City Council - Regular Meeting

It is 7 o'clock, and I'm going to call this meeting to order. Welcome, everyone. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, council members, city officials. Welcome to the August 24, 2026 regular city council meeting. We are meeting at 26 South Payne Street, Chillicothe, Ohio, and I would ask the clerk to call the roll.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. Bennett? Present. Payne? Here. McQuirt?

Here.

Barnes?

Here.

McKeever? Dement?

Here.

Preston? Here. Dunn? Here. Creed?

Here.

Mr. McKeever let us know that he could not be here this evening. Is there a motion to excuse him from tonight's meeting? Motion by Mr. DeMint, seconded by Mr. Barnes, and the clerk will call the roll.

Bennett. Yes. Payne. Yes. McCourt. Yes. Barnes. Yes. Dement. Yes. Preston. Yes. Dunn. Yes. Creed.

Yes.

Mr. McKeever is excused. Would Ms. Payne listen to the Pledge of Allegiance?

to allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

President Shoemaker.

Ms. Dunn.

President Shoemaker, according to council rule 21, the rules of council may be suspended to add legislation to the agenda. And council rule eight of the rules of council allow council to suspend the requirement to deliver the legislation to council members three days before the meeting. as chair of the engineering committee i am making a motion to suspend suspend rule 21 and rule 8 to add to today's agenda the following legislation titled as an ordinance establishing a moratorium on the acceptance and issues of zoning permits and approvals for new data center uses in the city of chillicothe and declaring an emergency Which in part states the following, whereas for the purpose of this ordinance auxiliary data center shall be understood to refer to data center which is ancillary to another primary use of the subject property and satisfies all of the following conditions. is not housed in a standalone structure, separate from a permitted primary structure on the property, occupies no more than 10% of the primary structure's footprint, is used to serve the enterprise functions of an occupant of the property, and is not used to lease data storage and processing services to non-occupants of the property. And whereas large-scale data center shall be understood to refer to a data center which is a primary use of the subject property, a data center that does not meet the definition of an auxiliary data center shall be considered a large-scale data center. The acceptance and issuance of any and all zoning permits and other approvals allowing the development, construction, or operation of any new data centers, auxiliary data centers, and large-scale data is hereby temporarily suspended for a period of 60 days from the effective date of this ordinance, which suspension shall expire on October 23, 2026.

is there a second to that motion second by mr dement and i assume that motion also includes adding that to the agenda then it does at this point then the clerk will call the role relative to adding that to the agenda bennett yes payne yes mccourt yes barnes yes

Dement? Yes. Preston? Yes. Dunn? Yes. Creed?

Yes.

Item 12 will be added to the agenda, and everyone should have received the minutes from the August 10, 2026 meeting. They've been distributed. Are there any additions, deletions, or corrections? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the minutes? Ms. Dunn, seconded by Mr. McQuirt, and the clerk will call the roll.

Bennett? Yes. Payne? Yes. McCourt?

Yes.

Barnes? Yes. DeMint? Yes. Preston? Yes. Dunn? Yes. Creed?

Yes.

The minutes are approved. We'll now move to the reports of committees. Development Committee, Mr. DeMint.

thank you president shoemaker development has nothing on tonight's agenda and nothing else to report thank you thank you engineering committee ms dunn president shoemaker we have one item on the agenda item number 12 for a moratorium on data centers thank you finance technology committee mr creed

Thank you, President Shoemaker. Finance has three items on the agenda tonight. First one is item number nine, and this is an ordinance designating public depositories for active and interim deposits of the city of Chilcothee and declaring an emergency. And at the perfect time, I'll ask to wait three re-rolls so we can get that in place. Item number 10 is an ordinance authorizing city auditor to reallocate appropriate funds between salary and fringe benefit line items within the same fund for the remainder of the year. And item number 11 is an ordinance accepting and appropriating $5,183 in program income from the Ohio Regional Development Corporation and for the recording costs associated with the release of the mortgage. At the appropriate time, I'll also ask to waive the three-week rule on that so we can get that bill paid. I'll also give a quick report on the facilities committee. Item number six. is first reading of a resolution authorizing the mayor to negotiate with the owners of folk block located 14 south paint street for the lease of space for city council chambers meeting rooms and office space including terms related to necessary renovations and build out cost in line with that also give a little bit more report on facilities committee we do have another meeting scheduled for september 14th 2026 at 6 15. um here in council chambers And just to kind of update from the last meeting, because I know there's been a lot of stuff on social media, we talked at the last meeting that the Gazette building was about 3,000 to 4,000 square foot too small for the administration, auditor, treasurer, law director, water building, and council, which means not everybody will fit in that building. And that's based on a report that we received from the administration as far as the needs for the city. I also notified the committee that we have another option to purchase on the folk block, so that leaves us three options at this point. We can either purchase folk block, we can lease the folk block, or we can purchase the Gazette building. And I'm still pulling together information so that we have all the data to help us make an informed decision. And hopefully at the next meeting, we'll be able to move forward with that as well. And I've asked the mayor, the auditor, and the law director, since there are three staffs and their personnel will be living in that building, working out of that building, not living there, but working out of that building, to tour those buildings and also give council recommendations during that committee meeting as well. So my hope is that during the next meeting, we'll be able to come to some sort of conclusion with what we're doing there. If we have all the data, have all the information in council, that committee feels like they can move forward and make a decision on that. So that concludes my report at this time. Thank you.

Thank you. Human Resources Committee, Ms. Payne.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. We do not have an item on the agenda this evening and nothing new to report on. Thank you.

Thank you. Parks and Rec Committee, Mr. Barnes.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. We have one item on the agenda, the second reading. As item number three, an ordinance appropriating $15,000 for the Canada Goose Management Services at Yachtanji Park and declaring an emergency when it's time. I will ask the way the three-read rule on that. And I got a couple notes from the last Parks and Rec committee meeting. Some old business. The graffiti wall has been very popular at the skate park. So that's pretty cool. The pool closed on Sunday, August 16th and concluded with a dog swim event. Parks are beginning to work on department budget for 2027. The fall Little League season began on Sunday, August 23rd. In upcoming events for the park, we got Hope Fest in Pullen Park on August 29th, Bark in the Park on September 5th, and Ruck 22 on September 12th. That concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you. Safety Service Committee, Ms. Preston.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. We have no items on the agenda tonight. We did, however, have a committee meeting this evening at 645. It was in regard to the request by the mayor to accept appropriate funds from the Attorney General's Drug Abuse Response Team Grant. And the funds for that were approved and will be appropriated. It helps pay for a licensed social worker that's assigned to the police department. it'll help pay for the costs that the city has already incurred. And that is all I have this evening. Thank you.

Thank you. Unless someone from the Utilities Committee has a report with Mr. McKeever being gone, we'll go ahead and move on to the City Services Committee. Mr. McQuirt.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. I have one item on the agenda tonight. Second reading of an ordinance appropriating funds in the amount of $10,000 for the purchase of downtown Solid waste containers. Other than that, I have nothing else to report. Thank you.

Thank you. Community Affairs Committee, Ms. Bennett.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. We have four items on the agenda this evening. Number two is a second reading for the opioid settlement funds for $40,000 to go to the HOPE Partnership Project. Item number five is $20,000 from the general fund to go to the assistance house of Ross County. Number seven is the first reading from the opioid settlement for 35,000 for Paper City Mentoring Project. Number eight is the first reading from the ordinance from the opioid funds for 100,000 for the Ross County Community Action Center. And that's the end of my report, thank you.

Thank you. I feel like I ought to mention that Mr. McKeever isn't here this evening because his son is coming back to Fuller Hood, and he's helping him get settled down there today. So I didn't want to keep bringing up his name, saying he wasn't here. He's gone for a very good reason. We'll now move to reports of officials. Mayor Feeney.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. I'd like to spend most of my report tonight weighing in on the new agenda item, item 12, the proposed moratorium. And I think what I'll do is just do a little... recap the last couple months and sort of explain how we arrived where we are today with this agenda item. So over the past couple months we have asked the community for questions. We have asked the community about their concerns. We have obviously a committee that is doing its homework on what it would look like if this community had a data center or data centers. That committee has done fine work and we've heard many from many in the community as well as really looked around the state to see what's been happening. with the development of data centers. As a part of that work, and in conjunction with the law director's office and that committee, both the law director and I, along with the committee, recognize that this type of work, this type of law is very unique and specific. And so, as we have in the past on certain items, we retained outside counsel to advise us on our rights as well as a reasonable approach to weigh community concerns, business development concerns, those sorts of things. And so the firm that we've retained, we've worked with in the past and have a good relationship with, they're the same firm that represented us in the Jed development up in Green Township and so we we worked with them and kind of gave them an update of What we know in this community and frankly That is to say, we have not received, the city has not received any applications for any type of data center. An application could be a zoning application, it could be building permits. We haven't received anything on that front. Other questions that came in, a lot of the questions were about the environment. So I spoke to Ohio EPA and as of last week, the Ohio EPA had received no applications for any data centers in this community. So those are a couple of questions that I had and a couple of questions that our legal counsel asked me. Additionally, and significantly, counsel wanted to know about our development code. What does our development code say about data centers? And this is the UDC that we updated here pretty recently. And the UDC is silent to data centers. So what that means is, there's a lot of interpretation if a development code is silent. So if you picked a spot, say you pick a spot like Big Bear in Central Center, and somebody says, I want to put in a zoning application to put a data center in Big Bear. Our zoning code is silent to that, and we would have to navigate where that falls. And so in talking with the attorneys and getting an update of our current situation, the work of the committee, and what we have gathered here. Council recommended to us something that you've probably seen across the state, maybe across the country, and that is that we put in front of city council the opportunity to vote on a moratorium. The document you have in front of you is one that was drafted and then approved after some modification by the law director's office, and the law director may speak to that also this evening. And it is, in my perspective, an opportunity to pause and make sure that our rules when it comes to zoning and our priorities as a community are codified and we have the opportunity to think about those things and make sure that anything that is put in our community is what we want it to be. The 60 days in a city council lifespan is a very short amount of time. You look around the state and you see six months, you see year moratoriums. This council has a little bit of experience with moratorium in that it put in a moratorium related to the expansion of STORES THAT WOULD SELL MARIJUANA. I BELIEVE THAT WAS MAYBE A 12-MONTH MORATORIUM. I BELIEVE IN THIS SITUATION, ESPECIALLY BECAUSE THIS IS COMING IN FRONT OF CITY COUNCIL WITH HASTE, THE 60 DAYS JUST GIVES COUNCIL AN OPPORTUNITY TO PAUSE, TO TALK, TO HAVE TRANSPARENT CONVERSATIONS, AND OPENLY TALK THROUGH WITH ADEQUATE TIME FOR PUBLIC INPUT. adequate time for if a data center wants to come and talk to us, if a developer wants to come and talk to us, put this out in the open, make it transparent, and really be able to talk about what we need to have in place as a community. This isn't pro data center, this isn't anti data center. It's pro-community and pro-community voice. And so I would suspect that through that process there would be a, it's not required in this ordinance, but it would lead to a question of what does the development code need to have to guide us and probably it would speak directly to data centers and and that that is that would be the work of Planning Commission the building department the zoning department City Council, but it would be collaborative And transparent and seek input from any stakeholder who would want to weigh in I'm personally easily in support of this. I think it is it is one of the more pressing questions of our time. There's so many uncertainties around data centers and I think that this allows us as a community a pause to think thoughtfully and talk as a community about What we want for our future and so I'm in support of passage tonight and a robust thorough and probably accelerated conversation about how we map out the future when it comes to this type of development and Pivoting completely, I just want to congratulate downtown Chillicothe for a pretty incredible weekend, sand in the streets. The number of people that were from out of town, this is the first year it's gone three days. The praise that is heaped on this community makes me very proud, and we should all be proud about hosting an event like that and welcoming people to this community and being able to share in a fun event like that. And finally, pivoting one more time, on a sad note, I just want to pass along my condolences to the Villareal family. The law director's mother passed away over the weekend, and I just want to pass on my condolences and thoughts with her family at this time as they deal with the loss of their matriarch. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Now we'll turn to the auditor.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. I am here on behalf of Auditor Sputnagel tonight for a report from our office. We do have two items on the agenda. Item number nine, a first reading for public depositories. We do appreciate the support at that time to waive the three read rule. We also have item number 10 on the agenda. And then I would just add that our mid-year budget recap that we held last meeting is on our website. So that can be reviewed at any time. Also on our website we do have cleargov as well as OHIO CHECKBOOK. CLEARGOV, WE POST OUR CHECKBOOK DATA IN AS CLOSE TO REAL TIME AS POSSIBLE, EXPENDITURES, REVENUE, ALL OF THAT. SO, A GREAT TOOL TO UTILIZE ALL THE TIME. AND LAST WEDNESDAY, WE HELD OUR BUDGET KICKOFF WITH ALL DEPARTMENTS. So soon, Council will be seeing an assignment in preparation for the 2027 budget. This project will take us through the end of the year, and more details will come as the budget process evolves. And finally, I would also like to extend our condolences to the Villareal family. Thank you so very much.

Thank you. Now we'll move to the Law Director's Office. Thank you.

First, I'll certainly let Ana know for kind words. We appreciate that at the office. As far as what's going on with the law director, really same as usual, whether it's civil or criminal, I think this, as far as the data center, ordinance proposal I think that your work I agree that needs to be analytical it needs to be well researched needs to be well applied we strive to do that on on both ends but still got with trials pending and lots of different things going on in the Municipal Court so otherwise as business as usual really thank you thank you

Now we'll move to audience participation. Any person wishing to address the council must first provide his or her name and address. Comments shall be limited to five minutes, and I'll give you a warning when there is one minute remaining.

Okay, there. Okay, yeah. I'm Jeff McCarty. I live on Lundbeck Road, south of town. And what else did I have to say? Okay. Well, I printed this out, and I already have a mistake on it. I threw all this stuff together, and somehow the AI came up that I was a data center infrastructure engineer. I worked in all kinds of data centers, but I didn't design them. I put the equipment in and things, fixed it and whatnot. So, I don't know. I'm not much good at English. That's why I did that. What I did is fix computers for the last 50 years. I retired five years ago, and I just see all this kind of crap that... I've been in data centers all my life, and what I see in the newspaper and what everyone's telling everyone, I don't recognize it. It's not where I was, and I've been in a lot of them. So I guess I'll say, I'll try to read this off here. My name's Jeff McCarty. I own some acreage 2.3 to 3.2 miles from the smokestack south of town. I'm here tonight because I'm deeply concerned about the heavy wave of misinformation surrounding the proposed data center project at the former Chilcot-Paco mill site. I have a unique perspective on this. I worked at the paper mill for a couple summers during college. But from 1976 through 1921, basically every time I went to work to do something, I was in a data center to install a repair system. Unlike many of the individuals speaking publicly on the issue, I have actually spent 45 years working inside numerous data centers across the United States, around the world, including Singapore, India, Japan, the UK, and Hong Kong. frequently well not so frequently a few times visit some of the most largest most concentrated data center campuses in the world in Ashburn and Stirling Virginia that's right at the end of the Dulles Airport runway looks like the planes take off and if they crash it hit them I thought that was not a very good place personally but usually the planes don't crash All the professionals I worked with there were friendly, highly intelligent, and deeply logical. Yeah, we used logic. We didn't come up with a bunch of care tactics. Act crazy. In that case, I was looking around, and I say history has a way of repeating itself. When Chillicothe was the capital of Ohio, the early legislature found it so inhospitable, cold, damp, bad hotels and issues. They didn't want to sleep here. They packed up and moved it to Zanesville. I looked that up and read that somewhere. I said, this sounds like it. Man, as soon as you get a data center, you're all trying to find the law to keep it out. That's what I see. I don't know. I never saw anything much about a data center that was that bad. It looked like a nice, quiet place over there. You didn't want to go inside. It's a little noisy there. Certainly not outside. So I fear if we let fear, apparently that's what they're doing, I call it something else, but if we use that to guide our decisions, we're about to make the same exact mistake. When the paper mill closed, our community collectively prayed for an industry to come and utilize those empty buildings and resources. Now you have one, and we're trying to find some reason to complain about it. So much of the panic data, much of the panic centers on power grid stability and backup generators. It'll apply some logic. Near the city of Chillicothe, now I don't know this for sure. This is just what I heard or come up with. It don't look, it seems like it's right. Near the city of Chillicothe, near the city engineer has jurisdiction over the power grid. As far as I know, the line comes straight from the power station around to the, back to the paper mill. It's the power grid. It's not Chillicothe's power grid. And the power grid people decide how much electric can go. They know how much it holds. I don't think you can make legislation to say how much power there is. You might want to know that the data center is not 10 megawatts, gigawatts, and you only got a 2 megawatt line or a 350 megawatt or something like that. But I don't think you're going to have any legislation for that. The site is served by PJM interconnection regional transmission grid, which spans 13 states and manages the power line capacity with extreme precision. PJM will size it properly. Furthermore, the high voltage power line, which goes across my property supplying the paper mill, was built back in 1952. I said it was never failed and AI has not argued with me. It said there was a .001 failure rate or something like that. Oh, okay. Well, you can read the rest if I don't finish. So I guess I'd say that's where I'm at there. The main thing is the power line's been up for 52 years, and they've been in maintenance, but if this data center was there, the likelihood's not that the generator's probably not going to run. They will have to have monthly, they do run every week for an hour or something like that for normal maintenance to test and all that stuff. Next thing, the big one, is the rumors about water consumption. Now, everything I can see, the water may use 26 to 30 million gallons a day. That's way more than any data center's ever going to think about. Special if they're closed loop, they don't hardly use any. They'll still use a little bit, I think it looks like, but most of the stuff no one knows until you talk to the data center people. If I describe that there, I'll let you read that. The noise, I mean, every data center, well, the noise, I drive by there every day. There used to be Big trucks, jake breaking and everything else going down through there, long trucks dragging around. Paper mill made all kinds of noise. People that come here from other places 1,500 feet away couldn't sleep for a long time from the noise from the paper mill. If you don't make that noise now, the data center's not going to make any noise near that noise. Now, I have a little chart there.

Thank you. I know you presented the information. Appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

Hi, my name is Jamie Brown. I live at 98 Douglas Avenue. First want to celebrate Kathy's moratorium. That's great news. It helps me make this more concise. I want to pivot a little bit, but most of my statements will have value. I want to say that I'm ambivalent about data centers. mostly as a neurodivergent person, large language models have offered me a level of competitiveness that typically is not available to disabled or mentally ill people. And so I've benefited from the technologies that are growing from the access of data centers. But I am at heart an obnoxious egalitarian. I am a person that believes, I'll give an example, this roundabout in front of the high school. I buy the notion and the data. Roundabouts make people safer, they do. I've seen the data, I'm convinced. They lower fatal crashes that involve fatalities. But people don't want them. Four years ago, I was very obnoxious, and I said, people don't know what's good for them. Health people, we're going to put roundabouts wherever we can. I have since come around to a new understanding. I don't think that we should do for people what they don't want done to them, especially if we take egalitarianism seriously. If we believe in democracy, then democracy should prevail. I do think that there is this Republican argument, and Republic as in we are a republic, not my conservative friends, but we are a republic. And there's a way to see our country as a place where, well, we elect officials, and then those officials do what they want to do. We trust them. That's tactically right. You all can do whatever you want. We elect you. You can do whatever you want. I believe in egalitarianism, though. I believe in a pure egalitarianism. I think we have a lot of systems that aren't egalitarian, like the United States Senate. It's a very unfair, undemocratic committee. Having said that, I'm an annoying egalitarian. What do I mean by that? I got several calls this week. Jamie, I know you say roundabouts are safe, but it has been miserable this week. I saw videos. I saw people celebrating. I'm with you. I do think the school is safer. And I know statistically speaking, we're going to save, we'll probably save people's lives if at the very least we will save vendor vendors. But people hate it. People standing in line, they hate it. Their kids are late to school, they hate it. Very rational people, less annoying people than me calling me and saying, Jamie, I know you say they're safe. I don't understand it. And I stopped trying to be condescending to them. And I just say, man, that sucks. I want to get back to the data centers. I appreciate all the experts. I really do. What I'm struggling with, we haven't hired a person that's anti-data center yet. I want you all to look at these logos here. I told you I was ambivalent about data centers. I just AI'd all the logos. They're all pro-data center. It's weird, isn't it? this conference here that we're sending council folks to. How much time do I have? 15. A minute 15. Kevin Shoemaker is the president of City Council. He also is the counsel for Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative, or SODI. SODI is involved in redeveloping for former Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plant near Piketon. That is the same site where SB Energy is developing a massive data center project that the United States Department of Energy has described as the world's largest artificial intelligence data center. DOE even featured Kevin's bona fides in its coverage of that project. I'm not alleging any wrongdoing here. I'm making a much simpler point. I think Kevin has run two campaigns now for city council president, and I brand those elections with him as well, as many of you did, and I don't remember a single time that that connection was brought up in any meaningful conversation. I think one of the things I'm trying to highlight here, there's a lot going on. It's complex, SODI, DOE, ports, SB Energy, land redevelopment, public private partnerships, data centers, megawatt this, megawatt that. Most people have families and jobs and they don't understand all of this. We need, and I want to make sure I get this out. We need an anti-data center lawyer. A lawyer, an advocacy group, that's anti-data center. We have pro-data center people. We have enough on council. Let's get an anti, hire an anti. One minute left. I'm going to duke it out. I have one minute.

Yeah, I'm going to give you an extra minute.

I appreciate that. I won't use the whole thing. And I want to be clear. Like, even the... What is it, the Bricker, Graydon, Wyatt? We went home. We felt, oh, we hired outside counsel. And then we went home, and it was like, oh, wait. Sounds like they bring data centers to the communities. They're winning data center projects. And again, here's the piece I want to get to. Maybe council considers all these things. Hire an anti-data center person. Have them go against these pro-data center people. And if you all decide that putting a data center here is the best decision, go ahead and just tell us. Say you did due diligence. I just, the egalitarian piece, I lost two elections, so it's very comfortable for me to say this. I'm egalitarian. 70% of Americans don't want them. They don't want the roundabouts. I'm glad you put the roundabouts in. I think they're going to make children safer. But you should take the heat for the roundabouts, even if they are the right thing to do. Hear people out. Let them be angry. That's just dirty, dirty democracy, right? It's uncomfortable, and it sucks, and I appreciate your time. And we all miss John Thacker, so send him your well wishes and get well soon.

Thank you. If there's no one else for audience participation, we'll now move to old business. Is there any? Hello. OK, go ahead.

Hello, everyone. How are you? I'm glad to see you here. I've been here the last two, Mayor Fannie. i will start off by saying good evening i'm here again as a mother guardian video victim advocate and community member following up on serious public safety concerns that i have previously brought before this council i have already provided information concerning reported sexual exploitation and trafficking Multiple victims and witnesses, reporting barriers, police report concerns, civil protection order enforcement and leads issues, which is the system that, you know, I was told that the Ross County Sheriff Department handles entering those into the system by officers. They made me aware of that issue, that they were not entered in, not one time, not two times, not three times, but four times, not correct on Joseph A. Steele. or Navin Hardio. Retaliation and intimidation concerns and requests for appropriate and dependent oversight. My purpose tonight is not to repeat every detail. My question is much simpler. What action has been taken since these concerns were formally brought before the City Council and who is responsible for ensuring that these documented public safety concerns receive appropriate review? i have submitted follow-up questions and received not i haven't received any meaningful response yet but i'm sure you guys are very busy with doing lots of other things and i'm not even though i was the president of the ross county reentry coalition the vice president of the ross county rancher coalition i've been on many boards here as far as the city council goes i do not have that experience to know like hey when we come and ask you when are you supposed to you know respond and i really don't fully understand that um i grew up you know my dad was in prison most my life i i'm the first person to graduate high school my mom or dad's whole family um So the education I have that I'm very intelligent on would be like mental health, dental hygiene. I have a dental hygiene degree as well. I use that to get off welfare and then got my master's degree in counseling. So those things I'm very smart on. But you ask me about football rules, don't know nothing about it. If you ask me about this type of political stuff, my kids, they know more about that than I do, especially her. So excuse me if I ask or say something that I might not fully understand and educate me on that. But when I ask questions, I might want to know what the process is. I'll segue and say Mayor Feeney, I don't really know him from Adam, but I think, is your wife a runner too? So I think whenever Black Lives Matter was happening, Claire Freed had started like a group in the park, and we had ran, and I think I may have ran into her there. And then I ran into him at Paper City, and he encouraged me to run a marathon. Because I was telling him I was practicing my first one. And he's like, well, Leisha, he said, anybody can run a half marathon, but not everybody can run a full one. I had already ran six by that time, six half marathons. And I took him very seriously because I knew he was a runner. And I only say that because it did encourage me. And that inspired me to run my full marathon. And when I ran my full one, I injured the side of my foot. And so I've never ran a full one since. But I did finish it. And I appreciate your encouragement. And, you know, also, one day I woke up. I don't remember exactly what it was. Maybe a couple years ago. And God had shown me this vision of a silent protest. And I'm like, I started looking it up. And to make a long story short, there was this silent protest that's in our history on that particular date. And I'm like, I don't know if I should be doing that. And I'm like, okay, so let me call some advocates and people that I know and come to find out. I wanted to be obedient to what the call that God had put on me in that vision. And I realized you can't just do that. You've got to go to the mayor. You've got to set this up. You've got to talk to people. And so myself and Stacey Hazleton went and met with Mayor Finney, and he was very supportive. It was uncomfortable for me because I really just wasn't comfortable with it. But I knew that God had a vision and a purpose for it, so I went ahead and did it, and I was obedient. And God honors our obedience when we do those things. And so, you know, and I just want to make it clear.

You've got one minute.

I've prayed and fasted for all my children, and I knew something was wrong. There's six people on this council that know enough about me to know that if this happened to my child, I am telling you, these kids, these teenagers, these adults will look you straight in the face and tell you, That's my best friend. They've never done anything to me because of the fear so I'll go on and say What action has been taken and how can we get these follow-up questions that I'm going to submit? To get more information because silence does not resolve the underlying safety concerns victims Witnesses families and this community does deserve a transparent process for determining who is responsible for addressing them so I'm respectfully requesting a written response to the questions and concerns previously submitted and identification of the appropriate independent oversight and investigative authority, assurance that evidence reports, recordings, and related records are being preserved and appropriately reviewed by the appropriate persons, leader, personnel, and oversights, and clear safeguards for victims, witnesses, and individuals reporting information in good faith. I will continue documenting and using the appropriate local, state, and federal channels until these concerns have meaningful review. Before I finish, I want to say, you know, I talked to you, I emailed you on January 5th about, Mayor Fannie, about because of the running I'm like you know I'm going to reach out to him and say there's five victims related to five of your officers here four victims related to five of your officers here could we at least have a meeting and talk about how we're going to handle this how we're going to support each other that's why I reached out to you because I felt like I had a little personal connection I'm like I'd do the same for anybody else and he said I have to do an initiated pro call this is an initiated pro call I'm going to handle that that way If you can tell me, is there anything that you did with that, or do I just need to follow up with you again? Because now we have CPO issues. We have violations. We have these people that's been free since November.

I've given you a little extra time.

Last thing I want to say is just a very positive thing. Before I finish, I want to remember that this is ultimately about people in our community, not politics, positions, or reputations. I pray for every leader in this room, over every law enforcement officer in our city, every victim and survivor, every witness, every family affected, and every person involved in these crimes for the full deliverance and healing. May God give each of us wisdom, courage, discernment, protection, and integrity to do what's right, even when doing what is right is difficult. May the truth come forward, may those who have been harmed receive healing and justice, and may our city become safer because of those who choose to confront difficult issues rather than look away.

Thank you. I would only add no one's ever accused me of being a runner. Are there any other comments from anyone?

Hi, I just said my name right? Okay, awesome. Hi, I'm Haitha. I was born and raised in this community and I wanted to talk to you guys tonight about the human trafficking issue as well from my perspective. Many of you know me as a business owner here. I see many familiar faces. Lovely to see all of you. You may know me as an RCCA graduate, a film producer, a Paper City Mentoring Project mentee, or a photographer. First off, thank you for being here. Thank you for being present and being active in the community. I really appreciate all of you. I rooted for a lot of you when you ran. And yeah, I wish I was here under better circumstances, but I'm here to talk about the growing human trafficking issue in our community. For reference, I'm a college student. I've been visiting Chill Coffee since the summer. Since being home, I have been followed by two men on four separate occasions, including when leaving Paper City Coffee, Roast Coffee, Brick Haven Spa, Carl's Townhouse, or Yachtanji Park, my own neighborhood, and multiple places on Western Avenue. These men are the same people responsible for trafficking at least 14 survivors in our community that are not willing to speak presently due to their safety concerns. Many of you have children. Many of you want your child to grow up to do great things, be better people, and know that you did the best to raise them. I ask the council, what if it was your child? What if your child was taken from their home, coerced into doing things they did not want to, was stalked, was raped, was beaten, threatened their voice, and entirely stolen to a point that they cannot tell anyone and feared for their lives? To my knowledge, at least the last three council meetings that I have been here, there has been at least one individual who has spoken on human trafficking issues within this community with two or more predators of active records dating back to the 90s. What has been done since then? I would love to know. Does anybody have an answer to that? We need to keep working on that. So I'm sorry if I am not worried about the fire hydrant that somebody wants to remove from the front of their home or the construction on Bridge Street, because this is a true issue that is harming multiple people in our community, most prominently children. If you thought that the Vanishing Women documentary years ago in this community was bad, I assure you that these crimes that these predators have committed against men, women, and children are horrific, disgusting, vile, and something no human should have to endure. I'm not able to express the details of this case with you, but I can tell you I have seen photos. I have seen videos. I saw one of the predators yesterday. He has followed me around in my neighborhood, and he has raped people that I know. And there is so much evidence. There's no way that you can possibly deny it. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here speaking with you tonight. My call to action is to assure that city services are monitored, and that starts by assuring that everyone is present, everyone in this room is present on Monday, September 7th at the next council meeting where multiple representatives of survivors will be here. The next thing that I am asking is if it's in the council's right, I would like to encourage you guys to initiate background checks on officers in the Chillicothe Sheriff's Department effective immediately, including any communication they've had with those two men. Their names are Joseph A. Steele and Navin Pardio, and every single person in this town should know their names. Why don't you have faith in the police department? Let's not forget this is the same town where our sheriff called the child the N-word less than two years ago. The same people that have been beaten, covered up, and the things that they have done within this community, which I have body cam footage of from four different incidents. Next, I expect your full support and advocacy for the issue to be resolved as soon as possible because I do not want to come back here in December and see that no action has been taken like no action has been taken in the past six weeks that I've been here. I know what you can do is limited so I kindly ask at the next council meeting all of you are sure that everyone is present because these things are not easy to do on their own. We may not be able to shut down human trafficking as a whole, but we can certainly apprehend the two people that are doing it in our community right now. And I trust that after hearing your thoughts on this, your advocacy and responsibility to do so, the action will be taken. Thank you so much for your time. I thank you for hearing this story. And I want to assure once more that every person in this town knows the names of Joseph A. Steele and Navin Hardio, and that they should be apprehended because they have sexually abused and raped children from Portsmouth, Waverly, Columbus, Circleville, and most of all, Chillicothe, and have committed crimes further than that that I'm not allowed to speak of. Those have been shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as of November 4th, 2025, when I was at university. Do you want to be remembered as the city council that failed 22,000 people by not protecting its children from sexual violence and coercion? Or do you want to be remembered as the council that put in every effort to stop the issue before it was too late? Thank you for your time, and if you need anything, I am more than happy to provide further testimony. I'm happy to share videos, photos, or any evidence that I have also shared with the FBI Victim Response Team since November of 2025.

just PS I also do not support the data center thank you hi David white 179 Church Street I'd like to encourage the Parks and Recreation Committee to Follow the Ohio public open meetings law and provide notice of any committee meetings. I've requested previously here in council, I've requested through correspondence to be provided notification of those meetings. If I've missed notification of the most recent meeting, my apologies, but I've been looking for that and I think I missed that. Also, if Council intends to adopt any emergency legislation this evening, I would encourage compliance with the Ohio Code in identifying a specific necessity for emergency legislation as well as specific reasons particular to that particular legislation for any of the items on this evening's agenda. That concludes my remarks, thank you.

Thank you. Now, if there is no other audience participation, we'll move on to old business. Is there any old business to come before council? Hearing none, are there any petitions or correspondence?

Thank you, President Shoemaker. I've not received anything.

Is there any new business to come before council? Hearing none, we'll move on to the reading of ordinances and resolutions.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. This evening we have 12 items on our agenda. Item number one is the second reading of an ordinance appropriating funds in the amount of $10,000 for the purchase of downtown solid waste containers.

The ordinance will move to the next agenda, the next ordinance.

Number two is the second reading of an ordinance appropriating one Ohio opioid settlement funds in the amount of $40,000 for the benefit of the Hope Partnership Project.

Ordinance will move to the next agenda. Next ordinance.

Item number three is the second reading of an ordinance appropriating $15,000 for Canada Goose Management Services at Yaktangy Park and declaring an emergency.

President Shoemaker.

Mr. Barnes.

I'd like to make a motion to waive the three-read rule on this.

There's a second by Ms. Preston. The clerk will call the roll relative to the waiver of the three-read rule.

Bennett. Yes. Payne. Yes. McCourt. Yes. Barnes.

Yes.

Dement. Yes. Preston. Yes. Dunn. Yes. Creed.

Yes.

The three read rule is waived. The clerk will call the roll relative to the ordinance.

Bennett. Yes. Payne. Yes. McCourt. Yes. Barnes. Yes. Dement.

Yes.

Preston. Yes. Dunn. Yes. Creed. Yes.

Yes.

Ordinance is adopted. Next ordinance.

Item number four is the second reading of an ordinance appropriating $12,240 for the installation of a replacement gas monitor probe at the closed Cine Road landfill.

Ordinance will move to the next agenda. Next ordinance.

Item number five is the second reading of an ordinance appropriating $20,000 from unappropriated general funds to provide funding to the Assistance House of Ross County.

Ordinance will move to the next agenda. Next ordinance.

Item number six is the first reading of a resolution authorizing the mayor to negotiate with the owners of the Folk Block located at 14 South Paint Street for the lease of space for city council chambers, meeting rooms, and office space, including terms related to necessary renovations and build-out costs.

The resolution will move to the next agenda, the next ordinance.

Item number seven is the first reading of an ordinance appropriating one Ohio opioid settlement funds in the amount of $35,000 to the Paper City Mentoring Project.

The ordinance will move to the next agenda, next ordinance.

Item number eight is the first reading of an ordinance appropriating one Ohio opioid settlement funds in the amount of $100,000 to the Ross County Community Action Commission.

The ordinance will move to the next agenda. Next ordinance.

Item number nine is the first reading of an ordinance designating public depositories for the active and interim deposits of the city of Chillicothe in accordance with chapter 135 of the Ohio Revised Code, repealing ordinance number 6521 and declaring an emergency. Mr. Creed.

President Shoemaker, I'd like to make a motion to waive the three-read rule, please.

Second by Ms. Bennett. The clerk will call the roll relative to the waiver of the three-read rule.

Bennett. Yes. Payne. Yes. McCourt. Yes. Barnes. Yes. DeMint. Yes. Preston. Yes. Dunn. Yes. Creed.

Yes. The three read rule is waived. The clerk will call the roll relative to the ordinance.

Bennett. Yes. Payne. Yes. McCourt.

Yes.

Barnes.

Yes.

DeMint.

Yes.

Preston. Yes. Dunn. Yes.

Creed.

Yes.

Ordinance is adopted. Next ordinance.

Item number 10 is the first reading of an ordinance authorizing the city auditor to reallocate appropriated funds between salary and fringe benefit line items within the same fund for the remainder of calendar year 2026.

The ordinance will move to the next agenda. Next ordinance.

Item number 11 is the first reading of an ordinance accepting and appropriating $5,183 in program income from the Ohio Regional Development Corporation for recording costs associated with the release of a mortgage and declaring an emergency.

Mr. Creed.

President Shoemaker, I'd like to make a motion to waive the three-year rule, please.

Is there a second? Second by Ms. Payne. Clerk will call the roll relative. The waiver of the three-read rule.

Bennett? Yes. Payne? Yes. McCourt? Yes. Barnes? Yes. DeMint? Yes. Preston? Yes. Dunn? Yes. Creed?

Yes.

The three-read rule is waived. The clerk will call the roll relative to the ordinance.

Bennett? Yes. Payne? Yes. McCourt? Yes. Barnes? Yes. DeMint?

Yes.

Preston? Yes. Dunn? Yes. Creed?

Yes.

Ordinance is adopted. Next ordinance.

Item number 12 is the first reading of an ordinance establishing a moratorium on the acceptance and issuance of zoning permits and approvals for new data center uses in the city of Chillicothe and declaring an emergency. Ms. Dunn?

President Shoemaker, I would like to see us waive their three reading rule and pass this tonight. Because of the complex issue, we need to study.

Second by Mr. Barnes. Clerk will call the roll relative to the waiver of the three read rule.

Bennett. Yes. Payne. Yes. McQuirt. Yes. Barnes. Yes. Dement. Yes. Preston. Yes. Dunn. Yes. Creed.

Yes.

Three read rule was waived. The clerk will call the roll relative to the ordinance.

Bennett. Yes. Payne. Yes. McCourt. Yes. Barnes. Yes. Dement. Yes. Preston. Yes. Dunn. Yes. Creed.

Yes.

Ordinance is adopted. If there's nothing else to come before council tonight, I would accept a motion to adjourn. Motion by Mr. McCourt, second by Mr. Dement. Clerk will call the roll.

Bennett. Yes. Payne. Yes. McCourt. Yes. Barnes.

Yes.

Dement? Yes. Preston? Yes. Dunn? Yes. Creed?

Yes.

We are adjourned. Thank you very much.

I can't recognize what I see. I've been there, and I know something about them. I've walked into one before. I passed the security.