um if so welcome we're thrilled you're
here
um
we uh we'll only be talking about really
the budget some strategic things i am
going to start us off through uh agenda
my item agenda item number three and
then i'm gonna turn it over to
troy who will then eventually turn it
over to monique who will uh
end our evening and um
take us through the end of end of it
with through adjourning if that's okay
with everyone
with everyone else so
um
i i do encourage jen to go back to bed
if she's not feeling well this is not
the last time we'll talk about the
budget we'll be talking about the budget
a lot um there is always opportunity for
her to add her two cents in
um
and uh with that um
let's remember you know why we are here
we are here for the good of bexley and
this is
this and i've been reminded i don't know
how many times that this is the most
important thing that we can do is the
budget we have to take care of our
responsibilities to make sure that our
taxpayers you know that we are taking
care of their finances wisely
with that bedroom can you get a flag up
somewhere and um
like roll call first yes i was gonna do
that i just wanted to give him a moment
to get the flag up and um blowing in the
breeze so
yes mr harvey you're on
mrs fiable here mr sharp
here
mr markham here ms robinson
mr klingler
here
ms lamke
here
all right with that um
i'm gonna i'm gonna mute myself and i'm
gonna let um everybody else mute
themselves and we're going to let and
we're going to let matt klingler
lead us in the pledge
do it matt do i mute myself or do i you
don't mute yourself i told me myself
okay you do
all right
i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
united states of america and to the
republic to the republic for which it
stands one nation under god indivisible
with liberty and justice for all
play ball
nice great job
good job thank you matt i had help from
mr i think he started game one right now
i know i think mr harvey's a vet so he
thinks he has to join in which is very
appropriate thank you mr harvey
um
so we are at the point in our agenda
where we um
will um
we want to hear from
anyone from our citizenry or other
members of the public who would like to
share thoughts and
um during this public comment um it is
um
usually uh
about comments
it's usually comments that about things
that are not on the agenda of course we
will have public comments at the end of
the meeting as well so
please know
that
so mr
madam president and mr mayor um since
our one attendee it appears to be a
call-in listener are there any different
instructions for them if they have
comments
than the raised hand
there's a
there's instructions i think when they
call in about how they can um
raise their hand
but i can look that up
and and then we don't get any youtube
comments
either correct no that's just for i mean
we're not we're not modern youtube
that's just to uh have the video in the
future
all right um
dial star9 to raise your hand if you're
on a phone
thank you
for future reference let's all remember
that star nine okay
i'm looking at the attendee and i'm not
seeing a star nine
um i'm not seeing a raised hand because
of a star nine um so i guess we'll go
back to our i'm really doing this zoom
thing with the council meetings guys i
freaked out because i couldn't quite
get it all together anyway i'm just
going to now go on mute and turn this
ball game over to uh
councilmember markham troy you're on
dude
thank you i was gonna say it's
appropriate for matt to do that uh
pledge of allegiance i think they're
starting game one of the world series
here in just a few minutes so 811 first
pitch yeah good not that i'm counting
good timing go dodgers right we're gonna
be done with this meeting by then matt
just so you know i think that's true uh
my commitment to you
i think you have nothing else i am known
for my brevity
so i'm going to make these
uh brief
maybe a lot of appearances but all of
them will be brief um do we have so
we're just going to go over really
quickly i know for three of you this is
your first budget uh process um
uh you witnessed it last year uh
and so this will be the first time
you'll be going through it uh and i
guess that you know as we're talking
through this i would say uh the number
one thing is ask questions and don't be
afraid to ask questions and always ask
questions and
that's probably the biggest thing
because nobody expects you to be a
financial budget expert and
part of your
duty here and your main duty is really
to be investigative and to ask those
questions on behalf of the people and to
to learn about the budget process
and give your input to it
so do we have having said that do we
have a uh timeline overview do we do we
have that as part of this there we go
let me put my glasses on mr mayor did
you adjust this i'm just checking
uh this is what you sent earlier today
so no adjustments we will have then a
city council meeting
um
we actually have won
the 27th right so you did adjust it i
think right
no no okay so our first but we do have
one sensor yeah our draft budget
distribution will be in um
three weeks then does that come out
right i think 11 that's right
and then from then on we can expect
every city council meeting to have a new
version of the budget as you can see
uh starting on the 17th and then
december 1st and then december 8th
we will be right up
well i don't think it's fair to say
right up on the ropes but we will be up
on the ropes in terms of scheduled city
council meetings for this because we
have our third reading
scheduled for
december 8th which would be our last
city council meeting of the year
we tend to schedule these december
meetings up front because we like to
give ourselves a little room on the back
of that if if we
if we need to make some adjustments and
to uh to have to table the budget in
order to get it passed by the end of the
year uh you can notice that the 17th and
december 1st and december 8th we do have
presentations by department heads
they will be here to go over their
portions of the budget
just like you saw probably last year
when you were you were sitting in that
audience
that's your chance to ask questions and
etc
is there any questions over the schedule
that we have here before we move on to
the budget responsibilities
i have a question troy
yes please um are all of these meetings
at seven
these meetings are all at six i believe
these are all regularly scheduled city
councils meetings okay
um troy if i i think if i if i could
edit it here's what i would suggest okay
um is that we
actually i we could distribute a draft
budget
on the 27th next next tuesday
i didn't want to put that on there i
didn't want to do that i appreciate that
having you
here's why i think it's important i
think um
getting the pay ordinance
in as a first reading on the 17th is
going to be important so the council
doesn't need to worry about a special
meeting
so the pay ordinance usually
lags a little bit the budget
distribution
um
just internally it works a little bit
better i think for beecher to kind of
have that lag
so
next tuesday what our our draft would be
would be
a fairly
preliminary draft
which is not
super abnormal is but under under
current situation i think more
understandable
and then the first reading will be on
the 10th
and council knows that you can expect
you will see some changes in the budget
as it gets further honed as we go along
a little bit but i feel comfortable that
we can at least get something in your
hand
that will give us an overarching view of
the budget on the next tuesday would you
then still schedule the first actual
rating on the 17th or would you move
everything up one one i would move it
all up one and that gives us a wiggle
room with the medium the eighth that's
excellent then that actually gives us uh
december first have
the uh what would be the third reading
to table that at that point uh and and
and give us room to pass it with plenty
with a little with a little breathing
room
um without perhaps hopefully having to
schedule an extra meeting at the end of
the year and who knows but uh that's
always nice
so
so ben when do you want the first
reading of the pay ordinance
you want to do that on the 17th
yeah 17th okay
all right well we will make that uh
adjustment to the uh budget review
schedule and we will issue a revised
budget schedule but then you can expect
to see a
wow uh
mayor is really going to be cramming
then he's going to be giving us a uh
something to look at on next tuesday
then in terms of a budget
anything else in terms of this schedule
hey mayor i had a quick question um as
sheriff strategic and judiciary i don't
have a department head per se but for
the other folks
um when are you wanting those meetings
you probably have another cheat sheet
somewhere there um when do you want them
to start scheduling those meetings with
you and the department heads
i think it's best to have those meetings
after the first reading
um
or at least i mean if you want to after
the draft i know for example matt has
already met with mike price because he's
an overachiever
uh just to try to get
a feel for wreck which understandably is
gonna be a little uh
we're gonna want to deep dive on wreck
this year so
um
i i don't want to put you in a position
where you haven't had a chance to talk
to your department head before they
first start appearing so i guess because
we have a first reading on the 10th now
yes i'm sorry i spoke
we'll have the schedule of those of
those department heads coming in
and so if you meet with them prior to
them coming to council that's helpful so
the folks who have the first department
heads we'll try to schedule those first
apartment heads on day one
to be
you know i don't want to say the easy
ones but the ones that don't have a
whole lot of change associated with them
and that way uh that you know for
example we know that this could be a
challenging year for the rec department
just in terms of planning
we'll have some contingency plans in
place we'll talk about that in more
depth so that might be like the third
meeting might be you know the rec
department for example so
long story short
after the first draft is distributed
those folks who have the first
department heads on the 10th
would be good time for them to start
talking to them
but the other department heads i would
recommend waiting until the first
reading because
we might have you know solidified a
couple things between
those two weeks it's a little bit of a
tricky balancing act between there
because obviously you don't want to wait
too long you want to get it done but you
do want to give those budgets a chance
to solidify and you don't want too many
changes happening since you have
before you know having a meeting uh you
know since before they present
yep here's here's the list uh and
hopefully find yourself and uh find the
things that you'll be looking at
uh and of course uh lori ann and i and
ben will help uh sort of guide you guys
through these and prompt you
on on you know uh the timetable for
getting these done and and that sort of
thing as well we'll be uh hands-on and
helping you out with that uh can you
help our old eyes
although i guess i guess you were trying
to make it so that everybody could see
it never mind never mind yep and we'll
send uh
troy
maybe if we can make those quick edits
we'll send out we'll send that out to
people so they have these uh
in their email yeah you should have a
copy of this before before the city
council meeting on tuesday you should
have a copy so that you're uh ready to
work from this and then of course during
the finance chair meetings we can ask
questions and and talk talk about it um
from here on out from here on out the
rest of the year we can talk about
budget
during that time
troy
troy yep
for all council members but especially
you new folks if you have any questions
you want to sit down and meet with me to
understand more about how these funds
work because i know this is gets to be a
little weird when you have to deal with
uh enterprise funds and some of those
things i'll be happy to spend whatever
time you need
and go through that because it can be
confusing especially when
you only see it once a year you only
really think about it once a year so
feel free to let me know
whatever works i'll be happy to help in
that regard and
and uh that's
that's aimed at the new people but
obviously
any older folks want to hear want that
i'll be happy to do that as well from
here
uh you feel free to drop in at bill
harvey's house anytime
and by all he needs veteran he doesn't
mean like age
um also um for a pluck for that one i i
know i did that probably my second year
with with bill and then i know i did it
this term um so maybe my first maybe
maybe i did a last did we do it last
year i don't know he's always really
helpful um a lot of times i forget like
he said if you don't do it you only do
it once a year and there's things
you have no idea what that you can't
remember what they were or you don't
understand it and a lot of times it's
something really simple
so
um and is he's really really great at
explaining so and i'll follow up on that
too this is the first year for you guys
and this is a really i want you to feel
very comfortable this is a very good
opportunity for you to strengthen the
relationship that you have with not only
bill harvey but these department heads
uh they're there for you this is an
interactive process for them as well um
so feel free
i think i would encourage you to email
them or call them and interact with them
as much as you wish the rest of the the
year on this this is a big deal for
everybody and uh they they learn from
you and you learn from them and we all
learn from each other during this
troy
i if i can
to prevent ben from having to say this
you realize that these folks all work
for ben so that's true you got to kind
of coordinate that i mean they have a
responsibility to him so i mean let him
know what you're doing so that you're
not out
bothering them when he thinks they're
doing something else right not a big
deal
yeah just keep me ceced in on on and and
sometimes i'll pop in on meetings the
there are two reasons for that one
reason there might be more than two but
one reason is that um
you know it's it is true that sometimes
i have
some overarching concepts in our budget
that i might not have communicated fully
to our department heads
so that when we're talking about those
budgets it's good to see that in the
full context and the second reason is
we all we want to be sensitive and
careful about putting our department
heads in a position where they feel like
they're being
caught between what they've heard from
me and what our administrative
objectives are
and what they're hearing from a council
member so
as long as we're open with our
communication it's not at all a big deal
also
if you want to have any primers on
enterprise funds or such i can do the
same thing as bill harvey except i'll
make it much more wordy and
unnecessarily lengthy when i describe
this to you so just let me know i'm here
anytime
i see that um
uh richard has said that the road and
alley is not on there that that's new
and that will be uh that will fall under
him for service and monique says there's
some duplicates if you do see some
things that uh need some edits or
whatever please send those to me uh and
when i send this out i'll make some
corrections and clarify
i would uh as part of the process so i
will say this
um one thing i would like to try doing
uh to sort of streamline this and maybe
make it a little bit more effective is
um in the past we've had uh city council
members meet with these these directors
or the department heads ahead of time
and ask questions and everything then
when the department head comes in and
speaks of course that person is maybe a
little uh should be in tune with what's
you know what's what's going on i to be
honest though i would ask you to
consider
i would ask you to do this
uh this is your professor speaking i
suppose i would ask you to to when
you're when you're talking to these
department heads
to put together like a little a little
report it doesn't have to be anything
elaborate but some notes
when you're asking questions about
things that look odd on the budget or
things you're not sure about
i would ask you to write those down and
write and then pass those on to us
before that director meets with city
council
because what i've found is that
oftentimes we will be meeting with these
people we will ask them a lot of
questions and we will get a lot of
answers and then when they come up
before city council
then we will all just ask them the same
questions in a very organic roundtable
sort of way i think it would be helpful
for us to get a little bit of
information ahead of time from you on
the work that you've done and that
doesn't need to be a anything elaborate
but anything you can pass on to us
before that person is here may will save
us some time and keep us a little more
informed as they step up there does that
make sense
troy
yes sir
one one thing that i've done too in the
past is um in that comment section that
that um the department said fill out on
the right sometimes they expand upon
those based upon my questioning that's a
great tool you can use that as well or
you can use that in place of doing a
written report if you want to or written
notes
there is a comment section and if you
can have them add explanation in there
that is that's also excellent as well
the the budget will change from meeting
to meeting like i said and if we can add
some information to make it more uh
comprehendable i think that's great
have i covered everything here do i have
any questions
all right i think we're ready to move on
what's the next item on our agenda
all right um
it is financial landscape for 2021.
let's see ready for that all right let's
do this
one second so
i'm going to give you guys just a few
like
broad brush
strokes in terms of where we're at uh
with our budget process and what we're
expecting
um first off as you as you all know
we've had our income tax
a little bit of a roller coaster this
year with late filing
we were down for a while quite a bit
that caught up and actually today we are
fifty thousand dollars over our
projections so we are what we're calling
i'm gonna say we're at budget
so uh we are projecting that our 2020
income tax receipts will be on or near
budget which is good news
but nonetheless we also know that most
of our many of our filers probably
arguably our largest filers
are
paying taxes
obviously in arrears so they're gonna
pay their april
they're gonna file their taxes in april
for 2020
of 2021
and
if we have a coveted hit which we expect
we will we're going to feel it next year
more so than this year so
i asked
beecher to kind of feature and bill give
their best shot at what they think we
might be expecting
we're looking at a five percent decrease
in our budget for income tax that's
based upon our experience uh that
occurred after 2008. so we just looked
at our last recession we said
you know we had a hit in 09 um it
bounced back but we had a we had a hit
that might be
that might be soft it might be strong we
don't really know but we came up with
the basis and and that's where we are
right now
so
as we look at our budget we're looking
at a reduction in income coming into
2021.
so the general
high-level kind of concepts that we're
looking at as we budget
are are these
these principles um first off as of now
and this could change between now and
our draft budget distribution next week
we're attempting to provide a one and a
half percent cost of living increase for
employees
uh typically we've done in modern
history we've done two and a half
percent increases um and so this is a
little bit of a reduction
um
and it's not that we couldn't look at
doing no increase but we think that we
can do
uh a
small marginal increase and still
uh cover our costs now just so you know
a half percentage cost of living
increase uh
is
i actually don't have the number in
front of me but it's fairly marginal
we're talking like you know twenty to
forty thousand dollars per half percent
so in the in the realm of our overall
budget
this is not a really a very large swing
on that budget
we're also looking at a continued hiring
freeze for non-essential replacements
and i say essential um
you know that's a that's a that's a
term of
probably i guess that's a discretionary
term but for example our clerk of course
position um is being replaced because
without it we can't function
within our uh within our court system so
that's a required expense so we're
looking at
essentially required expenses for
example
um i know that we will be having a
vacancy
within our building
and zoning director position in may
and so that would be an essential
position to fill because we do need to
operate a building
building department
um
i've directed our departments to provide
net neutral operating expense budgets
what that means is we'll see some
increases in personnel costs but we will
not see an increase in our discretionary
expenses
we're also looking to not have a capital
budget contribution in 2021.
as you know we put a freeze on our
capital expenses in 2020 as a result we
have appropriation in our capital budget
from 2020 that we haven't used and so
what we're planning on doing is using
appropriations that we have for this
year to pay for any necessary capital
expenses next year
and necessary capital expenses will
be equipment that needs to be replaced
essentially and will not include um
programs or or projects that are a
little bit more
non-essential i guess so an example of
that is in our 2020 budget we had
commonwealth
west improvements
we will not be spending that money and
we won't have that in our 2021 budget
having said all that what we plan on
doing is taking a look at our ex income
and our expenses and then coming back to
council in the summer of 2021
depending on where things are
and potentially looking to appropriate
some additional capital
if
our economic conditions would warrant
that that is appropriate
but going into our 2021 budget we will
not have any any non-essential capital
expenditures
um
so i said i'd keep it high level troy
that's high level uh those are the
bullet points
and and the point the the major points
here are we're probably not going to
have room for special projects or things
that are kind of
above and beyond our basic uh
essential needs within our city budget
excellent so um any questions about that
richard has his hand raised sorry i saw
um
yeah just for the new um council members
a reminder when the mayor refers to the
one and a half percent cost of living
that would be for non-um
contract
uh union bargaining units would be for
the
um basically the
city hall
staff and some miscellaneous other
employees
um in direct department and other
departments
and then um mayor could you clarify when
you said um for the last item no capital
budget contribution
will we be having the 2020
there's kind of
two aspects of it we transfer money into
the capital fund
um in our budget but then we appropriate
out of the capital fund specific
capital improvement items so will those
appropriations be
the um
will they be carried forward or will
they be cut off and reappropriated as
part of our new budget just so we're
sure how things look
richard sharp i knew that you would ask
that question so i thought about it a
little bit i am happy with either
approach um so the
i had initially thought we would do a
carry forward just because it's been
appropriated and it's an opportunity for
us to kind of just reshuffle priorities
but uh if if you want we can you know
cut loose those appropriations and
and have them reflected in our in our
2021 budget and
you know
open open to conversation i'm fine with
that either way
i think i think it's cleaner the um
the latter option than the farmers
i'll tell you the chief does not like
that idea because he wants to go like
we've had a cruiser that got uh
it caught on fire and a freak like just
randomly caught on fire
so um he was pushing me to go ahead and
open back up those appropriations but
um
i think it's cleaner and and to your
point it's a better better uh
access to the conversation and
transparency to talk through it as part
of our 2021 budget process so i'm fine
with that
thank you very much
that certainly wouldn't prohibit the
chief from requesting money for a
cruiser to replace a cruiser that caught
on fire either
no we're fine i think we're in okay
i appreciate that
and and in fact we could do that through
our current capital budget it just
wouldn't be in our next capital budget
for 2021 if need be so i feel confident
about that thank you
all right i think where are we on the
agenda i don't have a live agenda in
front of me
you're muted down up here
so we're at 2021 pre-budget council
input and uh this is normally the uh the
exciting time of the year where we all
bugged the mayor for our own
exciting ideas and uh and things like
that and this is a year that maybe is a
little
less exciting in terms of that but and
yet
this is the time
that if you have any other uh thoughts
ideas for for the 2021 budget
noting that we will be getting a draft
budget
on tuesday this is the time to to bring
up your concerns
or uh any ideas that you have
do you mind if i go real quick no please
go miss son yeah i just uh would like to
go on the record i
appreciate the mayor talking about where
we're at with commonwealth
but that is um
that's a big interest to make sure that
we revisit that next summer and if we
can within the budget start working on
that project i think that's
more transparent than ever that it's
needed
um in our community with where we're at
with covet and green space not as
accessible at schools for different
programming in our community
and um really just want to make sure we
stay focused on the grain spaces that we
have in our community to be able to
access them for programming which
helps bring our community together
so just want to stay focused on that
commonwealth green space project
i appreciate that um one of the things
that mike and i talked about today was
um
if there are some lower cost
ways to to start prepping those fields
for that work
you know because what we have planned is
a fairly
holistic and ambitious plan so
we'll look at that
you know i'm cautiously optimistic about
the summer but we really don't know and
i think it makes sense for us to wait
until we have those tax receipts in hand
before we determine
if we should move forward with projects
like that
anything else what other comments i have
my hand up i'm gonna go ahead if it's
okay
um i love jessica's um
emphasis on on
commonwealth and um
she's very right i mean uh considering
what we're trying to deal with with um
with covid right now outdoor spaces is
super duper important um
then can you remind us of some of the
other capital things that we've put on
hold um i can't remember
and i don't have my budget from last
year in front of me but i can't remember
some of the other things that we were
aspiring to
accomplish
sorry pulling it up right now one second
um
we have
some uh our animal control vehicle has
not been purchased
the windows in the police station that
have had some water infiltration have
not been replaced
um
there's some
radio upgrades to the police department
that have not yet gone in
to place
uh there's some equipment within the um
service department's landscape crew that
has not been
uh replaced
how's dave's um
heard like a car holding up it looks
like it's about ready to give up the
ghost any minute
it has a hole in the floor but uh
you know he's uh and of our items that's
kind of a lower cost one because we're
we're looking at replacing it with a
used electric car so it's you know
subbed
fifteen thousand dollars maybe even ten
thousand
is it safe for him to be driving
uh he has not indicated that it's not so
you know it is still being maintained
it's just not
okay it's not uh ideal let's say
um the uh
there are several like you know the
commonwealth park west fields the field
maintenance equipment
um camp shelter
restroom actually is part of the park's
garage so that's moving forward
um but you know it's it's roughly i
don't i don't have the dollar figure
right in front of me but it's it's in
the range of
i think 400 000
of appropriation that we have put on
freeze
you know uh fred flintstone dropped of a
car with no floor in it for a long long
time too with no problem so
it turned out all right yeah um monique
lampke you have your hand up go ahead
yeah so i had a couple things not
necessarily in terms of priority but the
things that would be important
for me for the 21 budget would be
making sure that we
are still setting aside money for a
rainy day fund i'm sure that
years ago when the rainy day fund was
first started no one would have
anticipated a national pandemic
so i'm not sure if we want to
maybe increase contributions to that or
may or if you think that
allocating
reserves towards a coveted fund that
might be a little easier to tap if if we
needed
i'm guessing you or bill might be able
to speak to the different protections
that would be involved with
adding money to say a rainy day fund
versus
setting aside
some emergency money for covid
if ever going forward federal cares
money or money from the ohio office of
budget management
doesn't come in or is lower than we
expected
so i i
i feel like you know we have a rainy day
fund and i've thought a little bit about
if i wanted to suggest that we tap into
it for next year
um
this is in my opinion not the time to
add to the rainy day fund it would be a
time to potentially use the rainy day
fund because what we're looking at as a
fiscal
uh
emergency is the word that's used in the
radio fund it's i would say it's a
fiscal
urgency um and so this would be this if
if you talk about like when is a time to
use a rainy day fund it's a time like
this where you have a unexpected
you know black swan event and you need
to
tap into some reserves so
i i on the other hand feel like we have
the tools in place to weather next year
assuming our projections are
on track which is a bit which to be fair
is a assumption that none of us can
really make
until we get there so i think that if
for example let's say that we
underperform our five percent
uh loss of income and we
we get
that i mean in a negative way let's say
we're 10 down you know i believe that's
a time to tap into that rainy day fund
i think what we do is we set ourselves
up cautiously i think we could balance
our budget next year i think one of the
ways we could balance it is we're going
to have a contribution from the cares
act into our general fund which will
allow us to
make transfers this year if we need to
in order to make sure that we have a
balanced budget next year
so my from my perspective this is a time
to use rainy day fund if needed
the years that we would contribute more
would be years where we have surplus
um i don't think that we're in a
position where we're going to need to
tap into the rate of fund
but i think
if we were going to i would think this
is the sort of time when it would make
sense
am i would i hear your question wrong or
am i uh
no that that sounds about right i
remember last year i think you said that
there were um maybe
not more stringent conditions but if
something does go into the rainy day
fund if maybe it's
set aside for a different purpose but
make that was kind of at the top of my
list knowing that perhaps at some point
the care's money may not be as high as
as we think it's going to be
my other priorities are
water in the basement issues for our
residents i know we're currently
considering
you know what that looks like but
setting aside enough money to
to work with our residents
for these floods
for me i would also add
ferndale mayfield and we're going to be
talking a little bit more about that
under item number eight tonight
i would also like us to
finally roll out this new city website
that i've been hearing about for a while
i know that's not going to be a very
costly item but city website would be
important
and then my last two items would be
things that we can do to further
increase diversity equity and inclusion
in bexley i can't see that being
uh extraordinarily expensive but i'd
want to make sure that we are putting
forth
appropriate and just
allocations for that
and then finally i would love to see us
involve some sort of or develop by youth
council something to
promote
governance across multi-generations in
bexley
again i can't see that one costing a lot
of money but those are the things that
would be important for us
for me to uh to include our budget
and along those lines do you anticipate
extending the pilot program for your
food waste
yeah so
uh the the food waste is actually we're
calling it a pilot still but it is built
into our um in our budget it has been it
will be um
monique you i was trying to type this
out on my phone as because that's where
i'm taking my notes right now
the youth council and what was your last
one
something involving multi-generations in
bexley youth is just one but
a way to bring seniors together um
with with our youth and bexley so that
it crosses generations
yep
uh to just reassure you real quickly we
are um we are very close to launching
our new website and you can kind of get
this is what it looks like on a computer
and uh
it changes a little bit when it becomes
a cell phone
but
it's uh it is
very close uh we've put a lot of work
into that this year so we're excited to
launch it when the time comes
very well sam i thought that looks great
i will
richard sharp do you have some a
question or two
i it's primarily a comment i'd like to
as a
strong supporter of the rainy day fund
in the past i'd like to concur with the
mayor's comments um
next year would be an appropriate time
if ever to utilize a rainy day fund to
keep up the services that our residents
are expecting
i'm not
mayor can you tell us
i i was under the understanding that
most of the cares funds were not
eligible for
routine
day-to-day operations of the city it's
just incremental costs
is that yeah so
uh that that is is correct the the one
the the caveat to that and we've been
crunching the numbers to figure out
what it looks like for us is that if
we've had personnel that have been
rerouted to
coven 19 related expenses as defined by
the cures act then
we are eligible for reimbursement for
those expenses and so
you know we've been doing lots of
comprehensive thinking around this
and we have looked closely at how our
operations have changed during covid
and specifically within management we
have arguably put a lot of our time and
resources and effort into
adapting and managing um city services
within the landscape of covet 19. so for
example
um
i have spent a lot of my time on covet
19 response uh the the the police
administration has spent quite a bit of
time on
adapting practice and policy around
covet 19. uh communications has has has
been wrapped up in it quite a bit
um our rec department leadership has had
to do a lot of change
management around covet 19 and therefore
some of their expenses have been their
personnel expenses have been associated
with that and then we have this uh this
school year we have been
we have a whole program dedicated to
distance learning jeffrey care which
since the start of school has been
supportive
by design of distance learning which is
a covenant expense
so when we add all those together
we're in the realm of about five hundred
thousand dollars of expenses year to
date
um
and
we obviously will continue to accrue
additional expenses through the end of
the year
the reimbursement of those expenses will
go into the general fund and the req
fund uh
and or any other appropriate funds uh
where they were expended out of
and so because of that we'll have
uh
we anticipate that we'll have a little
bit of a cushion
and especially like when we look at the
rec fund where we know that we've had to
subsidize it already this year
we'll have a little bit more of a of a
cushion going into next year than we had
expected um just because of the hit that
that took
matt klingler do you have something
thank you very much
thanks richard
yeah uh
thank you professor markham
uh i just wanted to let everyone know
or just to remind everyone to uh keep in
mind that we do have some stipulations
on renting the new
space at jeffrey mansion
um that
you know if we find ourselves in a
position where
uh there's income there that we're not
capturing
for 2021
that could help our budget or if we find
ourselves in in need of that we could
revisit those stipulations that we have
on
uh space rental and potentially um
maximize um our income for that space so
just something to keep in mind if you
know
i think they're going to start renting
then right in march or we're out january
february but in march
so you know we might you know after the
first couple months of of rentals
uh see how they go and then maybe
expand
um the rental opportunities
just something to keep in mind for
everyone
thank you uh jessica saad
um
quick i have i have one more thing to
add but i want to ask uh matt and ben
well um
when you say march is that when we're
planning to have it online for people to
be able to go on and rent mansion space
is that what you're
talking about matt no
no we so we've started to allow
reservations um for march and after um
but with some pretty you know some
qualifiers which is that public health
circumstances might dictate certain
limitations on the space
right but that's open now if people
wanted to go on and rent the space they
have access to it now to get make the
resolution
i believe that's correct matt did you do
you have information to the contrary
so yeah when i spoke with mike today
they're they're booked um
they've got quite a
quite a bit of reservations already
awesome books i'm not surprised
no yeah and it's only it's only going to
snowball so if we don't if we don't
start
in my view if we don't start thinking
or looking at that sooner rather than
later it could affect it could affect
the income even farther for 2021
um
you know if we don't expand it a little
more
so
so just
just thoughts
i've shared this with mike and i want to
share with you guys and i'll shut up on
this point but we made a commitment
which you can always change at any point
in time but we made a commitment to
through the public process as we worked
on those restrictions
um
and obviously council you can change
that but i also feel like when we do
that i would hope that we do that with
the utmost
awareness of the fact that when we make
a commitment to neighbors um and to the
community about restrictions
that our credibility is on the line when
we are quick to change those uh those
restrictions my preference would be to
only under the most dire circumstances
make those changes i think that we need
to
we need to establish the credibility
that we said we had when we made those
commitments and i'll i'll shut up on
that but that's my
my personal opinion
no yeah and
ben thanks and that's the only reason i
brought it up was for the fact of if we
find ourselves hey we need we need more
income uh like you know halfway through
the year it's it's an option i'm not i
was not
like suggesting that we look at it now
yeah but like you know like
you know come june or july or august you
know we're in trouble so that's the only
thing i had on my end
i would add the other side to that too
it's not necessarily do we need the
income but
do we want to look at the needs of the
residents if we have a backlog of
weddings uh
come you know
and and the health of the community is
is good we may want to look at whether
we want to
make some changes to fulfill that need
temporarily but this is a premature
conversation but just to bring up that
point as well
uh richard you have uh another question
or comment yeah along those lines i was
going to suggest
or to see what
mike's process was of keeping track of
weight a wait list
you know so we know or dick or
turn down
engagements due to already have having
booked all the space according to our
current restrictions just so we have an
idea the the demand that's out there
and um also
as part of that process i would assume
we take into account some of the other
activities
that might be forgone at
at the mansion um
for example
there may not be the senior activities
um that would take up space just because
of
health concerns for those at risk
which
wouldn't have been in the original
demand projections that would make
an allowance for adjusting the wedding
restrictions for the other event
restrictions
it's a great point by the way yeah so i
and if i could jump in my notes with
mike today um he has natalie mullins um
kind of keeping track of
the people that we turn away or you know
we're too full sorry we can't have your
weekend so he is keeping track of
the lost opportunities there um i he did
tell me we've turned away one
non-resident um
already
um
and then he did mention that he was
gonna
they're gonna do
their best effort to open up the larger
space for seniors um
in in 2021 and accommodate some of the
some of the programs that they have in
the spaces he did we did talk about that
is it not possible that uh mr mayor that
the residents of that area are a little
uh maybe a little tired of all the quiet
after this year as well
all right i'll move on
monique klamke
actually jessica said i had her hand
raised for first gen
go ahead
i'm sorry um i actually had something to
add i just had that question for um matt
so i was going to get into another
thank you monique
another 2021
planning goal would be that we stay
focused on the bexley bike plan we have
begun meeting again and there's some
great initiatives there
and again just kind of like with the
commonwealth space we
um
there's silver linings in coven and one
of those is people are out walking and
biking more so i think that the bexley
bike plan and the initiative
is more important now than ever and to a
few things that monique brought up i
don't think that this is
um
something financially that cannot be
achieved
and i think that more than ever it's
needed
it's a great green initiative
and again covet has brought more bikers
and walkers out in our community so
making it safe while they're doing that
is very important um i think it also is
a big mental health piece um to where
we're at right now
monique spoke on something and i thought
it was um something that also could go
along with the the
bexley bike plan on the initiative is
the generation gap how do we get some
youth out with seniors
um what i have seen a lot and i've seen
it in my own front yard is grandparents
that don't normally bike are getting out
on bikes and they want to be with their
grandkids
and
maybe that's something we could look at
is when with this bexley bike plan and
some routes that we identify that are
safe routes
to maybe identify those for the
grandparents with their grandkids i know
i personally would like that
um so just some things to think about
strategically just to keep that focus on
our our bexley bike planning initiative
just just a note i do believe uh
that bexley bike plan though is all is
fully funded at this point if i'm not
mistaken
the plan itself is but i think jess
you're saying probably like
recommendations coming out of it
yes
i hear you do we foresee that i know
that we've we've started that up do we
foresee that coming to some sort of
completion this year and then having
some sort of uh recommendations that
would i assume be
something we would look at next year
maybe or is that true
i think we're going to be looking at
recommendations before the end of the
year but probably not before the budget
process so
having said that you know
some of these
just pointed out
might not be that expensive they might
be accommodated by our existing service
appropriations they might be
you know items that we can work into
future
road projects so
i'm not sure that there's going to be
a whole lot to
this year for 2021 specifically
appropriate around the bike plan but
that doesn't mean that we're not
considering it as we look at uh
parallel appropriations
there's a lot of enthusiasm in this
community for for that bike plan and and
seeing some activity on that so that's
that's a great great point
uh monique lampke
thanks troy the one thing i forgot to
mention um is for 2021
i don't know if we need to
a lot money or increase the money that
we
potentially might need to spend
regarding cova testing or hopefully
vaccine
i know that the
the koba testing this past weekend was
very successful but i don't profess to
know
how how that came about or what the cost
is the city mayor uh or jen
actually i'm sorry not jen
mayor would you be able to talk about
that is that something that going
forward we could consistently offer and
if at some point in 2021 if we need to
ramp it up whether it's testing or
vaccine
do we need to maybe appropriate money
for that
so i don't believe so i it was
about appropriation the the testing was
offered through franklin county public
health
um they are the recipient of
uh
they received funds from the federal
government for the purpose of
testing and treatment and
contact tracing and management for
covid19
if it if that radically changes maybe
but i mean i think in general we're
expecting that our public health agency
will be the
the portal through which those sorts of
activities are uh
occurring
and i assume they do that through that
grant or is that through
any sort of funding that we already
have with them or contract that we have
with them
um it's through
it is through the grant it is through
additional funding um from the state and
federal government
okay thanks yeah
richard sharp
in a follow-up i think i heard recently
that
cvs and maybe walmart will be offering
at least the senior citizens uh free
vaccines in the future
cool
that's awesome
any more comments or questions
if not i will uh we will move on and i
will turn this over to monique lamke for
the strategic planning and organization
portion thank you everybody yeah thanks
guys i took good notes appreciate the
feedback
thanks for organizing us troy
great job troy thank you
um so let's let's kind of change gears
for a second and talk about strategic
planning
we had a very successful and
thorough discussion at our
early spring retreat and obviously this
is our fall retreat but if i
as chair of strategic and judiciary
we're going to start putting together a
spring
2021
retreat agenda i would love to hear from
my fellow council members and the mayor
and the auditor
what sorts of things would be of most
interest to you to
to start thinking about for that spring
i'll open it up in case anyone has
anything that they'd like to throw out i
have
two things that i would mention but i'm
happy to hear your ideas first
let me see if anyone's got their hand
raised
okay i don't see any hands raised i'll
i'll go ahead and chime in with with my
two and then uh open it back up for
for questions um the first um was
ferndale mayfield um especially for our
uh newest council members um
you know ferndale mifold is something
that uh is is taking um obviously much
effort but it deserves much effort it's
not something that's going to be
completed
quickly
so i was thinking that perhaps at our
spring 2021 retreat it would be great to
have
maybe the past chair of the cic or
someone on the cic
to
give a lot more background as to
the history of that area and also for us
to put our collective heads together and
think about long-term what we would like
to see happen there whether it's in the
next year whether it's in the next five
years
do folks like the idea of making
ferndale mayfield and perhaps a
presentation from the cic a priority for
that spring retreat
don't i'll raise your hands at once
i like it i don't know if you're asking
for my feedback i think it's
okay i think it's great i think it's
like we've been working on this for 10
years let's do this
things are lining up i mean we talked
about the board of health yesterday
we're getting there we talked about cic
today with a couple members
so
if you want a historic perspective
monique i have many spread i have many
power points that i've presented over
the years
i would love to give you a deep dive
historic perspective and then maybe nate
green with the cic could provide a our
modern perspective like where we are
with the cic
yeah i think that would be great i know
he or um
i think andy madison would also be
willing but um maybe especially for uh
for matt jenn and jess um would you guys
find that to be helpful
yeah maybe some hand raids okay
awesome
okay um so
maybe when we we all take a turn feel
free to chime in there um the second
thing that i was just gonna raise either
tonight or we can look at it in the
spring was i would love for us to
explore uh ways to make our agendas
um a little more efficient
i
i know that we as a council
and as a city have dealt with so much
over the past six eight months probably
more than any of us ever expected
and we have sometimes considered you
know upwards of 14 pieces of legislation
in a single meeting
so i would uh encourage all of you to
give some thoughts if there's ways to
make our agendas a little more efficient
primarily for me it's important that a
resident not
maybe have to wait three and a half or
four hours before
speaking on an agenda item so over the
next few weeks i might be
suggesting
uh maybe a different agenda for one
night just by terms of format
and seeing if that
is something that other folks want to
look at certainly more ideas are welcome
but the idea for me would be to maybe
have our third readings regardless of
committee um moved up earlier in the end
in the agenda and all done collectively
so that if you were coming to our
council meeting to
give your us your input on a third
reading
that you can speak much earlier uh
rather than if that third reading
happened to be on the last committee
report of the evening so just something
to think about i think efficiency is
going to be important for me
i didn't see who had their hand raised
first so i might just go
and order richard sharp
i was going to concur with your
suggestion about the
southwest area for the strategic
plan and also
um if the mayor could
i don't know whether he's listening
right now or not since his picture is
not there but um i'm listening and
lounging
okay
don't don't do the other thing then
and uh
i lost my train of thought uh oh
including um the consultant group that
the cic is using
and
possibly also considering other um
affordable housing issues that that you
i know have been looking into
great idea richard i'm writing down as
you're as you're talking great ideas
anything else that you want to add
when is that when is the spring
i'm sorry mayor did you say something
yeah what when and are you are you
thinking like
february like when it when what time of
year were you thinking
what time of spring late winter early
spring
we did the one this year at the end of
february
i thought that worked fairly well
just in terms of timing but i guess it
also could depend on what's going on
in the community and in the world around
that time
well so people who have been on council
for a little bit are going to laugh when
i suggest this but
um
you know this was the year when we were
supposed to be updating our strategic
plan
and
you know this time i had a good excuse
which was a pandemic
but uh i i i have not lost sight of that
and i think it's really important that
we get moving on that so
to the extent that
we did this a few years ago where we had
kind of a um
a workshop with council where we just
talked about you know where where are we
today where was our old strategic plan
what should we be looking at in the
future
i think some open box brainstorming
would be would be a helpful exercise and
it doesn't have to take a whole lot of
time it could just be
you know talking through big picture
objectives
okay
great i wrote that down as well thank
you for that
and um
monique and bannon the rest of council
traditionally we've had them in january
and february which i think works out
well before spring breaks and spring
activities
start that may not be the case is coming
here but um
i
and i wouldn't be hung up if we have a
lot of agenda i wouldn't be hung up on
the time i'm willing to set aside the
time for
if we need extra time this year to work
on the strategic plan with the mayor if
we have a full agenda and we're not just
creating things to occupy time if we
have actual things that might relieve
some time and future council meetings
yeah that's a good point richard we kind
of don't know what the next couple
months
look like
um
jessica sad
yes um okay monique um wrote down a few
things
so
maybe looking at how covet has affected
some of our open leases
um examples would be like piccadilly art
with anna
how those are going to affect our
community because those were community
builders
um
and maybe that means having um
the bexley area chamber of commerce come
in
i'm just kind of brainstorming right now
because that's an effective covet and
something we kind of need to discuss and
then if there's anything you can weigh
in on that with that brainstorming idea
there
it's been still here
yes i'm here i'm here i'm here
um
yeah i i
i agree that uh you know talking about
what what it means to not have those
spaces and
you know just today mike and i were
talking about
an idea resident had about a teenage a
teenager kind of hangout space and what
it would look like to
to operate that and make it feasible um
and looking at
the opportunities presented by those
spaces which have been built out
fairly specifically and yet are
adaptables for community use i agree
it's a good point and then how do we you
know and then i guess with that and how
do we help maintain the businesses that
are community
supporters that are still here an
example that would be like bexley yoga
with amy lee i know she's been trying to
think of a million ways to keep her
business open and one of those is she's
housing a lot of
um
the hybrid students when they're not in
school they're over in her yoga studio
with teachers she hired from capital and
ohio state so you know just um how do we
continue and some of that might be with
the coveted relief but just
that spring
meeting would be important to have um
the places have closed and then the
places that are still in business um
supporting that as well so that we keep
them in the community
and then
kathy rose
might be great to have her come
she
then is looking at
possibly
retiring in 2021 correct
that's right yep in may
i know that's so hard okay
um you know kathy is the director of
zoning for the city and she's insanely
talented and a great leader and has done
a wonderful job by our community for
has it been 24 years then i think it's
more than that
it's yeah i think it's i think it's more
than that it's been with us for a long
time
in my short time with kathy um i someone
like her is not replaceable so it might
be great to have her come and talk to
council about her role with arb and b
zap and just
help guide us on some things
that we strategically can do better by
those committees um in communication
with council again ben if there's
anything that
you think you could elaborate on that or
if you think that's a good idea
yeah no
i yeah
that is a good idea
i think i i do want to be um
as we look at that position you know one
of the things i want to look at
um for the future
is
morphing it a little bit into uh a
planning slash
building director because we have not
had
we haven't had the planning function for
a while jason studi was with a
contractor planner who moved on to
bigger and better things
and so you know i would be happy to talk
to you guys more in depth about what
that looks like
uh but in the midst of that kathy has
like such an extreme amount of
institutional knowledge
and uh
if uh if nothing else you know having
some time with her learning from what
she has to say i think would always be a
good exercise
awesome and then um lastly monique just
i think the bike planning
um strategic bike planning falls into
this as well
and
then maybe we can have um
someone from the committee come in
maybe
and speak on what we've kind of all
discussed
by the time we have our council retreat
in theory you guys will have heard from
the the committee and you will have
adopted the plan in theory
okay
based upon the timeline that currently
exists
great thank you mayor for that um
jessica one thing i was going to mention
real quick is i know that the chamber of
commerce is already
doing surveys with local businesses to
figure out how they've been impacted by
covid
i think i got that the day after one of
our
discussions so hopefully some of that
data and information will be in um
so we can consider that further and
figure out how to support our bexley
businesses thank you awesome
yeah and that's actually that is a city
forum and we've we've also been
distributing that and and your
appropriations committee has started
talking about what we've seen from that
as well
that's awesome
awesome anything else jess
that's it thank you
all right lorianne you're up
uh sorry took me a minute to a mute
i heard just so many really great ideas
everybody and i just want to make sure
that i get to echo some of the ones um
that some of the people brought up that
i just really loved as i'm not sure i
can
uh
add more to the long list of the
creative things that people have already
shared um perhaps the only other thing
that i'd like to
for us to start thinking about
investigating
is the the main street area towards the
um
the east side
of our community and trying to
you know bolster that a little bit i
think that's um something that the cic
could you know it's something that they
look at that's something that's on there
on their horizon always but i'd also
like to hear what they have to say about
that um
ferndale mayfield has been since the
very beginning and the very first time
that i started um even thinking about um
running that area has always had my
heart and i just
i just feel
um
a real desire to make it to make it
to make it great i remember ben painting
this picture
what if it we did this and what if we
did that and and it was just it was just
amazing and um
really really working hard with um
columbus and trying to figure out ways
that we can even continue our
relationship with them to
really make a difference in that in that
area to make it safe for people to make
it look like bexley to make it
you know is to make
all of our community realize that those
are our citizens in that area as well
um
the other thing that really is hitting
home for me as far as coming you know
creating ideas and i'm i'm sure this is
more of a mike price and his department
um
conversation but i'm really realizing
how much um we aren't and someone
already mentioned it especially when we
were talking about piccadilly jessica i
mean these are places these are
opportunities for people to have these
shared
community experiences and we are really
really not able to do that but we're
going to have to start thinking about
how we can do it on a smaller
on a smaller scale you know a
smaller groupings of people because
i really am worried about um
i'm worried about our our community's
mental health i'm worried about our
our community and it
um
the strength of it dwindling i i worry
about that all the time because because
of the occasions we we do not have to
get together we're just gonna have to
have
maybe um
more events with fewer people and i
don't know exactly how we can do that
and i think that could be you know
something direct department they just
seem to have this
amazing ability to think of creative
things not necessarily things that are
gonna
impact our community financially
but but the ways we can do really crazy
great things without spending a lot of
money
so um i would i would love um
i'd love to i i don't even know what we
as a council can can do to
to help that but um
i think we need it
so
anyway
so those are those are my my big things
i'd love to see what we can do with main
street
i'd love to for dale and mayfield and i
love to um
make sure that our community is being
strengthened
yeah lori i'm so glad that you mentioned
the mental health of our community
obviously with us coming off of spring
and fall we're getting ready to go into
you know cold winter indoor
uh so i share your concerns that uh
that we do want to be creative but but
safe so thank you for that
i bought a second heater for the
backyard anybody that wants to borrow it
so that they can
be
be with their small group
just now in all seriousness guys we have
patio heaters at city hall patio and if
you guys want to like there it's public
space go for it
awesome thank you uh matt klingler you
are up
okay oh thank you
so a few things i had that they're more
i guess they're more specific um
well by our retreat i hope that our
actually dora
is um
underway or or getting there uh i was
thinking about and this kind of ties in
with ferndale mayfield and
main street and biking um
have a budget slash timeline slash
presentation for the snyder park trail
connector
um
something i know there's drawings out
there i was talking to mike price about
it today but um
maybe have an update on that or sort of
develop a
path forward on that
and then along the lines of
doing things
in smaller groups but having spaces
where people
can gather kind of indoor outdoor spaces
and this is probably something for the
2021 budget but something to think about
mike mentioned
putting a shelter on the existing slab
just north of the pickleball courts
at jeffrey in you know just south of the
meadow there just north of pickleball
courts they they put up a tent
for it um
for after for summer camp
but he he mentioned he had seen some
shelters that had like roll up garage
doors and you can have sort of an indoor
outdoor space and and it would be an
opportunity to expand programming
and another space
for them
for for the parks and rec
um
some things i jotted down
jen i had on there or jess i had on
there a commonwealth park field
um
yeah definitely hopefully we can look at
that at the end of 2021
or halfway through the year
um
maybe maybe look at putting a bubble on
the bexley pool
again
um
as a way for our actually swim team
slash those who
want to get out and be active during the
winter months
and then um
paddle ball tennis courts i jotted down
i don't know
just just shot that down i don't know if
you guys know what paddle ball tennis
courts are it's a sport that you can
play outside heated floors um heated
cord
uh it's like pickleball
but uh you're getting it's like a sauna
as well
so
um you know i don't have anything
overarching like you guys um i just
wrote down some more specific stuff that
was on my mind
um
that's and i would i i agree monique
with you on the and and lori ann and
everyone else on the on the ferndale
mayfield and having the cic
at the uh
at the
retreat
awesome i love the creativity i'm gonna
google have all tennis courts after our
meeting so
thank you mack klingler
um
let's see i think uh
jessica assad has her hand back up jess
did you want to add something
yes um matt reminded me when he was
talking about the uh expanding the
walkway um to bring back up a lot more
dogs have also been out with their
owners on many walks
and i have heard more than ever
um
a lot of questions asking when we're
gonna get the dog park so
something else to
put on there
and matt i loved all of your ideas i
love the bubble concept over
tennis courts and pickleball court and
the pool
and i'm very curious to know because i
know
so many tennis players go outside this
community in the winter time i would
love if anyone ever wanted me to get
numbers on what
you know scarborough and olympic and
racket club and all these places
generate or even new albany where
um the pro at the
columbus country club has
people come in from canada to set up
bubbles
um
over at thompson park so i'm just it'd
be interesting to know if that could be
something that we could generate more
money off of what matt just brought up
for the city if we were to bubble
um that whole area
awesome and i see richard sharp put in
the chat that olympic and sciota country
club also have bubbles so really
creative ideas i love it just so you
guys know mike and i visited both those
facilities a couple years ago and we
have pretty detailed performance on cost
and um
and income
if
if you want us to brush that off we've
we've done a deep dive already we even
have a
multiple sketches of where how it would
work out with the with the uh with the
pool and how it would winterize the
restrooms and all the different aspects
that would need to be considered in that
great thank you mayor
um
anyone else have their hand up troy
markham you got any thoughts about our
retreat or
um
or anything else
just uh just
two very brief things one was uh nothing
new i was going to reiterate uh the last
city meeting
i spoke on uh briefly
uh the burndale mayfield and i'll echo
the concern that we uh refocus
on that
and and also to let you know jess and
monique and i can reassure you that cic
is constantly
at work on ferndale mayfield they're
thinking about it all the time
the the point that i brought up was that
our city council probably needs to make
that a focus of our strategic once again
we need updated on
some scenarios that we believe are
likely to happen
and
as the cic is poised to do that work uh
very well
they
count on us i believe and the mayor to
be the guiding hand behind uh what what
we should be doing and what that vision
is
and then also the other thing uh lori
anna talked about the
main street and i had a question about
that that goes to either richard or or
the mayor which is i know that the tree
and guard commission has worked
extensively lately on gateways on broad
street and then also
the we have the gateway on the
west portion of main street do they have
plans in place for a uh
east portion of main street
there's a gateway in place there i think
one of the one of the challenges is that
it it sort of gets lost by the uh
the uses that are in place so like swan
cleaners you know we we have a gateway
right at that property we have a gateway
on the other side
near the uh near the gas station but
your eye gets so quickly drawn away from
that and to the
vacant gas station so i think our focus
should be on
uh redeveloping the gas station i know
the cic is working on that and i know
that we're
you guys know we passed the assessment
ordinance recently on that and we're
kind of lining up the
we're lining up our tools so that we can
we can make some we can make some motion
on that
and then uh yeah i did put the bexley
municipal golf course but i will push
that back another year
i mean at least pot time
we'll leave that for 20 21 or 22.
after the ice comes yes what's it called
when it's a heated putt-putt with a
bubble over top of it what's that called
i don't know it sounds like a great idea
though
sounds amazing
that's awesome i love the creativity and
this but it's got to be located within
the dora
[Laughter]
bring it home klingler
that's right
ben can i throw out easy rink as well
remember that discussion i got with you
and my
yes yes
awesome
anyone else have any thoughts or
suggested topics for our next retreat or
um
um kind of council organization going
forward any anything else
monique real quick um i just wanted to
kind of see what people thought about um
i kind of think these agendas you you
suggested an agenda i think this is
that's gonna have to be something that
we
that's sort of like
trial and error it's kind of like
uh
let's try this agenda this week and just
see what it what how it works i don't
know how
um if if that conflicts what with what
we do legally i mean if our agendas have
to be we have to announce that we're
changing our agenda i don't think that
we have to do anything like that as long
as it um is kosher with our um
with our with our code um but i do think
that that's something that
something that might be an interesting
idea to do
prior to us potentially prior to us
having a retreat so we can
so we can maybe
discuss the pros and cons after we've
tried it once or twice
just i'm just throwing that out there as
a
potential yeah that that is a great idea
i i know that i've got um
a draft for a format that i would love
to try once and then see how it goes
i would also welcome
other folks
either tweaking it or putting forth
their own ideas uh my main goal would
simply be trying to reduce the time that
our residents have to uh have to wait
especially um during some of these
longer meetings when we've got so many
pieces of legislation but yeah i i i be
all for trying them i can also uh run by
mine by mark fishel and make sure it
passes legal muster uh before we we try
it once or twice but other folks if you
have ideas feel free to feel free to
chime in or
we can revisit this as well
mayor i had a quick question for you for
your strategic plan
if we were going to have our next
retreat say january february or march
does that timeline work or are you
thinking that we need to do the
strategic plan powwow a little earlier
than that and maybe have a separate mini
retreat in advance
i think it works well i think um we can
you know for me it's more just like
talking through
and a little bit of it we by the way we
have all the materials set up because
lorianne and i did this three years ago
lauren is that right we
we talked about this so i think
um we have all the material set up
and um
it's just kind of like talking through
where we were and where we want to be
and we can do that
uh at any time i do feel like
the timeline you talked about is great i
think we going too early
we are
the next three months for me i i i it's
all like i can see exactly what our time
is going to be taken up with so i think
that's fine that's just fine
okay that's good to know i was just
thinking richard brought up a good point
uh in the chat that obviously
our
mid to late spring might be uh fairly
busy with some other matters so if we
are still targeting that january perhaps
end of february time frame uh we can
make sure we throw in the strategic plan
stuff um
for you as well
anyone else have anything either before
anything else before we uh
turn it over to i guess public comments
anyone have your hand raised
nope
okay
um moving on then to
item number nine public comments it
looks like we have one attendee
if that person wishes to speak if they
can please raise their hand
okay not seeing that
anyone else have anything before we
adjourn
actually guys please be watching um for
the doodle as soon as um a certain
person i won't name his name matt
does uh the doodle thing and we'll know
um
what um
days potentially that we're gonna do it
but we're still waiting for one more
person matt to do it so
did you send it out like this morning
twice
i sent it out sunday night or what's
this
it's a doodle for our diversity and
inclusion training with kathleen nolte
great awesome
awesome thanks laurie
laurie
what did you say
i filled it out
uh richard filled it out yep everybody
filled it out except for um
matt
the 12th is looking really good guys um
and um
we're going to stay away from the 13th
because we have a birthday boy on the
13th okay i'm done
matt is going to fill his out in the
dora but matt's not done with his so
only if there's a bubble okay
all right
monica i think you can ask if they if
there's someone you you know what to do
yes uh can i have a motion to adjourn
please me i motion to adjourn
i will second
all right all right and with that we are
done thank you folks