City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, good afternoon everyone. Welcome to our uh second installment of the uh operating budget for 2026. Um we got a another busy schedule this afternoon uh with uh many groups coming in. Um so we'll get right to uh starting with this. Um I would just ask all you know council members and anybody else with their questions to um at the end of the presentation to uh to be sure that these questions relate to the budget and not necessarily the program benefits or anything like that. So, we want to keep it to the the budget and so we can move fast through this or efficient I should say. Okay. So, with that, uh, Mr. Wheeler or Mr. Fricker.

Uh, thank you, Chair Lombardo. As we begin the second day of hearings, I just want to start with a few housekeeping items.

Uh, we did take a handful of notes yesterday and have some follow-up items. as we consolidate those items over the next week or so, we will be placing them on the share drive uh for access and Sarah will have access to that as well. Uh, additionally for the hearings today and based on the feedback that was received last night, I have provided a guide that ties back the department, the budget book numbers and to the goals and objectives to make it a little bit easier to flip through. I will still present um and introduce people as they come up, but I am taking the feedback to heart. So with that, we will be begin today's hearing with the legislative branch, which is council and the clerk's office. Very good. So that begins on page 43 for the budget book and 21 for the goals and objectives. Good afternoon. I'll try to be brief because this council hears from me probably more than they want to, especially the week of budget hearings. Um, you'll see on page 44 that we have three employees in the clerk's office, which is what we are budgeted for. I do want to take a moment to thank the team. Summer Owen is our new deputy clerk of council and Madison Stevenson is our administrative assistant. They are both great to work with and I know that they strive to help make sure things run smoothly around here. They are always willing to learn new things. most recently with the streaming equipment. There were some staff changes in IT recently and they both graciously offered to learn how to run the equipment and be part of the rotation so that it wasn't falling on one person. We work to assist council preparing agendas and meeting minutes for your meetings. We scheduled the public hearings getting notice out in compliance with city charter and council rules. In 2025, we had 41 regular meetings, 15 special meetings, 168

standing committee meetings, as well as three special committee meetings. We process the legislation that law prepares to get it public facing on our agenda online. And once it's passed, we get it entered into our document management system and make it searchable and accessible online as well as to get a copy to anyone that needs it. We work with each of the departments here as well as answer questions from residents. In 2025, we had an unexpected equipment expense of a new copier. Due to its age, which I believe was 16 years old, we could no longer get replacement parts, and we continued to have issues with it. We needed a new one in order to efficiently conduct business. Our goals for 2026 are to continue to assist with the work of council. We're helping with the website ADA compliance updates, as well as creating content to help educate residents. There's currently about a dozen videos on our YouTube channel helping explain frequently used terms and common procedures of council and we plan to continue creating more and I'm happy to take any questions. Thanks.

Thank you, Sarah. Um certainly I can attest and I'm sure several council members can attest that uh the clerk's office is uh most efficient and very helpful when when we need you every Monday and throughout the week. So, thank you for all your hard work. Councilwoman Mobian, I second what the chair just said and thank you very much for your service. I noticed that the expenses were a little higher in the salaries and benefits. Was that because the staff that left had more was more seasoned and a higher salary or something?

I want to confirm with finance, but I believe that would have been the payout for an employee that left. That that is correct. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Very good. Thank you. Okay, Madam President.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Um, good afternoon. As we review the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, I want to take a moment just to reflect on the immense volume of work moving through this body, which is Akran City Council, and really pull back the curtain on the operations. It really is important to discuss and recognize the engine behind our operations and highlight a real simple reality. The central staff undergirling the legislative work of 13 elected officials of Akran City Council is only comprised of five individuals. Despite the small footprint, their productivity is remarkable. We recently strengthened our team by welcoming Steve Dyer as our legislative and public policy coordinator, a role that has already uh proving vital to our legislative output. In 2025, it really was a year of high output defined by a rigorous pace of governance and renowned commitment to redirect public engagement. Sherah already shared all the numbers of meetings that we have and behind all of those meetings right there are staff members ensuring that agendas are precise, minutes are legal and the public is informed. Our impact extends well beyond these walls. In 2025, we did award 32 neighborhood partnership program grants, fueling grassroots projects across Akran. Additionally, we continue the critical citywide distribution of over 3,000 Ring doorbell cameras, a safety initiative that was funded through ARPA that remains a priority for our residents. We turn legislative intent

into neighborhood reality. As we look towards 2026 fiscal year, our goals are centered on transparency, digital equity, and infrastructure. By April 24th of 2026, Department of Justice deadline, we are committed to achieving a minimum of 98% conformance with the level of AA accessibility standards across our Akran City Council website. We are moving toward a sustainable governance model that utilizes both automatic scanning and manual remediation to ensure that every resident regardless of ability can access council information on our website and our social media platforms. We also aim to grow our legislative spotlight e newsletter beyond its current 1,681 subscribers. We're also going to continue to work hard to demystify council by creating content that explains frequently used terms, procedures while pushing our Facebook engagement to bridge the gap between education and public service. Akran City Council will also provide a 2026 internship program for one aspiring youth and one adult professional utilizing a fiscal neutral model to provide hands-on experience in municipal governance. Additionally, we will finalize the current cycle of our neighborhood partnership program grants and immediately begin preparations for our 2627 application period to ensure that no gap in community support exists. And finally, we are overseeing a full

renovation and equipping the third floor conference room. You can see a lot of the construction that's happening there. Uh we're really trying to ensure a physical space that matches the modern professional needs of our city and the work that we do here. A staff of five managing hundreds of pieces of legislation and thousands of community touch points is no small feat. These numbers are just a glimpse of the dedication this team brings to Akran every day. This budget reflects our commitment to managing efficiency while evolving to meet new federal mandates and modern communication standards. And again, just want to thank our team because they do a phenomenal job. Um, you know, oftent times we as council people get the credit for the work that's being done, but it is truly the people uh in our staff who make us look good. And so again, we want to thank them. Thank you.

All right. Y'all can do better than that. Right, right, right, right. Thank you for your leadership. So, any questions for uh Council President Margot Somerville? Councilman Fran Wilson. Thank you. Um, awesome highlights. I think just a question that I get all the time is how much do council people get paid? Um, so I wondered if we could, you know, just share that. I also noticed the the president is a different line item. So, just wanted to ask about that. Thank you. And Steve, I think you probably have that information right in front of you. I will give you the salaries here in just a second.

Are they on the website? I know it's not on our website. You don't think so? Can we put them on the website? Because we all get the same thing pretty much with the exception of the president getting a little bit more. I think that's correct.

Okay. So, the salary for a regular member of council is $45,952. The council president is 59,92.

The first one was 45,952. Is that what you said? Yes. Okay. Yeah. And chair, I had a quick followup if I may. Sure. Um, I know, you know, I'm pretty sure Youngstown and Dayton and a couple other municipalities of our general size and range have gone uh to a full-time model. Um, and that's something that I'm very passionate about. I I have seen the immense amount of work just watching in the pews. Now, as one myself, I know there's certain charter restrictions and things, but I just want to open up the conversation and say I'd love to see us um move into a model like that. Thank you.

Okay. All right. All right. uh council. I think that's a model that Mayor Malik had spoke on when he was running for election to move this council to fulltime. So you might want to chat with him about that.

There any other questions? If not, we will move on to our municipal court judges. So, as we are um in transition here, I'd like to welcome the municipal court judges uh with presiding judge Hamilton here coming up. Um and their budget book pages begin on page 51 and the goals and objectives are on 2023. Additionally, we have attached as part of their goals and objectives the annual report that they provide to this council uh every year. Good afternoon everyone. I'm Council President. I'm Judge David Hamilton, the ACT the administrative and presiding judge of our municipal court. Next to me is my colleague, the honorable Judge uh John ODM. and also have with me uh some members of our staff who can also answer any questions that you may have uh specifically uh towards uh any questions that are intricate regarding our budget. Uh also have them with us today. Uh on behalf of the court, I want to thank you all for the opportunity to present the ACA municipal court judicial division 2026 budget proposal. What we've submitted reflects the personal needs, operational expenses, and the mandated services required to keep the court functioning functioningly effectively effectively for the residents of Akran. You also received uh via email the court's 2025 accomplishments and our goals for 2026. I hope you've had a chance to review those materials as they provide helpful context for today's discussion.

I would like to emphasize that the court uh has made every effort to remain financially responsible. We operate with uh fewer employees and we have a smaller probation department than comparable municipal courts across Ohio. Despite this, we manage more programs and services than most. We currently operate six specialized dockets um docket courts in addition to three newer specialized programs including the our connect program which provides crucial support for individuals with developmental disabilities. And compared to other municipal courts including Dayton and Toledo, Akran stands out. We offer the most specialized programs in the state, operate nationally recognized initiatives, serve as a national mentor court, and we're home uh to Ohio's first family domestic violence program and first mental health court, as well as the Compass program, which is the first of its kind in Ohio. Uh here's a snapshot of what we did last year, what 2025 looked like for us. We handled over 14,500 traffic cases, more than 11,500 civil cases, about 9,400 criminal cases, and our probation referrals increased to 2544. Uh, I want to really talk about our mediation program. Uh, we settled 219 eviction cases before they ever reached a hearing. And so we're very proud of our our housing court and our mediation with within the housing court our mediation program. And through that same housing program, we completed 46 applications and helped about 11 individuals and families secure housing and provided financial assistance which which the financial assistance is the rent deposits or utilities for about nine more families. Our housing team also spoke at more than

29 community events throughout the year. So, I'm very very proud proud of all of our staff, our housing uh our housing court, which is which is fairly new. Uh we've we've done some great things over the the past few years for the residents here in in Akran and Summit County. So, we're proud of the work that we've done and remain committed to managing our resources respon resources responsibly while continuing to provide strong effective services to the community. And that concludes my overview. Thank you again for your time and me and my team. We're happy to answer any questions that you may have. Very good. We have any questions? Um I just I'm going to have one question.

Okay. And and some of the things I some of the statistics that I have also in your uh folders there you may have. So if you have any questions specifically. Okay. I just noticed with the service contracts um in the 2025 budget it was about 18,000 but yet the actual expenses was like 170. So I didn't know what contracts related to uh that. Uh Councilman Lombardo, which page are you on? Uh 53. What page was that? 53. 53. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And that is okay. So you're Can you repeat the question again?

Sure. So the service contracts state that uh the 2025 budget was about $18,650. Okay. And then the actual expense was 170,000. So I didn't know what caused that over. Those are related to the Tyler project. Yeah. That's the software. That's the software. Yes. So, uh was still being implemented last year as the uh uh municipal clerk said yesterday. They are now live on that system. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions for our judges? Councilwoman Namobia, I I was looking at the positions. You have three additional positions. I'm sorry, I can't hear you.

Oh, I'm sorry. I see that you have three additional positions. Yes. Budgeted. And one is a grant writer. Yes. You've had one before? Yes. Was there a reason we you didn't have it last year?

Well, we just we we had a grant writer and she resigned and we we've just been looking for a new grant writer. So, we still plan on filling that position. We just haven't with with we've had a lot of um I'm not going to say turnover, but we we've had some of our our key positions are no longer they've either resigned or retired. And so we we had a lot of we've had a lot of kind of a lot of turnover and so we just didn't have time. We we've we um we put fillers out there for a a grant writer, but we just haven't found anyone yet. But we still definitely need a grant writer. But I think right now, especially now because there are there um as you all know, federal funding has been cut and so it's hard to even get grants right now. But we really want to get a grant writer to focus more on our uh you know local efforts here and and maybe some local grants and local funding. So we are looking to to fill that position.

Yeah. Your specialized dockets aren't aren't they supported by grants? Some of them some of them. Yes. And and also from the Supreme Court of Ohio. Okay. A lot of our dockets specialized dockets are are ran through the Supreme Court and they provide uh funding uh for us as well. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Councilman Fesco. Thanks. Community service. I already know. You going to ask about community service? You always ask about the community service. No, no, we already had that meeting. Thanks. You weren't there. The um Yeah, the the uh the fines.

Yes, sir. So what are the statistics on that on how much collectively that you charge uh for fines and how many do you wave? Where do they go? Because I know some fines are for this and some fines are for that. You know, specific fines and so do you have those numbers available for us?

Not not offhand, but we can get those to you. We can get those to you. But yeah, I do know there are times uh as well you mentioned waving the fines. A lot of times uh a lot of the people that we serve or the people that come in front of us, they are indigent and a lot of times their attorneys may ask for the fines to be waved or we uh substitute the fine for the community service. So a lot of times we'll have people who can't afford to pay the court fines and we we'll we will uh convert that over to community service. Do you have those statistics in terms of community service as well over the last three years? I think we should see that as well.

We don't I don't have them with me, but we can provide that. I have that would be helpful. So you're looking for statistics for community service as well as the statistics as far as the fines like how many how many are waved, how many are you know and and and I understand there's also a technique whereas you know uh people can be put on a a payment program payment plan. Yes sir.

Yeah. Yeah. I think it would be interesting to find that out as well. I think it's good information for the community to know about the uh and and the one thing ju just in terms of and thank you for the goals of the department and such but there if you look at the police one it's it's very quantifiable we we we know what their goal is is to increase by 5% or decrease by x amount and so they're quantifiable and measurable and so that makes it a lot help you know it helps us in terms of making our decisions you know where we go from here we also talked briefly about and this council a couple years ago approved the funding for that position for the uh as uh Linda Moian had mentioned the grant writing position you're talking about

grant writing thank you thank you for finishing the uh yeah that position when did they leave I don't exactly know the the the month but I believe it was sometime last year sometime last year okay because because if you if you look at where is it at I saw it somewhere in here. The amount of grant funding that you're receiving, it is down over the last few years. So, u it kind of makes sense if they had left. Um, another question for you, and this is just what we hear on the streets. Sure. Uh, from different folks is that sometimes, and I don't know what the procedures are, okay,

in terms of uh whenever there's a um a police officer would like to um obtain a warrant, okay,

um and the timing of that and how that's handled, how is that handled? cuz sometimes I understand it may take a while. It it well it just depends on you know the investigation and how long that takes but typically when we receive a warrant so how how it works is each judge there's six of us so we take a we each have a warrant week so it's every every six weeks let's say I'm up and whoever that whatever officer needs a warrant that week he'll come to my office or sometimes they'll call by phone it could be sometimes 2 or 3:00 in the morning that's happened before and they need a warrant right away there are times where they may be able to wait for another 24 hours to get that warrant. So, it just depends. It's Councilman, it's on a case-by case basis. I really can't tell you uh exactly, you know, every time there there no two no two days are alike when it comes to signing a warrant.

Okay. How many how many are asked for warrants

in a week or it again it's on a case by case. It depends on the crime that we have. I mean, you know, sometime in the summer, you know, crime is is is higher because it's nicer outside, right? The weather is better. So, we might sign maybe, you know, 20 warrants in that week sometimes. And it may just be three or four. And a lot of times, uh, even though we may have warrant weeks, a lot of times the officers like to go to their, I would not say favorite judge, but the judge that they just typically like to go to, it's sometimes, you know, they may have the judge's phone number that they work close with, or that judge may be closer to where they are. Uh so it just depends on again it's a case by case basis but uh the process usually I can't tell you how long the process is because sometimes they have to in do do some investigation because we have to ensure that when they present the warrant to us it is uh constitutional that we don't want to violate anyone's constitutional rights. So we have to ensure that the warrant is is is accurate. Uh and so they they do their due diligence before we get the warrants and however long that takes I can't tell you. Yeah, that would that that would be interesting to find out how many per year is requested and information referencing that. The other thing is and and I I applaud the efforts in terms of the housing uh referral system that you have. Can you speak a little bit more about that? Um I what I'm seeing here is intake 127, tenants 100. Can you explain that a little further? The referrals on page 25 of the um goals and objectives.

Okay. Actually, we can have someone from our housing court. Uh, we have Magistrate Tom Bound who's here from our housing court. We also have our mediator, Hope McGonagle, who's here. Um, and Magistrate Newman, maybe they can any anything that you guys kind of want to come up and offer with regard to the councilman's questions more specifically. Thank you. Yeah, push the button. What specific uh questions I guess do you have, Mr. Fusco?

Well, what we have here is uh on page 25 is the uh housing department referrals. There's 354. That was there. And just curious how that works. Um intake 127, tenants 100, landlords 107. It it sound it sounds good, but we don't know what it means.

No context, right? Like just the context. So, we have had now for over a year, I think maybe a year and a half, a housing resource center. It's a location in municipal court. It's on the second floor of our building uh that is staffed through the week uh by either Terara or Vyron who uh deal with this. They provide information, general information to landlords, to tenants uh that are just seeking information on this is the situation, what do I do? They do not give legal advice, but they point them to various resources that are available uh and and walk them through that process. And it's not just for tenants. There's a fair amount of landlords that go there, too, to get the information. Um because there's an awful lot of eviction cases that we have that are uh people that are unrepresented. If they own the home, they can perfectly uh you know, find to file any eviction case themselves. And sometimes they just need a little bit of information because it's new to them. they've never done it before, but they may have, you know, a tenant and the relationship's gone sour and they're just trying to get general information to start the process to have the eviction filed.

I've heard good things. I I I don't want I've heard nothing but good things and I just curious about, like you say, context to see, you know, what exactly that represents, but it it it it's great because I'm sure it avoids litigation later. It it absolutely does. and our our mediator hope uh she will often times if possible try to resolve cases um on an eviction that specific remedy is I just want the property back. Yeah.

So in that situation if the the tenant says look I've cleaned up. I've given everything I need to. Here's the key. I don't have anything in there. Then they've got the property back. There's no need to have a lawsuit. There's no need to have a hearing in that situation. So that can be extremely helpful. And if a tenant knows that, my gosh, they're going to do their best to get everything handed. And I mean, I've had many cases where I have a hearing. I call the parties there and one of the first questions I ask is, "Are you still in the home?" No, we've moved out completely. Do you have the key? Yes, it is right here. I see them turn over the key to the landlord. So, okay, case dismissed. There's no need to have this hearing. The case is dismissed because the landlord has exactly what they want. They've got the property back.

Kudos. No, thank you so much for that. Really appreciate it. And just curious too uh judge that uh you know maybe looking at those those cases that we used to have you know kind of measuring all that as well you know in terms of the landlord tenant situ that was a big discussion here and locally uh couple years ago and I know you guys put a lot of effort toward doing that and this is a result of that

and I do actually want to point out um the pay to stay that was passed a few years back that is absolutely working. We see that fairly regularly both in situations where the person has presented what they owe for the rent. Um so even before filing and often times we see it um pretty regularly where okay you just want the money for the unpaid rent and the person says I have a check for 2,000 or 2500 whatever it is. Okay well there's no need to go forward. You've got your money. Uh and it is helpful that that's one time a year. It's kind of like a okay, this is your one, you know, for lack of a better phrase, a freebie or your one situation where maybe someone came upon hard times. They've got the money together. They can pay what is owed and then that, you know, uh, the relationship continues until perhaps there's something else or the parties move on.

Again, kudos. Great work. Really appreciate all that. And, um, that's that's very good to hear. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. And and I will say to to to matter to your question uh Councilman and also to mag point, you know, we've got a very small staff that works in our housing court. Uh we we our housing court is funded primarily through grant by grant funding. Uh which is we don't know if we're going to get that grant funding again. So we've got we've done a lot with a little with the the team that we have. And so we were able to accomplish a lot. And I'm very proud of of the work that they've done. Uh everyone kind of fills in where they need to. Uh that we have we've got a great team and you know at one point you know Akran was the highest per per capita in the country as far as evictions and so we've been able to help a lot of families since we've uh initiated the housing.

Right. And that's what was reported. the um but but aren't we like the only uh municipal larger city that doesn't really have an official because this this isn't that is it like per se it's not that because it takes an act of uh the the state house right to to do that and plus it's expensive as well so I know you guys are doing with what you have but yeah

it was more of that but we just didn't have the funds to have we would like that we we we initially uh proposed went to the mayor and also city council because we wanted to start a housing court and we weren't that the funds weren't available to start one but we were able to find grants through our grant writer and also through uh Nicole Haggy who's back there who also worked with some of our she does some of our grant writing and we able to find funds to start a housing court but it's kind of like a I'm not going to say a makeshift housing court because it makes it sound bad but for lack of a better term you know we again we've learned to do a lot with a little, but we don't technically have an official housing court, but we do have people in place and positions in place through the grant funding to operate like a housing court.

Good. Like I said, I applaud your efforts and appreciate that. And if you can just educate folks beforehand, before it gets out of control, I think that's where that's where it's at. So,

well, we have like I like was what what was stated, uh we've had uh Mr. Finny and also Tara Mosley who go out into the community and they go out to different uh maybe I think maybe some of your council meetings. They they presented uh what we do in housing court and the dos and don'ts of not paying rent and and all those things. So they've they've been we've been to numerous community events with just within the last year. So we try to uh educate and engage the public on the resources that we have available in our court. Bravo. Thank you. Very good. So much for all you do. Thank you. Mhm. You have questions?

Yeah. I'm I'm looking at the budget and I'm looking at the the goals and I know we've talked about this over the years. The the three cities I guess they are pretty comparable to Akran, Toledo, and Dayton. Yes, ma'am. And I see that they have a much higher budget than you guys. Yes. and they do less services in terms of specialized dockets and those kinds of things.

And I'm looking at the population and all of that. What are they doing that is so different with all this? They got a lot of lot more staff, especially in Toledo. Do you guys ever visit to see what they're doing? Do they get most of their budget from the general fund or do they get it from fines or whatever they're able to collect? I'm not for sure. I think they just get it from their their municipality. Uh, and I think that's what makes Akran Municipal Court so unique and special is that we collaborate very well

and we we have a lot of our our employees they do uh dual positions. Like I said, you know, Nicole Haggy, uh, she does our, you know, she at one point she was doing our grant writing and she was also doing our our, you know, all of our public everything that we put out our, you know, everything public. she would put those things out. Our media, she was our media person. So, we have and again our housing staff, they have dual roles. Uh, and so I think we would like to get more money, right? But, uh, you know, but we we do with we make do with what we can. So, to speak on Toledo and those other those other municipalities, yes, they have more money and they're comparable or even smaller than we are. I really can't say. I I'd like to maybe think that maybe they just get more money from their with uh for their budget from city council. Uh but we do what we can and I think we we're doing a great job.

Oh, sure. Thank you. Without question. Thank you. Very good. All right. Uh sorry, Mr. Chair. Oh, I didn't see you. Okay. I just had two questions. One's about salaries and expenditures. Um judges are paid by an amount that's stipulated by the state, right? Yes, that is correct. So the the judge's salaries are limited by the state. Uh in addition, the city only pays a portion of those salaries because there are other jurisdictions that are part of the ACA municipal court. So the county I think they collect from the other municipalities and then they pay a portion of the salary as well.

Do we know if that's calculated by a PDM kind of situation or do we know about the calculation of that? I could find out for you. All I know is that our our accounting manager, you know, does consult with the state each year and finds the maximum amount and then we set the salary based on what that is.

Okay. Thank you so much. And then on the goals sheet, page 25, at the very bottom, the little table that we have, the first line item, general fund expenditures, I see from 20, this isn't a 2026 question, but it's provided data. um and relevant uh the 2024 5.9 million hops up for 2025 to 6.3. Can you shed Can anybody shed light on that a little bit more? I'm sorry, where exactly are you? Uh page 25 at the very bottom there's a Akran Municipal Court table. Uh the first line item is general fund- expenditures. Okay.

And then I'm going over to 2024. Okay. and 2025 and seeing under 2024 5.9 mil 2025 6.3 million. This is seemingly the highest jump up year over year in the 20 since 2019 with the data that pre been provided. So just wanted to ask about that.

I would like to think part of it is because of our Tyler program. Uh so we we instituted a new as was mentioned before uh with Tyler and we had to uh hire new employees uh with Tyler. Um and just some of our salaries as far as uh people uh cost of living wage uh and maybe cost of living and possibly uh those who may have gotten raises. Uh outside of that I don't really know offhand. Outside of those, I think they were just new new expenditures because we have new programming and I think we had to Tyler was a a huge overhaul and we paid a lot of money through with Tyler to get that up and running.

Thank you, Councilman Fesco. Yeah. Uh thank you uh Fran Wilson for that question. It it also draws to the same spot in terms of the uh and I assume this is going to help with regards to the fines and etc. if we can get breakdowns or information revenue to the city cost and fees. Um, do we how is that what does that represent? Can you explain a little bit to us on that? I assume that's I'm sorry. Could you repeat? Could you repeat the question? Bottom of 12 25 page 25 cost fees revenue to the city.

So I will pull the numbers on the specific court revenues. Uh I will tell you that the court uh you know combined between the clerk's office and the judges uh the revenues that we bring in cover roughly uh 35 to 40% of the cost of the court. Gotcha. Somewhere in that cool.

Thank you. It would be interesting to find out what that represents. That's why I was asking before. And and I would I would say that also with our fines and fees, we're we're among as again comparable to other uh cities, uh our fines and fees are lower than those of other municipalities. Uh so again, when we actually talked about possibly raising our fees and our fines uh to to a higher number to bring in more revenue. Uh, and again, even for weddings, even I think weddings we charge $25 to have a wedding, and I think I think the average going rate is is maybe $50 or something. Who sets that? Who sets that?

Well, we set the we could set the Well, what we look at is other uh comparable municipalities, other kind of look at what they're doing. And so, we're actually looking at increasing, we talked about that in our judges meeting, increasing some of our fees. Okay. And the fine piece is us, I believe, in some situations. In some situ some situations. Yes. Not a blanket overall. Yeah. We're we're And I'm sure you guys are aware that uh right now we're in a budget um crunch. I wouldn't say crisis, but uh budgetarily across the board, we're tightening our belts. Sure. Extremely. So, so thank you. Okay. Thank you. Just have one question. All right. Last question.

Thank you. The total restitution collected, the 44,000, what does that does that include everything that the court collects? Is that it's on page uh 25? It says total restitution collected $44,63821. Yes, that's what we collect with along with the clerk's office. So, yeah. So essentially when someone uh is ordered to pay restitution, they have to go through probation and they and probation. Okay.

However they however they work that out. I don't know the the the the the I guess the secret sauce they have maybe maybe for lack of a better term, but they have something that where they go down to probation and and they you know they work out the the payment structure and if there's a payment plan or or something of that nature but yes uh we collective but technically it goes through probation and also uh the clerk's office. So it's kind of all all in one all inclusive to the three entities. Okay. if that makes sense. Yep.

All I know was I I I order resitution and somehow either they pay it or they don't, right? And so it looks like we we collected, you know, 44,000 uh in that amount. So how that happens by the time it leaves my bench, I I know that other entities are involved. Yeah. But that's Yes. To answer your question, we do collect them along with the clerk's office. Okay. Very good. Thank you, Judge Hamilton. Judge Oldman Oldham. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And appreciate.

Next up, we're going to have our neighborhood uh services group. So, we have director Lash here on behalf of neighborhood assistance and the goals or sorry, the budget book pages begin on 150 and the goals and objective pages begin on page 26 and I'll hand it over to director Lash. Thank you. Welcome, Mr. Lash.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, Madame President, members of council. My name is Eupren Lash and I am the director of neighborhood assistance and it is my honor and privilege to be before you today to go over this uh uh our goals for the year. I brought with me my capable and competent team and uh I'd like to ask them to stand just so you could recognize who they are. I have our uh code compliance administrator Mr. Dwayne Greger, our code compliance supervisor, Mr. Aaron Graham. I have Miss Kathy Johnson who is our 311 call center coordinator, Miss Tanner Burley who is our housing supervisor, and last but definitely not least, we have Miss Britney Schmokl who is our recreation and parks manager. So, uh, for the sake of time, I'm just going to go over the overview and if you all have any questions related to any specific department, then we can, uh, deal with it at that time. I also have uh very delighted to have Miss Deb Matz who is our former law director and I'm going to uh once we get through co compliance there's a portion regarding a special contract that she's going to assist us with and she's going to explain it for you all. So that's okay that that's how we're going to proceed. So as relates to the 311 call center uh that is led by Miss Kathy Johnson. They have provided excellent customer service by maintaining polite interactions, capturing uh completed call caller request uh details and they have sustained a 90% 97% answer rate uh from the former year. Uh one of the things they're looking to do is uh complete the successful transition uh to the upgraded dashboard uh navigated by city city works uh in the respond program and uh they will continue to do uh and participate in community outreach events when some of you have council uh ward

meetings. You ask for our 311 call center uh representatives to come out to give information and they will uh they're definitely looking forward to continuing to do that. If we can move forward to our housing and community services, uh we're looking to close out our $ 1.8 million less safe Ohio grant. Uh we're looking to do that by this coming August uh 2026. Uh three cases are remaining in that and potentially to add more uh depending on the remaining amount. We're also looking to continue to process applications for our $7.75 million lead hazard reduction demonstration grant uh which runs through 2029. We'll be working uh monitoring and working with our partnering agencies, Nazareth, the well, CDC, rebuilding together uh as needed. Uh we're also looking to hire two to three additional staff in uh in that area to fill in vacancies uh to provide lead remediation training for all staff. Again, we're also looking to integrate and apply HUD's seven healthy homes principles. dry, clean, safe, well-maintained, well ventilated, pestfree, and contaminationfree housing. So, we're looking forward to doing that uh this uh coming this year as well. We're also going to continue offering technical assistance and administrative support to partnering agencies uh working within our ARPA program. And last but not least, something that has been near and dear to many of you over the last few years, you've asked many questions about our Akran home repair program. And I just want to report to you all that as of today, we have completed 308 uh homes throughout that program from its inception. Uh right right now we're sitting at about 54% of our overall goal and uh we actually that's inclusive of phase one and to date under phase two. So I just wanted to share that update. I know some of you have been concerned about that and that is something that we're working uh we're going to be working feverishly for the

remainder of the year to close that particular program out. As relates to our clo code compliance division, uh we're going to continue focusing on critical business solutions, including equipment financing, leasing, and technological upgrades that support field operations for our inspectors and wardens. I know that's something that uh has been questioned here over the years. We're looking to modernize our operations. Uh we're also looking to improve our cleanup process for homeless encampments, enhancing efficiencies and coordination and response procedures. Uh we're also looking to include uh increase productivity by implementing mobile computing which uh includes inclusive of the tablets for inspectors to support field documentation, communication, and case management. Uh we're going to also add eligible landlords to the mandatory inspection program uh and complete all these feebased inspections uh for their eligible rental units to support uh neighborhood improvement. Uh we're also going to resume enforcement for more than 2100 known unregistered landlords to expand or expand part the participation in the rental registration program and to promote a cleaner uh safer aan throughout all of our neighborhoods. And uh last but not least, under co- compliance, we're going to continue uh to provide deescalation training for all dog wartens uh and nuisance inspectors to ensure safe and effective conflict management. And we're also, some of you may be familiar, but we are engaging or about to engage in a new animal control contract. And that is why we have our friend, my colleague that Matt's here. She's actually going to share some of that in greater detail.

So, the city and the county have had a a contract for usage of the animal control facility.

Sorry about that. For a number of years. Um, and it's currently expired, but we're working on getting a new contract put in place. Um, you you kind of can't look at animal control though in a vacuum, right? Because we have a number of other contracts with the county. Um, in this particular instance, typically what we do is balance the or rightsize the use of the jailbed contract as well as the animal control contract. So, in past years, we've really only paid the county for housing dogs for three days, but typically animals brought to the animal control facility by the wardens and APD and and even dropped off by residents stay in that facility for upwards of 81 days. All right. So, the cost to the county of that service is around $1.7 million, but we've only paid, for example, let's see, in 2022, we paid $41,630. In 2023, we paid $35,000. In 2024, we paid $19,450 for something that costs about $1.7 million. So obviously we've paid a little bit less than the obligation that we really actually had. Um so at this point it the the thing to do is rightsize that contract. We also however need to rightsize the jailbed contract. For a number of years we've been paying for 100 beds at the jail but it has been a very long time since we've actually utilized a 100 beds at the jail. And in fact, the number of beds we've needed has declined, I would say,

precipitously. All right. So, however, what we were paying was around $43 million um or no, I'm sorry, $4.9 million for beds that we weren't using. So, as part of the negotiations with the con with the county for that contract, we've reduced the number of beds and reduced the cost of that contract significantly. All right. Now, however, what that means is since we're not guaranteed as many beds, we have to track pretty carefully how those beds get build to the city. um we are only supposed to pay for certain types of inmates in that facility. Um and so in order to make sure that we're really only paying for what we're using, we track those beds pretty carefully. Um so for 2026, the proposed contract is for 40 beds and $2.9 million. So a $2 million reduction in the amount of the jailbed contract. However, the animal control contract will be uh if I can find the number I think we're can't be my own scratch. I want to say the amount of the contract, and I can probably find it relatively quickly, is $1.4 4 million, which is still less in theory than what we have in the past been incurring or the county has been incurring in costs for us. Um, what we're doing though, what we intend to do is control the number of kennels that we

actually use at that facility. And that is the means by which we will be decreasing that cost. and I'm happy to answer any questions or if you want to hold those until after Mr. Lash is done. It's whatever your pleasure is. We can actually get through the last department and then we can open up questions. It's up to it's up to you. Whatever your pleasure is. Okay. Just you have a question? Yeah. Okay. I'm curious. You're saying we are going to contract with the jail for 40 beds. Yes. At 2.9 mil. Yes. And do you pay a higher rate for mental health beds versus regular beds? Same amount. Same amount regardless.

Okay. And you only if you set aside that much money and you don't use that much, we just goes back. It rolls over to next year. Are you locked into that? No, I'm I think we're locked into that. The only the only way that that amount would change is if for some reason we start to go over 40 beds. Um, and then in theory they bill us on a per DM basis, but the per DM cost of a bed in the jail is around $120. So if we don't significantly exceed the number of beds, we're not going to significantly exceed the amount of the contract. But if you use less than the 40, we still pay 2.9.

Okay? Because if you think about it this way, it's kind of a fixed cost, right? They have to have a certain number of sheriff's deputies there. They have to have a a medical contract. They've got, you know, administrative staff. They've got, you know, building expenses, overhead, and so that's that's kind of like our share of that fixed cost. Yeah. It's kind of surprising that you're only contracting for 40 beds based on what I kind of know about what goes on there. So, if you can get away with it, that's we're going to keep a track on it and make sure that we're we're actually using an accurate number. Okay. Okay. All right.

Thank you, madam. Mr. Chair, yes. Actually, the uh last department that I'd like to go over will be the recreation and parks uh department. And one of the things we're looking forward to is looking forward to opening Reservoir pool uh featuring the zero entry access play equipment, climbing wall, the slide, the fully renovated pool house with the updated offices, restrooms, lockers, and concession stand along with improved seating and shade options for our visitors. So, we're looking forward to that. I know we actually uh opened the uh one portion earlier, well, last year, but we're looking for the remaining to happen uh this year. We're looking also forward to something that's been near and dear to us, many of us, is we're looking forward to launching an esports space at the Lton Street Community Center and to build community partnerships that encourage an uh engagement and growth through esports. That is something that is growing in popularity and we want to be able to provide that for uh not only our youth but for those who may be interested throughout our community. Uh we also are looking to implement new online event application system to streamline and modernize the process for approving events held here within our city. Uh and we've actually that has been rolled out and we've already started to accept applications. Uh we're also looking to uh expand our program offerings across the division. Uh again including esports team programs such as connect at the wreck which some of you have uh come out to support. uh active adult programming and aquatic programs as well. We're also continuing to partner with our partners at Akran public schools to increase community awareness and access to our CLC's. Uh so those are some of the highlights of the departments under the Department of Neighborhood Assistance. Uh again, if you have any questions as relates to any of those departments, we will entertain them at this time.

Very good. Councilman Balden Bruce, go ahead. Just go. Go ahead. Okay. All right. I'll go since you guys are arguing. Mr. Chair, if it's okay. On the uh integrate and apply HUD's seven healthy home principles. Okay. Yes. Integrate and apply HUD's seven, you know, drives, clean, safe. Those are great, right? Yes. Um, it just seems like you need a a full-time employee to monitor, for lack of better words, manage some of these uh highrises or whatever's been in the paper. You know where I'm going. I do. So, how how is this going to really

I mean, I know you guys work hard every day, but like how can we really make a dent in that? Well, this particular, if I understand your question appropriately, this was uh this is underneath our housing and community services division.

I think when you actually are referring to the highrises and some of the issues that have arisen at various properties throughout Akran, that is actually handled under our co-mpliance division and that's where Mr. Greger has been uh a stalwart in going out and handling a lot of these issues through our co- compliance. We've been working with the owners and the property managers to address a lot of the issues that have come up and you are very familiar with in your ward uh some of the issues that we've been dealing with over there mo most recently Spring Hill. We've been navigating uh some of the issues at that property working with the owners. Uh I know we've been to some comm community meetings and we have tried to work with both the residents and the owners to resolve some of those issues, but those are ongoing and they

how do we hold their feet to the fire, the owners? Uh well, I have a very I'm just I'll just throw something out like do they ever submit to the city uh their manage um their uh maintenance schedule for the week or what they've accomplished like you know we've we've cleaned carpets, we've had pest control. Do they ever submit any type of report to the city to say we've done this this week or this month? Whatever the report could be monthly. Um because how it gets to this point I mean we're always not we but sure it's always it's a bad situation and how did it get to this point?

I would say yes and no. And my yes is that we when these issues are made when we're made aware of these issues we start engaging immediately. And uh in fact Mr. Gregor and I were in meetings with some of the owners from uh the property in Chapel Hill just about two weeks ago and they shared some of the steps that they have taken to remediate some of the issues. In fact, if it's okay, I'm going to ask Mr. Gregor if you can actually come up and elaborate on some of those just to kind of give uh Mr. Chair some idea of what we've been doing.

Good afternoon. If I uh if I understand what what you're asking is about how we deal with particular cases of large apartment buildings, right?

Well, the way we have, you know, first of all, we're we're complaint driven mostly. Uh and we have the uh the city divided out. The inspectors are are assigned by ward. When we have a situation like came up with at Spring Hill uh or at Summit Ridge or Wilith Arlington Ericson, what we normally will do is uh to make sure that the the the ward inspector is not overly burdened by concentrated inspections at one uh at one complex, we will bring in a supervisor. I'm blessed to have uh three supervisors uh in the housing compliance office that have uh well over 40 years of housing inspection experience between them. Uh they are fully capable of moving in and uh and taking over a ward area. I have an inspector that took over the Wilbeth Arlington uh case files. We have about 80 case files there. Uh and I couldn't have the ward inspector spending all of his time there. So, we we kind of have an all hands on deck approach. Uh where we see a need, uh the inspector that took over all the inspections at at Spring Hill, his his regular case load was reassigned out to to the supervisors to handle the high priority items so that once he got those inspections uh completed and got those orders issued, uh then he could move back into his regular case. But that's it. It's it's it's a triage system, basically.

Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh, Councilwoman Davis. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, Mr. Lash, I'd just like to thank you and your team for the esports uh at Walden Street. I was up there last week taking a look. They had ripped out the floors, put it in the floorboards, and all the wiring was amazing. Okay. And we really appreciate that. Uh, how long do you think it will be before that project is complete?

It's a great question, Councilwoman. We're actually looking to have that complete, possibly do a ribbon cutting at the end of the school year, possibly 1st of June, the latest. We're working feverishly, ordering equipment, as you stated. We're configuring the room as we speak, so that we could actually meet that deadline. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Councilman Busco. Thank you, Chair. Um, in terms of the, uh, kennel, the contract with the county, um, are they going to take cats? They do take cats. They're going to take cats.

Yes. Just clearly not as many as they do dogs. Dogs are our biggest issue. I understand the um, and how much is that going to be that contract? I don't I It's around $1.4 4 million

$1.4 million. Is that is that a statemandated or because I know we it used to I know it's changed a lot over the years in terms of who does what the responsibilities um but is that I know we could probably have our own. I think that's how we started having our own animal wardens. it's the county's responsibility, but whenever they didn't, this is way back when, they decided not to service Akran as much as we hoped. So, I guess way back when, before my time, they we started our own department. Um, but in in terms of the kennel itself and all that, is that a county or city or

the the county is required by law to have an animal control facility? Okay. They are not required to take animals from the cities. They're not required, but they have one, but they don't have to take them from, right? Because remember, they're responsible for what goes on out in the townships. That's convenient. But the townships aren't the biggest part of the problem. Obviously, it's the cities. And so, they have contracts with the cities. Obviously, they have a contract with Akan. Sure. Sure. No, that's that makes a lot of sense. Do have they supplied us with the uh license fees from city of Akran residents for dogs how much they're paying? How much? That's a good question and I don't know the answer to it but I can find it out. That would be cool to find out. Sure.

Thanks. Also department.

Yes. mentioned during code compliance. Did we do the housing piece already and now we're doing code compliance or is it all the same? So, let me kind of address a couple things there. So, yeah, the numbers that you see in the way that the Department of Neighborhoods is presented in this budget has separate nuisance compliance and housing compliance divisions within it. So, that's what you see. you'll see separate budgets for nuisance and then for housing. Okay? In reality, those two divisions are merging together into what Mr. Lash is referring to as code compliance. Okay?

So, what that is going to do is allow all of those, and I'll let him speak to this probably more than I could, but allow those code compliance inspectors to be, you know, have a wider array of duties than just housing or just nuisance.

That's cool. Yes sir. Um that is actually something that we've been working on for quite some time and we're looking to have that up and going probably by the first of second quarter which is actually a few weeks from now. Uh but we feel that uh it will improve our efficiencies and effectiveness throughout all of our neighborhoods by having all of our inspectors trained on both nuisance and housing aspects. So, we feel that it's going to save the city and improve our overall effectiveness as a division.

Cool. Thank you. And one last, but it's it's a number thing and a budgetary thing on page 153 we're going to spend in terms of and maybe this is reflective of the of the uh the dogs or whatever, but the uh 858,000 is budgeted. Last year we spent 91 we had budget at 200,000 and then on the next the compliance is 731 a dramatic increase on the service contracts

that that is correct. So that basically reflects $750,000. So just for a little kind of an overview of the costs of uh you know that combined the jail contract and the animal control. So currently between the two we were paying 4.9 million. Uh that was almost entirely the jail. This year we will pay about 4.7 million and that is because we will still have the existing uh cost for two quarters of the jail uh that we will pay this year. So we pay both of these contracts we pay six months in a rears. So we will have kind of a combination of the higher jail cost for half a year and lower jail cost for half a year and lower animal control for half a year and higher animal control for half a year. Next year when we have a the first full year of both new contracts, we'll pay about $4.5 million. So ultimately the savings would be roughly half a million dollars uh between those two contracts for the city.

Okay. But okay, I think I understand then. Fine. I'm so sorry, but the um and then I'm seeing under the uh housing fund 326,000 for service contracts. So that reflects uh the implementation of the city works functionality within the housing division. So that's getting them on the city works work order system that's used by you know a wide variety of departments within the city. Not I I mean I I think some aspects are but not the entire operation. Oh, okay. Councilman B.

I didn't realize they weren't on this. Um you know I think it's great that we've got uh implement the new online event application system to streamline modernize for the parks and recck. When are we going to do this for rental registration? I mean that's that's got to be able to bring more people in. Uh, I'm assuming people like me get get a letter about their rental registration and think about it and then forget about it. If I saw it on if I could go online and pay it, I'm thinking people I think we get payment quicker and we get better response. Uh, do we have a plan for that? Yeah, actually we uh we are in discussions of that right now as to how we can improve the efficiencies in that area. Uh so that is something that we look we're looking to uh implement in the very near future.

Okay. Do we have a vendor that we're using? Are we doing it through ourselves or how are we doing that? Just wondering. You take it.

So, what right now we are finalizing and it may be posted. I don't I'll check in a second here, but we are going to be doing a comprehensive RFP for the rental registration process. And what we are writing as part of this RFP is an option to h uh to propose to us both a solution for the short terms but also the annual registration process. So since we have this opportunity and we really want to be able to integrate it into other existing technologies, we really want to make the RFP clear that we're open to suggestions and that we want um to really see how many responses that we can get for this process because we do believe that this is one area that can be streamlined and uh be beneficial to the city in in terms of potentially generating revenues across the board. Okay, great. Because we're at National League of Cities. We met a number of people that do this. Obviously, there's a lot of people that do this. Whether they all talk to our systems or not, that's the thing. When that RFP comes out, I'd like to be notified because I've got a number of contacts from uh National League of Cities that I was talking both about rental and also the uh short-term rentals uh that that are interested in working that that keep barging because I stopped and left a card. I'm getting calls like every week. I just want to say there's an RFP. Here it is. Go after it. Uh that's what I I appreciate.

So, this has been a collaboration between um Mr. Greger's group uh and a couple of us here in finance as well. We do agree um there is some existing language on the books that this council has passed in terms of this short-term specifically. Absolutely. But we really want to bring in holistically one rental registration process.

Right. And also with the short terms to be able to find the ones that we don't know are out there. Exactly. So that's and they have the technology to do that. So okay. Uh that's that's great to hear. I know I know there's uh I know I've talked with Mr. Greger about this. Uh and and I know he he'd like to see that and and with the with the staff up in his office. It's I think they would really like to see that too. He's laughing just shuffling papers and receipts and it's a nightmare. I mean, in this day and age, it seems like we've got to figure out a way to do this and and pay online for for everything uh and automatically, you know, get that credit card online so they can do it again. So, to your point, Councilman, we're actually feverishly working to modernize our operations. That is the direction that we are going.

I appreciate Councilwoman Tina Boyce.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um happy to see an extra code compliance con inspector in this year's budget. uh still isn't the six or seven from 2425, but what I'm hearing is we're crossraining folks. Um perhaps we will have greater um ability to manage all of those that case load with that and also with the um doing things electronically. But uh we mentioned earlier that you know much of this is all of it nearly is complaint driven. Yes. Um, one of the things I know that's come up in the past in some of our discussions is how can we leverage some of the city's existing technology to be more proactive? And one of the things we talked about was cameras existing on city service vehicles that do can pick up nuisance violations as they drive around the city. Are there any plans to integrate that into the workflow?

Well, I don't want to steal the thunder of our service department. I know they're actually we've engaged Sams Sara and uh I know Mr. Malish has uh he's a great proponent of uh of that. But as far as integrating that to pick up nuisance violations, we haven't gotten that far. I'm sure if they have the capabilities, we will probably get there. Uh but again, as I shared with uh Councilman Boulder, we're looking at all all ways that we could modernize our operations to become as efficient as possible. So that's one way that we'll definitely take back and discuss.

Thank you. Um I appreciate that. But I know that's some of the feedback I've gotten in my ward is that we need to be more proactive as well. So, however we can do that would be great. Um, notice on page 153, the service contracts I it was mentioned regarding the the um some of the other items, but uh for nuisance the service contracts from 91,000 to 858,000. I assume some of that is with regard to some of the technology that we're working on. Is that correct? No, that's the animal control contract that we've been talking about. Yes.

Oh, geez. Okay. Um, speaking of contracts, we were talking about mowing contracts. I know that's something that you were looking to revisit given some of the past experience. Is that going as well? Take that. Yeah. So, we're uh currently in a the mowing existing mowing contract is coming to the end of a three-year cycle. Um because we were in the three-year cycle, we are now looking at how we're going to do a more comprehensive RFP. Uh we have been discussing that and there's different options. So more to come on that one in the future. What's your timeline on that? Just curious. I the contract end

the contract ends December 31st uh between I believe there's two partners off hand. Um so the goal would be issuing probably either late third quarter or early fourth quarter selecting the vendors and going through the process at that point in time to really uh line up with when complaints start arising t was typically around March or April. Yeah. Thank you Councilman Hannah.

Thank you Mr. Chair. Uh I'm going to go back to the code compliance division and then I'm going to uh go to the parks and recreation. Uh the improved uh the code compliance division. You want to improve the cleanup process for homeless encount encampments. Um how does that look and what is being done to expedite that also for the parks? The city spent over $150,000 a year and a half ago to revitalize Morgan Park.

I see that you have uh you're going to be opening a new reservoir park pool and you're launching the uh esports and uh you're doing quite a few things at the Lton Center. We have a number of parks in the city of Akran. Now, you spent a lot of money on these facilities and doing things that uh will improve the location and the parks, the reservoir park and the Lton Street Center. But guess what the city didn't do? And I'm very concerned about it. For the parks that don't have indoor toilets, we don't have outdoor toilets. We don't have uh portaotties in these uh parks. So, how can you invite someone to your park and into your house and you don't have a restroom for them to go to? How do you do that? Is there any money allocated for porter parties in the parks? Because Morgan Park is a destination place now, but guess what? We don't have a potty porter in we don't have a restroom there. Also, in in next door to mine to ward five, there's an encountment. And thank you so much for working with me on that. But how does that look and how uh what's the time period if you could put a time period on it for those encount encountments to be shut down? Thank you.

Well, I'll if if you'll allow me, I'll address your second question first and then I'll deal with the first question. Uh first of all, under our division, we're concerned about every single park in the city. However, the resources we have to make sure that we're uh dispersing the resources uh as best we can. Uh so as relates to the portaotties, we can talk with our partners and colleagues in service and to see if we can actually assign a portaotty uh to that particular part. So we can that's a discussion that we can have and I can share with you what the outcome of that conversation is if that's okay. Uh, as it relates to your first question, we met with the mayor and several colleagues from various divisions, police, law, uh, code compliance, um, to discuss specifically the encampment situation. As the snow has melted, now it's been cold the past few days, but as the snow that we had has melted, it's now exposed a lot of the encampments. We know that these encampments are an issue. It's a safety issue uh in and throughout our communities and trust and believe it's a primary concern of mine and we're meeting trying to develop a strategy as to how we're going to go uh forward dealing with it. So, we do know as well that funding is a concern because each encampment cleaning that we have or clearing that we do, it takes resources. So, uh, the one specifically that I think that you're speaking of, we're actually meeting and developing a strategy as we speak as to how we're going to move forward with that, as well as some of the other primary, uh, encampments that have grown, uh, around the downtown corridor, but in this specific, uh, corridor, I I would say next two to four mile radius of of city hall. So, we're looking to deal with that as soon as we possibly can. Trust and believe they're primary concern. We're talking about it daily. Thank you, sir.

You're welcome, Councilman Wilson. Thank you, Chair. Um, kind of on the same thread, I know we've had some pretty robust conversations, especially around consent degrees and things in the past around the homeless encampment sweeps. Um, my understanding is you contract quite a bit to fulfill those and sweeps, right? Where can I find that number or maybe could I could I get it at some point? how much we're spending in in contracts and maybe labor for sweeps. Sure. I specifically do not have those numbers, but I'm sure my colleagues to my right have those details and I'm sure they would probably be willing to share that.

Yeah, it's a area that I'm very passionate about as you know and you know these are people who really have nowhere else to go and we've seen them swept um maybe without extra resources sometimes to go into temporary or permanent housing afterwards. So definitely hoping to have more conversations about that. So, I think we're going to have to research and get back to you on that one.

Okay. Thank you so much. My last uh question uh is around the code compliance thing. Um council did this um you know, we had a couple meeting public meetings. I think we've we've talked about this. We had a housing summit. We had different committees that were meeting to talk about our eviction crisis in 2023. I think um there was a lot of conversation at that point about how many inspectors we really actually need and I just want to bring that and elevate that up. I think I've talked about that a little bit with Mr. Greger. Is there more growth in the future? One additional is, you know, I I would love to advocate for more if we can have some more. We've seen some pretty striking headlines. I see stuff in my own ward and in other wards. Um I would really love to see more inspectors on the ground.

Uh thank you for the question. Um what I can say at the present moment is that with the resources that have been allocated, we're operating uh as best we can and we're doing the best we can with what we have. Uh so to your point uh that is something that uh I'm open to discussing and uh discussing with the mayor and our finance uh colleagues. Uh but what with what we have right now, we're operating as best we can and we're getting a lot of things done. If I could just put this out because this will be the last comment from to me today, but I think this is an area where we as a council should really look into and exercise our power of adv advocacy because it really affects all of our residents. So, just wanted to point that out. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm sorry. We'll go here. Council woman, first comment I wanted to I I thank you for stretching your resources to get things done really quickly and thank you for that. Am I correct in seeing that your total staff is 69.5 about 70 people? Uh that sounds about right. It fluctuates with uh PPT part-time. So yes.

Yeah. I I will talk with you at a later point just to kind of talk about these hot spots that we've been experiencing lately just to kind of see what we can do as a council uh to be helpful um and finding resources uh because you know you only have what you have but we need to figure out what we do about that but that's a later conversation but thank you so much for what you Thank you council done thank you uh Councilman Balden should I'll bring it But I know we're putting the RFP out for uh rental registration. Uh Mr. Lash, we've had meetings uh on recovery homes and group homes. Yes.

Uh for years, the city used to register group homes uh with a fee uh to do this. Now, there are that they're all over the city. Uh there's a number of things we need to do about those, but we stopped doing that. And there is it's in the code that we should be registering. just don't have any to monitor that. Uh when the city's talking about how we need to bring in money and how we need to do this, uh this is a way that we can also bring in some additional funds uh with group home registration. Uh this is something that's not been done. Uh and group homes, I'm I'm all for group homes. I'm also for recovery homes, but you know the problems we're having in W 8 with recovery homes and the legislation's in front of the state to kind of tighten that up. Uh that it's in front of the Senate right now, state senate. But there is these group homes. We don't know where all they are right now. Uh they are the police don't know and fire don't know where are they. They're all they're all supposed to be inspected. We don't know if they're being inspected. So there's safety issues. There's also issues of where the police go into and we need to know where they are. And and that's something that I think we could possibly open that RFP up to see if someone could possibly do that to find out what the cost would be to do that

if it's possible to add that into the RFP. Uh we will excuse me Mr. Let me just say one thing to that. Many years ago the county was responsible for that. The state took it over and as a result of that the inspections don't happen as often. I worked in the mental health field and we used to do the licensing and all that. All that's done at the state level and I don't know how we pull that back or get resources to do it again because they are the ones because when we had complaints about operators and how they were not operating the homes we had to report to the state. They had to send somebody to the community to do it which made no sense because we used to do it locally

and the mental health board used to be involved in that but it is not their primary responsibility anymore. So I know the state has the authority. I'm not really sure what the responsibility of the city is, but I know that's what we had to do as I when I left my job a year a year and a half or so ago. Okay, very good. Uh, Council President Marggo Somerville.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do appreciate uh the conversation about the RFP for the rental registration piece. I think uh Councilman Balding kind of alluded to it. Some council members went out to Salt Lake City. We were really impressed with some new um technology that really helps do exactly what you said you want to do is in terms of uh making your department more efficient. Why is it that we're just looking at generating additional revenue from uh rental registration? We had a meeting where we looked at software who could do a lot more than that, right? Could help us also generate additional revenues from tax delinquency, right? uh a software that could also identify bad actors in terms of landlords and a lot of other things and u technology that can help all departments communicate across the city. And so I'm wondering why are we just limiting an RFP just to the rental registration piece. So, so in this case in terms of the rental registration, we're just trying to uh focus on getting a handle of the process because there's multiple pieces to it. Circling back to the delinquent taxes, um we do have a partnership with the attorney general's office uh that is run through a combination of our income tax division and the department of law. This is more of a sensitive uh topic because it is cases that are being filed against individuals and businesses. So we are actively filing those cases on a regular basis. Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah, we we talked about this and I just sent you an email um and we we had the leadership has been talking to that the one company whatever the name told me or whatever it is.

Yeah. The thing of it is is they have a contract with us already. It's in the planning department under the real estate division. So, it's just an add-on. It's very inexpensive. It's only like $49,000. And what they do is they collect data that's in the internet, for lack of a better term. And, you know, you ask them questions and they can track it, you know, on a grid map and oh, it's insane. Uh, and it's not that expensive. did an ROI on it, especially with the um uh not only the rental registration, but also the short-term registration. And you know, we're never say we're making money, but we're doing okay if you do the ROI, but but I didn't know if you knew that or not. I just caught an email that said that they have an existing contract, so maybe it could be added on. So, I think what we really want to do is again to see what options are out there that best fit the needs of the city. And in my opinion, at least uh the best way to do that is to open up an RFP for all responses.

And I don't know if there's other companies that do what they do, but it's very robust in terms of what we had seen. And maybe there is. Um whenever we spoke to them, they said that they were the one of the only, but maybe there's others. So, yeah, I and I would love to keep I mean leadership should should be kept in the loop on this thing. So, on that note, uh and to Councilman Balden's point, once the RFP is out there, we will distribute the list. Um you're welcome to forward it to anyone that you may know of. Uh we really want again, especially on this one, to have as many responses as possible.

Okay, thank you very much. It's the end of the questions. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Everything that the service um neighborhood uh assistance department does. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, next up, I think we have our service department. Public service is next. Uh can we do a maybe a fivem minute break? Quick five minute break. Everybody needs to go to the bathroom.

Give everybody a few more minutes to come back.

I know. I can't stand it.

I can't stand it. Do we have the air on? Can we turn the air off? We Welcome back. Don't think anybody's missing. So, we are now ready for public service. Uh Mr. Wheeler.

Uh thank you. Here we today we have uh the director uh Mr. Lutle and the budget book numbers begin on page 85. Goals and objectives begin on page 28. And I will hand it over. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of committee. Uh thank you for having us today. I'm going to go through introductions real quick. I think you know everybody, but uh uh I'll follow kind of like what your layout is. So the first one is the public works bureau. I have the manager and deputy manager John Malish and Anthony Dolly behind me. I think all of you have know them. Um and through the winter they've been uh putting a lot of hours in. So, I'm sure all of you have talked to them. Uh, and then also behind me, engineering bureau is our city engineer, Travis Kapper. Raise your hand. I'm sure they all know you. Um, sewer bureau, I have Rob Scarlet. Um, water bureau, I have Scott Meglin. And our our consent decree, and someone asked about the budget last uh week about our debt service and sewer. Uh Emily inherited this uh Emily Collins. Uh she inherited that and I could tell you uh when we get to that portion, she's got some great things she's doing uh helping all divisions, but especially with our consent decree in this last row 11A, uh which is the high rate treatment facility. So with that, we'll start with the public service public works bureau. Um this year our top three uh obviously we're doing a lot more than this but we're going to implement our mobile work order for all divisions. I heard you ask uh Director Lash about some of the things he's doing. So we want to move away from paper. Uh currently our

sanitation vehicles all have the iPads or mobile units mounted in them. So, and they all have cameras. So, as customers call that a missed trash or there's a service request as they're driving down and as you know our trucks down drive down every street through the city at least once a week picking up trash. So, they see a street light out if they're again if they're out there in those hours where the light should be on they can hit a button. It's automatically geollocated and it could send a work order. If they see a pothole, same thing. or if they see um a large bulk, they can hit that. If that wasn't called in, that goes to a supervisor and they follow up. So, that's the first division. The second division, we're going to roll these out to our highway divisions. And the goal is to keep from them people coming back in the office, getting on a computer, and writing up the work order. I did these many potholes. I closed those work orders in a timely manner out in the field. And then the third division that we roll that out to is our motor equipment, which we're going to get away from the the system they're on now and get into city works, which we look to save probably between 50 and $75,000 this year in that division by going away from that other work order system. The next for public works is the route optimization for snow and ice um which is a turnbyturn churn and then we will be looking at sanitation street cleaning. As you know we took over the whole city for sanitation about four years ago and uh Republic had that 25% 20ome% of our city. Most of it was out west in Ward 8. And if you're out in W 8, we're doing a certain portion of route 8 every day. Okay? So, we took that 25%, we broke it up to all the other routes, and then we split it off.

But it's not been very efficient, you know, to go out there and pick trash up there 5 days a week. And also, we follow up with street cleaning. We're out there 5 days a week. So, that's something we're looking forward this year to optimize that. obviously to save money. It saves fuel, it saves truck cost, and obviously we can be more efficient to do other things. The next big one is the LEAP program and it's a function of public works. Um I think there's some numbers in your book. Uh we don't want to say we're going to be down to five or six weeks. It depends how they fall, but what we are going to do is look at involving all of public works in the leaf collection system. Okay. uh program, not system. Um right now, this year was a prime example. When it started snowing in November, we had street cleaning. We had and then they had to break down their trucks, go back into snow and ice, break back down by having all divisions in there. We think we can make this more efficient. We can right now what we do, we start early obviously and then those first three wards typically the leaves aren't all down. This was a good example. and then we have to go back through. Okay, we want to maybe delay a week or two depending on the on what's going on with the leaves and just knock it out and maybe do two wards in a week. I I'm not going to promise that. It all comes down to how those leaves fall, but we want to improve that whole system. We think it's a great system. We think our residents love it, but we can always improve and make it more efficient. Uh going on to engineering. Uh do you have any questions about public works first? I guess

go ahead council. if that's how you want to do it. Um, just a quick question. When you talked about the devices that are on the trash trucks and everything, is that got to be much faster than using like the 311 app, I'm assuming. Correct. Well, you mean for them? Yeah. Well, it goes directly to it's just it's the same process, but it but it geollocates it. It it automatically creates that work order and goes right to that division. So, if it's a ple it goes to highway, if it's a street line, it'll go to engineering. Okay. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. What's the possibility of getting those for council people? It would bypass a lot of my calls to you. We could talk about it. That we could talk about. I'd love to have something like that that I could use. We could talk about it. What's the possibility of what? Pardon me. What was the question? What's

if we could have what they've got in the trash trucks if each council person has we're driving by and see loaded on an iPad and you could that we can actually just hit and you know I think that would make our jobs more efficient. I know it would for me because I'm stopping over and I'm writing down an address and then I'm stopping and taking a picture and I'm doing this. It it would make it a lot easier if we could do that. I think it would make it more efficient for all of us to get problems handled quickly for residents and make it better for all of us. I don't know what the cost would be, but I'd be interested. We definitely could look at it. Yep. Any other questions? No.

Okay. uh engineering bureau. We're going to update our front-end specs on our construction of material specification, our CMS books. It really hasn't been updated at 08 since '08. And a lot of that is looking at the contract language, looking at the insurance, looking at the contractors, all this stuff. We're working with law. We think we can make that whole process more efficient. That's one of our goals this year. Uh we're going to completely um get all of our traffic signals into GIS. We've talked over and over about GIS. You know, you have that on your phone. You can pick the water man. You know what year it is, when it was installed, what size, what the material. We never really fully built out the traffic engineering. So, we're going to get that into the GI GIS to make it more efficient. We have a GIS tech that's been working with traffic engineering and they've been slowly getting this loaded all up, but it'll be done this year. After that, we're going to work with communication as more fiber gets built out in the city. Where's it at? and get that into our GIS. Uh, next is update our current uh, change order policy. Uh, Mike was one of the people that's really been helping us with this. Jeff Bernowski, deputy service director, unfortunately, he's sick today. That's what he says he is. Um um but we really want to look at these contracts and we want to look at the change order process and obviously before something shows up at border control and you see it it's like why was that change order for $2500 or what that's just an example. We want to tighten up that system. We want we want to work closer with the contractors closer with the inspectors to really make that a more efficient program. So we think that in the end will save money and time um by doing that process. We'll move on to sewer unless you have questions about engineering. Sir looking around. Any questions from council members? No. Go ahead.

Okay. Sewer. Uh we're continue to work with our regulatory agencies which is not only Ohio EPA but it's also US EPA which is the Department of Justice. And there again, I mentioned Emily has been doing a fantastic job pushing our whole team and our legal team to get this done. And uh we really hope real soon we're going to have some big information for all of you to announce. We're not ready yet, but we're we're probably closer than we've ever been. So it's really good news. um uh our personnel and operation of Clelexon system that the plan has resolved in no overflows from the interceptor. We've had a couple stretches. One was 425 days and then the longest one was just under 500 at 499 days. So, you know, when that system was designed or proposed for the consent decree, it was going to overflow seven times in the typical year at about 190 million gallons. And uh we have reduced that just with our operations with everything that we've installed and all the things that we have done in the system when we talk about the SEOM program and the TVing and cleaning and fixing those repairs and stopping that infiltration into our system. But I really got to give credit to Rob and his team how they operate the system. I mean they're literally watching the radar. They're dewatering the tunnel as it's raining. they could see those isolated storms. It's not really raining over in the Chapel Hill area, so we'll hold some of that flow back at Evans Avenue before we release it to the system. So, but that has really helped us get to where we're at with the Ohio and US EPA's on not building this treatment facility. Um, the next thing is as we're going to complete construction on the north side interceptor. I think you all know that the mining operation's done. If you've drove by Front Street, they're disabling

the the machine. There's We don't own the machine. The company own the machine. They're sending it down. They they they want another job in Kentucky or Louis or in Tennessee. So, the machine's going down there. They're building out the rest of the system. And we really expect by the end of this calendar year. That tunnel will be in operation. Um you'll still see a bunch of construction down on Peek Road just because of the gorge dam removal. that sediment's still going to be going on all of this summer, all of next year before the dam will come down. So that still Peck Road will not be open, but the but the whole north side interceptor will be fully operational by the end of the year. And then the operations of the collection system and and WRF, we've received a gold award, which is something that you submit to and it goes to your permit violations, which we have zero in a calendar year. And one thing since the tunnel the OSIT tunnel has been in operation um we're very proud to say we have had zero uh has been huge and there's some people in a green sweater over there remembers the days in the 80s when we could only treat we could only treat up to 100 million gallons and I hate to say it we would close the gate and it would dump straight to the river. That has not happened. Okay. And that's why you see the fish coming back. you see what's going on. And this is this has been very uh it's great for the national park. It's great for the the metro parks, but it's great for the city of Akran. Um we'll go on to water unless you have any questions, sir.

I don't see any questions. Okay. Water.

The water bureau. Uh okay. replace water service lines to meet the GRR galvanized replacement uh uh galvanized required replacement criteria under the upcoming lead and copper rules. Those rules are coming down the line. Our people at the water bureau have been so proactive. When this ruling comes out, we expect to be done. You had to identify where they're at. And I go back to the GIS. We literally we worked in very short order. we could send our report where they all were. Now, we still have a bunch of unknowns um that we're working through, but the big thing that we're talking about in the next year, all these are under contract. We have 4500 of these galvanized required replacement on private property, which was always the responsibility of the homeowner. If your line was leaking in your front yard and they determined it's past the sidewalk, it's your responsibility. It was always the responsibility of the homeowner to hire a contractor and put a new line all the way to their meter. With these funds that we acquired, it was the help of engineering. It was the help of our staff with grants, but big thing with water. We got 53% principal forgiveness. And like I said, we're going to do all these and and get them all done. They'll all be copper lines up to the meter. it's going to eliminate that risk or that thing for the homeowner at no cost. So, this is huge. They're all under contract and those should be done um fully replaced uh in 27, not in 26. I misspoke. In addition to that, by the end of this year, we want to identify all our unknown material. We've always said and we stand by it. We have not have we do not have any occupied homes,

any homes that are served by a lead service. Those have all been taken out. But we do have some lead in the street up to lawn strip where there may have been a house that's been demoed 5 years, 10 years, or maybe there was never a house. When they built the street, they laid it out. They put the sewer in, they put the water in, they put put a lead service. We're taking all those out because there again, if they start to leak under the pavement, we got to go fix it, right? So, those are all coming out. We're going to remove all those in the system. But there is no lead. I just want to be clear when we talk about lead. There is no lead in Akran that's serving an occupied home. Those are all been done. So, uh next is uh develop a a water bureau master plan for the water plant and distribution system. Uh we're going to we're been working on a feasibility study for the plant, the dams and all the infrastructure that should be done this year. Additionally, we will try to obtain a planning loan from Ohio EPA, develop a downtown capital infrastructure plan. Now, what does that mean? We are going to lay out our critical customers, especially around the downtown corridors. When you talk about hospitals, you talk about these critical customers and we all know what happened in six weeks ago at at Akran General Cleveland Clinic. We're going to look what those critical customers are, work with them, and we've been meeting. First of all, we knew where the valve was, but it takes time to get the person there. I mean, it happened at 2:30 in the morning. At an hour later, we did have somebody on site shutting valves. Okay. But we need to look that line that broke was a cast iron pit from 1951. Should that be in the ground next to a critical customer? Okay. No is the answer. So that needs to be that needs to be changed. We'll look at children's. We'll look at Suma. Um people say, "Well, how about our schools?" Yes, they're very important, but are they critical? If the water man breaks, uh the kids have to go home for the day,

right? Hospital, you can't move patients. You can't move surgeries. You can't move people. And that's not a that's not everybody, but there is critical customers that we have to keep running. Our our Akran energy system, it serve steam to downtown core districts for heating, but it also it's the steam for the hospitals. Uh when that happened to Cleveland Clinic, not only they could not do surgeries because they didn't have water and they they had to shut down the steam unfortunately because that sterilizes their instruments. So we are looking at this. We're looking at it hard and we think it's very important for our critical customers. And then next we're going to perform a water audit on our high service our pressure districts or seven of them. Um and one of them is around the the Crosby Punt Station and in uh Portage Path. It's a high service district. We are going to look at those and we are going to make an assessment. Are we losing water? We're we're looking at our unaccounted water and we doing an audit through the whole system. Now, obviously, when you look at gallons pumped today and you look at gallons that are build because we have all the new smart meters, we know, but there's there's hydrant flushing going on out there. We have to do this hydrant flushing to keep water quality. There's other customers that um that we that we have that maybe we don't build. might be a rain garden and that's really small, but hydrogen flushing is the big one. So, how do we how do we audit that and put that into a report because we want to capture and if we find something um typically a water man break shows its ugly head cuz it blows up through the pavement. But believe me, if it breaks underground and there's a storm sewer, it's not the easiest to find sometime. So, when we're in these districts with these new meters, we can start looking and we have leak detection companies on uh uh a purchase order. We can go out and we say start searching

this area and sometimes we find those unaccounted for water customers. So, we want to be a lot more proactive this year doing that. That is it for water. If anybody has any questions,

any questions from council members? Not seeing any. So in the next page the service level I mean I don't know if how much you want to go through but we can go through real quick. Sanitation cart requests were up about 7% but uh total waste uh process we were up about 12%. So we collected and processed you know 78,000 tons last year. If you look at recycling our recycling was about 6%. I know Jackie's here. Um she's helped us with that audit year after year. our, you know, our contamination is is just about 12% uh before we start doing the recycle, right? We were probably five years ago at 40%. So that's way down and we continue to get better with education. Our street cleaning, our debris cleanups and sweepings, uh we're up about 20%. Um our dead animal removal, it's down a little bit, but it should be down. our leaf request uh were up about 55% if you look at 311 and that's just people calling 311 and you know at the end of last year was tough right when it started snowing and you have leaves out there people are calling you didn't get my leaves we just didn't get to you yet so we were doing leaves into January unfortunately um you look at highway uh highway maintenance our pothole requests were up um and we and we were doing them as we got them in our snow and salt uh requests were way up in 20 2024 you can see or 2025 2024 there were 702 and we're up to 4,300 um and that's because the winter okay I mean you look at you look at our snow average it's about 47 in a year in Akran and so far this year we've had 48 now there again some of us that are old remembers the storm of April of 87 when we had like 20 ines in one day. Okay, I

do remember that it was horrible. I don't want any snow in April, but it we still could get some more. Um last year we only had 30 in. Year before that we only had 18 in. Um so when you talk about salt in 2425 we used 24,000 tons. This year in 2526 we used 38,000 tons. Um, the gentleman behind me, I have to give them credit because when we looked at our CEU and we looked at what we needed, you know, in our domes, we're getting a new dome in a couple locations there. Again, to save money, to shorten the distance, that dome that we're putting at IRA is really going to help, you know, cuz when we're down in Kenmore area, we're in South Akan and they run out of salt, they got to go to triplet or they got to go to Copley Road, right? This is really going to shorten the time. they're off their route, shorten the fuel consumption and shorten their time out of the route. But also, we we put in and we can either go 20% above or 20% below. But I think a lot of you heard and I think it was January, people were run out of salt and we got off a couple years ago and had to buy it on the open market and when you're spending 61 a ton and you got to go spend over a hundred a ton, it hurts, right? So, they did a good job um of predicting that and uh and obviously we have plenty going into next season. We'll be full. All our domes will be full and uh we will be uh we'll be ready to go. Last weekend was a bad weekend for all of us. A lot of tree damage. We had 167 storm requests um you know throughout the day or through the week. 65 of those involved a closed street. So, our crews were out there till midnight Friday night. We had contractors helping us. First Energy did a fantastic job. Some of those streets were closed for 36 hours. If they had wires in them, we don't touch them. You

know, we don't touch them till First Energy says that wire is dead. Okay? When I mean dead, non-powered, right? Cuz we are not going to take a chance. I mean, that's just a safety thing. So, we knocked out all those work orders. We got all the streets open. um in a I'd say in a very timely manner. As of today, uh we we covered about 167 requests that were closed out for the tree damage. So, we've had some rough weekends um especially water. Uh the guys and gals out there worked a lot of hours um all the way through since January 1. And uh like I said, since since January 1, when you look at those water water main break totals, they uh they were way they're I think we're already at 86. So

is it is it on one of our pages, Chris? Pardon? The water main totals, is it on one of our pages? Yeah, it is on 30 31. Yeah. When you look at that in in what they said actuals in 2024 was 305 in 2025 we had 403

I mean 24 we had 305 water main breaks or repaired. Okay. And then in 25 we had 403 repaired. They estimate in 26 it'll be 325. Well we're at 186 already. So, it's going to be hopefully things slow down in the water department. Um, but uh those are some of the highlights. Um, and uh all I do is deliver the news. They do all the work. They're fantastic. Um, and we'll take any questions if you want to talk to any one of them. Yeah. Uh, they'll be happy to step up here. Well,

first of all, I wanted to maybe bring Jackie Racudi. Is this a good time to bring her up? Talk about keeping them beautiful or Yeah. Is that is that all right?

Do you have questions for me or do you want me to Oh, no. I thought you had little

I mean I had lots of information I can give you but um Okay. Thank you for allowing us to speak. I'm here with my board chair, Kim Halls Felasco, and we just want to say thank you for your partnership and support and working with us to remediate the litter and install beautifification across the city. It's really our job to improve the community here in Akran and we've worked with many of you throughout 2025 and this year. We have a lot planned, but um if you have questions for me, I can give statistics and things if you like me to, but um if you have questions, I can take those too. Or if there's some anything that Chris wants to say, too, that's totally fine.

Any questions for Jackie? How how's the uh the truck helped? The new truck? Yeah, we got a new dump truck in August of this past year, which has been amazing for our litter work. It's it's helped us to do more, be able to collect more, dump more efficient efficiently. We're dumping all of our litter now at public works. So, um we're able to to do that a lot more efficiently than we were before. So, we appreciate your help with the fundraising and also the community for really pitching in to help us afford the new new dump truck. Give us a perspective of a city, another city our size. I mean, you just have David and Dan out there, just two people, and

doing the litter work, you mean? Right.

Right. Yes. So, we have two people who work on litter remediation for the city year round, Monday through Friday. Um, and we work a lot with court-ordered community service workers. and we have been meeting regularly with probation and the judges um to work out kind of some kinks that we've had with that program throughout the last few years really since co and we've had um a lot more community service workers in 2025 and a lot better relationship with them um just because of that relationship we've had with the judges and probation. So um I can give you so we had a 46% increase in community service workers from 2024 to 2025. Um this growth supported accountability and community engagement and the increased volume required staff and oversight. Um, and like I said, we met with them in late 2025, and the probation team let us establish clear expectations and standardized guidelines so we can send people home if they refuse to help us pick up the trash. That was a a big issue in the past. There was a lot of babysitting these people and a lot of that has changed. So, we have had um I would say maybe 25 plus more people a month since that meeting. And once we kind of set the tone of we're not, you know, you have to work while you're here, um we've had a lot better results and we're able to pick up a lot more litter than doing the babysitting portion of all that. So, that's um also a credit to to Jeff Fusco. He helped us a lot with the probation and working with the judges.

Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Any uh Councilman Hannah? Thank you, Jackie, for all that you do. Uh you've really helped me in my ward. Uh will we have the cleanup this this year, the ward cleanup, and will those uh individuals be able to help us with that?

Yes. So, April is cleanup Akran month. We traditionally come to a regular council meeting and talk about that. We have a couple of ward cleanups this spring. Um we're working with Councilwoman Boy, Councilwoman Lombardo, and we're also doing um a cleanup with Councilwoman Somerville in her ward. And then additionally, we do um cleanups all throughout the city. Groups can register with us and help us clean up certain areas. We have the Valley Cleanup in Ward 8 that we do. Those are some of the larger ones, but we have groups that are actually going out every single day helping us clean up the trash during the month of April. So, they can register with us from Boy Scout troops to Girl Scout troops. Almost every Akran um school participates public and private. We do cleanups with them. So, it's just a host of different things. But if any of you are interested in doing something larger uh in your ward and specifically around your ward, we can help with that in May or throughout the summer months if those aren't already scheduled. Um Keep America Beautiful, our national organization has a really big push for the Great American Cleanup this year, which Cleanup Background Month is a part of just because of the nation's 250th birthday this July 4th. So, we're working collectively as a group to try to clean up the nation's litter.

Never ending. Thank you. Thank you. So, Is there any other questions? Okay. Okay. Thank you, Jackie. Thank you. Keep a beautiful unless you had one. JJ, just one quick. How much is budgeted for this year in the budget? So, there's $40,000 in the recycling that is for the uh you know the audit of the of the recycling and then there's $325,000 in the street cleaning budget. Okay. What page was that on?

Uh so the street cleaning I will tell you how much did we allocate last year? I can't remember. Somewhere after 85. Street cleaning is on. Well, let's start with recycling is on 111 and street cleaning is on 114. Yes.

What was the last year? Remind us because I know I know council changed the budget. What was it? So last year was 425 in the street clean. The 40 in recycling is the same as last year. Okay. Last year we allocated 425 for the program. Correct. And now we're back to 325 or and that is when we looked at the street cleaning fund and the available revenues we we cut in a lot of areas and that was one of them. Okay. Thank you, Councilman. I believe it was 425, but I think the 40 come out of the 425. So if this year it's 325 and the 40, it means it's a total of 365.

Oh, okay. Okay. Gotcha. Thank you. Okay, Councilman Hannah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh Mr. Little. Yes, sir. Uh the pothole repairs. Yes, sir. The truck, the new truck. Mhm. Uh does it work on asphalt and cement? Because I've seen it go uh across the asphalt and they lay the tar first and then they put the uh little sand or whatever is the emulsion. Yes. And then they put this the the uh the aggregate in there. Yes, it work it does work on on asphalt.

Okay. And the next day I go across that then it's gone. Why is that? Well, a lot of it is gone. It shouldn't be. I mean, if you have some locations and we'll look at them, but if it should not go away that quickly. Well, yeah, it does. Now, on the cold mix, if it's, you know, the cold mix we use, it does, it is very tough to keep that to stay. We bought a couple hot boxes to try to keep the asphalt warm before we put it in. But it's basically that's kind of a temporary thing to get us through winter till these asphalt plants open up in April and we get the real hot mix and then we can go back and repair them the way they should be. Okay, that's Thank you.

You're welcome. just to councilman Fes very ble brief just to close just that thank you Mr. Lule thank you for your team all of you behind Mr. little and all those behind the team uh who have uh who go out there and they whenever it's cold out the first energy folks were like, "Oh my gosh, the city was awesome." They were right there for us and it was a bit cold and windy especially, I guess. Uh but but they were very appreciative whenever I spoke to them. I think they memorialize that in the email, but but we just can't say thanks enough for all of you and what you do. And that's they do a great job. We're blessed to have such a great staff.

I mean, some of our staff when they start on at, you know, sanitation at at 4:30 in the morning, Monday it was 70 degrees, Tuesday it was 16. So, Ohio weather, right? That's it. Being a a former service director and working with folks that were before you. Um, I know what it's like uh in the meetings and you know going out there and and uh checking on things and and all the work that goes on and uh a lot of those folks are unsung heroes. So, thank you. Yeah, thank you.

And I thank Mr. Dolly there for a personal tour in war and I got to do another whoever council was invited got to go to the water plant with Mr. Rob over there. So anyhow, um, we have any other questions from anybody? No, I don't have a question. I just have one other question. Okay. Yep. Thank you, Mr. Lotto. Because we see you every week. You keep us well informed on the things you're doing. You're quite welcome. Thank you,

guys. Thank you. Okay. Well, with that, I think that's a wrap and we will adjourn the meeting and uh see everybody here tomorrow for um our last piece which is what tomorrow at 3:00 everybody will be uh office of integrated development and integrated uh planning and human resources and labor and law. Thank you everybody. Whatever's left.