Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

You're one of the few that I've ever seen spray weeds in the road. I don't either. I would spray mine as well. I have a giant craft in front of my house. No, you're not a problem. Should we go back home?

Yeah, that's all right. Oh, okay, that's all right.

It's like a younger...

Iron a couple tonight, Chief?

All right welcome everyone if you could please rise and join us in the

All right, welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining us tonight. And Mr. Campbell, let the record reflect that all three trustees are present. Do you have any correspondence tonight, Mr. Campbell? No, sir, I do not. All right. Thank you, sir. No proclamations. And first line of business, we'll turn it over to our fire chief for a couple new hires. Chief Clements, sir, I look forward to you.

Thank you, Mr. Deals. Tonight, before I bring up the two candidates, I just want to make a couple comments. The two individuals that I'm going to be presenting to you this evening have both been working for the fire department for the last three to four months on a seasonal, part-time basis. It's a way for us to try to recruit individuals that don't have all the certifications that they need to be hired full-time but are working towards that. Both of those individuals have taken the opportunity that was given to them here this summer and taken full advantage of it. And I'm super thrilled to introduce both of them here this evening. So with that being said, if I could have Brendan Riley please come up. So I'd like to introduce and recommend Mr. Brendan Riley for consideration for the position of full-time firefighter EMT. Brendan grew up in the Milford area and is a 2021 high school graduate of Summit Country Day. After high school, he attended the University of Kentucky, where he earned his bachelor's degree in business management in 2025. Following college, he pursued his firefighter and EMT certifications through Cincinnati State. He is currently attending Butler Tech, working towards his paramedic certification, which he will obtain next year. Brennan enjoys golfing and fishing in his free time. He successfully completed all aspects of the hiring process, including a background, polygraph, psychological evaluation. I would recommend a conditional offer of employment to Mr. Riley as a full-time firefighter EMT at a rate of pay consistent with step one of the collective bargaining agreement effective September 28th, 2026 at 7 a.m. pending successful completion of a physical examination.

Fantastic. Thank you, Chief. And Brennan, welcome. Welcome tonight. You've been with us all summer long. Appreciate you very much for taking the part-time program. I assume you've got a fair amount of family with you, right? Yeah, we've got a whole bunch. The floor is yours, brother. Go and call them out, please.

My dad, Tyson, stepmom, sister Taylor, girlfriend Kitty, Aunt Joy, cousin Ryan, Grandma Wolf, Grandpa Wolf, Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Bob, Uncle Chris, Grandma Donna, Grandpa Vic.

I have a feeling that when we approve you and you're done tonight, I have a feeling about 75% of this crowd is going to be leaving us tonight.

Mr. Becker, anything for Mr. Riley? Well, I was just thinking the reason traffic was light getting here, everybody's here. Hey, did I hear Northern Kentucky University?

UK, University of Kentucky.

Oh, it's UK? Yes, sir. And it was a business management degree? Yes, sir. Okay, because mine went to NKU. I think what he said, that's where I got my degree. That was many decades ago. But, hey, anyway, just want to thank you for being part of Union Township, and we're looking forward to getting you started. That's all, Chairman.

Mr. Luke, sir? Hey, it's really exciting to have you here with all your family. I want to ask, I mean, I think it's so invigorating seeing you come join our team here and serve the community. Is there anything that you think we should be doing better to attract young talent? Any of your classmates, that type of dynamic? What was your call to service? Putting you on the spot, but you don't need to be on the bus. Looks like you can handle the stage well.

I don't think you guys have to do anything better. I just think it's kind of tough right now with the EMTs and then the medics. I just think the fire service in general is tough to get EMTs on when most departments are medics only. I don't think the way you guys run it can be improved. This is so attractive to me with A lot of veterans in my family. Just wanted to do something for the community and people in that community.

Military and police and fire? Just military veterans? So that's just the call to serve? Yes, sir. I love that. Well, I'm sure I know you're doing them proud, so thank you. Thank you.

And then, Brendan, you can see, if you look behind you, all these firefighters are here for you and the other gentleman after you. So pretty cool. They show up. It's good camaraderie here. But good. I'm glad you're here. And gentlemen, I'll entertain a motion for the approval of the hire of Graham Riley to the position of firefighter EMT step one, effective date September 28, 2026, at 7 AM at a rate pay consistent with the collective bargaining agreement pending, successful completion of medical and physical examination. So moved. Second. Mr. Gamble, roll call.

Mr. Becker?

Yes.

Mr. Lowe? Yes. Mr. Dills?

Yes.

All right.

Congratulations, Brandon.

Congratulations. Welcome. I appreciate it.

All right, next up, we got same thing with our fire department, is Trevor Muchmore. Come on up here, Trevor. Perfect. All right, and Chief, same thing. I'll throw the floor to you, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Dills. So here in front of you is Mr. Trevor Muchmore. Trevor is introduced as a consideration for the position of full-time firefighter EMT. Trevor is a 2025 graduate of Wyoming High School. While still enrolled in high school, Trevor pursued his firefighter and EMT certification, which he obtained shortly after high school graduation. He has previous work experience for working for the city of Wyoming, as well as Lachlan Fire Department. He is currently attending Cincinnati State, working towards his paramedic certification, as well as an associate's degree in fire science, which he will obtain next year. Trevor has successfully completed all aspects of the hiring process, including a background, polygraph, and psychological evaluation. I would recommend a conditional offer of employment to Mr. Muchmore as a full-time firefighter EMT at a rate of pay consistent with step one of the collective bargaining agreement effective September 29th, 2026 at 7 a.m. pending successful completion of a physical examination.

Thank you, Chief. Trevor, welcome. Same thing. Got your family here?

Yep. Please go ahead. I've got my mom, Jamie, my grandma, Barbara, my stepdad, Tony, and my stepbrother, Evan.

I love it. I love it. That's fantastic. And then, Mr. Becker, I'm going to throw the floor to you, sir. Go ahead.

Yeah, so I heard Wyoming, Laughlin, you live on that side of town? Yeah, I live in Wyoming. Okay. Plan to move a little closer, maybe?

Potentially in the coming years, yeah.

All right, well, we'll look forward to having you as a resident in Union Township. That'd be great. Yes, sir. Welcome aboard. That's all, Chairman.

Mr. Luke? Mr. Becker, you got an open bedroom at the house for him?

I might be able to work out a rental arrangement.

We're, again, thrilled to have you. It's such impactful work in the community, especially if you've ever been on the receiving end of needing aid from our safety services, our fire, our EMS. So, you know, again, same perspective. What's your call to service? What kind of inspired you to... I'd say push against some of the grain of where maybe some of your peers are going because it's just such a high calling to serve others. But what's your call?

So in high school, I joined the Wyoming Fire Department as a cadet. I fell in love with it. I wanted more. So I joined the Lockman Fire Department as a cadet also to get more experience. And then ultimately I found this place to get a better experience and a future in this career.

Wonderful. because of that early engagement through, uh, like a high school youth program. Yes, sir. Okay. That's great. Well, Hey, really, really appreciate Trevor. Uh, team's looking forward to having you. Thank you.

All right, Trevor. Yeah. Let's get this started. Gentlemen, I'll entertain a motion for the hire of Trevor Muchmore to the position of Firefighter EMT Step 1, effective September 29, 2026 at 7 a.m. at a rate paid consistent with the collective bargaining agreement, pending successful completion of medical and physical examination. So moved. Second. Mr. Campbell, roll call.

Mr. Becker? Yes. Mr. Lowe?

Yes.

Mr. Dills?

Yes.

Motion carries.

Congratulations, Trevor.

Thank you.

All right.

Let the room clear up for a minute.

All right, and then, by the way, there's already a handful. If you'd like public comments tonight, there's public comment cards back there. Now, if you're here to talk about the zoning case tonight, I would suggest doing that separately, and then in a minute we'll come by and collect those cards from you. And then, gentlemen, I wanted to, sorry to spring something on you, but I wanted to talk about it before public comments, in case anybody wanted to come and talk about it, was, we're not going to have open conversation right now about it, but I wanted to see your thoughts on your all schedule before the next October business meeting. The subject of flock cameras has come up quite a bit. And so I've done some research, and I don't recall any government entity anywhere in the tri-state that has done a work in session, like a town hall style meeting. And so I was thinking of let's schedule a work in session town hall style meeting and I'm thinking as far as the parameters, the rules, because I don't want to be there all night, but I do want folks to have a say, is 90 minutes and maybe the first 10, 20 minutes, let's give our police department the floor, have the chief give a presentation, and then after that, open it up for five minutes of conversation each, and then cap it off at an hour. that'll leave us about 10 15 minutes at the end to have some discussion but i think it'd be neat no other government entity has has done this as far as having they've either made a decision yes or no we're going to keep them uh whether or not what direction we're going to take but i think it would be neat if we did a work in session town hall style meeting and uh just let folks get up to the mic and talk and say whether they're for or against them and then we can make a decision on the future so i want to see if there's a date before the next october meeting that works um anything or any dates that don't work at all?

I've got some color around that concept. I was really actually hoping that we would have an agenda on tonight's meeting just to solicit public comment and feedback on the flock cameras. So hopefully we can hear that at public comment tonight, but I really wanted the township because to me it's nice to have what you're recommending. You want to do a town hall style on it, but that's a, Frankly, I'd like to just get it on the agenda as a new business and be soliciting the feedback. I guess my point there is, unfortunately, it's not advertised and already on the agenda for tonight. I would like us to, I guess, move faster on that. But going forward to October, I would almost welcome the same thing. The regular scheduled meeting, night of October, let's put it out there, see how much community feedback wants to come, and be part of that. and then determine if it's a reason to have a follow-up a week later, whatever it may be, for continued conversation, more of a forum, if that need is made. Otherwise, my perspective on it, too, is if communities are getting more information through is needed. I'm supportive of having some type of a citizen-led committee that can become a liaison with the flock vendor and receive some information and provide information back. I think that's what communities across the state or country are trying to have engagement on. Not opposed to a town hall. I just think activity and traction matter. So what I would actually ask for is that we'd just be supportive of standing up a citizen led committee. If it's not an over burdensome action to the staff, I mean two hours a week or something to that effect. I don't know what your thoughts are.

I think I want to have a, uh, town hall style meeting, that's a working session, and I would like to put it out there for two weeks or so. Ms. Auer can put it out there for two, three weeks before our next October meeting and let folks just come up and talk. No other government entity that I know of has done it, and so I'd like to keep it separate from our actual scheduled business meeting and make that specific night, because I think there would be a lot of people that show up, and so I think it would be nice to just solicit feedback, and we're all about community engagement, so I'd just like to hear what the residents want us to do as far as that direction. Mr. Becker, what's your thoughts?

I do like the idea of a town hall meeting. I would also request that a representative from FLOC be at that meeting, or at least be invited, give them the opportunity to attend. So their schedule would be a factor on how free they are and can dispatch people. I think their headquarters is in Louisville, I want to say, so fortunately it's not all that far away.

I thought it was Georgia. Maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe there's a district office in Louisville.

Chief Reese, where's their office? Our rep is based out of Louisville.

That's what I'm thinking of.

Is there a date? I'm thinking 6 o'clock as well. And the reason why is in case anyone wants to talk about flock tonight, I would say, hey, give us your thoughts, but probably come back again at the town hall. But any dates that don't work? I'd like to do it before our next October meeting. So we got a month notice, or we have a whole month to work with, I should say. But I'd like to give Ms. R at least a week to put it out there hard so we can make sure. What's your thoughts, Mr. Logan? Any dates that do or don't work?

Yeah, I mean, I don't have my... calendar, my other calendar in front of me right at the moment to give you dates, but would you target like a Monday night? Would that be a benefit? I've got a lot of travel with work right now, so that's what I'm looking at. Like literally the next three weeks you're traveling.

Monday it is? You oppose the Monday?

I can usually make about any evening work. So short answer is no, I don't have any opposition to

Monday I can tell you the 21st looks good 28th I can do 28th left can we narrow down the 21st or 28th I'd like to balance the schedule against my work schedule carry on with me tonight okay so we'll go with those and then

Mr. Wright, whatever one Mr. Logue picks, that's what we'll do. And then let's set it for 6 p.m. on that night. What are you thinking?

Yes, we just have to have time to get the meeting notice out. I think that we would have ample time to. to properly notice that meeting on our website, Facebook, all of those things.

Mr. Chairman, I think we should consider making a 7 o'clock meeting start because I think more people could get here and it's easier for them at 7 since it's not a regular business meeting where we could be going late. 7 might be a better start time. Let's do that.

And you would just like me to coordinate with?

Yeah, so we'll pick either one. Ms. R, are you okay with either one of those dates? I gave you enough time to market it. And then what we'll do is, that's fine, 7 o'clock is fine. I'd like to give the, this is how I was thinking in my brain time, what you both think, is giving the floor to Chief Reese and letting him do his thing. And then have the police department do their thing. The thing is I want to give at least an hour to the floor, and each person gets, you know, I want to cap it off of five minutes because I want everybody to get a chance to talk. I don't want to be here all night either. And then the last 10-ish minutes, 15 minutes, us three can deliberate and then call it a night. So I'm thinking 90 minutes at a cap. Does that seem fair and reasonable?

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Five minutes of public participation each. That's it. And then, uh, okay, cool. Uh, and then Mr. Ray, just work it out. We'll push it out, but I think it'd be neat. We're the only government body that I think that's done a, you know, a public meeting like that. And, uh, I think it'd be a good thing.

So if you can reach out to the representative in Louisville and see if he's available either of those nights or if they can dispatch somebody.

would be great do we have a targeted outcome out of the town hall that we think yeah wait to get feedback and if and if after after we get feedback then uh um then we'll make a decision as far as the future of what we're gonna do with flock and um license plate readers in the future so yeah okay any apprehension you guys have for having a citizen-led committee on it as well

to engage in policies, best practices, utilization, and work with FLOC directly?

Yeah, I'm going to defer to Chief Reese on that, but I don't have a problem. At my first glance, I don't have a problem. I mean, Mr. Becker?

I don't have a problem with that either. Maybe that's something we kind of make part of the town hall meeting.

Perfect.

And then maybe put that together afterwards, depending on how the discussions go and what the public wants.

Perfect. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you being on board with that. Yes, please.

I'll just connect with you, sir. We'll work that out and I'll send a note out regarding the actual date and time.

The top of my head is Mondays are typically... Better there, but yeah, I'll connect with you. Perfect.

So if anybody wants to talk about flock tonight, you're more welcome to. But I would suggest waiting for one of those two dates, and then we'll all get it out. But all right, public comments? All right, let's see here. We've got, well, it looks like there's some flooding on Glendale. All right, so we'll talk. Let's do this first one first. We'll do this one. Miss Jane Phelps, are you here? All right, come on up, Miss, please. Yes. You just want to state your name and address for the record.

I summarize what I have sent now to the VFW of Ohio, as well as the Missouri VFW hall center, because my neighbors and I have had enough of the VFW hall bar across our street. I'm right across the street, my husband and I, and it's just been awful. This are the small sample of M eighties that were let off on Memorial day weekend. And it's just continued one day, one episode of issues versus another, um, Sergeant Danielle Smith has been assigned to the case. Appreciate that. Um, but we're still not getting enough, uh, issues addressed here. I recommended a camera with the speed sign or speed bar. Like I used to have in my old neighborhood. to try and address some of the speeding on the very narrow street when they're drinking, drunk, and they're just out of control. There's been pot smoking in front of the building almost on a nightly basis that's starting to curve off now, thankfully, because we're outside a lot. I do a lot of yard work. We have two dogs, rescue dogs. So it's just one thing after another. They'll be in the parking lot until late at night, early in the morning, I should say, like last week. They were there and woke me up at quarter to four in the morning. I had to call the police. His car alarm was going off. He has this woman pressed against his vehicle enjoying himself. And it's like this is, oh, yeah, you have not seen what we've seen.

I just want to make, I think I did hear what I thought I heard you say.

You did hear it. That's not even. I could go into more stories that we've seen.

Sounds like police work.

Yes, it does. Believe me, it is. And so I'm just summarizing everything, but I have sent off letters as of this past weekend. My husband and I did, along with our neighbors. There's a signed affidavit in here that I've also turned in to Sergeant Smith from our neighbors over that Memorial Day weekend when it was horrible. All the way down on Minks, they could hear them. They thought bombs were going off. One of the gentlemen who was part of that, he apparently, according to Sergeant Smith, has been incarcerated about a month after that situation. I didn't ask why because I don't care. He's in jail. That's what I count. That's what matters to me. But something needs to be addressed. When it's closing time and why it's closing time until 2 a.m. on a work day, I don't understand that. If it's a VFW hall, it should act as a VFW hall. And I also have veterans in my family as well as policemen. The Blay family, the Crumman family, the Romer family, all the way out to Kentucky. My grandfather was a Cincinnati policeman, plus the service in my family, retired veterans. And it's ridiculous. They're a disgrace to the veterans, as far as I'm concerned, and my husband, who's also a veteran. So something's got to be done with this place across the street. So I'll give you the summary of information. That's all I have to give you.

And we will continue to call the police whenever this should occur.

But as I was concerned also at 5 a.m. when I get up, because I have an international company to manage. And so I'm feeling that people in my direct reports from Turkey, UK, India.

You want to be on the mic if you want the cameras to pick you up.

Yeah, our microphones aren't very good.

Okay. So I have an international company in my position as a director. And I had to be up at 5 a.m., and as I have explained to the sergeant, but she was like, well, we can have someone come back there. I said, no, I just want you to get them off of the property. I'm okay with walking in the dark. I've walked in the dark all my life with my pets because I'm an early bird due to my job. So I don't need the police to take care of me. I need them to deal with the illegal activity going on across the street. That's what I want to manage is that activity. I'm not afraid in the dark. And I'm not packing a gun. I can say that either. But it's ridiculous. It shouldn't be acting like the nasty-ass bar that it is. It shouldn't. In all hours of the day, in the night, in the morning, it's ridiculous. That's all I have to say.

Thank you, Ms. Phelps. Chief, are you aware of all this? Okay, fair enough. Thank you, Ms. Phelps. Appreciate you bringing that to our attention. Thank you. All right. And I got a, you guys, it looks like you're probably a couple or related. You're more welcome to speak together or separate, but is it Habig? Is that correct?

I'm so sorry.

Oh, okay. All right. Ms. Judy, come on up, please. Yeah, come on up. You're throwing things already. Ms. Judy, uh, rising, please just state your name and address for the record for Mr. Campbell.

Okay. I'm Judy rising. I live at 44 62 Glendale drive and I'm here about the flooding.

Yes, ma'am. Five minutes. The floor is yours. Yes, ma'am.

So I live on the lowest part of Glendale and that's where the drainage. system runs. And we've talked to Matt and Corey and showed them that. They did a study in 2009 of the watershed area. And so when they did that study, they said that none of the ditches should be changed in any way. Because it comes off of Glenwillow. It comes down, hits Glendale and does a 90 degree turn. across the street from my house and then it does another ninety degree turn to go down the ditch so when they came in and did the water new water pipes people tended to put in pipes and cover the ditches they have the water running right down the hill right into my house because of the study it's already been knowing that this should have never happened there should have never been a pipe put in there so i'm just calling you attention to it now so it's on record yes ma'am thank you mr rising but um i actually think i spoke with you too correct i think so yeah on the phone so uh mr wright are we good on this uh yes sir um we have uh talked to choice one

who's our engineer. We have a proposal. It's not going to be cheap. It'll be $16,000, $17,000 to restudy this. It's complicated. I talked to the contractor that these good folks actually gave me a phone number with. He was with Howell Construction. It appears that a review of aerial cartography sometime between the 2021 aerial photographs and the 2022 aerial photographs that the ditch lines were both piped in and then also graded to where there is no ditch line on the side opposite of their street And so those open ditch lines provided, you know, excess capacity for that, for that water to kind of dissipate and then get into a storm structure that we sized under the road and all of that what's since been piped. And I know Matt has already had that TV. Is that correct? Uh, so we have those results. I'm waiting to see those. Uh, we also are going to try to work with the county. to see if they can provide us with a drainage analysis for how to fix this since there's some debate over what caused this. That said, we have a proposal from Choice 1 to study it. My preference, you know, again, they're great engineers. My preference would be to have the county look at it. But as I understand it, and Matt can stop me. Let me stop her time. Sorry. Matt can stop me, and I'm not a stormwater engineer. The pipe underneath the road with the structure has so much capacity, right? It's sized to, I think, approximately a 42-inch round culvert, but it's actually an elliptical culvert or whatever. And it does come down to this 90, and it goes into, I believe Matt measured, it's a 27-inch inside diameter concrete pipe. Now, we don't know what's downstream from that. All we can see is the opening. The TV results will tell us what the approximate size of the pipe is. So it comes down, it hits an embankment, the road's in an embankment, has to make a 90-degree turn. So this pipe here has so much capacity. This pipe has so much capacity. Without causing catastrophic damage to people who are across the street, right, ripping all of that out, all of that. Is there a way to provide overflow or bypass relief, or do we have to go in and stretch that pipe all the way along, rip people's driveways out? We don't know. We don't know. We have to study that. We need an engineer to tell us on that. My mind tells me what I think needs to happen, but I need an engineer to confirm that. But we are actively working on that. We had a great meeting. I think we sat down for an hour and a half, and I appreciate the plans that you held on to.

and those were very useful so thank you mr ray yeah thank you thank you mr rising appreciate you yeah and thomas and jane i'll leave it up to you if you both want to come together or not it's up to you perfect and then uh to state your all's name and address just for the record and then five minutes the floor is yours please i'm jane kammerhavik 4476 glenn willow drive we first brought this oh tom

This has been kind of an ongoing issue for many years. And when the township collaborated with the county on the school house project where they

schoolhouse had been dirt pretty much and it needed repaying they repaid it they put in sidewalks they put in curbs they also put in you know the term but to me it's a retention pipe so that some of the flood water coming down schoolhouse from basically old seventy four would be held back so that we live upstream from the Rising, Mrs. Rising and her husband when he was alive. And he and I have been to many meetings with this former boards and former maintenance people. So we thought that that would help. Instead, I've spoken to the neighbor catty-corner across from the street who's even more upstream, and he says he's, and this has been since our meeting with Corey, with Mr. Wright, sorry, that he said he retrieves unbelievable amounts of garbage. I know we retrieve garbage from our side, so some wear condoms. uh, pop and beer bottles, broken glass, you name it comes is channeled through now in the last rain, which Mr. Wright quantified as a 5,000 year.

That's my guess. It was big. It was a big one.

We think it wasn't quite 5,000, but at any rate, Tom, we, The channeling next to our house is going pretty well. It cuts through Mr. Novick's property, and he was in on the original thing. There was something called the Green Valley Project, which if any of you proposed, if anyone wants to talk about Matt, we filled Matt pretty much in on the details of that, and that was rejected by one homeowner along the creek because it would necessitate homeowner taxes and if one person along the creek vetoed it, he did veto it, he no longer lives there. But the bottom line is people like Mrs. Rising can no longer tolerate the flood of water. The house across the street from her is now a rental property owned by one of the county officials and there is some speculation that she without permission from the township, put in the smaller pipes at the two 90 degree angles, which is constricting the water. So we just ask that this time, somebody please. with mr taylor and mr wright's assistance and your approval somebody needs to remedy this we did approach mr dills to begin with and he was concerned because of the redwood property that's being built there on schoolhouse on the other side of schoolhouse on the sidewalk side of schoolhouse official Officially, we're not supposed to get runoff from them, according to Mr. Taylor and Mr. Wright, but at this point, who knows? Neither we, who have the lowest house on Glen Willow, nor Mrs. Rising, who has the lowest house on Glendale, can afford any more property damage. We've lived there since 1974. Judy, how long have you lived there? Since 1975. Since 1975. So we've been good citizens. Some of you may know me from having been in front of this board before on the same thing, or as somebody sitting in the audience as a reporter, I'm no longer reporting, but believe me if it necessitates, and I don't like making threats, but if it necessitates going to the press, I've got. And I really don't want to have to do that, but something has to be done to keep the homeowners safe. We now have all of our children are grown and have families of their own, but there are a lot of young couples that have moved in. We've got somebody across the street from us who has maybe a six-month-old baby people behind us have an eleven-month-old baby people next door to it on the other side of the creek that really suffers because their yard gets cut off has a little girl that'll be three in November and then there's bigger kids down the street so are we going to wait until something happens like happened in Miami Township years ago where a child drowned and Miami township had to pay a multimillion dollar settlement for the loss of his life. We don't want to see that happen.

I appreciate it.

We want our property protected. We want our neighborhood children protected and certainly Mrs. Rising should not have to have water coming into her house. Thank you for your attention. And we hope to hear back. if not from you as individual trustees, then from Mr. Taylor and Mr. Wright. Thank you.

Thank you both very much. Appreciate you. Yeah. Good job. Thank you. Mr. Taylor, I know you met with all those neighbors at 5, 6 o'clock at night on a Friday night. Appreciate you both very much doing that and hearing what they had to say. So appreciate that. OK. Is there anyone else for public comment tonight? Oh, please come on up, Mr. Dean. Yeah. Or do it. Yeah, please.

Oh, yeah, I got you. You probably know this by memory now.

I do. I do. I got you. There you go. Perfect. Perfect. I got you. You got it. You got it.

Oh, you got it.

You got it. Good to see you. All right. All right. Mr. DeWitt, sir, you go ahead. You got the floor.

Melvin DeWitt, 3902 Banks Road, Union Township, Ohio. OK. I am speaking here tonight because on the events I did not see the list of the 15th of September with the memorial dedication at Union Township Park for memorial for the Revolutionary War soldiers and patriots. So whether I read too fast and just missed it. We just finalized it.

So that's my bad. Not township related, but it's a big deal. I'm sorry, I don't want to steal your thunder.

Go ahead, Mr. DeWitt. I would hope that a lot of people would show up. I know the time of day is not conducive to a lot of people showing up. 10.30 in the morning, right there at Veterans Park, right there on the corner. And just would like to see a lot of people show up for that event. Again, 15th of September, 10.30 in the morning, dedication for the Revolutionary War soldiers and patriots.

Mr. DeWitt, thank you. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

I think she said she's got over 50 reservations or RSVPs already for that. Do you really? Yep.

Not her. That's right. I remember that.

Yeah.

When he was talking, I was like, I thought I was speaking at that. Okay, yeah.

And then another really cool thing about the event, and we worked with the police department and the fire department, and I believe they're going to have some live fire. Musket fire. Musket fire.

That's pretty cool.

So you'll have reenactment stuff going on. It'll be a cool event.

That's awesome.

And this is, Lisa, was it – a fundraising effort by Claremont-Histon. Yeah, Genealogical Society. Yes, thank you, sir. They raised funds for this monument and it's outstanding.

Awesome, awesome. Thank you, Mr. DeWitt. All right, next, is it Keegan Slaney? All right, sir, come on up, please, and name and address for the record, and then five minutes, the floor is yours, sir.

Sure, I'm Keegan Slaney. I live on 3769 Sturbridge Way. This is actually Pierce Township, but I went to their meeting last month, and I thought it would be a good idea. So I know energy aggregation plans are really functional to decrease the cost of electricity. Unfortunately, it's been increasing quite a bit, for many reasons, including data centers and their infrastructure. But I see that Union Township and Anderson Township arguably have the best aggregate plan right now at about 10 cents per kilowatt hour. But what's better than that in the area would be around Dayton. There's a coalition of like 20 different communities that have one energy aggregation plan that's about 10% better than yours and much better than mine and Pierce. I was curious if Union, Pierce, Anderson, would be considering a council just for energy aggregation to decrease the cost. Because the better we can combine for purchasing power, the better we can negotiate costs for American people. So I thought that was the idea and just wanted to bring it up.

Well said. Personally, on a – I see an employee with a township. I very much dislike aggregation because our call every year when it rolls around is by law we have to allow – we have the whole opt-out program or whatever. You'll see on – I don't follow it. Mr. Becker follows next door 10 times, 100 times more than I ever will. But you'll see people on there, oh, my gosh, you need a township. Oh, the aggregation program. I don't want this. I want to opt out. By law, we have to because the folks voted on it back in 2015 or 16 or whatever. And so our phones get flooded because people are angry at us because if we're opting, we're in the aggregation program. And I hate it because of that. And so because our phones get flooded because people are angry at us for it. And so for that reason, I can't stand it. However, for the cost savings, I absolutely love it. I just wish... I don't know how to educate. We try to put it out in our newsletter. We try to do it all that to educate folks. Listen, we have to do this. Like it's a law, like unless y'all want us to, to vote on it again, there's nothing we could do about it, but I'm all about partnering with other townships to, to, to save the folks more cost savings. Absolutely. Um, so I got, I got your information and then, uh, I'll have a Mr. Wright reach out to you and I'm all about it and good job on the homework of up in Dayton. I didn't know that. So,

Yeah, I went to Pierce, and they actually said reach out to my state representatives because they did not think they could merge. He's like, that's a great idea. We could reach out to the union if it was allowed. But then I started researching it more. Because Freeman, he was excited about the idea, and then he was like, we can't really do it. But I figured out a different group did.

Mr. Slaney, well done. Good job. So yeah, we'll definitely be in touch with you. And seriously, good job on your homework as well, by the way. Thank you.

So leveraging... Leveraging our buying power, really the main thing you're getting at. We do have actual examples of doing that here in the township when it comes to repaving the roads. We're able to partner with the county and leverage the buying power with the county and be able to pave more roads. I mean, this board, by working together and doing that, took it from on average about a mile a year to 10 miles. uh, what last year, the year before. So, um, that's the same concept and you're absolutely right in the aggregation. Corey, does the council of local, does, uh, council of local governments, um, weed into also the aggregation program that like, uh, that Dieter's with, with the, is it that energy? Uh, how do they actually do their, their aggregation across the jurisdictional lines?

So that would be a, I'd have to reach out to okay. I, to see if that's something they could tread into. Um, One of my first calls will be to Energy Alliances, who manages our program. They actually manage most of the programs around here. And so I think it's worth exploring for sure. I just don't know.

Do you have any black and white data on the fact of jurisdictions not getting the benefit of that leveraged buying power? Because it's likely being – accomplished through the energy aggregator, but it's not explicitly like Union Township's working with Pierce Township.

Right. I guess what I know is there's a technical council in Dayton that combines, even across county lines, that's why I mentioned the Anderson Township. You could add in Newtown or anything else. I do not know any examples where the aggregate like bulks up and it gets a worse deal. However, right now with how energy costs are kind of skyrocketing in the past five-ish years, I know that the 10%, the number that I mentioned before, It is slightly different because you guys end in December of 27. I think they end in December of 26. So they could be different by what they expect the cost of energy to be over time. That's why in the past, we get longer deals with energy. And now we're getting, say, 18 months compared to multiple years, like four or five years. So I don't have the research on that at the moment, I guess, just to be point blank. But I do know that that example seems to be better than ours.

And if you don't mind me asking, you started off your point by talking about data centers being a reason for driving energy prices.

Are you just purely I guess it's speculative. I would say it's speculative based on the fact that I know in Ohio we're the seventh most amount of data centers in the country. I know we keep on having more in them, say Brown, Adams, Pike, Washington counties. All of them have had data centers come in the past year. I'm aware that they have a need for it, it's a supply-demand issue, I would assume. So I kind of just put that together and assume that's part of why energy prices are going up. But I don't really have the data to support that right with me or anything like that.

I'm just curious to understand the perspective that you're sharing fully. So, yeah, thank you. Of course. Appreciate you.

Thank you, Mr. Saline. Okay, Mr. Nick Reese, come on up, sir. Sir, then name and address for the record.

In five minutes, the floor is yours, sir. Please. Appreciate it. Nicholas Reese, 4249 Ilium Avenue. Yeah, please. I appreciate the town hall. I came here to speak on flock, and I appreciate that recommendation. That is the best thing ever. I love it when government takes input from people. I think so, too. It's awesome. So thank you very much. Yes, sir. I'll make it brief since we're doing that. The first thing is my ideology is I'm right. I'm a Republican. I grew up learning about small government, Republican values. Um, and this County kind of leans, right. So that's kind of where I want to go with that. First of all, it doesn't really align with my Republican values. Um, the second point is, um, I want to thank the chief, um, for creating such a. Open department. I was able to get multiple records requests. Um, your people are very professional, upstanding, great police officers. Lieutenant Blankenship has been far fabulous. Fabulous. Um, my next thing is. with the destroyed cameras that have been in our township, and we weren't able to get a conviction with those, does that not speak to the community not wanting those in the public? So that would be my first point. My second point is, if we can look at this through the lens of Chitra versus the United States, was just a Supreme Court case that was just decided in May, and that dealt with geofence warrants And geofence warrants being a mass net and a bunch of innocent people getting caught in that net. So just a couple things to think about there. Feels like the jury has already decided that we're not going to force the flock and then Chitra versus the United States. Also, the Ohio House has a bill in there right now dealing with flock cameras. and that is going to be up to the individual cities, townships, citizens to vote on them. Who knows if it gets through or not? We all know how the House works, but just throwing that out there. I appreciate you guys' time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Reese. Appreciate you.

Chair? I'm sorry. Mr. Reese?

No, actually, a question for... Oh, never mind.

I thought Mr. Baker had a question, so you're good.

Well, yeah, I got a question for him. The gentleman brought up the flock camera that was destroyed. I understand a grand jury... refused to hand out an indictment. So that was a felony charge. Has the prosecutor decided to file new charges that are misdemeanors or where does that stand?

Well, it's technically not up to the prosecutors, up to the department. And that is an avenue that we're pursuing. Uh, I don't want to speak too much about it, but there's certain things we have to do before we make that decision on whether to present it as a misdemeanor or again as a felony. So we're just not there yet.

I see. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Becker. You're referencing an opportunity to provide feedback. Would you have interest in a citizen committee initiative or? For recognizing technologies like automatic license plate readers, that's technology now. There might be other technology that's coming. The same type of questions may be presented.

The way I balance everything with my ideology is if we give up our freedoms, we'll never get them back. That goes for the Second Amendment, First Amendment, every single amendment we have. Um, it, it scares me. Um, I'm 33 years old. I still have a good amount of life left before, uh, ahead of me. Um, as far as it's the all encompassing power. So the fact that other townships around can pull from us and that there are not why we may put checks and balances here, where are those checks and balances on other departments? I can only affect what's going on inside my township. I can't, address what's going on inside another township, whether it's Pierce or 50 miles up the road. I just can't. Um, that's a tough question. Cause I, I'm not saying that there are no positive benefits of that. They've been proven. There've been tons of positive benefits, but I don't know if they outweigh the negatives and I don't know if technology keeps increasing, which it will, it increases at a rapid rate. I mean, Where is AI going after this? We just don't know.

So my real question is if I support a committee or a citizen-led initiative, another trustee wants to as well, would you be interested in volunteering to try to serve on something in that capacity? Always. I'd always be happy to be back, yes. And I think I just take this from the approach that technology is not going away. And the gentleman earlier spoke about data centers in a 15-second clip. Technology is not going away unless you believe it will. If American values are not built into the systems, there will be a vacuum that will be created. And countries around the world, like China's Communist Party, will fill those vacuums. And they will inherently not have American values built in. And that is a huge concern for future generations and protecting freedom.

I totally agree with that. That being said, what are our American values right now?

What are they? No, we're on the same page. That's the scary part.

I mean, we're going to extremes on both left and right. I mean, we have governor candidates getting attacked. Governor candidates. That's crazy. We have presidents being attacked. I just, I don't know what our American values are and if we can get a unified view on American values. And I think that is what's kind of nice about America is we have melting pots and it doesn't necessarily melt together. We still have our communities and everything, Chinatown, Little Italy, things like that. But when we come out to the community, that's when we need to be together. And I just don't know if we have the decorum anymore to be able to do that. but I would always be happy to serve on any community. I will say, obviously I'm going to be biased, but that is my two cents. Um, and then just to the grand jury indictment and kind of goes back to the ham sandwich, right? A grand jury can always, and we'll always indict a ham sandwich. And if they didn't, I feel like that is screaming that your community does not want it, but appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Reese. Thank you.

Uh, all right. Uh, Jason Steeber, sir, come on up, please. Five minutes and just name and address for the record, sir. Yes, sir.

Jason Steeber, 4181 South Jensen Loop. The greatest atrocities committed against groups of people have always been by the government. While Mr. Logue just said that AI is going to be part of our life and the use of it is going to be part of our life, I submit to you that while it may be, we still have to take in the human element. That is what is driving this force and that's really what's creating the fear that's within our community. And here are a couple reasons why. Reynoldsburg, Ohio, two officers were investigated for running 47 unauthorized searches and 53 unauthorized searches on the same vehicle. In Columbus, Ohio, a civilian oversight board determined that an officer violated policy by searching flock camera for an accident that he caused. In Indianapolis, Indiana, a officer used the license plate reader and made hundreds of searches involving only a select few license plates. In Louisville, Kentucky, a DEA agent used the police department's credentials to conduct an immigration-related flock search. To err is human. We are giving way too much authority and way too much use to humans to allow them to err. And now from what I'm understanding from the last time we interacted, Chief Tony, is there's a 30-day cycle of when we do audits of how these searches are being done. That gives the police officer 29 days to illegally search me or follow me before the search is done or before we're auditing what they're doing. This one is not necessarily flock, but a Bethel police chief recently, within the last week, three months used a police-issued vehicle to drive to Dayton for an affair. And I bring this up to say that we're having government-issued items being illegally used. And this isn't in socialist New York City. This is right here in our own backyard. Some of this is happening in our own county. While the use of this technology may be useful down the road, we do not have the safety protocols, we do not have the audits, we do not have the proper setup to allow humans to error and use it to their own advantage or to use it in an otherwise harassing manner. I believe that while the town hall may be a good idea, until the village has spoken, until the township has spoken that this is a good idea and everybody wants it, I believe you need to cut those off right now. And then when the community comes behind you after the town hall and they say, yes, please, we're giving you the authority to use that over us, then you can turn them back on. But at this point in time, we're setting ourselves up for a lot of illegal issues and a lot of illegal searches. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Schumer. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Mr. Stever? Yes, sir. If there is a citizen-led committee, you're referencing Columbus, Ohio. Civilian oversight committee it's apparently part of their governing process Is that something that you would volunteer for or like to be interested in if that was part of a process? I heard recommendation there to Pause the program or cancel the program right now. I'm sorry. I heard a recommendation of pause using

automatic license plate that would be my recommendation we pause or eliminate altogether well i mean if you're going to do a town hall if that actually occurs and the flock representative actually does show up you can determine it from there but at this point in time it's an immediate pause until you can have the backing of your constituents that they actually want this in place but yes i can serve on the board and you guys have my email so just uh shoot me a message okay thank you thank you mr stewart all right last one i got mr kyle corker sir come on up please

Five minutes, just name and address for record, sir. Kyle Kirker, 4072 Silverstone Lane. I'm going to talk about FLOC for a little bit, but the last two gentlemen were way more eloquent in research than I am. So I just, I walked in here with some anxiety and skepticism about FLOC. I'm really encouraged to hear that you guys want to have citizen feedback. You're suggesting that we change the time so more people can be involved. You're suggesting that we have citizen oversight. I'm walking out a lot more confident than I walked in, so thank you for what you're doing with that. And so just questions to be considered in the town hall, because I don't want it to feel like it's anti-police. It's general distrust in people and government. It's not anti-police. I think in Union Township in general, we're pretty back to the blue. But some general questions I have, because I think you're going to make a presentation or someone will make a presentation about how we're using FLOC. I'm well aware of the benefits. What are the results? Has crime lowered at all after flock by a greater extent than it usually lowers? Are your clearance rates higher because of flock? Are there any notable cases that you can point to? I know that can be tricky, but maybe even in general terms. Let's change the benefits from theory to what is it actually doing for our community? And then the skepticism... He talked about the audits. What are the audits showing? I don't want to just hear that they're happening, but I want to know, are the audits showing that it's being used effectively? Does it show that adjustments need to be made? I think FLOC was installed two years ago, roughly. Okay, so that's fine. We've learned a lot since then. We have a lot of examples of it being used, and it's not just small anecdotal examples. There's hundreds of examples that have been found through investigations. So we've learned a lot since then. So I want to know the benefits. I want to know what safeguards we currently have in place. But then I want to know, based off of what we've been learning over the last two years, what adjustments to policy do we need to make. Final comment, if we focus in on flock only, that would be a mistake. There's Axon, there's other competitors, but there's also maybe in the future facial recognition systems. We can't just focus in on this one item. What is the union townships approach to future law enforcement technology going to look like to protect civil rights? So, uh, looking forward to hear your presentation and again, it's not anti-flock anti-police, just really looking forward to understanding better. What safeguards do we have? And we shouldn't be afraid to make adjustments if we need to. Thank you. That's good.

Thank you, Mr. Kirk. I'll ask Mr. Kirk the same question there. If interested, if there's a committee. Of course. Okay. All of this, I can save it for near agenda items. Go ahead. Anyone else? Last call for public comments?

You've got to come up to the mic. I'm sorry. I apologize. Make it real brief, but once you've...

I just wanted to bring your attention to the Glen Essie-Livensville Ridge, you know, that recently opened a couple months ago. The fact that if you're coming from the library side to your side, there is no indication on the library side about the signage for the turn lanes. so that people are not always in the lane they need to be, whether it's to go straight or to turn right by the White Castle or whatever. And I've seen in the few times that I've gone over that overpass, every time somebody has cut somebody else off because they're in the wrong lane. So I'm just wondering if signage would be of any help. Thank you.

Appreciate that, Ms. Heavy. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else that has not spoken yet tonight? Okay. All right. Seeing none, let's close public comments. Oh, please, yeah, but time out real quick. Just everyone knows the rules, so time out real quick. Come on up. I'm going to bend them tonight, but once you speak and you have your five minutes, then we have to go. But go ahead. It's fine. Go ahead, please.

I'll make sure I'm under my five. I was asked a good question about why I brought up damage standards as well. I do want to be articulate in my opposition to how it currently has been going through because I think at the state level, we don't have enough legislation to allow for proper – REGULATION BE FOLLOWED. I GUESS RIGHT NOW, OHIO HOUSE BILL 706 IS SITTING IN THE HOUSE. IT'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE AT 646. IT'S JUST A COMMITTEE JUST TO HAVE KNOWLEDGE OVER WHAT TYPE OF, HAVE A COMMITTEE TO STUDY WHAT TYPE OF EFFECTS DATA CENTERS HAVE. AT THE MOMENT, I'M CONCERNED BECAUSE IN CLAREMONT COUNTY AND PIERCE TOWNSHIP, THEY'RE TRYING TO PUT A DATA CENTER IN. And they can market it in one way and then perform a different function because there's no legislative branch to tell them that they broke a law. So I think if they're worried about water usage, worried about electric usage, we need to have some sort of governing body to regulate them so they're not in the wild west in this sort of way. I know you briefly asked about that. I did not give a good answer for what I thought about data centers at the moment. And I just wanted to clarify because it does matter to me. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else that has not spoken yet? All right. Seeing none, I'll close public comments. Okay. Department reports. All right. Chief Clements, fire and EMS, sir. The floor is yours.

Thanks, sir. In the month of August, the fire department responded to 242 fire and service calls, 700 EMS responses, totaling 942 total calls, which averages about 30 calls a day. We made patient contact with 599 patients and transported 481 of those. The fire department completed 965 hours of training. We're a part of 12 public education details. Hosted 47 hours of ride time for local ENT students. Completed seven life safety inspections and two inspections with the Claremont County Building Department. And that concludes my report.

Thank you, Chief. Mr. Brecker?

Yes, I got a couple of them. I got a question. Yes, sir. So Chief Clements on on the The year-to-date activity report, the top four items, fire and service call responses, emergency medical responses, patient contacts, and hospital transports. It jumped out at me on here that July and August, there's more activity than there has been the rest of the year. It's concentrated in July and August more so than any other time. Is that normal seasonal or is something going on in July and August? What's going on there?

It's easy to point the finger directly at the season. Summertime, people are out and about more active, so more injuries occur when people are more active. I say that, but then looking at last year's data, August was actually one of our lowest months of responses. It is definitely an interesting number. It could be possibly just the growth of the township and more people wanting to come here in Union Township. The more people that come here, the more accidents and injuries could occur. I wish I had a crystal ball on when and why injuries and sicknesses, fires occur, but I don't really have a direct answer on that. There is interesting information to look at.

That's fine. I was just curious if there was something particularly going on or if it was more statistical variance. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Mr. Luke? No, Chief, just appreciate it. Is your department finding ways to use any new innovative technology to reduce man hours and be more efficient and higher return to taxpayers?

Yes, there's definitely... Usages of AI within the command staff for some of our reporting. Some of the numbers that I've gathered here today were utilized in charts that we've seen have been utilized by AI. On the daily operations of the operations staff, not a ton of technology outside of our normal systems in place for our report documentation.

Okay.

All right. Thank you. Chief, appreciate you. Love how your guys show up for the two new hires. Fantastic. So good stuff, Chief. By the way, for public comments, I like it. I enjoyed that. The thing is, if you all didn't come up and tell us about your specific flooding issue, we don't drive every road of every day, right? If you all didn't tell us your opinion of the flocks and how that's going and what's going on at the VFW, I appreciate that very much. It was just good dialogue. I really appreciated that. Chief Reese, sir, give us an update on the police department, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Dills. In the area of the dispatch center, in the month of August, our dispatchers handled 5,064 calls for service and processed 443 documents for adult and juvenile court. In the area of records requests, our records ladies handled 186 record requests and redacted five body camera videos in the month of August. In the area of public affairs, our officers attended, our honor guard attended not only the Union Township Police Night Out, but the Pierce Township Police Night Out and displayed the colors of both at the request of Chief Brocksterman. We also did a first responder event at Christian Life Church And we started a new tradition this year. I think it's really neat. We're going to try and build on this every year. But we had officers out at all the public grade schools for the first day of school this year to greet the kids as they got off the bus. So that was met with a lot of fanfare from the parents. In the area of operations, our officers took 330 incident reports in August, 119 crash reports, made 421 traffic stops, issued 163 citations, issued 270 written warnings, made 72 criminal arrests, 67 traffic arrests, and served 72 warrants. In the area of training, our officers attended 80 hours of training in the month of August, and currently we have three open police officer positions on our staff and one open dispatch position. I did want to make one note, and you'll see this in our investigative call-outs for the month of August. I always like to bring receipts for the success of the flock cameras, and I appreciate the gentleman that that asked about some of the successes we've had. Just in August alone, we responded out to a report of a stolen vehicle on Mapleport. Not only did we recover the stolen vehicle, we recovered two other stolen vehicles out of Hamilton County through the flock cameras. Also in the month of August, we had a burglary at the McDonald's in Eastgate South where they broke in through the the drive-through window and stole the safe. Again, through the success of the area flock cameras, we were able to locate the suspect vehicle and make an arrest on that. So that's just investigations. That's just one month. That doesn't include some of the cases that our officers are working because they obviously have access to the flock camera system as well. So, you know, again, I just want to follow up and say I think it's a great investigative tool, and it's making our township safer. So thank you.

Thank you, Chief Reese. Mr. Becker, sir.

I have one item, Chief. So on the call-out reports, I'd like to review those and find some things interesting, others alarming. December 7th, I'm sorry, August 7th, there was a death investigation at the Motel Beach Bond. It was a two-month-old little girl who was found deceased. What's the story on that? Yeah.

Um, appreciate the question. I, unfortunately I can't talk too much about it. It is an open case. Um, I can tell you that we're waiting on some layer of results to come back as far as toxicology. And we do not believe there's any foul play involved. It's unfortunately a tragic accident.

Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Um, yeah. Um, chief, thanks for, thanks for the report and the information. Um, There was a question about automatic license plate readers and technology utilization and the benefits or successes that they actually make an impact. Knowing that the program, or that you started with it two years ago, Do you think knowing the information you have now, you're able to track any data better to help communicate that? Because I'd have to imagine going into it, you maybe didn't know what benefit you're truly going to get out of it other than kind of subjectively what you've talked about for crime. And are you in a better position now, do you think, where you can correlate utilization and crime prevention with safeguards?

I think we can. I mean, I think that we've made a greater attempt to document the successes. And like I said earlier, the investigative unit uses them for the big cases. But we've got patrolmen that are out there every day, whether it's a death report or a hit, skip, hit and run auto accident, that are using them. So what we're trying to do, like you said, is look at the data better, come with more receipts on the successes. To answer the one gentleman's question, I believe our audit system is good. It's top-notch. I've had our flock representatives tell us, your department does more than most. And we're increasing that. We've taken some steps this month to increase our safeguards. I think we have not had one documented misuse of these cameras in two years, and we're using them every day. So I think our policies are strong. I think our audit system is strong. More than that, though, I believe in our officers. It's easy for me to say that, but I believe in the people that we've got. But more than anything, I believe in the mechanisms we have in place that would deter or catch any misuse on these cameras.

Does our current policy allow for immediate termination?

It's a good question. So we have, because we are a union shop, it's a union, we have progressive discipline that we have to follow. So if it was an innocent mistake or a procedural mistake, in other words, not somebody, you know, the common phrase you hear is somebody tracking an ex-girlfriend or... or a neighbor that they're mad at or something if it's an innocent documented mistake where the officer just simply forgot to put the event number into the into the uh the fox spreadsheet then yes we would utilize progressive discipline if somebody is utilizing the cameras for something significantly more heinous, there's nothing that says that I can't jump up in the scale of progressive disciplines. In other words, there's nothing that says that I can't go from issuing a written citation to the officer to demotion, suspension, or even termination, depending on how egregious the action is. I don't know if that answers your question. I have to go through the progressive discipline steps. You know, what I would like to see is the legislature come up with a criminal charge that would suffice for it. And I think that's coming. I think that's going to happen.

So my next question follow up to that would be, do you see that as similar to like, is that the Brady list? Would that be similar topic area?

The Brady list, when you get into the Brady list, you get into more officers lying. Okay. Whether they're called on the carpet in court or they're called on the carpet by their superiors.

But pseudo, if they got terminated here for violating a policy of public trust.

It could be Brady list.

Some type of new list that's like does not allow them into a public trust position.

Right, right. And I think our standards of conduct too, it states very clearly, any violation of our policies, and obviously our flock system is documented by our policies, any violation of a policy, our standards of conduct call for progressive discipline. So I think we've got good procedures and policies in place to deter and even punish officers that would use it in a negative fashion.

I honestly don't see the program being able to exist if it was abused a single time. given the data set and the environment of community right now. So I think that if it's not a pathway directly to termination for misuse, that jeopardizes the ability Sounds like from some of the speakers tonight, there's maybe a mustard seed of trust with it, if best, if that. And if there was one violation of that trust, there'd be no recovering. That'd just be absolutely terrible for any government tool. So if we have to look at something for... moving towards immediate type of termination for any type of abuse of that database, or if we need to have a discussion of pausing them or bagging them, I think we must do that. And it may actually help with the data set that would be able to, there's public records that came in, public record requests. I didn't build it out myself. I took the public record request that was communicated out and allowed it to be analyzed. And it shows 6,102 logged search entries between January and August of this year. Sex offenses at the very top. Larceny and theft second. burglary, breaking and entering, third. Wanted person and warrants, fourth. Stolen vehicles, fifth. Hit and runs on that frame, magnitude down, about 331 times for hit and run downward, so descending amount of inputs, upward all the way up to 1,672 sex offense searches. So I would have to imagine by bagging or pausing or stopping these, that we potentially would have, what, unresolved cases of sex offenses, larceny and theft, burglary and breaking and entering? You would have to see data, I think, that would correlate, and you'd be able to look at the data and say that's when the trustees bagged the flock cameras.

Yeah, I can't sit here and say that every case we investigate is going to successfully be solved through the use of a flock camera, but... I think it would take away from our ability to catch some of these people.

Okay. That's good. Good conversation. You definitely bring that up when we do our working session town hall.

I just wanted to hear from the chief about this one. It's kind of timely and pertinent with public feedback tonight. So that's, that's why I appreciate the public coming to the public comment on it. Chief, uh,

Over 5,700 calls. That's the most we have taken all year to date, it looks like. Is that correct? It looks like it. Yeah, it's typical for the summer. So please tell our dispatch center a great job. It's a lot of hard work. Sergeant Grimm on his team, just appreciate it very much. Also, I always like to point this out. Citations issued in the month of August was 163 citations. Warnings issued was 270. So we're not out there just giving tickets. Willingly. I always like to point that out. So, uh, great job on our police force. Appreciate you. Um, okay. Service department. Uh, Mr. Taylor, sir, floor's yours.

Thank you. Mr. Dill cemetery division from August 1st through the 31st 17 burials were performed generating $36,600. Five resident grays were purchased, generating $10,000. Two columbarium niches were purchased, generating $6,000. The total amount generated for the period was $59,518. In the parks division, weekly mowing, trimming, and landscape maintenance continues at all township buildings and within our parks. The road department, the road, The department passed a total of 17 potholes over three township streets, and a total of 26 work quarters were completed on multiple township rates. And that concludes my report.

Good. Mr. Baker? Nope. Mr. Luke?

No. Good. Thank you.

Mr. Taylor, it's been very, very, very hot outside, so appreciate your team very much. It's not been easy. Thank you, sir. Mr. Flaude, Planning and Zoning Commissioner, or Director.

Sir, the floor is yours. Go ahead, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Starting with inspections for the month of August, we had a total of 41, 17 complaints received, eight unfounded complaints, 21 warning citations, 15 noncompliance letters issued. There were 10 resolved with and without actions with complaints, 529 illegal signs removed, 14 miscellaneous issues resolved, 28 monthly violations total for the month of August with 34 of them being re-inspected with violations and three nuisances added. For the permit activity, we had two commercial permits issued, two signs, three single family homes, three additions, one deck, ten accessory buildings, and 18 pools and fences for a monthly permit issued of $39 and a revenue in August of $10,635. And with that, that concludes my report. Mr. Filotti, good job. Thank you, sir. Vice Chair?

Nothing. Mr. Luke? No, thank you. Good report, Mr. Filotti. Appreciate you very much. Before I begin, Mr. Commissioner Painter, thanks for joining us. Distinguished guest, appreciate you being in the attendance with us tonight. Good to see you. Mr. Wright, our Township Administrator, sir, the floor is yours.

Thank you, sir. Given the discussion we've had, I'll be very brief. We're still working on the old State Route 74 sidewalks. I just received some notices that Mahon Associates, who's the right-of-way consultant, will be sending out some public involvement and public engagement. Activities through that ODOT systemic safety grant. I did receive some preliminary good news from OKI today. Pleased to announce that the TA project for the I-COLD sidewalks, which is from the Walmart terminus back here all the way to Eastgate Boulevard, it will tie into the improvements that were made behind the Civic Center. Uh, all of those projects were recommended for funding, so they all made the cut off. So that's about a two to three year, uh, two to three year funding process. But, uh, uh, yeah, we'll, we'll get started on that on confirmation from the executive committee or whatever on that. So that's positive news. Um, we resubmitted our systemic safety application to ODOT. There's a hearing or a kind of a presentation coming up, uh, where they'll represent that project. As I understand, the road resurfacing program is nearly complete with the exception of Locust Lane, which we had a gas line cut. A resident ordered a gas line service, and we didn't want to cut the street after we resurfaced it, so that is pending. And everything looks really nice from the roads that I've been able to get out to. So again, I appreciate the board and the partnership with the county in that. Uh, we're continuing to work on the safe routes to school plan, uh, the Elmont project, the O O P W C project for Elmont, old state route 74, uh, permanent easements have been procured. I asked the county for a projected bid advertisement date, probably going to go out to bid in the next couple of months. They really aren't able to do much work in the winter time. So you'll see that that'll be an early, probably an early 2027 project. Um, Again, last week we met with the residents of Glendale and Glen Willow to talk about this issue and some of the findings that we've been able to develop, and I think we have more work ahead of us, so I appreciate the board giving us some guidance in that. We do have a jet nine hearing scheduled for October 13th. That's with the village of Octavia for the addition of one property off of state route one 25. Um, we are working with the city of Milford also on expansion of the jet eight property related to the recently announced project that the board will see for rezoning, uh, in the next month or two. So that's, uh, again, a very positive thing. We have three separate nuisance resolutions to present for the board, two vehicles, one, uh, junk debris, grass, et cetera. Appreciate Mr. Flowdy and Mr. Berkey working on those. Uh, that's a tough job, uh, going out to those properties and, and following up on that. Also have an item for a fund custodian agreement for the board to manage the assessment payments that are anticipated to come eventually through the new community authority. This is very similar to how we manage the funds for the special districts. And as more of a housekeeping matter, additionally, we are required to adopt the findings of the annual TIRC meeting per statute. Uh, the recommendation was for continuation or approval in all of those instances. And there were no adverse recommendations or findings in that regard. Um, typically a September item. Uh, that you might be used to seeing the rates and measures approval, uh, that is not on the agenda because of the recent legislative changes at the state house. That's impacted the budget commission. The budget commission has to make some additional determinations on that. We'll probably see that hopefully in October in that. And then, uh, just a couple of other things. Um, we have some great stuff going on in September, the jungle gyms, uh, union township fireworks celebration and partnership with crossroads. jungle gyms, RJ cinemas, September 26th. Hopefully the weather's beautiful like it was last year. You know, we'll have touch truck at five vendors at six fireworks at or around eight 45 or dust, whichever occurs first. It's really eight 45 go time. Is that correct? Lisa? And I think that's dusk ish time. Maybe it might be earlier than that. So I think sunset's about 8 o'clock. It's dark out. I mean, it's basically dark outside.

You got a bedtime job? It's not far from that.

Anyway, stay tuned to our Facebook page and on our website for more updates or whatever. That just shows you what I know about daylight safety. And then the fire department's got a bunch of fire prevention week-related items. They're actually doing tours of, I believe, all of our fire stations on different dates and times. So if you've ever wanted to see what Station 48 looks like, you know, you can go there on, what date is that, Chief? On 10-7, you know, and I think we'll publicize that on the Facebook page for the fire department, so check that out. And I think Lisa's still looking for a few openings for the sip and chop on October 17th. So are you still looking for more vendors? Perfect. That's all I have.

Thank you, Mr. Wright. Vice Chairman? Nothing. Mr. Logan?

Yeah, still hung up on one thread of questions. With license plate readers, are you tracking Columbus, city of Columbus, where they have a transparency portal that's turned on by FLOC, and I don't know if it auto-populates their numbers or what they have. I don't know if that's an excess fee right now. Is there a reason why we don't currently use that?

We actually just talked about this at the end of last week, about engaging the transparency portal in that. And different communities provide different, from what I've been able to gather, is different communities provide different levels of utilization of that, but that is a tool that they provide us with, and we would have the ability to integrate that. As I understand it, it's a link that you embed in your website. And then it goes to sort of a portal hosted by their portal.

It looks like they, it looks like they operate and run all of it.

I don't believe there's an additional fee for that as their chief.

I have to look into it and you can, it would be ridiculous to charge a single cent for it.

Totally agree. Yeah. Uh, okay. Okay.

That's to me, I think that's a structural thing that needs to be like immediately added into just what we provide transparency and accountability communication to constituents. Um, and And then the other piece, someone made reference about having flock liaisons or representatives. I have to imagine that their company, if they're absent of a strategic comms and infrastructure support right now nationwide with, I don't care if it's them battling Axon for market share or what it may be, if they're absent of that, The communities that are likely terminating contracts and turning off cameras are probably getting the attention. I'm afraid that to execute Mr. Dills' town hall idea that we will not get any concept of really significant support from FLOC unless we have additional leverage there. I'm on the fence now from hearing everybody. I'm not on the fence. I would support that we bag it, bag the flock cameras, until things like the transparency portal are figured out, until things like a defined disciplinary plan is determined, if it's one of our officers abuses the program. and it can go straight to immediate termination. I understand we have our collective bargaining agreements, but that may be the ship that has to come first before the adoption of this technology, unless we can point to the data set that everyone in the community is now saying, you know, we need this. So we can talk new agenda item later, but if you guys would want to bag the flock cameras help to address the public's concerns that we've been hearing, and I think also give that company the ability to say, we're at risk of losing more clients and customers to serve, that they're going to want to address our residents and our constituents. And I think structurally, there has to be the policy and safeguards there in place. So that's just a continued thread. How long would it take to get the termination policy into collective bargaining agreement or to be able to utilize something like that? Well, if there's a program, if there's a camera program, it's abused.

I'd have to talk to our legal counsel, but I believe that I would have to at least entertain an MOU with the bargaining unit and it would be all three of their police And so, you know, for that, that has to require a union ratification and a ratification by the Board of Trustees. You have an MOU tonight. So, you know, I don't know that it would take nine months or a year, but, I mean, they're going to give me a pretty early indication as to whether they're going to want to pursue that or not when I talk to, you know, the union president. And we can certainly engage in those conversations, but, I mean...

If they like using the cameras, and there's no question about the public trust aspect, we're all on the same serving the community together ship. New agenda, I'm not trying to surprise you, but I would ask the trustees to think about that, about bagging and making that determination of what the impact would be. What would be the impact of bagging the cameras or pause the system? by 8 a.m. tomorrow, 8 a.m. the next day, or 8 a.m. three days from now.

It's just a matter of going out and putting covers over them. So you can bag them. You're still going to pay for them, but yeah.

But it at least starts to remedy some of the concerns in the community until there's something the community feels supported with, right? Right? Because the town hall is going to address it.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. If you want me to put that item on the agenda, I will put it on the item, on the agenda.

I can do that. I'm just asking for the new business tonight. We could just make a motion if you guys think that's enough time for you to think about, hey, let's pause it until some of these steps are in place. Right now, we could pause the program effectively.

My take is let's have our town hall style meeting like I suggested. I'm not making a knee-jerk reaction right now. I want to first give No other government entity, like I said before, has done a public town hall style working session. I want to do that. I want to give the police chief his time to have his floor. I'm not going to make a knee-jerk reaction tonight. So I want to give, if we have a full house, we'll have a full house. We'll let everyone speak. Let's do that. That's my thoughts. I don't want to make a knee-jerk reaction on it.

I concur with the chairman.

Let's also let the chief, and maybe he wants to have a couple detectives come up and talk as well, how it's been good for them. We can have some folks come up and say how it's been terrible for them. But let's have a town hall, and then after that we can determine the direction. That's my thoughts, but if you want to put it on a vote tonight, we can put it on a vote tonight. We can do that too.

It doesn't sound like either of you would support pausing it.

I would not support that, just so you know. But if you want to put it on a vote, we can put a vote on record. Let's do a town hall. If you want to put it on vote, I'll put it on vote. But I say let's have a town hall. It'll be good, good for the public. We're the only government entity in greater Cincinnati that's doing that. So that's cool. I like that. And then we can vote on it. No action could be taken because it's just a working session. That's why I said I wanted to do it before October. Then come October, we can make a decision. But if you want to put it on tonight, we can go on record tonight. We can do that, too, under new business. Would you like that, Mr. Logue, or no?

You're both telling me that you're not gonna support it. So we can take a vote if you want to take a vote to pause the program as we solicit community feedback. Would you like to do that? And stand on policies.

Okay. When we get to that new business, we'll do that. Not a problem. But let's follow the agenda. Then when we get to the new business, we'll do that. Because I know there are some folks that have traveled here for their zoning. Oh, sorry. Mr. Wright, did you have anything else? I have nothing further. Did I ask you if you had any questions for Mr. Wright? Okay. Mr. O'Ganning, anything else for Mr. Wright? No. Okay. Good job with your report, sir. Thank you. Okay, public hearings. Let's get on with our zoning case. All right. And Mr. Flaude, sir, are you ready to present?

Yes, sir. All right. It's okay. We have one case before us tonight. It is 5-26-0. The applicant is Briar Hill Development. The applicant is requesting that two parcels totaling $9,000. point nine seven seven acres be rezoned from r1 single family residential 2pd plan development in order to construct six single family homes the there are two parcels one with parcel number 414220A022 and 41422004, both being off of Glen Essie-Williamsville. Some relation to the 2030 plan is the analysis of the proposal yields that the plans as submitted align with the recommendation of the 2030 comprehensive land use plan. The affected properties are located within the Ivy Point corridor focus area overlay as defined by the 2030 plan. Some analysis looking in the existing PD plan with sub area three which if you remember was approved back in case number 2-26-Z consisted of 15 single family detached structure residential homes. Construction will be off the shared points of ingress, egress with the termini of Larma and Weeble Lane respectively. The six lots, here within this case of 526-Z would be of similar types of structures and the average lots being 30 to 35 feet in width. The units are projected to be around 1,700 to 2,500 square feet with rear entry garages. The regiment and configuration of the units is such as it promotes and reinforces the walkability character of the corridor consistent with the 2030 plan recommendations. Setbacks range within five feet of side yard setbacks with larger rear yards with the rear detached garages and the front yard bearing due to the existing curb radii. THE PROPOSAL ALIGNS WITH THE GLENESSY-WITHAM-SEVILLE I-COLDS ROADS REVITALIZATION AND IMPROVEMENT PLAN. IN SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION, THE SUBJECT PROPERTIES WERE INDIRECTLY ADDRESSED IN STAFF REPORT 226-Z THROUGH WHICH ADJACENT PROPERTIES WERE REZONED TO PD. GIVEN THE TYPES OF STRICTURES AND USES WITH THIS PROPOSAL, THIS IS ESSENTIALLY AN EXTENSION OF OR THE COMPLETION OF THE LAST AREA APPROVED THROUGH THAT CASE. Staff has determined that the proposed development does not necessitate additional required governing provisions, which are called for in section article six, section 680 through 687 of the zoning resolution. A review of the applicant's proposal yields that the development plans presented are consistent with both the PD district regulations and the adopted recommendations of the 2030 comprehensive land use plan. furthermore the submitted plans propose an appropriate transition between the large-scale existing high-density multi-family to the north and east in the more traditional single-family residential development to the south of the i colts road corridor density along the frontage within this sub area three for the lots located on the southern side of i colts road nets around 6.5 units an acre after deducting projected rights-of-way and variant street frontages. At the August 26th Zoning Commission meeting, there was a recommendation to the Board of Trustees that the plan is to be approved subject to five recommended modifications that are found in our packet tonight. and the action required is in accordance with 680 through 687 of the zoning resolution that the Board of Trustees is to enter into a motion to approve as submitted, approve with additional modifications, or deny the zoning map amendment application presented in the Union Township zoning case 5-26-Z. And that concludes my report.

Good job, Mr. Flaude. Vice Chairman, any questions? No. Mr. Logan, any questions?

No.

Was there any, anyone that was, Mr. Flaherty, was there anyone that was against this case of the zoning hearing?

Uh, there was no, no one. There was one person present, but they did not speak at the meeting.

Okay. And then we just keep it on the screen of, of what the houses will look like. These are all single family.

Yes. Okay.

Perfect.

Perfect. That's all I got for you. Thank you, sir.

Okay, gentlemen, I'm going to entertain a motion to open public hearing zoning case 5-26-Z and Zulu. So moved. Second. Okay, no discussion. Mr. Campbell, roll call.

Mr. Becker? Yes. Mr. Lowe?

Yes.

Mr. Dills? Yes.

The public session is open at 7.38 p.m. All right, so now it's time for public comments on this specific case. And when you come up to speak, obviously we start with the proponent, which would be the developer. And, uh, you got it this way. And then, so the way I like to normally do zoning cases is, um, have the developer speak first and then, uh, and then anyone that's for the zoning cases, they'll speak after him. And then anyone that's a opponent of the case. And so, uh, we'll start there. So, all right. Will you state your name and address for the record?

John Hanks. 5306 Wilson Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri. Perfect. And then do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and you butt the truth, so I hope you got it? I do. Great. Please. Floor is yours, sir. Thanks for having me tonight. Yes. Appreciate it. Stepping in for Mr. Bayless, so just... first time in front of the board trustees here so it's an intimidating group i understand yeah yeah appreciate everyone's time uh tonight uh we're looking this is you know this is kind of the hole in the donut of our our plan and um uh so we've you know once we're able to uh you know require this parcel or these two parcels, I think you have a more complete picture of what that corridor could look like. with uh you know the homes all facing glen sd and um you know the rear entry garages and we'll be able to eliminate eliminate the curb cut that's on uh front sd and you know we really looking forward to get getting that development started so you know this will allow us to engineer the whole site and plan the whole site so it's not too different you know, utility connections and stuff like that. So it's a lot more efficient. Uh, you know, hopefully, um, you know, we'll, we'll be able to get going, you know, in the next year or so and, uh, see some beautiful new homes along that corridor.

Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Yanks. Uh, vice chairman, any questions?

Yeah. So the whole project, it looks like it's eight lots. Is that correct?

I think currently there are eight or nine lots.

So how many units are you envisioning when this is complete?

You mean on this parcel or the whole strip?

Well, it's actually both questions. So, yes, the whole thing and these two parcels.

So these parcels will contain six, and then the total is 21. Okay.

That's all I have. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Mr. That was correct. It's 21. That's what I thought too. Okay. Yeah. Mr. Lokes are any questions? Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Mr. Hanks ballpark. What are you going to be selling these houses for ballpark? Probably out of the four to 500. Okay. Four, four to 500. Okay, great. And these are all single family, not multifamily. Fantastic. And then basically the board's already approved. I'll say to the left and to the right, but this is the centerpiece, Will. Yeah. Got it.

And this would allow us to connect the two cul-de-sacs, which would help with circulation. Garbage trucks and stuff like that get circling around versus going around and inefficiently going back up and down.

So basically the two in cul-de-sacs there, they're going to be connected. And so I guess that would help UPS FedEx drivers there. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Fair enough. Okay. Uh, I think it's all the questions I have. Mr. Thanks. Appreciate you very much. Yeah. Good job. Thank you. Is there anyone else that is a proponent of this case that is for this case? Okay. How about an opponent? Last call. All right. Seeing none, gentlemen, I'll attend a motion to close this public hearing case 5-26-Z as in Zulu. So moved. Second. All right. Any discussion? Mr. Campbell, roll call.

Mr. Becker? Yes. Mr. Logue?

Yes.

Mr. Dills? Yes. Public session is closed at 7.43 p.m. All right.

Gentlemen, let's open the conversation up for the Board of Trustees. Vice Chairman, anything?

Yes. So... You know, the public for a long time has been complaining about high-density housing in Union Township. I share that opposition. You know, rather than six lots or six units going on these two lots, you know, frankly, I don't see any reason why one or two nice houses could go in those two lots. Obviously, the developer can make more money for more units. I get that, and don't begrudge that. You know, the areas to the south, that's all still R1. And, you know, I'm concerned about not just the character of the neighborhood, but the character of Union Township continuing to go in this direction. I voted no on the proposal of the neighboring lots, the other six, and that's my intent this evening.

I really thought you were going to be a yes vote on this one. Did you really? No, I did not. You never know. Might pull you some day. Surprise you. Mr. Luxor, what's your thoughts?

No. I think it fills the hole. So it's exactly that. I mean, it continues on. It's a continuation of the product previously presented. And to me, like I've said, that it is kind of the only refresh main street thoroughfare that you can gain in the township. And so it's a dense location as is, but again, these are single family homes. It may be town homes. It may not be someone's preference because they're attached, but they're single family.

Yeah. Hey, Mr. We put the, uh, the example back up. Yeah. So, Yeah, it's a single family house, $400,000 to $500,000, nice middle class. You can go back to the other one. and that is a nice looking house and i mean i mean so it's not a you got apartments in front of it you got apartments to the right of it uh and here you i mean i would rather have a nice four or five hundred thousand dollar house there instead of uh more apartments and and i like the the downtown type of model it looks really nice in newtown um Yeah, I mean, I think it'll be good. Okay. Well, with that being said, gentlemen, I will entertain a motion for the approval of Union Township's zoning case 5-26-Z and Zulu with the modifications. So moved. Second. Okay. Any further discussion? Mr. Campbell, roll call.

Mr. Becker? No. Mr. Logue?

Yes.

Mr. Dills? Yes. Motion carries.

Congratulations, Mr. Inks. All right, moving on. Old business, there is none. Mr. Logue, I will ask you to make your motion, however you'd like to word it, or I can, whatever you prefer, if you'd like to still do that.

I think proper, I'm not a Robert Shrules parliamentarian, but I think you would need a motion to append the agenda.

motion portion of the agenda i think you're right i think you're right yep so before i do that uh mr you still want to do that and totally okay if you do this way so i mean i i would appreciate both of your support because i mean we're hearing from the community i know this is something that's went in the authority of of program having been established previously didn't have to come to the board, but maybe it is more sensitive item that needs to come to the board.

Well, before we debate it, we'll do that. Do you want to go ahead and put it on the agenda?

Well, I mean, this is after the fact I wanted it on the agenda coming into this meeting, but, um, that's fine. I didn't know that. I'm sorry. I get that. We're not for the community's perspective. We're not allowed to talk township business directly to each other outside of this meeting or outside of a public meeting. So it makes communication sometimes difficult, and that's why you see this, because it would be a violation of the Sunside record for me to say, hey, Joe Dills, let's put this on the agenda. So it makes it difficult sometimes.

So it sounds like he wants to go ahead and have a debate about it. Why don't we go ahead? So, gentlemen, I'll entertain a motion to. The language I would give you is.

Okay, go ahead. I move to immediately suspend the township's flock camera program cameras covered and disabled within 48 hours. You went on a motion agenda. Give me some draft language.

Well, we got to first add it to the agenda. So I need to, I need to entertain a motion to amend the current new business agenda and add the, the flock camera vote.

Okay.

I'll make the motion. It's okay. So, so moved. Second. Okay. Uh, Mr. Mr. Camera roll call.

Mr. Dills.

Yes.

Mr. Luke.

Yes.

Mr. Becker? No. All right. Motion carries.

Okay. Go ahead and state your motion. Let's put it on there and then we'll discuss and vote on it.

Okay. I move to immediately suspend the township's flock camera program, cameras covered and disabled within 48 hours. All network searches halted, existing records preserved until the board approves at a public meeting written policies on access, retention, sharing, authorized use. prohibitions on discriminatory surveillance and monitoring of protected activity, independent audits, public reporting, and the public complaint process and discipline up to including termination for intentional misuse, consistent with applicable law, bargaining agreements, and due process. Resumption requires the affirmative vote of the board at a public meeting. Did you just type that up?

That's impressive. So moved. Second. Okay. Mr. Campbell, roll call.

Mr. Dills.

Hold on, hold on. First discussion. Sorry. First discussion. So, all right. Discussion? You want to suspend them? I stand by what I said before. I'll keep my comments brief. I do not. I want to wait until we have our town hall style meeting, and then I want to get some feedback from both sides, and then in the October meeting we can make a decision. That's my answer. I'm sticking to it.

Ditto the chairman's comments. Okay.

That's fine. We're probably not far off right there. I want you to just understand. That if a motion like this passes, I believe it gives more visibility to the company like flock to actually give resources to come and address the constituents concerns. And I think that would be more successful of a town hall and community feedback. And the chief may even have some data points and response from temporary suspending of the program. in the time period between now and when town hall is scheduled. I'll stand by that.

I think your heart and mind is in the right place. I see both sides. I just... I'm not prepared to make a vote on this tonight. We have talked and campaigned a lot about soliciting feedback. I think a town hall will be fun. I'm excited to get feedback. It's a very important Fourth Amendment issue, and there's both arguments. I like where your head's at, but I'm not ready to make a knee-jerk decision tonight, and so I want to make a more educated decision. solicit feedback. I want to hear some from the detectives, their stories. I want to hear from my chief. I want to hear from stories about the gentleman brought up Reynoldsburg, Ohio, and Columbus, Ohio, and Louisville, and there's issues there. I want to hear both sides. I just want to listen. And then after that, hey, let's make a decision in October.

I can understand painting the motion as a knee-jerk decision. I guess I'd also say the perspective is when the program was first presented two-ish years ago and there was not the public scrutiny and discussion at large, even to the effect of criminals don't need to know where the cameras are so we can capture the criminals. maybe that was the wrong thing to just approve or allow that type of program to get unfolded without the proper due process in place. So I just view temporary suspension of it as providing the right time and get it back on the rails in the best direction that builds will and trust with the community with writ large.

Okay. Well, motion seconds already been made. Uh, Mr. Kim, any further discussion? Mr. Kim roll call.

Mr. Dills.

No.

Mr. Lowe.

Yes.

Mr. Becker?

No.

Okay. Moving on, the consent agenda. Gentlemen, I'll entertain a motion for the approval, and I'm going to read all this off, for the approval of the minutes from August 11, 2026 regular meeting minutes, August 11, 2026 zoning meeting minutes, the approval of payments as prepared by Fiscal Officer Ron Campbell, and approval of the monthly financial report as prepared by our Fiscal Officer Ron Campbell.

So moved.

Second. In discussion, Mr. Campbell will call.

Mr. Becker? Yes. Mr. Lowe? Yes. Mr. Dills? Yes.

Okay. And Mr. Wright, which two am I excluding here?

Yes, sir. So on the purchase orders, I'm going to ask that the board carve out the last two. Okay. And again, I believe most of these, with the exception of the total quality logistics reimbursements, because those are recent, have already been approved via DocuSign. Okay. So the first four... I will read out and entertain a motion on, and then the second two, uh, related to some build out items at the 43 57 Ferguson building. I'll ask for a second, uh, uh, motion.

So basically first floor, first floor first, and then, and then the last two by themselves. Yes, sir. That's correct.

I will, uh, read, uh, the first four. So the first one is. to the Claremont county transportation improvement district for the Alma old 74 turn lane, O P W C contribution plus the sidewalk as per our TID agreement and the amount of $200,864 and 11 cents. That's total of our local match on that. The second item is to the transportation improvement district, to the Mount Carmel, Tabasco road, Clough Pike intersection improvements, design work and local match from the township's perspective. and that's the amount of $121,958. If you remember, we discussed that at the last meeting. The third one is to Total Quality Logistics for their July reimbursement economic development agreement in the amount of $36,954.41. And the fourth one is to Total Quality Logistics for the August 2026 reimbursement in the amount of $63,072.31. Uh, I need a motion on those four.

All right. So gentlemen, send a motion for the purchase orders exceeding 15,000 as just read by Mr. Wright. So moved. Second, Mr. Campbell will call Mr. Brecker.

Yes. Mr. Luke.

Yes.

Mr. Dills.

Yes.

Motion carries.

All right. And then Mr. Ray's second items. Go ahead.

Second item. Uh, so the, the second round of purchase orders is for the service department to Lowe's credit for 40, uh, 43 57 Ferguson drive for Sonoma home holding suite one 20. cabinets in the amount of $33,472.68. Second item of business is to America's Floor Source LLC for suite 120 flooring. That's for a pending tenant lease that we have in the amount of $43,824. Okay.

Gentlemen, I'll attend a motion for the approval of the two items that Mr. Red had just read off. So moved. Second. Second. Mr. Campbell-Rocco, sorry. Mr. Parker?

Yes. Mr. Dills?

Yes.

Mr. Lueb? I will abstain. All right. Motion carries.

Okay. Second item on the motion agenda is approval of the memorandum of understanding. Mr. Wright, do you want to go ahead and read that one off?

Sure, yes, and I'll be real brief in this. Basically, this is an MOU that's been under discussion for some time with the fire union as to how do we get better at – Basically, recruitment, to Mr. Logue's comments earlier about recruitment, being able to work with, under the current contract, our hands are tied, cuffed, whatever, on reimbursements for where to pay for medic school. That is a significant recruitment tool, and we are basically fighting a recruitment battle, one hand behind our back. With that, those two gentlemen tonight, came here in spite of that, but I think that this MOU addresses that. It puts significant rules around being able to pay for that, making it a term and condition of employment, extending probationary periods to where they have to go get it, making them ineligible for any other tuition reimbursement. for the duration of that period, and it gives us a tool basically to be able to hire EMTs, get them into the system, get them trained, and then it also has a clawback in that if they leave us prior to so many years of service. I appreciate the chief working really hard with the fire union on negotiating this, and I think While it will cost us a little bit of money to put people through medic school, I think they're going to be our people, and we'll be able to build the culture from within in that.

That's good. Okay. Any questions for Mr. Wright? No. Okay. Gentlemen, I attend a motion for the approval of the Memorandum of Understanding for the IAFF Local 3412. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Camber, we'll call.

Mr. Becker? Yes. Mr. Logue?

Yes.

Mr. Dills? Yes. Motion carries.

Okay. Next one is the approval of the 2026 Tax Incentive Review Council. Mr. Wright, go ahead, sir.

Yeah, it's just a – we were at the TIRC. They recommended to continue. We have to accept their recommendation. So this is simply a statutory requirement as per Section 570985E. So – Good deal. – ORC.

No problem. Gentlemen, I'll attend a motion for the approval of 2020 tax incentive review council as recommendation. So moved. Second. Mr. Campbell, roll call.

Mr. Becker? Yes. Mr. Lowe? Yes. Mr. Dills? Yes.

All right. Legislative agenda. This is a nuisance abatement resolution. Gentlemen, I'm going to read off all these addresses and we'll make it into one motion if no one objects to that. Perfect. Gentlemen, I'll entertain a motion for the approval of resolution 2026-52, nuisance abatement resolution. It's authorization abatement for the removal and vegetation of noxious weeds, garbage, trash, and debris pursuant to section 505.87 of ORC. First one is 439 Hilltop Drive, Cincinnati 45244. Pin number is 414121.010. Second one is 513 Wesley Drive, Cincinnati 45244, pin number is 414222.004. Third one is 640 Sharwood Drive, Cincinnati 45244, pin number is 414146, B as in Bravo, 040. Fourth one is 661 Parkland Drive, Cincinnati, 45244. Pin number is 413105. G is in Gulf, 158. Fifth one is 685 Sharwood Drive, Cincinnati, 45244. Pin number is 414146. A is in Alpha, 190. Number six is 989 Joyce Drive, Batavia, 4103. 45103. Pin number is 414109. C is in Charlie, 040. A is in Alpha. Number seven is 1182, Old State Route 74, Batavia, 45103. Pin number is 413103, A as in Alpha, A140. Number eight, 4262, Zeller Drive, Cincinnati, 45244. Pin number is 413214, A as in Alpha, 196. Number nine is 4325, Terrace Drive, Cincinnati, 452454. Pin number is 414245, B as in Bravo, 028. And the last one on this list, 4875 Powderhorn Drive, Cincinnati 45244. PIN number is 415315. D as in delta 016.

So moved.

Second.

Any discussion? Mr. Campbell, roll call.

Mr. Becker? Yes. Mr. Logue?

Yes.

Mr. Dibbles? Yes. Motion carries.

That's a lot to read, gentlemen. OK. same thing uh different resolution uh gentlemen obtain a motion for the approval resolution two zero two six dash five three nuisance abatement resolution four five five seven glen rose lane cincinnati four five two four four pin number is four one four one zero one a is an alpha zero zero zero h of henry so moved Second. We need discussion. Mr. Campbell, roll call.

Mr. Becker? Yes. Mr. Lowe?

Yes. Mr. Dills? Yes. Motion carries. All right, very last one of these. Gentlemen, I'll take a motion for the approval of Resolution 2026-54, a nuisance vehicle abatement resolution for... Move of adjunct vehicles pursuant to 505.871 at 1182 Old State Route 74 Batavia 45103. PIN number is 413103. A is an alpha 140. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Campbell, roll call.

Mr. Becker? Yes. Mr. Lowe? Yes. Mr. Dills? Yes. Motion carries.

Okay. And Resolution 2026-55. Mr. Ray, any explanation on this?

It's just a billing issue with Civic Plus. I mean, we run into this every year, and it's, I mean, they provide a service, and this is kind of housekeeping. Is that correct, Mr. Campbell? It is. Yep.

Yep. Just housekeeping. All right. General Lieutenant, motion for the approval of Resolution 2026-55, then announce certificate for Civic Plus. So moved.

Second idea point of discussion.

Okay. Discussion.

Uh, Hey, Mr. Wright, they've, they've been great. Uh, when we relaunched the whole township infrastructure and website transparency, accountability, communication, Is there any new product lines that you're getting out of them for our public data that we already have and we maintain, like such a large portion of it, that if a resident wants to ask a question about Union Township records, an AI-related response can take them directly to that?

I have not seen that yet. We're happy to investigate that more. I know that we were finally able to resolve the Seat Click Fix issue which is which is that a is that have some ai in it okay that is good oh that's good uh so uh we had an issue with apple app the apple app we were finally able to resolve that with apple so we just had training on that that'll replace the kind of archaic request tracker some people like it some people hate it it's pretty clunky so c click fix is when are we implementing So that has been a positive. And I did see something that they send you notices when you're kind of in the back end of the website about accessibility and things. We have some accessibility deadlines that we have to meet. So that was helpful. And I guess they have some back end tools that kind of alert you. I'm sure it's sales growth oriented, if I had to guess, because it's something else they can help us with. But at the end of the day, it's been a positive. I like the platform.

it's easy to add it easy to modify okay all right thank you again all that concept comes out of the fact of of efficiencies and sure wanting to maintain the high level quality for the residents and constituents and it's just what direction we need to be looking at for the maximum return on investments thank you

Discussion? Good. Mr. Kimber, roll call.

Mr. Becker? Yes. Mr. Lowe? Yes. Mr. Dills? Yes. Motion carries.

All right, gentlemen. The last item on the agenda is to have a motion for the approval of Resolution 2026-56, Funds Custodian Agreement with the Union Township New Committee Authority. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Campbell, roll call.

Mr. Becker? Yes. Mr. Lowe? Yes. Mr. Dills? Yes. Motion carries.

Okay, comments from the board. Vice Chairman, start with you. Go ahead, sir.

Yeah, what I want to just kind of briefly address. So it was early August I put out on social media that I had an emergency room visit out at Claremont Mercy. So I just wanted to give kind of a brief update on what's going on with that. So what happened was I had a number of symptoms that were mimicking that of a heart attack. So it turned out it was not. Fortunately, which begs the question then, what was it? Well, it could be any number of things. So since then, I had a CT angiogram that appeared to be a clean reading. This evening, I was kind of running late getting here. I didn't know if I was going to make it on time to the meeting or not. But I had a cardiac MRI. So they're investigating some things. But with the old ticker, see what's going on in there, because we still don't know. Mr. DeWitt mentioned the Revolutionary War monument. I'm not going to be able to make it to that event. I have a doctor's appointment that morning. So anyway, that's really the update of what's going on with me. I mean, you know, I'm feeling fine. And, you know, things are getting checked out. And so far, so good. That's all I have, Chairman.

That's incredible. Thanks, Chairman, for the update. Mr. Loke, sir.

No, I just... I want to thank you guys for the discussion tonight, highlighting some sensitive, visible items in the township, from automatic license plate readers to, I know we heard one gentleman speaking about data centers and energy and infrastructure, and I believe that Commissioner Painter joining us is taking a leadership role as a senior advisor, I believe, to EPA, the Administrator Lee Zeldin, on local governments, essentially, I don't know the exact title, but local governments, state governments, handling constituent concerns and addressing them. So, you know, I think that this is a continued evolution. We're going to see a symptom of technology like automatic license plate readers. We're going to see different symptoms and forms of a greater issue. Data centers, energy, closed loop water centers that provide power back to the grid, that bring energy costs down. Um, but it's also very interesting just to hear everyone's perspectives because, um, at the heart of all this there, at least I have the perspective and sentiment that those in this world that want to see our country fail, want to exploit some of our greatest strengths, and that's our First Amendment, and they seed misinformation campaigns, and that can be from things like compute power and quantum that helps us prevent hypersonic attacks on our great cities, all the way down to, you can see some of the discussion that happens with automatic license plate readers, and where we have to balance and govern between a board with limited resources, police officers, and wanting to do what's right by the residents. So I just thank you guys for the discussion and look forward to getting the date set for the town hall and how that continued feedback continues to mature and move forward. And I did just draft that on the spot. So I had a little bit of help with a friend, Claude, but yeah.

I like Claude too. I use it quite a bit.

Well, I'm glad you're adopting. I wanted to actually plant that because that is my push to our department heads and all employees. And at the same rate where we can make sure we're safeguarding that or I don't know if safeguards the right word, but put the right rails in place. Because this is going to be the future. John, you're real deep in economics. You know that our birth rate is down, right? Death rate is up. So 10, 20, 30 years, we talk about our future and our kids. We don't have the same manpower, replacing manpower we have today. We all individually have to do more if we want to have the same quality of living or quality is going to drop.

Okay.

The, uh, uh, Mr. Pender, congratulations on the Purina plant last month. Big, big deal for the county. So congratulations on that. Um, uh, gentlemen, you both are aware. Everyone's aware that, uh, Costco finally submitted their plants. That's huge for our township and Eastgate. I'm excited for it. And, um, lastly is the, um, yeah, I, I, it's been a while since we had a working session. I'm looking forward to it. It'll be, it'll be some good discussion. So it'd be good to hear back from the residents. Okay, upcoming events. Our Union Township Zoning Commission will meet Wednesday, September 23rd, right here at 7 p.m. Union Township Board of Zoning Appeals will meet Thursday, October 1st, right here at 7 p.m. Our next regular meeting is October 13th, right here at 6 p.m. Township offices will be closed Monday, October 12th, in observance of Columbus Day. The last farmer's market of the season will be this Friday, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. right here at the Civic Center campus. Our annual Mount Moriah Cemetery lantern lighting is Saturday, September 19th from 5 to 7.30 p.m. The Union Township Fireworks Celebration is held Saturday, September 26th. Mr. Becker will try to cater to your early bedtime. and live music will be would begin at rj's at 5 p.m and a touch of truck event will begin at 5 p.m inflatables for the kids and then fireworks will begin right around 8 45 pending mr becker's approval and Union Township Fire Department's annual open house to kick off National Fire Prevention Week will be held Sunday, October 4th from 11 to 1 p.m. at Station 51, located at 860 Clough Pike. Union Township Police Department invites residents and local businesses to an open house Saturday, October 10th from noon to 4 p.m. Police Department building is located at 4312 Glen Esty-Wythamsville Road. Union Township Sip and Shop will be held Saturday, October 17th from noon to 4 p.m. right here at the Civic Center campus. Trick or Treat for Halloween, which is Saturday, October 31st from 6 to 8 p.m. And last one is our next CPR AED training offered by our Union Township Fire Department will be held this Saturday, September 12th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Gentlemen, good meeting. I will attend a motion for adjournment. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Campbell, roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Appreciate you all attending very much. Thank you. Thank you all.