City Council - Regular Meeting

City Council Committee of the Whole meeting. It is Monday, July 6th at 6.03.

First thing we're going to do is go through legislation. I'll just start reading.

FOR ADOPTION TONIGHT. THE FIRST ONE IS 135-2026, AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND PARAGRAPHS OF ORDINANCE NUMBER 241-2025 AND SUBSEQUENT AMENDING ORDINANCES RELATED TO APPROPRIATIONS AND OTHER EXPENDITURES OF THE CITY OF CLEVELAND HEIGHTS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR NOVEMBER 31, 2026.

THIS ONE IS RELATED TO THE NEXT ONE. THIS IS RELATED TO THE CONTRACTING.

YEAH. WAITING FOR THAT ONE TO TALK ABOUT IT. RIGHT. THE MONEY IS ONE THING. IT'S $105,100.

AND, OF COURSE, THERE'S THE LEGISLATION AND THE

This is in relation to 136, 2026, which is the companion.

Yeah, let me read that. That's a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a contract with International Code Council to assist in preparing a building housing code updates.

Mr. President, if I can just step over this in consultation with Director Sam. This is a long time in coming, the companion study to the zoning code study to review IN DECADES, AND I JUST WANT TO ENDORSE THE STAFF'S CHOICE AFTER A SEARCH OF THE CHOICE OF A TRULY OUTSTANDING CONSULTANT, AND IF YOU'VE REVIEWED THE PROPOSAL, I THINK THERE'S A GREAT DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE THAT WILL BE ASSISTING US AS WE LOOK AT OUR CODES AND ALSO LOOK AT OUR I'M GOING TO ASK DIRECTOR ZAMP TO TALK ABOUT TWO THINGS, AND ONE IS THE FUNDING OF THIS PROPOSAL AND ALSO AN OPTION THAT'S INCLUDED IN THE CONTRACT, OPTION A THAT IS RELATED TO TECHNOLOGY. BUT I JUST WANT TO ENDORSE THE CHOICE HERE AND HAND IT TO YOU.

SO THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER STONE. YES, THIS IS SOMETHING WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT FOR A WHILE. ON THE COST QUESTION, WORK CLOSELY WITH THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT. WE HAVE ENCOVERED FUNDS THAT WE WANT TO UTILIZE TO PAY FOR THIS. THESE ARE FUNDS THAT ARE ALREADY THERE. THEY JUST NEED TO BE DECERTIFIED AND THEN REAPPLIED. SO IT'S SORT OF A COST-NEUTRAL APPLICATION. I HAD SPOKEN TO ICC TO TALK ABOUT THEIR SCOPE AND THEIR PRICE, AND YOU'LL SEE IN THE LETTER They dropped it down by $6,100 in task three, primarily because one of the advantages of ICC, they know codes throughout the country and the world, so their need to do research on IF YOU REMEMBER WHEN WE SPOKE ABOUT THIS IN THE COMMITTEE, THERE WAS A REAL DESIRE, I THINK, BY EVERYBODY, PARTICULARLY COUNCIL, TO TAKE A FRESH LOOK AT THE TOOLS THAT WE USED TO PERMIT AND ENGAGE WITH FOLKS IN THE PERMITTING PROCESS. THEY PROVIDED, BOTH TEAMS, BUT ICC DID PROVIDE A REALLY IN-DEPTH TASK. YOU'LL SEE WE DID NOT RECOMMEND INCLUDING THAT THAT'S BEFORE, THAT'S SITTING ON THE PRESIDENT'S DESK, WHICH IS THE 21st CENTURY ROAD TO HOUSING, HAS A NUMBER OF PROVISIONS IN THERE RELATED TO STREAMLINING, STREAMLINING PERMITTING, AND THERE'S A LIKELIHOOD, A STRONG LIKELIHOOD, THAT THERE WILL BE FUNDING FOR THESE TYPES OF THINGS. SO WHAT WE WOULD RECOMMEND IS NOT INCLUDING THAT IN THE CONTRACT NOW, AND AS WE SEE WHAT HAPPENS OVER THE NEXT FOUR DAYS, IF THE PRESIDENT SIGNS IT OR NOT, WE SHOULD KNOW BY THE TIME YOU COME

That makes total sense to me. If we choose in the future to amend the contract, is that also funds that are cost neutral, or would that be another expense?

One of the advantages of using encumbered funds from previous years, so

A LITTLE BIT OF BACKGROUND. IN THE NOVAC REPORT, WHEN YOU LOOK THINGS OVER, YOU KNOW, THERE WAS A LITTLE SLIGHT FLURRY OF ACTIVITY IN THE 80s WITH OUR HOUSING CODE. I MEAN, VERY LITTLE. AND THEN MAYBE LIKE ONE OR TWO DASHES HERE AND THERE. I MEAN, IT'S ALMOST NOTHING FOR FOUR YEARS. IT'S VERY LITTLE. THERE WAS SOME ANTIQUAL STUFF. THEY TALK ABOUT RECENT CODE CHANGES. I KNOW AT THE END OF THIS CONTRACT,

That's paging through here.

It says that the budget hasn't been established yet. What exactly does that mean? Because you were just talking, since we were talking about the scope of work and, you know, leaving the optional task out, this is... HAVING 300 PIECES.

THERE WAS A BUDGET ATTACHED AT THE VERY END. AT THE VERY END.

WELL, HERE'S WHAT IT SAYS. IT SAYS UNDER PROJECT BUDGET, I'M ON PAGE 9 OF 14 OR 39 OF 161. If you're looking at the whole thing. It says the city has not established the budget range for this project, but proposals will be evaluated on a competitive basis with cost considered alongside qualifications and approach.

I think that's in the RFP. That's the RFP. If you go to page 65 of 166, that's the very end of the actual proposal. They propose a budget that's pretty clear. that we said we didn't establish a budget, but then the consultants came forward.

Yes, yes, okay. Yeah, that's what I figured. I figured it was just a matter of, you know, we knew it was $105,000, but this is the breakdown. I do have other questions, but I'll leave it to council first.

Go ahead. Director Zamp, in the proposal, ICC states it will conduct the examination of best practices for no less than three neighboring jurisdictions. I'm hoping that the Cleveland residents first program will be one of those programs that they look at.

Yeah, it's up to us to identify with.

Yeah, so when you say obviously I feel better Anybody else so one of the things under responsibilities is To lead stakeholder and community engagement do we do we know what that'll look like?

And so they are going to be the ones who are leading those sessions. So there will be a virtual session going on and then a later session that is in person, both with council and then with the public. And so while the staff and people are supporting and the council is supporting that, those engagement sessions will be led by the technical experts that were hired. And so when the question comes in from the community member

All right. So in the substack, under background review, data collection and analysis, it says that The consultant shall review the city's current building and housing codes and provide a kind of an assessment. Can we see that before, you know, when they completed that particular task? I think that would be good for us to see before they, you know, as opposed to, you know, at the end. And so they're still going to review the inspection and permitting processes, right? But just not. Not the digital tool. Not the digital tool.

Okay.

Let me see.

I have a question about that.

Okay, go ahead.

As they go through the review process and you get the final deliverable report, and it appears that maybe our... DIGITAL TOOLS CAN ACCOMMODATE WHAT THEY'RE SUGGESTING THAT WE SHOULD BE DOING? WILL YOU CONSIDER OPTION A AT THAT POINT?

I THINK WE'RE GOING TO CONSIDER IT BEFORE THAT POINT.

OH, OKAY.

IT'S ON THE TABLE. WE JUST WANT TO FIGURE OUT THE BEST WAY TO INCLUDE IT.

I KNOW YOU DON'T WANT TO BE LIMITED BY THE TECHNOLOGY EITHER. THANK YOU.

IT'S DOING.

SO AGAIN, UNDER STAKEHOLDER AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT 4.2, COULD THE TAG POSSIBLY BE THAT GROUP, THAT FORMER CIC GROUP?

I WOULD THINK WE WOULD WANT A DIFFERENT SET OF PEOPLE.

SO EXPLAIN WHO OR WHAT, YOU KNOW, WHO WOULD WANT IN THAT ROOM.

WE WANT FOLKS WHO ARE INVOLVED. So you mean like staff? Not just staff, but, you know, that may include some of the members who are represented on the development committee, you know, sort of the real estate department.

Very good. Task five, preparation and adoption of building and housing code amendments.

You know, I didn't think of this at the time when I was reviewing the packet, but is it possible to have also a web form or somewhere? Like we did public comments for zoning changes a couple of years ago where we just put it up on the website. We left it open for 30 days. I mean, we've heard so much from residents about complaints about housing enforcement. And I think obviously planning staff has heard, but maybe if there's just during this process, a place for residents to send in their information, You know, my neighbors, I put in this complaint, and I know we'll hear a lot of, let's say, things that were taken care of, but maybe not in the most timely fashion, but I still think it's worthwhile to allow the public, if they can't attend a meeting, to have some other way, whether it's a mailbox, a web form, something where we can get that feedback to the consultants during the process. I think there was an online survey. The survey would be different. To me, it's a little bit different because, you know, we don't want all of this. We don't want people sending tons of emails to Todd at the Mayor's Action Center about this because that's not the point. But there's, I feel like instead of the survey, also people are not necessarily willing to. do that any right because they're going to be talking with the consultants but just to have people feel like if they can't come to a meeting there's still a way to engage in the process and

I mean, Todd already has that stuff disaggregated from everything else. So under Task 5, preparation and adoption of building and housing code amendments, how does the collaboration work with our law department and, you know, Dexter and... I'VE GOT TO THE END OF MINE. ANYBODY ELSE? All right, 137, a resolution authorizing the mayor to accept and extend grant funds under the Cuyahoga County Board of Health for the Lead Safe Program for 2026 to 2030. Questions? Yeah, please.

Thanks. The question for me is the whereas clause number three states the program will, quote, provide services to residential units occupied by low to moderate income households, prioritizing units with young children. Makes sense to me. Then it goes on to say the grant requires the units that receive these services be occupied by a child under the age of six years Or shall be units where a child under the age of six spends a significant amount of time visiting? Is there a criterion for the amount of time the child needs to be visiting in the unit? Twitter wants to answer that. Like, does it have to be so many hours a week?

Yeah, so I can answer it.

So like a grandparent that takes care of our time, not even custody.

Could you send me that, wherever that's included, so I can have that for reference, please?

Yeah, we'll put together, because this program hasn't rolled out yet. We'll put together a fact sheet.

All right. I appreciate that. Thank you.

All right. Anything else?

Oh, one thing. For Director Brudzinski, where are the funds for the $270,000 local match coming from? Which fund will those come out of? SO LOCAL IN THIS CASE MEANS THE PROPERTY OWNER.

LOCAL MEANS NON-FEDERAL BASICALLY. YOU'RE OFF THE HOOK.

YES.

SO YOU HAD SAID THAT THE PROGRAM IS NOT YET ROLLED OUT. BUT PRESUMABLY WE'RE GOING TO DO, YOU KNOW, E-MAIL ALL CHANNEL COMMUNICATION CHANNELS AND THEN WE'LL HAVE LIKE SOMETHING ON THE WEBSITE WITH ELIGIBILITY. And then I've actually already heard from at least one resident who I guess had reached out to the county about this, and the county said, oh, yeah, it's happening. And then we said, well, not quite yet.

For them it is, not for us.

Right. So I guess to the extent, like how long do you think, how long will it take once the legislation?

So if I could add, I mean, we've had this grant going. two years or four years. So what we want to do is take a look at the current policy and procedures and make sure that it fits with what we're doing now. So the times haven't changed. We want to expand some of the limits or requirements of it within HUD regulations. So we should be able to have some modifications of that and then roll

All right, 138, a resolution declaring property at 3378 Blanche Avenue.

I just want to thank Director Butler and the Housing Department for moving this forward. I mean, this has been a property that I personally have been aware of for many years. bothersome to me, the condition of the property. So I really hope that the property owner will take this and pay for the necessary citations and the necessary actions that are needed to be taken to brought it back up into code. Really quite happy that we're moving this forward.

Is that the next step after, you know, I'm looking at section one, you know, I kind of read it, but is that what happens after this?

So once it's approved by council and any nuisance order, right, has its own procedure to it. So this one, I'm going to ask council

forward and abate that nuisance according to the order. And then if they don't pay,

Assistant Director Butler, please include this property in the code review because reading the history of it, it's an excellent example of code enforcement some of the things that perhaps need to be upgraded and updated to code enforcement to move these properties that are nuisance properties a lot much faster. As it's been years and we hear that time and time again, I've seen it time and time again. So that's just a request. And I am putting a list together of sample properties. So for reference.

Just to follow up, I think this is a tool that we underutilize in the city. I mean, there's only been a handful of nuisance abatements I WOULD LIKE TO SEE US BE MORE DILIGENT. WE LET THIS GO ON FAR TOO LONG.

I WOULD TEND TO DISAGREE WITH YOU A LITTLE BIT. I DON'T BRING EVERY NUISANCE ABATEMENT TO COUNCIL AND NOT EVERYONE HAS TO BE. BUT FOR CERTAIN SITUATIONS WHERE THERE'S DEMOLITION INVOLVED OR

So Councilman Stone, maybe from time to time when you're, you know, your section of the Committee of the Whole, you could get that information about, you know, nuisance abatements that we might not have heard about. Sure.

I'd be happy to do that.

Go ahead. Well, I was just going to make a comment. I think what's nice about this is really be helpful to see that somehow.

I mean, I can provide information for you guys on nuisance and some of it gets in the weeds. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. But it goes down to the minute of grass cutting versus, you know, we paint a house, put a roof on it because we know that it's the best thing for that property.

You know, I'll leave it to staff to determine if it's too much or not. Not enough, okay? I mean, it's really, this is an administrative function. I think we all respect that. But we do get weekly, if not more than weekly, messages about either a particular property or a particular area of town. And it's like, well, you know, that's really not our legislative body. You know, we're not doing these news and debatement things. But it'd be really nice to be able to see what we see this as. Maybe it's just a presentation to council in the next couple months when it's convenient, just so we can get an idea of what's going on.

Perfectly understandable, and I'll put something together. Great.

I couldn't agree more. What I was going to ask for is maybe quarterly is a list of addresses and where they are in the process. plenty of emails with addresses that says, what's happening with this house? And a couple of them, we've had, this is our third nuisance piece of legislation since this, you know, for this council. So for those ones, I could say, yes, we, in April, we did this, or in January, we did this. But if we had a list we could reference quarterly, again, I understand this is a staff, you know, operational request, so with the mayors, permission, but I think that that would help us be able to not have to ask the housing department all the time to let us know what's going on with each address. It would allow us to respond to emails and constituents more quickly and for us to have a sense of the scope of the work that's happening as well.

Several weeks ago, I had a ride-along with Assistant Director Butler, and we spent most of the morning going through properties throughout Cleveland Heights. And one other thing that occurs to me is we visited a number of properties that are owned by the city. that are in disrepair or in some kind of limbo. And I think that may fall under maybe something that council can be more active in helping you resolve, because there are some places where it's just kind of pending. So that might be another piece of this report.

All right, very good. 139, a resolution confirming the appointment of Eric Zanth and Craig Cobb to three-year sentences, I mean terms. to the Cleveland Heights Tax and Senate Review Council. So we have another acronym. Here we go. All right, not very controversial. Let's see, 140. Resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with GPD for professional engineering services. WITH MLK DRIVE GOLDBROOK CULVERT PRE-DESIGN STUDIES.

MRS. PRESIDENT LARSON.

DIRECTOR KLINKSKILL. HI. I LOOK TIRED, SORRY. ON TASK 2 OF THAT GPD PROPOSAL, It states that the design team will consult with local environmental consultant to understand the impacts of design limitations of the historic Stone Arch culvert. Has a local environmental consultant been identified, or who picks that person or company? They have not been identified, but GPD will pick that company. Okay. And then it also talks about coordinating with the other entities involved with this project. Will you be including the Dome Brook Watershed Partnership as well as NAORSD and the Cleveland Heights in that coordination?

Well, with the pre-designed study, we'll be working with the city of Cleveland And we will probably, we probably will at some point include the Dolebrook Watershed Partnership because at some point we're going to have to determine what the fix is going to be. Sure. So at that point, other partners will be brought in.

Okay.

Thank you. And just to follow on that question, and will Cleveland Heights be? communicated to me that we are the leaseholder now of that property, right, from the city of Cleveland. So are we in that decision or is it the property owner of the city of Cleveland that would decide the remedy?

I would think that that might be in partnership with the city of Cleveland.

I think this might be a question for Director Hanna, but this is now yet another property that doesn't reside in our city that we have somehow gotten into a lease agreement decades ago and are now responsible for what looks like it could be significant repairs. So I think I want to thank Director Cleanscale for getting back to me on all the questions that I sent around why are we responsible for this, but I think the lease was from the 1990s. 1991. Okay, so Belize is almost as old as me.

I think it's even older, to be honest. That was the most recent iteration, right?

So I guess the question is, you know, to what extent is there any remedy or recourse that we have if this is a pre-study, but if this is a multi-million dollar fix, who knows, right, at this point? I mean, we are on the hook for that. So I guess I'm asking the law department if they could look into this to see like, are we fully responsible? Can we maybe the mayor's office like re-engage with the city of Cleveland? I mean, we are just, we are a much smaller municipality than Cleveland having to be on the hook for potentially a multimillion dollar expense for a property that doesn't reside within our municipal borders.

Right. I think the 10,000-foot observation is that it's part of the city's park structure, and that was sort of the basis of the lease many decades ago. But I think looking at how those responsibilities are best carried out now and how they can be made more affordable and what kind of partnerships are available, sense.

So, I mean, and I'll just, I'll add to that, like there's philanthropy that's available to Cleveland, but not Cleveland Heights that has an environmental focus, you know, all those to your point. And the other thing is, you know, like you said, decades ago when all these parks were brand new and everything was new, well then, okay, fine, lovely. We will hear, right. You know, but now we're getting to the point where we're dealing with a hundred year old infrastructure that needs massive renovations. So to the extent we're able to either renegotiate those leases or enter into good faith discussions, I think that's really important for our long-term financial sustainability.

So the elephant in the brook is we've got a dam that it's all interconnected. And that's depending on what source you hear, it's either $15, $50, or $100 million And fixes. I mean, I mean, I think that's what we took over. And there really hasn't been a maintenance plan on any of these things.

I mean, even when I read through the whereas clauses, I'm just, you know, like. That's desirable. And then the funding for this project, Director Klingscale, has been appropriated and is available in the sewer fund, but not specifically for this, right?

Yes, because last year as part of my budget request, I requested engineering and construction for this project.

I think the director's point is that we knew this was coming because technically we leased We are the stewards of this property, but that doesn't make it any more wonderful that we're going to end up with the bill.

Desirable, thank you. What we don't want to do is not act at all, considering there's a liability aspect to if something happens with it.

Keeping that in mind, is there a timeline for the pre-design to be done so we can continue to move forward?

I don't expect that it will be done before winter. I don't think nothing's going to happen before. And will weather hold it up then? Well, so we'll get done with the pre-design. Then we're going to design. By the time design is done, we're probably looking at next year in the spring or summer.

Before going out to bid or anything?

Before going out to bid or anything. And this is a historical structure, too. Right. So there's that one.

Is that, that's in Cleveland Heights, is that correct? That short stretch over this culvert?

No, it is. I'm looking at the map. North Park is over. Right, North Park is Cleveland Heights. There's a little piece, the interchange of North Park and Martin Luther King is in Cleveland Heights.

So Cleveland Heights, that... Oh, no, the city of Cleveland. It's Cleveland Heights' responsibility pursuant to the lease.

So when I was on school board, we had a little marijuana party. and farther, so I mean it's, I think we'd have to look at a plat map to really tell for sure.

And the survey will be done as part of this pre-designed study, so we'll have the, it'll pin down all of that.

So again, you know, equating this to the work that has to be done in the dam, and I think there's many members in the community work and why we're sort of going to our head. I mean, we have to do this because it's a life safety issue. And I think we have the same issues with the dams, too. I mean, we've seen some horrific pictures of similar earthen dams that have failed. And I'm not proposing to knock the dams down. I think we need been okay for 100 years. I mean, we can't leave this stuff alone. I mean, we have to be working on solutions, which we are. So I guess I just wanted to make that statement.

We're going to have to pick up the pace a little bit. 141, a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute agreements with Cummings Inc. and Gatto Electric. ELECTRICAL SERVICES, PLACEMENT OF A GENERATOR, FIRE STATION NUMBER TWO, CHIEF HARRY IS HERE. AND HOW OLD IS THIS GENERATOR?

THE GENERATOR WAS BUILT IN 1980 AND INSTALLED IN 1981, I BELIEVE, WHEN THAT STATION OPENED. WE GOT OUR MONIES FOR IT. YEAH. IT'S BEEN A REALLY, REALLY, REALLY GREAT YEAR. BUT THEY JUST DON'T MAKE PARTS FOR IT ANYMORE, AND IT'S LINKED ALONG.

DOCK TAPE DOESN'T WORK ANY LONGER.

STEVE'S BUBBLE GUM JUST DOESN'T HOLD IT TOGETHER. YEAH. SO ANY QUESTIONS?

I ASSUME THIS WAS ALREADY BUDGETED FROM LAST YEAR.

YEAH. THERE IS AN INCREASE IN THE REQUEST FOR THE BETTER UNIT AND I'LL HAVE LIEUTENANT VANDERSKY SPEAK TO THAT A LITTLE BIT. I CAN MOVE A COUPLE THINGS AROUND. WE'RE GOING TO HOLD OFF ON THE WATER MANIFOLD REPLACEMENT AND WE'LL MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Basically, we based it off of the current generator doesn't run the whole station. When the power goes out, it only runs parts of the station. And so this new generator is based off of the peak kilowatt demand that the station reaches over 18 months of degree, which is a recommendation of the generator companies. And so it's going to accommodate the entire station at its highest demand. And for the future. And for the future. So it's got some wiggle. for the station.

It looks like it's another $5,000 and you get a much larger unit and that certainly makes a lot of sense.

Something that's infrequent of a purchase makes sense to go with.

Is Fire Station 1's generator as old?

So it was and then we had that one replaced probably about 10 years ago.

It's been there my entire career. I've been on it for 12 years. It probably came in the right room.

They did replace that with a brand new unit, and it works wonderfully.

Right. 140, Annie, what was the next piece of legislation? 143. Oh, it's 143, okay. An ordinance adopting, an ordinance adopting a new section 139.26 of the codified ordinance titled Additional Nominal Fringe Benefits and Public Purpose Expenditures. Somebody like to explain this?

So this is, I can address that, Mr. President. This is a piece of legislation that actually is related to a section of Chapter 111, which provides for the expenditure of city funds for meals for council when it goes through a YEARS PAST, COUNCIL IN RECENT YEARS HAS NOT PURCHASED MEALS FOR MOST OF ITS AT LEAST REGULAR MEETINGS OTHER THAN SOME OF THE WEEKEND MEETINGS. THE OTHER MEETINGS THOUGH WHICH ARE LESS FREQUENT COULD INVOLVE ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF MEETINGS OR EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION EVENTS AND THE OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL HAS OPINED THAT THE BEST PRACTICE IS FOR THE LEGISLATIVE AUTHORITY OF THE COUNCIL TO acknowledge those types of expenditures as proper public purposes. And if the council makes that determination, then those findings are helpful with regard to any auditor's review and so forth. It's a common practice. It's just something that hasn't been codified previously in Cleveland Heights.

WHAT BROUGHT THIS TO YOUR ATTENTION RIGHT NOW FOR THIS EVENING?

THERE IS AN UPCOMING NEW EMPLOYEE WELCOME EVENT THAT WAS CONTEMPLATED AND IT JUST SORT OF TEED UP THAT QUESTION.

I'LL JUST SAY, I DIDN'T REALIZE WE NEEDED TO AUTHORIZE THIS, BUT IT MAKES GOOD SENSE WHEN WE'RE TRYING TO BUILD AN EMPLOYEE CULTURE IN THE CITY WHERE PEOPLE FEEL APPRECIATED. I MEAN, EVERY JOB THAT I HAVE HAD HAS HAD being able to give gifts for new babies and marriages and retirements and have a luncheon to celebrate somebody or something. So I just I think that if we hadn't been doing this, then that would be more of a red flag than approving this as an appropriate public purpose to make sure our employees feel appreciated.

And this is even a little bit narrower than some of those situations that you mentioned, you know, because they're public funds and that, of course, back to the mayor to make the determination or to approve the events other than the ones that belong to council.

And to your point, Councilman Cohen, Director Schatz put together a fantastic event. And Joseph Moore, I forget who worked on it, but put together a wonderful holiday event for the staff. And it was really nice. A lot of goodwill, I think, came out of that. and it's amending various sections of our 11 zoning code. This is about ADUs, accessory dwelling units. So I definitely think we could talk about this. Obviously it is just first reading. Councilman Cohen, since this was in your committee,

Sure. I mean, I think just as a reminder, we discussed this at the recent Committee of the Whole meeting where we discussed the process in depth, and we agreed that while there are still policy decisions that need to be made, it would be to our benefit and for efficiency's sake to refer this today to the Planning Commission, where they can review it as recommended the June ordinance redline by staff, provide their recommendations to us, and we would put this on the agenda following the recess for a fuller discussion, and I think we're scheduled.

I apologize, I was reading part of what you were saying. We can send this, you think it would be a good idea to send it to Planning Commission now?

Correct.

And then do a second reading in August?

Yes, and we can do, you know, frankly, we can do as many readings as we want following, but I think the discussion we had previously was that it would be a benefit to us to have the Planning Commission's input at this early stage, as opposed to making a lot of changes, sending it to Planning Commission, and then having them come back with different recommendations.

And just from a timing perspective, the referral to the Planning Commission should be at least 30 days, not more than 60 days, unless Council later determines to provide them with some additional time.

So if we refer to today, when would be the next time they would need to be able to take this on?

So referring it today will allow last Wednesday of the month, we will allow them to have a public meeting on this public hearing. meeting and express their comments, give the recommendation, bring it back to you. There's a required public hearing that council has to hold. So there's multiple, multiple options. Yeah, so probably won't be voting on August 17th.

No, no, no. Just to discuss the planning commission's feedback. No, no, no.

So on the timing, we're just getting the ball rolling. Yes, correct.

And I just have a procedural question because I've only been on the other side of this, but do we vote in August? the council meeting to refer it? Or is that just a decision we're making here to refer to the Planning Commission?

I would probably have a motion to refer it in the council itself.

So when I read it, yeah.

Mr. President, I just have a comment. One of the frequently mentioned concerns by residents has been that these new ADUs would be used for short-term rentals. And I just want to comment that working with Director Samson and Director Hanna, the short-term rental legislation is moving along. It has been revised, and we hope that next week we'll have a discussion about it. And it includes a of using ADUs for short-term rentals. So that's where that's going to live. It's not in this legislation, but it is in the short-term rental legislation. So that's just something to note.

Just a quick question about one of the whereas clauses. It says, what is this? I don't know. It's about seven or eight down. Whereas on July 6th, City Council introduced this amending ordinance. I mean, did we do that?

We're doing that right now. That's this. Right now.

Okay, because I'm just looking.

So that recital and the next three or so are structured to allow Council and the Council Clerk to fill in the blanks as the process unfolds, and it goes to the Planning Commission, comes back from the Planning Commission, goes to public hearing by Council, and then completes the process.

This is what I used to refer to as the ping-ponging.

Yes. I just saw Mayor Petras' name on it, and I was like, wait a minute. Okay.

Well, it's because it's coming. Mr. President.

Yeah.

Any comments? You'll see in the agenda memo, there's a link to where you click. that there now is an FAQ on that website, on that webpage for anybody to read. And we'll update it with whatever changes that happen. And just a reminder to the public, please send your comments.

We already have received some comments, which we're working on with the law department.

So the more that we get them, whether it's through council or directly to us, the more we can pull this so that it's everybody's answer.

Planning at ClevelandMix.gov.

So I'm just paging through here and I have an awful lot of questions and I'm gonna reserve them for another time, just because perhaps Planning Commission will, you know, take care of some of that and we just don't really have time. Second readings. 131, a resolution authorizing Mayor to enter into a professional services agreement with TS Architecture. LLC and Design Services for the Cumberland Pool Facility Modernization and Rehabilitation Project. So this is, let me make sure I'm on the right button.

This is going to get us moving towards a new pool in 2028.

So I think we make that clear, right? Once this ball is rolling. Go ahead, Matt.

Yeah. So just to reiterate, we received 12 proposals. Each organization that submitted one had to put together a team, including civil, mechanical, structural engineers, designers, et cetera. And DS Architecture put together a very impressive team. The proposals ranged from about $700,000 to about $2.3 million. And so they initially, DS Architecture initially proposed almost a million dollars. It was just shy of a million dollars and they were willing to reduce that by about 10% to $913,000. So we feel that we would be getting very good value from them given all of the different firms that they are engaging for this effort. And we also expect that fit within the $110 million budget that was passed by city council at the end of the year.

I just want to thank you for sending the proposal because reading through the different groups that are part of this, I mean, it's really incredibly impressive and I couldn't be more excited to get this rolling. So thank you.

And also to get all this done in the first six months, which is with all the other stuff going on. Very impressive. Thank you, mayor and staff. 133 RESOLUTION APPOINTING AN ASSESSMENT EQUALIZATION BOARD TO HEAR OBJECTIONS RELATIVE TO THE ESTIMATED ASSESSMENTS FOR A PORTION OF THE EXPENSIVE STREET LIGHTING WITHIN THE CITY OF CLEVELAND HEIGHTS.

PRESIDENT KUDOM. YES. I NEED TO ABSTAIN ON THIS. ONE OF THESE INDIVIDUALS WE'RE APPOINTING IS A VERY CLOSE RUNNER OF OURS. And I had nothing to do with picking this person or suggesting anything.

I think I'm set up with this great gig. That's right. Eating from the public trough, right?

That begs the question. It was selected by the administration, right? So we should just say, like, these individuals were selected.

I take three pretty local finance directors. I'm part of a group with them. I reach out to the three of them and convince them to do it. Residents cannot be appointed to this, right? Because every single resident has been assessed. Normally, if it was a sewer project, then you'd pick residents from a different part of town that are not part of the project. Here, everybody's part of the project.

For that reason.

in their communities so they understand the concept.

And they're all county residents in accordance with the ORC. Right. So all the boxes are checked.

Yep. All right. In 134 is a resolution appointing an assessment. The Estimated Assessments. All right. SO THAT INCLUDES OUR AGENDA. THIS IS OUR LAST REGULAR MEETING UNTIL AUGUST 17. SO WE'RE GOING TO GO ON TO COUNCIL RULES.

in the email this week as well for your consideration. We have 15 minutes tonight, so 10 after seven will be my goal. Okay. And I'd like to go through each paragraph and ask if any of you have a comment. If you do not, we don't finish tonight. But I'd like to look at the... Just to read the introduction, As a member of the Cleveland Heights City Council, we are considered representatives of our constituents. The city of Cleveland Heights parents support and expect that their elected officials are committed to the highest ideals, quality service, and proper conduct. The following rules and codes of conduct are submitted to provide council members with standards that will help us strive to do the city's work while functioning professionally to help the city thrive. The first paragraph is respect and civility. All members of the Cleveland Heights City Council are and courtesy and politeness towards fellow council members, staff, members of the public. These standards should be followed whether in meetings, on emails, in public, and on social media. Members should refrain from engaging in any situation where their own values and beliefs are challenged. Does anybody have any comment on that particular section?

What did you mean by the last sentence? Or what is meant by the last sentence?

I will say social media specifically. Where you may, a council member, may get into a back and forth with somebody challenging my beliefs or values, making assumptions about my beliefs and values, because we had that happen last year. So it's just trying to make sure that people understand that sometimes engagement is going to be difficult and perhaps pointless. As public officials, perhaps we need to step back and just let that particular situation evolve. Would you reword it or would you take it out?

I think I would reword it at that point. Okay. What would you suggest? I just wasn't sure what you meant when I read it the first couple times. I should be thoughtful and engaging in any situation. Because I think that's what you're looking for. It's hard to know when that challenge will occur. Well, also what this challenge is, I have a lot of beliefs that other people may think are bad ideas, but I... I don't. It depends on if you're in the minority or the majority.

But understanding that, think about it each time that you get yourself into that situation is what we're saying.

You know, I see why you don't want to do a long, run-on sentence. I suppose that's redundant. But, you know, I think that the sentence kind of disconnects. You know, you've got the social media. I understand the sentence follows it, but I don't know if you reiterate that. to refrain from engaging when on social media. You know, maybe you just repeat it just to make sure that it's clear that that's what you're referring to.

What if I took that second sentence and put it at the end? Yes. Yeah.

I mean, I think that's what happened. You read that and you're like, what's that connected to?

I didn't, but thank you for your grace. No, that would make it work. Is everybody okay with that? All right, adhere to council procedures. Council members must adhere to established meeting procedures and guidelines. Disruption of council procedures or failure to follow established protocols may result in penalties administered by the council president. And then President Kuda, that yellow highlight means that he wants us to add in there, maybe the entire council, Robert's Rules. He wants somehow to amend that sentence.

Yeah, I'm trying to remember what I meant by that.

So are you okay with the council president administering the penalty? Should it get to that?

You'd have to ask them. Say later on in the council. The council's got to be okay with it.

Penalties, that's the written warning. This is at the end. Written warning issued by the council president or designated authority. So it may be an option for the president to...

designating a council enforcer or council itself vice president so um okay i i think this conversation we're having is is much needed um i mean i do think we had a rocky road in the past with some um uncivil that and I think with personal attacks to individually individual attacks targeted to throw us off base so we would be walking down another path and it's not necessarily at us but I like how you I am uncomfortable referring to these as council rules. I like the idea of a softer term such as guidelines. I like the idea of a code of conduct. And I think if there's like an infringement, you know, the option to do censure, which I see is here on page three. Well, I'm sure we're going to go down that path. But the censure really requires, you know... So I just would like to throw that out there, not necessarily for discussion. This is your document. I trust you're going to do. I'm not sure if we would even vote on this. Would we want to legislate this? Is this where this is going?

Did you see this in 111?

I think that would be an appropriate place because it needs to be amendable. Well, maybe not in an ordinance. In the past, those were temporary guidelines.

AND BEING PRINCIPALLY PROCEDURAL IN NATURE. THERE WERE SUPPLEMENTAL COUNCIL RULES, I THINK THEY WERE CALLED, ADOPTED IN MAYBE 2021 BY RESOLUTION, WHICH HAD A SUNSET DATE. AND SO YOU COULD THEORETICALLY TAKE OUT THE SUNSET DATE AND ADOPT A PIECE OF LEGISLATION THAT YOU MAY OR MAY So I think either you would want to put them in Chapter 111 or to do them as something that is distinct from those procedural rules. And you could do it, yes, by legislation, which would not need to be codified.

Okay. When we did Section 111, there is a piece of it that says we're allowed to create our own rules. And so I would go for the resolution Because I feel like that it's not something that's codified in our ordinances, but rather something that we resolve to follow. And then, but I don't know if that meets Councilman Posh's concern about having this be more flexible and informal.

You know, I think we're all working as a team. Chose it by my desk with the word rules on it. I'm going to not argue with it. It's like, I'll go with it because I think we're as a team. It's just a suggestion.

So the conduct makes more sense for you?

Yeah, it does. I mean, on the enforcement, I mean, if you look at Robert's rules, I mean, most of it, I mean, anything where something's enforced, somebody censored or something like that, council votes on it. So that's what I meant by instead of, It's to, like, make a decision on discipline, you know, on actual sanctioning someone for some infraction.

I think, you know, the rules, the word rules and code of conduct kind of points to a little bit of a dichotomy in this document. A lot of this is qualitative. It's the culture that we want to create. that are different, that are more about performance of the job, and that have real, you know, probably should have some real underlying procedures. If you have a council person who's simply not attending meetings, what's the standard for that? Or, I mean, we haven't had that, or if there is a conflict of interest that It's two different things in some ways.

And along those lines, you also have guidance or parameters in the charter. Right. And I think it's going to be important as you further develop these standards as well as the potential changes to Chapter 111 to make sure that everything is consistent with those provisions.

You will help us do that, right?

Yes.

I would love to be able to talk when we start talking about the number of meetings. on this. I mean, I think it needs to be said that I think we've lost council members because of bad behavior amongst members' resignations. I know some of my peers, including myself, felt really demoralized after some meetings, after we were accused falsely of things, and we felt like we had a target in our back from our own individual members. I've heard of council retreats in the sure that we can certainly have our differences, but this body needs to be able to work through them constructively, even if those differences exist. And that's why I'm really happy. I mean, I'm just taking a little off track right now. I know we've got a time commitment, but if people are wondering, this is important. This is an important conversation.

And you're trying to set a tone for the future, too. It's good to do it now.

Yeah.

In a crisis situation.

Good.

So we could leave that in there about the council president administering the penalties, but that would be perhaps a consensus of council if there was a penalty being signed. The rest of that chapter reads, okay, that these members shall conduct themselves in a professional, respectful manner during council meetings and related activities, foregoing any personal attacks, offensive language, or disruptive behavior, such as, in parenthesis, unnecessary whispering and cell phone usage. So is everybody okay with the rest of that? Does anybody have any questions about this last two sentences? Okay, and then the following is in respect for public input. Members shall listen attentively to public comments and respect the rights of citizens to express their opinion. Council members shall refrain from interrupting or showing disrespect to members of the public. AND EACH OTHER. PRESIDENT CRUZ, YOU WANTED TO ADD THAT. THIS PARAGRAPH IS TITLED RESPECT FOR PUBLIC INPUT. BUT YOU WANTED TO ADD THE WORDS AND EACH OTHER AT THE END.

YES.

I THINK IT'S A LITTLE REDUNDANT SINCE IN THE SENTENCE BEFOREHAND

ourselves all right um ethical standards again this document was picked up from vice president davida russell while she was on council so i would give her credit for the majority of this work council members are expected to uphold high ethical standards and avoid behavior that brings brings disrepute to the council or the city. Council members shall avoid any appearance of conflict of interest by publicly disclosing on the official records any direct or financial interest or other personal or private right he or she may have in any legislation pending before council or any passage of said legislation. We've already seen since January a couple of times when we've had recusals from council. So that particular ethical standard seems to be something we can all accept.

Just confirming that a declaration of refusal is sufficient for publicly disclosing on the official record, right? Because then it gets in the minutes.

Communications and accessibility. Council members shall maintain open lines of communication with constituents, COMMUNICATION UPDATES ON COUNCIL ACTIVITIES AND DECISIONS SHALL BE PROVIDED THROUGH OFFICIAL CHANNELS. THE NEXT SENTENCE IS HIGHLIGHTED BY PRESIDENT CUDA. COUNCIL COMMENTS DURING REGULAR COUNCIL MEETINGS SHOULD DIRECTLY RELATE TO THE BUSINESS OF THE CITY. of Cleveland Heights rather than personal inflection or commentary. And then the last sentence of this paragraph is, members are asked not to give any speeches that can be construed as campaigning during public meetings. And President Cuda added this in italics, giving some latitude. For instance, if you were honoring MLK or Jesse Jackson or some kind of particular celebration of history that needs to be enumerated or would like to be enumerated.

I mean, I know I occasionally reflect and I'm not saying I'm the only one that does it, but I think I do it maybe a little more than others. If it's Martin Luther King Day, we as a city recognize that. So you could say there's a city business there. When the death of a prominent, or somebody, you know, prominent citizen of the United States. You know, I mean, I don't know how you guys feel about that. Is that too much? You know, I did it. I want to admit that I did it. I don't know how strict... I don't want to say... I don't want to be doing something and then say... you know, have a rule that says you're really not supposed to do this.

I'll just remind us that when we went through Chapter 111, we actually took this prohibition out of Chapter 111. We agreed to take it out. And I would say that I'm in favor of that because we are elected. We do want to focus on city business. But at the end of the meeting, if we get one to three minutes, you know, and I do agree on the limitation on campaigning, but I don't think there's anything wrong with us having an opportunity to say something that we may want to say, and we will deal with the consequences, whether that is, you know, the public thinks that's good or bad. So I think there's no reason to have it there because we've taken it out of Section 1, or we've proposed to take it out of Chapter 111. And take out that third sentence entirely. But I do like the last one, and I think that that's appropriate.

Yeah.

Separate public business from...

I would make that last sentence even stronger. Members are asked not to. Members should not give any speeches that can be construed as campaigning during public meetings. And that may be borderline illegal to do that anyway if you're using city resources for your own personal campaigning.

I didn't move my head at all during the prior sentence. I will provide comments on that when we get to 111.

Well, I mean, what happens if there's a school levy that's happening and you feel strongly about it one way or another?

Personal campaigning? That's an issue. Issue versus...

I think you mean personal campaigning.

So, with C. Lee and Meadowbrook, you know, there was that council taking a position on

THAT WASN'T A TAX LEVY. SO IT'S TO SOME EXTENT DISTINGUISHABLE. I'M NOT GOING TO TRY TO ANSWER THAT ON THE FLY EXCEPT THAT I THINK THAT I WOULD STILL FAVOR AND RECOMMEND REFRAINING FROM CAMPAIGNING SPEECHES AND I MIGHT EVEN SAY PARTICULARLY WITH REGARD TO LEVY ISSUES AND THINGS OF THAT NATURE. BUT WE CAN PROVIDE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR COUNCIL WHEN THOSE ISSUES ARISE.

Obviously, that doesn't mean that council people can't go out and campaign for those issues. In their personal capacity. In their personal capacity, yeah.

Then we need to make sure that that's taken care of.

Yeah, we might have to tighten that up then.

Just because of not just... With Director Hanna's assistance.

Yes, yeah. So we can come back and provide some more.

And then is everybody okay with removing that third sentence completely, the yellow highlight? And my time is up for this particular section, so we'll come back after the recess. Thank you, everybody.

All right. So we had a workshop, seven and a half hours of it, and some of it was devoted to a legislative initiative So we'll be coming back in August. I would assume August 17th, the agenda will be pretty full because we'll have been gone for a while. And so we're really looking at September, which is starting to get into budget season. I know the mayor's going to be soliciting our input. Can you, I don't know, do we want to, can you talk about the timeline for that?

SO THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT DRAFTED A SCHEDULE, AND THEY'D LIKE TO OVERVIEW IT THERE.

SO, YES, WE DRAFTED A SCHEDULE. WE'RE LOOKING TO KICK OFF, WE'LL GET AN E-MAIL KICKOFF ON THURSDAY AND SEND THAT OUT TO THE DIRECTORS WITH THE REVENUE PROJECTIONS DUE AUGUST 10TH, EXPENSE PROJECTIONS DUE A COUPLE WEEKS LATER, AND THEN WE ALSO HAVE THE BUDGET HEARINGS commencing around November 3rd or 4th through the 9th.

I think it's November 4th through the 6th. Yeah, 4th, 5th, and 6th.

So everybody write that down, November 4th, 5th, and 6th.

I WILL SEND YOU CALENDAR INVITES. YOU GUYS WILL BE ABLE TO ATTEND VIRTUALLY.

INTERFERRING WITH ELECTION DAY.

ELECTION DAY IS THE THIRD. THESE WOULD BE NIGHTLY MEETINGS? DURING THE DAY.

but does anybody want to talk about any legislative initiatives that they think might be coming forward second half of the year?

As I mentioned earlier, it's my hope that next week we have some time reserved to bring the short-term rental legislation to you. We've made good progress with Airbnb and their partnership with us in tax collecting. It's not finalized, but it's moving along. So my hope is that, especially as we're discussing the ADU legislation, that these two can sort of march forward. But I would hope that in August we would be getting into doing readings. The overall look of the legislation is that should a council decide to enact it, that it might be enacted by the end of September, which gives then all of the property owners who have short-term rentals 90 days to the end of the year to register. And then our thought is that the taxation piece would begin in January. WE'VE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT ALL THE COMMENTS FROM OUR LAST SESSION, SO THERE'S A CLEAN COPY THAT'S BEEN, THAT IS IN PROCESS TO COME TO YOU.

OKAY. ANYBODY ELSE?

GO AHEAD. THERE'S PROBABLY GOING TO BE SOME DEER MANAGEMENT LEGISLATION THAT WE'RE GOING TO NEED TO GET THROUGH IN THE AUGUST, SEPTEMBER TIME FRAME. IT WILL PROBABLY MAKE SENSE FOR I mean, this is assuming that there is going to be some movement by us as a council.

If I can, just to be clear on that, there's a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, July 28th. Thank you. ODNR and Metro Parks will be the presenters.

This will be part of the... meeting and I will still do so yeah I know it's a recess but we're trying to get this done and trying to get the right people at the table and try to get some public input as opposed to like necessarily a true hearing and I think it would be really great if members of this body can either attend or watch the meeting at some other point afterwards did you still need you still want

Complete in Green Streets, the revised legislation continues to be vetted by the administration. City Administrator Reese has received additional input from Directors Klingskow and Sam. And when that input has been considered and the legislation amended, I believe the legislation will come back to the Transportation Mobility Committee and then back and on to Council. I'm hoping that that will happen by year end.

Councilman Cobb, I'm hoping that 111 It's the end of the year.

We also have an email trail. So on the planning, I mean there is a lot happening on the planning and development side, but I think we've laid out more or less a schedule for ADU's landmark commission and the zoning code update. We will need some time for a special counsel workshop on the zoning code update after the recess. So that's something we'll have to schedule still. And then that will give us more of a sense of what's to come for actual legislation for the zoning update and how we want to take that on. And we'll be talking about that next week for about 30 minutes.

This is to review the work of the consultant?

Yes, the zoning code update itself. which is separate from the building and housing code update, which we are doing separately.

During that workshop, will we get an opportunity to suggest changes to the code?

That will be next week. That will be next week. We'll have, well, we'll have a hot list. I don't know. Top hot list of topics that, but there is so much that has been, that staff has conveyed and been working on with the consultants. But I think any, you know, that will be an opportunity next week to kind of just touch base on anything that is either not on the list or just to make sure that planning staff has it. And then we will get the recommendations and all of that and go through that when we have more time.

So when you refer to the list, you mean something we've already gotten an email?

No, not yet. The planning staff will present it to us next week at the Committee of the Whole meeting. Thank you.

All right. Anything else? Any pre-recess outstanding items? Maybe just threw that on there. Just like kind of a just in case.

Hillside dairy demolition is complete. Thank you everybody that was involved in that. Looks different.

I think the fencing still needs to. And the weeds whacked, but you know. Just a tiny amount of, just a small amount of landscape.

But they met their schedule, right? The contractor came in on schedule, I thought. Yeah. I'll try to get out there on the break.

Anything else? Any other?

At our last committee, the whole meeting, we went into executive session to discuss the vacancy, the vacant, the resignation of a regular. A member, based on the discussions during that executive session, I would like to make a motion that the alternate Matt Alden be moved over to fill the unexpired term from the member that resigned.

I want to just get a sense of where everybody's at.

Is everyone good with doing that? Do we need to have a formal roll call on that, Law Director?

I mean, you will need a vote. Yes. I don't know if you're planning to do that in the meeting.

No, I'd just like the okay to proceed with asking legislation be drafted and then in our August meeting.

So then you don't need anything.

So in our August meeting, then we'll have some legislation formally appointing him. last to go out for the next two Fridays with the deadline near the end of the month. There are, I think, three or four prior applicants. Addie, I'll reach out to them to find out whether they're still interested, and there's no need for them to reapply, and I'll make that announcement in the meeting. And that was all I had.

Wait, before I forget, Councilman Cobb, we need to ask the planning director.

It's going to be okay to move it. There's no urgency to it. Okay. We spoke during the meeting. So just in case anyone is, we were going to schedule a hearing to have presentations on the two competing proposals for our arts assessment. do it now. Right when we come back? Yes. The director is going to you already know this.

So Rachel Bernstein has said that she and her people are available on the 17th. Do we need to do these at the same time?

I think it would be best to have them both present at the same time.

I think so. You don't want to do it two separate nights. You'll forget what the first person said.

Okay, so how long would this take? I mean, I just think we can get it done in a half hour.

Well, we were thinking it was a half hour for each team.

For each team. All right.

the 17th is like the first which is our first meeting back is our first day back and then the 24th would be our first day in the hall and i think we have some planning things already for the 24th yeah well i i mean i expect that we'll have the usual stuff i'm just saying do we want to tack on an hour i'm just or we could try to do another um day that either the week of the 17th

I MEAN, I KNOW THIS IS A WAY TO LOOK AHEAD, BUT WHAT ARE WE GOING TO HAVE ON THE 24th PLANNING AND WHAT ELSE?

POTENTIALLY DISCUSSING THE ALTERNATE POSITION ON THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS.

OKAY. SO ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, BUT NOT NECESSARILY A LONG MEETING. OH, WAIT. IF DIRECTOR HANNAH HAS 111 READY, WE MIGHT THROW THAT ON.

Well, I'm just saying, but yeah, if he's got it done, we could, we could have an overview.

Are you planning anything for the 25th? I know. I'm sorry.

Yeah. I don't have anything top of mind, but okay. Potentially. I think is that when we're going to be discussing ADUs?

We are discussing ADUs on the 17th.

Are we going to have enough time to get?

No.

So probably the 24th is going to be a more pressing conversation.

It's not scheduled for the 24th because it's, we haven't like scheduled further out and how much if we needed a separate.

Yeah, that's likely the time that we would have.

I already have. I already asked for 45 minutes for planning topics that 80s was not included because it was going to be something. have a public hearing for zoning change yes but in between what i recommend from a process standpoint is that we have a policy discussion so the public hearing is based on on the actual updated redlined ordinance so you guys would want to meet for after it goes back to the planning commission you guys discuss then you go to the public correct correct i mean yeah i mean if if on the 24th we're supposed to have, you know, potentially three hours of committee of the whole and planning stuff is the only thing on there. I mean, let's get it all, let's like get it done, you know.

Well, if you're the main thing and then maybe Craig has a little bit, but you know, I think this hour would be, I mean, we're already together. I'd like to knock it out on the 24th. So Eddie, if you can get ahold of those two entities and that would mean letting Rachel Bernstein know that we're not going to do the 17th. You know, first. Yes.

Point of clarification. I've been looking at all the listings for the members on our committees, and Addie's going to be working on making sure they're all up to date. When I came across the commission on aging, it's listed as three vacant members. Am I misreading that, or are you down to it? I think it might have been updated.

I'll double check on that. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate it.

I know there's been turnover.

All right, if it's okay with everybody, let's. All right, so I'm gonna attend this meeting at 7.29. We're gonna go over to the regular meeting. This meeting is adjourned. Okay, welcome to Cleveland Heights City Council. This is our regular meeting. It is July 6th at 735. Annie, would you please call the roll? DeWitt Foy.

Here.

Posh.

Here.

Larson. Here. Kuda.

Here.

Cobb.

Here.

Cohen. Here. Stone.

Here.

All right, no amendments to the agenda, correct? So approval of the minutes from May 18th, 2026. Everybody okay with that? All right, very good. We'll move on to proclamations and honors.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to first invite up our longtime assistant director for planning, Karen Knittel. So Karen is officially retired now. So congratulations, Karen. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. So I'd like to begin by sharing that whereas Karen Knittel began her public service career with the city of Cleveland Heights on November 18th, 1996. And whereas Mrs. Knittel has served the residents of the city in many planning capacities, starting as the development planner, moving to city planner, and finally, most recently acting as the assistant director of planning. Whereas what is truly unique about Mrs. Knittel's service is not the length of her tenure, but the way she served. She is in the trenches alongside those who work for her. It's collaborative and communicative. She works with every employee of the city with kindness. It's knowledgeable and passionate about planning, the environment and the city's residents. She does it all without any expectation of recognition or reward. And whereas the mayor, city council members and city staff are deeply appreciative of the services rendered to the residents of Cleveland Heights by Mrs. Knittel. Now, therefore the city of Cleveland Heights does honorably pay tribute to Karen Knittel and recognizes her for her many years of service, many accomplishments over her 30 years of dedicated service to the residents of Cleveland Heights, extends to her their most sincere wishes for continued success in her future endeavors.

Thank you all. I just want to say it's truly been an honor working for Cleveland Heights and I love our community and it's been a true lifelong passion to work here and I'm so glad that I've had this opportunity. So once again, thank you and I appreciate so much all my coworkers because it says it takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a whole community of staff to work together to help our city stay strong and resilient. So thank you everybody for this honor and for... letting me be here tonight.

I'd like to invite up two other familiar faces, Carla Rottenberg, Deborah Van Cleef. Whereas for the past 10 years, Deborah Van Cleef, end quote, of democracy within the Heights Observer, enriching civic dialogue and encouraging thoughtful public engagement throughout the Cleveland Heights community. And whereas through their writing, research, and commentary, Ms. Van Cleef and Ms. Rottenberg have explored issues of local government, democracy, housing, history, arts and culture, civic participation, social justice, and community identity, helping residents better understand both the challenges and opportunities facing our city. And whereas over the course of hundreds of columns published in the Heights Observer, Deborah Van Cleef and Carla Rottenberg have observed important aspects of local history, amplified community conversations, and inspired residents to participate more fully in civic life. And whereas the city of Cleveland Heights recognizes with gratitude the dedication, intellect, persistence, and public spirit Deborah Van Cleef and Carla Rottenberg have demonstrated for a decade of service to our community through Heights of Democracy, Now, therefore, I, Jim Petras, Mayor of the City of Cleveland Heights, do hereby proclaim our sincere appreciation and gratitude to Deborah Van Cleef and Carla Roddenburg for 10 years of distinguished civic writing and community service through Heights of Democracy, and commend them for their enduring contributions to public understanding, democratic engagement, and the civic life of Cleveland Heights.

Well, we'd like to have our fellows come and join us. As we said two, three weeks ago, we thanked everybody we could think of in our final column except our partners who have a lot to do with this column surviving for 10 years.

There we go.

It's almost time for us to break.

This being the 250 year anniversary of the country and free speech being endangered to say the least, it's a great honor to have the both of you here. Mayor, are you ready to do your comment? Oh, you know what? Sure. If it's okay, Jamira, would you be okay with coming up and introducing yourself? Jamira McArthur is working now with Chantel Brown, our Congresswoman.

Yes.

And we'd like to hear a few words from you.

Absolutely. I don't know which mic you like for me to use. Actually, either one works. Okay, perfect. Dual mics here. Good evening, everyone. My name is Jamira McArthur. I do work for Congresswoman Chantel Brown. I am a caseworker and field representative. However, I am a Cleveland Heights resident. I have the honor of maintaining and living in my grandparents' home that they left behind. That home has been in our family for over 60 years. We love that home and I love Cleveland Heights. So I told the office, like, I will be at all of the Cleveland Heights things. So I am actually just here to speak about constituent services. My particular portfolio is for Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and IRS. However, obviously dealing in the office, you kind of get to do everything, right? All of the federal agencies. But right now, we are really trying to push the knowledge of constituent services because we are not getting the responses that we're used to from these agencies, unfortunately. So from a congressional standpoint, I have the ability to reach out to the liaisons and track your status so if you're having any issues with social security medicaid medicare irs you can well you the easiest thing to do is go on chantellebrown.house.gov you'll look in the top corner it'll say request assistance you it'll let you open a case it's just a privacy release form you can submit any documentation and that gives me the ability to go in reach out to those agencies and speak on your behalf. Now, obviously, there's only me for the entire district for those portfolios. However, I'm going to go and figure it out, right? I love to do what we do. I love working for constituents. I love trying to figure it out because it's not easy. It's not always easy. The paperwork is hard sometimes. There's so many different moving parts. So our main thing is just understanding we are here for you. Anything that we can do, you can reach out to your congresswoman. And if it's not something we can do right now, it's on our radar. and we'll figure it out, right? So thank you all very much. If you need anything at all, your council members now have my information. So anything you need. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you.

Jamiro, just out of curiosity, is there a passport service that... Can you talk in the mic just so? Yeah, thanks.

So we do offer a passport service. So if you're having any issues with obtaining your passport, she actually holds partnership events where they're typically at the libraries. However, you can come in, do your passport right on site. They take a picture on site, they submit it on site, and then it's sent to you. Pretty simple instructions. Any of her events are always posted on our website. However, if you're having any of those issues, and it could be passports, immigration, veteran affairs, any of the federal type of agencies, we have direct contact. So, yes, we do hold events. If there's any events that we feel should be held, we are always open to suggestions, and we can look into that as well.

Thank you so much.

this evening. Firstly, on June 12, 2026, the city of Cleveland Heights received three bids for project number and Mount Laurel Water Main Replacement Project and the lowest and best came from Terrace Construction Inc. in the amount of $1,422,148.74. The other two bids received were as follows, Fabrizi Trucking and Paving, $1,492,075.75 and SET Inc., $1,975,492.00. Secondly, on June 18th, 2026, the City of Cleveland Heights received bids for Project 2605, Altamont Water Main Replacement Project. The lowest and best came from Terrace Construction Inc. in the amount of $2,128,876.53. The other bidder was as following, Febreze Trucking and Paving, $2,129,899.50. And finally, I'd like to request permission to bid project 2607, which is the transfer station rehabilitation project.

So moved. Second. All right, any discussion? All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? All right, that motion passes.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Mayor. Time for the Reese report. City Administrator Michael Reese.

Okay, thank you, President Kuda, Vice President Larson, members of City Council. This is the July 6th, 2026 edition of the Reese Report. I have just four things. There was an arts facilities in Cleveland Heights tour that I participated in. This group tour was organized by Deidre McPherson, Chair of the Arts Commission. We toured public and private arts facilities. This was about two weeks ago, such as Noble Library, Roanoke Park, King Park, the Obama Theater, the Grog Shop, Disciples, Kristen Schertz, and other venues. It was very educational and helpful to me to go on that tour. We are in the midst of our human resources transition. Our new human resources director, Christina Halstead, started today. Very happy to have her here. There's been a lot to plan for. There's to ensure that we have a seamless transition and are providing Christina with the background information support she needs to do her job. Third, we talked about this during committee, the whole deer management meetings. We are really looking at this deer management issue from a regional perspective as Vice President Larson, Council Member Pasch, and I continue to participate in meetings with some of our suburban neighbors. We settled on a deer management public hearing on Tuesday, July 28th, from 6 to 8 p.m. at City Hall, where the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Cleveland Metro Parks will each make a presentation, along with providing the public with an opportunity to speak. And fourth and last, just a reminder, for the August 17th City Council meeting, I will provide a... written report to the mayor and council before that, that will make part of the packet. And I'll present that as well during the August 17th council meeting. So that's the conclusion of my report this evening.

Okay. And departmental reports. We have a public works director collect clean scale. Thank you, director.

Good evening, council president, members of council, Mayor Petras. I'm basically here to update you guys about our 2026 road program. So there's a map and this map is actually located on the city's website as well. So we're currently finishing up what we termed phase one of this year's project. And phase one consisted of Delaware Drive from Cedar Road to North Park Boulevard, Washington Boulevard from West Cottage Grove Drive to Yorkshire Road, Washington Boulevard, from Yorkshire East to Edge Hill Road, Edge Hill Road from Washington Boulevard to Woodward Road, North St. James from Cedar Road to Fairmount Boulevard, Colchester from West St. James to Parkway to Demington Road, Delwood Road from Lee to South Taylor, Sycamore Road from Lee to Ivydale, White Thorn Road from Lee to Ivydale, Ivydale Road from Mayfield Road to Euclid Heights Boulevard, Redwood Road from Lee to Superior, Belmar Road from Mayfield to Avondale, Yellowstone from Mayfield to Oak Ridge Road, Rumson Road from Newberry Road to Forest Hill Boulevard, and Maple Road from Wood to Severn. So phase one was like 35 streets. So we recently bid out phase two because we did receive some additional funding in this year's budget. And we're going to do, we bid out 10 additional streets that were just included on the map. And I'm going to back up because I didn't finish reading phase one. So we did Jeanette Road from Annisdale to Severn, Bendermere Road from South Taylor to Andrews, Bolton Road from Lee to Monticello, Oxford from Woodridge to Monticello, Oxford from Monticello to Noble, and Oxford from Noble Road to the Dead End, Bluestone from Noble Road to the city line, which is around Quarry Drive, Canterbury from East Scarborough to Fairmount, Brandon from Monticello to Northville, and Graydon from North Taylor to Noble. So I wanted to read that because sometimes folks don't, you really can't read the map. Some folks don't have the internet, so this way they'll be able to watch the meeting. So phase two, we're doing 10 additional streets, which haven't started. We anticipate that they'll start around August, the beginning of August. And those streets are Burr Bridge Road from Quilliams to Atherstone, Clifford Road from Bluestone to Plainfield, Woodward Road from Euclid Heights Boulevard to Berkshire Road, Cumberland from Mayfield to Euclid Heights Boulevard, Colonial Drive from Oak to Euclid Heights Boulevard, Compton Road from Mayfield to Euclid Heights Boulevard. Cleveland Heights Boulevard from Mayfield to Glenwood. East Overlook from Washington to Euclid Heights Boulevard. Wellington from Fairmount to Fairfax Road. and Hyde Park Road from Lee to South Compton. Now, those bids came in a little less than what we projected, so we're looking to add two additional streets onto the project, which I won't announce now because I wanna make sure that we have the funding available, but we are looking to add two additional streets that we've submitted. So, As I indicated, phase one, we're wrapping up phase one. I expect phase one to be done the beginning of August. Right now, they're like cleaning up around the ADA ramps, you know, filling in dirt. They still have striping to do, and then they'll be done with that project. And phase two is scheduled to start sometime around the beginning of August. Also connected with our road program, we're going to have our street striping program that's going to start the... last week of July, first week of August, where we'll be striping our main thoroughfares, crosswalks around school zones. That's scheduled to start in August. Now, before I wrap up, I just wanted to mention a couple of things. Sometimes we get calls and folks say, well, why aren't you doing my role? Sometimes there are issues that are related to a road that prevent us from resurfacing. For instance, we had planned to do Lee Road this year between Superior and Cedar. And we found out that East Ohio Gas is doing a pipe program, a pipe project on that street. Therefore, we had to delay doing that road repaving this year. Also, connected with the two projects that the mayor read into the record tonight, Mount Laurel and Brinkmore, as well as Altamont. Now, all three of those roads have had very low pavement scores over the last few years. However, they all needed water mains, new water mains. So we waited until we could get funding to do the water mains before we could do anything with the roadway. And just so you guys know, When we get a grant for the water project, it's just to replace the water main. We actually do the road out of the road program. So some of the funds that were awarded this year, there were funding set aside to make sure we had enough money to do those roads. And other than that, we're filling potholes. We're doing Cleveland Water Department street openings. This year we had quite a few water main breaks due to the cold weather. Just like you get a lot of potholes when there's the freeze thaw cycle, you get a lot of water main breaks when you have those conditions. So when Cleveland repairs a water main break, It's up to the city to restore the street. So we've had quite a few of those this year as well. Sometimes folks will call those as a pothole, but they're really more than a pothole. And we prioritize them according to where they're located. So we try to take care of like main streets, around schools, and we may put off side streets until later. They're not as high a priority as the main streets. So that's it for my update.

Go ahead, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President. So everyone knows that our roads needed a lot of attention and we are making a big impact this year, but it's going to be a multi-year effort. And I want to, again, thank city council for more than doubling the resurfacing budget this year. But I also want to thank director Klinkscale because just because you get more money doesn't mean that you can necessarily make it happen. Because as she explained, you need to work with the water companies, other stakeholders to make sure that they're done with their work so that you don't repave a street and then have someone tear it up. And so whenever we challenge Director Klingscale to double our resurfacing budget, she never wants complaint. She went out there, figured out how to make it happen on top of everything that she does on a day-to-day basis to run the city's department. So the city's largest department. And so I just want to thank her for her hard work.

Thank you. You know, Director Klingscale. Thank you. There is really no way to thank you enough. And I really appreciate the way the administration is working together to respond to the changes that I think people were really demanding. I mean, even before we did the survey, this was already in motion. And I think it started with you reaching out to other cities and saying, well, how much, how much repaving do you do a year and finding out that we really weren't where we needed to be budget wise. And then, you know, having this superstar right here, be able to execute all this. It's just, it's a wonderful thing. So thank you. Go ahead.

I would just like to say that you're the work you've put in is becoming very evident. Any trip I've taken lately in the city. there's new street being paved and, or road work ahead or whatever. And I think that's in all credit to you and the mayor for, and city administrator Reese for pushing those through and the time you spent on making sure that those streets that were in needed, the repairs this year were prioritized, which is what you do all the time. You prioritize streets that unless there's a water or a gas line fix. So yeah, superstar.

Thanks for the update and all the work you've been putting in. Just a clarification and sorry if I missed it, but do you have a timeline for when the phase two streets will be paved?

Phase two starts in August and our plan is to have those streets paved with, you know, by October before the asphalt plants close.

Maybe Cumberland, you might want to wait until September. I don't know. Go ahead.

Yeah, I want to add my thanks to Director Klingskepper always being so responsive. We get a lot of constituent emails and, you know, questions about the roads, and we have to sometimes defer back to you. I would ask, Director, as we go into budget season, you know, streets, you don't only... do the streets when we're replacing asphalt, but you also, your department is responsible for the snow and leaf pickup. And so I would really love to see during the budget season, you know, what can we do from a council, you know, from a financial perspective to give you the resources you need, not just for road paving contracts, but staff the equipment that you need, anything else, like really think holistically because, you know, we've talked for the last six months or so about right-sizing this and getting this back up to the level that, you know, our residents expect and that we'd like to give them. And I think that really starts in your department. So I'm looking forward to hearing how we can help you and your team be the most effective in every season, not just road paving season.

Councilwoman Stone.

I would just like to second what Councilwoman Cohen said. I think there's no higher priority than providing citizens with the daily experience of living in our city and making that a positive one. And I can tell you from being out and around the comments that I've gotten from residents about the streets in particular have really lifted the spirits of Cleveland Heights and civic pride in a way that is really wonderful to see. And I agree with you that the mayor's leadership and in requesting the increased funding and your implementation really has set a tone. And I, for one, and as Council, along with Councilman Cohn, I think it's one of our highest priorities for next year.

Thank you. Thank you.

Report of the Clerk of Council. I actually do have a brief announcement. It's a bit of a pat on my own back. But I'm honored to share that I've been elected by my fellow members of the Ohio Municipal Clerks Association to serve on the OMCA Executive Board starting in 2027. I'm grateful for the confidence and support of my peers and I look forward to contributing to the continued success of our organization. So thank you.

Congratulations. All right, it's time for public comment. I saw somebody raise their hand. That's not what you do. What you do is you go over here, you fill out a form so you can speak and it is the public comment time. This is for agenda items. Do we have anything? Yes, we have two. Okay, let's do it.

Isaac Mahaly.

All right, as you're coming up, you got three minutes and state your name and the street you live on.

My name is Isaac Mahaly. I live on 3378 Blanche Avenue, Cleveland Heights. Very good. I was here three weeks ago, and as I said, this city framed me. It is beyond reason, beyond. It just, some press could not believe his eyes. So what they did to me. And now, exactly three weeks later we come, they took my house to go and put it on nuisance abatements. That's not the revenge. That was not to put me in jail for going to Taylor Road Synagogue saying you are criminal trespasser even though I am the vice president. That was not enough. Five years ago they made up the things that I'm going to come into the city hall and kill everybody with machine gun and bomb the city hall because they wanted to take three day vacation. These are all fake. How much of a corruption can be there? And still it's just like the eyes is closed. This lady is Jewish, she took off. She didn't want to hear a word of it because she's afraid to be seen with the Jews. Oh, they are Jewish conspiracy or something. Not one of your single councilmen came to me and said, what was your story? I can't believe it. It's just they close their eyes. It's not my problem. There is huge, huge corruption in this city. Now you're talking about this asphalt. I remember back in Iran, we as a minority Jews, I was there half a century ago. There used to be a big truck used to chew the asphalt, shoot it in the back. There was a heater in the back. It would heat it, add a little bit of tar to it, And he would drop it down, and the grader, they would grade it, and they would do, let's say, Taylor Road from Cedar to Mayfield in less than a day. And this equipment was made in USA. So why? Americans, they are gone berserk. They are gone crazy. They cannot anymore produce what they produce. In Iran, they could use American equipment, but in America, they cannot use it. I don't understand it. So with that, now you understand when you said three minutes, now they brought to put my house onto nuisance abatement. That was not a revenge. Thank you.

A Snodgrass.

Excuse my attire. Good evening. When I look at this council,

I see... Name and street, please.

Yeah, so Lucia Snodgrass, and I'm in the Coventry neighborhood off of Mayfield. So when I look at this council, I see parents, I see people who are siblings of someone. I see people who take and make the ultimate sacrifice every single day to come and participate in a thankless job, a part of this democracy. I see a golfer, joking, but all seriousness, this chamber is tasked with preserving the highest possibilities that's allowed by this body, public peace, health, safety, and welfare of the people of this community. When I think about this city, A beautiful city that has brought people from around the globe, around the country, even around the state, from rural parts of our state to urban parts to wherever. We all came here somehow and for some reason. I see a beautiful city with major opportunity. When I look at reality though, tenants subject to neurological level harm, city code versus enforcement that's all over the place, Young people harmed, senior citizens harmed. I know we have some teachers, folks that were on our school board, children harmed. People wondering, you know, where is their city? Where's housing code? What is housing code? What is enforcement doing? I see people pack up and leave. I've met people who have packed up and thrown what little they had to the side of the curb because they were dealing with a slumlord and just leave. And I ask, where is strong housing code to send a message to slumlords that slumlords will not be tolerated in the city of Cleveland Heights? And so I want each of you to think about your homes, your safe housing place. Now imagine an infestation of rodents, imagine water bubbling through the ceiling, imagine sleeping in your car, showering and using the restroom in a bathroom of a gas station because you're dealing with a slumlord. Imagine conditions so bad that it impacts your everyday life to even show up here on council and show up for your families and show up for your friends and show up to the duties that you have, to show up to church or if you're a person of faith. So I want you to think about this today. Moving forward, you all, this legislative body, can make this a sanctuary city to protect tenants, to protect human beings against slumlords, against slumlords who are in other states, who do not care about this city, the architecture in this city, the history, the beauty of this city. And so I just hope you take that and create some legislation that can really protect tenants. Thank you.

Thank you, Al. All right, we have a pretty meaty, a bunch of legislation here. So we're gonna start with first readings for consideration for adoption, and then we'll do general comments afterwards or general, yeah, public comments.

I have ordinance number 135-2026 on first reading an ordinance to amend certain sub paragraphs of ordinance number 241-2025 and subsequent amending ordinances relating to appropriations and other expenditures of the city of Cleveland Heights, Ohio for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026 and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras.

All right, do we have a motion? So moved. Second. All right, it's been motioned and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes.

Next, I have resolution number 136-2026 on first reading. A resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a contract with International Code Council to assist in preparing building and housing code updates for the city of Cleveland Heights and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras. So moved. Second. Second.

All right, it's been motioned and seconded. Any comments or questions? Yes, go ahead.

The gentleman who just spoke, your remarks are timely. The legislation that we will be voting on just now is for a comprehensive study of the Cleveland Heights building code. And your concerns are echoed throughout the proposal that we have reviewed from one of the top building code authorities in the country. This is an issue that city council is thinking about deeply. As the chair of the housing committee, it's a big priority of mine. And we see you, we hear you, you'll be heard, and there will be opportunities for your experience to be added to this process where we really take a look at our code so that it serves the citizens of the city.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Any other, yes, Vice President.

Mr. Snodgrass, thank you. And as Councilor Stone said, it's timely. And I think you and I know, we've talked about the frustrations that I've had over the years with properties that have remained in a limbo because we can't, we don't have the juice and the ordinances to move it along and get repairs done, encourage those LLCs and even out of city, out of state, out of country to, repair those places where people should not have to be living because they're not safe and they're not clean. So as Councilor Stone said, we hear you and this is our opportunity to possibly make a difference. So thanks.

All right, any other comments?

Well, I just think we also need to say that this is a nine month process to kind of go through this. And I think in prior conversations, we're not going to stop what we're doing right now, waiting for this to get done. But, you know, certainly reworking our housing and building code is a huge priority of ours.

Absolutely. Councilwoman Cohen?

We did speak about this in Committee of the Whole, but just for the public, there is quite a bit of this contract that's related to community engagement and working with the public. We know that this is one of the top concerns that we receive. And so I'm looking forward to the planning department's work with the consultant should we approve this contract. to really make sure that that piece is woven throughout the work that we do to make sure the final product reflects what our community needs.

Great point. All right, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes.

Next I have resolution number 137-2026 on first reading. A resolution authorizing the mayor to accept and expend grant funds under the Cuyahoga County Board of Health for the 2026 to 2030 Lead Safe Cuyahoga Program and declaring the necessity that this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras. Second.

All right, it's been moved and seconded, yes.

I'd like to make sure that everybody here knows that this program is gonna be really important for those low to moderate income people who live in houses built before 1978 that have lead in their paint, in the woodwork, in their exteriors, in their yards. And this grant requires that the units that receive these services be occupied by a child. So it's prioritizing our children under the age of six And it also allows for a grandparent who takes that child and takes care of them for, I was told, we were told tonight 20 hours per month, we're gonna verify that. If you live in a home built before 1978, you're a grandparent, you're taking care of a below six year old child, then you can apply for this program. So keep your eyes and ears open, and I'm sure that the Housing and Building Department will make sure that this program is highlighted in the news that goes out for everybody to take advantage of when they can.

Thank you, Madam Vice President. Hearing no more comments, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes.

Next, I have resolution number 138-2026 on first reading, a resolution declaring the property at 3378 Blanche Avenue, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, to be a nuisance, authorizing abatement of the nuisance and declaring the necessity of this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras.

So moved.

Second.

All right, any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes.

Next, I have resolution number 139-2026 on first reading, a resolution confirming the appointment of Eric Zamft and Craig Cobb to three-year terms to the City of Cleveland Heights' Tax Incentive Review Council and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure. Introduced by Mayor Petras.

So moved.

Second. All right. Any discussion?

Yes. Question for the law director. This is a volunteer appointment. I'm not receiving any tax incentives. Should I be recusing myself from voting on this?

No, I don't think there's a need to recuse yourself. Okay. Thank you.

It was kind of an awkward moment, but okay. All right, anything else? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes.

Next, I have resolution number 140-2026 on first reading, a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with GPD Group for professional engineering services associated with the MLK Drive-Done Brook Culvert Predesign Study and declaring the necessity that this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras.

So moved. Second.

All right, any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes.

Next I have resolution number 141-2026 on first reading, a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute agreements with Cummins Inc and Gatto Electrical Services Inc for a replacement diesel generator at fire station number two, waiving competitive bidding and declaring the necessity that this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras. So moved. Second.

Okay, any discussion? Yes.

As we affirmed during our Committee of the Whole, this generator is due for a replacement and the Firehouse Two has been sneaking by with it. So this is for the safety of our firefighters, our first responders, and it's long overdue and it is a budgeted item. So we are gonna move forward without having a second reading. It's important.

Thank you, Madam Vice President. Any other comments? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes.

Next I have ordinance number 143-2026 on first reading, an ordinance adopting a new section 139.26 of the codified ordinances entitled additional nominal fringe benefits and public purpose expenditures and declaring the necessity that this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras. So moved.

Second. All right, any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. We have one item for first reading only.

I have ordinance number 142-2026 on first reading. An ordinance amending various sections of part 11 zoning code of the codified ordinances of the city of Cleveland Heights to permit accessory dwelling unit, ADUs. Introduced by Mayor Petrus.

All right, I think we're looking for a motion here. Thank you.

Council President, yes, I'd like to move that we refer this to the Planning Commission for its consideration.

Second. All right, any discussion? All right, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. On to second readings.

I have resolution number 131-2026 on second reading, a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into professional services agreement with DS Architecture LLC for engineering and design services for the Cumberland Pool Facility Modernization and Rehabilitation Project and declaring the necessity of this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras.

So moved. Second.

All right. Any discussion? Oh, mayor, I'm sorry. I'm everywhere.

I'd like to begin by thanking city council for passing legislation, directing us to enter into a contract with RFC contracting to be our owner's representative for the renovation or rebuild of Cumberland. The next phase is in hiring a design and engineering team. We received proposals from 12 different organizations. Each one had to put together a team that included roles like cost estimators, pool designers, civil, mechanical and structural engineers and architects with historical preservation experience. The proposals ranged from about 700,000 to about $2.3 million. We ultimately selected DS architecture. They put together a premier team. DS Architecture will lead the historic preservation of the bathhouse. Osborne Engineering, which is headquartered here in Cleveland and is over 100 years old and has done projects like Yankee Stadium, will be doing all the civil, mechanical, and structural engineering. Councilman Hunziker is the premier pool designer in the country. They will be doing that work for us. SWA Group is an industry-leading landscape architecture firm that actually did the project in Public Square. And Seventh Hill, a group that we've previously worked with, will be leading the community engagement. So DS Architecture's proposal was for $997,000, and they were willing to reduce that by nearly 10% to $913,000. And we think that that is a very good value for everything that we're getting.

I want to thank you for your leadership on this. And I have to tell you from, you know, just the organizational standpoint of, you know, getting all the tours of the. of our neighboring city facilities and offering to bring council people along to those. And, you know, just focusing on getting this done. We're gonna have a new pool in 2028. And that's a heck of a thing to accomplish in the first six months of a term.

If I could add one more thing, perhaps most importantly, the entire cost for the design and engineering is expected to fit within the budget that was passed by council at the end of the year. So this will not tap into our savings. It will fit within the 110 million that was passed by council at the end of the year.

I'm glad to hear that. Any other comments? Yes. Councilman Cohn.

I could not be more thrilled that we are moving so quickly on this. And I wanted to say that from reading the proposal, not only do we have an excellent cadre of experts that are going to be working on this, but they've already identified, you know, issues and opportunities in their proposal that are so exciting. And this is the beginning as the council, as council president, you noted, this is the beginning of getting a new pool by 2028 and could not be more excited for it.

All right, any other comments? All right, all enthusiastically in favor?

Aye.

All right, anybody opposed? That motion passes.

I have ordinance number 132-2026 on second reading an ordinance to amend certain sub paragraphs of ordinance number 241-2025 and subsequent amending ordinances relating to appropriations and other expenditures of the city of Cleveland Heights, Ohio for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026 and declaring the necessity of this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras.

So moved.

Second.

All right, any discussion?

Yes. I would like to say that the funding for this particular which is the previous legislation we just passed, we're using some unencumbered funds from fund 402. And that balance at the end of the year or beginning this year was 5,237,000 and some change. So there's the money is there for this project. And there's no question that we have the funds available without going into savings.

Thank you, Madam Vice President. Oh, Councilman Pasch.

I think it needs to be said, that this item was technically not budgeted for last year, but it's fitting inside this budget. It's essentially, it's a million dollar project. And that's pretty remarkable as far as getting a good handle on the budget, what we can do. And you're only been in this term for six months and being able to pull this off with this group, with the community involvement that you've put together is really, really remarkable. And I really wanna appreciate your leadership and just acknowledge that. Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilman. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes.

Next, I have resolution number 133-2026 on second reading, a resolution appointing an assessment equalization board to hear objections relative to the estimated assessments for a portion of the expense of street lighting within the city of Cleveland Heights and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure. Introduced by Mayor Petras. So moved.

Second. All right. Any discussion? Yes.

I'm going to ask you to do a roll call vote on this. I'm going to recuse myself because I happen to know one of these individuals and we're very close. Nothing to do with the decision-making process, but I just think it's appropriate to acknowledge that.

Okay. Cobb. Aye. Larson. Aye. DeWitt Foy.

Aye.

Kuda.

Aye.

Cohen? Aye. Stone? Aye.

Okay.

Next, I have resolution number 134-2026 on second reading. A resolution appointing an assessment equalization board to hear objections relative to the estimated assessments for a portion of the expense of improvement of streets and parkways, including grading, draining, curbing, paving, repaving, repairing, sweeping or cleaning thereof, removing snow therefrom, and planting, maintaining, and removing shade trees thereon within the city of Cleveland Heights, and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure. Introduced by Mayor Petras. So moved. Second.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? That motion passes. And now we're on to committee reports. Who would like to go first? Maybe nobody. Okay, good.

Yes, as was mentioned in Committee of the Whole, we have a vacancy for the alternate position on our Board of Zoning Appeals, and we're going to open that for applications for any interested residents. This is to fill an unexpired term ending December 31st. 2028. Experience in real estate, architecture, law, urban planning, or land use is desirable, but not required. We're going to post that in the city's email blast the next consecutive Fridays. So if you're interested, please apply by July 24th. There are currently two applications that we have on file. If you're one of those people and I'm going to reach out to you, it's not necessary for you to reapply if you're interested in being considered. If you have any questions about this position, go to the city's website and read up on what the Board of Zoning Appeals does. It basically decides appeals on zoning determinations and authorizes variances from the zoning code. But if anyone has any questions about the position, I'll be glad to chat with you. You can find my phone number on the city's website.

Thank you, Councilman.

So the City Council's Public Safety and Health Committee is going to have a meeting on July 28th, although the deer thunder had already been put out by our Chief Administrator, this is a public input session. It's two hours long. The first hour will involve ODNR and Metro Parks talking about urban deer populations. The second half is a listening session for the committee and fellow council members just to get a better sense of what our community feels about our deer population. um, it is likely going to lead to some decision that we'll need to make on if we're going to do anything to address our deer population. You know, we haven't gotten that far yet. We've done a lot of research, but this is the time where we'll be sharing information with the public, learning as much as we can, getting the feedback we need in order to make a decision. Probably I would suspect in the next 30 to 60 days. And the reason why is we are trying to do this, um, in conjunction with a regional approach, working with our neighboring cities to see how they do it and leverage some of their expertise. So.

Thank you. Councilman DeWitt-Foy.

On July 13th, during our Committee of the Whole, the Director of Parks and Recreation will join us to provide an update on projects to date this year and sort of preview some things that are coming in the second half of the year. If you have questions about the parks, recreation and open source master plan, you could bring those then that's being wrapped up as well as any other questions or concerns for the director.

Councilwoman Stone.

Also at the July 13th meeting, the housing committee will be bringing forward two items. One will be an update on the housing needs assessment study that has been underway and just recently had a public engagement session. So we'll be hearing from Director Zampf about that. We will also be discussing a more refined draft of our short-term rental legislation and for, council direction.

Thank you. Madam vice president.

Climate and environmental sustainability committee meets on Tuesday, July 21st at 4 PM. The transportation mobility committee meets Wednesday, July 29th at 7 PM. And both of those committees are getting report from the administrative liaisons about budget for 2027. So it's been an interesting process to see what those committees are looking forward to in terms of what's going to make a difference in our city next year. Thank you.

To round out the committees, July 13th, which is our next committee of the whole meeting will be continuing our discussion on the Landmark Commission revised ordinance. We just referred the ADU ordinance legislation to the planning commission to consider it at their meeting. That planning commission meeting will be July 29th at 7 PM here in council chambers. So anyone who would like to provide additional comments to the planning commission, the planning commission does have the authority to recommend changes to the ordinance that we've conveyed to them. So that would be an opportunity for the public to have input at that part of the process. And then depending planning commission, it may come back to us. We expect it to come back to us in August for further consideration. And I think that is everything I have, thank you.

All right, you're welcome. There is one more meeting tomorrow at 5.30, Councilman Cobb, who's the chair of the Administrative Service Committee will be convening a meeting with all the chairs of the citizen committees And if there's anybody out there listening that is interested in joining a committee or commission or what else is there? Boards, yeah, we got boards. Yeah, it'd be good to tune into that meeting. Again, it's 5.30 tomorrow, Administrative Services Committee. You get a good taste of all the different opportunities we have. Anything else for the good of the order? Then we'll, yes.

Oh, just, thank you. I overlooked that. I was thinking about my terrible golf score today.

Thank you. Oh, is that it? Okay. That is so self-deprecating. Okay. So it's time for general public comment.

Edgar Mitchell.

Edgar Mitchell, how many? Four, okay. The dapper, Edgar Mitchell.

Good evening, council, law director, mayor. It's always a pleasure for me to come before you guys. Even sometimes when things might not be so great, it's still nice to see you and see how things operate. And... Sometimes I forget what I'm going to say because I'm getting old. But anyway, it's great to see you guys do what you do. And I come a lot of times to learn, to listen to what's going on and to learn what's going on in the city. And to me, I really like to see what's happening because I always think about who really cares, who is willing to try to do some of the things that have to be done. And you have to listen to a lot of us, some of us with complaints and all types of stuff, because we all gonna have problems all of our lives. I should say there's never gonna be a complete peace or nothing's gonna be completely what you want it to be. Perhaps when you leave this earth, maybe, hopefully then. But anyway, that's what I just basically want to say. I want to give a word of encouragement We've had some really hot weather the last week or so. So make sure you check in on your elders and your neighbors and make sure they get hydrated and that everybody can, you know, be as comfortable as possible.

Healthy.

Thanks again and good night.

Thank you, Mr. Mitchell.

Anthony Miozzi.

I'm going to admit two things. I'm not sorry for my outfit. We're all adults. I came from work. It's just what it is. Second thing, I don't really like being here. Not that I don't want to be a part of this. I want to have everyone's opinions heard. We were just talking about democracy earlier. and freedom and civil participation, as we so call it. But one thing that's still on my mind, and I just want a quick yes or no answer real quick from anyone. I don't know who handles this. Are we reviewing flock contracts yet? There's been a lot of discussion about that. Are we doing anything? Yes. Okay, so we are reviewing it?

We are actively reviewing it.

Okay, great. That is a great step, because how are we letting a billion-dollar private company have profiles on everyone here? All of you, all of us, how are we letting them have a profile on all of us when we are very private citizens in a public space? I don't want to be tracked across city lines, even though we have apparently a closed contract, as I've heard from other people, not anyone here. We actively share our information with the Flock Network and everyone who can get into Flock. That's part of the Cleveland contract. I just wanted to make it known that I still don't like Flock and I'm pretty sure a lot of other people don't as well.

That's all I have to say. Did you say your name and the street you live on? I didn't.

I'm Anthony and I live on Meadowbrook. Okay, thank you.

Marvin Moskowitz.

Yes, I am a resident of Cleveland Heights since 1949. And I had relatives, and this is regarding the Taylor Road Synagogue situation, who were members of Taylor Road Synagogue. And I had an uncle who was very, for 20 years as a semi-officer there. Every Saturday, he was And it's gone through a rough period for the last 10, 10, 15, 20 years, 12 years, whatever. But the potential for the synagogue to make, it's holding its own at this point under a very hard duress. But if it's allowed to continue as a synagogue, the possibilities for it are still very good for the community to view as a central location for all kinds of endeavors. And even during the COVID period when you couldn't have large weddings, they were able to make some small weddings there legally. And there's a great deal of money has been poured into it for the last 15 years to update it. So I think it's a shame that they wanted to convert it into a entertainment center instead. The people who basically, majority of the membership that were involved with it were survivors of World War II. And they saw everything they had destroyed, but they came to Cleveland and they rebuilt this. There was several, about five synagogues in the old 105th Street neighborhood. They got together and built this synagogue together. And it was a point where it served all kinds of purposes for the Jewish community. And I just... but for school rooms, it had afternoon schools there, and it has provided school rooms for some of the schools, Hebrew schools that were having points where they needed additional schools. to provide their students, and it provided that. And it had a day camp, school camps during the winter, summer times, and you know, And the most recently it had a gymnasium that was being used for gymnastics for the, that was doing great work. And they had a colal for the, which was a study center for the synagogue, the collierium. Sorry, we got to wrap it up. So the possibility for it to continue in those endeavors still has a very strong potential and should not be, if it becomes an entertainment center solely, that will all be wiped out. Thank you. Thank you.

Cynthia Trotta.

Good evening, President Kuda, Mayor Petras, members of council, Cynthia Trotta. I live on self-overlook. I'm here today because I support advancing ordinance 142-2026 because ADUs can help residents solve real family housing needs while strengthening our existing neighborhoods. I'm especially thinking about families caring for aging parents or for a loved one who is ill, disabled, or temporarily needs support. In those situations, time matters. Families are often making decisions under pressure while also trying to preserve dignity, independence, and safety. That's why I appreciated the city's ADU design competition. My understanding is that one purpose of that effort was to make ADUs more practical and replicable so that residents would not have to start from scratch every time an urgent family need arises. But if every compliant ADU still requires a conditional use process, we lose much of that speed and predictability. I also want to repeat a point raised two weeks ago within council, a homeowner can build a home addition for an aging parent or ill family member, assuming it meets zoning and building code without going through a conditional use process. But that same family need is met through, if that same family need is met through a small code compliant ADU with a kitchenette and separate entrance, the draft appears to require conditional use approval. I appreciate the guardrails already in the proposal. One ADU per unit, owner occupancy, size limits, height limits, setbacks, side or rear placement, design compatibility, and review of parking, landscaping, and stormwater issues. So my request is simple. Please make ADUs administratively or by right approvable when they meet the objective standards in section 1121.13. Reserve that conditional use for exceptions, unusual lots, or requests that don't meet the standards. Please move this forward, but make the rules protective, predictable and usable. ADUs can help Cleveland Heights support aging in place, family caregiving, modest new housing and reinvestment in our housing stock without changing the character of our neighborhoods. And I have 46 seconds to share with you a story, an observation I heard this last week. A person who first heard about ADUs, first response was swipe left, can't afford it. Then she came to the June 2nd meeting and began thinking, wait a minute, my house right now, we're undergoing expensive chimney repair, expensive roofing repair. There goes the kitchen, there goes the bathroom. We're not upgrading those because of those costs. But wait a minute, if one of my three kids chooses to return to Cleveland Heights and pays enough for our property to pay for an ADU and those upgrades, we all win. We have a place to stay. We get to stay in our beloved community. They get a house they can afford, and we have housing stock that's updated. So I urge you to reconsider the conditional use, but grateful that you're moving forward overall. Thank you very much.

That was a perfect three minutes. All right. Is that it? All right. Thank you all for coming in and sharing. Those of you who shared your feelings with us, we appreciate that as always. And I'm assuming Cynthia came later because, okay.

I did not realize that. I think I misread your comment. My apologies.

Oops. But thanks for staying. Okay. Old business. New business. Okay. Council member comments.

Council member comments. Karen Kniddle already left, but I have worked with Karen for over a decade. In fact, I've never stayed at a regular job for that long. So I've actually, Karen's been a colleague because of my work on the planning commission for longer than any other professional colleague. And I just wanted to reiterate what knowledge and expertise she has given to the city over the many, many years. And she is the most understated person person she would never, you would never know, but she has really moved our city in just an incredibly positive direction of all the work that she did. And I just wanted to publicly acknowledge her and thank her for all of the work that we've done together and all of her service to the city.

She's very special. Other council comments? Wow. Well, then it comes to me. Council President's report. I really don't have anything to report. I'd just like to say, I feel really, since this is our last council meeting until August 17th, our last regular meeting, how great it's been, you know, first six months, first half of the year, I feel great about what we've been able to accomplish together. I really appreciate my colleagues, you know, the collegiality, the cooperation, the collaboration that we share. There will never be a day when I will take this for granted. And I really appreciate all of you and all of you for coming. And this meeting is adjourned at 8.43.