and that won't
happen until the condition changes a
little bit so that's part of that
um
we had a we one of the fun more fun
things on our calendar is when we have
mock Council meetings uh with our third
graders so just saw it helps out thank
you so much Jess you can see her there
influencing the pliable minds of
bexley's third grade population but
um the
the third graders voted there were three
different sessions one um the residents
uh well they are residents the residents
wanted trash cleaning robots
which I thought was an awesome idea but
got soundly defeated by the council wow
yeah yeah lots of lots of concerns that
they might
inadvertently pick up things that
weren't trash or is such as animals or
money
which to be fair I found a 20 Bill
during a trash pickup last spring so
that is possible
um and then the other other Council
wanted to ban electric scooters on the
sidewalk
which I thought was actually already the
case but that was okay because we had a
great conversation about uh scooters and
that Maltese paths yeah and what was the
third one and then the third one was
Livingston Avenue oh yeah so an enhanced
safety on Livingston Avenue which we're
about to get into
um in fact uh we'll we'll feed right
back to Mr Katz's and Mr uh Lewis's
questions
so uh that is my update any questions
that you can learn from a third grader
that's wonderful things
any questions remember the third graders
banned single-use plastic before you
guys did so I was pointing out they beat
you to it all right if we may I'm going
to move us on to the consent agenda
please
Mr City attorney
[Music]
just the minutes
sorry all right another consent agenda
apparently we have some minutes
nothing November 9th 2021 city council
meeting all right Madam president yes
please yeah I highlight just a couple of
typographical errors I think they would
fall under that sure just
um on item six the president's report
um this lamp key did not graduate from
the FBI
um citizens Police Academy but the
Bexley Police Academy oh no she did
graduate from the FBI it would be a
special agent oh graduated I'm sorry
yeah
all right okay
and okay then the other thing is above
number 11 it says Mr official also noted
that ordinance 4621 did not receive a
formal second reading I was thinking
that was for 47
47 21 that was the guest speaker no it
was 46. okay I just did a comment
because I wanted to make sure we got
back to that yeah okay okay then I have
no typographical directions thank you
does anybody else have any further
comments on the consent agenda
anyone in attendance with us tonight
have any comments or questions about the
consent agenda all right
um is there a motion on the consent
question to approve thank you is there
second second thank you we have a first
by Mr Markham and a second from Mr
Klingler uh
yes Mrs Robinson yes Mr Klingler yes Mr
Markham yes Ms lamke yes Ms fiebel yes
Mr Sharp yes all right moving on to
ordinance and resolutions with present
with the visiting presenter this is the
third reading of 4621 have at it all
right ordinance 46 21 authorizing
Appropriations for calendar year
beginning January 1st 2022 to confirm
the appointment of Mark Fishel City
attorney to create an infrastructure
development fund and to authorize
transfers to the Capital Improvements
infrastructure fund
and budget stability fund of 500 000 1.1
million and 100 000 respectively Mr
Markham it's showtime
take it away Mr Man
in front of you uh we have a revised
budget draft draft three
it's also attached the online agenda
um and
we're gonna
cover a couple of the changes to the
budget that have occurred
since the last meeting
many of which actually are will be
covered by Mike's presentation so I'm
going to skip past those just a little
bit because he'll be presenting on them
um but for those that aren't
oh that's not it
hold on that's last
I apologize you know what the the
that is the old version of the uh
PDF budget the new version is actually
currently on our website under website
documents under sorry Finance documents
and Natalie if you wouldn't mind
uh fixing that agenda with the new
budget that's my bad
so let me pull up the correct version
here
the finance department budgets
in fact I can't even let's do it that
way
let me show you guys where to find it on
our website
and while I'm doing that uh
I will tell you a little bit about the
changes so
um one of them is tree contract work and
Andy is still with us in case there are
any questions about this
um but tree contract work
uh Grant Archer came to me during our
weekly meeting earlier this week and
talked about how with all the quarantine
that had occurred and lots of work over
the past year or two
um they've gotten pretty far behind on
tree removals and stump grinding and so
he's proposing a contract that would
allow them to remove there are 70 trees
on the tree removal list for a little
bit under forty thousand dollars so less
than five hundred dollars per tree which
if you could imagine that's about four
months of work for three three employees
so that's a fantastic value for us
um and I wish that we could you know at
home get similar it's that's pretty
awesome so
um
and by the way just you know under under
finance department annual budgets draft
budget would be the most current uh
draft budget
for those looking for it in the future
um
once it pops up so uh that's a change
there's a utilities change there was
inadequate utility appropriation
um in 01320
repairs and maintenance supplies the one
through twenty by the way is
future if you know that on the top of
your head that is vehicle Grounds
Maintenance
[Music]
um
the utilities uh increase I'm sorry I
was wrong about that utility increase
includes also extra funding for our GIS
program
um for uh identifying where
underground utility is actually located
in the city I'm not sure that's the
right line for that but we'll we'll talk
about that repairs maintenance supplies
12 000 there was not a appropriation for
that
and
there's an increase in the rec fund
transfer and Mike Price will discuss
that but the the the ninety thousand
dollar transfer that we had had
pre-pandemic is not adequate coming into
this year with still having a reduction
in the amount of programming and some of
the excess costs that we're still
contending with as part of our
programming so we'll talk about that
we split up the recalibration meter
program between both the water and sewer
fund so it was a hundred thousand
dollars proposed in I believe just the
water fund it makes sense to carry that
in both funds because it's it's a
benefits both uh funds so we split that
in two
and then Beecher made some corrections
to water fund and Sewer fund Debt
Service Appropriations and the road and
Alley Debt Service appropriation and
then we have an increase in wreck
capital and Mike Will present uh Rec
capital or I will or both of us will uh
and and the sheet there's a detail sheet
attached to the agenda that shows you
um
the current capital budget detail
in that
I I apologize we're going to have to add
the correct one but there's one that
shows the highlighted changes so we'll
get that on the agenda here in a second
so those are the changes to the budget
most of which will make a whole lot more
sense once Mike presents so Mike without
further ado
thank you mayor council it's good to be
with you I think it's first time I've
been in here since before the pandemic
so it's nice to see you all nice to see
you
um so I'll go over this real quick I
gave everyone sort of a break out of
just the wreck and park stuff so you
don't have to sift through the budget
and find the various Pages
[Applause]
um the first page has a synopsis and
there's just a couple things I want to
highlight in terms of the process from a
wreck and Parks budget process but you
know obviously in in normal years we
oftentimes look back at the previous
year
to as sort of a baseline for how we
start our budgeting and we we look at
what's going to be different you know
where we missed on the previous year's
budget in terms of uh estimates on
Revenue uh where maybe we spent more
money or spent less money and make
adjustments then take a look at you know
different programs you might want to add
or offer or increases or opportunities
for increases and we adjust accordingly
um over the last two years with covid
and the uncertainty of how covet is
going to impact our budget from year to
year taking a look back at the last two
years as sort of a baseline to judge
the 2022 budget is is probably not a
productive way to look at this uh so I
want to say that sort of on the front
end because as we go through this you're
going to see wide varieties of changes
between 2021 and 2022 and frankly
between 2020 and 2022.
um but to give you some context as we
went through this budget process we went
all the way back to 2019 and we're at a
point where we feel like going into 2022
that we're going to be closer to
pre-pandemic numbers in most areas or in
many areas in terms of the programming
that we can offer uh in terms of the
participation that we'll see within
those programs
um so that's I want to give some context
to that there will be some areas as we
go through this uh that we look at that
will be different than 2019
um uh and and to give you some just
quick update on that you know the senior
programming we expect to be fairly
different with the senior center coming
online
um with some structural changes in terms
of how that's done in previous years
Bexley activity Club manage the finances
of their activities and their programs
we're going to now move those finances
under the city so there'll be an expense
associated with that but there will also
be an offset of Revenue coming to the
general fund
um so you know while you'll see it in
this case the 60s that thousand dollar
estimate for additional expenses that'll
be enough there'll be an offset in the
general fund for that
um an example of that is if we go you
know if they go to the theater uh in the
past they would have paid let's say they
paid 10 bucks for the ticket
um that money would go to BAC and BAC
would pay for that ticket right so now
that money is now going to come through
us and we're going to pay for it but we
need an expense line item in order to
cover those expenses
um and obviously there'll be additional
costs associated with the senior center
so that'll be one of the big changes
within senior programming daycare
programming
um uh the numbers are are improving from
where we were say last year or two years
ago uh but they are still lagging behind
what our numbers were in 2019. uh and
they're lagging so there's there's two
issues that you're going to see within
this and this is one of the contributing
factors to the request for an additional
transfer is that uh the revenue side is
lagging behind in terms of participation
but expense side is not
um because costs for staff has increased
as it's been harder and harder to get
stuff additionally we have to have staff
um on site that uh is is focused
specific on covid-19 safety measures so
our staffing numbers have had to go up
even though participation is not up so
there's one side the costs have gone up
the other side participation is still
lagging behind a little bit
um we uh you know some of the reasons we
think participation is lagging behind is
because there's obviously a couple
factors
um you know still concerns about safety
and exposure for kids that parents still
have in some instances
um in some instances parents are still
working from home so they don't have the
same day care needs that they would have
had in 2019 or earlier
um
um and and during the height of the
pandemic a lot of families had to
although I think we did a pretty good
job of adjusting and providing a way to
provide the service a lot of families
still had to find other Solutions and
they may be still utilizing those
Solutions at this point so those are
some of the things that are what we
believe are causing a lag I do expect
some of that to change but I think it's
fair to say that um you know I'm uh I'm
gonna use the term consumer obviously
the residents but consumer Behavior may
change around daycare
um more long term so that's going to be
a hard thing that's something we have to
keep a close eye on uh whether it's a a
family a parent is now working from home
uh regularly as opposed to a short term
but it becomes a more long-term
situation that that may have an impact
on daycare Deeds within our community so
those are things we'll have to continue
to look at
um
um seasonal staff costs again we talked
about this and daycare being one of them
but seasonal staff costs in general have
gone up
um uh having a lower pool of Staff
people looking to to work has increased
the cost we have to pay in order to get
staff up uh so that's something we
continue to battle
um
uh and additionally uh especially in the
daycare Fields
um we had to increase price to really to
deal with the hazard that they have to
take on from a coveted safety measure
they're putting themselves in a
different risk uh being in close
proximity with large numbers of kids for
long periods of time uh so those are
issues that that we've had to deal with
from a cost perspective
Jeffrey Mansion expansion is obviously
another thing that you'll see some
changes on this budget uh it'll be you
know it is full it's essentially fully
online at this point uh but we haven't
had a whole year of that that didn't
come fully online until basically May of
this year so we'll see we're expecting
to be fully online uh all of 2022.
um we continue to increase our
programming within the facility and I
expect that to continue to happen next
year
um but obviously there's costs
associated with that in increased uh
instructor cost maintenance costs
um staff overseeing that
um and lastly full-time staff one of the
changes you'll see in here is we are
going to have one full-time staff we
expect one full-time staff member to be
retiring in 20 early 2022 which has a
domino effect and some restructuring
that's going to go on
um the the upside is that we're going to
go and I'll talk more specific on this
we'll essentially go from three uh
full-time staff to four full-time staff
with a ten thousand dollar total
increase cost but that will get us a uh
event coordinator for the space which as
we continue to fully realize the space
with Jeffrey Mansion is something that
we need so those are some of the sort of
overarching themes that you'll see
within the budget
um any initial questions
okay yes Richard thank you
yeah are there contingencies I heard on
the radio today that and I'm not sure
which the federal legislation that's
whether it's in the infrastructure or
whether it's in the other budget one
that um Child Care is going to be
mandated that child care provider wages
go up significantly and then also
additional regulations
yeah I I can't speak specifically to
that although I I'm aware of so there's
a couple things there's I know there's
going to be some stuff dealing with
child care within there there may also
be Revenue stream opportunities to
offset costs as well
um but no that is definitely something
we need to look into I can't say that
that's that's baked into this budget at
this time
all right senior programming and again
I'll try to go through I'm gonna I'm
gonna not necessarily go line by line
but obviously feel free to ask any
questions I'll try to highlight things
that I think are maybe stick out uh as
more obvious maybe something that you
might have been interested in night
before you get started I just want to
let Council know certainly we should go
Page by Page asking questions those that
are in attendance I'm gonna I'm when I
call for questions right before I I
think I I I anticipate that uh Mr
Markham will um table this and prior to
him tabling it I will see what questions
so at the end of Mike's presentations
and any of Ben's uh minister of the the
mayor's presentations then I will ask I
will call for for any questions from
those in attendance
all right go ahead Mike all right um
nothing no no changes in the salary and
wages same same uh positions were
involved there
um the first five uh other expenditures
are associated with the adjustment to
senior services and and uh a lot of that
is impacted by the the senior center uh
the first four uh talk about maintenance
uh utility costs associated with senior
center these are best guesses based on
this kind of square footage and what
we're dealing with professionals that's
the item I was talking about in which
the finances of the seniors is going to
go through the department as opposed to
going through BAC there is a sixty
thousand dollar offset that Beatrice put
in to the um uh Revenue Source within
the general fund and I'm to be honest
bill I couldn't tell you exactly where
it is but uh I have had those
conversations these accounted for that
um
um Senior Center uh due diligent I want
to highlight that of twenty thousand
dollars we in in the past Year's budget
we had a thirty thousand dollar line
item for that we are going to spend ten
thousand of that this year uh and we're
instead of carrying over uh in order to
try to uh do it from an auditing
perspective correctly we're going to
close that 20 000 out and then reopen it
up in this budget so that's going to be
the process that's why that number's
there
um
any questions on otherwise it's it's
fairly kind of straightforward any
questions on seniors yes
notice Mike that the social services
Navigator pilot program is going down
from 10 500 from I believe last year to
20
and obviously kovid was I assume covids
the the main reason why that's reduced
and maybe
um it's not as thriving as we had
anticipated could you speak to that yeah
I can
um the Navigator program originally
started right I think we had maybe four
or five months of it three or four
months of it before covet hit if I
remember correctly uh and obviously that
sort of devastated that program
um
uh we have obviously we haven't really
had that program going at all uh during
covid
um we did have mayor and I did have some
discussion about whether we wanted to
have some money in there in case we want
to start that partnership back up with
JFS
um we still have something we have some
some money there to do that
it's entirely possible we don't end up
using that at all um that's sort of a
holder in case
um we we figure we find out that there's
an opportunity and a benefit to the
community to move forward with something
there I was just wondering if maybe with
um
420 North Cassidy kind of being
retrofitted into at least a temporary
Senior Center and with hopefully a nice
spring going to be optimistic a great
summer
maybe we should consider bumping that up
slightly so that whatever New Direction
420 North Cassidy takes even on a
temporary basis maybe there's an
opportunity to ramp that program back up
and so we have the money if we need it
not a significant bump but I would like
to see that just a slightly slightly
increased
did you have an amount that you might
feel comfortable with
um I would suggest 5000 instead of 2500
just that would be half half the year
maybe you could get six months out of it
yes I would
mayor is that something that
yeah I mean it doesn't hurt to have the
appropriation I don't think we were
seeing utilization of the program even
even when it was heavily advertised and
you know but then again I hadn't had a
chance to get up and running
um but I think what we found was that
even as designed we probably would have
scaled it back to once a week as opposed
to twice a week so that that
appropriation you're proposing would
probably be adequate for that
if we get if we get renewed interest
we could always come back and and change
it if if we do see that there is greater
interest than anticipated I assume sure
Richard yeah if if I may add I think the
results of some concern about what the
change in the senior director that there
might not be the relationship between
the members to for the director to
because Mary Ellen did assist the
seniors who were involved in the program
quite a bit and finding the resources
they needed and from what I I've seen
Kristen seems to be I have has made a
good connection with the seniors so that
that would be another consideration as
to why the need might be a little bit
less than otherwise
any other questions on that
all right
Jeffrey Mansion
again from a staffing standpoint no no
real changes there at all
um
uh this one is one that you'll you know
I'll highlight a couple things but
you'll see like for example utility
electric you're going why is it going
down from thirty thousand to twenty one
thousand
um in uh 2020 uh one we were without
heat central heat for a good portion of
the start of the winter
um and so the construction company had
to bring in these large electric heaters
so instead of using gas to eat the
building we're using inefficient
electric heaters
um and I had to pay for it
um so 21 000 is more reflective of what
we expect it to be given that the
heating system is operating as intended
um
uh contracts uh again no no no real
changes there again utilities and gas on
the flip side you'll see we didn't spend
as much in gas because we didn't have
gas heating so uh 9300 will be more
reflective of where we expect to be
um
repair and maintenance uh supplies one
other that I will continue to highlight
and probably for the years next couple
years and maybe something we need to
take a closer look at we continue to
have HVAC and these are not part of the
the new space these are you know the hva
systems the units
um that service the different rooms we
continue to have ongoing issues with
those
um and so we'll need to we fully expect
that we'll have some Replacements in
2022 as well as continued maintenance on
them that is above and beyond where it's
been in the past so that's why you're
saying a higher number there
any questions
all right
next uh Park expenditures uh the the
only major not major only change to from
a staffing perspective is we are asking
for additional 4 000 in seasonal
uh we have taken on some additional
mowing uh working with uh Grant and his
team uh looking at some efficiencies
they've asked us to take on some of the
mowing on the Jeffrey property and in
large part because it's difficult for
them to schedule mowing around
activities uh and so we have a little
better pulse on when something might be
going on an example of that is the grass
Landing just behind the Garden Room we
might have a yoga class going on uh and
we don't really want mowers during uh
yoga going on right outside there and so
it becomes a little bit of a difficult
situation so uh they've asked us to take
on same with the pool when they can get
in the pool when they can do that work
relative to swim lessons and some other
things so we have taken on we started
some of that this year and expect to do
that next year so we've asked for a
little additional seasonal help to help
fulfill that
um
uh Park planning
um this is something that the rec board
has been very interested in which is
developing a master plan for Park and
and any future development uh within the
park
um so that we put 80 000 in there as a
hold for developing that plan
um to give us some guidance on how to
best utilize the space moving forward I
know this it's been a large topic of
discussion as we we built the pickleball
courts you know as we added you know the
the garage on site uh we added a
concrete pad by the Clifton shelter and
uh thinking more strategically about how
we're balancing the the nature within
the park against the development of the
park uh and developing a plan that gives
us better guidance is something that
they're very interested in getting
accomplished so that's what that light
item is there for
um
uh as you scroll down athletic field
maintenance obviously we're planning on
doing the Commonwealth West project and
we'll talk a little bit about the East
project uh but we expect there to be
additional athletic field maintenance as
that as that project comes online
um landscape the other one that has a a
significant jump uh there we are now
taking on um this is going to get a
little bit in the minutia but uh
playground mulch uh was done through the
uh service department uh they've asked
that we take that on
um uh through the rec department there
there should have been an offset within
the service department for that
um and that's about a four thousand
dollar cost roughly per year
um so that is now in our budget and
additionally
um we've talked a little bit about this
but Bexley Bloomers uh is a volunteer
group that has been developed this past
year
um which has had a tremendous impact on
on the park and improvements to the park
um but with the additional you know
there's there's 10 to 15 people every
Thursday for about four to four to five
hours
um uh all summer uh working working
there uh which has again had a
tremendous impact the from a budgetary
standpoint there's because we have more
people getting things done uh and
bringing the level up of the of the
property uh there's some support costs
that we want to also consider
um adding mulching areas that maybe
weren't previously mulched uh plantings
in areas that maybe weren't kept uh at
the level that we want them to so that's
why there's some increase within
landscape yes
this may be a very simple question but
when you're talking about the um
playground the mulching of the
playground sets Park playgrounds
separate from school playgrounds correct
and playground mulch is a different
mulch from flower bed mulch too yep
that's Troy
I know the pickleball courts have gotten
a lot of use they seem to be pretty
popular how much use are the tennis
courts getting these days and is there a
movement one way or another to
are you asking whether there's a a
consideration for changing the tennis
courts into pickleball courts well I'm
not actually asking that okay my first
question is how much use are the tennis
courts getting are they are they pretty
busy still are they not they are still
busy
um
the use patterns is very different than
pickleball
um use you know it pickleball is much
more of a social Gathering we have a lot
more people that are there sort of
waiting and they take turns and it's one
and then the other and games are quicker
uh when when somebody comes out and
plays tennis it's usually for an hour to
an hour and a half at a time which means
you know you might only see you know
eight people out there playing two
doubles and it feels like there's not a
lot of people because that's only what
they can play at the time and you won't
have a whole bunch of people waiting and
watching because they know that game is
going to go on for a while so the use
pattern is very different uh they are
still getting used there's still demand
there uh frankly we had to make some
adjustments uh to pickleball uh use on
the tennis court uh to accommodate
concerns of tennis players so that has
happened uh we do still have tennis
players that want to make sure they have
access to those courts and aren't losing
access to pickleball so but but if you
looked at it if you go out there and
look you would feel like well it's a lot
less use in tennis than pickleball but
that's sort of the nature of the the
activity it sounds like you would like
to go ahead and answer the other
question though would I replay what that
that question the first question that
you started to answer you may go ahead
and answer that
um I don't think at this time
I don't think at this time is there a
difference in the maintenance costs I
mean tennis courts are expensive to
maintain how about pickleball courts
well if you think about it from a
a individual Court perspective obviously
a tennis court is I don't know four
times the size of a pickleball court
um so yeah they're gonna you know
they're gonna be more expensive to
maintain in terms of number of Courts
um uh I will say the tennis court is
built on an old
it's a much older it's a much older
older surface the asphalt's not holding
up like obviously the pickleball courts
which are brand new there's a lot of
cracking a lot of issues that we're
going to continue to deal with I I fully
expect in the next five years or so that
we'll have to have a discussion about
resurfacing as opposed to a complete
resurface as opposed to just a top
dressing stuff
um you know in the tennis courts thanks
yep
yeah so just a little education here
tonight on tennis and pickleball tennis
players become pickleball players it was
a progression so yeah
all right any other questions on uh
parks
all right
fund transfer let's we'll talk about
that here in a second in the context of
the rectal fund if you want to move to
the page five if you will direct fund
um
so again we you know we'll look at the
revenue we do our best to estimate this
I will I will continue to say
um
philosophically speaking I I try to
underestimate revenue and overestimate
expenditures because if council's
comfortable with that then hopefully we
come in a little better than expected
and as opposed to the other direction
which is a little more difficult to deal
with uh in the context of the budget so
um
you know historically although last
three years is a bad example but
historically uh we do better on a
revenue side than projections and do
better uh uh on on expenditures uh over
although over the last couple years
we've added unspent uh Appropriations to
the budget which is helpful to giving a
more accurate number
um and that's that's within here as well
but going through here really quick Rec
programs
um we have seen an uptick uh with the
additional programming
um within the Mansion we have added a
number of programs within the Mansion
there has been additional Revenue as a
result of that uh we want to continue
that
um so we are looking at a revenue side
that's similar to that of 2019
um and uh you know we're hopeful that
that will go up above and beyond that
but we
you know with covet we're still seeing
some reductions in programs in terms of
participation so I feel pretty good
about having that number back to a 2019
at this point and I expect it to grow
with the additional space within the
Mansion
um uh Mansion rent facility rentals
um you'll see 120 000 versus last year
of seven you know this year I should say
2021 at 75 000. again we did not have a
fully realized rental space We Didn't
Start rentals until May uh and also
we're trying to run out of space for
this year usually rentals are six to six
months to a year in advance so we're
trying to run out of space that isn't
even complete when you think about
rentals that occur in 2021 2022
obviously uh we are we're we now have a
space that we can sell that people can
see and experience and understand so we
feel pretty good about uh the direction
that that is going as we discussed
there's a Rec coordinator position
within here on the next uh line item I'm
sorry not record event coordinator
position
um that we are we have somebody that is
doing it essentially part-time right now
for us that um uh has has brought a
tremendous amount of experience and
knowledge and I think is uh very capable
of helping take us to the next level
with our rental opportunities there
um Jeffrey summer camp again that is 475
lagging behind 2019 numbers uh it's
better than 2021 numbers but it's still
lagging behind 2019 members
um preschool
it's slightly above uh 2019 actuals uh
pretty similar to what um 2021 is
preschool is not necessarily one that
we're seeing a lot of hits on a revenue
side uh we still have a full classroom
um the rates are still what they were
and I think they're still what they were
in 2020 or 2019.
um we are seeing a bigger hit on the
expense side uh with preschool and
that's something we're going to address
at the next board meeting we're going to
have discussion about increasing the
cost of preschool
um but that has not yet been approved by
the board
um and uh like we're still really um
really still uh reasonably priced
compared to other preschools correct we
are we are and we also you know we have
some structure changes that happened
over the last two years some of that is
uh you know historically we've been a
seven to six program which I know has
been really well received by the
community but because of Staffing
difficulties some of that related to
covid go back a couple years uh go back
to the previous school year
um we had to have one teacher that was
there the entire time because we didn't
have a lot of crossovers we couldn't
join the classes there's a lot of things
we couldn't do from a coveted
perspective that sort of necessitated
reducing our hours so that a teacher
could be there for nine hours instead of
having to be there for 11 hours which
wasn't going to work
um our hope is we can get back to a a
seven to six program because we know
that's been really
um well received within the community
but yeah we are we're still on a wait
list we have historically still been on
a wait list uh but right now our costs
are just a little bit higher than uh
where they would normally be
um
before and after care again it's lagging
behind 2019 numbers it's continues to
improve we're projecting better than
2021 numbers uh but we are still lagging
a little bit behind where we were you'll
see in there there's ARP
um American Rescue plan money uh to deal
with additional covid costs associated
with selling wages
um whether that's additional staff
that's their focus is to deal with covet
safety measures within a program or
Hazard pay in order to get people uh
into specifically daycare programming
where they're going to be exposed to
them at a higher level we've increased
the pay in order to cover in order to
frankly to bring people in to do that
work
um
from an expense side we'll go through
these obviously these are expenditures
I'll go through them line by line on the
different page to give you some sense of
what we're talking about but again
expenses are up
um and a lot of that is uh you know is
is Coveted related
um
and it's something that we're still
trying to Grapple with if I'm being
honest uh
uh this would be another area where we
don't necessarily know what the next
four or five years will look like once
hopefully we get Beyond this pandemic do
we have a new normal uh do we have a new
normal in terms of expectation for pay
starting pay for different positions
um you know obviously as we as we have
had to increase pay whether it's covid
whether it's uh availability of Staff
um you know if things
um normalize if you will
um there's no you know there's no way to
say for sure whether we'll
we'll be able to go backwards and pay
right if we're paying somebody now 12 an
hour or something we were paying them
ten dollars before or nine dollars
before
um it's you know it's going to be tough
to envisioned that two years from now
when we're a little further removed from
covid and maybe where there's more uh
people looking for for work in the
workforce that we're going to take a
step backwards and be paying back to
nine or ten dollars so that's something
that we're gonna have to continue to
keep a close eye on uh and when we talk
about the transfer then to some extent
this becomes a little bit philosophic
and I've had some of these discussions
with uh Mr Klingler about that which is
you know we obviously will continue to
look at what we're charging for programs
um but at what you know what level do we
think about subsidy versus increasing
costs
um especially for needs-based stuff like
camping before and after care and and um
uh preschool I I think there's probably
room uh to split the difference on that
and think think from both sides of that
but that's something we have to continue
to look at and figure out how we want to
move forward
um
so the rec front transfer uh you know
we're projecting a 230 000 operating
loss Rec front transfer 250 000 uh
within here you'll still see that the
Mansion Debt Service is still built in
um to this
um and uh at the bottom you'll see an
unspent appropriation of 130 000
estimate uh so from a Rec fund balance
we're still healthy there
um
but this is sort of a big picture of
where we're looking at from a program in
expense side questions
yes
I know that President Bible asked you if
our rates for
um some of these I think it's camp and
and preschool are competitive and still
manageable for Working Families I so
appreciate all the work you've done to
help Working Families who need daycare
preschool while their parents are
working but on the flip side
um are the
rates and pay of the preschool teachers
the lead teachers the substitute
teachers are those also competitive so
that we are
continually filling those spot and also
attracting the best teachers for our
kids
yeah it's a great question
um
and it's something that is changing
frankly month to month so it you know
it's tough to what I would say is where
we are right now yes
um at least the range we have to pay
within
um
but I'm not you know
the way the way that market is sort of
fluctuating it's tough to say what six
months will look like or when we start
the hiring process again for teachers we
have we have definitely increased pay
for our teachers from where they were
two years ago uh fairly significantly as
you if you as you go through we'll go
through here you'll see salary wages and
preschool is I don't know 30 higher than
it was in 2019.
um
um so yes we try to keep a close eye on
that
um but whether it's pay whether it's
there's a lot of obviously factors that
people take a job
um it has been a I you know it's been a
tough go it's been a tough go to keep
teachers to hire teachers uh to hire
before and Aftercare staff to keep the
levels that we want frankly uh we had
two uh within the last three weeks we've
had two staff within the preschool
program that are leaving to go into
other opportunities I I don't you know
why that's happening those are different
reasons I want to get into specifics
with those staff uh it's not necessarily
pay in those instances
um but that's something we have to keep
a close eye on
um Rec admin
uh this is the one that uh we have a
restructure in terms of uh full-time
staff mayor if you don't mind maybe
sliding down uh well we're gonna go from
three full-time staff to four uh
full-time staff uh and and the titles
the positions are going to change
um
um the estimated cost difference is
going to be about ten thousand dollars
and say how do we get an employee for
ten thousand dollars well currently we
have three tier two Rec supervisors
um that would become one tier one Rec
supervisor and three tier two Rec
coordinators
um I'm sorry one two one Rec coordinator
and two tier two threat coordinators
right coordinators there's a lower paid
position
um they they often report to a Rec
supervisor
um
uh so that's that's the way we're gonna
We would like to move forward in the
structure uh again it gets us another
position uh which we think will be
really important and we'll have a
financial offset in terms of our rentals
for our Mansion space uh for an
additional ten thousand dollars so
that's that's the biggest difference
within salary and wages with um Rec
admin any questions on that
yes Troy how are you transitioning these
uh positions have you lost uh people are
there and you're rehiring at that new
how do you do that so one of the
positions we lost for pretty much at the
beginning of the pandemic and didn't
hire it because we knew
uh we were going to have a loss and
um programming so we've been without
um one of the rec supervisor positions
uh I want to say about a year and a half
now
um
um that was Jeff that was Jeff correct
um
as I mentioned one of the other Rec
supervisors I'm expecting will be
retiring at the beginning of next year
so we'll have two positions that aren't
filled at all those will be the ones
that transition into the rec coordinator
positions those two will turn into three
red coordinator positions and the one
remaining Rec supervisor removed from a
tier two to a tier one because they will
now oversee full-time staff two of those
Rec coordinators will
um report directly to that tier one Rec
supervisor
um
as we go down into other expenditures
Recreation software is one that'll stick
out our new software our old software
was
um they went essentially the money went
through them and then they went they
sent us a check and they withheld a
percentage this software that we have
now is not percentage based we play a
flat fee essentially a flat fee uh but
we have to have an expense account as
before they just withheld the money so
it wasn't necessarily an expensive that
we paid for it
um now we need to actually pay a a fee
based on uh usage uh which will be 12
000 expected to be 12 for this year so
that's why that that item that line item
exists now didn't exist before obviously
we still paid for it but it was in a
lost Revenue if you will
um
um brochure is one of the ones that is
is kind of back to pre-pandemic numbers
um uh you might ask why a pandemic would
have any impact on the brochure uh the
brochure is something that uh we
typically are printed three times a year
that process has like a uh two month
lead time two to three month lead time
on the time it goes out we could not do
that during the pandemic because this
the status of programs was changing so
rapidly based on what was going on with
the pandemic so we moved to a digital
brochure so that we could literally
change
within hours before it goes public uh
what we're doing based on policies based
on whether a program could even happen
uh whether we had to cancel it um so we
had to be more flexible
um you know our hope is that we can go
back to a printed brochure we know that
that feedback is uh always
positive
um I I fully expect we haven't made this
decision yet I fully expect this first
one this reflects three printed
brochures which would be our normal uh
you know if there's an area that we
needed to reduce I I'm at this point I'm
expecting our first brochure would
probably still be digital but hopeful
that the next two will uh be a physical
print again we need to be able to adapt
quickly and make changes up until uh
last minute while while we're still
dealing with code pandemic impacts yes
um I'm curious Stu is there really a
large of a call for a printed brochure I
would I would think that most people
would find that the online piece really
convenient do do we really still feel
like that's a necessary piece I do and
uh you know it's interesting uh I don't
know probably eight ten years ago when
we really sort of I'm gonna say upped
our game in the brochure Department
um thanks to the mayor frankly who
really wanted to see us improve uh the
quality of what we're putting out from
from that standpoint before that it was
a very
um basic sort of
um mostly digital mostly sort of put on
the website that sort of thing
um and I you know I know a lot has
changed in probably six seven years but
the impact of going to a hard copy
brochure uh in terms of programming in
terms of participation was pretty
significant
um
now you know we the argument can be made
that you know we do this and we don't
see much of a change it's going to be
hard to really compare during covert
versus not but uh my experience is as
you know has shown that the physical
brochure has been really really well
received uh I think it has had an impact
in participation people have access to
something a little bit quicker uh
not quicker they know where it is they
uh know where they can find it some some
people have a little more difficulty
navigating so this still gives that
opportunity we will still obviously do a
digital version that stuff will still go
on it just gives us more exposure for
programming
yes I love Jen's question
um but I do agree with you I think that
having something in your hands and then
being able to look through it and plan I
know you brought up earlier and I've
seen it where because of covid there
were programs we weren't all able to
offer because we were tied to our school
facilities so residents went outside for
different programming and then
everybody's busy so the question was are
we having that programming back so I
think this will be a landscape
to be able to remind the residents that
we do have those programs back and have
that physically in our hands but it will
be fun to kind of look back and and see
once those are printed
um what our participation looks like I
also know having used the site when you
go on I've been doing Rec programs now
for my oldest is 13 so uh 10 years so
I've gotten used to what I want to sign
the kids up for but as a new Resident we
use those for new residents we use those
for registrate people registering at
kindergarten and they're always very
excited to know that we even have
um some of them have never experienced
some of our programs to working parents
and that's their first introduction at
five years old that we have those
programs so I think it is it is
important I'm glad to see it coming back
thank you
Troy yeah I hear your point Mike I'm
okay with this assuming you have the
approval of the esac on that and I
assume you have already gone before then
to put your case
I will
understand
an answer to
um council person twice question can I
make a comment please
um
I know from my own personal experience
when I'm looking at programs and stuff
to have the pre-printed thing it is
Handy my I know my wife used to stick it
in a file but when it's just online
you're constantly going back to the
website and printing out pages and pages
and stuff so you're actually
using more ink in various households
around the city so
oh
frams uh again expect to be back to 2019
programs uh plus you will you'll see a
lot more sort of comparisons which are
in line with 2019 numbers
professionals is one of the areas we're
going to increase and that's a matter of
increasing a lot more programming
especially within the building so that's
uh some of the major changes there
questions on that
all right Jeffrey preschool again as I
mentioned you'll see a uh you know
essentially 11 increase from just last
year and if you go back to 2019 in terms
of selling wages so we're trying there
are some positions out of new positions
because of covet issues but a lot of
this is also retained retaining existing
staff
um
otherwise uh the other expenditures are
pretty uh flat slash inflation compared
to uh recent numbers any questions on
preschool
before and after care uh same sort of
thing
um
uh again don't this would be one I would
caution you not to compare 2022 for 2021
um because we expect to see
participation increase continue to
increase so some of this will be a
specific additional cost because
there'll be more employees as a result
of more participation so there'll be an
offset there but
um they're you know one of the the other
items professionals that is designed are
our goal all along was to have these
kids have obviously an awesome
experience part of that was trying to do
field trips with them uh which we had to
obviously eliminate with covid uh so
we'd like we're hoping we can get back
to doing some some fun field trips with
them which is why you see an increase in
professionals
questions on that
all right Jeffrey Camp expenditure
same sort of thing
um increase in in Staffing costs is one
of the major driving driving uh factors
there
um you will see professionals uh numbers
same sort of thing we didn't do a whole
lot of field trips uh over the last
couple years we tried to bring people to
the camp
um but we're hopeful that we can go back
to doing some of those uh excursions if
you will with the camp program
um from a safety perspective we're
hopeful that's that's a possibility any
questions on summer camp
all right
um the board approved a four percent
increase to to uh the membership rates
which were reflective of the same rates
as 2019.
so it's a four percent from 2019 numbers
I want to make sure it's really clear
this past year in large part because of
the reduction in hours for covid uh and
the camp time that was spent at the pool
we reduced our membership rates by 25
for 2021 versus 2019. so we're talking
about a four percent increase from 2019
membership rates
um
which if you think you know the last two
three years were normal that's actually
pretty low increase over that you know
over that three year span
um
I can real quick with the mic for the
pool fund there's a transfer that's in
our budget
to the full fund that would create sort
of a replacement Reserve that we talked
about that's not yet reflected in that
summary but it is reflected in the over
view so we'll get to that just see you
guys now
full Capital uh there's three main items
that are driving full Capital
refinishing of our our two main slides
uh which is about a forty five thousand
dollar cost
um pool chairs we continue to replace
pool chairs
um at about 5 000 and we need to it's
time to paint the uh the bottom of the
pool which will be about a fifteen
thousand dollar cost so those are the
three major factors that are driving
Capital
um for the for the pool again uh next
page let's see someone has questions on
that
um pool operation uh again we are uh we
are going to move forward with a fully
expected moving forward with swim safe
again for next year
um we've had discussions and we'll have
more discussions at the next Rec board
meeting on that to finalize that
um that contract for swimsafe would go
from 185 to 188 uh within tool
management we have 210 and the reason is
that's the base contract if they're
covering uh somebody wants to rent the
pool to have an after hours party uh
they cover that they bill us obviously
we have a revenue side to that but there
needs to be a little bit of uh play in
that budget so different items that
might come up that they incur they would
charge to us so
um you all see silent Wages that's
reflective of one full-time employee who
helps still manage the pool from a wreck
side so a percentage of their staff goes
into salary and wages within the pool
there's a lot of line items that you'll
see there that no longer exist those are
all items that are covered within the
pool management contract that's why they
don't exist anymore
yes yeah
um with the pool management with the
swim safe contract is that always going
to be a yearly or is that something we
could look at to do if it's successful
to go longer and maybe get more of a
price break so so the uh or hold them
into no the RFP that they gave us gives
us a uh a three-year rate
but we have to renew it every year so we
have to decide whether we you know we
like the service
um but they have they're locked in so
that 188 when we accepted the first
contract at 185 we knew that year two
would be 188 yeah and year three is I
don't know off the top of my head but
it's a set rate so it's sort of built in
in terms of how they're pricing us out
is the idea that we're getting three
years out of this but we still have to
approve it every year okay if that makes
sense yep
any questions on pool
all right
full concession there's essentially uh
no change there at all although I will
highlight the um
uh the vendor for the pool concessions
had a very successful year
um which was really good to see given
all the other sort of turmoil that was
going on with covid
um and uh they are going to be back for
for next year and excited about the
opportunity to continue to work with
them so
that is it for the presentation sorry it
ran a little long
that was I was just saying to move on
one topic I wasn't telling you it's all
good although you did a great job I
really just missed I missed you all
right
could you remind us about the concession
do they pay a rent or is there uh they
pay a percentage of
um of gross they pay a percentage of
gross with a cap on that currently
that's in the other income yes
yeah
um Mr Markham asked that I put on the
record
that I am a proponent of the printed
wreck brochure which is true
and as Mike said when we went to the
when we went to mailing them out
consistently and we brought him it goes
beyond just Bexley as well we saw a huge
increase in Revenue it wasn't like just
a little bit it was big and then I asked
Mr Markham when was the last time you
looked at a retro shirt and he said well
the last time it came in mail which was
two years ago so
case in point fair point of course he
then then said that he didn't do any of
the programs but yeah
why don't we put him on the cover of the
next wreck brochure yeah
I need to learn how to play mahjong so I
think we need to put that on yes
just publicly it's got intense around
here
you're welcome
yeah
well thank you
thank you
the chair is going to come up in a
second
um
so before anyone opens their budget book
maybe it's too late
uh there's a number
I'm thinking of a number the number is
the number is 996 515 which mysteriously
shows up all throughout this entire
budget it's a typo and it has caused it
to show it like a
multi-multi-million dollar negative
balance in the general fund so
don't throw it away per se recycle it
but
um it's wrong so a correct one online
there's now yes so now on the agenda
it's correct so just refresh the agenda
it's sort of correct
there's one there's one change the
capital fund but overall it's much more
correct and then I have a general fund
summary to pass around that at least
make you not have a heart attack when
you look at the general fund summary
as I did how am I freezing these are all
singles yeah
uh sure
I'm trying to multitask here
five minute break
five minutes that's all you got we're
gonna be back here at uh 7 45.
and then I'll get right to the castle
that's not even the fact that you can't
even like divide that by then you know
it's like I'm like I'm sexy Beach
um
or what for a bike or foreign
[Music]
sincere
you guys want three printed art copies
or talk about killing trees yeah
plus you know what if I do it on my
computer I can I can see it without my
glasses
okay so while we have Mr Price with us
we're going to start with capital budget
I just did just Steve guys by the way it
only lasted for about two seconds I
couldn't carry any longer than that you
know what I'm talking about
um and then we're going to talk about
the infrastructure development fund
because I know there's been a lot of
interest in that and then we'll go to
the standard budget presentations that
we haven't yet covered
so the capital budget is at the very end
of uh the PDF or there's several
attachments to this agenda item one of
them is this document that I have pulled
up which is the detailed version
so we've already covered police and
service and we covered some Park
but I did not realize that we had
additional Park Capital being proposed
when I spoke with you guys last week so
I apologize some of that I had forgotten
to include that's on me
um and then some of these had
placeholders where it just said pending
some estimates
so you'll see per uh Mr klingler's
request we increased some appropriation
for the Commonwealth Park restroom
utility building North Gateway and we
haven't spoken yet at detailed mat but
we have a um
medium coming up soon with the designer
uh sorry I realize that's not through
you sorry
this is not on this is not part of the
budget this has been a separate
attachment that's on the agenda
that show it's called Bexley capital
budget detail
um and uh so we'll be able to hone those
numbers some more but we can talk about
it before our next council meeting
um
Jeffrey mentioned brick and wall tuck
pointing Mike has an estimate it's now
included there tennis court parking lot
path lighting we have a rough estimate
on that a Four Season shelter design
which I'll talk about I have a
presentation coming up so we'll talk
about that a little bit more
uh the recreation director armchair used
at fifteen dollars
I figured was an important one to have
included in there
um tool dumpster enclosure
is uh
the uh the pool dumpster area is if you
ever take a look at it a little bit
unsightly we've been getting some
complaints from our residents in the
area this will help us kind of Tidy it
up
uh it will be named the Weber dumpster
uh the playground surface of the toddler
playground which is next to the Memorial
Shelter house
uh it's that soft
Ware what's that pebbleplex
Flex pebbleflex surface
um and then it's deteriorating what has
been for a while actually so it's good
to see this on here and Jeffrey Carriage
Court acoustic dampening is just based
on feedback we've received from in our
own use and users of the space that it
it needs some Echo absorption
um so that's those are like acoustic
panels that'll go up
go up in the space strategically
so those are all
either fill-ins now that we have some
numbers or some slight tweaks and a
couple of additional items
uh yeah actually that is the that that
you'll notice that number is what I
mentioned before I think
there had been an error in the capital
budget uh that we had fixed and I guess
the number got hard-coded and all of a
sudden showed up in all sorts of wacky
places so
heaps keeps it to interesting around
here um
now I'm going to move over to a
slideshow that I put together that
shows some of this stuff in Greater
detail and also talks about the
infrastructure fund
and
I know there's a way to make this full
screen but every time I try to do that
in Zoom it messes up so
I am going to share it like that
um
so the infrastructure development fund
um as promised I wanted to talk in more
depth about that with you today the
language for the fund is included
already in the budget ordinance it's
just restated here
uh you can kind of think of it as a an
auxiliary Capital fund but with the
added benefit of having
um of also functioning as a rainy day
fund so
it is more narrow and restricted than
Capital fund
and the logic behind it is to provide
um
a bank of money or set aside of money
for some infrastructure development that
we have had on the have on the horizon
based upon some planning efforts that
have been occurring recently
so the technical purpose of it is to
acquire and improve property for public
infrastructure improvements including
but not limited to right-of-way
improvements public parks public
utilities and public facilities and to
assist in the acquisition and
Remediation of environmentally impacted
sites within the city in the event of a
fiscal emergency it serves as an
auxiliary rainy day fund in accordance
with the code 232.08
so what is do we have in mind first off
it's important to know the difference
between having a fund set up and having
money in the fund and appropriating
money from the fund so this budget does
not appropriate any money from the
infrastructure fund it simply provides
for money to go into an infrastructure
fund for future appropriation so there's
no ability to spend anything out of the
fund it's essentially setting up this
Reserve
and there are at least two key projects
that seem to be
um on the horizon one of them is uh
developing out of the Livingston Avenue
plan so a big piece of the Livingston
Avenue plan is a safety component um and
specifically in the residential area
bexley's right-of-way currently does not
exist on Livingston we've talked to
Columbus about uh giving us the
right-of-way north of the curb
that right-of-way ranges a little bit in
condition but generally speaking
it's about eight feet total
um eight feet split between a four foot
tree lawn and a four foot sidewalk at
the most
um that tree line for example is
substantially smaller than most the tree
lines that we have on our side streets
and it's one of the reasons that as a
pedestrian when you walk along
Livingston Avenue
you just don't feel safe not just
because of the speed of the traffic but
because of the speed of the traffic
coupled with narrow Lanes coupled with
them being right next to the curb
coupled with you being so close to that
traffic so one of the solutions that has
been posited by the La Mesa avenue plan
is to acquire additional right-of-way to
allow for a wider tree line and to allow
for a wider sidewalk which would have
two really great benefits one would be
the addition of a tree planting area by
the curb not for beautification although
it'll look great but to provide that
tunnel in effect it slows cars down that
verticality that causes drivers to not
want to drive as fast the other reason
is it separates the pedestrians further
from the curb they're proposing an 8 to
10 foot tree lawn and then a sidewalk
that is a little bit wider than it is
today which is more accommodating to
people walking two by two or whatever if
you've done any trash pickups on
Livingston Avenue and you know exactly
what I'm talking about it's a narrow
sidewalk and narrow interface and it's
uh coupled with the other traffic coming
improvements that are being proposed by
the plan I think we'll have a really
dramatic impact
now in order to do that right-of-way
acquisition it would require the city to
purchase that property from property
owners and there would need to be money
set aside so the primary purpose as it
was initially conceived and we were
talking about how to put this together
is for Livingston Avenue and following
up with that project
now what happens if Livingston Avenue
doesn't happen or the the timeline's a
little longer that's fine the money is
set aside but it can also be used for
sewer it could be used for water it
could be used for all sorts of classic
infrastructure projects the city has so
it's not like this the money is being
set aside and is untouchable
the other piece of it was mentioned at
the last council meeting which is that
Ferndale Mayfield has
um had has it we've advanced in our
approach to Fernando Mayfield to the
point now where we have environmental
data on 10 of this of the 19 uh doubles
and we know that 10 of those 19
properties are contaminated at a similar
rate to the adjacent Park and so we're
moving with the help of you guys and
passing an ordinance last year about uh
nuisance conditions on environmentally
contaminated property into an
enforcement phase with Ferndale Mayfield
which will put us in the position where
we can begin to potentially start to
acquire sites and remediate that's no
great secret it's been something we've
been talking about for many years the
desire in doing that is to create safe
conditions for people who live in Bexley
and to prevent to provide for greater
connectivity in the city having an
infrastructure development set aside for
that
uh is appropriate on the city Side not
that the cic wouldn't be a partner but
that there is a true infrastructure
piece to this that goes beyond simple
Economic Development
um so this would allow for funding for
that as well should Council down the
road deemed to appropriate that money
but again today as this is proposed it's
a transfer into a reserve which would
allow us the leash to do projects such
as this in the future
um
I probably should have started with this
this slide but these are kind of three
bullet points
that I think I've already said which is
except for the first one
um which is that the lack of available
funds has been a major impediment to us
in infrastructure projects we are really
great at repaving streets we're good at
relying sewers we are not so great at
being able to tackle some bigger
Community issues because we don't have
infrastructure funding like this
um as an aside many of the projects I
just spoke about have companion pieces
in the recently passed infrastructure
bill at the federal level so it's not
out of out of the question whatsoever
that there might not be a matching fund
component as we as we move forward
coupled with Brownfield funds I think I
shared with you guys recently Brownfield
funds are now reavailable in the state
of Ohio there's about an eight year
period where they were not available so
we all of a sudden for the first time in
eight years have access to funding for
environmental cleanup that's a huge game
changer as we talk about these projects
and there's other two uh bullet points I
covered
uh and then a couple highlights on our
larger Capital uh items uh one of them
is complementary to the east and west
Fields as we work on redoing those
um it's also part of the Commonwealth
plan which would be to get a permanent
restroom facility at Commonwealth for
the users of the fields also to have a
companion building that would house the
utility infrastructure
for irrigation equipment and electrical
service so there's sort of a blurry
photo there of uh concept that was from
the master plan and that's currently
being fleshed out in Greater detail by
the designer who worked on the master
plan
Havenwood Park landscape installation
does not include a stage
but uh this exhibit actually did I had
to White it out that's because I didn't
have the current one in my email for
some reason
um But it includes Hardscape and
Landscape plantings on havenswood to
freshen up that Park and uh
provide it with additional amenities
and then the Four Season shelter design
Mike has spoken about before but there's
some Design Concepts in there which this
is a photo of grandview's shelter which
is one of The Inspirations for this
project provides a rain out location for
summer campers that's a huge benefit
for our program but additionally
Community rental and program
opportunities
and Mike is there anything you'd like to
add to anything I just said about any of
the rec stuff
or any questions for Mike about the Rex
stuff
um
and then I didn't this is not in the
capital budget but I forgot to give you
an update so I threw this slide up real
quickly which is we applied for an ODNR
grant for the bridge at Schneider Park
um to complement the state capital fund
application and and those applications
are
both coming along I hope the Odin R
Grant is one of two possible grants the
other one would be in April so we're
going to get a good feel for where we
are with that and then we can determine
whether or not to apply for the other
ODNR Grant but you can kind of see what
the alignment of that bridge looks like
it's uh
the crosswalk
to Hanford is right here that's the
entrance to Hanford and there is a
gorgeous big sycamore tree right there
you can kind of see it from the aerial
it is really dramatic so it's a really
neat location and this is the
frame of reference
um
just this is a little bit past the
sledding hill so the sledding hill kind
of stops right about there and then
there's the crossing so kids would not
be sledding over the bridge although
that might be kind of fun
questions
um
I like I like the idea in general but as
I've been thinking I've been thinking
about the other two connector bridges
that you indicated
um
that this would theoretically complement
the only difference I see in that is
this bridge
directly a butts
housing whereas the others don't and I'm
just concerned about easy
nefarious exiting ability from the city
of um
if it were widely known
[Music]
okay
um I don't I don't know that this is any
different than Clifton Bridge or Maine
or Brad or Livingston I mean there are
there are houses near those bridges as
well I know there's a relatively
Infamous story about the Clifton Bridge
one thing actually I think is very
different about this is there is no
housing on the other side of it so
you're kind of dumping into a multi-use
trail that
then there's nowhere nearby that you
know you're escaping into if I assume
you're talking about criminal activity
I'm talking about outbound more than
inbound sure so I mean I guess a
fleet-footed runner or somebody with a
bike whatever I think we can put cameras
down there and I also feel that
connectivity ultimately makes us
stronger
um and crime is always going to be
concerned we'll have to address it no
matter what we're working off well like
I said
um I'm not
opposed to the concept I just want the
safety aspect to be considered I mean
because I've been intrigued by Dublin
and New Albany there are tunnels under
the roads yeah we have tunnels under
Main and Broad Street
um been thinking about that and
wondering how they keep those secure
um
because they're used all the time but
so um I'm not opposed to the concept I
just want us to consider safety aspects
thank you and and I think that's
important as well I just pulled up a
document from that we included in our
application this is from the 2011 land
use strategy
and I didn't recall this until I looked
at it
but clearly we're not inventing any new
ideas here that's exactly where the
sketch had called for a bridge to be
located uh back when that was sort of a
napkin sketch of how to expand at the
time Schneider Park which was literally
just this area
and uh
you can kind of see how that Vision has
slowly sort of come together
any other
any other thoughts or questions about uh
I'm gonna take Troy's question and Sarah
dog park funding in there anywhere dog
Park's funded already and easement has
been granted so it's it's due to be uh
completed in the spring
Connie can hold me to it
hey I had two quick questions
um
if I read this right it looks like the
proposed amount for the transfer to this
infrastructure development fund is is it
nine hundred thousand is that okay
well I was going to say with so many
different things that this could be used
for you know Livingston from Bill
Mayfield some of these other things you
mentioned
um how did you come up with nine hundred
thousand
it was a uh the way that I formulated
that it was looking at the reserves that
we were anticipating during the year and
seeing based upon the various needs that
been presented with the capital fund
what amount of appropriation could be
provided
while also as we talked about and it's
kind of coming out of our budget retreat
we're putting 200 000 into a pool set
aside reserve and 115 to the rainy day
fund as well so there's just multiple
reserves that are that are being fed
through the budget process here
so my next question was if for some
reason in 2022 if our Revenue
you know is not as good as we wanted
it's not as positive as 2021 has
unexpectedly been it could be that 900
000 ends up in our in our rainy day fund
it could cover could it cover a
shortfall if we have it it could cover a
shortfall in a fiscal emergency because
it functions as a rainy day fund there's
two two safeguards here so there's that
the other there's more than two
cigarettes the other primary one is that
we transfer to our uh to these funds
twice a year typically uh so we would
have an early one early 450 000 transfer
and then typically it would not be until
later in the year that we'd do our
second transfer so one of the reasons
for example that we have
as much Reserve built up it's because
over the past couple years we held back
on some of that stuff and during covet
to be just conservative about what we
were doing so we have done that before
and we would do that in instance where
we're having unexpected Financial
constraints
but also and uh the funding could be
used for future
uh normal capital projects for many type
of the types of capital projects that we
do as they pertain to infrastructure and
Parks so it's it's it's still flexible
enough that if a future Council feels
like the the allocation should be you
know skewed a different way it's
feasible for a variety of purposes
what I think is important about it is
that it the purpose is disclosed we're
talking about the sorts of projects that
we could fund with this
the amount the money is in the bank at
that point
and it frees frees us up to use it as we
would want to for infrastructure
development as those projects arise
and then my last question is it's my
understanding the way you've described
it it all goes into a pot that is set
aside for the categories you listed but
if one of those categories
is extremely important or is prioritized
by Council or by our residents the
majority of that or all of that or some
of that could go towards that one
priority which it means that there's
less for these other
potential uses is that right that's
correct so it's it's that is a pot of
money that would not be appropriated
it's up to council to appropriate it
um and if priorities would change you
could appropriate it differently
and if they could or you could you know
put more money aside so it's it's really
it's not unlike all these other you know
some of the other funds that we have
that are set-asides for specific
purposes
thanks
I guess it depends on how you interpret
the part of that is a stability fund
issue because that does put some
additional restrictions on it so you're
right some of that could be said could
be used but
you need to tie it into the stability
fund I think you're you're fine there
but yeah well well okay did two points
real quickly before Richard the the the
language also that's proposed is a
proposal if there's something that you
guys wish that it with more broader or
more restrictive then you can do that
the way that it was written it functions
as a as a stability Fund in that there's
funds available in a fiscal emergency
for general fund purposes it does not
it's not restricted in the same way and
that you can spend it on those other
things except in a fiscal emergency
I I think we as we think about these
things
we're in a kind of
unusual situation as a country today
because we're talking about inflation
and lots of cost and you know Ben
mentioned the infrastructure Bill and
some of those things
um
and I think we need to be sensitive to
what we're going to do with these things
as Ben said maybe we'll put some of this
money inside it halfway through the air
and some at the end of the year because
clearly if if some of the stories you
hear about inflation have cost you know
jumping 30 and 40 percent that's going
to have a big impact on us we're we're
getting a lot more money than we
expected I hope that continues but you
know it we just need to be sensitive to
that stuff as we go forward it is a
fairly unusual time and
inflation will hurt us one way or the
other
so I guess to put put this simply so
this we're creating this fund so this
this money doesn't just always go to the
budget stability fund it keeps
infrastructure at the Forefront of our
budget and in our minds is that
otherwise it would go into
it would go into the budget stability
fund or somewhere else is that is that
why we're creating an infrastructure
development fund so it would otherwise
uh sit in the general fund and build up
the general fund further which is which
is fine the general fund is at the point
today where it's that you know it
exceeds the Moody's 25
recommendation for Reserves
um and but Council can do whatever they
want so if you guys say like we'd rather
put it in
Capital fund you could put in a capital
fund or you know you could put more
money in the budget stability fund
you've heard my argument before that you
don't want to put all of the assets of
the city in the budget stability fund
because even through through you know
two recessions in the past 15 years we
haven't had a fiscal true emergency so
is that the best use of the funds
available to us but that's a
philosophical question for you guys
all right
and I guess to to further
expound on that
wait we're not really this fund once
it's created
we're not really limited to
almost any of that right we don't have
to transfer this money into another fund
to use it this city council could
could appropriate this money
for anything that fulfills the language
in that
right it wouldn't have to be we're not
when you say
those three things we're not limited to
those three things either once this
money is well it depends on how you find
that
it says these are the this is the
purpose of these funds you can't you
can't then say well we're going to use
it to buy a new furniture for sure but
although we're not limited to those
three projects we're limited right this
could go to any project that we deem
fulfills
yeah they're not projects
right
okay and it's it was not really the
envisioned purpose but and it wouldn't
have to be transferred into another fund
to use it first so we could take this
from this
right you can appropriate out of that
file yeah okay my question is
it's in the budget ordinance
section
last page not not the budget but the
ordinance
okay
and Matt to your point is that
if we don't transfer it it just sits in
the in the general fund
the beauty or the benefit of putting it
into this fund is it says okay I had
this money in my general fund I am now
putting it over here for a specific
purpose for the development of
infrastructure as he talks about you
could leave it in the general fund the
prob there are two problems with that at
least philosophically one is
that means it could be spent on
something else anything else
and two is there's no it's it's
difficult in my opinion for
a group like this because you typically
look at a budget for one year
and and if they it
if if you look at an infrastructure fund
this I think what the mayor is
thinking about is this could be a
multi-year
project
typically not addressed in the budget
that's why you put in this fund and say
okay we're going to put a million
dollars in there a year for four years
and then we've got some real money we
can do something with it unless I'm
I'm not trying to tell Ben what he's
thinking but is that sort of what you
were talking about so that if in three
years we decide here's an opportunity to
spend
a big amount of money it's already there
we put it aside it's not going to have a
dramatic impact on our budget as as it
would be if you just try to take out
your general fund that's my sense of
what he's doing
yes because sorry thank you
um
because we've been told they want to put
this in you know as a reserve and they
think our reserves ought to be whatever
the number is 25 and this would be very
they would count this as part of this
part of our Reserve yes so it's better
to have that in our okay yes well some
it's not it's similar to having a
general fund reserved
right so but it counts right okay
Richard you had something
anybody else have anything Richard
um
I was wondering I briefly I think
touched on this at some other point in
the recent past about
um we know these projects are
more in the the nearer term than they
maybe have been in the past and given
economic conditions and uncertainties in
the future of rising interest rates and
whatnot I took the liberty to call Chris
fransman or Bond Council and talked to
him and he's he said that right now
interest rates
um are basically at the low that you
know that they've been in 30 years you
know he says it's not the exact low but
it's close enough within the past couple
years
and that
if
um
what this if the city
um was acquiring property to redevelop
um that if Bonds were issued for that
particular they'd be economic they'd be
um taxable bonds
um because the city could prob probably
resell the property to a developer or
whatnot and the spread between taxable
bonds which is the interest that is paid
is at one of the lowest margins
um that there's been historically as
well so
um
I was wondering if there had been any
thought as to
maybe ish issuing
um
development type bonds economic either
taxable and or non-taxable or a
combination of both now and still put
the do a not an either or but a both
still put the money into this so that
you have a reserve for for loan payments
that might be required if but also have
a a sizable pool of funds readily
available to be able to jump on a
project that that comes up
so is it's just as that Chris said that
our bonding level a three to five
million
um would not adversely affect the city's
ratings
um he he gave me a name of another
person that they they work with
um on the financial side he just does
the legal side
um but I think his name is Andy
so um Andy would be a better person to
for counsel and the mayor and and
new auditor to um discuss these issues
with as far as the city's bonding
capability but
I just saw that out there for
um people to consider because
we may not have this opportunity in the
future
[Music]
to be able to jump on some of the
projects as they come become available
well in my opinion those are
philosophical conversations that
the council can have if we're not going
to need that money for three years and
we don't know when we're going to need
it borrowing it today no matter how
inexpensive it is all we're going to do
is take it put it in a fund like this to
let it sit there and we will have to
make payments on that so so I mean yeah
maybe you can say I understand that but
there's an opportunity cost too of also
being able to to buy quickly
and in one Fell Swoop transactional
costs and whatnot if if the need arose
so philosophically I've I have always
opposed I have not always opposed I have
since 2009 opposed
um
borrowing without a defined
source of of income to pay it back or at
least to find a strategy so for me I I
am I continue to be opposed even no
matter how great those interest rates
are
it's not in a question that we might end
up wanting to borrow for development
whether it's right-of-way infrastructure
Redevelopment whatever
but in my opinion we would have to have
a very locked in plan to be able to pay
that back and if there would need to be
income generated or we have a source of
funding one of the reasons we have the
financial stability that we have today
is because we've really resisted any
sort of
larger borrowing unless we've done over
the past 10 years of small loans
targeted with very defined sources of
income so
I appreciate it I understand it I also
uh personally don't think that's the
best option for us and I I way prefer
setting aside money and saving up for
projects I agree with you but I think
there are now
ideas that are coalescing that that that
could be used and I'm just throwing it
out for not to be because especially if
if there's any properties that are
are redeveloped you know the city would
not necessarily retain
the title to would not necessarily they
could but it may not depending on the
proposals that might be made so is your
concern that we wouldn't be able to get
money if we needed it quickly
or or at a cost that would be a
financial cost that would be acceptable
because if we rates Rising with rates
it's going to be rising
I I project I projected that our income
would not fall several years ago
um when covert started in some other
other periods of time I I projected that
I'm just looking at macro economic
things that
I've studied over the years so
I'm just throwing out some things so
okay you know we could have
significantly High inflation High hot
higher cost and
um
I'm just throwing that out I'm not going
to be here I don't it won't bother me
one way or the other but I think it's my
responsibility as a representative to
throw it out okay
I think you're right Bill what you were
about to say
we're gonna we're gonna have the
necessary funds if something happens I
mean we could do it right if I I mean we
could at least on a short-term basis
borrow from a bank to fill this in
especially as Ben indicated we have a
repayment mechanism in place especially
if our Revenue continues to do this I
to borrow today for something we might
need in three years I'm not sure I think
I agree with the mayor that I'm not sure
I agree with that it makes sense
right
so we uh I think we're ready to move on
to anything else you want to uh so I
think we're about to go over uh turn to
page six
which is
the
mayor's office in City Hall
and in your printout you will notice
that most of the numbers are the same as
the ones in the screen except for the
odd 996 000 life insurance policy nice
try nice try Beecher
um
and uh
so this is a this is a largely unchanged
budget you can see that there's been
um
little growth uh we have a couple tweaks
to some line items just based upon what
we've
experienced memberships have been going
up just a little bit more C is by far
our largest membership
category our operating expenses
include Postage and
janitorial supplies and all sorts of
stuff it's the janitorial contract is
under Community Janitorial
so things have been going up a little
bit so we did we did provide for that
doomed inflation buffer there in that
line item just knowing that we were
going to be um coming up on that number
that we had registered for the year so
we might need some more
overall about a point eight percent
increase in that line on that account
any questions on that
page seven
is
Grant reimbursed expenditures
so that is um
primarily Community Foundation funding
also we have provided for the potential
of a state capital Grant
and then the BCE line item is the Bexley
celebrations and events
funding we have
as you'll hear in an ordinance coming up
we've we've received more grant money
this year than we thought so 180 is a
place where I want to do a little bit of
a deep dive before we finalize this
budget
but we also don't have Jeffrey so
Jeffrey Mansion project got slightly uh
because of the Jeffrey Mansion project
that number was slightly larger this
year
than we would expect
under page nine
City attorney my personal favorite
account
um
under the uh under the possibility that
we have additional aggregation work we
separated that as a separate line on it
because it's reimbursable it's just
easier to keep track of that's also the
reason that our
outside Council was as high as it was
this year so far
that and some uh you know there's always
zoning stuff so I should stop saying
extrasound stuff because there's always
extras on this stuff
um so the reason you see a reduction
there is because I think that uh with
less aggregation legal work
um we won't have as much need for those
for the outside Council lineup
essentially
um
you have a little bit more money to
appeals hearings because we've come up
on that already this year and then
provided our City attorney with uh a
retainer bump I don't think that's an
accurate
you want more than that or less than
that no I don't think it's reflective uh
this year it's six thousand a month
[Laughter]
let's see
yeah but it's a lot but they're both
accurate for 11 months
right I hear you
so the intent was to increase to give a
little bit more retainer options
a little bit of a more retainer budget
for our City attorney who will point out
to you readily that he is the cheapest
City attorney in central Ohio whatever
best value for money there you go
um civil service
I have additional funding for a human
resource contract we have
at least one director position coming up
so I imagine we might have a search that
might not be adequate I'm pulling some
comps from
other cities so
that number that's on my notes of things
to follow up with before our next
meeting
good thing we're tabling today
human resource contracts just if we have
to do a search
though
foreign
of course that's what we're here for
City Council
um major change here is codification
we
were not codifying enough in the past
this resulted in quite a few issues
we've been doing catch-up
we've had to use some legal
appropriation in order to offset
the fact that we're already above budget
so we're we've already hit the 4500 this
year part of that's catch-up but in
general
um
we're now online we didn't used to be
online and we're trying to codify at
least once a quarter we used to codify
was it once a year or twice a year so
we're just trying to have a more
frequent more current we had an issue
earlier this year where the zoning code
was not current online so it created
quite a bit of confusion
um that's the sort of stuff that we just
want to make sure that we're as current
as possible when people are looking at
that that they have good information
um it doesn't change the law it just it
makes it's it's better information for
the public
the red catalog is online
yep multimodal
um
page 11 is Mayor's Court
yep
um
so just mostly adjustments to this
although we have a new program that
shows up here so the adjustments are are
prosecutors a little less a little more
expensive than our previous prosecutor
was
I think he's just he's doing a little
bit more uh he's spending more time on
different cases uh Magistrate
a slight bump up to allow for the with
the magistrate again time I think we
just have a lot of this all stems for
the fact that you've heard Marquan talk
about
getting the docket down in terms of you
know reducing the amount of bonds that
are outstanding there's lots of uh
disposition of traffic or sorry parking
tickets that had been hanging around for
a long time they've all been working
together and doing that that has results
in a little bit more work there's some
of that cleanup that's still required so
a little bit more appropriation for that
is necessary and then the project tail
light pilot is in this budget as well
that's the bottom
the bottom line that is estimating that
is a good number based upon
Columbus's experience with average cost
per vehicle and then looking at the
number of warnings that are issued and
the number of
um just kind of a base like an estimate
of how many
individuals would be eligible
for it
I should say it's a good number it's a
good guesstimate but we'll learn more
going through the program which still
has to be developed
and is that funding coming somehow from
a grant or is that really guy from just
us that would be coming from us yeah I
don't I don't currently have a grant
proposal out I could
I could do that and I think that it
would be a I think it would be a
desirable Grant I'm sure that we could
get money to help offset that yeah and
I'll add that to my list
Natalie will add that to our list right
now
um
next is development and Communications
um
so not to bring up a sore subject but
newsletter and mailings has uh has moved
into this line item don't look Troy look
away
look away so one of the when we when we
did the um survey a few months ago for
our strategic plan which is still being
worked on I haven't forgotten about it
um one of the things that keeps coming
up every survey
even before the blast existed before
everyone still says the same thing which
is like we never know what's going on
and so
um you know it's from community events
or whatever the sort of stuff that we
included in our traditional
Communications that info is people are
hungry for that information
the other thing I've been hearing over
and over again is the newsletter I don't
read it it's in my water bill so it's
like it just gets lost in the water bill
so you saw in your latest newsletter
which there's a copy out there on the
counter if you want to look at it
but I'm sure you read it I did agree
yeah you saw that it is yeah the other
thing we heard is that the font size was
too small because we were trying to cram
in all that information
and people said we should include a
magnifying glass with the newsletter so
we expanded it to eight pages we made
the font larger we have more information
in it we mailed it uh to every household
in Bexley plus a little bit outside of
Bexley including Apartments
so this is a full-throated newsletter
going out to the whole community
before the water bill didn't go to
tenants
um
and it did get tossed apparently I don't
know why people would not want to read
their newsletter in the water bill but
uh it got tossed I think it's an
important thing for us to do I think
it's a small investment when you really
think about the communications that are
necessary I I actually I'm kidding aside
I do like this
and I was one of those people that had
toss out the old thing with the water
bill but because you hold on to your
water bill a lot of times for weeks
before you get ready to pay it and so
it's just sitting back there the whole
time so I actually did see the new
newsletter it looks good and I think
I I like it well thank you yeah so I
would suggest that the people who were
used to leafleting before the election
could just hand them that'd be great
steps in Mr Klingler are we doing that
quarterly yes
yeah so that that's that's a budget
amount based upon our one-quarter
extrapolated of the year
um you'll notice that there's a drop
pretty substantial drop in income tax
incentive Grant so this is great what
this means is
um we have
two two income tax recipient grants that
are rolling off uh next year
um and also the Gateway property tax
abatement rolls off in 2023. so we're
going to be a position in the next two
years where we're going to see about two
hundred thousand dollars additional
income tax revenue
coming to the city because of the of
that which was awesome and the schools
will also have more property tax revenue
which is great
um so that's the first you've seen the
first signs of that with income tax
incentive Grant number going down this
does have the other half of that
sustainability programs coordinator that
we've already discussed in the refuse
fund but you can see that up top in
salaries and wages in the refuse fund
because we actually discuss that yes we
discussed it I even remember that I
don't always pay attention
and I think a circular I think I emailed
you guys a job description
no thanks okay
uh
you didn't see it okay the uh okay uh
it's a 30 hour a week position
um with a proposed hourly rate similar
to
uh some of our other sort of mid-level
city hall staff
and I'm pulling up that rate
the sustainability position oh yeah I
saw that
it was we presented the wrong this one
we really did
but it's okay
can somebody please back me up on this
we did talk about it it neither needs to
be no one needs to be right or wrong we
just let's just review the fact that
there's a going to be potentially a
sustainability program absolutely I just
wanted to make sure that I'm not nuts
today well you are nuts
so the
uh I I let me just bring my head back to
this
um it'll be somebody who helps uh
managers various sustainability programs
whether it's uh food waste whether it's
clean energy and helps communicate and
create programming around it
uh liaises with warps in other area
organizations about what we're doing
develops and promotes and implements
programs related trainings and workshops
works with the schools in the library
with sustainability
works on Grant proposals and Grant
acquisition for sustainably project
projects monitors and reports challenges
and issues with program implementation
and metrics for success
um annually reports on sustainability
efforts all the things that you might
think that would be
and at starting 24 an hour
so it's anticipated to be a 30 hour
part-time position
working partially in the refuse fund
partially in the communications fund
just because of the programming what's
that
uh
it would be benefited but it would be 30
hours so it wouldn't go in that position
three quarters of a full-time position
not a full-time position
it's not a full-time bike traditional
definition
because you get benefits
we have part-time employees with
Benefits we could make it I would be all
for full-time I was trying to make it a
little less expensive and I think that
so I there is a job description that I
can circulate that's proposed drafted
and
I can circulate it
I don't know so I don't know okay I just
I I don't recall that I didn't recall a
Genesis story for this position like why
what what brought about the creation of
this position is that a redundant
question do we actually have questions
about this already
we did but that's okay so the reason the
reason for the position is that we are
fulfilling some of this work with uh
volunteer labor it's not super reliable
and is not really like when we're when
we're presenting regionally and when
we're trying to work on these issues
regionally they don't have the authority
to function as a city rep we don't while
it's a really important piece of the
program to me and I think to many
council members we don't have adequate
bandwidth for it within just to
volunteer and within you know Franklin
me my capacity so I think it's a
position that we value enough and use
enough that we should try to get
professional
assistance on right are there other
similar positions in other cities that
this is absolutely every other city has
one like it except those are typically
called sustainability
um
what are the best
see Chief sustainability officers most
cities have Chief sustainability
officers okay this is kind of envisioned
as a lower level than that
uh most cities pay around 60 to 70 000
for a position that is the person that
is representing the city and either has
staff or not
um
you know but we do tend to have smaller
staff we're a smaller City
I don't know if Grandview has Granby is
half R says but I'm not sure if they
have one
oh I'm sorry Matt Matt is is the
volunteer Elizabeth Allman
what's that is the volunteer Elizabeth
Elizabeth has functioned in a lot of
this capacity as the chair of the um
esec
there's a new position and this is a new
position we don't currently have a paid
position
okay so there have been summon
there have been some elements there
where there's been crossover where she's
functioned as a volunt is not a
volunteer but is like a volunteer
coordinator
where there's been green initiative
stuff behind it
but for the most part it's not currently
a paid position this would be an
expansion of service
do you have any other pages that you
need to cover yes
but I didn't want to leave any questions
on the table so well we can still talk
about it more next week
Mr Markham do you have anything further
no not for now
um
page 17
is
nope 17 no not seven boards and
commissions what are you looking for
well mine has different settings okay
boards and commissions
no that's two seconds okay
the uh
there's a reduction because Charter
review Commission
is concluded
and
there was a budget error with Oprah so
that's prepared in here
we do have additional appropriation for
part-time and overtime minutes or
minutes have been more expensive this
year and I'm having we're trying to look
into that that's something that we're
trying to figure out why that is is that
related to Charter no
explain that
uh regardless you know 3000 was bumping
up against her 2020 so a little bit more
but maybe it doesn't need to do quite as
much as seven I can only take a look at
that
also this isn't the sort of thing where
we would that's all we would use it for
so it's not like
thanks Lauren that seems really
pops out of you now they say that
um
otherwise unchanged
and a lot of these line items are
available for boards and commissions
they don't always Avail themselves of
them
but it provides them with a budget for
projects and training that they work on
I don't think we cover the fire contract
before but it's as you know negotiated
and with Columbus it's calculated based
upon
the number of office the number of
the number of firefighters in a station
and a depreciation on an engine
that's another question yes
well so you'll see this year there
hasn't been a whole lot of spend on that
primarily because the biggest
expenditure that we had this year there
was an outright expenditure we had an
internship program with OSU that did not
involve it was minimal funding and
actually
the intern I don't think was paid out of
this line on them for a procurement
internship
um and then the other thing was Kathleen
Nolte's training with you guys and
um it was not because we set aside money
last year for that in case we wanted we
had some training money that we carried
over to this year for her
in case we had some unforeseen
additional consultation or anything that
we might need in the dni field so I
would prefer to leave some scope for
that
um that's
that's also the
um last year's 43-20 where
um it was appropriated into the general
fund for um the housing assistance the
Val voucher assistance program
wait so this
4320 what are you talking about oh the
ordinance 4320 right that's in in the
title so that's the account number that
I referenced in that particular
ordinance
600
51195 okay
what's
foreign
we've used we've done implicit bias
training before with the Kerwin
Institute we've used a consultant before
for our hiring and procurement practices
so this that's what that line item has
been used for Steve Francis was paid for
out of this if you guys remember some of
the work Steve did yep I do yep so he
that's and if you look at the 2020
actual
I have got Consulting yeah I have gotten
away from uh using
all right I should just say I've gotten
away from using any one consultant
um and I think having like a retainers
which was I think there are Consultants
who would love for us to have a retainer
we don't have that
we've been we've been uh working on a
project or project basis
would that be able to be used for any of
like after we spoke with Steve and we
talked about like rebranding in the city
being more inclusive on some of our
marketing materials or would that be
somewhere else it could be
I mean it's
if it falls within the concepts of the
dni strategy the council passed which it
does that does but that particular item
does I think it could fall into that
it was under boards and commissions but
originally because they
the history was providing programming to
boards and commissions so diversity
inclusion was under that and then it
just became a catch-all eye on them for
those projects
so
it could easily live within City Hall
you know but I don't think it really
matters if it's in one or the other
unless Bill disagrees yeah
so to answer your question I do not have
a defined actual I have I can't tell you
right now that this is exactly what I
think we should spend that money on I do
know that we've done training in the
past we've wanted to have availability
for funds this is a place that we would
go for that lineup we could also reduce
it if you want well that also count for
Council yeah okay
Kerwin Institute was paid out of this
line item as well in the past okay yeah
good
yeah fire contract
that's calculated uh at least upon that
change I take it that's a good number
you know
okay yeah I was thinking last year it
was a higher percentage like it was
something
so it seems like a low number
given
that ostensibly you would see a wage
increase in there so
I'm gonna have us I'm going to do you
want to make sure to double check that
the Emergency Management contract is the
next uh budget item that's Franklin
County Emergency Management under
disaster and emergency expenditure of 19
500. that's the early warning system
that sort of thing we are required to
participate in that and do
so not a whole lot to negotiate there
um and then we move forward to page 63
which is the tip fund
if you're looking at your old budget
book this is where I first noticed that
big issue with the 900 and some thousand
things so you'll notice it's totally
messed up
so look at the screen
please
so this is our this is our streetscape
Tiff the primary experience out of the
street State Street Escape Tiff is a
Debt Service on the 10-year project for
Main Street that started in 2012 that's
about to expire pretty soon
that's 164 000 line item under transfers
to bond retirement operating
expenditures covers Tiff agreements
um property tax fees and uh collection
of fees it covers
um
Park and public improvements and
streetscape work that we do from time to
time
um it has played uh so like remember the
Connells Tiff that you guys approved
funds come from the streetscape Tiffany
to that
recently Ohio State Bank Tiff was
created that's where this Tiff expenses
line item feeds into you can see the
year to date we've been pretty low on
this we've also been building up that
Reserve
because the next
10 years of Main Street Tiff project
have yet to be determined um the way
that that was determined in 2012 was a
small committee that kind of came
together did some public workshops came
up with a recommendation for
the brick Crossings the medians in the
center of the street some of those
things those were funded all through the
Tiff
we'll have additional funding available
uh for like the next year 10-year
program or it could be a longer program
if you wanted one of the things that
we've looked at is maybe a future use of
the Main Street Tiff is the some of the
park improvements that we're talking
about along Main Street
um but that's something that's a
conversation for us for next year I
think
that's not anticipated in this budget
right now bill just and Ben just so I
don't forget and I just looked up the
fire contract it provides for a two and
a half percent increase effective
November first of this year so and then
a three and a half percent increase
November 1st of next year so that number
doesn't appear to be enough unless
there's something else that's going into
it that we don't know I don't know about
okay even if there is it should be
higher well unless there's like a
one-time adjustment this year you're
right that's what I'm saying unless
there's something else but I'm just okay
just wanted to give you that
yep okay uh the
so that was that's our streetscape tips
the other tip is our city hall Tiff
that's even simpler because that's an in
and out fund for the most part
money comes in for
the property tax servers from the Giant
Eagle
most of it goes to pay off The Debt
Service that helped us relocate to this
site
and then the rest of it goes in the form
of a payment in lieu of taxes to the
school district
uh so they get a portion of the proceeds
they would have other otherwise received
from those property taxes
that are those tips only
allowed to be used for Capital items not
maintenance items for example can they
paint the
bike racks
has to be in theory it's all capital
really so it has to be an improvement
like a not a maintenance item
so the city picks up those maintenance
costs yes can't pass those on to the
right to the business owners
well we we could no we can't currently
passes
um our legal advice in the past has been
that maintenance is not a typical
outburst
and I believe
it takes us to one last sheet
which we've already kind of talked about
but it's the Capital Improvements fund
itself
um this number is slightly off because
this was the I had to re put out the
version of the budget before the one
that you guys got where there was a
the Park's capital budget had not yet
been at been increased
so the ending fund balance is in the
form a high 400 000 range
but uh this just shows and might be
coming in money going out of the capital
fund and then the line items associated
with that
feedback to that more detailed
spreadsheet that you have that shows
what's underneath those lineups right
and with that
I would like to
talk more about the sustainability
programs coordinator
I'm just kidding
answer any questions
this is
this is uh for my clarification I guess
so this is on me not you but when I am
seeing new like new positions so new
positions to me
you know when we are funding new
positions it's a little more involved
even than Capital stuff because it's a
reoccurring thing we're investing over
and over again right
so when I see salary and I see increases
on the lines and they are salary
it is not clear to me whether those are
increases in existing salaries or
whether new positions have been added to
those yep
um
I guess I would like those to be pulled
out of there not only pulled out of
there but I would like to see
the salary the the separate salary for
that new position okay and uh job
description for new positions sure
good point
um
I believe that some of these budgets are
doing that a little bit better to some
better than others I don't think any of
them are showing the salaries in the new
position so someone had a little
description out there but I'm sorry yep
you know you don't understand and also
to Circle back on the refuse fund one
when we talked about that there was
another position in the refuse fund so
there was a full-time street sweeper
slash
let her picker upper
plus half for this so that was another
new position that's talked about in this
budget so again that is probably on me
uh I didn't realize that that was the
point to ask those questions I thought
that maybe we would be getting more
information or perhaps we got more
information and I just was or maybe I
didn't give you enough preoccupied at
the moment which happens yep sounds like
I owe you a bourbon
[Laughter]
Madam president Richard please so I know
we're jumping I this question jumps
ahead a little bit it is that position I
didn't see that position in the salary
um
detail
the pay ordinance
um appendix so there's a part-time
favorite ordinance which
not to disagree with Bill Harvey but
that would show up under the part-time
pay ordinance because those are all
salaried full-time positions and and
what and why aren't we enter entering
the um part-time ordinance as well
tip reading it tonight
no I think the parents is just a
full-time South yeah
typically the part-time
Trails a little bit but it
I think it should be it used to all be
the same in the same
document
so that needs to come out and we're
gonna have to
spend that or it's on its second rating
I'm sorry but the part-time pay
ordinance hasn't been introduced is not
in a first reading right so it would
either have to be suspended an adapter
or it could be added as amended to have
one pay or that's next time I'm not sure
why there's separate payers yeah there's
no reason for them to be separate that I
can think of okay
you're so smart Mark
don't puff him up don't puff him up he's
still on the 11th month so I'm going to
be smart next month we'll see Council
before I ask um there was an attendance
if they have any questions more
questions on the date if you have any
more questions
I'm going to ask if they have more they
have questions anybody from uh in
attendance have questions
okay
Constance lewis663 clear
um a few questions this infrastructure
development fund
what page is that located on in the
budget
so it's not appropriate Madam president
it's not appropriated
it's simply
created the fund is created and the
money's money is transferred into it so
it's not showing up in the budget
because we can't spend it so it's
showing up in the budget ordinance
itself
um
which shows like transfers to funds that
aren't appropriated
okay
um as I look at the proposal of this
infrastructure development fund it seems
very Broad
um
and it seems to dilute the importance of
Ferndale Mayfield purchases
that that concerns me because it's so
broad all these things and to have
Havenwood is one of those one of those
items I saw and there are parks or
something on there
um but yet Havenwood 150 000 is already
on the park capital
uh page
and the Tiff as monies that will go to
park and public improvements
um
another question is do these if this
infrastructure development fund is
created would the expenditures have to
come before city council or is it just
money that the cic gets to play around
with
um
so so those my concern is mostly
Ferndale Mayfield being deluded because
there have been five properties since
2018 when you when cic purchased the two
properties there that have changed hands
and Bexley has not
reached out to to
purchase any of them so I I I'm a little
concerned with
with the sincerity of pushing forward to
the development of Ferndale Mayfield
thank you thank you madam president can
I address some of that some of it but
I was getting late about the fun being
too broad
it's much more restrictive than our
Capital fund so it's by Nature more
restrictive but one of the challenges
with creating a special fund is when you
put money in that fund it can't come out
except for used use as specified in the
fund so you don't want to lock yourself
into a fund if say a sinkhole develops
and refraino Mayfield or I don't know
I've just come up with where all of a
sudden you can't do anything with it
because there's no other allowable use
so you need so a little bit of
flexibility is important
a fund of the city is not a cic fund it
cannot be spent by the CAC unless
Council I don't even think the way it's
written you would be able to transfer it
to the CAC in fact it locks it away from
that so specifically for City
infrastructure
it must come before Council to spend
money out of it because there's no
appropriation so all this is is a
reserve set aside cannot be spent
without coming before City Council
I would posit to you that a 900 000
investment is a much more robust
investment than anyone that's uh
preceded this and that the whole point
of this is to accelerate projects that
have been not not going anywhere because
for example
five properties of transfer to Ferndale
Mayfield they've been going for about
150 to 160 000 recently I don't know
who's buying those but they're not going
in Eyes Wide Open about the
environmental contamination and the fact
that those properties are not really
they should not be occupied
and so I think that while the city has
been well aware of properties have been
marketed as rental property
on contaminated ground
I can speak I can say what I've said all
along which is I don't think we should
go in and start purchasing until we have
concluded our Environmental Research
until all properties are well property
owners are well aware of the conditions
in the area and we're
we are purchasing property based upon
known conditions disclosed conditions
public information related to
environmental contamination which is a
different condition than it has occurred
past few years as you know we've tried
to work with Franklin County Public
Health
the pandemic has really slowed down any
response that they've had Council
recently passed the ordinance so we can
start to move forward we are working
with legal counsel to do that we are
setting the stage for very proactive
work and this investment is critical to
making that happen
are there any other questions Don
first of all John Lewis 663 you Claire
um I too have some concerns
for starters in the past 12 almost 12
years the accounting I've been coming
here to go to City Council I have never
seen money set forth or a side for any
funding of any Project without going
through complete approval through
Council I know you're saying accounts is
going to have to appropriate the funds
never see anything like it so I find
that odd has this ever been done before
by the city of Bexley every year I'm
sorry I'm waiting for you to finish
we're looking after it's fine it'll be
fun yeah so every year we put money in
capital fund every year we put money in
the rainy day fund that's exactly the
same
Council there is zero difference in fact
there's more accountability here because
it's in a fund where it has very
specific purpose
Council must by ordinance allow for
spending before spending happens there's
no bypassing of anything this is
analogous to our Capital fund we set
aside money in the capital fund
it's set aside specifically for capital
projects Council has to say what we can
spend that money on this is no different
and secondly I have been thinking and
have for a week or so wondering why it's
a million or 996 thousand dollars
as in the past as we've been discussing
when funding was needed it went forth
for a specific issue before Council why
is it 996 thousand dollars versus 250
000 or a hundred dollars is a specific
amount of funding rather than a large
amount of funding
so I may so this year we set aside we're
due to set aside about 1.4 plus million
dollars into the capital fund
of which we spent a fraction of that or
not not all of that at all we routinely
set money aside as a reserve this is no
different this is the same as the this
is really the same as a capital fund it
just has a slightly different purpose
the process is the same the concept is
the same which is
if Council wants some money the dollar
about to be 800 000 fine if Council
wants to be in a thousand if Council
wants it to be 1.5 million well we'll
have to cut money somewhere else but
it's really how much money do we have
available to us to invest in our
community and where do we put it and
it's council's decision ultimately is
how that gets allocated this is a
proposal
it's a really good faith effort proposal
based to find
adopted plans and strategies of the city
and what we plan to do moving forward
all right last question just to be 100
clear
These funds can only use for what's set
forth in the proposed ordinance to spend
those funds for in other words within
that parameter that's correct thank you
uh Mr Markov anything
further
uh anything further on on where we are
do you want some uh idea of where we
should be going from here on out
what I would like to do is make a motion
to table ordinance
what is it
46 20
46-21. there's a first and there's a
second uh Voice vote all those in favor
signify by saying aye aye aye all those
opposed same sign all right moving on to
third readings please and thank you all
right
laughs
so a third reading of ordinance 4721 to
amend section 408.01 D of the codified
ordinances in order to allow for
income-based funds for minor
misdemeanors Ms Robinson hello all we
will not be talking about the budget now
so uh we'll turn our attention to this
ordinance um we had a lot of good
conversation last week about this
ordinance and I know that you feel like
I awaken between Council meetings goes
by so so fast so I'm going to suggest
that we table this ordinance tonight so
that I can take the next couple weeks to
really have an opportunity to consider
the suggestions that were made and make
sure that we're presenting something
that really takes into consideration how
everybody felt and and the comments that
were made so if everyone's okay with
that I would like to make a motion to
table
ordinance 4721 at this time second
thought
thank you all those in favorably
signified by saying aye aye aye
ordinance 4821 ordered 4821 to amend
chapter 434.03 J to amend the penalty
associated with violation of 434.03
maximum speed limits assured clear
distance ahead introduced by Ms Robinson
hello again
um so this is the third reading um we've
have not had a whole lot of conversation
about this one it's pretty pretty
straightforward it just brings
um our um uh this proposal ordinance
would bring
um our code in line with the Ohio
Revised Code making uh the maximum speed
limit and assured clear distance ahead
minor misdemeanors a minor misunder
excuse me instead of a third degree
misdemeanor so
at this time unless there's conversation
yes
uh this is a technical question maybe
this is a maybe this is an adjustment or
not or a epigraphic layer the first
whereas says it's a minor misdemeanor oh
you are right you need to correct that
right we do need to correct that and
Bill you brought that to my attention
after the last meeting I completely
forgot to follow up with that so yes
it's obviously a typo because it says a
minor investigator of the third degree
there's no such thing so we can just
remove that and go away yes Natalie did
you hear that
for the first recital you can just
remove minor before misdemeanor and then
we can go forward
beautiful thank you for catching that
again Bill are there any comments or
questions from Council about this about
4821
are there any comments or questions from
those in attendance about ordinance 4821
um do you have a yeah at this time yeah
I would like to uh propose that we um
vote to approve of ordinance 4821 second
thank you we have a first from Ms
Robinson and a second from Mr Markham
this Bible yes Assad Mr Markham yes Mr
Sharp
yes Robinson yes Mr Klingler yes Ms
lamke yes
49-21
grade chapter 271 control the specified
Contracting procedures in accordance
with Section 59 of the city Charter and
to establish encouraging diversity
growth and Equity Edge procurement
policies Mr Markham thank you uh since
last week when we had the second reading
the talk with
um the mayor and Mr Harvey about this uh
Mr Klingler had expressed some concerns
about uh
that that sort of Zone there where the
uh the board of control would be taking
action making decisions on that
um I think we had thought that perhaps
um
you would be able to release a
like a report on on those contracts two
City Council Members so that they would
be
uh involved in that information at least
to have have knowledge of what was going
on is that well think of what it was due
from last meeting was the number of
contracts yep so we looked at his
history and I just pulled
we pulled payments above 50 Grand over
the year and Below 250 and we came up
with about 20 different after getting
rid of several of those were like state
so we have some State bid for example
police cruisers like that's a state big
contract so it doesn't it wouldn't go
through border control because it's
already been pre-cleared but
came up with about 20 different
contracts that would be
uh fall under this ordinance now here's
what's critical
of those 20 none of them
would have been would have fallen within
the state bidding requirement that we
currently have three of them were where
Council already reviewed it and said
um
for the parks Barn
that competitive bidding was okay as
opposed to the state paying threshold
and for the pickleball courts
so those those there were actually three
contractors involved those were part of
a process that's really similar to what
we talked about with border control
where counselors said go in fact less
controlled Council said go get some bids
and then you're okay
so in this instance border control would
have to review those bids and approve
the award also would approve for example
contracts that we have with our building
official with
um
our fuel purchase which currently there
we do we have all sorts of contracts
that don't fall underneath the
State bidding threshold but would get
reviewed now with this proposed
ordinance so I've said that I think
every time we've talked about this this
I'm a little I think Bill Harvey has
asked me why are you doing this this
support of control reviewing so much
more than currently is being reviewed
my thought in doing it was that it
provides a good exercise for all of us
and better transparency and more review
so this is by far more review than is
currently being seen today
because most of the projects under 250
do not
qualify as state bidding projects
because if it's a mark correct me if I'm
wrong or Bill if it's a service
as opposed to a like a contractor or a
building project
we don't have to bid it so we have to
bid streets but we don't have to bid
Professional Services so um
long story short it would be roughly 20
maybe less maybe more I'm not I haven't
like for example I don't know for if the
deems BP contract counts because each
purchase is smaller I don't know if it's
aggregate really matters at that point
so that's some technical stuff we'd have
to
work through but
um
yeah I guess what I'm saying is we would
under this new law we would have to
review publicly
would have had to review in 2020 20
maybe up to 20 projects that would
wouldn't would not currently need to be
reviewed
um
but also we would have had some
flexibility in the same projects the
council gave us the right to do with a
similar mechanism is is envisioned in
this uh ordinance so are you suggesting
there's more review than what we have
right now yeah so like this not less no
so for yeah there's that so the more
reviewed would fall into
we would have to approve our building uh
official contract we would need to
approve nbbj as the vendor for
Livingston Avenue we would need to
approve Brian Kent Jones as the vendor
for the Commonwealth plan like whatever
those are things that currently don't
fall off a billion thresholds don't cut
or border control this makes them go to
our border control yeah Mr Harvey I I
agree with what he said the other thing
I would do is where today
if you can't find another bidder
I'm picking on Andy for a minute if he
gets the we mentioned the BP contract
it's a fuel contract and they're the
only guys that's the only company
Andy says okay it's going to have he
approves it and be gone
under Ben's proposal
the board of control would have to
approve that so we would have the board
of control would have to look at a he
did try to get other bids B this is the
only bid he got see it's acceptable B
they D they'd approve it so I believe
there would be additional service for it
primarily for those between 50 and well
only for those between 50 and 250. or
even like so there's a
there's a landscape company in town that
tends to get a lot of our landscape
contracts we ask for competitive pricing
usually but I'm not going to tell you
there aren't times when our service
staff goes right to the landscape
company and says can you price this
project and then move forward that's a
good example and we could say get it
please get a couple other videos that's
how you use it yeah
so right now it's not it's not like
anyone's I don't think anyone's doing
anything inappropriately today but there
is not the same type of oversight and
intent that would be required with this
ordinance I I also believe
assuming the border control does what I
think they're intended to do there are
times today and Ben's example of a of a
landscape contractor
realistically the landscape contract we
should be for a significant amount of
work don't you're not supposed to go to
them and say
I can approve something up to thirty
five thousand dollars so give me two
bids do this street for 30 and this
street for 30. it ought to be a sixty
thousand dollar bid that the Border
controls should then Force to get done
so I believe that's an additional
control can I see questions over here
no
anybody have any questions MS lamke
are we are we confident about the
numbering here shouldn't there be a
267.01
can't tell you that
oh shoot
no it's 270 this is that was one okay
it's 270. that was pointed out earlier
so that first one that says 270.01
should read
267.01 wait hold on 270.02 oh got it
okay
it's because initially it was drafted
with a new number but then we found that
there was a border control placeholder
in our code that is not being used
currently
so 270 is the correct numbering okay
thanks foreign
Council any questions further from
Council on this third reading
Matthew yeah I think where I was going
with that with the number of projects is
I I just thought possibly
with projects between 50 and 250 first
of all I like the fact that there's more
oversight with our bidding process but I
didn't see the problem with maybe
bringing it in front of council as a
recommendation
um for Council to approve
um contractors you know any contractor
doing 50 and 250 have a review done by
the border control and then presented
the council and say we recommend going
with this contractor that way you know
we know who's we pay more attention to
who's working in our city
um and and what you know how many bids
were received and and
that if it's only 20 contracts it's not
like 2 000
um
it would be a basically won a meeting or
a couple a meeting and I didn't I don't
think it would take that long
I think it's important and we talked
about Natalie's left the room but about
her creating within my update uh review
of what's happened to the border patrol
is that you're talking about just making
sure there's a communication pipeline
back
no I think he really wants to vote on
him right oh sorry yeah just say yeah
you know you know have something
presented to us and say Hey you know we
got these bids or these are the numbers
for this contract and this is who we
recommend going forward and we take a
vote on and say
yes we approve move forward Mark and if
anything needed to be done in within
you know
right then in the air we didn't go
through three readings or two reading or
whatever you could always suspend you
could always make declare an emergency
and spend it if it had if it had to be
done right away yeah we talked I talked
to you about this and yeah so part of
what I have to say is more of a policy
thing so I understand that may not be my
role as a City attorney but a couple of
things first of all I think that
substantially slows down the project
process in many situations just from
what I know border control does now
because there's a border control meeting
because we've reviewed this but we got
to approve this so Andy can sign the
Contracting and lock in that price
number one number two if you're going to
now potentially have let's say 20
contracts where you have one reading and
suspending and adopting
I don't know that that's great Optics
but a lot of members of the public may
not understand what's going on and
number three frankly and I'm going to be
polite but blunt I I'm concerned about
the detail with which city council May
debate a contract that
doesn't necessarily need to be
discussed in a public session and may
lead to
disappointed bitters not being thrilled
about what gets said on Council floor as
opposed to the border control that's not
I mean that's just based on my
experience and not necessarily with this
city council but those are all concerns
of mine in terms of bringing all these
to the city council when none of them
have ever brought been brought to city
council so with and I truly mean that
with all due respect I mean I don't want
to step my bounds in any way but I just
I just based on my experience throughout
the state as well I just have some real
concerns about about that and the
primary concern is slowing it down I
mean that's just gonna happen it's it's
going to happen you're going to suspend
and adopt one 15 to 20 times a year
Matt did you have something
Richard
I was just gonna say I
I like the idea of
maybe a being included in the auditor's
report of a border control summary just
like the mayor indicates the meetings he
attended
um
and have maybe that instead of Bill
saying I don't have a report or
instrument pq's not here
um yeah yes
[Laughter]
um there would be something to form a
basis and there might be some other
things that can be included oh
absolutely
actually I
kind of Jen Jen and then Bill and then
I'm sorry it's okay yeah I'm just quick
Matt I really appreciate you bringing
that up because I think
um and the point that I really agree
with into echo of Richard's point is
just to having that information
available to us in a way that um you
know maybe is a little different than
we've done in the past just so if if
anybody has any questions we know and we
can we have the information to to pass
on I think I think that's uh I think
that's really important
well I I guess my only point was a
little technical if the mayor is the
president of the border control it ought
to be mayor making that report not the
auditor not to get real picky about it
but and whether you do it as as a report
here's what happened
uh or whether you actually bring it to
council and say there's a vote on it
that's up to you guys to decide but I
Matt
yeah I guess what I was proposing is it
comes as a um recommendation from the
border control so it wouldn't be openly
discussing bids within Council unless we
really wanted to dive into but then also
as a contractor for 14 years who did
strictly public work I I know going into
it that it's a three-month process to
get a contract approved so anyone
or 30 45 day process I understand what
you're saying about slowing things down
um
I I don't
I don't I I I get I see your point
um
but in my experience um when you bid
public work that's the way it I mean
the red tape you go through that's as a
contractor that's the way it is
um
and so I just think it would be
that's just it's just my my view I think
it would be good to come in front of
council as a as a recommendation from a
director or a recommendation from the
mayor or from the board of control
um
yeah yeah sorry I'm not laughing at what
you're saying I'm just the irony of this
is is that the whole point of
one of the points of the ordinance in
addition to providing for some more
oversight was to provide for expedited
approval
of small contracts that there are so
many contractors who are not equipped to
go through a three-month public bid
process or six you know six weeks of
readings
the
you know we have seasonality where we
have to act quickly we have all sorts of
conditions where moving from getting
competitive pricing to moving forward
with the project is important and the
vast majority of them are explicitly
carved out by our Charter which says
Services don't need to be bid so
if that was where you're headed I would
withdraw any recommendation on this
ordinance because it would really it
would really complicate our process Way
Way Beyond what it is today so
I don't
I'm trying to figure out how to
accommodate what you or how we would
accommodate what you're asking for in
terms of timelines
when currently most everything we're
talking about doesn't isn't going to
those types of contractors that are used
to bureaucratic red tape that's the
whole point we're trying to get to
contractors who aren't used to pre-er
credit grid tape so we can get better
pricing and get more competitive pricing
we have found remarkably cheaper
projects when we can work with
contractors that aren't overhead heavy
and don't have to do all this compliance
stuff and are able to Pivot quickly
price things within a defined window of
time and move forward through that
nimbleness not getting rid of
transparency not getting rid of
competitive bidding not getting rid of
any of the controls but through that
nimbleness we've been very successful in
saving money on our projects for example
the parks garage went from a 750 000
project
to a 250 000 project because we totally
retooled the way that we were doing it
in order to attract bidders that don't
have to understand prevailing wage don't
have to understand the types of State
bidding projects that we now it's not
exactly this I mean it was scope was
scaled back a little bit yeah I mean but
I mean it was radically less expensive
with a very similar scope
because we were trying to accomplish
what this ordinance would allow us to
accomplish without getting rid of
controls you still have to get
competitive bids you still go to a
public meeting it's still a public body
there's still checks and balances with
three branches of government represented
at the table
Madam president can I if I can make a
suggestion perhaps that you know
whatever is passed by council is not
what the what it's going to has to be
forever
um so it seems to me that perhaps
one one way to address this and that is
not to change the legislation is to make
it clear up front and and let City
Council Members know that when what's
going to be on the agenda for border
control in advance of that meeting and
that City Council Members can attend the
border control meeting and give input at
those meetings about whatever or offline
too since you're not you know the other
City Council Members the the city
council member who's other than the
president is now a member of border
control and then also updating city
council after the fact so that way you
know what's coming up coming up you know
what the recommendations are and can
have input into those recommendations to
the board of control and then of course
after the fact because some members like
you are going to pay closer attention
and some other people like if I was a
counselor I wouldn't pay as close of
attention to make sure that the council
is updated on that and then if it's not
working or if it's causing problems
there's unintended consequences
Revisited the ordinance in six months I
mean again maybe that's overly
simplistic but this is sort of my
thought now a 9 25 in the evening yeah
Matt
so I guess one I guess what would make
me feel more comfortable is if where it
says approves and expenditure based on
fewer than three competing price
quotations if we if we can't get three
priced quotes have only those
come in front of council
possibly
to make sure things don't happen and I'm
not saying you know I I don't I don't
know but to make sure things like
um
if things just get handed to a
contractor without your guys's knowledge
border control
if it's a 249 000 job in some in a
director comes to you and says oh I
couldn't get I couldn't get three quotes
I don't know what you want to do I we
gotta approve this
that's that's a big job
right and in that the way that this is
written today the border patrol has to
specifically find that there's a good
rationale for not having more than
for not having three contracts in a
public meeting in a public media
it says uh
yeah B okay
so today just to re to remind you guys
we almost always have our Board of
control meetings right after Council so
it's as simple as sticking around a
little longer maybe getting people who
are being allowed out of the room
because sometimes we have to shout over
top of crosstalking going on and there
will be more meetings you know and
there'll be a little bit more in depth
just because this is expanding the scope
of review
um
and I eat it to Mark Mark's point
you can try it if after a month or two
you guys feel like somehow there's not
like an adequate communication happen or
whatever it can always be tweaked as
well or we can table it tonight and talk
about it some more and come back
council is there are there any questions
any further questions on this one
uh this is the third reading
um is there are there any comments or uh
done
a few things for starters since the
board of control is not open to the
public it is yes it is so the public can
come to okay so after this meeting if
you have a board of control meaning I
can come and okay thank you very much
for clarifying that and it's advertising
thank you
I'm still a little concerned I
understand everything everybody said
here and certainly things would go
faster
but over the years it everything the
purpose for Council is to make the all
of the council to make decisions
accordingly and you kind of eliminated
parts of counsel even though you're
going to be sending the information to
them from making potential decisions and
they may or may not dis disagree or
agree with what you're being put forth
so I just I have a problem with that all
council members being there hearing
what's going on making a decision on
that rather than being done by the few
and quite frankly and this is not my
opinion but it could be construed as not
being transparent to the public there
are people who do not come to meetings
I'm not saying that's the case by the
way people who may be watching Meetings
online right now
who can't don't want to come to council
and watch Council they can't come they
won't be able to basically be involved
at least I can understand the question
can they can they so they can do that as
well
go ahead can I address something okay I
understand but this actually does not
make it go faster this makes it go
slower so today today
administratively the the vast majority
of what we're talking about
administratively just gets approved we
move forward we have the right to do
that this slows down the process you
have to wait for a public meeting it is
slower
today the board of control is approving
all contracts over fifty thousand
dollars that require the state bidding
process it's already so that is a state
statutory system it's set up by the
state of Ohio
this broadens the board of control to
review more things slowing down the
process what it is not fast it is it's
faster than if it went to council for
three readings but that's not how any
bidding process goes today typically I
can't think of one
um so that's it's faster than its
hypothetical scenario that would be
different than the Ohio Revised Code and
different than other cities do it does
that make sense it is slower than the
way it is today it requires more review
than today more transparency more public
feedback more opportunities for all
those things than our current system so
I really hope that as you think about it
I really appreciate your contributions
to the conversation you understand that
there's
this is one of those instances where
we're providing additional public
interface for things additional review
and additional requirements having said
that I don't want to misrepresent it
there are certain situations like we
talked about the parks Barn where if it
falls underneath 250 it doesn't have to
go to the statutorily required very
rigid State bidding requirements and I
think there's a lot of advantages to our
taxpayers to that but it still requires
Board of control review so it has all
the same facets as the current bidding
process if it goes above 50 but for our
taxpayers it helps us eliminate some of
the overhead costs that get associated
with the formal State bidding process
thank you
very sure
we had a comment
I I was just going to reiterate the
mayor said department heads currently
improved not just you I mean a contract
can be approved without the majority of
these as I look at them I'm not a part
of that process at all correct
motion to uh table ornaments 49-21
second
all those in favor signify by saying aye
aye aye those same sign
all right second reading of resolution
1421 to schedule the city Bexley city
council meeting dates and times for the
year 2022. that was you Ms Bible that
was me did anybody have a chance to look
at that and find that there were any
date mistakes or any dates that you'd
like to change I just wanted to
reiterate that that December 20th is um
if needed date for next year uh
uh do I have that yes as December 28th
is this year yes yes 20 yeah yes yes and
I will tell you not that it can't happen
but and the eight years that I've been
I've we've not we've not used it
we used it we did it used it once we
used it once
yeah
yeah it was necessary necessary thanks
for Richard and that was when council
did not approve the first balanced
budget that we'd had in a number of
years
[Laughter]
that's right
yes so just trying to protect everyone
's loved ones schedules
yes I I appreciate that and get that
totally consent agenda unless there's
someone who has any objections all right
okay 50 21. second reading our ordinance
50 21 to establish the water and sewer
Rays charged by the city of Bexley I
think that was Mr Markham
um didn't say there so I'm guessing yeah
go ahead and pull that out you want the
proposed amended proposed amended so we
have figures put in here correct no
highlights with question marks
so we are looking at a five percent
increase in year one and then three
percent increase uh each year years two
through five
projects where we break even in year
five
correct so this is uh the the refuse
fund uh rate is actually in our code
1060.10 and 11 for the senior citizen
right
so this would have a five percent
increase in
2022. now
understanding that the last increase
commenced January 1 of 19 so we have had
three years of no change
so five percent after three years of no
change feels
a little bit more
reasonable when you think about it that
way
the reason it would jump up five percent
in year one and then be three thereafter
is it sets us up
to have less noticeable increases in the
future and that by the end of 2026
the amount of Revenue raised is covering
our projected costs at that point in
time
so that we're spreading out there's like
a bump up
initial
High rate increase in year one we're
spreading that out to our residents over
time we have a balance in the refuse
fund that can sustain that very
comfortably
um
so that's the strategy we're trying to
create sort of a
five-year sort of stability here so the
residents aren't surprised by anything
dramatic and then we end up covering our
costs over that period of time correct
foreign
I know I've done this is going to sound
okay but having worked with billing
these things and the person who builds
these the fact that we've got some
annual rates that are and and that are
odd numbers and somebody's going to
start in the mid-quarter and you're
gonna they're gonna have to you know it
won't be 40 cents it'll be 41 cents I'd
sure like to figure out how to make
those all divisible by 12 or something
okay you know what I'm saying yep I
don't mean picky about it but well
you've got to deal with that issue I
will say that that's no different than
it's ever been
so today the current code calls it an
annual rate and then calls for us to
calculate it quarterly and then it says
exactly what to do for a shorter period
of time so the person well I think what
happens is they make that rate an even
number maybe we didn't last time but in
fact I noticed that we didn't round up
to the penny properly over our past five
years but that's okay okay I mean that's
she just yeah comes to me and has that
comment so I'm just I've been hearing it
so that's certainly something you and I
could take a look at one minute to do it
so we'd make these instead of seven
instead of 41 cents it might be six
cents yes
you have a question yes
um what do we Define in
1060-111 as um the age of senior
citizens what age do they qualify
are we sure on that uh it's in there
this is 60 okay 60. okay I need a second
it's next year don't say it the one
thing I understand is that everybody
defines that differently you know so we
I think we pass on what Rumpke gives us
okay they drop a lower rate at a certain
age and we just take that 60 is Young
or both
has that happened already
yeah that's what I was wondering
I was wondering I saw that the other day
oh happy happy what if you just look 60.
uh yeah
ounce
just be like I don't know where my ID is
I'm 37.
is there any more
um questions or comments on this one
nope nope
[Music]
it sounds great sounds like a plan you
have to adjust them so that any day
division works too
right and you gotta change it for the
leap year that's right make sure you
adjust for the leap here
[Laughter]
all right we are on to
21 to authorize the mayor to seek
financial assistance from the state of
Ohio and the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources for funding of a pedestrian a
bicyclist bridge at Schneider park near
Astor Avenue that introduced by Mr
Klingler
thanks Mark this is the second reading
of this resolution
uh it's pretty straightforward are there
any questions
microphone microphone
yes so the state capital questionnaire
now that's just
there's multiple processes along the way
for the state capital that's the
Columbus partnership one we've also
started meeting with legislators and
then
the governor's office will have their
own version
and they all kind of come together and
toss some coins into the air and figure
it out I guess
um but yeah that is a that deadline was
met
there's also a Odeon grant that was
applied for yesterday that deadline was
met
I have never seen such a complicated
Grant my life so I cannot guarantee
success because we don't have
we don't have the Abundant overhead to
Crunch through some of those processes
but by filing it if we're successful we
saved ourselves ten thousand dollars in
not paying somebody else to do it for us
that's a big if
this does not obligate any funding it
just supports asking for money
thing do we do we need to suspend an
adopt or can we
for any other deadlines or anything
the so the I upon actually you know
reading through all 50 pages of that
Grant application having one in the
pipeline and passing it within I think
it's 30 or 60 days of application is
fine so we do not need to suspend an
adoption
could we move it to the consent agenda
sure please yeah that'd be great sounds
to me super
great idea all right everyone get ready
we sure do
all right first reading of ordinance
5121 to approve the collective
bargaining agreement between afscme Ohio
consulate local 3318 and the City of
Bexley and Mr Markham Mr Fishel tell us
about it so this is what I summarized
for you folks last time in executive
session
um a cause for a pay increase of four
percent in 2021 2022 I'm sorry 3 in 2023
and 3 in 2024 actually Natalie the the
can in the can we make sure that the can
you make sure we I'm not doing anything
um can you make sure that the actual
agreement is attached to the tentative
agreement I emailed you next time so the
tentative agreement and I'm happy to
just send it to you you can read the
changes they're pretty straightforward
nothing earth-shattering
already proved it any comments or
questions about this
all right can we move on all right first
reading of ordinance 52 21 to ban the
discharge ignition or explosion of
fireworks within the city of Bexley Ms
Robinson
I have to say I've never been more glad
that I wrote something down it's getting
very late and it's hard to concentrate
but yes
um this ordinance um actually
um is in response to the recently passed
Ohio State bill
um or Ohio House Bill pardon me 172
which removes the Statewide ban on the
launching of consumer grade fireworks
um on a number of various holidays which
include New Year's and Fourth of July
um but it also allows
individual municipalities to restrict or
prohibit these activities and so this
ordinance 5221 will allow Bexley to
maintain our current restrictions on the
use of consumer grade fireworks within
City Limits
um and as I had a conversation with Mark
today to be clear this doesn't affect
our fourth of July it doesn't affect
your ability to have sparklers in your
yard or you know light off your smoke
bombs or whatever you do this just um
keeps us it keeps the the restrictions
that we have had
um on the lighting of fireworks on
personal property yes Richard
um this question more from Mark this and
the mayor it um
this looks like if we're keeping our
existing prohibition prohibition we
should refer to our code section that
prohibits it so that it in effect
becomes codified in reference to this
ordinance it's just what the mayor
whispered in me I believe you both are
correct yeah I think we can we can tweak
this to codify it so we could take the
current section we have work it in make
sure it's clear that you can get a
permit for commercial use that's right
interested in the league the legal
condition of consumer grade fireworks I
will send that to you
all right with your permission oh Matt
sorry
just a grammatical thing in the title
should say within the city of Bexley yes
an orange demand is charges with the
city of Bexley then we're all Banning
ourselves
you can't do it by yourself but not with
the city thank you
can this carve out the block of Bride in
between
53-21 ordinance 53 21.
53-21 to authorize supplemental
Appropriations for calendar year 2020
one Mr Markham
all right we have a list of supplemental
Appropriations that I am guessing the
mayor would love to
explain to us I wish I could adequately
but I'll tell you the concept which is
that and the recital should show you
this
um that there was
um training training for new Personnel
in the auditor's office and some overlap
between personnel which requires a
little bit more appropriation auditor to
speak to that if you guys have questions
Jeffrey summer camp Staffing for the
recta programs required additional so
they needed additional staff when they
came up with their safety plans then was
anticipated that by the budget
originally
and then if you's bill could explain
section three the special assessments
where you feature brought that
last minute and some he said something
about an audit comment and I really
wasn't sure what he was talking about so
I'm sorry I can't and we can get that
answer later uh and then that there are
uh additional Bond retirement fund
Appropriations because there was a there
was a 2020 refunding where 2021
allocate at 2021 payoffs were higher
than 2022 and Beecher said that he had
set
payoff amounts based upon kind of the
average over that term and hadn't
realized that 2021 had a bump at a
higher payback amount than 2022 and of
the future years this will be fixed in
the budget going forward it just catch
up for 2020. and in the budget going
forward the numbers are lower in general
I guess and we had the same thing happen
in our Tiff fund if you guys were our
call
not that in a minute Jessica remembers
that she recalls that
all right so uh
Troy is it okay if we move on to see if
I have any questions on this one
all right all right first reading of
ordinance 54-21 to immediately rescind
the state state of emergency I'm sorry
the city state of emergency first
declared on March 15 2020 and as last
amended on September 10 2021 and all
executive orders issued relating to the
cover 19. pandemic except for previously
approved temporary signage of
commercially zoned properties temporary
expansions of restaurant patios and
temporary facilities for covid-19
testing and vaccination which will be
extended until June 30th 2023 Mr Sharp
thank you
um I I felt that after
20 months um that this state of
emergency I think we can live with and
it dilutes the the term emergency by
um continuing the city's current
emergency and so this ordinance hands
over back to council some of the
temporary Provisions that I are
beneficial to be continued but with
Council approval and also allows for
um
um Council to decide whether it's
something that permanently should be
changed in in our ordinances regard or
zoning and and Commercial ordinances as
far as outside patios and whatnot city
of Columbus has been approached for the
same thing regarding outdoor seating
that was scheduled to
um expire uh shortly so
um
so that's that's and you can read the
the various whereas is
um but you know I think it allows
Council to resume its legislative
process over issues that may be ongoing
but aren't any more a true and emergency
so
any
um comments on this piece of legislation
okay moving on to First reading of
ordinance 55 21 to renew the city of
Bexley housing about your acceptance
program Grant previously established by
Third amended ordinance 4320 for the
purpose of encouraging Bexley rental
property owners to accept and
participate in various State local
government and not-for-profit
organization Housing Voucher programs Mr
Sharp
okay
um so I as we um talked about when this
ordinance on 4320 was originally uh
enacted is to encourage
um Property Owners with one or two units
um to actively
update their paperwork and file with
um the
CMHA Columbus Community or metro housing
authority in order to be a registered
property that can be advertised and to
Inc and would therefore
um
encourage diversity within our
neighborhoods rather than
um
uh
new projects that might tend to Clump
people together I think we want to
integrate
our residents integrate the diversity
and just help people to be part of the
community covid
um kind of prevented uh CMHA
um from having the classes that the that
individual landlords might have
benefited by attending and so
um
so I think it's worth extending this
grant program another year it would also
help the city identify property owners
if there are Acquisitions that Mayfield
Ferndale
um to know property owners who are
accepting vouchers and would be the
first go-to
if if they had available property that
we need to needed to help assist people
in in moving if there was a development
project so anyway
um it doesn't
I referenced earlier the adversity and
Equity that the original invoice or
ordinance indicated the funding from to
be from and then the some of the um
sections of this ordinance ex
um
just
Advance the program guidelines by one
year
um
and I exclude some other references that
aren't applicable anymore or maybe
confusing in in this extending the
program so
if anyone has any questions feel free to
talk to me offline and I will hand it
back over to president Bible thank you
and I will hand it back over to you
all right so we have a first reason
reading of Resident resolution 1621
confirming the mayor's appointment of
members to the Bexley Community
Improvement Corporation I believe that's
Ms lamke is it
uh it doesn't say it on the
um it's sad
okay
okay so
sorry about that just the uh actually
there's a in if you refresh your browser
there was a
Bill cot that the ordinance was uh or
the appointment resolution was not
correct so now the correct one is there
oh now it says my page isn't even
available
yeah
um
yeah so um
the these are there are four members who
uh are interested in continuing to serve
they are all
very contributory members of the cic so
I would like to see them continue
serving
um there is a change here it's really
because the charter gives me the power
to do this but uh I'd like to really
knock Mark official off of the cic so it
makes my heart I think that'd be best
joke the record but uh no Mark is the
member City officer member um currently
and
um
it it after talking to Bill a little bit
who is outgoing mentioned it briefly to
Matt
um the and talking to Beecher about it
features our finance director he
qualifies as a city officer position
um I think it'll be helpful to have our
finance director on the cic
it was evident through the most recent
audit process that we were asking a
whole lot of our Volunteers in terms of
giving information to the Auditors and
getting back to them so Heidi McCabe
uh and Nate green deserve a ton of uh
Applause for all their work on the audit
this year it doesn't sound very exciting
but they put a ton of time into it but
I'd also think like it's not exactly
fair to ask them to do all that so
having Simon a staff member that sits on
the CAC and can be responsive to that
during business hours seems wise so
that's the concept
it's a one-year appointment so if it
seems like it's not working out you can
always go a different direction later
no backs
what's that anybody and any comments on
this one
okay all right first reading of
ordinance 56 21 to authorize
appropriations of 55 000 from the
general fund into the grants account for
the purpose of funding the kindness Park
and Senior Community Center projects I
assume that's Mr American
all right so we got uh some more free
money here we can use right
bill will tell you there's no such thing
as free money but uh we did apply for
Grants and then we found that we have
reached the end of our rope in this
year's Grant uh appropriation so this
gives us additional appropriation to
accept these grants
both of these grants fully fund the
projects that they're proposed for I
should be more specific but uh about the
senior center but the 25 000 for the
kindness part that is
um a that is our what we are currently
calling the Drexel pocket park uh Denise
blank who passed away
um recently I had a bro passion for that
Park and wanted to see it develops into
a park that was
uh sort of centerpiece for all sorts of
different aspects of kindness so we've
worked with our designer it's going to
have a fountain with kindness rocks it's
going to have a chalkboard where people
can leave notes hopefully that are kind
notes
um and additional some additional
improvements
um her husband her husband has agreed to
fund it so his
is fun with the Bexley Community
Foundation is funding uh the additional
improvements to the pocket park and it
would be renamed to the kind dgb
kindness perk
um the 30 000 in funding for the senior
community center is furnishings and
equipment that can be taken uh from the
pilot space into any other space down
the road
um that is the Community Foundation and
it is anticipated to fully fund all of
those for interchange so
we think between this and what you guys
had already appropriated for due
diligence that we have adequate funding
for the couple years of operation
exciting stuff
any questions about this one ladies and
gentlemen
Jessica please I just I love the
kindness Mark what that's you know what
that's done in that little area I never
saw anyone kind of taking advantage of
that space now you see people sitting
there and congregating and I just think
that's really neat that they wanted I'm
being fined yeah
it's nice it is nice you're right
anything
oh is that part of the door yep it is
yeah that job man
[Laughter]
I'm not worried about it I think first
reading
first reading of
first reading of ordinance 5721 to
establish rates for the police chief and
police captain of the city of Bexley
effective as of January 1st 2022 into
and to approve the revised pay step
schedule attached here to his exhibit a
Mr Markham I'm assuming again hmm I'm
thinking
this is part of our pay ordinance is
that what this is the pay ordinance this
is the pay ordinance
uh except for a part-time which needs to
be added to it typically it's had a
separate orange but we will be adding it
so we will amend the difference between
frankly I don't know why the police
chief and captain always recall that
separately on this but there's a because
by ordinance they get what's ever put in
the collective bar reading agreement
with the efforts of increase whereas
exhibit a shows
um step step positions and work for the
next meeting we didn't have
we're going to show where everyone Falls
within those steps that's in those
positions um the reason that you don't
see that right here is because
while we got all of those to properly
reflect the four percent increase that's
proposed in the budget we need to go
back and really carefully make sure that
the positions are accurate in terms of
where they fall in those steps because
every year that changes a little bit so
it's not an auto account
um
so that's that plus we'll have a
separate exhibit with I would assume
exhibit B that would show the part-time
hourly rates similar to previous and no
pressure on you guys but we have to pass
this before we can leave for the year
right yes that would be helpful
but you you have two more meetings after
this and possibly a third if you need it
well that's what I'm saying
Christmas Eve we will be here
she can't wait
to discuss the results
yeah any questions about this one I
think further
Richard please
um
can someone go back and recalculate or
double check the First Column to make
sure in the exhibit
to make sure that I come up with a
different percentage than what you just
stated
um I want to make sure compared to the
schedule that I have
which is a landscape schedule last year
yeah yeah we'll double check this came
from
this came from the finance department
and I did I looked at the calculations
behind they looked correct for I checked
a few of them just make sure I come up
with a around
and even different number on two that I
just spot checked awesome
any more on that one
all right so we have some tabled
ordinances I don't think there's any
action on Columbia Place correct correct
and I know that there isn't any action
on the aggregation
um is there any action
um on the 4th of July
we do do we have action on that we do
have more information now don't we
motion to remove
ordinance 40-21 from the 21 from the
table for discussion second thank you
it's a first by Mr Markham and a second
by Mr Klingler all those in favor please
signify by saying aye aye aye those
opposed same sign
hey I forgot we we have numbers for this
we do have numbers and we have a
proposed amendment but
um I don't by the way I don't know why
my computer is showing everything on
white text I like it though I like it
well it's the settings not activated I
can't figure it out I want all my
ordinances like this this is like yeah
this is like
it's definitely nightmare that's right
time to stop looking at ordinances
anyway
the proposed change would
add that the these sections do not apply
both of them have this these sections do
not applied to they already said the
mayor
thanks guys uh the service director
recreation parks director chief of
police for the deputy achievement please
so basically any director positions that
we're serving for the rationale that
they would and do serve at these events
often anyway
um and calculating it just became a a
lot higher expense and be a much more
complicated calculus so um kept it
simple I think Bill that we found that
this is roughly six thousand dollars in
expense right
between the two events
do we
this is only for non-union Personnel but
we need to
is the overtime exempt terminology make
that clear yeah there's nobody in the
union that's over 10 except okay okay
does anybody have any questions or
comments on this piece of legislation
two canvas
comments no there's two cameras
do we fix it
that's not a typo that requires a Voice
vote to change anyway anyway
um Troy do you have any action on this
motion to adapt to propose them listen
to amend
ment
Mr Sharp
um
any questions Adam ending
any questions from those attendants on
amending
Mr Markham yes Ms sad yes Miss Bible
yes Mr Sharp yes Mrs Robinson yes Mr
Klingler yes Ms lamke yes motion amended
thank you now Mr Markham motion to adopt
amended ordinance
40-21 second first for Mr Markham second
from Mr Klingler
um any conversation from Council
any conversation from those in
attendance
yes there's lamke yes Miss Bible yes Ms
Robinson yes Assad yes Markham yes Mr
Sharp yes thank you thank you for
passing that I know that's gonna mean a
lot to the employees who work those days
yeah appreciate it
all right
uh shoot did I just get rid of that
why didn't my computer's really not
behaving
um
so we are to
um reports from each individual
um
council member and service is up front
Mr Sharp
um president I have no report and per
Council rules
um I as I previously asked you may I be
excused please thank you
um is your birthday today
finance committee
new
uh safety and health Ms Robinson
nope zoning and development committee
Jessica Saad nothing to report
Recreation and Parks committee at
Klingler
just one thing I'd like to
um maybe get more than fifteen dollars
in Mike's capital budget for the
armchair so think about that please for
next time we'll think about that
Judiciary strategic committee Monique
nothing to report
uh uh item number 21 public comment
anyone have anything to say thank you so
much uh anybody we'd love to but I'm so
tired
come on come on Don motion to adjourn
motion to adjourn
is there a jacket Miss Robinson was that
a second yes it was all right oh there's
a favor please signify by saying yes yes
yes yes