City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to public comment. We have quite a few speakers today, and so I'm going to call you up three at a time for folks who are new to public comment. When I call your name or excuse me, when it's your time to speak, you will see a green light on the dais there. You have two minutes total. When you start speaking, your time will begin. At the one-minute mark, halfway, you'll see the yellow light. Don't stop speaking. It's just an indication that you have one more minute. When you see the red light and hear a beep, that's your time. Here at Council, we try to be fair to everyone, and so we do manage the timing strictly so that everyone gets two minutes, no more and no less. I will call up three at a time, so when you hear your name, please come to the dais and take a seat. When you're finished speaking, if you could exit so someone else could come and speak. Thank you all so much for being here. We really appreciate it. Our first three speakers are, the first speaker has been asked to be referred to as Not Dim Part Two. Our second speaker is Howard I can't make out your last name, Howard, but you live... Okay, perfect. And then a third person to please come up is Mary Rook. Wonderful. Not Dim Part Two, you're first. Welcome.

Thank you. I'm Captain Roper, retired from the Fire department are medically separated. I'm here to shed light on the things that has happened to me. There's an illustration, do not put your light under a basket, but sit your light on top of a table, let it shine. So I want to shed some light on some of the things that we've experienced inside the city of Cincinnati. First, I want to point to this grandiose room that we have. It's beautiful, but it's like a cup that's clean on the outside, but when you get inside, it's not clean. That's what I experienced in the city of Cincinnati with the injustice, the bullying and harassment that I experienced within the city that I reported to each one here on this council, the mayor, the vice mayor, president, even the city manager. So justice, as we see displayed there, should be balanced. We have that prominently displayed in these chambers. but it's not been enacted according to civil service administrative regulations, HRPP. It's imbalanced toward city leadership, not holding them accountable and responsible for their actions. I ask that city governors really take an important look at city leadership, department heads, and how they hold their subordinates responsible for their actions. This is something serious. If we don't have good internal customer service, how can we help the community in which we serve? Bullying is ICC, ICE, I call it, incompetent, cruel, and we need to take a look at each of those and how department heads are handling their departments. It starts with governors. It seems like you're the president of this city, so to speak, with the city manager as well as the vice manager. Then we have the judicial, which is the legal department. Then we have Congress, which is our city council. You hold rank over department heads and exercising your authority to make sure they're held accountable for their actions. I ask that you revisit the emails I sent you, the actions. I was improperly medically separated from the fire department without cause. I ask you to take a look at that. Hold city leaders and department heads responsible for their actions. I have asked city leaders to take a look at the example of David and Goliath. What happened to those who thought they were so lost that they couldn't follow? And Nebuchadnezzar, those who- Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Stanford Poole, if you could please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Howard Vaughn. Welcome, sir.

Good afternoon, all you dignitarians here. And as you know, I want to thank you, Mayor, all heartily, for standing up for me when all the other nine didn't. And five of them know me personally, Michelle Kearney, all of y'all, and I was hoping y'all would stand up for me. But the thing about it is, everybody know I work down here. And you're going to say I never worked down here. You can't do that. I taught the mayor karate, the whole city hall karate, and y'all know that. I'm in the Hall of Fame for boxing and karate. Nobody ever had that. I mean, you're giving all these guys street names and all that. I ain't nearly did as much as I did. Working with these kids, I done worked with more kids than anybody in this city. And right now, I'm in 200 countries. Look it up. Taekwondo, karate. And they know me. Now, I'm hoping that y'all help me do something with these kids, since y'all not giving my money yet. And I'll teach these kids, but I ain't got the money to teach them. Every day, parents say, will you teach my kids karate? But I'm not working down here anymore. But I do want to thank you, Mayor, and Lincoln Ware for helping me. But right now, the VA owe me money. Social Security owe me money. The city owe me money. Over in Ramney owe me money. You know, Marvin Butts wasn't even down there. I had a store down there, and they done put $2 million in that store on 12th Street. Y'all know it. I had the building across from the soccer stadium, and I'm hoping I can get that back. They selling that for $2 million. So I just thank you, Mayor, for doing what you're doing and linking where. But it's all going to come out in the open. I mean, it's insane what I'm going through. But I appreciate you, Mayor, for helping me. And I really want to talk to you. Ken Blackwood want to talk to you, too. solve some solutions here in this city. You said you want to meet him. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. If we could have Dara Shah, Hepabal, I apologize, ma'am. Mary Rook, you're next. Welcome.

Just start?

Yeah. Okay.

So I'm addressing issue 123 and 124. On 123, the building infrastructure, I highly recommend a tour of Miami University, which is eliminating their last fossil fuel powered energy system for steam power in their buildings. They have two geothermal plants and a huge bank of solar, which is now providing a lot of this energy system for that university. I also wanted to let you know that there are a number of nonprofit environmental groups. I'm part of Taking Root. You're talking about green infrastructure. We got a grant from the Bell Foundation to build four mini forests. which will do water remediation, air filtration, and soil protection. And then the last part is encouraging a halt on the Brent Spence Bridge until that full environmental study is completed. It was only a partial environmental study. Thank you.

Thanks very much. If we could have Julie Murray please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Stanford Poole. Welcome, sir.

Well, let's get this straight. This administration do not like black and brown people and anybody else that don't have money. You're geared towards the rich people, and you're constantly doing dumb stuff. Y'all got a bunch of dumb decisions that you keep on doing. And you figure everybody else that vote for you dumb, they don't see it. You guys are a failure. From that corner to that corner. The new guy, he got some room to follow up. But the rest of y'all, the black ones won't do nothing for the people, and the white ones won't do nothing for the people. Campaign zero. You're trying to get rid of that. You know that 80% blacks will stop compared to 17. And then you say you didn't know nothing about it. You get the flood. You said the gates worked fine, but you lied about that. It should be a law that you lie to the public, the taxpayers, on a regular basis and do nothing. Right now, you're putting speed bumps up, and 85% of your streets are raggedy. They're already a speed bump. You don't need another speed bump. They're raggedy, got holes. And then you need to not fix downtown until you fix the plumbing. or the streets. Then you go down there and put a hotel down there where you can bring people in. And if they come here, they got nowhere to go. Got no entertainment or nothing. And y'all up there trying to build up something about the Olympics, and you don't even qualify to be Olympic-qualified city. So stop being dumb and making dumb decisions and then giving money out to the Port Authority, DC3, $4 million to DC3C. You said they ain't buying it, but you put $4 million on our money, and they put a million. Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much. So that's stupid. If we could have Gary Favors please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Darisha. Welcome.

That's good enough. I want to thank you all for listening to me today. I have been asking for this proposal for a cannabis, legal cannabis. Cannabis is already there. I'm just hoping you all will help make it legal in Bond Hill. I was told to address this issue with somebody from the vice mayor or the mayor's office. I spoke with that young man one time, and I've been calling and calling ever since the last meeting we had here. I wouldn't be here today if I was able to communicate with that person. But somebody from Mr. Jeffrey's office has been helping me with this checking these young people's background to see if they can be employed at this cannabis store. We want them off the corner. And these are good workers. They work in rain, shine, snow, or sleet. And I witness it every day from the store where I am. We have somebody to take the license for this legal cannabis store. And since I've been doing this, getting these petitions, which I've sent to all of your offices today, petitions that we're going to get more of, as you can see, and they're giving me feedback on wasting my time. I don't have time to waste. I'm 75 earth years. So I don't have time to waste. I want to help these young men and women on that corner. They need rehabilitation. They can't get jobs. When they go and get jobs, you need to come and talk with these young people. When they go and get jobs, they check their backgrounds. If they have something less than a felony, nobody hire them. And the ones who hire them, they know they have a record, so they push them around, give them a hard time. and then they're back out on the street. It's like a vicious circle. I have a relative who's a police officer retiring this year. He said, this has been, he said, Auntie, don't waste your time.

Thank you, Miss. Thank you very much. If we could have Janine Enneking, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Julie. Welcome.

Thank you Mayor Pureval and City Council members for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today. I've been a member of St. Francis Parish on the corner of Liberty and Vine and have volunteered at the Teresa Calcutta Dining Room. When the friars decided to sell all their properties on that block and close our church, we were all heartbroken. I was shocked to see the news that was announced on July 13th, that the city provided three CDC, $4 million of our tax money to help them become the owners of this entire block. While I appreciate the fact that this will mean that St. Anthony Center will continue to offer its crucial service services to those in OTR who are unhoused and hungry and in need of so much. I'm here to express my strong concern that as this was announced, 3CDC will help the city with site selection and development of a city-owned center of care to provide these crucial services. I plead with you all to assure us that the new site will continue to be in Over the Rhine or the nearby West End, and you will promise to engage all the organizations that currently serve the most needy in a consensus on where this site will be located and not use this purchase to exile those in need to the Queensgate area, a barren, ugly, industrial area that would take these folks 40 minutes to walk to.

Thank you, Miss. Our next speaker to the dais is Eugene Brown. Gary favors. Welcome.

Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor and members of council. My name is Gary favors. I appreciate the opportunity to speak this afternoon. I I'm here as a concerned citizen regarding the city's recent purchase of the former Franciscan owned properties on Liberty street using taxpayer dollars and the decision to transfer those properties to 3CDC for the proposed social service resource hub. Let me be clear, this is not about a lack of compassion for those experiencing homelessness or struggling with addiction or mental illness. Every person deserves dignity and access to service. However, compassion must also be extended to the hundreds of children who attend St. Francis Serif School directly across the street. For some time now, the school community has already been dealing with serious public safety and quality of life concerns. Students have witnessed individuals defecating on public sidewalks within sight of the school. They have encountered people lying unconscious. on the sidewalks during the school day, leaving parents and staff to wonder whether those individuals were sleeping, suffering a medical emergency, or experiencing an overdose. These are not isolated concerns or exaggerated fears. The school has felt compelled to install tarps around sections of the fence simply to shield children from witnessing additional inappropriate and disturbing behaviors occurring in the public. Photographs documenting these conditions will be submitted as public records. In closing, taxpayer-funded property acquisition, this means...

Thank you, sir. If Robert Fant could please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Janine. Welcome.

Good afternoon. I am the principal of St. Francis Serif School, located at the corner of Liberty, Vine, and Moore Street. My concern here is strictly 100% for the safety of my students and my school. We have homeless people on our streets in front. Let me just name a few things that our students walk through every single day to get to school. Homeless students, drug deals. There's a big deal going down today. A big shipment came in the shell today. It's very, very busy down there. Drug abuse, oral sex, crack pipes, crack heads going through the cracks, picking up the crack pipes. Drug deals, open-air drug deals, flashing themselves as we would walk to church in the morning, laying there, defecation, urination. My concern is my safety of my students. What are you doing to protect my students?

Mayor, you were at my school in the fall.

You came, you saw, you were surprised. The only thing I got from that was the connection to Cincinnati Police Captain and District One, which I already have connections to because I've hired a retired CPD officer of 33 years to protect my school and my students. We have shootings at Grand Park that directed, affected our school, nothing. Crickets. I have a lockdown because it's the OK Corral on Walnut Street at Dismissal, as well as on McMicken Street. Crickets from you guys. What are you going to do to keep my students safe? 100%, that's my concern.

Thank you. Rico Blackman, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Eugene.

Yes, my name is Eugene Brown. I'm a citizen of the city of Cincinnati for years. I have property at 1734 Republican Street, and basically it's a lot. And I came down this weekend for the festivities that was going on and noticed that somebody put a fence up across my property without notifying me, without letting me know. I guess it's the city or whoever it may be, but that's definitely wrong to me if I had anything fractional or anything wrong. Why won't the city say, hey, send a letter, hey, this was wrong. I come down and there's a fence up. I've been paying taxes on it for over 15 years. What's the problem? So can anybody tell me who put the fence up there? And then if they did, how come they didn't notify me? Why everything got to be a secret when you're trying to hurt somebody for some odd reason? What's the problem? That's what I can't understand with the city. I ain't got nothing to hide. I mean, they fined me before for not cutting the grass, but they was wrong for that, because I had cut the grass. And they had to back off and say, OK, we saw it. But nobody came to notify me about offense. Can anybody up there tell me why I finished up there? Where I'm supposed to go? Anybody tell me? Hey, you're supposed to go here. We put a fence up. Anybody know?

Sir, are you finished?

No, I'm not finished. I'm looking for an answer from one of y'all. Nobody know?

The only reason I ask is because we try to give you your full two minutes, and then we can direct you to someone who can answer your question. That's what you do then. Perfect. Chaka, do you mind helping the gentleman here answer that question? Thank you very much. Is Rico Blackman in the audience? If so, please come to the dais. Jerry Coach, also please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Robert Fant, welcome.

Hello, City Hall, City Council. I'm dealing with a very non-complicated issue.

Mr. Fant, if you could speak into the mic. I apologize.

I'm sorry about that. I'm dealing with a non-complicated issue. Understand this. A relationship to a paraplegic is called a PA, called a RPA. This is theoretical. The framework of forensic psychologists explain that a paraplegic perpetrator and the stalking behavior of a suggested offender using intense sexual fantasy and atypical attachment to a parasitic relationship with a preselected victim and escalates into violence. Target selection. Perpetrators often develop deep, avid features, relationship attachments to victims. There are the fantasies The fantasies come before real-world contact or consent ever occurs. Okay, let's go to the next page. Fictitious disorder. This is something that the police engaged in. Sexual rape has nothing to do with the victim. It has everything to do with the perpetrator's selection pattern. I'm a victim of this. The police, instead of them doing their job, they did not. They lied to Scott Johnson. They lied to Scott Johnson. And Scott Johnson will have to testify to that. I gave each and every one of you a copy of this brochure, of this pamphlet. Go to American Investigation of DNA. It will actually show you every piece of evidence in my testimony written out. that allows you to use this booklet to actually go through each and every investigator. Charlene Morton tried to break through my HIPAA rights to protect Anthony Filacci from a failed investigation. This pamphlet also contains a rape of a toddler and a nonverbal autistic. Detective Filacci.

Thank you, sir. Christina W. Camp, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Rico Blackman. Welcome, sir. Mr. Blackman, if you could start, please.

Good afternoon, council and mayor. I'm Rico Blackman from the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition. And I'm here to speak on behalf and with the Williamsburg Residents Association. So I'm very thankful that you all have called for an emergency regarding the flooding that happened about a month ago. But we have an emergency within the housing realm. We are losing people to evictions. We are losing people to poor, unaffordable housing here in the city of Cincinnati. And one clear example is the Williamsburg Apartments up in Hartwell. We have 976 units there. Nearly 1,000 people live at Williamsburg. Yet we have folks who are dealing dealing with rent increases above $500. I'll repeat, above $500, mainly due to junk fees. Spectrum, water, sewage, all these different issues that are being placed on the backs of tenants who used to pay $976 at Williamsburg. This is unacceptable. And I know that some of you are working on that legislation right now, but we call on you to make that legislation right now. We are calling for an end to junk fees. We are calling for an end of slumlords in our city of Cincinnati. We have way too many people, way too many black people, way too many black women who are dealing with this issue and are suffering because there is no help out there. So please consider a junk fees ordinance. have the backs of tenants in Williamsburg, have the backs of tenants of the city of Cincinnati, and let's make housing affordable in our city once again.

Thank you. John Altman, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Jerry Coach. Welcome.

Greetings, Mayor, Council, City Manager. I'm here today for a couple of things. Number one is our CCA. Our CCA is backlogged. I went to a day meeting Monday, about a investigation report that we want to complete. Mayor, I have to use an example for you because I believe they still have a double standard going on in there. My investigation was about a cop using the F word at least four times. OK, the report came back written real softly. So I asked them, what did the mayor do with Burr Winkle when he dropped out of F bombs? Well, why is this report written up as if the F bomb is OK? I'll leave that in your hands, sir. But the next thing is I have a report with O'Gore right now, y'all. There's an officer of interest. She resigned when the investigation started. She's now back hired now that the investigation ended. The case number is 25134. I'm asking that somebody could help me be sure that I could get an impartial investigation in this. I've done all my work, so I can show if it's impartial or not. Please help me with this. I left all of this with each one of you all. Finally, the last thing I'm here for, y'all, no it ain't. When I went to the police station to check out some body cam, they got about eight lockers at District 1. On about the sixth one, it's a sign this big. It say, snitches get stitches. We don't need them type cops in this city. So y'all, please address that. Finally, with this business that y'all got going on, man, I hate to even come like this, but I'm looking at all these people back here. I watch build their businesses and stuff. I see what it's about to do to it. Imagine if I'd have called the police at UDF when I saw somebody up here, children in the car by they self. Imagine if I'd have called the police today when I saw somebody up here on short van bus a U-turn in front of the fire truck when she was leaving lunch.

Mama Dina Yisrael, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Christina, welcome.

Hi, I am Christina Camp. I am the president of the Tenants Association at Williamsburg of Cincinnati, also known as the Hartwell that is owned by Gold Ahler. I am asking for the city to consider legislation to eliminate junk fees and increase transparency in tenants, in which tenants are paying rent. So we need some type of transparency in what rent is actually covering. The junk fees that we are dealing with right now would be Spectrum. They decided that they were going to do a Spectrum deal for $99. And these are just examples. Technology, which includes parking, a game room and pool that we will be paying for $99. They are also doing 1 800 junk, which is $99 on top of the roof system as well. These fees are just outrageous. We have to determine whether we are going to pay rent or if we are going to pay car notes, if we are going to pay rent or if we are going to have to pay for groceries. We never have a specific amount that we are paying. So when you have a lease, you get a specific amount and that's what you're supposed to pay. Our payments are anywhere from $300 to $500 more with these junk fees. And they increase or either they never decrease. They always increase. We are also dealing with water issues that we've been dealing with for quite some time. We've had 10 water shutoffs within June and July. We're also dealing with mice, water, mold, and many, many other different things going on, including vandalism as well. So we ask the city to please come down, have a look, and we really need you behind us. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor. Bye. Mr. Mayor, Councilmember Albee over here. There we go. I just quickly wanted to say thank you to everyone coming in. My office, along with Councilmember Nolan and Owens, are working on junk fee legislation. I'm coordinating with RICO to come meet with you all in the residence. So thank you for being here.

Thank you, Councilmember. Rye, Ora, Dill? Please come to the dais. I may be getting that name wrong. This person is from Winton Hills. Welcome. John Altman, you're next. Welcome.

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is John Altman. I'm an attorney at the Legal Aid Society, and as part of my job at Legal Aid, I represent the Williamsburg Tenants Association. I've been asked to come down today by the association to express some of the concerns that you've heard both from Mr. Blackman and from Ms. Camp regarding junk fees. I've been asked to talk just generally about some of the issues that the association as a whole is seeing. Ever since the Williamsburg was purchased by their new owner, they have been overhauling the way that they charge rent.

There's always going to be an expectation that rent is going to go up. That's not an issue.

Well, it is an issue, but that's something that's to be expected. The problem that people are having at Williamsburg is transparency and an understanding about what it is that they need to pay each month for their rent. Their rents vary when you bring in all these other fees that Ms. Camp spoke about every month wildly. Specifically speaking from legal aid, my experience with people who are on fixed incomes and low incomes, it becomes incredibly difficult for people to budget their housing expenses when they don't know what it is that they're going to actually have to pay at the end of the month. For example, at Williamsburg, there's a whole host of fees that increase the base rent several hundred dollars over what it is that they expected that they're going to be paying. Some of these fees include a pest control fee. There's a technology fee. There's an admin fee. There's a billing fee. There's an internet fee. There's a liability insurance fee. There's a spectrum fee. All of these things tack hundreds of extra dollars onto the amount that these residents are expected to pay at the end of every month. Simply, what the association is asking for, again, is to consider legislation relating to the transparency and what it is that somebody needs to pay when they sign a lease with a landlord.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Rainy Hill, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Mamadina Yisrael. Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon. Greetings to all of the councilmen. I appreciate you allowing me. Oh, sorry. Greetings. Good afternoon, everybody. I appreciate you allowing me to come in to speak on behalf of a situation with the storm, July 21. At that storm, we had lots of flooding, and I'm an 80-year-old granny, so I wasn't out there in the storm. But here's the thing. The tree was struck, and it leaned over my yard, but it didn't fall in my yard. Well, we were without power from 2ish in the afternoon until quarter to 1 after midnight. Well, the tree leaned over, and as it leaned over, it put out electricity all around for 124 people in the community. But what happened was, when they finally found out where it was, the Duke had their tree cutters come out and cut the tree. So they cut the tree to explode the wire so the Duke could fix the power line. Well, then all was good because we all had power back when Duke came. However, when Duke came, when they cut down a tree, the tree belonged over here to the neighbor's house in their yard, and it leaned over my yard. But when they cut it, they put all the debris in my yard as if it was my tree. And because it was midnight, I thought they were going to be coming back tomorrow to clean that up, and tomorrow they didn't come, so I called Duke. And when I called Duke, that's when they explained to me that it's the owner's responsibility. I said, well, the tree is not mine. And they said, well, then you have to talk to the owner himself. I said, well, I want to file a claim. Filed a claim, and when I filed the claim, they said that there was nothing they could do about that, that I'd have to take care of my own. But the tree bottom line is not mine. They should have put it in their own yard where it belonged to. So I'm asking you all to listen to what I have to say about the tree. And also, I'd like to request a special time to speak with Councilman Lemon Kearney at a later time about this to finish what I have to say and show you pictures of what I have to show too. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there a staff member from the vice mayor's office in the chambers? No, okay. If you could leave your name with the gentleman in the back there, Noah Nixon, he'll come find you. We'll connect you with the right person. Thank you so much. Ramiro Hill, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Rae, welcome.

Hello, my name is Raeanna Hill, and today I wanted to speak on gun violence in my community. Our youth today have many day-to-day issues like housing, environment, but one of them is gun violence. Whether walking down the street at night or on our way to school, even sitting in your own kitchen, unlucky enough to be too close to the window, gun violence is a serious issue that must be addressed. We can reduce it or deter the violence in lots of ways, but especially by educating people. Not lots of people fully understand the dangers of handling a gun wrong or how to properly do so. Like crime and intentional harm are serious issues, but not every instance is some aggressive action. Not storing your gun leads to a child picking it up. Improper disposal could leave a gun out in the street or in the trash for somebody to get hurt. And not disengaging them leaves active firearms to go off on accident. Rather than just trying to take them away, we should implement programs and ways to educate people on how to handle their guns. Like lots of things seem given or like things that gun owners already know, but you don't need classes to get a gun in Ohio, as long as you have a clean record. So inexperienced gun owners are just throughout the community and in neighborhoods. Even if the classes or license isn't required, People who want to buy a gun or already own one should be educated on how to properly handle it. Putting programs in the community will make it just as convenient and easy to go to as it is to obtain a gun. With proper education, teaching, and programs, it will lessen the danger and make a safer community for everyone to live in. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. The next few speakers are from the Winton, including the last speaker, from the Winton Hill Youth Council and were so inspired to see young people advocating for their community and very much welcome you all. Before we move to the next speaker, Vice Mayor, did you have an announcement?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We usually don't do this, but we today have a resolution to honor Jonathan Young. He was one of our Cincinnati Family Department of Public Services, and he was killed recently. His family is here, and so out of respect for them, I would like to ask if we could take a pause for public comment so that we can honor him, and then we'll continue.

Is that okay? I think that's appropriate. Any objections from council? Um, so for, uh, uh, Rainy, Rainila, say it again? Renila. Renila, excuse me, I apologize, and Ramiro. Do you mind, uh, having a seat back in the audience? And we'll call you back up after, uh, we do the resolution. Thank you very much. I appreciate your, your grace, um, for the family. Uh, as the Vice Mayor mentioned, I really wanted to thank everyone who attended the services of our beloved colleague and coworker Jonathan Young this weekend, the procession, the visitation, and of course the funeral. This has been an unimaginably difficult time for so many in our community, and specifically in the public services family. For so many who knew Jay Young as a family member, a friend, and a coworker, that healing of course will take time. but it is remarkably uplifting to see so many remember the positive impact that he has made on our community and those in his life. I want to welcome the family members for being here and thank you all for sharing Mr. Young with us for decades of his public service. And with that, we'll now recognize the vice mayor to honor the life and memory of Jonathan J. Young as a dedicated and distinguished public servant and expressing the heartfelt condolences of the mayor and council upon J. Young's passing. Vice mayor.

Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. And let me just say this resolution is from all of us. And so I'm going to ask all of my council members and the mayor, if we could stand together. So family, thank you so much for being here. Just know that when people heard about Jonathan J. Young's passing, the stories started pouring in. Everybody talked about how wonderful and what a wonderful person, how giving he was. And I think in his passing, he really demonstrated that. For those who don't know, he actually pushed others out of harm's way. to save and save their lives, but unfortunately wasn't able to get out of the way himself in time. And so we are just grateful for the lives he saved and all the lives he touched because that's all of us. And so in honor of Mr. Young, we'd like to do this, present this resolution to the family. And I think Alex gave a copy, gave actual resolution Alex, would you give it to, okay, where's Alex? Alex has the resolution and we'll let Director Riley hold it, if that's okay. Okay, he might be walking around. Okay, this is a resolution honoring the life, memory, and distinguished public service of Jonathan J. Young and expressing the condolences of the Mayor and Council of the City of Cincinnati upon his passing.

Whereas, the City of Cincinnati mourns the passing of Jonathan J. Young, a devoted father, beloved family member and friend, respected leader, and dedicated public servant who passed away while actively serving the City of Cincinnati.

Whereas, Jay began his career with the City of Cincinnati on April 7, 2002, as a municipal worker with the Cincinnati Parks Department. Beginning more than 24 years of faithful service to the city and its residents.

Whereas, through his dedication, strong work ethic, and commitment to public service, Jay advanced through several positions of increasing responsibility, including his promotion to labor with the Department of Public Services in October 2005, truck driver in February 2017, and traffic aids worker in July 2018, and

Whereas in June 2024, Jay achieved the position of Supervising Traffic Aids Worker, a role he proudly held for the remainder of his distinguished career and in which he demonstrated leadership, professionalism, dependability, and care for his fellow employees in the community he served.

And whereas Jay was a loving and devoted father whose children and family were at the center of his life, And he was regarded by those who knew him as a role model, provider, caretaker, mentor, older brother, and a steady source of guidance and support.

Whereas Jay was known for his humility, integrity, kindness, confidence, wisdom, signature laugh, and warm sense of humor. and his family and friends fondly remember his love of cars, motorcycles, home renovations, fellowship, and good-natured pranks.

Whereas Jay had a remarkable ability to bring people together, encourage peace, see different sides of a disagreement, and remind those around him of the importance of loyalty, unity, and family.

Jay's passing leaves an immeasurable void in the lives of his children, family, friends, coworkers, and the city of Cincinnati workforce. But the lessons he taught, the love he shared, and the examples he set will remain a lasting part of his legacy.

Now therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the City of Cincinnati, State of Ohio, that the Mayor and Council hereby honor and celebrate the life and memory of Jonathan J. Young and express their profound gratitude for his more than 24 years of dedicated and distinguished service to the City of Cincinnati. So now we'd like to have remarks by our director of the Department of Public Services, Mr. Mark Riley.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Director Mark Riley, Director of Public Services. First of all, I want to thank the family for giving us Jonathan. Jonathan was a leader. We're going to miss Jonathan. And as you can tell by all the public service staff behind us that supported him, that loved him, And we really, really appreciate you as a family for giving him the 24 years he spent with the city of Cincinnati.

Thank you, Mr. Riley. And I understand that his cousin, Rochelle Thompson, who also was an employee of the city of Cincinnati, will speak for the family.

Good afternoon, everyone. First of all, we want to say and we understand that maybe the co-workers called him Jay, but his name was Jonathan Allen Young. And he has his aunt here that wanted me to make sure I made that announcement. I want to say that Jonathan played a pivotal role in the family. He was the bridge, a peacemaker, if you will, bringing families back together that had been broken. Jonathan's character has been highlighted about his life as a father, his life as a coworker, his life as a nephew, his life as a brother. And so today we have with us his aunt. We have his great uncle, Douglas Springs. We have his aunt, Dinah Webster. And then we have a host of cousins. But what I want to say is that the city of Cincinnati has been good to us, to our family over the years. Jonathan was one worker. My father worked at MSD. My uncle Douglas retired from public services. I retired from the city of Cincinnati. My sister Latonya Springs worked for Alicia Reese when she was the vice mayor. And so we thank you for showing your, acknowledging our family and mourning with us as we mourn the loss of Jonathan.

Thank you so much. I'll now turn this over to the mayor after the final vote. I think the best way to do, I'm gonna ask Alex to sneak under the ribbon here and we're gonna all face this way and get a photo. That'll be a lot easier than, trying to redo this in the hall, okay? Does that make sense? We'll talk about it later. Okay, I turn this over to the Mayor.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Council. And of course, thank you to the family members for allowing us to celebrate his life and his public service. We're so grateful for everything he did for our community and so grateful that you're here with us today. Mr. Clerk, could we please have a roll call on adoption of the resolution?

Council Member James. Councilmember Jeffries? Yes. Councilmember Johnson? Yes. Vice Mayor Kearney?

Yes.

Councilmember Nolan? Yes. Councilmember Owens? Yes. Councilmember Walsh? Yes. Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Crammerden?

Yes.

It passes. The resolution passes. Congratulations.

I just want the family to know that it doesn't end here. You're our family too, and so we want you to call us whatever you need. We're here for you. We love you.

We'll pray for you.

Oh, go ahead, Rochelle.

I just made a mistake. I want to acknowledge his children. His daughter is here, Delilah. Any of his other children here? No, that's his niece, Shay, and his first cousin, Rylan Norris, and Candace. I want to make sure I acknowledge the rest of the family that were very very close to him, thank you. Thank you so much.

Okay, so, Alex, can you get right over here? Can you get through there? And then we're gonna all face the dais, so hopefully we'll get our Department of Public Services workers here too, and council people, we're just gonna squeeze around with you. Oh, thank you, David. Thank you, everyone. Rochelle, we knew Jay was there. We had Jay in parentheses. Yeah.

Okay, thank you very much, Vice Mayor. I appreciate that. Council, before we return to public comment, Councilmember Albee had a request. Ms. Albee, go ahead.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. We also have a resolution recognizing Sherman Kinney Jr. and his family is here, so I would like to be respectful to their time as well, honoring their grandfather.

Council, any thoughts on moving forward with that resolution?

Let's do it.

Seeing no objection, we'll now recognize Councilmember Albee. Go ahead.

All right. I've lost the Kinney family in the crowd. Oh, there they are. Great. Thank you. Great. Come on up to the front. Yeah, stand here. Oh, all right. All right. Thank you, everyone, for your patience as we get organized here. So I'm really excited about this resolution. Laura here has been doing a lot of work with her family history, and your family has been so integral to the history of Cincinnati and truly the nation. So this is a wonderful recognition of your grandfather and your father, father. So Let's go. Recognizing Sherman Kinney Jr. and expressing the appreciation of the Mayor and the Council of the City of Cincinnati for his dedicated service to the Cincinnati community and the American people. Whereas Sherman Kinney Jr. was born on October 12, 1925 in Lexington, Kentucky, and later moved to Cincinnati's historic black neighborhood of the West End, much of which was later demolished through the Kenyon Bar Urban Renewal Plan. And whereas Sherman served his country during World War II as a Montford Point Marine, joining the first generation of black Marines and training under harsh segregated conditions at Montford Point Camp in Jacksonville, North Carolina at the Camp Lejeune installation. And whereas in the service of the, in the service Sherman and his fellow Montford Point Marines helped break racial barriers and paved the way for the integration of the United States military. And whereas Sherman was a trailblazing entrepreneur who founded S.K. Janitorial Service in the late 1950s, operating initially from his family's home in Evanston and later from a facility on Reading Road in North Avondale. And whereas S.K. Janitorial Services provided 24-hour service to residences, businesses, factories, schools, banks, and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and was recognized as Cincinnati's first black-owned janitorial service to secure a major corporate and government contracts throughout the region. And whereas Sherman further supported minority-owned businesses as a staff member to the administration of the governor, John G. Gilligan, serving as a senior procurement specialist for the Office of Minority Business Enterprise with the Ohio Department of Economic and Community Development, and was later an equal opportunity contract compliance officer for the city of Cincinnati. That was a lot of words, but it was all important. Thank you for that work. Whereas Sherman devoted himself to a civic leadership and community involvement, serving on the board of trustees of Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses and the board of the Hamilton County Unit of American Cancer Society as a past second vice president of the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP as an honorary chairman of the 1971 Business and Cultural Exposition, also known as the Black Exposition. whereas Sherman volunteered through the Business Resource Center of the Chamber of Commerce Foundation of Cincinnati to advance minority-owned businesses and mentor youth through Big Brothers Association of Cincinnati and through his sponsorship of coaching of the St. Mark's School and Parrish baseball team for which he purchased equipment and transported players to practices. And whereas Sherman and his wife, Maddie Bell Kinney, built a shared legacy of civic engagement, opening their family home at 409 Clinton Springs Avenue, North Avenue, as a safe space for youth and welcoming civic leaders, neighbors, and community members for meetings, dinners, and gatherings that promoted interracial understanding, community organizing, and public service throughout Cincinnati. Whereas Sherman passed away in Cincinnati on July 7, 1991, at the age of 65, leaving a lasting legacy of military service, entrepreneurship, civic leadership, mentorship, and support for the city's youth and minority-owned businesses. And whereas Sherman will be remembered as a beloved husband, father, grandfather, veteran entrepreneur, community organizer, mentor, volunteer, and friend whose service and dedication touched the lives of many in Cincinnati and throughout the nation. Now, therefore, let it be resolved by the Council of Cincinnati that the mayor and this council hereby recognize Sherman Kinney Jr. for his inspirational bravery and enduring commitment to his community and the country. Congratulations. Thank you. That was a lot. I'm kind of out of breath rattling all that off. That was a lot. It's just so remarkable. And, you know, my two brothers are Marines. And to learn the history of the Montford Point Marine Force and that is just so amazing. And to have such local connections to, you know, the best branch of the Marines or best branch of the military is truly remarkable. So I'm so grateful for his service. So I'm going to turn it over to you all to say a few words.

Good afternoon. I know she said a lot. I just wanted to. My name is Laura Kenny Porter. I'm the granddaughter of Sherman Kenny, Jr. First, I want to thank Councilmember Albee, Kawaya Jones and Mayor Pierval and the members of City Council through this work as a legacy worker and memory keeper and archivist of our family, I document and preserve black family history, including the lives and contributions of my late grandparents, Sherman and Maddie Kenny. My family had always knew that Sherman served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, but we just did not know the full story. And looking closely into his history led us to this moment. The research that I was able to obtain from the National Archive was amazing. And I suggest anybody who has a family that was a service member to definitely look into getting those documents. This is a moment that reminds us why preserving black family history matters. It's important to document our contributions, which can easily be forgotten, overlooked, or reduced to only one part of a person's life. And it sometimes doesn't get taken correctly. when the story is not fully shared. That preservation is especially important for black communities where so many stories have gone unrecorded or unrecognized. We have to be intentional about making sure our histories are protected, honored, and passed on to our future generations. Thank you again, Councilmember Albee and everyone here that's listening today. and helping making these connections and making sure that Sherman's story is received with attention. Thank you so much.

Most of all, I want to thank my niece, Laura, who did all this work to find out everything about my father I didn't know. I knew he was a strong man. I knew he was a man that did many things. I know he loved hard. And I know he loved my mother. And I know he loved his kids. And I know he sacrificed so much for us, putting us through private schools when my mother was dying, taking care of us. And he was strong. And most of all, I'm grateful that I got his strength.

And one last thing I wanted to add, we're gonna be recognizing Sherman at the Hamilton County Veterans event coming up on August 12th, I think. I'll make sure we have the date correctly. 15th, okay. Yes, so I'll make sure I share that information with all of council. We're really excited to share and celebrate his legacy. We've got some coming in from the National Veterans Association to present a formal award, so very exciting. Congratulations again.

Thank you. Thank you. I'LL REMIND COUNCIL THAT THIS IS A POSTHUMOUS RECOGNITION. MR. CLERK, COULD WE PLEASE HAVE ROLL CALL ON PASSAGE OF THE RESOLUTION, PLEASE?

COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES?

YES. DON'T WE STAND?

COUNCIL MEMBER JEFFRIES? YES. COUNCIL MEMBER JOHNSON? YES. VICE MAYOR KEARNEY?

YES.

COUNCIL MEMBER NOLAN? Councilmember Owens? Yes. Councilmember Walsh? Yes. Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Crammerding? Yes. It passes.

Congratulations. Thank you all for your patience. Moving back to public comment.

Mr. Mayor, I was just hoping we could recognize Josh Harden, who's our Cincinnati Public Schools athletic director.

Moving back to public comment, if we could have Raynilla, sorry, and Ramiro back to the dais. Our next person to the dais is Liz Virgo. Ms. Hill, you can begin when you're ready.

Hello, everyone. My name is Renayla. And today, I would like to take two minutes out of your day to talk about recycling. Because in the United States of America, roughly 2 million tons of recycled material are thrown away into landfills annually. Studies estimate that about 80% of what Americans toss away is recyclable material. Yet, the overall national recycling weight hovers near 32%. So we need more recycling bins, recycling committees, and recycling signs so people can... Recycling signs so bins can give people more opportunities to throw recycling material away where they rightfully go. more recycling committees to reuse all of the recycling material and recycling signs so people can know what type of material is recyclable. The following things that I'm about to name are not recyclable material, but there are things people commonly confuse for recyclable material. plastic bag, greasy piece of boxes, styrofoam, glass cookware, paper coffee cups, thermal sheets, plastic pouches, tissue paper, paper towels are not recyclable material. Thank you for your time. Have a good rest of your day.

Great job. Thank you. Ramiro Hill. Before you begin, Mr. Hill, I apologize. Could we have Ramon Hill? Please come to the dais. Mr. Ramiro Hill, welcome. Thank you.

Thank you.

You may begin.

Okay. First, I would like to point out one of the main issues within our neighborhood, gun violence. It's not just me, but my peers, my family, my home, and even my environment has been affected by it. Picture you're driving down a street at night to help a friend with a task, and before you arrive, you see him lying in the middle of the road, bleeding out. You take a look, a closer look, and it's a bullet wound. They were caught in a crossfire. And I'm sure you'd like to know who did it, how it happened. Most of all, will they be OK? But most importantly, what if you could have prevented it from happening in the first place? I live in Wynton Hills and I've experienced gun violence firsthand. For instance, I was walking home from my aunt's house and I started hearing gunshots all around me. It was pitch black so I couldn't see nor could the shooter. They could have shot the wrong person and had no idea. There are many solutions to this issue, but today I would like to focus on increasing visibility at night by implementing more street lights around the neighborhood In conclusion, more street lights will create a safer environment for the community for travel or to feel comfortable at night without the risk of being shot.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, great job. Appreciate it. If I could please have Calise Robinson Humphrey come to the dais. Our next speaker is Liz Virgo, welcome.

Hi, thank you. Facebook is correct. Happy birthday, Councilwoman Owens. And I am just grateful I got to lead the civic engagement portion of the Winton Hills Youth Council. And it has been really inspiring to see these youth just come to the table week after week. We met twice a week. They met more than that. I met them twice a week. And these are just some really incredible young people. I live right next to Winton Terrace in Spring Grove Village. And so these are my neighbors. Kelis, right next to me, her little sister comes over to my house very often for sleepovers. My daughter's listening like, yeah, when's the next one? But anyways, these are just such inspiring youth. All of the issues that they are discussing overlap a lot with affordable housing. And I know this council has a big passion for affordable housing that I think is growing. A lot of the council here, I have seen you all get elected and seen you all grow into your positions a lot. And I really want to commend the council for investing and making sure that $3.2 million will go to HUD programs if that funding does come in late. That is a really remarkable thing that we have done as a city. I am extremely proud to call myself a Cincinnatian. I am not originally from Cincinnati, but I've been here for 10 years.

I am a mother, I have two children here.

And I want to see the city thrive. I think that the council cares about our community, and I think that the community cares about ourselves. We're in a really intense political moment nationally, but I see the council responding. I see a lot of the people who I recognize out here responding very appropriately, and I think together as a city, then we can invest in affordable housing and make sure that we are all safe. These youth really, really deserve it. They are remarkable.

Thank you very much. Jewels, if you could please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Ramon Hill. Welcome.

Today I want to talk about, you know, I'm Ramon Hill, 17, and I grew up in Wynton Hills. I want to talk about the lack of academic opportunities in my neighborhood. Just so we all have an understanding, I define an academic opportunity as just a chance for anybody and everyone who would like to indulge in a career-specific activity or just a purely recreational program that is either free or just affordable to the public. For example, someone who would benefit from that, it would be more immersive and enjoyable than the traditional, you know, a lot of them are online and just not really, you know, you learn by doing. So bringing something where people can actually put an effort to show up and want to be there and rewarding them with, rewarding them by doing something that they love with those things like IRCs and certifications, it's just about building that strong foundation for people and bring more value to, bring value to the things that they truly care about and allow them to give platform to advocate for what they want and pursue their dreams and it will, I'm sorry. Oh, yeah, and all this to say, you know, Winter Hills is just a, diverse group of people who all deserve that chance to grow into who they wanna be, wherever they want, free of charge, or just, it takes that drive some time, and I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Great job. Thank you. Dante Pan, P-A-N-N-E, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Khalees.

Hello, I'm Calise, and I wanted to talk about the problems in Wind Hills that need to be fixed. The housing in my community are in poor conditions. Some have mold, leaks, pests, and no air conditioning during heat waves. Some units don't have washers and dryers, so they cannot wash their clothes. Whenever we call or go to CMHA, they say they will send someone, but when maintenance does come, it doesn't get fixed or gets even worse. Many times maintenance doesn't show up at all. So I know that you have the resources to give us a better and healthier, safer community because the citizens and youth of Wind Hills deserve a healthy and safe community. Thank you.

Thank you. Stefan Pryor, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Jewels.

Hello, my name is Jewels. I'm a council member at Wind Hills Youth Council. And I'll be talking about the parks where we live at. It's for, it's for, it's too little for kids my age, like 12, 13, 14, 15. It's for little kids. We can't have places for older people to have good energy at. Like say you want to play basketball, but it ain't no basketball court there. It ain't nothing there for older kids. That's why older kids always being in bad environments because they're around bad people. They can't have nowhere they can chill, hang out and play at. So basically, today I'm here asking for, can y'all basically fix up the parks, make it bigger for other kids can play at, for basketball court, anything, for the kids can actually just be there and play, not for them to be anywhere around the street trying to do anything, make money, for them to sit right there, be around a bunch of their friends and doing bad things. They trying to at least have somewhere they can play at, say, yeah, at the basketball court. They have somewhere they can play basketball, play football, they can play football at or anything. Say they... Say the park too little, none of them want to be at the park because it's too little. It's only for little kids. It ain't enough for no big kids, no nothing. So now, so there, it'd be nowhere for older kids to play at. If it was somewhere older kids could play at, they'd always be there, be there every time. They won't be nowhere to be bad. It won't be a lot of gun violence ideas now, but about a bunch of kids getting shot, age of 15, 16, getting shot. If y'all had a park, say if y'all had a park, like how the downtown park is. You see a bunch of teenagers be there all the time, there every time. When you go to Wayne Hills, there's no kids there. It'd be mostly kids probably somewhere at the basketball court or down the street. There are never going to be no kids at the park because at the time, the park is literally too little for anybody. Nobody could play at it or anything. That's all I got to say. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you to all the Wynton Hills Youth Council members who came and spoke today. We really appreciate it. Danny Guthrie, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Dante. Welcome, sir.

Yes, my name is Dante Payne. I'm coming up to let y'all know as far as the recap from the West End Day Fest. that took place Jazz Fest weekend on that Sunday. I just want to report it was a great event, great turnout. As we did our demographics in summer, we had over like 750 people ages 0 to 10. We had about like 19%, 11 to 20, 23%, 21 to 40, 21%, 41 to 60, 20%. 61 to 80, 11%, over 86%. And that was our actual goal. When we came up with this concept, we wanted to mix the generations in like a pot of gumbo. And that's what it came out to be. There was no problems. We had entertainment. I mean, the kids played. NACP came out with the truck. Mr. Whitehead, vice mayor, was there. Mika Owens came to the church ceremony. We appreciate you for bringing it up and putting it on the bill for us. I mean, it was a great experience in the park. And I've seen so many people that I haven't seen like in years from like my grandfather's friends to cousins I didn't even know I even had. It was just like everybody was in the park and it was a great experience, great atmosphere. And with y'all help, we would love to keep it going and do it again next year. And that's all I have to say.

Thank you. McKinley Heron, please come to the dais. Next speaker is Stefan Pryor. Welcome, sir.

Good afternoon. The chicken come home to roost right in front of y'all now. This chronic nuisance ordinance that y'all trying to put in place is nothing but racism all over once again. The city can now take action not only against property owners, but also against business owners. and property owners, like bars, convenience stores, gas stations, nightclubs, and other businesses where repeated criminal activities keep occurring, like drug activities. I've said it before, black people. Violence, crime, they keep saying black people. I keep saying that, Mr. Scottie Johnson. You said I wasn't listening. I pay attention, my brother. But that's the key that I come down here to speak about this. In 2015, the Cincinnati dealt with 55,000 nuisance calls, chronic nuisance calls, each month. About 100 addresses across the city. This chronic nuisance call tied up polices and cost taxpayers millions of dollars. If I'm not mistaken, in 2013, the federal, Tim Burke was a lawyer for the downtown property manager INC versus Cincinnati about this chronic nuisance ordinance, and actually the city settled with him. They settled this in court, a resultant settlement about this. And it's so sad that in 2015 again i read again investigation a 19 news reported and said that each call costs a hundred dollars each call costs a hundred dollars every time a a a person get called on it costs a hundred dollars you do the you do the mail that's ten million dollars fifty five thousand calls it's super wrong what y'all doing trying to do this racism stuff all over again, take black people's property and they land, how can I say, their livelihood, what they do, and it's wrong for y'all. Y'all need to change this for real.

Thank you. Our next speaker is, or next person in the dais is Vita Manuel.

Our next speaker is Danny Guthrie. Welcome.

Thank you.

I am frustrated with this Brent Spence project, not just because we are again prioritizing the region above our city. It's that we're doing it when I see our city struggling. We have an underfunded pension. We can't maintain our streets. We sold the railroad to deal with decades of deferred maintenance. We routinely run deficits. And these storms we had reminded all of us that our sewer system is not great. And yet the priority, the project that receives all of the funding and attention is a highway widening so people can drive more quickly through our city. I hope you guys see the disconnect there. And then I read about how the Western Hills Viaduct is now being scaled down because of inflation. But the Brent Spence project now has an $800 million funding gap because of inflation, and yet construction is proceeding, which is in service to our city and which is in service to the region. That is not a neutral decision. That is a statement about whose priorities matter. For 70 years, we have been asked to sacrifice hundreds of acres of valuable land in our downtown for these interstates. And we accept the pollution and the noise that regional traffic brings through our city. And now we are being asked to double down on these inequities by accepting more lanes being shoved through our city. And for what? How does more highway capacity help us manage our sewers, maintain our streets, stabilize our finances, or just generally become a wealthier city? Because I don't see it. What I see is us repeating the mistakes of the past. What the West End needed was investment and stewardship. Instead, we walked away from that neighborhood for through traffic and renewal. What Cincinnati needs today is to be put first. The best way to do that would be supporting this environmental impact statement on the Brent Spence. I would remind you all that this is our home. Please do not widen this highway. This is insane. Thank you for your time. I'll probably email you all again. Thank you.

Thank you. Matthew Schmiel, please come to the dais. Matthew Schmiel. Our next speaker is McKinley Herron. Welcome.

Good afternoon. I'm here today to express that the Brent Spence Bridge corridor project is bad for human health and the environment and an instance of environmental mismanagement. This highway expansion will cost the lower basin 90 acres of urban forest. These forests serve as stormwater mitigation green infrastructure. So in addition to adding impermeable surface and increasing the probability of flooding and sewer backups in some of our region's environmental justice neighborhoods, the Brent Spence Bridge corridor project removes a critical first line of defense to prevent the kind of flash flooding we've suffered as of late. The highway expansion will harm aquatic ecosystems along the vital and already terribly threatened Ohio River. The problem with this kind of precipitation events being driven by climate change is that they deliver more water but in a much more compressed timeframe, preventing the land from receiving the water and allowing it to percolate into the water table. We are attacking our water systems with this highway project on multiple fronts, and future generations deserve to inherit a functioning local environment and livable city that we should be proud to hand them. For these reasons, I implore you to call for an environmental impact statement that would study the ways to reduce both known and unknown impacts of this project. Thank you.

Thank you. Tory Y, please come to the dais. Vita Manuel, welcome.

Thank you, council. The Brent Sprint Bridge corridor project is bad for public safety, public health costs, and a grave inequity to the disabled community. It is a public safety issue. The death rate per passenger mile in private automobiles is 20 times higher than train travel and 30 times higher than bus travel. These statistics, which are tragic, also translate into higher costs to public health and productivity. The instances of asthma, and other respiratory mobilities caused and exacerbated by highways also create a drag on the local economy through low cost productivity and strain on the public health system by inducing costs that otherwise could be avoided. Neglecting the aging infrastructure we have in the city, such as our decrepit sidewalks, wheelchairs can't get up and down these things. Okay, let me see. Antiquated mobility device and pedestrian crossing design, low or no amenity bus stops, inequitable west-east public transit access, slip lanes, and overwhelmingly car-centric transportation infrastructure overall makes using the federal dollars on highway expansion a slap in the face to those of us without a car and those of us with disabilities. This being the 35th year of the American Disabilities Act and all that it entails, I don't see it. I don't see it. So I am asking, I was going to be indignant, but I'm asking for immediately an environmental impact study so that we can consider the alternatives. We have them. Everybody else can do it. I don't know why Cincinnati doesn't. Everybody else can do it. Everybody. I'm getting tired of the old joke. If everybody else died in the world, you sit in Cincinnati for 20 years, it'll catch up to us.

Thank you. Our next person to the dais is Paul Joyner. Our next speaker is Matthew Schmiel. Welcome.

Afternoon, counsel. I'm also here to comment against the Brent Spence project, but more from an engineering perspective. I'm an engineer. I just want to read you a quote from the previous project manager, Stefan Spinoza. This is from 2015. Quote, the way Cincinnati is laid out, the more lanes you build on 75, the more traffic you draw. He continues, they would fill because of the nature of the traffic network in the region. Spinoza also says, this is a quote, that future demand can realistically only be addressed through a mass transit component. So I don't understand why we're letting ODOT get a fast pass on this with the EIS and everything when Metro Moves has been sitting on Sorda's desk since I was in diapers. 2002, we haven't brought up a rail plan. I understand that you want to trust the so-called experts at ODOT and OKI, But understand, North America does not have traffic engineers. We've got civil engineers who have been asked to act as traffic engineers. I will give ODOT credit as an engineer. Their civil engineering standards are great. I don't worry about anything they build driving over it. But they're based on hard science. That's physics, statics, dynamics. The traffic engineering is complete pseudoscience. It's all made up. It's the wrong assumptions. So I've shared some documents with your clerk. They'll put them in your mailbox. Please take a look at those details. Another quote from ODOT. This is a response to a public comment about the induced demand. Regional travel demand model indicates about 70% of the traffic in the BSP corridor has origins and destinations north of the 7175 split in Kentucky and south of 275 in Ohio. It's local traffic. That's what's causing it. So they're lying to you about it being a freight corridor. It's not. 70% of the traffic is local. That's what happens when you treat an interstate as a local trip corridor. And to continue, you know, I mean, The separation of local through traffic is great, but they're only doing it at the bridge. All we're doing is spending billions to move the bottleneck a little bit further south. That's all we're doing. So if you want to get the city back on track and get the West End back into Cincinnati, say something. I mean, go to the Ohio Controlling Board. Ask them to cut the funding until we get an EIS. This is ridiculous. Thank you.

Erin Parrott, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Tori Wye. Welcome.

Thank you. Hello. Research shows that individuals with limitations in activities of daily living, ADL, especially black and brown folks with high ADL limitation are simultaneously exposed to disproportionately high levels of air pollution such as PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide. To proceed with the Brent Spence Bridge corridor project, as designed and without an EIS is to say we are, as the City of Cincinnati, okay with worsening exposure to harmful environmental conditions for our disabled neighbors, while also okay with expanding transportation infrastructures that makes it harder for them to access healthcare and other services to treat the effects of these exposures. The last bullet point, call for an EIS so we can consider an alternative.

Thank you. Beth Sullenberger, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Paul Joyner. Welcome.

Good afternoon, Councilman. My name is Paul Joyner. I'm the owner of Prevail on M, 1905 M Street. I also own 360 Total Care on 501 Chestnut Street. I'm here to speak on emergency amendment to this nuisance ordinance. Our highest priority for Prevail has been safety. We invested a lot in safety and security for our nightclub and our bar. It's kind of challenging when, I feel like it would make it very challenging for a nuisance law to be passed like this because it would skip our judicial process. Let me see what else I want to say about that. Also,

Oh, I'm so sorry. It is one speaker at a time.

Yeah, I'm done.

Are you finished? Thank you, sir. If we could have Beth Johnson please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Aaron Parrott. Welcome.

Hi, good morning, everyone, or excuse me. Good afternoon, Councilman, Mayor. I hate to be here under these circumstances, but I am speaking on behalf of a multitude of black and brown business owners, specifically restaurant bars, the nightclub industry and anything within that atmosphere. But it actually surpasses just black and brown businesses. The emergency nuisance amendment that Councilman Walsh has advocated for since last year affects the city of Cincinnati in its entirety. It's very disappointing that one councilman's personal agenda against a black-owned business, which is Pre-Bay on Elm, will have a significant impact on every single business in downtown Cincinnati. You guys have not given the public, these businesses, or property owners enough notification not only to review the proposed amendment, but to provide feedback, questions, and concerns. I am, as a property owner myself on Milton in OTR, I'm extremely disappointed in how this process has been handled. I'm extremely disappointed in you, Seth, because you have not only advocated against this new black owned business, but I personally know that you have not once made it made it a point to contact them to create a collaborative conversation, because not only do they own the business, they own the property. And you, sir, are a public servant, so they are your constituents. Their taxes pay your salary. So what I'm asking for today is instead of voting today on this particular ordinance, is for you to take the time and bring it back, give the public more time to review, ask the right questions, present the right concerns, and then bring it back to the table.

Thank you very much. Ellie Fleck. Ellie Fleck, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Beth Sullenbarger. Welcome, Beth.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I'm Beth Sullenbarger. I'm here to speak to item 126. As the author of the North Avondale Historic District Designation Report, I want to thank members of council for supporting this designation, which has been three years in the making. Historic designation is not a new city policy. It's been embraced as a goal for the city since 1976. That's 50 years. Historic districts don't stop development. They guide it so that new development is compatible with the historic character of our neighborhoods. Historic districts protect what makes Cincinnati a place that people want to live in. Attractive architecture, human scale, and inviting streets. Cincinnati already has 27 historic districts and they've worked well. Historic review is not draconian, it's a dialogue that's aimed at win-win solutions. 80% of the owners in the North Avondale Historic District support its designation, so thank you for listening to them. and to the North Avondale Neighborhood Association, their community council, and thank you to the vice mayor for sponsoring this application.

Thank you. If we could have Bonnie Neumeier please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Beth Johnson, welcome.

Thank you. I'm Beth Johnson, Executive Director, Cincinnati Preservation. I want to begin by offering my sincere thanks to your overwhelming support of the North Avondale Local Historic District. Today's vote is about more than just one neighborhood. It's about honoring a community that did exactly what you asked neighborhoods across Cincinnati to do. Rather than waiting until a demolition permit is filed or a crisis is at our doorstep, North Avondale chose to be proactive. They spent years engaging neighbors, refining boundaries, listening to concerns, and building a consensus around the vision that they had already established in their neighborhood plan. This is exactly how good planning should work. By supporting this designation, you are reinforcing that neighborhoods matter, that adopted neighborhood plans matter, in that preventing conflict is far better than reacting to it. Good governance isn't waiting until communities are forced into battles between preservation and development. Good governance is giving neighborhoods the tools to thoughtfully shape their own future before those conflicts arise. Yesterday at the committee, we presented statistics around minority home ownership and density in historic districts. These are just two small facts coming out of the first economic impact study of historic preservation in our city's history. and the results are incredibly exciting. The data shows that our historic neighborhoods are among the city's strongest assets, that they are denser, they foster diversity, and they serve as powerful economic engines that strengthen our tax base and create stable, thriving communities. I can't wait to share that study with you when it is released publicly in October. I hope it reinforces what today's vote demonstrates. Preserving our historic neighborhoods isn't about looking backwards. It's about investing in Cincinnati's future. Thank you for your leadership, your partnership, and for recognizing that one of Cincinnati's greatest strengths lies in its historic neighborhoods, buildings, and the places that make our city unlike any other. Thank you.

Thank you. Grisez, I apologize if I'm mispronouncing that, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Ellie Fleck, welcome.

Good afternoon, Mayor and council members. I'm Ellie with the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition, and today I'm speaking on behalf of two Williamsburg tenants that could not be here today. The first one states nine days of water interruptions in just July, and my water bill keeps going up. Since January, we have had 22 days of water off. Unacceptable. Toilets are old and run for a long time when they flush. Water pressure either too high or below minimum. Maintenance staff is unresponsible and unreliable. The second tenant states, I would like to know when the maintenance is going to come and properly seal the entry points of where the mice have been coming into my apartment. I also want to know why they keep closing out maintenance requests when work is not complete or done properly. Also, why are they charging me all these different prices for rent every single month? Are they double charging me for the utilities? Why are we paying for all these amenities that we don't even have? Are we being charged for all the remodeling that is taking place in the Hartwell community? We urge you to take action against this housing injustice. Thank you.

Thank you. Marilyn McQueen, please come to the dais. Is Rowan here? Rowan, last name is G-R-I-S-E-Z. If we could have Gerard Sychay, S-Y-C-H-A-Y, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Bonnie, welcome.

Hello, Mayor and Council. I'm here on behalf of Mary Brook Rivers, our Executive Director of Over the Rhine Community Housing and our Board of Trustees, which I'm a member. At our last OTRCH board meeting, our board discussed concerns about the proposed sale of the St. Francis Serif Campus and the relocation of services. We ask that since four million of our public dollars will be used to help 3CDC purchase the property, there should continue to be community serving programs and truly affordable housing provided there. While some may see that corner as only problematic, for others it is a corner of hope, a place where both the broken in body and spirit can find care and support. It would be a good use of our public dollars to continue to offer these services. A particular concern is the relocation of St. Francis Seraph Ministries, including their dining room and bag lunch program. We've heard those programs will eventually be relocated. We need these programs and the proposed care center to be in Over the Rhine. These programs serve persons homeless as well as community members, including those who live with OTRCH. whose resources don't make it to the end of the month. In regard to the provision of affordable housing at the site, it is important to understand what our neighbors can afford. Housing at 80% AMI means rents at $15.39 for a single, $17.59 for a two-person household. That is not affordable. 30% to 50% AMI is what we need. According to apartments.com, market rate rent for a one bedroom in Cincinnati is $1,145 to $1,293. When a developer says they are providing affordable housing at 80% of AMI, they are actually providing market rate housing. We shouldn't tell ourselves that we are using our tax dollars to provide affordable housing when we are not serving those most in need. like families living in their cars at CPS Safe Lot. The city should require that future plans... Thank you, Miss.

Thank you very much. If we could have Gregory Parker please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Marilyn McQueen. Welcome.

Good afternoon. Thank you very much. I'm here today for clarity at several meetings regarding the North Avondale Historic District. We're talking about funding in case you were not able to afford those $20,000 replacement windows and several times the people working cooperatively was brought up as part of this project. But this morning I contacted them because they have heard this for the last two months and I knew it wasn't true. So I did contact them and they told me they do have guidelines and the one person family, 39,152 First is family, two adults, 44,703. Number three would be four-person household, two adults, two children, would be $55,900. And I mean, I've heard talk about how many historic districts that we have. How come nobody check with them to see how funding does occur when people are in need of help and assistance? That never happened. I mean, you could say this is a wonderful idea, but those 12 homes they showed were homes developed by millionaires, and I'm not a millionaire. So, all I'm saying is that the information should be correct when it's given out, going to companies. They do not do grants, and I talked with them several, I guess, 15, 20 minutes this morning, talked to two different people, and they said, no, this is not going to happen. people working cooperatively will not be doing anything in connection with historic renovations if needed. So that's my concern is that there's been no funding, nothing set aside. This was not thought through thoroughly to say, hey, everybody's not a millionaire. Everybody's not making $70,000 a year. Thank you very much. So maybe that should be a waste.

Thank you.

Thank you. Andrew Willem. William, maybe, please come to the dais. Our next couple of speakers are online. Looks like Amber Kassem dropped on. Okay, so we'll start with Mike Uelhorn. Mike, can you hear me?

Yes, can you hear me?

I can. Go ahead, sir.

Great, thank you very much. You may have forgotten that my subject matter that I'd like to discuss is regarding Ohio Revised Code 2913, which states that you cannot collect money from people without providing something of value. You also cannot demand money from people without advising them in advance. that you're going to collect money and they have to agree to be paying this money. You're wondering what I'm talking about, baby? I think you guys know. It's about how Greater Cincinnati Water Works charges people a monthly base rate when they have the water turned off at the meter. What are they providing? Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. They're not providing water because it's shut off. You can't turn on the faucet and get water when the Greater Cincinnati Water Works has the water turned off at the meter. But if Greater Cincinnati Water Works can do that, so can every single company out there. I've been doing that. I've been charging every one of you a monthly base service charge because I'm ready to provide you with my business services and you have access to it, just like Greater Cincinnati Water Works does. But none of you have paid your invoice. Why is that? How can you expect people to pay an invoice that you refuse to pay? Now, it's very moving, the time that you took to honor the public servant who had passed away. How will any of you be remembered if you pass away? I know I would remember you as committing fraud against the citizens of Cincinnati that you're supposed to be representing and working for by stealing money from them when Greater Cincinnati Water Works has water turned off. That's how I would remember each and every one of you. Scotty Johnson, you're a former law man. How do you feel about participating in this fraud? Are any of you going to do anything about this, or am I just going to have to file lawsuits to collect on my invoices that are identical to Greater Cincinnati Water Works invoices? That's what Greater Cincinnati Water Works does, and they succeed. So I assume that since the precedent is so well set and established, that I would also succeed. Thank you, Mike.

Our next online speaker is Amber Kassem. Amber, can you hear me?

I can hear you, Mayor. Can you hear me?

Yes, go ahead.

Hope you've had a great summer so far. I appreciate your time and your open office hours. I just wanted to respond to a few things just in the hours of public comment I've listened to. One thing you guys can do is start citing CMHA. I know it's a government entity, but you guys need to have some accountability and tracking for CMHA and other voucher services, behavioral health services, Tabard House, whoever the slumlord may be. Because when you guys choose not to cite them, you choose not to create accountability in a record. And that's why people are still having problems. Did you hear what the kids were asking for? They didn't ask for hip hop classes. They asked for opportunities for jobs and opportunity to earn more money. That's what they asked for. But instead, I think you guys just want to give out fruits and bananas instead of actually creating opportunity for higher incomes. Also, I support the nuisance emergency. I think you guys can go further and be more broad in this nuisance. I'd ask for you guys to also reassess for market rate. $100 per call for two people to show up in one car is not market rate. That's from 1980. So you guys need to reassess actually the fines, fees, and penalties with nuisance. to motivate people to do what they're supposed to do, you need not give notice to any business owner or any property owner to do what they're supposed to do, and that's to manage and control their patrons and the place adjoining and adjacent to their property. Last thing, what is a thriving neighborhood? Do we know what a healthy neighborhood is yet? That's a quote from Peter Hames. And I'm still asking for you guys before you continue to resegregate our neighborhoods with developments.

Thank you, Amber. Amber, going back to our in-person speakers, our next speaker is Gerard Sitche. Welcome, sir.

Good afternoon. My name is Gerard Sitche. My family and I live in the proposed North Avondale Historic District Item 126 on the agenda. I respectfully ask you to vote no. When I spoke yesterday in committee, I spoke about property rights and asked one simple question. What problem are we trying to solve here? I don't believe the answer has been adequately answered. I have three concerns today regarding the district. Number one, there are 370 households in the proposed district, and about 100 of those have expressed explicit support But 100 out of 370 is a plurality and not a majority. It's certainly not what I'd call an overwhelming majority, quote, and certainly not an 80% majority support as has been claimed. Number two, North Avenue Neighborhood Association is establishing a private fund to cover the $150 COA application fee. That is a wonderful gesture, but this district will be permanent Will that fund be permanent? Finally, regarding cost, over the past few months, I've heard the following statements. If you're already spending thousands of dollars on a new roof, what's another 150? And this, yes, historically appropriate repair materials will cost more, but you will be happy because they are better quality and will last longer. Frankly, I believe those statements are at best privileged and at worst offensive. Those decisions belong to homeowners and families. Every family has different priorities and different demands on their budgets. I believe homeowners and not the government should decide how to spend their money maintaining their homes. Sitting here today, it's clear that the city has many challenges. Does the city really want another historic district to have to manage and maintain in perpetuity? Thank you.

Thank you. And I apologize for mispronouncing your last name. Thank you for coming in. Karen Montgomery, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Gregory Parker of the African-American Chamber. Welcome in, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, City Council, and thank you, Mayor Aftab, for this opportunity to speak. As Mayor Aftab said, my name is Gregory Parker. I'm the Director of Membership Services with the African-American Chamber of Commerce. And first of all, I want to compliment you guys on the awesome weekend we just had with the queues in town. I had a great time. I'm sure a lot of our business owners really HAD A GREAT TIME, HAD GREAT REVENUE FROM IT, AND I KNOW COUNCILMAN SCOTTY HAD A GREAT TIME. SO I THINK A LOT OF THAT HAPPENED BECAUSE THERE WAS A LOT OF COLLABORATION THAT HAPPENED BETWEEN THE CUE'S AND THE CITY PRIOR TO THE EVENT, AND THAT'S WHAT I THINK MADE THIS A REALLY BIG SUCCESS. SO I BRING THAT UP NOW BECAUSE COLLABORATION IS WHAT'S NEEDED TO HAPPEN BEFORE THE CHRONIC NUISANCE ORDINANCE AMENDMENT IS VOTED ON. YOU KNOW, SO I'M ASKING THAT YOU DELAY THIS VOTE. I share council's interest in public safety, as I know we all do. But as the amendment reads now, it is very vague. And it can lead to judgment calls that are not in the best interest of the city or the bar and restaurant owners. So as you guys so well displayed this past week, collaboration, it just works. So respectfully, I request that you delay the vote on the chronic nuisance ordinance amendment until restaurant, bar owners, and other businesses that are affected have had the opportunity for input and collaboration. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Garrett Fulton, please come to the dais. Garrett Fulton. Our next speaker is Andrew. Welcome, sir.

Good afternoon, mayor and council. I echo the NAACP's guy on what he's saying about the nuisance law. I think that we should definitely table this thing and come back to it once we sit down with all the bar and restaurant owners that this profoundly affects. Because when we start talking about a nuisance law, it's affecting our businesses. And it affects them up to 90%. I think it's unfair that we live in a city that chooses to legislate black businesses away. Because when we look at this law and we look at the people that it affects, it affects our business. I know this to be a fact because over the last two years, there's 26 black restaurant and bar that have closed. Sometimes we're closed by the police and these ordinances. So I think it's very important for us to really come to the table on this thing, talk about it, let both sides be heard, and see what we can do to come up with a solution. We cannot leapfrog due process. Due process comes from the state. So the city of Cincinnati, with all due respect, does not mandate liquor license. But when you start talking about a nuisance law, then that allows you to close a business and leapfrog over the state's jurisdiction, who mandates liquor license. So I think let's put things back in perspective. Let us come together, come to the table, see what we can do to make these businesses safe. We want our businesses to be safe. You know, in most cases, all these business owners, they have come out their pockets for these businesses. And just to come in and close them down, when I look at these numbers that they're talking about, after X number of calls, $10,000, again, $10,000, you're talking about bankrupting a business. I'm going to ask this The black restaurant and business owners that are down here, please stand.

Thank you, sir. Our next speaker to the dais is Jonathan Nortman. Gentlemen, after you're finished speaking, do you mind vacating the dais? Thank you so much. I apologize. It's comfy, I know. Garrett Fulton, please come to the dais, and Jonathan Nortman, please come to the dais. Madam, welcome.

Thank you. Good afternoon. I am here as the daughter of Mrs. McQueen for the historic district that she's actually against. I guess you guys passed a connect the communities law. I guess it would help homeowners that will upgrade their single family houses if they wanted to move it to a I guess a two-family house under the historic district, that's not the flexibility that a homeowner would have. My mom has a two-family house. Sure, her house was built under the time that they stated, but I researched all those houses, and her house does not fall under what they have it listed as. They have it listed as a colonial, and it's not. I looked at all the pictures and all the pictures that you showed yesterday. Her house wasn't on there. And none of the houses that are near there were on there. So as the Belvedere was considered not being in the house, I asked that they remove the Nana removes her house from that list. And I don't know who's going to do the checks and balances on Nana on the money that's going to come in. or if they get funding from PwC. Thank you.

Thank you. Tobin Blake, please come to the dais. Welcome, Garrett Fulton.

Good afternoon.

My name is Garrett, and I am a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

I'm here today to speak on behalf of the citizens of Cincinnati who, in a time where most working people are struggling to afford food and rent, are now shouldering the burden of a government who failed to listen. Three weeks ago, Cincinnati was hit with historic flooding and the devastating consequences that followed. I live in Oakley, where I watched flood waters rise to the height of car door handles and spent the next week commiserating with my neighbors as we navigated the cost of the plumbing and contractor work necessary to make our homes livable again. All because a floodgate failed, a piece of infrastructure which not only had not been properly tested, but was highlighted as a potential point of failure in a 2020 engineering study delivered to this city The replacement of infrastructure all over was recommended specifically to prevent the scenarios we all experienced last month. As climate change worsens, we find ourselves with leaders unwilling to meet the moment. A rational, worker-led government would be investing in infrastructure that would protect citizens and provide for their needs. Things like expanded public transportation, sewer and waterway rehabilitation, and climate-friendly urban rejuvenation. Instead, our politicians are pouring tax dollars into privacy-violating surveillance cameras, a deeply troubled law enforcement machine, traffic solutions that we have proven are ineffective and damaging, and private gentrification projects. We need a system built by us, in service to us, the people who live here, work here, and make Cincinnati run. A city council should be proactively funding disaster-ready infrastructure and providing youth opportunities, not doling out two-minute allotments for its citizens to beg for change. If they will not invest in ensuring our needs are met, we, as working class people, need to unite and build a system that does. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much.

Larry Falcon, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Jonathan Ortman. Welcome, sir.

The camera systems of Flock and Axon have been a growing presence in our communities and country. They do so under the guise of protection for citizens, but in actuality, the function they serve is mass government surveillance, creating an inescapable network of observation and building a cloud accessible by other government agencies regardless of authorization. Tracking and logging movements of everyone despite no criminal action. These are systems abused by police tracking women seeking abortions, by police stalking their exes, accepting bribes to access this data, cameras that have been used to lurk on children's gymnastics rooms, systems that will be used to persecute more people that haven't committed any crimes, like our thousands of Haitian neighbors having their TPS status ripped from them, people that followed every rule to be here and added to the communities they have grown, now waiting to be hunted down in those communities with the help of these cameras. The means and the ends of these systems are horrid. but some of their origins are even worse. The surveillance network this city has signed to spend more than $40 million on is tech that has used apartheid and genocide as its proving ground. But we've somehow invited these companies in and assume no racist policing will follow. You're people that want us to believe you lead with a politics of empathy, but where is the consistency? You have had people like myself in here for almost three years asking for the bare minimum from this council to follow its own standards. The genocide in Gaza still continues while we invest and deal with the genocide errors. On top of the hundreds of thousands already slain, more Palestinians have been killed in what is called a ceasefire than Israelis were killed on October 7th. Your brand of empathy says one side of these murders deserves your condemnation while the other deserves your support. Selective empathy is not empathy at all. It's opportunism. When you wipe medical debt but choose to spend 40 times that on this spying apparatus, what message do you send? Are accomplices to genocide 40 times more deserving than Cincinnatians victimized by our healthcare structure? What kind of affordable housing could be built with $40 million? We must end these contracts, scrutinize and retract our investments, and start making sure our money is improving lives instead of ending them.

Thank you. Darius Bobo, please come to the dais. Our next speaker is Tobin Blake. Welcome.

Hi, my name's Tobin, and I'm a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Members of Council, you've heard it before. That induced demand from just adding more lanes makes traffic problems worse. That increased reliance on cars damages local ecosystems and our climate, which contributes to issues like flooding in Cincinnati. You were warned about that years ago, just as you were warned about the flaws in the plans for the Brent Spence Bridge. So where is the data and research on this for this project currently underway? How will it impact neighborhoods like the West End, which has already been decimated by the construction of this highway? The data we already have shows West End residents face moderate to extreme exposure to environmental hazards, particulates from vehicle emissions in the air, microplastics and other pollution in the water, and a high proximity to toxic industrial activity and hazardous waste treatment and disposal facilities compared to other neighborhoods. I'm sure the racial demographics of these areas suffering from this is by design. It sure isn't a coincidence. It's a pattern, and it's called environmental racism. Research also suggests highway expansion benefits suburban outlying areas more than the cities they are built in. We are the ones paying the cost. It is our health and well-being at stake, and we demand the release of full report of the projected health and environmental impact of this project. But more than that, we need a system that prioritizes public health and well-being, as well as the environment and climate. A socialist system is the only one that ensures equitable public access to essentials such as housing, health care, water, food, and transportation. We could invest in rail, create dedicated bus lanes, extend the streetcar across the river or up to Clifton, all while being proactive against climate change. While this city council continues to neglect its responsibility to the planet and to the people of this city, we will demand a new system so that we can address these problems. Thank you very much.

Our next speaker to the dais is Don Johnson. And our next speaker is Larry Falcon. Welcome.

Good afternoon, Mayor, members of council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I'm Larry Falcon, I'm here on behalf of the Sierra Club Miami group, and I'm here to support item 124 on today's agenda. That is a motion to address the recent flooding and the ongoing storm water problems in our city. I particularly want to speak to the provision that accelerates implementation of an impervious surface charge. An impervious surface charge has proved itself to be the fastest, cheapest and fairest way to control, to reduce the impacts of flooding and control more stormwater in our city. A lot of the stormwater that we're dealing with is running off of large parking lots and other paved surfaces. and we currently have no financial motivation for the owners of these large paved surfaces to contribute to the solution to the problem. Putting a price on the stormwater gives the landowners a financial incentive to adopt readily available controls like detention basins, like bioswales, like infiltration wells that can be used to hold the stormwater where it falls, rather than what we currently focus on, which is MSDs, billions of dollars for end-of-pipe solutions, which may eventually maybe satisfy the consent decree, but will never reduce the overland flooding and basement backups that are happening in our neighborhoods. So thank you for item 124 today. Thank you, sir. Darius Bobo, welcome.

Good afternoon, Councilman, Mayor. I'm here to speak on two issues with respect to the chronic nuisance law. My first request is that you table the vote for the emergency amendment. And then my second request is that you proceed, if you do proceed with the vote, amend the vote to require that incidents of this issue be captured to identify the ethnicity of the business owner and the property owner. If I could add more context with respect to the issue as a whole, even though the law speaks to dating violence, domestic violence, and sexual assault. As an African American business owner, in the past I have seen many laws designed for one purpose, only to be used as a tool to impact minority businesses such as mine and my fellow business partners. So what I would like for the city to do is work with us collaboratively. I've been working with the Quality of Life Department, Mark Manning, Captain Schofield. So we've been working with them collaboratively. I would like for that to continue and work with my fellow business owners as well as we develop solutions that serve all parties. And again, lastly, please capture the statistics related to ethnicity of the property owner and the business owner. And if you could hold the vote just for more collaboration. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir.

And finally, Dawn Johnson.

Welcome. Hi, my name is Dawn Johnson, and I'm the former president of the North Avondale Neighborhood Association. I come before you today with a deeply happy and hopeful heart. Throughout my entire presidency, I have poured my energy into this endeavor, and today I can truly say I have never been prouder to call myself a North Avondale resident. This historic designation wasn't built overnight, and it certainly wasn't built alone. First, I want to express my deepest gratitude to Matt Cornell, Beth Johnson, Beth Sullenberger. Thank you all for helping us and for your support. for your passion and unwavering dedication. Thank you for bringing us across the finish line. I want to give a huge thank you to Gabby Couch, to Doug Owen, and to Director Keo Jers. A special thanks to FoundHouse for helping us to build the chat bot. and make a massive difference to offset some of the demand on Doug. To the city council members who voted for this designation yesterday, thank you for believing in our community. A very special shout out to our incredible vice mayor, all hail to the queen. We are so blessed to have you as a leader. You have been arm and arm with us every single step of the way, truly. You are an amazing woman. Thank you. To our community, your support has been nothing short of amazing. Thank you for challenging us. Thank you for opposing us. Thank you for making us get it right. This accomplishment is more than just a vote. This is my legacy. But more importantly, this is our legacy. Thank you very much.

Thank you. That ends this portion of public comment, and we will now, at 3.34, immediately begin today's business portion of Cincinnati City Council, and the clerk will please call the roll.

Councilmember James?

Here.

Councilmember Jeffries? Here. Councilmember Johnson? Here. Vice Mayor Kearney? Here. Councilmember Nolan? Here. Councilmember Owens?

Here.

Councilmember Walsh?

Here.

Councilmember Albee?

Here.

Councilmember Kramerdine?

Here. Thank you. Please stand for a moment of silence. And now the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge 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.

The minutes from the previous meeting will be approved and filed without objection. Hearing none, they'll be approved and filed. We have a very long agenda in front of us, so without further ado, we'll move to the business portion. Items one through five are as indicated. Item six has been addressed. Item seven has been addressed. Items eight through 68 are as indicated. Item 69, our first item, a motion from council members Jeffries, James, President Johnson, and Vice Mayor Kearney that the administration take the following action within the next 90 days. Create a restricted fund within the city of Cincinnati budget for future cannabis funds from the state of Ohio starting for fiscal year 2028. This is in the Budget, Finance, and Governance Committee. Mr. Kramerding, may I have Mr. Jeffries introduce this item?

Yes, and thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Mr. Jeffries.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We had a pretty extensive discussion on this on Monday. But by way of background, of course, we legalized cannabis as a state three years ago. And any sales of cannabis in the city of Cincinnati or any other municipality, the city gets a percentage of that. Currently, that just rolls into the general fund and could be used for anything. And we know that when cannabis was illegal, it disproportionately impacted certain communities, especially African American communities. The Ohio ACLU indicated arrests were four times higher among African Americans, even though usage was basically the same. So rather than this going into the general fund, what this creates, or as the administration has created, is a restricted account where it would be invested back into the communities most impacted when cannabis was illegal. So it's specifically asking to create that restricted fund. Second, to define, how do we define most impacted? Is that neighborhoods? Is it census tracts? Like, what does that look like? So it's asking the administration to report back on that specifically, so we have a very clear definition. And then finally, we've been having several conversations with the Greater Cincinnati Foundation about what other opportunities we have to leverage this fund for additional philanthropic funds. So this would create a restricted fund where we can get Robert Wood Johnson or other foundations to also support what it's going to be invested in. So the last thing I would say is what is it going to be invested in? That is something that we will come back to as a council to discuss because obviously if we're getting roughly $2 million a year, should it go to housing, should it go to youth, should it go to workforce, we will define that and we should define that separately, so that would be forthcoming where we would discuss specifically what this would go to. But we start by creating the restricted fund and make sure it's going back into the neighborhoods most impacted.

Thank you. As is our custom, I'll call on the other co-sponsors first before I open it up to comments. Mr. James, President Johnson, or Vice Mayor? Mr. James.

Just building off Council Member Jeffries' points here, I think that thank you to the authors of this motion. I was very excited to sign on. It is time that the City of Cincinnati see change in rectifying the wrongs done by unfair cannabis arrests. Council Member Jeffries, you hit the nail on the head. cannabis consumption amongst black and white residents is the same, but across the United States, a black resident is four times more likely to be arrested for cannabis. Two million dollars is not enough money. Hopefully that we can keep this commitment continued. We can use it to leverage more funding here. I'm hoping that this partnership with the Greater Cincinnati Foundation is successful. One last thing I'll say about the expending of this money or the program architecture that we set up to rectify this generational wrong. This is something that I don't want to do behind closed doors. This is something I don't think should be exclusively a council or mayor decision. I think we need to have the community at the table. So as long as that's happening, I'm very, very excited about this change. Thank you.

Thank you. Vice Mayor, President Johnson. Vice Mayor.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilmember Jeffries, for leading this effort and my colleagues for supporting it. You know, it's true that the cannabis laws that we had before, one, they disproportionately affected the black community and hurt a lot of people. So a lot of people served, you know, long prison terms. They got out. They couldn't get jobs. They couldn't get housing. It affected families, communities, and so this is a way of bringing justice. So to say that the money from the cannabis tax will go towards those most affected is a matter of justice and fairness. So thank you for that.

Thank you. President Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It's all been said. Thank you, Mr. Jeffries and my colleagues for supporting this. Thank you very much. Thank you. Further comments?

Mayor.

Yes, Ms. Owens.

Yes, certainly. So I helped to support passing this out of committee the other day. What I want to say is that there's a distinction here. We acknowledge the wrongs of the past. That's not the question. For me, it becomes more about process and our responsibility to our budget while we're facing a deficit and making budget determinations without going through a full process, especially considering we also have the Human Services Fund by which we are identifying issues like workforce, youth programs, and housing, which are all a part of how we prescribe an RFP to address those issues. So I do feel like there's a more efficient way to get these dollars out the door while addressing the issues that we're talking about.

Thank you. Further comments? Ms. Ali.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for all the comments so far. To be clear, we are all in agreement that this council is working hard to try to undo and combat some of the ills of the past. And in fact, I stated when this was in committee, and I'll continue to state, you know, the voters went to the ballot box and already told us how this money should be spent. in terms of establishing cannabis social equity and jobs program. With that said, there was quite a lively debate on the floor because at the end of the day, the sponsors of this bill, while we are establishing a fund, have not articulated what that money is going to be spent on or who determines how that money is going to be spent. I know I will continue to press my colleagues on those details. Councilmember Owens just offered up a great question. Why not add this money to the human services that we fund, that we know the process, we know who makes the decisions, how to make decisions, how the RFP works, and it's already tackling major issues like workforce development, gun violence prevention, homelessness prevention, things that we are working hard on. So I continue to have questions about the process. I'll vote yes again today. We can establish that fund. But I encourage the public to continue to ask questions of us councilmembers of what is the plan for these dollars? How are those decisions going to be made to get these dollars out the door?

Thank you. Further comments? Seeing none, roll call on adoption of the motion, please.

Councilmember James?

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries?

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney? Yes. Councilmember Nolan?

Yes.

Councilmember Owens?

Yes.

Councilmember Walsh?

Yes.

Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Cramer-Dame?

No. Thank you. Item 70 is a motion from Vice Mayor Kearney that the administration provide a report within 120 days of the pros and cons of combining the City Parks Department and Cincinnati Recreation Commission into one Parks and Recreation Department. Mr. Kramerding, this again is in your committee. May I have the Vice Mayor introduce this item? Yes, Mayor. Thank you. Vice Mayor.

Thank you. So this is informational. These discussions come up periodically. And so this is just a matter of getting information, you know, the pros and cons. If we did combine them, how would that look? Is that something we should consider doing or not? And so it's not leaning either way. It's just saying let's get the information.

Thank you. Further comments? Seeing none, roll call on adoption of the motion.

Councilmember James? Yes. Councilmember Jeffries? Yes. Councilmember Johnson? Yes. Vice Mayor Kearney? Yes. Councilmember Nolan?

Yes.

Councilmember Owens? Yes. Councilmember Walsh? Yes. Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Cramerding? Yes.

Item 71 is a motion from all members of council. On July 16, 2026, Public Works employee Jonathan Young was killed in a crash while doing scheduled work on the Norwood Lateral. He had been with the city since 2002 and worked in the Department of Public Services, helping to keep our streets safe and maintained. All of us at the city mourn Jonathan, and we are praying for his family in this difficult time. Unfortunately, Jonathan Young is not the first Public Works employee who was lost in the line of duty. To honor Jonathan and those that fell before him, we move the city administration begin a process and identify sites for permanent memorial to all Cincinnati Public Works employees who have lost their lives in the line of duty. This could be similar to that which the city has done for police and firefighters. The city should work closely with AFSCME in studying alternatives. Mr. Kramerding.

Thank you, Mayor. I think you said most of it. I want to point out that all nine of my colleagues are co-sponsoring this. We are all at Jonathan Allen Young's, the procession, the funeral, we are all moved. As you said, we do not have a memorial for our public service workers. It's one of our most dangerous professions. Actually, across the country, sanitation workers, similar to what Mr. Young was doing, have the most, the highest rate of fatalities because the work is so dangerous. There's a lot of questions, where this would go, how do we properly honor these workers that have been killed in line of duty, and how much is this going to cost, how are we going to pay for it, but this starts that process.

Thank you. Further comments? Seeing none, roll call on adoption of the motion, please.

Councilmember James.

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries?

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney? Yes. Councilmember Nolan?

Yes.

Councilmember Owens? Yes. Councilmember Walsh? Yes. Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Kramerding?

Yes. Item 72 is a motion from the Vice Mayor and Councilmember Kramerding that city council approve the immediate disbursement of $1.5 million from the fund 444 arm leader projects to the Cincinnati Recreation Commission for capital and operations improvements at the Dunham Pool, Hanna Pool, and Hirsch Pool. Attachment A lists some, but not necessarily all, suggested improvements at each site. Mr. Kramerding, may I have the Vice Mayor introduce this item? Thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor, please.

Thank you. And I should say, actually, Councilmember Kramerding invited me to come with him on this tour of pools, but there's an arm leader fund that helped to create four swimming pools, and the fund is also for the upkeep of those pools. So about a month ago, I guess, we went on a tour. And there are three pools that this motion is proposing. We allocate 1.5 million from that fund, which is specifically established for the upkeep of the pools. And those pools are the Hirsch, in this case, the three of the four pools, Hirsch, Dunham, and Hanna pool sites.

Thank you. Mr. Kramerding.

Yeah, I mean, there were two gifts. Otto Armlider gifted the city the money to build these. His, I believe it was his granddaughter gave us a second gift to make sure they were, kept up in perpetuity. These funds can just be used for that. The Vice Mayor and I took the tour. These important pools that are used by our kids are in need of some refurbishment and some equipment and some other upgrades. So it's timely.

Thank you. Further comments? Roll call on adoption of the motion, please.

Councilmember James?

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries? Yes. Councilmember Johnson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney? Yes. Councilmember Nolan?

Yes.

Councilmember Owens? Yes. Councilmember Walsh? Yes. Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Cramer?

Yes. Okay, our first ordinance, item 73, first reading, please.

An ordinance modifying chapter 507, one-way streets of the Cincinnati Municipal Code by repealing section 507-1-C9, Charles Street, east from Central Parkway on Elm Street to convert the portion of Charles Street located between Central Parkway and Elm Street from a one-way street to a two-way street.

Roll call on suspension.

Council Member James.

Yes.

Council Member Jeffries.

Yes.

Council Member Johnson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney. Yes. Council Member Nolan. Yes. Council Member Owens. Yes. Council Member Walsh.

Yes.

Council Member Albee. Yes. Council Member Kramerding. Yes.

We begin our day in budget and finance. Mr. Kramerding.

Mayor, this ordinance converts Charles Street between Central Parkway and Elm Street to two-way. Further comments? Roll call on passage.

Council Member James? Yes. Council Member Jeffries?

Yes.

Council Member Johnson? Yes. Vice Mayor Kearney? Yes. Council Member Nolan? Yes. Council Member Owens? Yes. Council Member Walsh? Yes. Council Member Albee? Yes. Council Member Kramerding?

Yes. Item 74 and 75 are as indicated. Item 76, Council Member Nolan is please recused from this item. Mr. Clerk, item 76, first reading, please.

An emergency ordinance authorizing the city manager to execute a lease with Legends at Freedom Park, LLC, and Ohio Limited Liability Company.

Roll call on suspension.

Councilmember James.

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries. Yes. Councilmember Johnson. Yes. Vice Mayor Kearney.

Yes.

Councilmember Owens.

Yes.

Councilmember Walsh.

Yes.

Councilmember Albee.

Yes.

Councilmember Kramerding.

Yes. Mr. Kramerding. This is a lease ordinance. It allows us, the city, to create the very exciting mini golf program at the banks.

Further comments? Roll call on passage, please.

Councilmember James.

Yes.

Jefferies. Yes. Councilmember Johnson. Yes. Vice Mayor Kearney.

Yes.

Councilmember Owens.

Yes.

Councilmember Walsh.

Yes.

Councilmember Albee.

Yes.

Councilmember Kramerding.

Yes. Roll call on emergency.

Councilmember James.

Yes.

Councilmember Jefferies. Yes. Councilmember Johnson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney. Yes. Councilmember Owens. Yes. Councilmember Walsh.

Yes.

Councilmember Albee. Yes. Councilmember Kramerding.

Yes. Someone grab Mr. Nolan, please. Item 77, first reading, please.

An emergency ordinance amending ordinance number 211-2026 to correct an inadvertent omission and authorize the transfer of $1,000 from the general fund balance to sheet reserve account reserved for special event support to unappropriated surplus of the general fund and make those resources available to the Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference Leadership Conference.

Roll call on suspension.

Councilmember James?

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries?

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney? Yes. Councilmember Nolan?

Yes.

Councilmember Owens? Yes. Councilmember Walsh?

Yes.

Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Kramerding?

Yes. Mr. Kramerding? The mayor of this ordinance corrects a previous ordinance that allocates $1,000 to the Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference.

Thank you. Further comments? Roll call on passage, please.

Councilmember James?

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries?

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney? Yes. Councilmember Nolan?

Yes.

Councilmember Owens?

Yes.

Councilmember Walsh? Yes. Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Kramerding? Yes.

Yes. Roll call on emergency.

Councilmember James?

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries? Yes. Councilmember Johnson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney?

Yes.

Councilmember Nolan?

Yes.

Councilmember Owens?

Yes.

Councilmember Walsh? Yes. Councilmember Albee?

Yes.

Councilmember Kermitian?

Yes. Item 78, first reading, please.

An ordinance authorizing the transfer and return to source of $400,000 from existing capital improvement program project account recreation facilities renovation to the inappropriate surplus of the general fund.

Roll call on suspension.

Councilmember James. Yes. Councilmember Jeffries. Yes. Councilmember Johnson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney. Yes. Councilmember Nolan. Yes. Councilmember Owens. Yes. Councilmember Walsh. Yes. Councilmember Albee. Yes. Councilmember Kramerding.

Yes. Mr. Kramerding. Mayor, this ordinance expands two programs for children and young people, which has been a priority of this council, specifically Rec at Night and Summer in Cincy. It transfers $400,000 to those programs.

Thank you. Further comments? Roll call on passage, please.

Councilmember James? Yes. Councilmember Jeffries? Yes. Councilmember Johnson? Yes. Vice Mayor Kearney?

Yes.

Councilmember Nolan? Yes. Councilmember Owens?

Yes.

Councilmember Walsh?

Yes.

Councilmember Albee?

Yes.

Councilmember Cramer-Dean? Yes.

Item 79, first reading, please.

An emergency ordinance establishing new agency 282 procurement within the Department of Economic Inclusion and Procurement.

Roll call on suspension.

Councilmember James?

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries?

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney. Yes. Councilmember Nolan.

Yes.

Councilmember Owens. Yes. Councilmember Walsh.

Yes.

Councilmember Albee. Yes. Councilmember Kramerding. Yes.

Mr. Kramerding.

The city manager has created the new Department of Economic Inclusion and Procurement. This ordinance transfers funding into that department to make its work possible.

Further comments? Roll call on passage, please.

Councilmember James?

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries?

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson? Yes. Vice Mayor Kearney? Yes. Councilmember Nolan?

Yes.

Councilmember Owens? Yes. Councilmember Walsh? Yes. Councilmember Albee?

Yes.

Councilmember Kramerding? Yes.

Roll call on emergency.

Councilmember James?

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries?

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson? Yes. Vice Mayor Kearney?

Yes.

Councilmember Nolan? Yes. Councilmember Owens? Yes. Councilmember Walsh? Yes. Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Kramerding?

Yes. Item 80, first reading, please.

An emergency ordinance establishing new capital improvement program project account in North Vine streetscape TIF to complete streetscape improvements on Vine Street between Elder Street and McMicken Avenue in Over the Rhine neighborhood.

Roll call on suspension.

Councilmember James. Yes. Councilmember Jeffries.

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney.

Yes.

Councilmember Nolan.

Yes.

Councilmember Owens. Yes. Councilmember Walsh.

Yes.

Councilmember Albee. Yes. Councilmember Kramerding.

Yes. Mr. Kramerding. There's going to be a number of ordinances relating to some very exciting projects in North Over the Rhine. THIS ONE IS FOR 4.9 MILLION FROM THE DOWNTOWN OVER THE RINE WEST TIF AND IT'S GOING TO BE USED FOR SIDEWALK IMPROVEMENTS AND SIDEWALK AND STREET IMPROVEMENTS.

FURTHER COMMENTS? ROLL CALL IN PASSAGE.

COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES.

YES.

COUNCIL MEMBER JEFFRIES. YES. COUNCIL MEMBER JOHNSON.

YES.

VICE MAYOR KEARNEY. YES. COUNCIL MEMBER NOLAN.

YES.

COUNCIL MEMBER OWENS. YES. COUNCIL MEMBER WALSH.

YES.

COUNCIL MEMBER ALBE. YES. COUNCIL MEMBER KRAMERDING.

YES.

ROLL CALL IN EMERGENCY.

Councilmember James?

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries? Yes. Councilmember Johnson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney? Yes. Councilmember Nolan?

Yes.

Councilmember Owens? Yes. Councilmember Walsh?

Yes.

Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Kramerding?

Yes. Item 81, first reading please.

An emergency ordinance establishing new permanent improvement program project account 1520 Madison Road redevelopment TIF to provide resources for acquisition, demolition, site improvements, and sewer relocation of the 1520 Madison Road site.

Roll call on suspension.

Council Member James.

Yes.

Council Member Jeffries. Yes. Council Member Johnson. Yes. Council Member Kearney.

Yes.

Council Member Nolan. Yes. Council Member Owens.

Yes.

Council Member Walsh. Yes. Council Member Albee. Yes. Council Member Kramerding.

Yes. Mr. Kramerding. This ordinance transfers $2.3 million from the East Walton Hills Tift for a new project at 1520 Madison Road. And this is the first phase, and it will be used for demolition site improvements and sewer relocation.

Further comments? Roll call on passage.

Councilmember James.

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries.

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney. Yes. Councilmember Nolan. Yes. Councilmember Owens. Yes. Councilmember Walsh. Yes. Councilmember Albee.

Yes.

Councilmember Kramerding.

Yes. Roll call on emergency.

Councilmember James.

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries. Yes. Councilmember Johnson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney. Yes. Councilmember Nolan. Yes. Councilmember Owens. Yes. Councilmember Walsh. Yes. Councilmember Albee. Yes. Councilmember Kramerding.

Item 82 is an ordinance authorizing the transfer of $1 million from the general fund balance sheet reserve account, quote, reserve for weather events, other emergency and one-time needs to provide one-time resources for supplemental emergency flood relief. I'll ask Councilmember Crammerding if we can have the Vice Mayor introduce this item as she has worked with colleagues to supplement the original $1 million we allocated for recovery of small businesses and homes. But before doing so, I'd like to call out the incredible work our administration has done under City Manager Long's leadership to build out this program, particularly Department of Opportunity and Resident Services Director Markeia Carter, who worked with her team to get this done on an extremely short timeline. and to ACM Bailey for your leadership on these recovery efforts, ACM Weber for helping to quickly identify resources and allocation opportunities. There will be more work ahead of us as we look back on the flooding, our processes and infrastructure, and look ahead to our preparation for future events. I know that there was thorough deliberation in committee this week and more discussion in front of us, but I'm glad that our administration and council are acting now to get the support out to the community for those who need it. With that, Councilmember Crammerding and the Vice Mayor, I'll begin by asking the Clerk to do their first reading.

An emergency ordinance authorizing the transfer of $1 million from the general fund balance sheet reserve account reserved for weather events, other emergency, and one-time needs to the unappropriated surplus of the general fund.

Roll call on suspension.

Councilmember James. Yes. Councilmember Jeffries. Yes. Councilmember Johnson. Yes. Vice Mayor Kearney. Yes. Councilmember Nolan. Yes. Councilmember Owens. Yes. Councilmember Walsh.

Yes.

Councilmember Albee.

Yes.

Councilmember Cramerding. Yes.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you. So, when these floods happen, three things that council members found out the community was really calling for. One was more dumpsters. And so our Department of Public Service jumped out there and got more and more dumpsters out to the communities. The second was a quick permitting process. And so Mr. Dahlberg, the Director of Building and Inspections, has this one-day process so contractors can go and apply for their permits. and walk out the door with them, which will really help with repairs. The third thing, people said businesses and residents, they need money. And so the mayor, first of all, thank you to you for quickly establishing that fund. We're really thankful for that. And then I'm thankful to my colleagues because we decided to put another million dollars in that makes the fund $2 million. And we appreciate the Department of Opportunity and Resident Services called DOORS, Director Markeia Carter and her staff for coming up with a quick process to get that money out the door because we know people are in need, our community is struggling, and we are dedicated to making sure everybody pulls through this. So let me just say that the number to call if you have not filed a claim is 513-323-7995. If you have already filed your claim with MSD, you don't need to call the 513-323-7995 number. They're communicating with each other. And let me say, the claims might not be for sewer backup, it might be for overland flooding, the overflow water. You don't have to determine the cause, just call. If you've had flooding, call. and make sure you file a claim with us because we are going to help you. So thank you so much.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, for the comments.

I just want to additionally thank the individuals who came out and shared the traumatic experiences they've had with the Climate and Infrastructure Committee, the loss from our residents is tremendous. I know the last thing you want to do after having such a terrible two weeks is come talk in front of all of us. So thank you for your bravery. Thank you for your testimonies. and 2 million collaboratively with the mayor and city council. I hope this can be sufficient. We will be tracking the applications as they come in. My expectation is that we may need a more sufficient response, but just know that we're listening and we care in this enormous time of crisis. Thank you. Further comments?

Mr. Jeffries? Yeah, I just want to echo the appreciation of all the public, all the city workers who responded. It was really clear from the committee hearing, all of the departments. It was really holistic and I want to thank them again. I also want to thank the mayor and vice mayor for taking the lead on this, and the administration for, I think, being clear on what the criteria is for this, I think is going to be important, not just for now, but going forward, like as we think about providing help for people in need, and look forward to continuing to engage on the short and longer term plans for how do we mitigate a lot of this damage in the future, so thank you.

Mr. Nolan. I just wanted to add, I want to thank the city staff for all the work that they've done. I know with over 2,000 complaints, that's a lot of work to do on short notice. And I very much appreciate the residents who have shown up. We've been to the community council meetings, Mount Lookout on Monday, Oakley on Tuesday with a number of my colleagues, and the vice mayor has handed out that phone number at least 50 times at this point, encouraging folks. We want to hear from you. We appreciate those who have already reached out and shared their stories. Some of them that we heard last night are incredibly heart-wrenching. And to share the data so that we can take that information and we can respond, we can be helpful where we can. So we appreciate the dialogue, and we want to keep up that communication.

Thank you. Further comments? Seeing none, roll call on passage, please.

Councilmember James.

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries? Yes. Councilmember Johnson? Yes. Vice Mayor Kearney? Yes. Councilmember Nolan? Yes. Councilmember Owens? Yes. Councilmember Walsh? Yes. Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Cramerding? Yes.

Roll call on emergency.

Councilmember James?

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries?

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson? Yes. Vice Mayor Kearney? Yes. Councilmember Nolan? Yes. Councilmember Owens? Yes. Councilmember Walsh? Yes. Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Cramerding?

Yes. Item 83, first reading please.

An ordinance accepting and confirming the dedication of public use of an approximately 0.0692-acre tract of real property as a portion of Indian Mound Avenue, a public right-of-way for street purposes in the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood of Cincinnati.

Roll call on suspension.

Councilmember James.

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries. Yes. Councilmember Johnson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney.

Yes.

Councilmember Nolan. Yes. Councilmember Owens. Yes. Councilmember Walsh. Yes. Councilmember Albee.

Yes.

Councilmember Kramerding.

Yes. Mr. Kramerding. Mayor, this ordinance dedicates a very small plot of land in Pleasant Ridge for the public right away.

Further comments? Roll call on passage, please.

Councilmember James?

Yes.

Councilmember Jeffries?

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Kearney? Yes. Councilmember Nolan? Yes. Councilmember Owens? Yes. Councilmember Walsh?

Yes.

Councilmember Albee? Yes. Councilmember Kramer-Dane?

Yes. Item 84, first reading, please.

An emergency ordinance authorizing the city manager to accept and appropriate energy credits from energy projects on U.S. Department of Treasury elective pay benefits of up to $2,700,000 in fiscal year 2027 to revolving energy loan fund to reinvest resources into city energy projects.

Roll call on suspension.