City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to Athens City Council. This evening we will be meeting in council committees. The meeting will be called to order by the city council president, who will then pass discussion over to a respective committee. The chair of the committee will introduce the discussion topics and provide an overview of the issues at hand. If needed, members of the administration will offer brief statements to provide further context. We will then welcome input from the community. Any citizens who wish to speak will be asked to state their name and address, both verbally and on the sign and sheet located at the podium. Individuals will be given one opportunity to share their thoughts, and the committee chair will have the authority to limit each speaker to three minutes. Once all citizens have had the opportunity to speak within the 15-minute time period allotted for total public participation on each topic, the public comment portion will be closed. Council committee members will then continue their deliberations. There may be additional questions directed to the administration during this time. When the discussion on the topic concludes, the chair will indicate whether legislation will be introduced at the next regular session of council and move on to the next item on the agenda or adjourn the committee if their work is complete. The next committee chair will then call their committee to order, proceeding in the same manner as before. Once all committees have adjourned, City Council will conclude for the evening.

Good evening and welcome to Athens City Council, Tuesday, May 26th. We are in committee meetings tonight and we will be beginning with Finance and Personnel Committee with myself, Member Claudefelder and Member Wood. I'm going to start off our Finance Committee meeting quickly tonight with a quick thank you and farewell to Auditor Kathy Hecht. We would like to thank her for her 24 years of public service to the city of Athens, 20 years as a city auditor, and four years on city council. During her tenure, she served as a board member and past president for the Ohio Municipal Finance Officers Association. And under her leadership, the auditor's office has been awarded multiple years of perfect audits from the auditor of the state of Ohio. So we would like to thank Kathy for her time and energy and service to the city of Athens. I'm going to kick it over to the mayor for his words.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, Kathy, 20 years as auditor and four years as a council member before that. 22, my bad. Who's counting? You've been an elected official for 24 years. That's remarkable, but I have to say that my 14 now years, I guess, as an elected official, city council member at large, and then as mayor, and as mayor in particular, you know, and having served as a member of finance and personnel back in the day when I first got on council and working closely with you during that period of time, and certainly when I became mayor in 2016, I have learned so much from you through the process. You and I have been through more trips either virtual or in person to go before Moody's and get our bond rating which took a lot of work and I leaned on you more than you know to get through that process and understand it and you you have kept the city of Athens from a financial perspective so on point with everything when it comes to our city finances you know when we had an income tax increase go forward back in 2016. I was on council prior to that and you knew and I knew we've got to have an increase in the income tax for the city of Athens. Then again, the information that you continue to provide to our citizens for this most recent income tax increase, Thank goodness it passed by 10 votes, which goes to show that every vote counts. But that has nothing to do with you. You've done well when it comes to votes as the auditor because you've been reelected lots of times. So it's going to really be an interesting transition for me, not so much with the the individual who will become the auditor, but because of the wealth of knowledge that you have had in this role and how much I've leaned on you, we've leaned on each other. I think that as a team, when you're looking at the different elements within the executive branch, it's been a pleasure working with you, and I just want you to know that.

Thank you, Mayor. I agree with everything you said, and I have had... Really wonderful experience working with you all these years. We've had a good working relationship and that's so important.

I'm going to throw in a little something real quick too. I just wanted to just say thank you as well. When I was approached to do this treasurer position however many years ago, I said, okay, but I didn't really know what I was going to be doing. Got in here and you just took me under your wing and just showed me everything I needed to know. And I've told this story to a lot of people. You know, I think just working together, it's not that I think you took the specifically thought I'm going to teach Josh this or Josh that, but I've said many times I found myself in situations where I'm supposed to be learning something and I realize I already know this. And it's because you and I have had conversations about it and you've already walked me through processes. So, you know, I just want to say thank you. It's just been just wonderful working with you. The example that you set for your staff and the way your office runs has been a pleasure to work with over the last four years.

Thank you, Josh. Of course. I feel the same way. I feel like we had a good relationship from day one. Yeah. We really have, and he has worked so well with my entire office, and he's been very helpful to us, too. Grateful he came into our life up there. Thank you.

I'm going to open it up to the public if anyone else would like to have anything to say before we move on. All right. We're going to move on now to our first item for finance and personnel, which is adjustments to the 2026 staffing ordinance. As I sent out, we recently have finished up with the retirements that were offered. And due to that, we have some staffing changes in the ordinance that we need to change. One is reducing lab technicians from two to one. Another is removing one parking enforcement position due to retirement from five to four. That will be rechecked on the impact on revenue at the end of the year. And also removing one water meter reader due to retirement and retaining one position which will be supported by the water meter upgrade technology coming in. Anything further from the administration on that? No. Auditor treasurer? And any questions from the public? And any questions from the members of committee?

Real quick clarifying question. Were you going to talk about the environmental technicians as well?

I mistyped that when I was moving it from the giant spreadsheet to the little thing. It's a lab technician. We will still have, we won't have the environmental coordinator. That was already gone. This is going to be an environmental lab technician.

Got it. So that's part of the line A.

And they'll be working with water, sewer, storm water, and water, sewer, yeah, and code during the testing.

Great.

Thank you.

Any other questions? All right. Our next item are just adjustments to the non-union pay benefits package. One, we'll be moving the lab technician positions from pay grade seven to six. There's just been a change in personnel there. And then also is removing some old language regarding class two and three, as I sent out, and then removal of double time for lab technician positions. and just keeping that for the supervisory position, just leveling up some things that needed to be taken care of. Any additional input?

No, you stated it well. A lot of it is housekeeping, like I said, a lot of editing of references to positions that no longer exist.

Anything from the auditor or treasurer? And any questions from the public? Anything from committees? Member Wood?

For the pay band change, do we need approval from the union for that sort of thing, or are we within range to just change those? We can just change them.

And this is the non-union pay bands.

Does it say non-union? Yeah, thanks so much.

You know, it's a Tuesday, and it feels like Monday.

It's been a long eight days.

Moving on to the next is the appropriations. We will have appropriations, the first being $120,000 from the CDBG Fund 248 project. We are going to appropriate and authorize money from the 2024 allocation for a 2026 project. The project number will be coming on that. This may move to transportation once it comes into the ordinance, but for now we just need to appropriate it. also requesting a $30,000 transfer from the transaction code 500 moving it to TC 300 and this is vehicle leases for police cruisers and they've been budgeted for it's just changing the class that they're coming out of any additional info on those for the mayor no just as you said it's transitioning it from TC 500 to TC 300 under professional services Anything from the mayor or the auditor or treasurer? And any questions from the public? And members of committee?

No?

All right, the last item that is on there is listed the 7500 4th of July celebration. I'm going to amend and pull that for tonight. It's just not ready yet. And then I'm going to request a committee meeting prior to next week's regular meeting where we can address it then and we'll have more information. Oh, I'm sorry. What did you have? Questions on the 120 CBG? You didn't have any on the CDBG 120?

Any comments on it? I don't have any comments.

Anything from the public?

Yes. I'm just curious, if money, I didn't know we could take money from one year of a grant and put it in another, but if that is kosher, then I'm curious if the money for 2026, if it has been decided, if that's going to go to Westside sidewalks again, or if it's going to be used in some other way.

It'll come up tonight, but it's going to go to another project.

On the west side?

Yeah, because the way CDBG works is it has to go into an identified distressed area of the city or in an area that is for the betterment of the whole. And so that's where we landed with what that'll...

I am totally in agreement that west side sidewalks need to be improved. I just wondered if that was the plan or if the plan was changing.

Under this, that is the plan. This is West 8th Street is going to be, the sidewalks are going to be addressed because they're in disrepair.

Okay. Thank you. Any additional questions? All right. That is all for finance and personnel. Moving on, we'll have transportation committee.

Yep. And on the Transportation Committee, I am joined by members Swank and Wood this evening. And Ryan, could you please project that map? Here we go, all right. So the first, we have two items tonight. The first one is there is an LPA, Federal Local Let Project Agreement for a State Route 682-33 project. The area highlighted in green there is where this project will take place. The pavement in that area is concrete, and it was installed in 1970 with an estimate that it would last for 50 years. So it has lasted 56. So better than expected. It was installed really well. Apparently, Member Thomas' uncle helped with that, so thanks to her family. But now parts of that pavement are starting to fail. And so the state of Ohio is going to, well, I guess it's going to be federal money, excuse me. I was really hoping Andy Stone would be here. But there's going to be federal money used for this. It looks like the city's contribution will be about $38,000 when all is said and done.

On this particular project? Uh-huh. No, it'll be $400,000.

There were two numbers in what he sent me. Mayor Patterson, would you like to explain more about this proposal?

I can. That would be great. It'll roughly be $498,000 for this project. Just an educational moment for people, anyone who's watching. When it comes to ODOT's responsibilities, anything outside of a municipal corp, You know, for highways, 33 is a great example. That is the responsibility of DOT. And for us, ODOT. But where that interstate, or the 33, U.S. 33, cuts through Athens, much like 32 and 50, they... The responsibility believe it or not of that municipality, but ODOT has been great in that they work with municipalities as These run through our cities 682 is another example of a state route that runs through the city of Athens to where they will often do a 80-20 match, 20% from the municipality, 80% coming from DOT. They also have another program under the LPA agreement where the City of Athens is going to take advantage of this to where it's actually going to be basically a 93-7 So it's 7% is borne by the city of Athens. And since this is a rigid surface concrete, their useful life is 50 years is typical. This is 50 years old. And when you have a hard surface, a rigid surface like this, once you get to the end of that useful life, they tend to fail much more rapidly than say an asphalt street. but I will say this, the useful life of an asphalt street versus a rigid concrete street are light years apart as well. Useful life for an asphalt street is on average 15 to 20 years depending on the certifying engineer. Our share at 7% is going to be approximately $498,000. It's about a $7 million project total. I suspect that it'll be more than that, but DOT ODOT really is working with the City of Athens to make sure that we can get this done. It's going to be a challenging project. We'll have more information when this rolls forward. It'd be a 2027 project. Scott and Ryan, if you guys could put that image back up again. It's worth highlighting. for the viewing audience and for council. It's four lane on 682. We all recognize that. Some people don't. It's four lane divided. But in managing that, what they will likely do with the build is they will close down one of those two lanes, whether you're traveling south east or traveling northwest, whatever, they can do that. The one thing we don't know from ODOT yet is to what the plan is for the on and off ramps that are part of this project as well. You can see the on and off ramps to head 33 west and coming off of 33 west. onto that loop that you see on the bottom there, that too will probably be a challenge. We have no idea what their plan will be when it comes to repairing that part, but it's a big project, it's much needed. For those of you who have traveled up and down 682 off of 33, I do it all the time. It's got spalding, some deep spalding, so we'll continue to patch where we can. Again, as I'd mentioned, by sitting on OPWC, Ohio Public Works Commission for years now, the 50-year useful life, and this was built in the 1970s, it's time. It's time. So thank you. Thank your father for your uncle. I'm sorry for working on it. Did a great job, but it's lived its useful life.

Thank you very much, Mayor Patterson. And I would just add that what Andy Stone, the City Safety Services Director, shared with me is that this agreement that we are dealing with has nothing to do with payments. It's just something It's an agreement that needs to be signed between the city of Athens and really the Ohio Department of Transportation before we can move forward and that more details about the project, as Mayor Patterson said, will get shared after this is approved, what will become an ordinance is approved. And for committee members and other council members, if this goes forward tonight, then there is time to have three full readings. We won't have to suspend. So... With all that being said, are there any objections to this coming forward? Comments. Okay.

Any other comments from the committee or from elected officials?

From members of the public? From other committee members?

Yeah. Hey, Ryan, put that map up here again, please. When we got the email on this and I heard 682, because the first thing that came to mind is, oh boy, here we go again. We've got the roundabout out here, 682 Union Street, and in 2027 we're going to have to shut it down again. Right here is the roundabout at Richland Avenue. What most people don't realize is from here to where it gets to 33 is also considered 682. So the part we're talking about is this side of the roundabout, southeast of the roundabout. And Access will still be able to get out 682 to White's Mill, to Morrison Elementary, so on, to University of States. Because here's Richland Avenue, no problem. Here's Richland Avenue this way, no problem. So that's going to be open. So when you hear 682, it's not what people think about 682 between this roundabout and the new roundabout, but here up to 33. here up to 33. The other thing from Director Stone's email is that the last thing in the email, which I was very, very encouraged to see, is that he will be working closely with Ohio University in terms of major events and trying to coordinate this. You can imagine what move-in in 2027, what homecoming in 2027, what graduation in 2027 might look like. But he's already put that in there, and that was really, really good to see. I'm glad that Director Stone put that. But 682, we're talking about It's not out towards White's Mill. It's between the roundabout and up at 33.

Any other comments from council? Member Wood, anything? Okay, thank you. So that one will go forward. And then the second item for transportation tonight is an amendment to the previous ordinance 31-26, which was the special event street closures for the year. You may recall that we handled a whole bunch of requested street closures for events at one time, and then we've had some others come up since then that we've been handling as amendments. This is another proposed amendment to close an additional street for the July 4 celebration. There was already one street that was going to be closed, and now West Washington is going to be added to that, from the parking garage to Congress Street. And I was told that Member Swank has more details on that.

Yeah, there's a group of citizens who came together about six weeks ago and, using the word panic, panicked because we were just four months out and the Fourth of July is just around the corner. So we began meeting every two weeks to put together some kind of program that is community-centered and, you know, a big celebration of our 250th anniversary. One of the things that came out of this is the Scouts are going to run a SoVox Derby. So to run a soapbox, to have you grow up in Akron and know how these things are run, you need a smooth surface. So we looked all over town. The first place we looked was Jeff Hill, but we knew somebody would get killed on that hill. Second suggestion was Mill Street. So I went over to Mill Street by the Catholic Church, put my car in neutral, just barely got it starting. And by the time I got down to the bottom of Mill Street, I was going 35 miles an hour. That wasn't going to work either. So we came up with the idea of the other smooth street would be right there on West Washington between Congress and the parking garage. It's about as smooth as it gets. We have the sheriff's department right there, and the scouts are putting this together. So that's the purpose of that. It will be for a short period of time during the day, and hopefully all this rain we've been getting the last week won't be around on the 4th of July. So that's what that's about, and that's the request that came from the scouts as part of the 250th 4th of July celebration.

Any comments or questions from elected officials?

I'm just glad it's not Jefferson. And I'm equally glad it's not High Street. King Midget can do those. That's fine. That's going the other direction. Agreed. As I've been told, too, this is good for the viewing audience to understand and everyone who's here. As I understand it, they will put some safeguards in place, i.e. hay bales or something so that we don't have people crashing into rigid material, sidewalks, curbs, trees, semi-rigid.

Auditor or treasurer? Okay.

Yes. Is this committee raising funds from other places, other people, businesses, whatever? Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So this amount is just what you think the city should pay for this? Oh, we're not? We're on the wrong one? Yeah. Okay.

Well, other than the street closing, I mean, that we typically do. That's our in-kind contribution to make sure that we which isn't on your schedule, right? This one, you're adding this as a closure. We'll have to bag the meters and do all that work and probably put up the sawhorse barriers too.

Yeah. Would any members of the public like to comment or ask questions about this proposal? And are there any other comments or questions from the committee? Just

Point of clarity, will this interrupt traffic on Congress as well?

No.

We're not going to block Congress?

No.

Just down in the court?

Right.

My understanding was that the barricades would be just before Congress. So I suppose it could affect people's ability to be going toward Congress and turn on it, but it won't affect the people who are already on Congress and crossing the street to keep going. Yeah. Good question. Any objections to bringing this forward to our next full committee meeting? Okay. That concludes the Transportation Committee's deliberations for the evening.

I have a question, if I may.

Certainly.

Something that I didn't think about, because I just heard about this this morning. Will this affect the parking garage?

My understanding was that it was the closed part was going to be from the parking garage to Congress meaning My reading was that people could still use the parking garage. Okay, and I think that was a very intentional decision.

Thank you.

Yep Okay, that concludes the Transportation Committee Our next committee will be planning and development

All right. Might be the shortest Planning and Development Committee meeting of the year. We are in the process of the ORC-mandated five-year door review, and in our case, door review and expansion. And this is already at first reading. Next Monday at Council, we will have second reading, but we will also have a public hearing on this matter. To help inform the review process... Jessica has circulated, widely circulated, a very comprehensive and short survey and has gotten lots of responses. So at this point in time, I'd like to turn it over to her to give us an update on that and where we are in the process.

Ryan, can you put up my screen? Thank you. I've just got the bar charts real quick to go through and then from the various comments, just kind of an overview of what I read. overwhelmingly supportive overall but those who have taken advantage of the DORA 85% those who feel that it's been a benefit to the community and the business community 89% concerns or problems with the DORA 85% and then under the 15% that did have things you know we've got a list of what those are which is really helpful The timeframe that the DORA is turned on and working, Monday through Saturday, 12 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. A little bit more mixed on that one, but overall, people are fine with that. And then whether it's increased or decreased time spent uptown, 64% increased, 30% neither, 6% decreased. And then just additional thoughts on the impact, more comprehensive answers are in the survey, but we got a lot of good feedback and information on what people are enjoying or not liking. And overall, we had 93% of the responses were community members, and the other 7% were business, office, bar, retail folks. And that's the breakdown of that. Let me pull up my notes here. Brian, can you take my screen down? I forgot I'm not on my own computer. Nothing super interesting. Overall, we had 173 people so far have filled out the survey, which was really great to see. Got a lot of different things. I broke down a whole sheet for the committee that I can share the rest of council next about what people had questions or where the concerns were. I thought it would be a good time to do just some education on the DORA because it's obviously been five years since we established it. And if you weren't paying attention during COVID when we put this in place, or I guess the year after COVID, just important things that I gathered from this and people's comments were just to make note that the rules surrounding the DORA are not rules or concepts that the city of Athens came up with. These are from the Department of Commerce Liquor Control. So things like you have to take a clean cup, you can't reuse a cup in establishments, besides being a little bit of a health control, health department issue, that is from the Department of Commerce, and that is a liquor rule that you can't take liquor into another liquor establishment. That the participation is a business's decision.

That overall, when we enacted it, it was to allow more movement in the summer without constantly closing streets.

Or when they are closed off, they're not as confined as they are with an F2 permit. Some of the comments about... Some of that, an F2 permit, basically you can't leave the roped area. So the door allows people to roam in and out the sidewalks. And when we do have a street closure, like a boogie on the bricks, people can go in and out of businesses and still support. Allowing anything outside of that, we had a lot of comments wanting more leeway. That would fall under looser open container laws and those are determined at a state level and not something that we can change or loosen up or address. I would note that when we started this process, Member Swank reached out to Chief Magruder on his thoughts and he felt it was going well and no major issues and that he really felt that the current state of the time and the times of year that it's available were acceptable to him to continue the process. I've got plenty more details if people have questions But first I just thought we'll pass it around and see what other people are wondering or comments. So with that Anything else remember swing?

No, you took the one thing I was going to add, and that's the email from Chief Magruder, which is fine. I will ask this, and you can share this with the viewing public and the folks here today. Where one might go if they would like to take the survey, and how much longer that survey will be up?

I believe it's still on the website, and I've left it open through June 1st, so we'll get through the public hearing. So for the next week. The city website?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Okay, very good. Comments from the administration?

The only comment I have is everything that you've said is the fact that I'm seeing it within the DORA footprint. I will add, because you mentioned the expansion of DORA, which, for those of you who are not in the know, would expand it to go down to the west side of the city, in particular down to the... the distillery, Stumac, certainly the West End Cider House and some other areas in that vicinity. It does have to be acreage-wise has to be certified by a licensed professional engineer and Director Stone still maintains his PE licensure so he'll be the one certifying that because that will have to accompany our package back up to the state.

And from reading the results from the survey, we actually got a little bit ahead of the ballgame because one comment by multiple people in the survey was extending it to the west end. The west side, I should say. So, yeah, sounds like we hit that one right on the nail on the head. Comments from members of the public? Any members of the committee? And again, this is it between... Oh, Paul, I'm sorry.

I just want to say that, you know, Fedora, I personally think it's been a huge success. It's a great draw to the... to the Uptown area, and just seeing on that survey, 64% of respondents said it was a factor and a reason why they were drawn to come to Uptown when they otherwise would not have. That is a huge boon to our small local businesses that dominate in that area, and so I think this is a terrific manner to bring the community together and to effectively draw people to Uptown. I think it's very, very, very exciting, and I think it's working really, really well.

You know, I would agree with you on that, Paul, because for those who have been around a long time, would not have had an easy time getting a parking spot today prior to 2015, because Ohio University students were still here until the second Saturday in June. That was graduation. But now... You can park anywhere you want, all of May, all of June, all of July, and three weeks in August. That summer break has gotten very, very long, and back then we did not have virtual schooling. So many people leave town. So as you said, Paul, this is a means of bringing people to our uptown area and hopefully populating the businesses in addition to the ones where they can pick up their door and come. This is between first and second reading, so there's no need to ask if we need to move it on. Again, we will have our hearing next Monday, July, July, June 1st. Would that be the first thing or will we do the committee first?

We do that first. The hearing first? Yes, because they are set at 7 o'clock.

Okay, so we'll have the hearing at 7 o'clock and then the one-item committee meeting following that before a regular session. That concludes planning and development.

That's over to me. City and Safety Services, we have one item on the agenda. It's very straightforward. If you were watching our meeting last Monday, we had a gentleman from Hawking-Athens-Perry Community Action came and spoke to council about the work that that agency does. If you're not familiar with Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action, or HAPCAP as they're sometimes known, they are a regional tri-county community action agency that does absolutely phenomenal work across the Hocking-Athens and Perry counties. And one of the many, many things that HapCap does is that they are an administrator and a beneficiary from CDBG funds, the Community Development Block Grant. And from that presentation we got last week, the staff from I apologize, I'm blanking on their names right here right now. I outlined some of the successful projects that they have used those funds for in the past, including things like infrastructure. For instance, a slip repair on Grosvenor Street, they did original house rehabilitation program, there was a depot lift station, Franklin Avenue, various improvements there, sidewalk repairs on West Union Street, and a whole range of programs like that. So what this essentially is, is the ordinance and the members of the committee have the wording of the ordinance that we have is requesting city council approval to approve the application from the city to apply into an agreement with the Ohio Development Services Agency for any eligible community development block grant CDBG program funds for program year 2026. Mayor Paterson, do you have anything you want to add on this issue?

I do. What we'll be applying for is to improve the crossing conditions at State Street and Court Street. As I mentioned prior to this meeting, and I'll mention it again, is that with CDBG, you can have your allocation go to a census track that qualifies, but you can also apply it to projects that serve the greater need for the whole. Those intersections from an ADA standpoint, that particular intersection, I would ask anybody to go and stand on the corner by the J-bar and look at that intersection. It's got competing slopes, so certainly Court Street slopes to the north end, And then State Street slopes towards Mill Street. But then you have to look at the crown associated with any roadway, so there's just multiple geometries going into this. It's not an easy project. It's not an easy thing to ask for flat work to be done in that area, but we have to get that done. We've got to make that to where it's an ADA accessible transition point in the uptown area. the we're looking to dedicate the whole of that CDBG, the 2026 CDBG, so we're talking $120,000 to go towards this project. That may sound like a lot, but again, I would request anybody to stand at the intersections of court and union and look at the geometries, but then go down to the intersection of court and state and look at those geometries, and it's got some real significant challenges associated with it. Not to mention that there's few catch bases in that vicinity as well because back in the day it's like let the storm water work its way down the street in the gutter and then it'll find its way to a catch basin. So there's a lot of complexity to this project but it's so needed and I thoroughly understand. It's been frustrating in that we had a DOT grant to do a lot of these transition point changes in the uptown area and we put it out to bid four times, if not more, and never got either good bids or got no bids on this because of the level of work that is out there. We feel confident that we'll be able to get this done this time around, but it's just, this has been a real, real challenge, and in particular for ADA accessibility in the uptown area. So, we need to get this done. I mean, this is our shot to get that done.

any other member elected, comment from other elected officials.

The only thing I was going to add on to that, Mayor, is I remember we did have a conversation too about that particular intersection also with the work we're doing right now with burying all the power lines, that it was something that we were going to have to take a little pause on because you wouldn't want to fix it just to rip it back up again. That's right. So that's why it's becoming a priority now as opposed to, yeah.

One more complication to that, again, if you do go stand down there by the J-Bar and look at that whole intersection, look across the street in front of Dale's BP, and there's a significant mast arm or pole for the signal that is down there, too. And that's a challenge to work around, but we can do it. We can get this all done and get it done effectively. And treasure auditor, soon-to-be auditor. Yeah, thank you for that.

Members of the community, the public here at our meeting. Members of the committee.

Member Wood. I'll say that it sounds like a steal for how much work is going to go into it. Honestly, it sounds like great value. And I'm just... Obviously, we've heard a lot from the disabilities committee about this issue, and so it's just great to see it on the priority list, and thank you for doing it. Yeah.

Any other members of the committee? No. So, seeing no objection, any objection to moving this forward to first reading next week? Seeing none, it will be on the agenda next week. And that concludes City and Safety Services and our meeting for this evening.