we're waiting hold your breath
oh yeah we're good
that's it
all right
good evening welcome to the November 8
2022 Baxley city council meeting
election night here it's great to see
everyone uh as always our thoughts are
with the people of Ukraine and we are
missing for right now our city auditor
Matt mcpick he's rushing here uh and
filling in Mr Fishel will call the roll
foreign
Mr Klingler here Ms Robinson here Mr
Markham president MS lamke
Miss sad did I do you here okay good
I couldn't remember do you miss anybody
I don't think so all right will you uh
stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance
with me
I pledge allegiance to flag the United
States of America
Republic for which it stands one nation
not a God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all
thank you
I believe we do not have any
presentation special guests with us
right tonight okay we do have a spot
here for public comments with a speaker
slip and do we have any speaker slips
we probably do not saying no all right
thank you oh we'll get to the
president's report
um a reminder to you guys I know I have
reminded you but it's going to be kind
of weird we're going to be here next
week so we stack the November meetings
uh so that we get uh that Thanksgiving
area a little bit free or whatever uh is
this always I said I love election day I
always have loved election day a little
teeny Troy Markham always love election
day I like staying up late watching the
returns and everything like that uh my
wife works at the polls and she alarm
went off at 5am this morning and I had
the coffee brewing at 4 45 so we're all
set to go and she's uh she's working
there so thanks to all those poll
workers thanks to Sam Marcelino for a
little extra work this year to protect
the poll workers as well yeah
and the mayor
they didn't hear you say it again and
the mayor you are up for re-election yes
too I did take an opportunity to hug a
poll worker today and as it is I was
like we can hug poll workers yeah yeah
we can hug poll workers it's good yeah
well actually she came and dug me so I
was I just went along with it I hugged a
couple too
yeah
so I'm gonna I'm just gonna hit
something here on the president's report
I hope you'll bear with me a little bit
because something that's been going on
the last few weeks it kind of has
alarmed me and uh I use the word disgust
disgust uh I've seen and heard more and
more anti-semitic comments echoing in
our culture
it's been a surprising amount of
resources to devoted to denying the
Holocaust
and the demonization of Jewish people
and stoking hatred of Jews
these things used to happen quietly
people used to be justifiably ashamed of
echoing stuff like this we're announcing
popular figures who seem even proud of
spreading this disgusting stuff and make
no effort to apologize or make
Corrections or amend to the damage they
do to all of us so since I have a
microphone here I'm going to tell you
I'm not going to tolerate this
I really am sick of it
I grew up in Southern Ohio in a
community with no Jewish people and in
eighth grade we spent an entire day
learning about Holocaust including a
very graphic documentary
and the reason we did so it was deemed
so important that we learned the lesson
from that horrifying time in history
I would never ever I would never believe
that in the year 2022 that we would be
moving backwards so far in this there
would be so much energy and resources
being utilized to persecute Jews
I realized last week when all these lies
were being spread around I was reading
about it as much as I hated it I wasn't
saying anything
and I realize it's important when lies
misinformation and hatred are being
spread that each of us has a
responsibility to make sure that we
don't stay silent but instead speak the
truth in response
there are 15 million Jews in the world
today and they have been consistently a
historically and oppressed and harassed
people in every country they have
inhabited during World War II the Nazis
systematically imprisoned and then
murdered six million Jews including
millions of young children while the U.S
and the Allies stood around before
finally taking action
every generation of Jews lives thinking
and hoping that anti-semitic hatred and
violence will finally become a thing of
the past and every generation is proven
wrong
we are time and time again shocked by
the level of violence and depravity that
are shown and then insultingly some
people actually have a goal to spend
vast amounts of time and energy trying
to convince us these events didn't even
happen
as if they are somehow presenting
something creative or intellectual to us
it's ridiculous
and it's hard for me not to insert
another word in there
here in Bexley we're blessed to count
Jews as a large portion of our
population they are friends and
neighbors there are mothers and fathers
our children our brothers and sisters
we stand with our Jewish community and
as elected officials we will not let
this nonsense stand in our town
and we will say it as often as we need
to
City attorney report here here
so I'm going to use my report to add on
to that I hadn't even thought about it
so thank you Troy I really do appreciate
that I realize that we are so blessed to
live in a bubble and we don't realize
how bad it is some places and it really
is I mean I'm the only Jewish person I
mean there's Jewish but I'm the only
actual Jewish person here right but and
I don't I say that because we need
everybody else's help you know and
I'm going to say this and I'm not don't
mean to offend anyone but we had a
former council member sit on this Deus
a couple months ago and compare masks to
the Jewish star to the Nazi and again we
need you folks to speak up it's not
enough that I spoke up we need you folks
to speak up so going forward again I'm
not trying to shame anyone
um except Sam Marceline oh you weren't
here you're okay
um no I'm really not I just I'm just
using that as an example of how
important it is for us to speak up just
like we need to speak up when and you
know I'll use the black lives matter no
name but it's not just that when when
people are being oppressed and it is a
huge huge slippery slope and we are
going downward on that slope and we may
be going downward very fast depending
what happens tonight and in the next two
years so I appreciate Troy's sentiments
I know everybody in this room is is on
the right side but it's not enough to
just be on the right side we really have
to act so that's my report
there we go thank you I'm sorry
um Mr President I have a question for
the City attorney
um would you mind just sharing a little
bit about the uh decision with the
Columbus
um gun control issue oh sure
so
um the city of Columbus in 2019 filed a
lawsuit and um a sought an injunction or
a temporary restraining order I'm sorry
and an injunction
um prohibiting a certain part of that
the law to go into effect and I haven't
gone back and researched the details on
it but basically the parts of the law
that say local government can have no
say so in in most matters involving gun
ownership use possession Etc
so at three years later the judge after
the City Attorney in Columbus went to uh
the Supreme Court and said can you get
this guy to rule ruled and he he granted
a temporary restraining order basically
determining that it is a reasonable
likelihood that the city will succeed on
the merits so as of right now it is fair
game to consider potential restrictions
local restrictions on the concealed
carry and some things like that now how
far that goes I'm not sure so just you
know for example can we require can we
pass the law requiring
um citizens to who are stopped by the
police to actually tell the police up
front that which they don't have to do
anymore by the way under the current law
that they actually have a gun in the car
probably not but there are probably some
things that we can do and especially
relating to where uh conceal carry is
permitted so if you want to explore that
I mean you know we talked about it the
other day and we haven't really further
explored it and you know we might also
want to see what Columbus is doing
yeah just wanted Council to be aware of
that and that we're all kind of keeping
an eye on what's going on
all right let's move to the uh
administrative report then
Chief Lewis the floor is yours sir
budget's coming later but if we could go
twice if you want
answer any questions that may be
subsequent to the report would call out
project tail light this was a initiative
that the mayor had created back this
summer really focusing on individuals
who were stopped for motor vehicle
defects headlight tail light Etc
we've taken that idea and expanded it
we're going to partner with Bexley Car
Care and conduct motor vehicle
inspections for the community and
adjacent we'll do that on a Saturday
they have offered to provide us their
facility where we will have individuals
come have their vehicles inspected and
work with the city on having those
issues remedied at our cost so we're
excited about this proactive initiative
and really building on this idea
thank you Chief any any questions for
the chief from his update
Jess
I was just going to highlight Chief and
mayor Kessler that in looking at the
budget with the project tail light it's
really just so it's not hard to do right
with uh the funds but what a difference
it makes I would love to know um at some
point because it was hard to tell
um in the monetary because it is a an
inexpensive program to understand how
many of those that we've replaced so far
today there have been two who have
actually taken advantage and so the
difference is they've used internal
Resources with with our team I'm here
within the city this is something that
we would actually partner with one of
our local businesses so it gives us
really a partnership and extension and
it also gives us more of a chance to
impact more people as opposed to those
traffic infractions where officers are
traditionally should be passing out that
information we're looking at really
trying to Mass
contact a lot of people in this
opportunity so we'll do a media blitz
invite people to come out have their
vehicles inspected by our officers as
well as those at taxi car care great so
if you want to keep us posted on the
program it would be great to get numbers
well yeah to be clear I think we're
we're in the process of ensuring that
the
information is getting to motorists if
there are violations
um I think you know we're we have all
the forms yeah but we're not sure that
they're getting distributed all the time
and maybe Andy you want to talk a little
bit about the experience that we did
have with the couple that we've done
I mean how extensive yeah so far it's
been very minor I think two uh two tail
lights and yeah I mean it wasn't no big
deal at all you know we did it in-house
right at the you know service crowd okay
so we're making sure that like you know
we did an initial launch that we're
continuing to provide that information
those resources and this will be a great
way to get the word out and also you
know to the juice point we're not
stopping people in this instance they're
coming over to say hi and uh we're doing
officer safety checks which is great
anything else for the chief
but I loved uh I would love to see the
post office concerns about the mailboxes
being on the blast everything good
awesome thank you I just think people
need to be
wary of that and more people that know
that we need to be careful about that
the better especially during the holiday
season it's really
yep and um you know we have been
continuing to work with congresswoman
Beatty uh in terms of just generic
postal issues
um
so if you are continuing to hear
complaints about Postal Service issues
in general not necessarily the theft
that you're talking about
um you can always let Natalie know but
Natalie refers them on to the
congresswoman's office and we continue
to keep in touch with her we found that
to be more effective than
calling up the postmaster
yeah so they're being really you know
really a lot of
times
thank you
any other questions
Sam no question just a comment looks
like every single number is down here
um except for motor vehicle thefts and I
think we all know that's kind of an
anomaly this year based upon some recent
developments for Hyundai's and uh I
think it's key is but either way that's
pretty impressive because I know that
there's some concern Nationwide in
regards to an increase in crime so thank
you to your officers and such for uh
continue to work on that so Bravo
and we're going to start posting these
stats on our website as well more more
frequently so that it's more apparent to
the community
all right
um Mr Price
thank you mayor
um I tried to summarize some discussion
that took place at the recreation board
meeting uh on November 1st uh it was a
two-hour meeting so I tried to pack it
into a couple paragraphs but
um uh
want to just give some background
information for Council we'll obviously
have this discussion when I present the
board uh present the budget to council
uh next week but I'm happy to answer any
questions about discussion on pool
management as well as some rate
approvals for camp and preschool for
2023 but again I want to make sure you
all had some background information
about the discussion that took place at
the rec board last week I guess it was
uh also
um thank you to everyone for all the
support on the uh adult Halloween bash
on the 29th it was our first attempt at
it and it was a huge success and
appreciate all of the support we had
about 190 people our goal is 100 people
and um appreciate the pexy bed and
breakfast and Seventh Son for their
sponsorship as well as the Bexley
celebrations events uh group
um so again thank you for all the
support on that end of report
thank you Mr Price any questions other
than about uh costumes
did want to share with everyone that
Mike and I have had extensive
discussions and also with the mayor and
council member sod about the pool
management and obviously I know he's
going to do a very in-depth report next
week but I will be sharing with you some
of the survey results that Mike has
openly shared with us they are kind of
lengthy sometimes so I want to get them
out to you as soon as possible I'm going
to send you the 2017 Parks and Rec
survey
um the
2021 Parks and Rec survey
and the 2022 Parks and Rec survey and
the 2022 swimsafe survey to their
employees
um so that everyone has that Mike has
been really transparent with me and
anytime I've asked for information he's
been really good about giving it I do
have some concerns about swimsafe coming
back for a third summer but we can have
that discussion and you know for see
where that goes but just so you know
there's going to be some reading
material coming to you as soon as
possible so you have time to absorb it
because it is a lot
Mike was there anything I left out there
I think I got the year's records yeah
it's going to be I think it's 2002
Patron survey two thousand I'm sorry
2022 Patron survey 2020 to staff survey
yes that we did in 2022 uh swim safe
staff survey yes um okay the only other
thing I'll add is I'm I'm going to also
share a a Google folder with with
Council that'll have some background
information on some budgetary stuff
related to frankly as I highlighted in
here the extensive increase in costs to
operate programming and sort of how that
has impacted decision making as it
relates to
um fees that that the rec board approved
as released to summer camp and
um preschool as well as uh pool
membership so I'm gonna provide and I
can I can even drop that in there or if
you want to send it that's fine either
way
um but I want to make sure that that
Council has as much information in terms
of some of the numbers that we use to
make decisions from a cost and expense
standpoint great thank you looking
forward to it
oh sorry Jess I was just going to tell
Council as we move into park and rec
budget you know Mike and I have been
spending a lot of time together recently
on the budget
um as well as with our rec committee on
some different things so if anyone has
any questions at any time
um I get the opportunity to chair park
and rec currently and I would be happy
to help with any of that information on
anything Monique had to say or Mike
um
I've got the information as well so let
me know how I can help
I do want to say my kudos to your staff
on um the decoration and setup for the
Mansion I'm not sure if you guys saw
those final photos of what what the
Mansion looked like during that bash
there's a even had a a Pianist there
live I'm trying to figure oh it doesn't
we're struggling there but uh
skeletal pianist it was it uh the the
Mansion was transformed and uh they did
a great job so thank you to your staff
and to you and I I should say thank you
to Emily perfect and listen
family perfect it was her brainchild and
those two really work diligently to pull
this off so thank you to both of them
that's great
um Mr Bayshore
past is my report and really nothing to
add
um
Leaf season we are still on our first
round with that being said
um usually the on our first go-round we
fly through
um but lucky uh the leaves have come
down in mass quantities and we're moving
slow but it's really not a bad thing
um but they're still working on it
happy to answer any questions y'all
might have
the uh and just in case people are
wondering where Lee pickup is on the
front page of her website this this
first box there leaf collection route
residents can see the route map and
generally
where the crews are at any given point
in time updated uh daily so we know
tomorrow's schedule
where where they'll be starting and
going
because you're doing a great job thank
you any questions for Andy Assad Andy
and mayor Kessler are we able to share
that right there right now on social
media because I've been sharing things
but that is huge for
um yeah to get out
I mean it'll make that shareable yeah
I'll do it you know here in the next
coming minutes but yes thank you right
now
as we watch
any other questions for Andy
all right
um Mr Hale
any questions for Beecher
all right we'll have plenty of questions
for you here in a second feature
um
couple of things to uh keep in mind the
tree and public gardens Commission
meeting is coming up on November 16th I
just wanted to make sure everyone's
aware of that
um I wanted to highlight we had a board
chair meeting last week
um thank you president Markham for
coming along to that as well where we
it was really I thought helpful meeting
with the various board chairs of our
zoning approval boards so bzap ARB tree
commission and the vice chairs and just
talk through some kind of common
procedural issues and
um how to make improvements in process
and
um we're going to start doing that more
routinely so that was really I think
fruitful today our judge panel got
together for our alley of the future uh
competition we had two entrants we drove
the alley portions in question and
looked at the applications and I believe
that the judge judicial panel has made a
decision as we have not yet announced
that to the applicants I will I will
leave you in suspense for another week
uh but uh just wanted to know that
happened
kind of
um Columbia Place uh meeting happened in
the in the past couple weeks uh we have
agreement from the neighbors and the
concept to the 10-year assessment on the
Improvement costs so we'll be coming
back to you guys with an ordinance that
proposes that for you to consider no
promises have been made
and finally our newsletter is going out
pretty soon
um so we are in the drafting phase if
anybody has anything you want to add to
the newsletter
uh
let us know all right guest content uh
things you want to highlight that sort
of thing
a photo of Troy
uh
and that concludes my report any
questions
just just one question yep the pumpkin
pickup
yeah did not happen if it did not happen
I would agree with that uh I I address
all the support to it the employee who
was uh liaising with the pumpkin pickup
people okay
um so I don't have a I was just curious
I was excited I uh I was excited I
honestly was I was like oh they're gonna
pick up pumpkin this year
the good news is as we say that uh we
will make sure they are picked up so if
anyone talks to you about it I'll get it
I'll find out officially here pretty
soon what's going on we'll post that as
well to uh social but I think people
should just leave those pumpkins out and
uh we will get to them okay hey Matt
that that happened in my house with the
tooth fairy ones too
house
what happens if we just throw a pumpkin
in the leaf mulcher was that
work out okay
yeah there you go
I think it all goes
goes into mulch eventually you get
another question here yes
mayor on your report you have a swearing
in ceremony for an officer nissley can
you introduce us tell us about our new
officer officer
nicely that's right nicely I knew I was
like officer knisley is a Reserve
officer she recently retired from the
Columbus Police Department fully having
fully served with them and will be a
Reserve officer of the department
anything that you'd like to add to that
chief
um we have a new Reserve officer that we
sworn in she will be doing a lot of
special Duty type um special events so
she'll be able to help and support us in
that way
which is great we've sworn in two
reservists recently which is very
helpful especially with the you know the
amount of community events and
um
places of worship one in security that
obviously that's wanting to provide that
so it's just helpful elections all the
things
all right
okay thank you guys all right we'll turn
it back over to Mr official to get us
going into the agenda here all right so
we have ordinances with the visiting
presenters
um resolution 9-22 confirming the
mayor's appointment of members to the
recreation board the trees and public
gardens commission the citizens review
board and the environmental
sustainability advisory committee
executive board introduced by Ms
Robinson
foreign
I believe we have two guests here today
um Mary and Lisa if we do we want to go
one by one or have them both speak at
the same time every other word I want to
be really fun to do that yeah joint
actually yeah if Lisa could present Mary
and then Mary could present I think that
would be awesome now Mary if you could
come up to the dies please and um if you
would push the button on the microphone
just to turn that on sorry thank you so
uh Mary has um served in many capacities
with the city recently she has been a
volunteer with Pepsi bloomers and she
has been helping to lead the Bexley
Community Gardens and she was a Master
Gardener and there's so much more
nothing more but oh okay you said
everything I was going to say well hello
everyone and uh first of all I just want
to say that if everybody in the world
would focus on our environment instead
of each other I don't think we'd be
dealing with climate change today now
would we hey man yeah I tell you uh
heartbreaking
um anyway as the mayor said I am a
Master Gardener volunteer and I am
probably I'm not a landscape architect
or a landscape designer I'm not an
arborist I'm maybe more of a
professional volunteer I volunteered
down at Franklin Park and I'm at the
governor's residence for the Heritage
Gardens I work at Audubon I work at the
Gardens at dance Farm down in Grove City
and oh yeah and I'm part of the Bexley
bloomers and I was one of the founding
members along with Susan quintens and
just for the record we put in over 700
hours this year which was a lot of fun
and that's yeah
so it's given me a lot of opportunity
obviously to learn more about my
community and I'm just very excited to
be considered for the tree commission
like I said I bring a more a different
perspective I suppose to this this
commission as a Master Gardener we're
taught to research so anything any kind
of information that we give out we try
to make sure that we've researched it
carefully science-based type information
not what your grandmother used to do
back in the old days you know I know I
know but it oh I you know I'm a plant
pathologist from Ohio State University
so you understand what I'm saying
welcome sister yes
high five
but anyway like I said I'm I'm very
excited and I like I said I hope to
bring a different perspective maybe to
the commission by um just my own
experiences and I'm very passionate
about
um eradicating the invasive species
especially over at Jeffrey Mansion
um I'll be there Friday morning with a
popper a honeysuckle popper if anybody
wants to come over and pop out some
honeysuckle with me just to test it out
and prepare for hopefully a massive
removal of some of it in the Clifton
Avenue area I'm very concerned there but
anyway getting off track here but that's
just one of my passions so the other
passion I have is the fact that I live
in such a great community and I feel
very privileged to live here and be a
tree hugger so thank you very much for
the opportunity
thank you any questions from Mary
Jen oh I was going to say it's not even
a question but my favorite thing that
you said is that you're a professional
volunteer we so appreciate how many
people we have in our community who are
willing to step up and share their
expertise it sounds like you have a lot
and you're going to have a lot to to
offer to the commission so thank you
sure thank you for your time
I was going to say well I had the
opportunity to meet Mary one morning at
the Bexley Bloomers on a Thursday
morning to volunteer and
you look amazingly Dapper tonight but I
also appreciate a young lady who can get
out there with a shovel and and do all
the hard work and we were doing that
that morning and it really brought to my
attention not that I haven't noticed all
of the beautiful preservation and work
that has been done but when you actually
see it happening and those volunteers
and uh it was very impactful so 700
hours is yeah is amazing and thank you
for all of that and thank you for now
taking your time that you don't have and
adding more of it to us for to the city
so thank you for all of that thank you
um before you leave what so what is your
favorite tree species I mean I think
that's an important are we going to have
to lean towards the oak it's just you
know such an important tree in our
environment and like I I I'm a Doug
talamy fan and he can be kind of um
I don't know depressing when he talks
about what's going on in our world but
he always tells you about the number of
lepidoptera that are attracted to a
certain species and the oak is the best
it's 400 different species of insects
and Moss and you know you're going to be
quizzed you do know what lepidopter are
I assume
that's for the chief
butterflies yes so but you know like I
said it's just an it's just an amazing
species and we need them we need more
and everybody needs one in their
backyard that has enough room I think he
preaches the virtue especially of the
White Oak am I am I think so yeah which
is the leaf of the white oak tree is the
leaf that you see in the Bexley logo oh
wow I did not realize that there you go
Mr Price oh sorry Mr Marcelino a quick
question trees well is there there's is
that not a are we not able to have mercy
we love for her choice well think about
like a river birch where would a river
birch grow you know that's fair no I
just I'm a big birch tree guy and I
think that we could have a more of those
just I mean just talking well I noticed
that somebody on North Roosevelt put in
a beautiful it looks like a paper bark
Birch in their front yard but that's my
other pet peeve is the volcano mulching
that you see and they they put planted
this tree wrong and I'm like ready to go
knock on their door and say it's planted
too deep you've got a volcano mulch this
tree if it lasts five years you know all
that money you spent because I'm sure
they spent a lot
it's a big tree Sam you're speaking my
love language though
that's the main aspect Susan knows that
about me Samson like I said it's like a
purchase so fun fact half of the trees
on our city hall patio Birches what they
used to all be Birches but Birches do
struggle a little bit in our climate so
we've we have to give them extra TLC but
um Mr Price you had something thank you
mayor I would be remiss if I didn't take
the opportunity to thank with both of
you here with Susan and Mary here thank
you both for spearheading the bloomers
and all of the work you guys have done
from bottom of our hearts from the uh uh
from all of the staff at the rec
department and the service staff uh the
work that you guys have done over
Jeffrey park has been immensely
impactful and we can't thank you enough
so thank you very very pleasure I'm
working to get my own Gator up there
oh yeah
Susan you got something bad next week
oh yeah that's right you're gorgeous
[Laughter]
well you know we've I've we've been
brainstorming this Birch Walk that has
the Robert Frost poem in in like in the
stone as you walk along so maybe that
can be a project we work on together
you're the parks
I agree all right thank you Mary sorry
that was like the most prolonged
interview we've had recently Lisa yours
is gonna be twice as long Lisa goldsand
that's right so Lisa is here to be
appointed uh to the environmental
sustainability advisory commit it's the
commit committee but we say commission
here because you know that's cool too
um and if you if you'll remember our
esac has three appointed officers and
the rest are Grassroots members Lisa has
come in strong as a Grassroots member
and has been really like adding so much
value so I really appreciate everything
you have done for the esac and your
leadership and
um
thank you for coming here today is there
anything you want to share about
yourself well
um I'd like to share that first of all I
feel very um very happy to be a part of
the esec I'm low-key obsessed with
Elizabeth ellman who is they're not
making any more of her and she is doing
tremendous things to make Bexley a
leader in sustainability which is just
fantastic
um I think some of you have seen me
um in a different outfit than this one
handling waste for many hours at a time
at the event so I want to share that I'm
really all in on all of the
sustainability initiatives that are
supported and sponsored by the city of
Bexley I am also a recovering retail
executive I've spent 30 years in linear
apparel manufacturing and I'm feeling a
little guilty about it if truth be told
I am also a tree hugger and I am also
extremely preoccupied about climate
change and the fact that the apparel
industry is you know 10 of global
greenhouse gas emissions
so I am not going to make things anymore
I'm going to figure out how to scale
um the textile Waste Solutions in
central Ohio in my spare time when I'm
not handling waste for free for Z
vaccine
um so I'll take any
any questions I know about half of you
but please favorite tree favorite tree
could you tell us so I'm not I'm but all
of my
my parents and my husband's parents
would be able to answer this very very
adeptly I am not very good with tree
names yeah
that's okay okay my follow-up question
was going to ask you your favorite
variety of birch probably would oh yeah
I think I think I would disappoint you
all okay favorite lepidology no legs
yeah if you'd like to know you know
what percent of textiles globally have
like polyester in them and how I feel
about that I'd be happy to expound
plastic pants
I just want to congratulate you here on
the shift I know that's a big passion
for you and I know that it's a change
but certainly I'm really excited to see
what you're doing thank you so much for
donating time to our city thank you very
much
I I got to have lunch with Lisa not so
long ago and and she shared so many of
her fun ideas
and if ways she wants to spend the rest
of her life and it's definitely saving
the Earth and you can you could see her
in her jeans riding her bike and I do
believe yesterday or maybe the day
before I saw you in a skirt riding your
bike so she she walks along
um she really does so and she does spend
all of those wonderful events that we've
been having Elizabeth is you know bound
and determined that we are going to put
our waste where it belongs and
you're willing to even volunteer for the
stinky job so thank you
thank you so much for all you do I can't
be over here and not say thank you
um we share children the same age so
I've gotten to watch Leah grow up and
our eighth graders yeah anything
anything I've loved that kids since day
one I love the the Splunk and the
personality which you have as well and I
know what you will put in and when you
say you're going to do something I've
watched you over the years you do it so
I'm super I was super excited to see
your name up there and that you're going
to be giving back this time to the city
I would love to grab coffee with you and
hear more about
um these changes yeah it's exciting
thank you okay
anybody else
Thank you Lisa okay thank you appreciate
it
Esther official Lewis forward
we've got a small item all right we are
going to table this as a oh no second
reading for ordinance
41-22 authorizing Appropriations for the
calendar year beginning January 1st 2023
to confirm the appointment of Mark
official City attorney and to authorize
2022 transfers to the economic uh Bond
development retirement fund the Capital
Improvements fund and the infrastructure
development fund of 694 328 500 000 and
500 000 respectively introduced by Ms
lamke
um thank you it's my understanding that
tonight we're going to be hearing from
Chief Lewis and possibly the mayor and
maybe Mr Bayshore again mayor do you
want to kind of walk us through what we
can expect tonight yes thank you so I'm
as I'm walking you through I'm going to
try to figure out how to pass these two
directions
this is the change log
for the budget and I'm going to pull up
our draft budget
on the screen
foreign
and as I do that
um
I'm gonna
so this is now this is
um this is consistent with the printer
when you have it's a change from the
last draft
so uh as you can see
there are a variety of of changes
[Music]
um
and I'm going to focus on ones that you
might have already had a presentation on
as opposed to ones where we have not yet
presented on it if that makes sense
because for example we're gonna about to
hear a presentation on the police
department uh there was a change in that
but that'll just be incorporated into
the presentation tonight
so
the the major one actually came up in
our the third one down street fund
transfer
that we did discuss the street fund uh
at the last meeting
I believe
um but and in in doing so we saw that
the balance was not going to be adequate
so we increased the transfer from the
general fund we discussed that at the
last meeting
we have a um
an increase in uh the capital transfer
from The General
fund into the capital account and
actually that's just a correction that
was already in the ordinance it just
wasn't showing up in their draft budget
and then the other every other item on
here we have not yet had a presentation
on so we'll talk through it during the
time of the presentation if that's okay
if you have any questions if anything
jumps out at you you can either ask that
now or you can ask it as we move into
presentations
hearing none
we will start with Chief Lewis going
through the police department
which is on page whoever gets to it
first reads it out page
[Music]
18.
and um we had some discussion after the
last meeting there was a separate a side
memo for these
we just put more effort in to make sure
that our budget notes were reflecting
kind of highlighted things so there's
not a separate memo to refer to as
you're looking at it the budget notes
should have everything you need
um as we kind of go through the major
changes so with that
chief the floor is yours sir thank you
sir good evening city council thank you
for the opportunity to have my first
budget reading and opportunity just kind
of really share some of the Strategic
vision and some of the things that I've
learned in the first 60 plus days of
being in this role and one of the
benefits of coming in and having a
different perspective is just really
evaluating our strengths our weaknesses
where our opportunities and lastly that
training aspect when you look at a SWOT
analysis one of the things that was very
evident to me was that we from a
opportunities perspective in the
training one of the things that I was
asked in the last city council meeting
was what are we doing about recruitment
retention what are we doing to keep our
folks engaged it was very evident that
the training component we've been
providing training but really no
succession planning develop moment
looking at how do we maintain our
current staff it's been nearly six years
since we last promoted one of our own
officers six years and that is because
of our structure currently you're hired
as a police officer you have the chance
to be promoted to a sergeant we have one
captain and one chief
there is no upward growth or Mobility so
we know that people love becoming Bexley
police officers they stay here for a
long time but there is no growth for
them to develop so one of the things
that we propose in this budget is the
creation of three lieutenants the
lieutenants would be divided up into
areas of Specialties one in our
investigations office we have a huge
backload of evidence of caseload of
warrants I can go on and on and on in
just the investigations piece another
thing in investigations that I've
quickly learned is that we are being
very reactive and not proactive in
utilizing our detectives in a more
robust fashion of being engaging more
and doing plain clothes investigations
Etc
part two in looking at the city a part
of my title was also uh Special
Operations or as needed in other areas
we as a city do not have an emergency
management it's one of my concerns and
thinking that it's not a matter of if
but when so I want us to really focus on
this another Lieutenant position would
take over Emergency Management develop
robust
planning that would deal with mitigation
look at resources look at tabletop full
scale exercises continuity of operations
plannings things that impact our city so
that would be the second lieutenant and
the third would be Patrol looking at our
Patrol operations and having that all of
our sergeants would report to that
Lieutenant who would then report to at
in his current state Captain golf
Captain Goff would oversee all of the
operations for the police department I
would oversee the administration we
would divide the building in half and
really become more deliberate about how
we're doing things and creating that
structure what this would do is it would
offer an opportunity of our current six
Sergeants
three of them could be promoted to these
newly created positions of lieutenants
we would eliminate one Sergeant because
currently we have an administrative
Sergeant that's Sergeant overly as many
of you know Sergeant overly performs a
significant number of functions within
our Police Department from Citizens
Academy to our community liaison the
resource she does a large number of
things and I could see that role
morphing into more we have not created a
succession plan we have a lot of people
who do a lot of things but no one to
support them I have a saying process
over people we have to create more
process in our organization and start to
plug people into those processes if
we're going to be successful long term
the mayor and I have been solidifying a
three-year strategic plan many of the
things that I'm sharing now fall in line
with that and would help us tremendously
in recruitment retention growth training
and development we have a robust budget
specific to training but in my opinion
we really haven't been utilizing that
and developing our people for the next
step as I've shared I believe that
people in my role
as Chief have about a six to nine year
shelf life and if we're not really
preparing the Next Generation to take
over for us we have a missed opportunity
so this would all fall in line with that
so that is really the the biggest area
and the shift in this budget that you'll
see I'm open to explain some of the
other areas many of those are contracts
um and some of that is outside of our
control it's just the cost of doing
business in some cases where those
contracts have increased the only other
area that you'll see I believe that we
are missing an opportunity and marketing
and really selling the police department
better I think that by adding a line
specific for marketing for example
as we look at vacancies we have no
robust from a social media or even a 30
second ad to be able to produce to say
that we are looking for the next
generation of Bexley police officers sir
so that marketing budget would give us
the ability to be able to do some of
those things
any questions for the chief Mr Marcelino
Chief there are some statistics in
certain professions about uh training
from within rather than hiring from
outside here and so as I look at this do
you know if there's any just general
statistics in regards to the cost of
promoting and training from within
versus doing a nationwide search to try
and find the best police chief possible
for the city of Bexley in the future
because as I look at this it seems like
an upfront cost that may reward our city
later on by taking this approach is that
kind of how you see it absolutely the
vision would be to develop the next
chief of police from within
um that training budget gives us the
ability to send there are some
specialized areas that I've gone through
myself at the national level with the
FBI Academy that we could send and
support we could send them to the Ohio
State University in the John Glenn
School of public affairs we could send
them to Northwestern there are so many
robust training opportunities to develop
I believe our Department's hungry for
this I believe that we have an
opportunity Unity to do that and to stay
in-house and eliminate the need to go
external and really I think that we
could go back at least two generations
of Chief if this is successful in
implementing that that structure
yes ma'am
when you're talking about the marketing
pieces in that dollar amount I would
love to see I've been on our website
here recently with some other members of
the community just helping them navigate
it'd be nice to what you're kind of
saying is to do a better job of
showcasing what our department does I
think that would be a great start with
the marketing piece as well to get some
pictures up we have so many great things
that we see here in Council but our
community doesn't get that same
transparency and
um
I think we could showcase it better so
maybe that could be something that or
maybe you're already considering that
but I would love to see
um the website yes ma'am so there are
two ideas one the first idea is to
create a video that shows us very
differently than
um what I would say you might see in
traditional marketing with law
enforcement you're not going to see
helicopters you're not going to see
um the lights and Sirens you're not
going to see I want people to see us in
our our community and interacting with
them
um with our businesses and our young
people I want that video to capture who
we are as a community and the community
that we serve and that would rest on our
webpage but then I think we need to be
very deliberate about recruitment
retention I think we need to really look
at our minorities I think we need to
look at females I think we need to
um also the comment earlier about our
our Jewish Community here and who we
serve and having the very specific
demographics and who we attempt to work
with in Target to be the next generation
of Bexley PD
Monique
Chief thank you I had a few questions
the first was regarding police equipment
including like Cruisers is that on I see
Patrol equipment but is the Cruisers
included in there is that a separate
page that would be separate okay so
you're gonna you're gonna talk about
that in a little bit okay
um it wouldn't be I don't believe that's
in this presentation that's in our
capital budget capital budget so we'll
be going over that uh
next week I believe but I think the
budget has two Cruisers just for a
highlight of Coming Attractions okay
based upon a maintenance assessment
great thank you
um my other question Chief was now that
you've been here for a while
um the shift minimums and ratios do you
anticipate needing to change any of that
to meet the needs of the department or
the community
great question so I just met with the
Union last week and one of the the
observations and opportunities that um
present itself is looking at shift
minimums currently we have been
performing it's not contractual but
we've been performing a minimum of four
I believe that we can redistribute and
reallocate the officers to do different
things so for example I think that we
have an opportunity with a bomb
detection canine to support our
faith-based community better and to
provide that resource I think that that
officer would be able to then provide
that level of service differently I
think that we have opportunities that
we've just never been presented before
and to do things differently this model
that we are presenting would not change
the numbers but we would do it more
strategically and do it very differently
another idea with the Strategic plan is
to look at creating a business and
really a community liaison position I
think that we have a chance to be more
proactive and how we look and interact
with our community there have been some
low-hanging fruit moments that exist
here in our community I think that Don
overly has been the face and we I think
people just have relied on her only I
think that there are some chances to
develop some of our young people to be
the next Dawn to take on some of these
opportunities and build that succession
planning and that's where I think that
Community liaison would be a critical
role and be that conduit in so many ways
the positions of these lieutenants would
also these are not static positions that
would just add people on station these
are opportunities for us to be in the
community very differently they will not
be a traditional Monday through Friday
and we would divide them up so they
would be working partial weekends and
still providing that level of support I
think that um oftentimes you can see by
adding that extra layer of management
that there is this uh traditional Monday
through Friday you know eight to five
um that would not be the case we really
would look to diversify our people in
our staffing I believe that we can still
be successful and do some other things
by looking at at times having that ship
minimum of three I think that looking at
each shift differently and individually
but also I have to be very honest we
have a generation of
workers who look for their time off more
than their time on so it also gives us
the ability to Grant time off many of
them have tremendous hours built up and
they haven't been able to take it off
because of those shift minimums and
those requirements so it gives us the
flexibility to Grant time but it also
gives us the ability to look to be very
different and very nimble
great thank you and I did have just one
more question in the comment my next
question was with the proposed new
structure for the additional three
Lieutenant positions that you mentioned
I assume the promotions May Come with
raises and would those raises be
factored in it's captured yes ma'am so
what we've done is we've looked at
Sergeant II lieutenants about an eight
and a half percent increase from that
Rank and so it's very deliberate and so
we've projected that from our current
budget to the Future budget great and
then my last comment is once the budget
has passed I would encourage you to
share it with your department and your
officers I know that there's you know
money in here for public safety programs
Community programming I think that they
are a very creative department and if
they obviously knew that there were
funds available I think that they would
bring to you really good ideas on how to
utilize that and serve our community
thank you yes ma'am
machine
um the building how old is that building
is 11 years going on 2009 so 13 years I
noticed in 2021 you need a 91 000 or
actual spent was 91 000 on Building
Maintenance how was the overall
condition I mean I I gave tours and I
walked it but as far as roof uh the
Mechanicals and all that is it is it
doing well have we looked at that and
see if anything needs to be budgeted
more for we have you know I think that
um one of the things from an
infrastructure perspective and you'll
see an increase is that as we transition
to electric vehicles is creating that
infrastructure to be able to support
more than one the charging station so
there will be some additional costs
associated to support that I think from
the building itself and the existing
contract and those who first created the
building they stay in touch with us they
do routine inspections
um to date to my knowledge there isn't
anything that really jumps out from from
the bill building itself but I do think
for from an infrastructure and adding
and making the changes as we work
towards sustainability that there will
be be that site shift
and just so you brought that up there I
believe there's some grant money out
there for Evie
I'm sure you're all over yeah we're
keeping our thumb on that one um Also to
clarify the the just as a point of
History the building maintenance line on
where it shows a 91 000 historical
that used to be combined with the
utilities line item right above it
that's why you see nothing in utilities
so it's a it's it's more akin to
combining those those two numbers
together
um when there was some building envelope
work done this year or last some windows
that have broken seals that got replaced
so we're keeping on top of the building
and it gets is it monthly they're their
monthly yes monthly there's a
maintenance supervisor who goes through
and just keeps an eye on all the
controls and makes sure everything's up
just enough
any other questions for the chief
thank you Chief all right Mr Bayshore
could not could not handle just one I
know budget review two came in for two
so
we're going to cover the rest of the
Enterprise funds that we did not cover
last uh last week or two weeks ago I
guess Andy uh you guide us and we will
follow where are we going to uh should
be water Administration which is the
page on that one
oh you okay hold on we'll get to it
44.
she's had a
um
yeah dizzy
not 44.
water water fund so water Administration
there we go
but they found it
they had me move stuff around right
so on this um account this page
um really not a whole lot of changes I
did um up to operating expenses
um as we moved on through the budget uh
I have a couple new programs I'm wanting
to uh start and I will require some more
door hangers and Resident notifications
so that's why I did up that but
other than that this uh this account
stayed the same
one thing I would uh
just a comment and it's something
to think about is what we'll hear about
this during our supplemental
Appropriations as well feature I noticed
that we'd lowered the contract estimate
on this because of
according to that you know
estimates have just been I think they're
off in opposite ways sewer was
underestimated and water was
overestimated when I did the analysis we
were working on today it's like well we
don't need to
as much as we thought we did so we've
gone back and we just double checked our
estimates and our methodology on
both Water and Sewer fund refuse as well
to make sure that as we're seeing
balances shift like if we're in good
shape or not but one thing that's
pointed out is that a few years ago I
kind of went on the war path that our
contract numbers were too high like we
just had way too much provision for
contracts they always came in much lower
and the contracts are are with what with
Columbus it's the water contract it's
like what we pay for the water it's like
we can go back and negotiate we have
that rate
um and if we use the water we pay for
the water right so
um we have a had a couple supplemental
Appropriations we have another one
coming for sewer same thing it's like
you know we we the sewer has been used
it's like so that's not really a number
that we have any discretion over
um in the past we used to have a buffer
on that just to pad if like you know we
had a really dry summer like residents
might use a lot more water and sewer so
it just gave us the ability to use that
without having to come back to you guys
for additional appropriation which we
have had to do this year and have to do
again tonight
um so I guess the comment all that very
long-winded commentary to say uh will
probably start to skew those contract
numbers just a little more padded so
that we're not running
you know what I'm not running back to
you guys trying to scrounge up money to
pay the Columbus bill right so in this
case I think future says we're fine
we're good to go but you'll see that in
some other funds
Mr Markham
yeah so I brought this up before and I
know because it's in the budget that we
have a uh huge expense for the automated
meters the mean the inventory or
whatever so since we have had a resident
this year with a six thousand dollar
water bill and we do have this
technology I I guess I'm going to
encourage you to look into do we have
some sort of the meters are reading
water in real time I just feel like we
should not have
a six thousand dollar water bill pop up
without something going off on our on
our monitoring software it feels like
there has to be a
you know something that cannot that can
monitor that and raise a red flag or
whatever as long as we've got this
technology and we're spending this money
water is not only super expensive but
you know we have esac here it's a major
natural resource as well
so we've um learned a couple things from
that particular Bill you're talking
about and in general we we receive
alerts
when meters start spiking
they run for currently they run for
three calendar days and then they drop
off
what happened with that particular
incident was that the alert spiked
during the holiday long holiday weekend
so three days happened staff came in
that particular there's one staff member
who looks at that today they weren't in
the next day and so it dropped off the
radar it's not an excuse it's just what
happened
since then we are working on training
other staff members to look over those
logs while the one person who's
currently doing it is not around
um we are also trying to work with the
software vendor to see if we can get
some way for people to register and get
alerts on their own yeah so far it looks
like that's not possible with our
current product but we are trying to
figure out if we can do that so we're
looking into ways to to do that the
actual units themselves
um we had a my understanding is we had a
surplus inventory we would purchased a
large amount of them and we've been
going through them and now we have to do
catch up with additional uh ATM amts
right right
and use yeah my uh what's our acronym
AMU MTU MTU
no automatic meter unit is what I call
them I call it an AMU but everyone else
says an MTU you know
potato potato
yeah my my ring camera app with the ring
cameras that tell me if someone's at my
door had also like I have the option of
doing that you know putting that monitor
on my so it just feels like we already
have that though you know my wife said
well maybe we should put that on there I
said I feel like we've already had that
really so you'd be um probably not too
surprised that government software tends
to go a little bit behind uh ring and
such but yeah we are
we are we are encouraging it yeah I
agree we agree with you shouldn't be
should not be yeah
thank you
anything else on this
Andy
okay our next uh count would be the
water distribution
foreign
do you want to talk about anything in
here I think the
items where there are budget notes
probably
share Focus yeah
um you'll notice on our regulations and
compliance I did raise that
um starting in 2024
um EPA is going to make it mandatory for
LED light lead line and galvanized also
Replacements the water lines
um this stems back from the Flint
Michigan
um when that was this is epa's new
guidelines to make sure that never
happens anywhere else
um that goes for City so you know if we
would find a letter galvanized service
line we have three days to replace it
and you know would just be with copper
but in that also the residents will be
required
um to replace any lead or galvanized
service line
on their dime but the city will be
responsible to offer uh testing and
modern monitoring monitoring of that
until the you know results come back
lead free
so we're kind of on the hook for that
part
um
next I did raise I'm wanting to start
our water meter replacement program our
mtus
um there is a mass install and they're
about 20 years old our water meter
um current water meters in our residence
house houses are about seven years
outdated some of that is
due to the pandemic budget and Staffing
I'm wanting to get that started and we
would do it with city workers in-house
and try to do one-third of the city at a
time
So eventually we would work through the
city and get all those done
um repair and maintenance supplies
um everything's gone up from our pipe to
our fittings to I mean that just
everything so I did raise that
um then of course fuel uh pretty
self-explanatory on that one
any questions
Matt this uh the lead service line
program that's starting in 2024 that's
uh we would need to replace all
of the lines in the city well anytime we
would expose one or come across one okay
so we're just trying to get a head start
on it in 23. okay and have have the
budget there you know
okay so yeah
I thought that I'm just I wanted to
clarify the regulation so like we
started doing that on Drexel this year
we started doing we've already started
doing right this is so we could up that
I thought the rule was we offer to
replace their service line that's it's
going to be changing oh it's changing
again okay great
so we're forcing the replacement of the
line
the EPA is going to be epa's forcing the
provisional line and that's at the
city's dime for no it would be at the on
the residence time it's on we would be
responsible for monitoring and testing
so they got a lead-free so we come
across a lead service line
and today we would replace anything
that's within the city right away but
not this this residence line now we're
gonna we're gonna push the replacement
of the resident line and they have to
pay for it
okay that's we should probably delve a
little deeper into that because if you
guys have had to replace the water line
before
how much did it cost you Mr Klingler
don't die don't talk about me it's not
cheap so uh it's um you you probably did
it yourself without a permit which is
why it was not just joking
okay I'm gonna stop talking now
um so I think we might want to think
about what the policy is going to look
like when we're triggering those uh this
is just to get if there's any financial
assistance if it's assessed if it's a
payment plan so start thinking about
that
all right Mr Marcelino uh just for the
new council person that hasn't seen
these before automated meter maintenance
is the actual ordering of the meters and
the water meter replacement program is
the actual installation there is that
why they're separate well they're
separate the the automated main meter
maintenance that is for the mtus and
that is separate from the water meters
so it's two different things there okay
so the mtus are like the little boxes
with the wire and they're sending the
signal okay to our receiving units
throughout the city and then the meter
is the actual thing on in the lines
itself okay all right thank you
the thing
the other questions for Andy
and I'm sorry I'm kind of coming in late
here and I missed probably the beginning
part of it but in within the um areas
where you're increasing
um what are there opportunities to
decrease costs in sort of the historical
run rate so if for example the budget
for regulation and compliance was 20 55
000 in 2022
um
the the increase is that just to deliver
on these new requirements or are those
new requirements
we'll say collectively sixty thousand
dollars and it's using up some of that
historical budget it's using up some of
the historical budget but I'm also
trying to up it for 23 because in 24 it
will be mandatory so we're trying to get
a head start on it so we're not too far
behind
okay so if we look at like the current
expenses that are on target we'll say to
spend 55k maybe what are examples of the
types of expenses that you're having in
that the regulation and compliance space
it would be like what I was explaining
with any kind of lead line replacement
or galvoline uh galvanized line
replacement it's going to become a
mandatory replacement now or you know
for Resident I think they're up loud up
to two repairs on the galvanized line
that galvanized line will be considered
so the same work is this budget line
that the purpose in how that budget line
is being used doesn't change no it's
just doing the same activities all this
is doing is saying hey because of these
new upcoming regulations we we're going
to be doing more work correct to get
ahead of it okay and and
is that consistent with we'll say that
similar methodology with the water main
replace water meter replacement program
okay okay so there's really no
opportunities we'll say to
bring that down because okay okay
all right
there's a box of donuts
there is
um before we move not anymore
sorry
we all good should I have a Steve Kai's
moment here
what would he say what would Steve say
they would have his own catered no but
he would he would give a look if there
was like a side conversation you guys
are missing the point anyway water fun
debt detail we've got a long night here
guys come on stay with us
detail is uh is uh attached
um these are all opwc projects they are
zero interest
loans with the exception of
there was some water former water
projects included in the 2015 and 2020
refunding
as you can see that Trails off in the
next
um five to seven years
I I know you have to kind of blank I
have to squint to to read that
that is a profile of the uh of the
current debt load on the waterfront
the the one highlighted in red but
that's the significance the signal is
it's a project that has been awarded
um we have not yet applied it to our
debt stream so you can see it's coming
online in 23 it's an estimate we don't
have final numbers on that yet
also adds sometimes they don't start I
mean it drags out and could not start up
24 so we're okay with so we just get
take our estimate or so that represents
the Max and it will probably be less
than that
matter of fact it's almost always less
than that
so on on this
I mean it's you know historically it
seemed like we were taking out
debt and therefore improving
infrastructure every year or two
and then and I I'm having a hard time
seeing these the dates but it looks like
we stopped for
from 2018 to current is that correct no
no I think there's been some
inconsistencies about how the debt has
been booked on opwc projects because
that's what's going on there feature or
are we missing something
because we've got Roosevelt
I would say
prior to
years ago we weren't doing them as often
now it's pretty much rolling we're doing
a project about every year or two or two
yeah Drexel I mean there's some other
projects that are not on here and so I'm
wondering
oh well they might not have hit the
water fund like say Maryland Avenue that
didn't hit the water fun
um those are all those are all water
line Replacements though but
not Maryland Avenue I'm not I was saying
Drexel Ashbourne oh we'll just double
check those numbers
funds and to debt issues I mean we've
got it tied every that number tied out
three different ways yeah so it should
be solid it is the single source of
truth but I am telling you that there
have been some other water line projects
in the interviewing years after the
Roosevelt and Stanwood
um some of the later uh interpretations
might have had flaws slip into the
original yeah yeah I guess I just like
to me I like to see
you know a consistent basis because when
I see lags it just makes me feel like
there's a bird maintenance or deferred
work so what you're saying is what we
what is happening we are spending money
on it and I just because when I see
those gaps I just think that what's
going to come in a year or two is
you know a 10 million dollar project to
catch up on we'll say the Deferred
maintenance so as you know we did we did
um this year for the first time in many
years we did pause on opwc applications
partially because we want to analyze
this debt structure yeah and see like
the future of the final make sure things
okay prior to that
I think we haven't missed an OB WC years
since 2014. so we've been running every
year okay so it's just my pocket right
pocket stuff we've got some of the
project monies allocated to a different
fund that were used to improve the what
the we have to confirm that okay so I
know that like Road and Alley fund has
not been consistent because the way that
our region distributes the grant funds
Morp C attributes grant money to roads
and attributes to zero interest debt to
Water and Sewer so at times we have only
attributed the debt to Water and Sewer
at other times we have divided it three
ways between the three funds but they
should always hit the water fund so if
there was some there was some
disagreement about how to handle it and
at one point that caused us an audit
comment because we
I was informed by the then service
director Bill Harvey that hey of that
rules so he he requested that we started
budgeting it all out of the water fund
well I didn't think about the financial
reporting implications of that so we
started doing it that way
then the Auditors cried foul really
quickly and said well you're not paying
it according to how you're booking it so
we had to restate our financials and
then we were doing it
then we allocated according to project
well I came around to Ben's line of
thinking and said let's go ahead then
and from future projects we'll go ahead
and um
and allocate all the grant to the road
and Alley fund first and then the mayor
said he's come along to my side of
thinking flip-flopping so that's why
when you see a lot of vacillation
the point is that we are replacing water
lines every year and I would just like
to also put in there I would like to add
to that water fund debt and I talked to
them and we kind of dropped on that
Broad Street because our Auditors have
been booking it all towards the water
fund and we've not been paying it that
way so I'd like to go ahead and pay it
the way it's been booked but that's a
discussion the mayor and I'll have I
think we're getting real in the weeds
right now yeah
it's all good
any questions the bottom line is we have
the money to pay all the debt right now
just in case you guys weren't enough
confused enough if there are any any
questions about the debt stack for
Waterfront all right
Andy super fun
well wait a minute
the only change on this would be uh with
our contract for the Columbus and we
really don't have a whole lot of control
over that
um and that's it
each I just make a note the budget note
here is incorrect on the contract it's
an under budgeting of the line of ethnic
oh that might be an old note which
explains to you why we got in this I
think that's an old note Beach where we
uh contract 52
yes sewer contract with Columbus
a budget adjustment to over we assessed
that old node
I took it out it's gone
any questions on the sewer
Administration
Sewer Service
so on Super Service we do have a couple
changes the first one you'll notice is
our contract professional
raised that
um the biggest reason we raise that
um is for our Mainline videoing we do a
lot of that in-house but uh one of our
requirements from EPA is we video so
many feet a year new inspections but not
only that with using an outside contract
we'll be able to get more Mainline
videos and see potential problems before
there might be backups or a collapse
um so we will be using a contractor to
do some of that work uh in 23
um
another change would be the water meter
replacement program the same as the
water fund we're just taking some out of
the sewer fund also
um
then I did raise the fuel
why does that come out with two
different funds instead of just
because it's the meters reading water
and we bill for water and sewer
so the rate is split and it funds funds
from both sides
I I want to draw your attention real
quickly the final two lines sewer
mediation program and Loan program
um
the figures are misleading on actuals on
this so I wanted you to be aware of that
I think
that
the wrong po was being used for sewer
mediation program and so we were paying
sewer mediation out of the loan Po and
we were paying the loan out of the
radiation program that's not a big deal
it's just a title problem and I think we
might want to just even just switch the
title on them so that's clear or
combined them
um I like to keep them separate so that
we know how much loan has been issued so
that's in your head just transliterate
that or whatever the right word is and
we will we'll correct that on the
presentation side just so that that's
clear
and accurate
is that the ini fund yeah so this is for
residential ini
um and you can see
what we have spent uh to date on the on
the remediation program
you just have to Swatch swap the numbers
for 2020 to two
um Loan program hasn't been utilized
that much uh it only kicks in after five
thousand dollar expenses so that's
really good news
um and we're so we've rebalanced our
budget for next year so we're lowering
them out for the loan we're raising them
out for the remediation we do still have
households to get through we don't
expect to spend that much money but
we're keeping it allocated we don't know
what the year looks like with
God forbid flooding and rainwater so
yeah let's uh
continue to move forward on that same
um in regards to the contract
professional I'm just understanding why
we have to have that I guess it will the
cost be the city if we didn't use a
contract professional or
um would there be a decrease in service
elsewhere by dedicating so many uh
people towards that project or
um if we did not you know approve that
we just wouldn't be able to get as much
Mainline footage done
um which could cause us not to find some
issues and you know would cost us not
having many feet at the end of the year
that on our EPA report okay
and then just so I'm clear in regards to
that cost or expense or issue not as
many feet on the report is there a
penalty then associated with that we're
required to have so many feet um I don't
know if there is a penalty we've we've
no we've always got our required amount
of feed inspected
I mean that's you know I'm more worried
about finding potential issues and bad
costs on the back again could be more
significant okay yeah so that's a really
good proactive program so like we might
come look at some examples of things we
might come across with a video camera
some examples yeah
collapse pipes
tree roots
that's usually the biggest issue just
tree reason just collapsed pipe and
every now and then we'll find someone
that we're like oh we gotta fix that we
found some weird stuff and it will cause
an issue Downstream if it's not repaired
so it's it is part of keeping on not
only is it regulatory required but it
keeps this to the point where we're
finding anticipating issues and fixing
them so they're not exacerbating
I'd rather find it when it's a minor
issue before it comes a major issue
Mr Markham did I don't apologize if this
has been a story but why is it sewer
improvements budget so high it looks
like we spend so little actually
that's our relining program so
um Mr President those numbers are we do
have some bills coming in because we
have a program right now but our program
got pushed back
um when covid was going on because we
just didn't want contractors or staff
and residents you know homes
um yeah so that that money is being
spent it just hasn't all been spent yet
so we're like here for instance like
you're we're the son that goes to
2021 and that's still covered so
pre-covered would you expect then if we
looked at those numbers they'd be much
more around 480 or something I would
yeah I think
we maybe I think we jacked it out we
jacked it up we did right now after the
flood yeah we we jacked it up but crap
and we have um we recording our engineer
we will we have all of this accounted
for in the budget and I believe that's
part of our border control meeting
tonight it is part of our board Control
meeting tonight um we and you'll see
lots of options tonight in terms of
additional Investments that we're hoping
to allocate our repeat funding for okay
that like a 81 000 for that was sort of
either we're going to spend a lot more
we think this year or this is a off year
then because that's like really low on
that 480. we're still we actually have
that project we're still waiting on the
invoice okay yeah
we also have some pretty substantial
sewer work happening through opwc so
you've seen all those trucks on Drexel
doing sewer work Chelsea's getting a
capacity increase and some other things
that's part of our opwc project all
right so that there's an additional
sewer work happening as well
anticipate spending more exciting time
once sewer later on this evening yeah
sure it's gonna be good
sounds fun
any other questions about
Sewer Service
I'm going to pull up the debt
detail
similar yeah there's something
something's missing here on some of
these lineups but
do you think is the problem I'm not sure
I mean ashborne is here I thought that
had been missing before
Roosevelt Stanwood I just know that
we've done more of PWC projects is this
the year that the debt comes online or
the year of the project
I guess customer earns 21.
we have Chelsea going on we have Drexel
we have
Brandon so those are all going to show
up too so
maybe that's the missing piece in in
Stanberry
um
Danbury Chelsea or Chelsea
but as you can see the the sewer fund
has much less debt load than the water
fund
um and
we will continue to discuss that because
I think we have a lot of opportunity to
accelerate our sewer programs further
any questions on that
nope just just had a quick question
going back to the main the one before
this that the contractor the contract
professional you have contractor to
assist with sewer or contractor camera
work right there in the notion
contractor camera work down at the
bottom
is it
is one like an engineer inspecting like
Contracting out inspection work or
uh
I don't think we're using that for
camera work anymore
okay I think we're that those are those
are our contracts uh sorry our line in
contracts those are a large repair
contracts under sewer improvements
okay I mean we could always sequester it
all into one line item I think I just I
wasn't yeah yeah I didn't understand the
difference
is it accurate Andy just to kind of
close the loop on this a little bit to
say that the
we have had a lot more work on our
cruise with the additional sewer
projects we've been doing but they don't
have the capacity anymore to do some of
the camera work so instead of hiring
another person it's less expensive to
contract at that correct I mean we will
still do camera work in-house it's just
you know
there might be a Mainline break and this
the Sewer Crew will be with the water
crew and they might you know then they
won't get no camera work done that day
so this is just to ensure that not only
you know we'll do what we already plan
to do but I can actually do more with a
contractor so now yeah I I get it okay
so
um and I'm
going in different places so I'm
probably re-asking a question or you
might have already answered it I'm gonna
eventually apologize for all my
questions but
um on the sewer improvements 480k a year
um
those are essentially that is truly
money that we are spending to replace
or improve sewage the the sewage
infrastructure correct okay and we
choose not to take on debt because we
have the resources within the budget to
pay for it
well that we've been taking on debt or
at least in this budget in this budget
we've been taking on debt through opwc
primarily for sewer fund but is but
that's but we're not funding this with
that line item is not that debt this is
a straight up expense straight up
expense okay and how do we determine
when we are going to expense something
versus when we're going to take on debt
that's so far uh with the sewer fund
we've only been taken on debt through
opwc because it's a
um it's a an available source that has
no interest associated with it right
um as we've accelerated work and you
look at the sewer fund trending and I'll
pull that up real quickly you'll see
that we're accelerating work and drawing
down on
the balance that we have in our sewer
fund
um primarily due to this acceleration of
projects that we were doing it's both
the super improvements that you were
just looking at as well as the
residential ini work that's really
what's driving that
we are talking I just had a conversation
with our city engineer last week or two
weeks ago about if we did really
accelerate this even further and look at
like a five to ten year plan but instead
of doing it five to ten years did it in
two years what would that cost and what
would we need to do to accomplish that
and so we're contemplating whether or
not we move forward on some of those
projects in issue debt in order to
afford them so far we've been able to
within our resources manage the programs
that we've had it's a terrible time
frankly to expand sewer work too much
because of the price of all the
materials that we're talking about are
you know the the sewer lining is it's
the robot that goes in and it uses
what does it use
it's like a
an epoxy or a oh it's a fiberglass resin
base the liner yeah so that's that resin
is is part of the same supply chain
issues that we've had everywhere so
we're a little I'd be a little skittish
about doing a major major project right
now okay but it's
we are pushing but okay so if I if we
talk about 2023
how much money are we plant in this
budget how much money are we spending on
sewer improvements is it just the 480k
or is there another amount of money
coming from the sewer fund where we're
transferring money out of monies that
have been set aside for that for
additional improvements the other money
is coming out of opwc special funds for
those projects that so that's taking on
debt that is taken on debt okay so glad
to hear we're taking on lots of sewer
debt so much debt
um I I laugh but we actually are like
the the sewer piece of the Drexel
project is by far the largest obwc sewer
PCM fed the sewer piece of the Chelsea
project is also substantial so we have
two of PWC projects running concurrently
that are adding debt to the Sewer fund
why yeah like yeah bodaciously but it's
well no I just don't understand when we
choose to pay for sewer improvements out
of expenses versus taking on debt
well it's a it's a Opera it's
opportunity right so like if if we have
a project like we do with opwc where we
have the opportunity to take on debt and
accelerate specifically through that
opwci project so historically we've been
doing that it's the
by far the cheapest money that's
available for it it's targeted
um there are other sources of debt that
we could pursue at higher rates but
we've been able that we also have you
know I mean how much I think you're
answering more than I'm asking yeah
isn't it fair to say that yeah when you
can get Street Grants and their sewer
work that's under that's when it goes to
opwc and then when we just have to do it
and there's no Street work and no Grant
available then we just take it out of
the phones and do you do we know what
improvements we're going to make with
this 480 or is it just opportunity we
know very specifically that 10 small 48k
projects that are going to make that up
okay yeah and I can pull that up for you
guys here in a bit if you want I mean I
don't need to go through that I guess I
just was trying to understand the budget
process which is do we
are we waiting for things to break and
we fix it or are we strategically
targeting specific areas to improve
because we just know that
um it's old in its time
it's Target specific
um yeah so some of that is you know
comes from a lot of our video work and
camera work where we know we have
problems
um okay yeah it kind of all goes hand in
hand
so we currently have a five-year sewer
plan
um based upon
it's based upon priority need
overall assessment of the infrastructure
and also the five-year is sort of based
upon the budget realities that we've had
to date and we are looking at how do we
accelerate this AARP money is there as
well yep okay whether or not we would
need to then incur
potentially debt in order to accelerate
it to amount that leaves us with Reserve
in the sewer fund but gets us to move
forward even more quickly onto sewer
work
I guess when you say accelerate I just
in general terms is it like if you were
accelerate then a hundred percent of our
needs would be taken care of if we
accelerated
the program or you know is there a
portion of the overall sewer in the city
do we have 30 lined and fixed or is is
there some sort of ballpark that you
guys know as far as like accelerating
what the mayor's talking about would
just be getting more uh footage lined
every year
um so just getting ahead of the game and
finding more problems would that like
get us to 80 of the sewers line in the
city or no okay I didn't know so like it
would get us to like 25 or something
it's a step in the right direction I'm
in the right direction step in the right
direction all right
yeah it's and we we could have Dave back
here to talk about this some more I'm
I'm looking at some quantity steer just
from the takeoffs and reticent to do
math in my head quickly but like you
know over five years we're looking at
like three miles of lining we have
40 miles of pipe maybe okay uh and these
are determined the whole thing right
around coffee these are determined based
though upon like in this area we know
right that there are parallel pipes or
there is there are certain issues so
they're these are high priority projects
and so I would love to accelerate our
high priority projects and get those
taken on the additional lining of
additional
um
footage down the road it's still there
capacity increases like we're starting
it right now with Chelsea there will be
other areas where we need to do capacity
increases that will be important that is
Incorporated in some of our numbers for
a five-year plan but it's not probably
where we want to be at the end of the
day now that's the third that that helps
me wrap my mind around I know you're
strategically targeting I just wanted to
see what the Beast was it's based and
it's basically it's based on a
combination of the mhnt study that we
did several years back where we did a
comprehensive infrastructure assessment
as well as as we camera and we find new
things we're adding to that list so the
things that Emma h t didn't find or that
it happens subsequently and then we're
prioritizing based on that our main
priority and main target is basically
where we'll have a storm line right over
top of the sanitary
and we get so much in eye during a big
storm it just overloads the sanitary and
then
that's when bad things happen
and why I'm asking the questions is
because for me and I
it's a lot like the conversation last
week when I think about how much money
are we if someone were to ask how much
money are we spending to improve our
sewage infrastructure
it's not just this 480k there are
multiple other projects that are there
and I think that's from my view it's
like
I'm I'm interested in understanding
within each fund or each account what
we're doing but
I think what's more important kind of to
what what Matt's question is in line
it's holistically if we aggregate the
two or three different piggy banks that
we're using to improve the sewage
infrastructure how much is that and that
and I think that that's what I'm
learning in the government fund
accounting is that there are always
multiple areas where we're funding up
certain areas and I think for me that's
different and I'm trying to understand
it I think it's hard to get to so
Beecher you're probably gonna get to
help me understand well
um I was starting to suspect that we
used to to get after sewer
infrastructure for example so a very
precise answer for you oh is that right
now for 2023 we're anticipating 1.5
million dollars in sewer infrastructure
improvements okay 480
000 coming from the sewer line the
remainder is coming from the storm sewer
Improvement on Stanberry it's part of
uwc
sanitary sewer improvements on Stanberry
and Chelsea prior to opwc so that's
those are that's a capacity increase and
uh Stanberry is a pretty substantial uh
mining it looks like yeah so
it's actually a half mile of lining
happening next year okay this line item
is kind of like our annual Street Pro
you know program this is our annual
sewer relining program this line item
the 480 000. okay okay thanks that
that's what I was trying to get to is
that aggregate look okay
um
wrote and Allen no you did Road Nalley
fund last but not least is refuse fund
oh yeah yes yeah refuse fund
you ready I'm ready
let's do it
so you notice um the increase in our
contract that's to Rumpke and Earth Peak
um
we remember we historically have been
paying prior years bills
um with the so like last year we paid
it's beginning of this year we paid the
remaining of 21 with the beginning of 22
funds
with raising this budget that will
eliminate that but also I had to raise
it because as Rumpke
is everything starting to go up and
increase is uh the fuel cost Rumpke is
passing that right on to the city
so
that's why you'll see it has been
adjusted again
and another change
um it's kind of like our mtus
um our trash and recycling I upped
because we are out of topooders so this
would be to make a big order of the
toters
and then another change is the I up the
fuel a little bit
something to
draw your all's attention to this is the
only account for uh refuse but if you go
to the page before and you look at the
fund overview
um you'll see that we continue to draw
down on the fund balance which is a okay
I mean we know that we're doing that the
fund balance is excessive we don't need
that much money in our refuse fund
the way that's happening though is that
rates for residents are artificially low
but what's also true is it's not like
they're that low right so I think it's
80
250 or something a quarter right now
um there are cities that absolutely have
lower rates than that there are ways to
lower those rates that we have not
tackle like not having bulk pick up
every week you know having different
types of service
so we are currently buying a slightly
lower rate for residents that can't
continue forever it can continue for
approximately four to five years at this
current rate
um and we are we're not keeping the rate
static like we're moving it up next year
but I just wanted you guys to be aware
of that I don't think it's inappropriate
personally we talked about this last
year I don't think it's inappropriate
for us to draw down a little bit on that
refuse fund but it does put us in a
position where if we do nothing else to
change our rates that we'll eventually
have to kind of have a shock to the
system increase
to catch up what was the purpose of
creating a refuse fund
um it's an end so it's an Enterprise
fund it's a special Revenue fund um
specific to that I mean well I guess I'm
sorry like creating a having a balance
in it was was in you know in five years
ago was there a transfer there because
we were gonna build a refuse Department
I'm making all this up I think over the
years our budgeting was uh pretty it was
super adequate in the fund so we would
have
a projection of expenses that exceeded
what they actually were we would match
the rate to that projection but it's
been many years since we've been
building to Matt's point there really is
no reason for a large like in your water
or sewer fund something drastic could
happen and your refuse fund right
nothing drastic can happen really I
don't think
Canada Andy I don't think so
I mean not previously we used to own and
maintain our own great equipment so it
probably was a different thing when we
were running around trash trucks yeah I
get what what would we do to make that
break even
um it has to be spent on refuse so
actually we just made a move that's
probably contrary to what you're
actually getting at so we used to have
employees until this budget
um that were paid out of the refuse fund
and it might make some sense to put them
back into the refuse fund that now that
I think about the way that you're asking
these questions so like when we pick up
trash on Main Street in those
receptacles when we do leaf collection
when we
um do it run our street street sweepers
employees being taken out of refuse fund
so that will draw down the refuse fund
further but we can't simply transfer out
of the refuse fund unless expense what
would we do to make
the expenses match the revenue
we would have to raise the revenue
or lower the service
okay well what are the wagons what what
that makes sense yes I mean but what
does that mean like what are the
activities and why wouldn't we do that I
guess that's where I like I don't
understand I'm not clear why we would
create a long a long-term scenario where
we'd be running at a deficit well we
inherited a really large balance in the
refuse fund from our forefathers so this
for this this has been running for a
while like this
um we have the ability to continue to
basically eat at the refuse fund a
little bit Yeah by slightly subsidizing
rates and that's what we're doing right
now and that's what I was trying to draw
people's attention to we are slightly
subsidizing refuse rates and that's a
policy decision that we've been making
recently and if Council feels like we
shouldn't be doing that I just want you
to be aware that that is happening full
disclosure so the alternative is to
raise the rates or lower the service we
can't do that immediately because we
have contracts but we could look at
different types that would be uh
would bring in cost savings and make the
rates in the service even out
that makes sense
so yeah I mean I guess I would I mean I
would like to understand yeah I mean to
me
yeah I mean having two years of
accumulative
570
7 000 deficit
um
well that seems like we we should be
looking at trying to
um
yeah not not be running in a cumulative
deficits like that I know that those
monies sit there but I I just I feel
like matching revenue and expenses where
possible make make sense I want to
clarify that our deficit showed in the
budget is probably not accurate you can
see that the actuals of 195
so but there probably will be
a deficit we are choosing right now to
run a deficit because we have a one
point we came into the year with a 1.4
million dollar refuse fund balance and
so the decision was to provide
additional services and use that to the
benefit of the residents and have a
slightly lower refuse rate and to slowly
draw down so we are it is a
conscientious decision to run into them
if we decide not to run the deficit we
can maintain the refuse fund at what
we've had decided what we discussed last
year was that it's a it's an
unnecessarily fund balance it doesn't
need to be that high okay and so we're
returning value to the taxpayers by
having a lower rate
that makes sense
um the alternative is to
keep the balance and raise the rates or
lower the service lowering the service
would be we have Escape valves we could
get rid of our Organics contract we
could
in the next year or two is Rumpke
contract goes up we could do what some
communities do where they don't accept
bulk items most the time where they have
you know they you pay by toter for
example there are lots of different
models you could you could pursue if we
needed to
so we're not boxing ourselves in
but it's I just wanted you guys to be
aware of that if anyone thinks that we
should be doing that differently it's
it's a conversation point right are you
saying that would be incredibly painful
to see that number to sustain what we're
doing now
no it's uh first off first off our
budget amount often does not end up that
way or at the end of the day we end up
spending less feature than I think we we
budget and so that our actuals are a
little bit more so if you look at a 200
000 Delta on a 1.4 million dollar
receipt from residents that's an
increase of you know 10 15 maybe I'm
trying to do math right now 15 20 so
it's not like
brutal but it's not great
so the but the counter to that is our
rates currently our bot are slightly
subsidized to the tune of that
percentage
I mean it's Matt's point that we would
sort of long term going to calculate
where the runway is and lay in the plane
though I mean is that so I feel the
reason I feel super comfortable with
this is we have swaco talking about a
Organics processing facility we have
suaco talking about a Murph we don't
know what trash metering is going to
look like in the future the technology
of refuse collection is going to be
radically different in five or ten years
they're talking about no longer doing
food waste discreetly it goes in with
yard waste and everything gets processed
together we have no idea what the
services look like even three years from
now so I think it's okay for us to again
return value to taxpayers or fee payers
and
continue to provide the level of service
we provide even as we know the landscape
of that service has changed in the
future and there will be options for us
to lower costs if we need to
um and and or if it's necessary raise
rates
or do it a different way if you want to
do a different way I just wanted you to
be I mean again I feel like I've said
this 10 times now just be aware of the
thought process behind it yeah I mean
we've done both we did on the last trash
or sorry refuse contract we did alter
the service yep as well and somewhat
significantly in some ways historically
yeah all right
anything else Sandy that you'd like to
add there's no doubt on the refuse funds
well I think we should do the chief
again now that McPeek's here you know I
mean this team has thought or
sorry he didn't get the money did you
have mine
position
Mr President that concludes the
administrative representation of the
budget
all right it is my pleasure to uh move
that we uh move and move yeah move that
we adjourn move that we what do we do
yeah let's go into executive session and
consider the appointment employment
dismissal discipline promotion promotion
or compensation of a Public Employee or
official by then
all right can you call the roll uh I
need a second before there's a second Mr
President before Beatrice can I say
something yeah I wanted to in case
anyone was wondering what's on the cover
of your budget were you wondering I was
wondering he's ready to give me I want
to be sure to have the credit this is a
this is a birch Cactus virgin Cactus
um I I said to beat you this afternoon
what should we put on the budget cover
image and Beatrice said you should put
up characters
it's supposed to inspire you to think
about the Arboretum in the Parks and
that is a cactus that you see on the
cover of our budget that's a future
great Beach or impression too by the way
oh thank you yeah nobody the mayor yeah
that's awesome man thank you I need a I
need we need a second and then we need
to vote
oh second I have a second by who was
that by Bible and then uh Boutique I
need you to give us a roll call
please and thank you sod
here wingler yes lamke yes Markham yes
Bible yes Robinson yes Marcelino yes all
right
here
yeah he gets tired you can just make
your own music everybody's under muted
all right
New York Times
plus we're just wasting time
to uh leave executive session
second
all in favor say aye
aye all opposed same sign all right
bring us back and
bring us to the consent agenda the
beginning of the where the beginning of
the agenda
um consent agenda meeting minutes from
October 25th 2022 and ordinance 40-22 to
amend 2022 pay rates for part-time
dispatchers and retroactively applies
said pay rates in order to be consistent
with increases negotiated as part of the
dispatch's collectibility agreement
effective January 1st 2022 Mrs lamke
introduced
well I'll play yeah excellent that's
good
um any uh questions or comments on the
consent agenda
questions or comments from the audience
on the consent agenda
if not uh motion to adopt the consent
agenda
so moved
um moved and seconded Mr mcpeek
Mr Robinson yes Mr Klingler Mr Marcelino
yes Miss Assad yes Miss lamke yes Miss
feibel yes and Mr Markham yes consent
agenda passes and let the minutes
reflect that Mr Klingler has had to uh
leave our city council meeting right now
okay we're on the third reading
ordinance 39-22 to authorize a
supplemental appropriation for Jeffrey
preschool and Recreation program for
calendar year 2022 MS lamke
thank you it looks like we've got some
proposed amendments mayor Would You Walk
us through the proposed amendments I
think we just have the right version
correct right proposed amendments are in
bold we include a couple recitals here
um I will explain it through the
recitals
so one of those we alluded to a little
bit earlier this evening
um our sewer contract was under budgeted
for the year
um that we were made aware of that by
our water manager this week or last week
I guess
um and so that'll be needed to cover our
sewer contract of course that is offset
with revenue from residents
um the second item is uh to move forward
with phase two Environmental Studies on
nuisance properties suspected
environmental nuisance properties in the
city that's section five I we discussed
that at the last meeting but it wasn't
part of the written uh ordinance
that was is proposed to be taken from
the infrastructure fund the purpose of
which does include environmental
remediation
questions or comments on uh ordinance
39-22
if there are no comments I motion to
amend ordinance 39-22 as shown on the
screen a motion to adopt a motion to
amend right motion to amend
I'll second
two men and then second we'll say by Ms
fiebel any comments or questions on the
amendment from Council counselor
questions on the amendment from the
audience
Mr Rick Peak Miss lamke yes Miss
Robinson yes Mr Klingler Mr Marcelino
Mr Markham yes Miss viable yes and it
passes the amendment uh so amended
a motion to adopt amended ordinance
39-22
second motion to adopt by Ms lampke
seconded by Ms Robinson uh comments are
questions on the ordinance
from Council comments or questions from
the ordinance from the audience
Mr McPeak Miss lamke yes Miss feibel yes
Miss Robinson yes Mr Marcelino yes
Mossad yes Mr Markham yes and Mr
Klingler
ordinance passes thank you
Mr Fishel all right second reading
ordinance 42-22 to create section 265
naming and renaming policy and to adopt
the naming and renaming policy attached
to exhibit a introduced by Ms Robinson
thank you yeah this was introduced last
week I know the mayor mentioned that Jim
Wilson has done a lot of work on putting
this together I spoke with the mayor
earlier
um this week to see if maybe Jim would
be interested in coming to talk to us
about um kind of the specifics of it I
know he's worked really hard on it so we
can discuss today but
um he's good yep he's good for coming in
next week and he will be here to talk to
us a little bit more about it at the
third reading
and you confirmed that that was the one
that did and oh wait what the that
exhibit a is the one they actually
passed uh you're gonna ask check for
them
I have no reason to believe it's not
let's do that right now
comments or questions from Council for
Ms Robinson
we don't need to wait on Ben doing
or do we oh no I'm sorry so we're moving
on yep all right first reading ordinance
43-22 to establish the water sewer and
refuse Rays charged by the city of
Bexley introduced by Mrs lamke
um thank you um these are the proposed
uh rates from Rumpke for the following
year
there are some changes mayor the
strikethroughs on one two and three is
that what they currently are and that's
what they're going to be proposed to
yes okay
the strikethroughs represent the 2022
rates
the uh the new numbers to the right of
that are the proposed rates
uh
the increase for water and sewer is
commensurate with what we have been told
will be the increase so I want to make
that clear we are still waiting on
formal action from the city of Columbus
to verify that those numbers are
accurate so the proposed rate
of 67 for water
represents a roughly I believe that it's
a four percent increase
uh and then the sewer increase is five
percent so that's what you're seeing
with 81. uh and then they've been
rounded by the way so they're not
they're uh they're cleaner numbers and
exactly four and five percent and then
refuse rate is calculated
um
at a percent sorry I
have this spreadsheet but I I rounded
them that's essentially it's around
three percent rounded up to 84. three
percent eighty three fifty three
to reflect you know we refuse rate we
just talked about this but Refuge rate
has had fuel surcharges you know we've
had contract increases that sort of
thing so it's justified by the increases
thank you uh it is just a first reading
but there's this first reading there's
no need to suspend or adopt it is
declared an emergency measure so it
would go in effect upon passage but it's
you know affecting January 1 of 23.
have um have you guys run what the rates
would be in order to we'll say break
even in the refuse fund yes
um I did that
and
of course
I don't have it right here in front of
me it'll take me two seconds so I can
get it for you
well other people have questions Maybe
are there any other questions from
Council for for this week
okay you ready
there it is break even in the refuse
fund
okay I over promised that once could
take me two more seconds
under promised over before
94.37 would be the rate required in
order to break even on the records
based upon budget I really want to
highlight that so
we do not usually spend the full budget
so it would be a break even based upon
the budget not on actual that'd be
slightly different analysis foreign
I think we assuming no one else has
questions for tonight I think we can
move on
okay I'm going to move on that to a
first reading of ordinance
44-22 amending chapter 291 of the city
of Bexley codified ordinances to add
section
291.02 authorizing certain city
officials to issue subpoenas and
furtherance of Investigations of
misdemeanor crimes introduced by Mrs
Robinson
she is really trying to end this meeting
hey this wine bottle is empty
whoa baby that could have been a lot
worse
his idea where he's tall I like it
I'm awake now okay
all right now that my hands are sweaty
um I'm going to actually hand this back
to Mark Fishel so he can give us a
little more information about the
background on this all right so this
issue came up recently
um because the specsley city schools
appropriately so have informed our
Police Department that they can no
longer provide video of incidents that
relate to a criminal investigation of a
misdemeanor nature so for example my
kid's bike got stolen can you get the
video if it shows other kids in that
video they can't just give it to us they
need a warrant or a subpoena Franklin
County Municipal Court judges have
interpreted the revised code to prohibit
them from issuing subpoenas for
misdemeanors now let's assume for
felonies but not misdemeanors which
leaves uh as our only remedy in the
police department to ask for a warrant a
warrant is incredibly intrusive in that
example they would take the whole kitten
caboodle of their recording system look
at what they wanted and give it back
later nobody wants that the proposed
ordinance is actually modeled on
something similar in the city of
Reynoldsburg I've discussed it with our
magistrate who actually put me in
contact with the Reynoldsburg ordinance
um send it to me
um as our mayor's court magistrate is on
board with this so it would give the
magistrate or the City attorney the
authority to sign off on subpoenas in
the context of misdemeanor criminal
investigations being conducted by the
Bexley Police Department frankly I would
View the city attorney's role as being
extremely secondary and only an
emergency basis if the magistrate wasn't
available but that's those are the two
that could sign it so that's the reason
for this
to continue to do what we've been doing
all along but perhaps the schools
shouldn't have been giving us some stuff
I do have one question that I meant to
ask the other day acting City attorney
so it says Court Mayor's Court
magistrate City attorney and acting City
attorney
just in case there's not somebody
formally appointed I mean I know my
predecessors
son-in-law was part of his firm may have
been sort of acting City attorney yeah
and I just further so the Reynoldsburg
ordinance has the mayor listed I do not
want to be at the position I don't think
should be listed we have a magistrate
for a reason there's separation but if
the magistrate who's not a full-time
employee by any stretch isn't available
city attorney's on vacation someone in
Mark's firm could act as a city just
wanted to clarify who who would be
acting as assistant City attorney
so just really quick so the process
would be that
a detective would have to get a hold of
you
or the magistration magistrate and then
so that would be the process before they
could get the information from the
school or for any other misdemeanor
where they need a subpoena this is this
is what's triggered this issue though
School situation and the volume here is
not high no it's not high it's not we're
tough but we're talking about three or
four a year maybe investigations but
right now there's a couple that I think
the school would like to have
investigated or some help you know due
to the due to the extreme partner time
nature of the magistrate you might find
yourself in that position more than
right and that's fine I mean I don't
have a problem with that I would uh make
an effort to consult with the magistrate
at least by phone even if he's not
available to sign whenever possible so
this is just replacing something that we
already were doing but now it needs to
be
I'm also is this something that we can
make a motion to
put on the consent agenda well it's only
the first three right and we're not
currently doing this to be clear WE
schools were voluntarily provided the
information right you weren't subpoenaed
so this is a new process
to make it
it's a new section yeah I would suggest
this go through readings because
I would suggest just go through your
readings but would this hold up anything
that would be currently happening I've
not been informed that it would
necessarily so there have been some
investigations that trigger this nobody
from the schools or the police
department has said oh my God we got to
pass this immediately we'll double check
that but we can't double check it
because we you can suspend into a dab
next week right if if need be if you
choose to I would just say if there's
anything from a safety pers
um
not really that we need to look into
that we look at maybe moving
is there a reason that we don't want to
maybe add emergency language to it so we
don't even once it goes through readings
we don't have to wait the 30 days for at
least to kicking I think that makes
total sense that would be fine if you
want to amend that maybe next week okay
and I'm ready to move oh okay I didn't I
I wasn't cued by anyone
all right ordinance 45 first reading the
ordinance 45-22 to establish a salary
for the office of Bexley mayor for the
years 2024 through 2027 introduced by Ms
lamke
um thank you uh it's my understanding
that uh our mayor wants to step out for
this discussion we'll gladly call him
back in
um once we're done
wow that'd be great thank you
awesome thanks Ben okay send some emails
too well yeah he's out right
uh I am I am going to pass around uh the
chart
um that was gathered uh from warp C
regarding uh some comparable salaries I
thought it would be helpful for
tonight's conversation when we discuss
potential salary for the office of mayor
for the years 2024 to 2027.
um I knew that everyone would probably
want some helpful background information
so I'm going to pass that to the right
if you didn't print out what I sent
earlier
um it's that same exact chart
um essentially
the mayor for
the past
or I guess
back in 2018 we had amended ordinance
4318 which set forth the mayor's salary
in the year 2022 that salaries 150 000
in 2023 it is
um to go to 155 000 so we are tasked
with the next what's going to happen for
years 24 to 27. if you look at that
chart that we did pass around
it pulls in not only Mayors it pulls in
city managers from Central Ohio and
you'll see that there's there's quite a
variety and I know it's really hard for
this Council to kind of project in four
years were these morpsy numbers are
going to be and that's kind of the
challenge
that I had so I did discuss this with
the city auditor
I discussed it with council member
fiebel and I also discussed it with the
city attorney
and what I am proposing
is to have
the salary go as indicated for 2024 to
go to 161 2025 to 167. on here for 2026
I wrote 170 and for 2027 I wrote 173
after talking to our city auditor I want
to revisit those last two numbers to
make sure that it's at least
potentially encap capturing a three
percent
is it a cost of living or is it uh
commiserate with maybe historical data
yeah I mean historically
um the pay raise is about three and a
half percent
um those final two years it's 1.7 so
it's more around ensuring
um
we'll say a conscious decision about a
pay raise that that's a different
percentage then we'll say historical
precedent yeah so that's something that
uh that we're going to consider as well
it also includes that the mayor can the
mayor's office continues to receive an
annual vehicle allowance
um 5500 for the years 24 to 27. I want
Council to kind of consider this
consider the chart I know you're going
to have questions and I also want to
emphasize that this is a salary for the
position
it's not for you know specific to one
person or whoever that office holder
currently is or maybe in the future I
found it really challenging to try to
put out numbers
for the years you know even 2027 because
I think the more PC numbers are going to
keep changing so that was challenging
too but I would love to hear any
questions you have at this first reading
Jess
do you know on the scale of some of
these mares like an example being
Reynoldsburg Canal Winchester
Gahanna well you haven't do they share
that role with like a city manager or
another
higher title or are they do you know
what that structure looks like for those
municipalities I think it's just I I
think if there was a title share I think
it would be listed but I'm happy to
check into that I can tell you
reynoldsburg's mayor
no no city manager no City administrator
or anything like that okay
um Canal Gahanna
um Gahanna has a city administrator and
a mayor
um and also on here Whitehall has a city
administrator and a mayor
I see the city administrator for
Whitehall I don't see them there
right it's not on there I don't know why
the city administrator was put on there
and not the mayor the mayor probably
makes less as my guests on the city
administrator and again when I say City
administrator and mayor these are strong
mayor forms of government and not just
like New Albany which whose mayor is
just a figurehead member of council well
I don't mean member of councils are only
figureheads but the major I think that
would help me when I look at this okay
I'll write down that we want to look
into Whitehall um as well look into
Dublin as well if you don't mind because
I think Dublin has a mayor um I don't
know if it's just a city manager and a
city manager for sure I know that city
manager okay you'll be able to tell by
their salary if the mayor is just is a
member of council or if it's the actual
mayor okay yeah
is there more information about the
position
I think it's because they have a city
administrator and a strong mayor I think
I could be wrong about that but I think
that's what it is all right so I'm
checking on Whitehall Dublin and getting
a as well I think too okay
any other comments questions
okay all right
then I am moving on to or the first
reading of ordinance oh sorry oh yeah
that'd be kind of funny
yeah oh 177
000 salary for Council is what was
decided on
okay all right we are now moving on to
First reading of ordinance 46-22 to
create chapter 2 20.04 compensation and
to establish the salary for the office
of city council member for the years
2024 and Beyond Ms lamke you know you
have all of the rooms yeah
Sam already made it
we laughed okay I'm going to turn this
over to our mayor and I'm also
circulating a copy of the chart of
information gathered from warp C for
council members but the mayor's going to
take this
so uh in consultation with our auditor
at council's request I
performed a rigorous study of Central
Ohio council member salaries
we found that they range from
six thousand dollars a year to seventy
two thousand dollars a year now seventy
two thousand dollars is as a as a wild
outlier with Columbus
um where it's essentially a full-time
job so we uh we narrowed it down to
Groveport to Hilliard Road Port at six
thousand Hilliard at 14. you have the
distinction of being the second lowest
paid Council position in central Ohio
um so congratulations at that and we're
recommending uh pay in in more around 8
500 slightly below the average
um the average is a little bit impacted
by the fact that Hilliard has such a
jump at 14 over the others but it puts
you in line with Upper Arlington
Westerville
Powell kind of range
um
and you know there are cities that pay
more than that Westerville Gahanna Grove
City Dublin Hilliard all pay more than 8
500. so it seemed like a reasonable
um rate to come to that's our
recommendation you guys obviously it's
your ordinance but you asked us so and
then we came up with this methodology
where it did increase over the next
um
uh 10 years essentially
and just oh I'm sorry Sam
correction you you're referring to us
this actually will only apply to those
elected on the next round so nobody up
here and nobody up here would be
impacted unless that's true
in accordance with our uh Charter so the
2024 rate would only apply to those
elected
in 2023
so half of council would get paid more
than the other half for a little bit
and then that's why we spread it out and
I would recommend those of you who are
here in the year 2030 or 29 even to just
take another look at it because if you
set it out in the future then everyone
can be on the same page there will be an
inequity
because it does catch up it doesn't it
doesn't volley back and forth
correct it'll catch up in four years
it'll catch up in 2020
26. there's another way to do it which
is to hold off on anything until 2026.
in this ordinance and that would have
everybody at this table would then get
the increase if they're still at the
same time no you would yeah in 2026 not
everybody at this table whoever whoever
you're all still here yeah yeah all
right if I'm saying that whoever the
turn if anyone is coming is continuing
or coming back
they would all everyone would increase
at the same time as opposed to staggered
yeah right any given members would
increase but once but once once it hits
then it would they would all be equal
correct whatever point that is then yes
I mean it seems like a great plan to me
but
for what that's worth
there any questions from from Council
I'm just curious uh like when you look
through this you may don't even remember
but like I I had asked Charter review
when they convened to take a look at
council salary as well and you know you
know move it up here this is one of
those things that just it's just it's
uncomfortable to do and it feels weird
doing it and and it just doesn't get
done very often so when I did the
research uh we looked at these
oftentimes like it's not done for 20
years or or something like that do you
know like some of the dates or any of
these sooner or or so I didn't go that
deep
I'm just curious yeah I just looked at
what what the numbers were I didn't I
didn't look at when they were last
increased
um
it it even just thinking through this
right now and I didn't really think
through what it would feel like to be a
council member that you know you're
serving with three other council members
or four other that are at a higher rate
yeah well for two years I might I don't
know I might feel kind of crappy so my
point is to Future councils really think
about changes well in advance not just
the year before uh and really kind of
pushing like keeping this thing current
so maybe in you know a few like four to
six years update it keep it current keep
that trail moving forward so that you're
you're keeping the impact even
yeah good
yeah
it's the charter no it doesn't it has to
be for 2024 if you delayed it till 2026
then everybody but right so under Ohio
law you cannot elected officials cannot
have a increase or decrease in Pay
during their term our Charter goes a
step further and says it has to be a
year in advance over it has to be passed
in 22 to be effective in 2024. okay
yeah
yeah can we somehow write in that it has
to can we
put in this piece of legislation that
it has to be evaluated after certain
amount of time I mean is that I don't
know we've done that before
you can make a note to yourself and
recommend it you can say shall
we do that in misdates so that's I would
recommend that you don't say show
saying that only because it has often
been
made it very uncomfortable you feel like
it's uncomfortable to do it yeah yeah
Sam's to support lorian's position on
that is somebody who sat in on the
charter review when it was discussed and
brought to us we felt uncomfortable too
because we didn't know how to
necessarily value it as uh there were
people that were on city council but I
think that it would make sense to almost
have an automatic trigger that just
forces a review and if they decide not
to find so be it but at least this way
it doesn't have to necessarily be
everybody else feel okay with what we're
making up here should we be making more
it's kind of weird if if I might suggest
so this is also we chose
in our infinite wisdom to codify it
which it has not been before and I would
recommend that the mayor's salary be
codified as well I'm not sure if we
talked about that oops because it's
we're always scrambling to be like oh
where which ordinance was that where was
it written put it in the code
gets it out there front and center to
the public it's and we know what it is
so because this is codified you can put
that breadcrumb in there and say that
you have you know on or before
this date 2020 I can't write them at
2029 or whatever that we that Council
should revisit or is it by advises
itself to revisit I'm not sure what the
word would be you just you maybe direct
the auditor to gather current
information or something present a
report to the council
trigger the auditor okay
well I like that makes sense by 2029 the
auditor is going to be a robot I would
recommend not knowing who sits in those
seats you say auditor and AI I would say
you say auditor and mayor because you
don't know what that Dynamic is going to
be like all right you might have a
hostile auditor like you and Beech are
back and forth with all that dude Beach
and I are so tight
I put a cactus on the cover form that's
love so then just just to that point we
may want to go back and amend
45-22 to specifically reference it's
going to be codified and figure out the
number and stuff which is easy to do
sounds sounds good I took notes
yeah I think that okay
lorien's not Jimmy
um first reading of ordinance 47-22 to
establish compensation for
non-bargaining unit employees for the
city of Bexley effective January 1st
2023 introduced by Ms lamke
um thank you
um as Council knows typically when we
are going through the budget
um
at the second or third reading we
introduce a corresponding pay ordinance
it is my anticipation that it next
Tuesday meeting which will be the third
reading of the budget and the second
reading of this ordinance that we will
table the budget ordinance right so that
we can go another round I think that's
what we're expecting okay great mayor do
you want to walk us through this pay
ordinance there's also an exhibit a
which has some additional information
yeah and I want to draw the city
attorney's attention to the title
this title used to be very confusing and
Meandering
I clarified it I think it is I think
it's great correct but I just double
checked that okay it used to be like
remember established pay for the chief
and the yeah and then and then this and
then that I'm like it's just
non-bargaining employees the first two
are redundant section one and two those
this ordinance has no power just like we
talked about over that it's just kind of
stating for fact I think that
that's how it the elected officials get
paid
um exhibit a references our pay scale
for the different positions that are
non-union in the city it also now
incorporates The Command Staff of the
police department
uh
uh section 4 specifies that the service
director who uh drives a Ferrari by the
way has an annual car allowance of five
thousand dollars
um
by the way that's in
his his Avatar in a video game drives a
Ferrari but
oh hey
um section five it covers part-time
employees
um I will make sure that the increases
are there I haven't looked over these uh
critically with uh staff so I'll just
make sure because we had that issue with
dispatchers so that everything's
uh looking correct for that many of
these as you can see are seasonal
workers within the rec department
but these do reflect
the non I can't speak to the rec
department that's a good question for
Mike Price I have not seen exactly what
he's doing with those part times other
than we know that there are some extra
increases with Camp staff and lifeguards
and some of that stuff we don't hire
life for us but it's cam staff and
others
um are miscellaneous there those are
four percent increases it should be
we'll double check that but they would
reflect the standard cost of living
increases
there you go that's the ordinance great
any questions from Council
it's a lot of information but
we've got you got a whole week to think
about it for another time
okay all right
uh I think we have
made our way through the agenda no
action on tabled ordinances
yeah
our table ordinance guy he's gone
uh we can do the uh committee reports
uh Jessica Saad you're up first with
just really quick one to highlight again
the Jeffrey Mansion
um Halloween party and the success that
it had with 190 uh tickets sold I wanted
to remind the community that you can go
to Jeffrey Mansion and actually use
those beautiful facilities for your own
family events or company or holiday
parties so um keep that in mind that the
mansion's been renovated and we did a
nice job with that and to be thinking of
it for your future uh events and
gatherings
yeah like there's a proposal coming that
you know about or something right
strategic committee Jen Robinson
no report all right uh lorian Fievel
service and environmental super quick
um
tomorrow night seven o'clock uh at the
library
um some OSU students are going to be
joining our future for that discussion
um I was going to share with you stuff
do with your pumpkins
are those being picked up I would
suggest I'm hoping I would suggest that
you do what I do which is going to be to
enjoy mine for a little bit longer as
fall decoration
and um you can for a dollar
um and purchase a 55 gallon bag
put them in and then you could put them
in our uh the compost bins here in the
city all right
yours because I will have a load you
don't know
I love my pumpkin that's all my pumpkin
got taken care of Naturally by the
squirrel that lives yeah and REI
Finance chair
um just a quick reminder that we are
meeting next Tuesday uh Mike price is
going to present Parks and Rec the
mayor's going to go over Capital budgets
and then uh it's expected we will table
the budget uh to coincide with the pay
ordinance all right no week off for you
guys uh safety and health committee no
report thank you and Mr Klingler is gone
public comments
and don't forget border control is
coming up
um you didn't take the solar thing off
of the table
but I came prepared with a picture of
what these ground mounted solar panels
would look like
and just picture them 10 feet tall
in your yard
or above your neighbor's fence
just just a little a little
a little visual
thank you
and can I get a motion to adjourn motion
to adjourn can I get a second second all
in favor say aye aye all opposed same
sign