City Council - Regular Meeting

13th, 2026 at 6 p.m. This is the Committee of the Whole Meeting. And Andy, would you please call the roll at 6.02?

Cobb? Here. Larson? Here. Posh? Here. DeWitt-Foy?

Here.

Cohen? Here. Kuda?

Here.

Stone? Here.

All right. So we are RIGHT NOW WE'RE GOING TO START WITH LEGISLATIVE REVIEW. AND SO THESE ARE THE FIRST SEVERAL, OUR FIRST READINGS WITH CONSIDERATION FOR ADOPTION. THIS EVENING, FIRST ONE IS 144-2026, A REVOLUTION APPOINTING NAT HALDEN AS A MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS. NAT IS CURRENTLY AN ALTERNATE.

I anticipate that our at our next committee of the whole will have an executive session to discuss.

I think there may be 2 or 3. All right.

Very good. Any questions or discussion on it? All right. 145 resolution.

I support this legislation. I'd just like to get if somebody can tell me perhaps what the enhanced crosswalk that's going to be installed at Mayfield-Mornsville Road is going to look like. Anybody can give me a brief description?

Yeah, I can handle that. So this is just a broader picture. It's a collaboration between the three cities, South Euclid, University Heights, and Cleveland Heights. And so this is and showers from the three communities, South Euclid and Cleveland Heights share the crosswalk at Warrensville and Mayfield. And so it's just taking that sort of typical zebra crosswalk and improving ADA better access across there making it a much more visible

Are you going to perhaps put more lines in the crosswalk itself or add some lighting or anything that would be beyond what we normally do to the paint?

It'll be mostly paint and some improvements to the crosswalk or the

Thank you, Director Zamp.

Director Zamp, I know this is for 2027. Do we have any idea? I know it's reimbursable, but do we know the amount that we have to fund for this?

Hopefully, it'll be zero that we have to fund. It's essentially only if it goes above what the cost estimate is, and we don't anticipate it going above that.

All right. Anybody else? All right. On to 146. OF THE ASSESSMENT EQUALIZATION BOARD APPOINTED TO HEAR OBJECTIONS TO THE ESTIMATED ASSESSMENTS FOR A PORTION OF THE EXPENSIVE STREET LIGHTING WITHIN THE CITY OF CLEVELAND HEIGHTS. partnership running some wireless for students.

Chris, were you working on this? Yes, but I can't speak to the general. It is in line with the city's current contract. That's all I wanted to say. It seemed like with the addition of the SIM cards, I didn't know if it was some large expense.

I can add to that, Councilman. Verizon is the carrier we've been using for years. we can have access to their federal pricing.

Thank you. All right, 156, a resolution memorializing Council's approval of a use variance concerning the property at 2536 Noble. Pursuant to Section 1115.07 of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Cleveland Heights, as described in PZA calendar number 36598. So this is the barbershop that's moving on Noble. Questions?

The urgency to pass this tonight is,

So the urgency question, do you want to take that?

Yeah, so you have a deadline to respond within 45 days of the Board of Zoning Appeals hearing. So since that occurred on July 15th, that 45-day window would be September 6th. So that's the urgency to do it as an emergency measure.

break would be to schedule things accordingly. So in other words, I think the better thing to have done was to schedule it for August. So that way, the 45 window and everything moves down. You know, it's not the biggest deal in the world. But as I look down here, I don't see, you know, reading through this, and you know, there is a narrative, but I don't see what funds are involved here. From 2023, I

There are no funds.

Okay, so it says if funding is required, and then I'm just reading under no funds will be coming from previously encumbered funds from 2023 requiring a budget amendment to transfer those funds to this specific vendor. Am I on the wrong? Yeah, okay. So what does that mean?

I think that was a scripter's error for the...

It was an accident.

I was going to say that and I was going to say that this is just an approval of a use that's already been approved by BCA.

Mr. President, are they often running right now in this location?

Have the neighbors been notified that that's what's going to happen in that building?

The neighbors were notified as part of the Board of Zoning Appeals hearing. And the Board, in their review of it, they found that there would be no adverse effect for the variance on adjacent property.

And the property transferred in 2024 to Mr. Howard, the point of sale that was done at that time, is everything in compliance with that point of sale? Yeah. And the lead, lead safety compliance as well since it was built in 1924.

Yes.

So that's why you did the windows and everything. Excuse me. Is that why you did the window replacements because of the lead?

No, I didn't do the window replacement because of the lead. I did the window replacement because, you know, something about me being in the business like for 36 years, and I've been in Cleveland Heights operating for 36 years. And it's just like when you have like small windows, right, you That's my reason for doing that.

I'd assume you're Mr. Howard. Are you Mr. Howard? Yes. Nice to meet you, sir. Nice to meet you, too.

I'm sorry. Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't want to belabor this, but again, you know, when I'm reading through the whereas clauses, and they said, you know, they say, you know, council meeting, the public was given the opportunity to provide comment, you know, whereas during the August 17 meeting, that, and it is August 17th, you know, that's not a lot of reflection. Mr. President?

Yeah, go ahead. You know, I'm okay approving this as quickly as we possibly can. I mean, it's already gone through a BZA process, and I know how residents can get anxious on whether it's going to get approved or not. I think it would be a good sign. We really don't have any other objections that we do get this done tonight.

Very good. On to first readings only. 151. An ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute an intergovernmental agreement with the City of East Cleveland to facilitate completion of the Taylor Road Corridor Project and clearing this legislation in emergency. Mr. Mayor, do you want to comment on this?

If I could pass it to Director Zan.

to do design services for the Taylor Road TLCI project, as you mentioned. Then, we'll mention again tonight, there are also the U.J.C. City of East Cleveland. The law department directly identified at that time that when work is being done for us in another municipality, that there's an interim FULL AGREEMENT FOR TONIGHT FOR YOUR FIRST READING. THAT HOPEFULLY CAN LINE UP WITH A SECOND READING IN SEPTEMBER. AND THEN THERE, WE'LL HAVE THEIR TWO READINGS AROUND THAT SAME TIME. AND THAT WILL ALLOW REGENT TO START WORKING ON THIS PROJECT.

ANYTHING ELSE? YES, GO AHEAD.

YES, I HAVE A QUESTION. WE TALKED ABOUT THIS PREVIOUSLY, I BELIEVE, AND DIRECTOR ZAMPS, YOU HAD SAID THAT WE APPROVE THE FUNDING BUT WE STILL COUNCIL STILL HAS THE OPPORTUNITY TO DECIDE WHICH OPTION WE'RE GOING TO MOVE FORWARD FOR TAYLOR ROAD I UNDERSTAND THIS IS ONLY THE INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT BUT WE ARE IN THE TIMELINE DO WE WORK WITH THE ADMINISTRATION TO GIVE OUR

WITH DISCUSSIONS AS WELL.

OKAY, THAT'S ALL I WANTED TO KNOW. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

ALL RIGHT, I'M GOING TO MOVE ON TO 152, A RESOLUTION WE WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS. DID THAT GET RESOLVED? YEAH. IT WAS A COUPLE MONTHS AGO.

WE LEASED IT FROM CLEVELAND. AND PER THE LEASE,

for Director Hanna, but just where we are in the legislative process. I have thought that we had either at this had been introduced or we had approved something related to this already, but this is on just first reading. Can somebody just orient me to where we are now that we've been gone for a little bit on this one?

Yeah, this is on first reading. To my knowledge, the here for the prior discussion with maps. I don't think that was legislative.

I think we just talked about it. I don't believe there was legislation related to it. Just to add some.

It was just Director Klingscale was here and we did have a discussion, but that was not related. This is the legislation that's the result of that discussion. Is that correct?

Yeah, the Center for Design.

All right 153 a resolution offers community cost share agreement with northeast mohawk uh regional sewer district to fund an exploratory investigation of outfall Is this the one that's making that area smell so bad?

It's a collapsed pipe.

Yes.

Any other questions? All right. On to 154, a resolution authorizing mayor to enter into a community cost share agreement with Surry District to fund citywide catch basin projects.

You know, our infrastructure is aging. So we have over 4000 catch basins in the city. And it's just, you know, we have to do more, we probably didn't around it will be excavated, brick, bricked up, reset and cemented in with new curves.

You're selecting them on the basis of their condition or is there a specific area?

Oh, it's it's citywide. Yeah, it's gonna be everybody's gonna get a taste of it.

I don't visualize

All right. 154 resolution authorizing mayor entered to a community cost share agreement. Oh, is this the one? Sorry about that. 155, an ordinance amending Chapter 143, Landmark Commission of the Codified Ordinances of Cleveland Heights and repealing the prior version. So this is something we talked about in some detail. Go ahead.

Yeah, I could just give a brief overview. As the President said, we've been talking about this for a while, but for the general public, Being a 100 year plus old community, we have lots of really great historic homes. Cleveland Heights has taken that pride, being one of those communities that have a landmarks commission, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary. But that doesn't mean that our codes were always in alignment with what the Secretary of Interior standards said. So after achieving certified local government status in 2019 with the state, there's sort of a process that you follow about design guidelines, and then eventually work on updating your ordinance. So in advance of that, the Landmark Commission City Council brought out mail enrollment to help look at landmark ordinance, there were a number of community meetings around that. And then most recently, this WHICH IS NOW TO BE OUT THERE FOR PEOPLE TO REVIEW. WE DO HAVE A WEBSITE WEBPAGE DEDICATED SO PEOPLE CAN SEE ALL THE INFORMATION, INCLUDING THE VARIOUS PUBLIC MEETINGS. AND I ENCOURAGE YOU TO VIEW THAT.

THE CHANGES THAT WE TALKED ABOUT ARE ALL INCORPORATED IN THIS LEGISLATION, RIGHT? CORRECT.

ALL RIGHT.

THANK YOU.

ALL RIGHT. ON TO 157. TANNER INTO AGREEMENTS WITH BEST EQUIPMENT COMPANY AND CLASSIC FORD MENTOR FOR THE ACQUISITION OF THE LOADMASTER ELITE WORKS. I READ THE WHEREAS CLAUSES IN THE LEGISLATION. I UNDERSTAND WE DID WHAT WE NEEDED TO DO TO SET THIS PURCHASE UP. WHAT I DON'T KNOW FROM THIS IS WHY WE NEED THIS.

hacker and then it will assist with our resident assisted trash pickup. Right now we have one that does all the trash on a route that has to empty and then it does all the recycling. So in this way, we'll have one do trash, one do recycling in a route. We're getting more and more residents applying and being eligible to get this. So it's a good

doing public pickups of garbage cans on streets.

All right. And then 160, a resolution accepting the recommendations of the Tax Incentive Review Council concerning community reinvestment.

Questions comments on this is the revised development agreement that you alluded to adding. No, no, that's the one that's on 2nd reading for 123.

So, just to be quick, just to be clear, we are not making any changes. And the current system is that correct?

for the CRA?

Yeah, yeah, that's not. Yeah, nothing's changing here.

Right. Councilman Cobb, yeah, any changes would make to the CRA is going to be a very long public process. This is our state and Director Hannah can speak to it more if you'd like, but this is the state requirement. As a result of like, are having an operational CRA program. There was the housing council that was

I would like to note that we are reviewing the CRA program to see whether that currently fits our city. So folks have pulled together a lot of data that we're considering right now so that we can make a judgment on that and then come to you.

And I recall the seven of us coming across something in some other legislation and saying, this needs to be reviewed. I'm glad the administration's doing it, but I think council was also talking about this.

I mean, I feel like this periodically comes up, folks who wonder, okay, should we have abatement? So, we're trying to understand, is the current structure appropriate for what we want to incentivize? And so, we look forward to bringing an update provision in there yeah so we want to be sensitive to people who are planning projects and we don't want to just adopt something totally different that messes with people's plans and so we have talked about ways that we might be able to soften that maybe it's the case that we could offer you know someone the opportunity to choose from one either at the existing one or the new one if they would like or other ideas to sort of avoid a scenario where we have

I just want to add one more thing here, and I appreciate the administration looking into it. This has been one of my legislative priorities since getting elected because this program, the gross tax incentive program, has not been updated since, I think, 2018. And so much has changed. And I want to just say thank you to the administration. One of the issues, the basic issues we had was that folks were applying for permits and not knowing that they qualified for the program. and the administration has fixed that so at least residents know what's available to them. And so this is a really important step forward in just continuing to update our code and what benefits are available to residents for continuing to improve their property in the city.

Thank you, Councilwoman. I'm sorry. Ryan, is there anything else that you wanted to add on that?

Just in regard

All right. Our only second reading, this is 123, an ordinance declaring improvements to a certain parcel within the City of Cleveland Heights, well, the Alcazar, and exempting the improvements to such parcel from real property taxation for a period of 30 years, requiring the owners of such parcels to make service payments in lieu of taxes.

Yeah, Brian, did you want to speak to the small revision that you said earlier this afternoon to the actual agreement? So the

is different. There were a couple of items that we went back and forth with on them. And it's really just cleaning up language. You know, in terms of a couple of items, but does not change any of the terms or basics of the agreement.

All right, comments,

You would just maybe 1 or 2 of those changes, Brian, so we can look at them in the document as it stands right now. Sorry, tell us which sections might have been modified at least 1 or 2 of them. So we can get an idea of. What was the general incentive or to get attention?

Like, for example, in the section that we were talking about with the rent moderation. Yeah, it's just.

meeting us halfway. Really appreciate that. And I guess I just want to say to my council members that and this is not specific to the TIF, but just in general, when people come to us and they say developers or in this case a property and they're asking for something, I want you to know that it is my policy to look at everything. And I'm not pushing this on anybody else, but I will always That might be in the best interest of our city, or, you know, the people directly involved. And I will, I personally will never do it gratuitously. Now, if we're going to do this for you, you've got to do something. It's not that. It's just sometimes in a specific instance, there are things that I feel I need to consider. And I would like to certainly that's open to every person on council and I just want to. make it clear that this extends to every agreement that's what we're being asked to contribute something of substance.

Yes. Mr. President, might we be able to talk about the elevator legislation?

Yeah, I just got a couple more things to read and then we're in business. Yeah, this is for adoption. Second reading. Unless there's an objection. And by the way, any legislation, if anybody feels like, you know, tonight's not the night, you know, this is the place to bring it up.

Well, I mean, we just got this at 510. And I feel compelled. And I believe we have a staff recommendation.

posted in the one tonight are the very small non-substantive changes. It was already updated to reflect that percent change that we talked about.

Okay, that's good. Okay.

The consent agenda 158, a resolution in joining communities throughout the nation in proclamation of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and 159 is resolution recognizing September 26.

Thank you, Mr. President. As some folks know, the elevator at City Hall is out of service. There was a fire that was pretty damaging. It's the administration's understanding that we have the authority to move ahead with repairs and to request that council approve those repairs by motion. I instead felt have about the legislation. We went out and received a number of bids and we selected Gable, which was the lowest embed, best bid,

So, Mayor, if I might, sorry for interrupting, Mr. President. In speaking with Public Works, we are, I think this may be called out in the memo, which you haven't seen yet, which Virginia is finalizing. We are waiting for an engineer's report pursuant to an engineer that was sent out by the insurance company. that we're feeling is that if there's a possibility to tack this on to a special meeting when council is together again, if a small, short, special meeting could be tacked on, we're gonna try to track that information down, see what the status and timetable for that engineer's report is and whether it has any impact on the city's ability to receive insurance proceeds. hold. Oh, yeah. And then you'll have the entire package ahead of time. And we'll know the answer to that question.

And the reason the amount was left off here, because it's somewhere that I think that's, I think that's why.

Yeah. Sorry.

Yeah, go ahead. Sorry for that.

There you go.

so um you know this always you know sometimes things like this open up other questions i i think that uh elevator maintenance and in this case replacing an elevator it just you know i know we we have a contract for elevator maintenance but in terms of when we've had to maintain i'm talking about the past before you were mayor mayor um you know it's it's just been No timeline, no strategy, no overall maintenance money put aside. I really strongly suggest that when you look at this budget, that before we pass a budget, that we have a strategy We are voting on a budget that we have a context to put in what needs to be done in the next year, in the short term. I consider that the short term and then beyond. And I know it's on your radar. I'm not saying this is a revelation, but it is an ongoing problem.

And I'm glad that you said that because I couldn't agree more. We have a real elevator maintenance problem in our city. actual strategy so that we are not just responding one-off. And so the staff has been working on that so that we can have a singular organization that can service all of them whenever it's appropriate.

Thank you. Somebody else had their hand up?

Well, I was just going to mention the finance committee, the last, with our former long-term capital plan and with the new administration we know the administration's on when you were sitting on council with us jim we asked for this over and over again and it was never worked on i've got confidence that you got the right people in the seats to get it done but what you're asking for tony it's going to take a long time to to accomplish we're not going to be able to have it in our hands this november i know and it's um

And I will preemptively say I'm going to be a little bit nervous about the maintenance budget, just in the sense of not really knowing where we're headed. But hopefully by that time, you know, when we're talking about it in November and we're having actual budget hearings, we'll know a little bit more.

I couldn't agree more that we need a long-term capital plan, and it's certainly a goal of mine.

in company and responsible for the contracts and maintenance contracts on those elevators, they should be reporting back to periodically. So you know, heads up if something's coming, that's going to have to be repaired. Because it's like, even with the maintenance contracts we had, we had elevator sitting down for months and years. I like the idea of going to one company that really knows what these mechanisms require and, and update someone necessary as well.

Michael and Joe,

that that elevator company will let us know when how they come out monthly quarterly yearly and a report for each one of those so we'll know what's going on with each elevator but we're doing the same thing with our hvac to all our air conditioning units throughout the city

I have a quick question on that. This is for not just City Hall. I know you just said the HVAC is across the city, but this is also for the fire stations, right? Like all the buildings, all city-owned.

Citywide. Yes. This elevator is just as well as wheelchair lifts. We have a couple of those.

All right. So we're going to go on to the finance section. The resolution approving the report of the assessment equalization board appointed to your objections to the estimated assessments for portion of the expense of street lighting within the city of heights. Well, let's start there correct?

Mr. President and. um rishan is going to give the rest of the process but in essence we've got four pieces of legislation two and two they're identical except for the fund we had the equalization board addy hits at one o'clock today they provided their report and he has sent out the report there were three people that came To express concerns, and a lot of them were more general in nature versus specifically what the board was able to look at was, was the calculation done correctly for their property? In all three of those cases, it was. They had other concerns that I've taken notes and maybe talk with other departments to see if we could get some of those rectified. And on that report, all 3 of the requests were rejected. So, this 1, as you stated for. 4626 is specifically for the street lighting one and if you recall that was at the 92 cents a foot and that isn't changing

Good evening, everyone. Just to provide some background on how we all started the process and where we are today. The city street lighting and tree special assessments are set to expire at the end of this year. It must be renewed to continue funding these services. These particular assessments pay for the electric costs associated with the street lighting, as well as the forestry department salaries, maintenance, planning of trees. The assessment is charged based on the amount of frontage a property has on the city-owned street. The current assessment rates are 92 cents per front foot for the street lighting and $1.08 per front foot for the tree assessment with a total current rate of $2. The assessments in general have been in place for over 40 years. The last adjustment occurred in 2014 when the combined rate increased from $1.80 to $2 per front foot. As a part of the renewal process, finance evaluated the financial condition of both funds. The street lighting fund is projected to remain viable at its current revenue level, and the tree fund was experiencing a situation where the expenses were outpacing the revenues. And so without an adjustment, we're looking to be at a deficit by 2028. Based on that analysis, as Joe mentioned, we recommend that the street lighting fund stay current at 92 cents and that the tree assessment be increased from $1.08 to $1.68. Actions taken to date on June 1st, Council adopted Resolutions 100 and 101, Resolutions of Necessity, ASSESSMENT RENEWAL PROCESS AT THE RECOMMENDED RATES. PROPERTY OWNERS WERE NOTIFIED OF THE PROPOSED ASSESSMENTS AND GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO FILE OBJECTIONS. AS JOE MENTIONED, TODAY WE HAD THREE HEARINGS. THE BOARD RECOMMENDED TO, WHAT WAS IT?

Opposed the appeal.

Yes, opposed the appeal. And so a copy of that report is included in tonight's legislation for consideration of action. And you also have legislation requesting that the assessment ordinance proceed on the first reading in order to meet the county's deadline of September 14th.

I just want to say I appreciate getting this letter today that described what happened in the committee today or the BCH or the assessment meeting today because we always sit and wonder are there any objections and most of the time there aren't any. So it would have to be some people that came forward and they were able to be heard and then the group made its decision. It's really important. So thank you for letting us know how that all went. You're welcome.

On the street lighting, is this a Right, none of the streetlights are at least the ones in Cleveland Heights are on meter to count.

So, yeah, it's a lump sum per. Ironically, if the.

Like, doesn't work, we're paying, we still paid my question. So I. I know I have, you know, I have logged issues or outlights and not seen any action for months. I've heard complaints, you know, from residents about that.

So maybe that's something we can... Councilman, get that info to us. We had a resident came in and complained about it, and we bird dog, and she's a bulldog, this resident, and between her and us, we've gotten some action. What street is that?

I know Washington Boulevard. THERE'S DOZENS OF THEM.

I'M GOING TO REGRET ASKING IT AGAIN. FROM WHERE THE DRIVEWAY IS COMING OUT OF MARKS TO MAYBE THREE STREETS UP HEADED EAST, I THINK THERE'S FIVE OR

of the outstanding request. We also got a concession out of them on a related topic. Some people were talking about lights being too bright. They are willing to install 3,000K lights. They are going to use the remainder of their supply, but have agreed to use 3,000K going forward. And they have also explained to us that residents, if they would like, they can request that a shield be installed. There is a nominal cost that comes with that. But those are three things that we've recently discussed with them.

Great. Thanks, Shana.

What happened to what Boyd brought up was exactly what I was hoping to discuss a little bit. And I guess my question for the administration is, do we, residents will proactively report lights that are out, but are we monitoring it or would we want residents like to put out an all call to say, if there's a street light out on your street, let us know so we can have a better idea. I guess, how do you know

So we could certainly include something in the newsletter, for example, that would alert people of the process. There's a unique identifier on each of the polls that someone could take and report to First Energy. We could certainly include that in the newsletter. With regard to work that we are doing.

Coms has done that.

Okay. And we could certainly do that again if it would be helpful. lots that have little and in one case no lights on and so we are actively working on that and so folks are welcome to self-report to first energy that's that's great thank you mayor and i think it's also helpful for us to know

as counsel directing residents to the Mayor's Action Center to put that in. And if there is space in the newsletter, I think that would be helpful to continue that periodically just to remind folks. And we get new residents, right, who don't know necessarily how to report these things.

completed a process where we have identified all of those. So, you know, resident is welcome to reach out to us, but we just completed a process where, with the police help, we went through all of the city on flights and identify what you need to be repaired.

And just so, you know, time, does. Report these when, when, when people use the mayor's action center, he does report directly to. and keep a log of that. Now, I don't know if he keeps a log of the actual finish line, but I know he has the intake log of complaints. I have one question and then a comment. Director Brzezinski? Yes, sir. So 2014 was the last time these rates were changed. So is there a way to anticipate change will last?

2031. Okay.

And the assessment equalization board, that's pretty esoteric thing for residents to go, oh, I should have showed up there. Is there any reason why, you know, now that this is legislation that was published this week, is there any reason why we cannot vote on this on September 8th?

We have a deadline to get into the county.

Right. It's September 14th.

Right. Nobody else could object. The process is done. Oh, I didn't realize that that was what we send out certified letters mailers. We then take the ones put them on our website and the objection process has been closed for a while. The meeting. That's why the meeting was today. That's why we got in front of you guys tonight.

ANYBODY ELSE? YES.

I THOUGHT A VERY COMPLETE MEMO ABOUT THE STREET LIGHTING AND

We might delve in with the law department. This is the language that has been used in the past. The fund is strictly used for forestry.

No, no, I'm now looking at 149, 2026 resolution. This is about the assessment for the streets.

This is to proceed off the street assessment or off the forestry assessment piece of legislation, which is in 148th. 148 accepts the second half of the report it's kind of tough because it's one objection but it was for both this is the second half piece of that in 148 and 149 is council telling us proceed get the list of the county to make sure they got everything in a row etc all right thank you you're welcome

I've got November 4th, which is a Wednesday, November 5th, which is a Thursday, and November 6th, Friday. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the first day, and then 10.30 to 1.30.

And this is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday?

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

That's what we had before. That has not changed.

We're doing just three days. So we've got the just kind of overall budget and then the finance department, mayor's office, law department, human resources, city council and municipal court, first day. Police, fire, community relations, information technology, the second day, public works, planning.

I have a question about just what comes before that.

Obviously, those will be the hearings.

Does the administration have a schedule for us of when we'll be receiving the budget book and when we can ask questions or what review time we'll have on that?

So it's due November 1st. And then, Mayor, you can.

So we. And internally, we have identified things for each department to include in their drafted budgets. They're expected to submit those drafted budgets to the finance department before the end of the month. And then early September, there are going to be working meetings with them so that we can settle on back to that, you know, there could be a chance while in previous years, there was never advanced notice of what was in the budget. You know, maybe it's the case that we could do that so that we can sort of preview that for folks so that you could get a sense for what we've included in all the hard work that we've taken to try to incorporate council member, you know, desires in there. But as of right now, I don't have something specific to offer.

But would you say chances are pretty good that we'll get it before November 1?

I suspect that we will over 31 that is before November 1st and this Sunday. Yeah. Yeah. So, yes.

So, I know you have the, the requirement to have this done century. 10 o'clock on november 4th i don't mean like 9 58 or giving it to as you're walking as you're in the middle of the conversation that would be incredibly helpful like that's happened before oh i've never seen this administration you know councilman are you talking to am or p I have a lot of faith in this administration, not so much the old 1. It would be great if we could have it at least the night before, just so we can come in better prepared. And that means that we need to run quicker and more efficient. Absolutely. So we'll make sure the pages are cool.

I do want to I do want to say that. Council did vote last year to move it up 15 days and I'm glad we did. So we actually have some built in breathing room, not required by the state, mind you, but good for us. And I think the timeline, I mean, knock on wood, the hearing started last year thanks to you and andy well i mean thanks to i mean sharing doing this and all those people yeah i mean it was every shot you were wonderful i mean yeah it was really it was very helpful yeah we have um we have a half an hour left and a couple of things counselor pasha we have a finance meeting on the 24th so we can ask about things like All right, so we're going to talk about council rules for how about 15 to 20 minutes.

Okay. Everybody got the revised edition that was attached to the packet for the council, the committee, the whole. And I'd like to, first of all, FINALLY TUNE THE TITLE OF THIS DOCUMENT BECAUSE I HEARD THAT THERE WERE OBJECTIONS TO THE WORD RULES LAST TIME WE DISCUSSED THIS. SO WOULD IT BE PRECIABLE TO EVERYONE IF WE DROPPED OFF THE WORD RULES AND JUST SAID COUNCIL CODE AND CONDUCT?

All those are fine by me.

I just want to make sure that when people see the title that we have not obscured the meeting. That's where I draw the line when you change a word and it obscures the meeting. If it sharpens the meaning of what it is for.

I am happy either way. I really don't have a strong preference on this. So whatever the rest of my colleagues prefer. Councilor Cobb.

I'm fine with it. I don't plan on violating any of them, regardless of what they're called.

I'm going to put code of conduct on the title, period. All right. Then we left. FOR DISCUSSION WAS I BELIEVE COMPLIANCE WITH LEGISLATIVE PROCESSES. DOES ANYBODY HAVE ANYTHING THEY WANT TO SAY ABOUT THAT PARTICULAR? and i've changed the words that we wanted corrected or revised are in red already until you get down to um where i think we left off which was a continued we talked about professional development we did not talk about attendance requirements yeah okay i see i see what you're doing you want to you want to move on to what we have not discussed at all yes somebody's got

were those changes are reflection of what our discussion was already did here the council procedures did we actually settle on the council president making as opposed to okay and all right so continue wait i'm sorry attendance requirements attendance requirements at that umbrella, we should definitely include that. Because I think I'm guessing that what we don't want is people using virtual when it's unnecessary. You know, that it's desired, you know, in person is desired and we could say required some percentage or I don't know.

Situation where a council member has got an illness or and right now we don't have any council members that are in the reserves, but there's also a state statute that I think. Well, we have somebody who recognizes that you can't take any punitive actions and recently what there was a school district. rules are looking forward, I think we do need to allow for that. Or if someone has got a serious illness or something, there has to be a provision. We have to recognize there may be circumstances that unless we are going to be so rigid that if you do miss meetings, then you subject to discipline.

That's a tricky one because I understand that, you know, when you're called up to duty, you're required to serve and you're serving your country, but then you don't serve the city's citizens either. So how,

Any thoughts on that?

I agree with you. I haven't researched that question specifically with regard to the reach of USARA, but I suspect it could come out that way. And I think it's an issue that this council hasn't yet needed to confront. And, you know, right now you have a requirement for council members of conduct are expected to attend scheduled regular or special committee of the meeting, committee of the whole meetings or regular council meetings. If you don't put in a specific automatic penalty, I think you have substantially more leeway and I think that your suggestion about providing a qualifier for good cause Should allow the council to deal with that issue should arise.

Could we add that statement? Like, if we said, I'm just using an example here, because I left the number of meetings missed plank intentionally. But let's say we say, if members miss 5 regular meetings, I'm not talking about all the committee meetings and all the meeting, the whole special regular meetings. In one year, they may be subject to a penalty as determined by the Council President, unless there is good cause. Would that be a good place to insert that statement? And then not define what good cause is, but leave it broad?

You could do that there as well, sure.

Would that be okay, Councilman Cobb?

Yes. and unexcused absences. And the question always becomes, well, what's excused and who makes that decision? I mean, I think in this case, it's the council making a decision to have a framework in advance that provides, you know, the rigor and the flexibility that you want.

I have a real hard time with the second paragraph. I mean, if we're, if we're including things like budget hearings, I would say a budget hearing is probably more later on tonight at 730. And we're counting those other meetings. I mean, there's a whole host of other work that we do besides the official meetings, besides the regular meeting. I think there needs to be a little leeway here, especially if you have a council member that gets elected. They've got a real job. I heard a lot when I first got on this council that, well, this is a part-time job. But it was also a lot of requirements when I got on where these meetings, I mean, meetings were happening during the day. We had special meetings here. We had special meetings there. And I get that. And that's done out of the convenience for staff. I mean, there's a whole lot of reasons why those kinds of things happen. I feel like I was excluded from some of the budget hearings when I got on, not recently. But I don't want someone to feel that way and then get countered against them when everybody knew upfront that that was just a non that the meetings, the meeting times were not going to work. I like the idea of using the word expected here. I do like council member cops sort of escape clause within reason. If you're looking for some kind of penalty, if someone is eventually. council needs to have, maybe as part of the discipline process, an ability to essentially fight the thought that they didn't attend enough meetings. If I, for example, missed five meetings, I should be called under the rug and explain myself, okay? And maybe it's a good explanation, and that probably should be public. But to actually have a hard penalty, I don't feel comfortable with that.

If someone misses a meeting or has to miss a meeting, the main harm in that is taking their voice out of the room.

There is certainly harm in that, but I think when we're essentially hired for four-year terms and when and if that person runs again, they may be judged on that record.

I don't personally see the need to attach a rule around attendance.

there could be a statement saying that in-person attendance is preferred over virtual attendance, which should be approved by the president in advance for good cause. So that gets around the, I just feel like staying home and I don't have a council meeting.

Or even something, whatever possible.

Well, can I, I'm sorry, Councilman, that's a wrap, isn't it?

I JUST WANTED TO CHIME IN ON THE VIRTUAL PIECE. VIRTUALLY.

VIRTUALLY FROM A DIFFERENT STATE AND A DIFFERENT TIME ZONE. NO, I AGREE, JUST PRIOR, I AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY WITH COUNCILMAN DEWITT-FOY ON HIS COMMENTS AND HOW WE SHOULD BE, HAVE MORE FLEXIBILITY THERE. FOR THE VIRTUAL, I FEEL THE SAME WAY AND I UNDERSTAND WHY WE PREFER IN PERSON, BUT I DO THINK, YOU KNOW, WE'RE ADULTS. but I think pushing that too far to say that we need to report our absence to the council president, or we need to let them report virtual, you know, probably just to add, right. To let her know she has to set up the team meeting. It just seems a little much to say that, you know, to put in requirements around virtual attendance. It is an option. It is a legal option now. And particularly, you know, for meetings that are, Uh, ad hoc or special news or things like that where we need to be where people are working during the day and it's easier to be virtual, you know, that should probably be an

logistics and you have to let at least the minimally the council clerk know it can be set up ahead of time. I revised that statement a little bit. Added on, in-person attendance is preferred or virtual attendance unless the council president and the clerk of council have been previously advised. So then you are also on the same page without having to wonder where it is. But if you have a, we already said that they have a conflict, they just need to know

you take care of, you know, chronically ill spouse or parent that's in hospice, and you're the only caregiver, I think we, I mean, we need to have some flexibility. And the other thing is that, you know, recently, a number of most of the majority of council has been retired or has ultimate flexibility. But when I first went on city council, most of us had had regular jobs during the day and couldn't get away.

I agree that if you guys keep wanting to have a special meeting, which is fine, it's just that you need to make those exceptions.

I don't know that we've had a chronic absenteeism. There's been some criticism of number of meetings is increased. But I think our attendance record has been pretty outstanding.

So I'll edit that section and put it in the final draft accordingly eliminate that last sentence completely

They still could apply, because that's what our charter says, that we default to Robert's rules. Go ahead.

I think there's some – this document is solving some particular problems. I think we all agree that we've had in the past, and we're trying to sort of like – trying to set – again, my word takes me. I'm not sure it needs the penalties, if there's other ways that penalties can be put in. I don't think with this group we're going to have that issue, and I would suggest if it becomes necessary, add it then. Have a discussion, add it then. But at this point, it's my feeling to leave them out.

Again, I don't know if you heard what I just said. Let me reiterate it.

without them being clearly and transparently stated, we may have situation that we had.

And if you were a problem, a person who's experiencing these problems, you might be confused about being subject to something like, could I be dismissed? You know, this says, no, you can't be dismissed. You can be, there's some things we can do, but it stops short of that. So your rights are a little more protected by having this. I would say,

in the absence of that. And we're looking at future councils. I mean, this is what we're trying to set up is a framework that collegiality and so forth can feed an expectation.

Thank you, Mr. President. I had a question and it may be that I'm not looking at the current version of the code of conduct. Is there a section... And the last paragraph is penalty investigation and removal?

Yes.

Okay. I think on that piece, and I'd be happy to talk with the council vice president in greater detail or whatever works for the council, but it refers to the ethics committee. Is there an ethics committee that council is going to stand up? have to be. Yeah, well, unless you established one. And I guess what I'm wondering, and again, we could discuss this further, but is whether you wanted to just point back more holistically to Article 3, Section 3 of the Charter, which lays out, and it's not just Commission that could provide for removal. And you don't have to sort of repeat everything that's in there, but it might be enough to point to that as the basis and the source of authority for the council to take or to pursue that kind of an action.

So we did reference that article. It is, yes. Because if logistics aren't, again, Ethics Committee would to you about that when you get a chance. Sure.

Okay. That article talks about gross misconduct, malfeasance, misfeasance, nonfeasance, and it's sort of broader. So I think we could come up with something that would...

It's more of a reference. Yeah.

All right. Thank you, Council Vice President. I just wanted to run through what I think are the council initiatives that

The second part, which we didn't get to on this, which is okay, but I just want to flag it that we posted it publicly was the proposed legislative process was incorporated into the code of conduct. Since it's not ruled anymore, we can take it out and do something different with it. I mean, that might be something we want to discuss in our next meeting, but I did want to make sure it was posted publicly. And this was Director Hanna and I had And vice president and I had worked on this draft and I believe the law department is good with it. However, we want to proceed to formalize it or incorporate it, or even discuss it. It's fine by me. I just don't want to get I just don't want to get lost.

So we have choice, you know, we can do a resolution we could do. I'll be talking about the legislative process.

Okay. Has this had discussion in this body? It's like I've never been here, right? Has this had discussion since the Councilwoman and I met?

No, it was supposed to be tonight, but we're running out of time again, and it was supposed to be last time, and we're running out of time again.

I would say don't adopt it or until you discussed it. That was that was really the point that I was getting at. But I think for considering what this is intended to be, you could approve it by motion.

want to send you know questions to me if they have any questions in the interim and then maybe we can ask on the 24th if we're okay with moving forward and if we need to discuss it more we can here's my only concern about just simply doing it by motion as opposed to resolution it's making sure that there is a searchable record to try and find it because we've had a heck of a time trying to find prior appointments that we made um so i i think you know

I'm going to go really quickly here, so I just want to make sure we're all on the same page as far as what we want to council initiatives before the end of the year.

So I have. A contract or what do we need to do if we do something? What would that be and when would you?

I think that's a conversation we're having at the committee meeting on the 24th.

But it's something we want to do by the end of this year.

We are working toward that with the administration right now.

Okay.

With the expectation that it will happen.

ADU, that's on for next month, right? But the timeline is to have legislation. Yeah, but this before the everything, all this falls under before the end of this year. So I'm not asking anybody, you know, for like a date, but just by the end of the year.

And I am meeting with the law department and Director Zamp this week. There are going to be some changes to the last draft you've seen. We will summarize those in a memo to send to you. There's nothing earth shattering here, but there's some refinement, especially around the penalty section that we felt needed to do and also on the tax side. So I will, that's I think how we'll move forward to inform you. And then there's going to be a public information session on

as well. Good. Housing code overhaul. I know I brought this up before, but I don't remember.

There's a September 10th Housing and Building Committee meeting to review the housing needs assessment study, a deep dive. So we invite you all to dive in the pool in the proverbial pool. That's a special meeting calendar.

Okay.

So, as far as you're talking about, I don't know that that they're still in the middle of the study. Sorry.

Okay. The budget obviously complete and green streets.

We need to have a meeting with somebody representing Transportation Mobility Committee and City Administrator Reese and myself to determine which way we're going.

Oh, we'll probably determine that before the end of the year.

Yes. Yeah, please. It has been over a year.

And then the council application when we have a vacancy, the council...

We can discuss that when we talk about the council code of conduct.

Okay.

So that the council, yeah, I need to change this wording here, but yeah, council code of conduct, you know, obviously we'll be able to do that by the end of the year and the job description account, you know, council vacancy job description. So, um, those are the things.

a small item that i'm hoping i've done by the end of the year is the change to the planning commission authority in our park districts so we'll start talking about that hopefully next week that's not going to be like the zoning code overhaul or anything like that but i'm hoping that we can get that done before the end of the year okay i know what you're talking about does everybody else know okay any any

And there's been some work done in that recently by our police department. And I'm going to be sharing that with everybody via email probably tomorrow. And we're working on trying to get it as part of our agenda on the 24th to discuss. There's not a whole lot to discuss.

IF YOU WANT ME TO.

ALL RIGHT.

LET ME GIVE THIS A SHOT HERE.

Mr. Yes, that's a good motion. You need a second. Any discussion?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, I'm going to adjourn the Committee of the Whole meeting at 7.43. Okay, I'd like to call this Cleveland High City Council meeting to order. It is Monday, August 17th at 7.50. Eddie, would you please call the roll? Cobb? Here. Larson?

Here. Posh? Here. DeWitt Foy? Here. Cohen?

Here.

Kuda?

Here. Stone? Here. All right, are there any amendments to the agenda? Hearing none, we'll move on to approval of the minutes. We have June 1st, June 15th, June 22nd, June 26th, and July 6th. Any objections? All right, the minutes are approved. Now we'll move on to proclamations and honors. Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President. We have two proclamations this evening. And so we'd like to begin by recognizing Amy Rosenbluth. So Amy, if you... Whereas Amy Rosenbluth co-founded Lake Erie Inc. with Cynthia Larson and has served as its executive director for 15 years. Would you like to bring her up or anyone? dedicating her vision, creativity and leadership to fostering a culture of literacy, self-expression and artistic exploration among young people. And whereas under Amy's leadership, Lake Erie Inc has grown from a grassroots initiative into a nationally recognized literary arts organization serving thousands of youth and families across Northeast Ohio. And whereas Amy forged enduring partnerships with schools, libraries, artists, cultural institutions, and community organizations, strengthening connections throughout Cleveland Heights and the broader region while advancing access to arts education and literacy. Now, therefore, I, Jim Petras, Mayor of the City of Cleveland Heights, do hereby honor Amy Rosenbluth for her 15 years of visionary leadership as Executive Director of Lake Erie, Inc., and extend the appreciation and best wishes to the residents of Cleveland Heights as she begins her next chapter.

I think I just want to say thank you to everybody and just keep your pencils moving across the paper and support our young people as they use their voices and share their stories.

Thank you.

Now, we have a second individual who we'd like to recognize this evening, Mr. Philly Whedon. Yeah.

Everybody.

So whereas Philly Whedon is the founder and owner of Voltage Training and Fitness Center in Cleveland Heights, and whereas Philly dedicated more than 27 years. Sounds like there's a delay on the footage. Whereas Philly dedicated more than 27 years to improving the health and wellness of individuals and families throughout Northeast Ohio. And whereas through fitness coaching, mentorship, and community outreach, Philly has helped thousands achieve healthier lifestyles, increased confidence, and long-term wellness. And whereas through their Healing Our Villages Through Strength and Empowerment Foundation, Philly supports youth through fitness, mentorship, and social-emotional learning. Now, therefore, the city of Cleveland Heights does thereby pay tribute to Philly Whedon and recognize him for his many accomplishments, contributions, and more than 27 years of dedicated service to the residents of Cleveland Heights and beyond. Congratulations.

Well, I do want to thank you. Thank you for doing this for a boy who didn't see this happening. Again, thank you for doing this. Rewarding someone like myself who just wants to do it, the kindness of my heart, because I want to see people succeed. I want to see people achieve their goals. People walk in broken. People walk in looking for answers. And if I can help, I'm willing to do so. And it's not just myself now. We have over 30 trainers at The Voltage who is doing the exact same thing. um so so thank you for giving me this um and giving me this day uh it's been a blessing uh mo mo thank you for pushing the initiative uh for seeing this through um because you know i'm not a paperwork kind of guy but i'm i'm grateful for this to everybody who's here everyone who was here representing the vote representing change representing myself or supporting anything cleveland heights i am so grateful for you i am honored by your presence um those online who is watching i'm grateful on youtube thank you i am grateful and again mayor thank you so much

Okay, we're going to do a quick group picture. So Philly, please stand in the middle, and anyone who would like to join, you're welcome to come up. I'm going to rely on you to be the corner man. Okay, I got you, I got you. Council, do you want to stand behind on sort of the second one?

Good idea. We need some people on the side.

We need some people on this side.

All right, you ready? Ready? Here we go, big smiles, here we go. Whose house? Our house! Whose house?

Our house! Whose house?

All right.

Billy!

On the count of three, let me hear Billy Wheaton Day! One, two, three! Billy Wheaton Day! Yeah! Let me shake his hand before I leave.

All right. Well, all right!

Yeah, great way to come back.

Love that, that's so cool.

That's gonna be the most Baptist ever born. That gives you 15 years. You need to be in a problem.

We need to get a bigger council chamber.

Yeah. This is the most crowded I've ever seen this.

When DeVita bought it. Yeah. During COVID.

Billy Wheaton for City Council. Well, I'm not up for three and a half more years. Does he live in Cleveland Heights? I don't know. Have you been by that when they're having those exercise classes, how jamming it is down there at Lee and Mayfield? It is packed. And they're online. They be jamming in there.

They be jamming.

That's a nice mall, man.

Thank you.

Here, Philippe, take one just for your mama.

All right, now all the flock people can come in. I wonder how many of them actually live in Cleveland Heights.

Okay, we're gonna need to proceed in a couple minutes here with our meeting. So get your last pictures.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Downstairs, downstairs, downstairs.

My goodness.

Yeah, they do got other business.

Democratic socialist. Oh, my goodness.

Okay, we're going to move along with...

our meeting next up on the agenda is communications from the mayor thank you mr president and i'd like to welcome city council back from its summer recess is this any better like to welcome city council back from your recess thank you so much for your willingness to schedule a number of special meetings in advance of the recess so that we could make sure that we got through all the legislation that we needed I'd like to begin by reading into the record that we received bids back on several different projects. So on June 12th, 2026, three bids were received for the 26-06 Brinkmore and Mount Laurel water main replacement project. The lowest bid from Terrace Construction was $1,422,148.74. And the other competing bids are as follows, Febreze Trucking and Pavement, receiving $1,492,075.75. SET excavating and general contracting $1,975,492. And on June 18th, 2026, two bids were received for the 26-05 Altamont water main replacement project. The lowest bid was also from Terrace Construction $2,128,876.53. And the only other competing bid was from Febreze Trucking and Paving for $2,129,899.50. While you were on your recess, we were very busy. I just wanted to highlight a few of the things that we've done. So we have been busy preparing for both leaf and snow to snow removal as you are aware we've increased the number of snow plows that we have from 9 to 12 and then on the topic of leaf removal we have figured out a way that we can have a third crew out there typically we have two crews that are picking up leaves we have figured out a way to have three crews so So we are hoping that we can move through streets 50% faster. We have also gone through all of our city owned lots so that we can identify all of the lights that are out and come up with a plan for repairing those. Believe it or not, we actually don't have a maintenance line in the budget for those, but over time, so many have burned out that we're at a point that there are some lots where very few lights are still working. And in one instance, there was a lot with no lights that are working. So we're working very hard to make a holistic approach to that. Also, as you're aware, Cumberland is, the renovation of Cumberland Pool is moving forward. Thank you to city council for hiring the design and engineering firm before your summer recess, the community engagement has started. There was a survey that went out and I'm pleased to share that we have received over 600 responses to that. The engagement firm Seventh Hill who we're working with that they have not encountered a survey with so many results, or I'm sorry, so many responses so far. And I would also like to talk a little bit about our automated license plate readers. So when concerns about the use of flock were brought to our attention, we took them seriously. So we sought to better understand the issues that were being raised. We engaged with community members and stakeholders, and then we acted. Earlier this year, we implemented a number of significant changes to how Cleveland Heights manages and shares ALPR data. So firstly, we disabled statewide and nationwide searches of our data. We disabled the ability for agencies to search on the basis of immigration and reproductive care. And perhaps most importantly, we dramatically reduced the number of agencies that we were sharing our data with. Whenever I took office, we were sharing our data with over 2,600 agencies, and today that is down to about 130. So we made those changes back in February. Users are now required to enter a case number for every search, and audit assistance and proactive lockout features are enabled. And what this does is identifies potential misconduct and proactively locks out users who are suspected of that. Further in April, city council adopted additional safeguards governing the use of the technology. The law limits how long the data can be stored to 30 days. And the vendor just announced that some people may have seen that they are further reducing this to seven days. And the law prohibits Cleveland Heights police department from using enforcement. Importantly, one of the system safeguards is a perpetual audit log that's the subject to public disclosure. Every search conducted in the system is recorded and can be reviewed through a public records request. The audit log also demonstrates that there were zero searches by the Cleveland Heights Police Department for immigration-related purposes, and since the city started to implement changes in February at my zero immigration related searches by outside agencies of our data. The very transparency that allowed these concerns to be raised is the same transparency that allows the public to verify that the changes having a meaningful impact. Finally, I wanna share a few examples of how this technology is being used. So in one case on Dresden, just around the corner from Caledonia Elementary School, in the middle of a school day, a suspect fired shots at a house from their car. In another case, a suspect fired nearly two dozen rounds on Alpine and was arrested within two hours at Pinecrest by the Orange Police Department. And finally, some folks have heard about the recent homicide at the Noble Food Deal, a horrific incident where a young man was shot point blank in the head in the middle of the day. It's important to note that these are all recent examples. These are not examples from three or four years ago. These are things that have recently happened. And in these instances, Flock was not just one of many different to identify the suspect in these cases. So I will always be happy to listen to concerns. That's in fact how I learned about this when Cleveland Heights for Immigrant Rights came to me earlier this year, raised these concerns, and we took a very serious look at this. Again, we were sharing with over 2,600 agencies and we have reduced that by 95% down to 130. When you look at the agencies that were searching most often before these changes were made. You saw, for example, Harris County, Texas. You saw all of these organizations outside of this area. Whenever you look at the log today, all of the most frequent agencies are in our immediate area. So thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We're gonna move on to the city administrators report also known as the Reese report.

Thank you, President Kuda, Vice President Larson, members of council. So I do not have a report this evening to deliver, but I did wanna let you know that I will be providing a written report to both the mayor and council members as part of the September 8th council meeting. So that will be part of the packet that ADDIE distributes in advance of September 8th. And that's all I have, thank you.

All right, very good. We do have departmental reports. Is Tony Ferone here? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't actually know who was coming from Public Works, but we're glad you're here.

Hi, Virginia Carter, the Assistant Director of Public Works. I am here to talk about properties. So in March of 2026, properties made the transition from parks to public works. Under the tutelage of Director Collette Klinkscale and Assistant Director Anthony Ferron and Director Gonzalez, the transition included personnel, equipment, vehicles, and a budget. We are responsible for your city hall, fire stations one and two, the police stations and their associated properties, the impound lot, the transfer station, service and the sewer buildings, the sherry and cover tree garage, and the parking lots. We are prioritizing our resources, which include Eugene Cranford for capital projects and Ona Lucky-Friedman to address the aforementioned, but to also focus on items related to warm, safe, and dry. Warm are related to issues associated with the HVAC. So although we're not warm at this point, we were a few months ago and we will be soon again. But we're looking at HVAC equipment failures, things that are related to our buildings this year. We have two units, one at the sewer building and one at the firing range that has been identified that will be coming up for replacement soon as a part of our budget. Under safe, the mayor mentioned several times the lighting at the parking lots. We're also looking at the streetscape lighting as well. So our team in combination with the police department has identified several lots that we are looking at and we are obtaining pricing for this upcoming year. So we're also reviewing the door replacement at City Hall and of course the elevator repairs. Under dry, for the warm, safe and dry, we look at roof leaks or any penetration of water in the aforementioned buildings. So we get calls and we address those issues as soon as they arise. So we're also responsible for mowing of the grass and medians, final disposal of recently departed woodland animals found within the right of way, I'll let that sink in. Finally, we are responsible for capital projects this year, which included the demolition of the Hillside Dairy, and of course, the facilities, landscape, and gardening services. So our contract was awarded to Deluxe Outdoor Services, and that is something that we'll be putting out for the future of 2027. Our upcoming project also includes transfer station improvements. So the work associated with this is implemental and incremental. So as years go by, we'll be bringing on more and more projects. So one of the things that are our assets that we include are our employees. They do tell us what is going on in the facilities, what's right, what's wrong, as well as our residents. So that is the conclusion of the report for properties.

Thank you. Does anybody have any questions? Is there anything that Parks and Rec is retaining as far as public properties, maintenance, or is it all?

They are responsible for everything related to parks. The Superior Schoolhouse is theirs. Anything related to parks, it still remains within parks.

But nothing from other public properties? No. Not even grass cutting or... they are responsible. Yes, please.

So we had a conversation earlier in the council meeting as a whole regarding who do we contact if there's an outage, a light that's out, whether it's in maybe a parking lot or maybe it's on a city street.

So we are responsible for our streetscape lights, the city of Cleveland, as well as the lights in the parking lot. So I do have several items that came from the MAC that are in my ball and court to get pricing for. So we're looking at that as a holistic item where we're looking at the ones across the board for all of the parking lots. And then we're also looking at, but those will be broken out as the individual pricing.

So I guess for everybody, public service announcement, reach out to the MAC if you see a light that's out.

Absolutely.

Okay. If I could. So if it's attached to a telephone pole, those are First Energy lights and they have unique identifiers on those. Those we would ask that you reach out to First Energy about. And we recently asked them for a list of outstanding unfilled so that we're aware of those, but for one that is not owned by the city, that's the best place to send it. If there is one in a city-owned lot, for example, yes, you're welcome to reach out to us, but we just completed an audit and are aware of all of the ones that are currently out.

All right, thank you, Assistant Director Carter, appreciate it. All right, next we have the Director of Parks and Rec, Andres Gonzalez.

Hello city council, thanks for having me this evening. I'm gonna keep my report very brief. I know that you guys have a very long agenda, I've already been here for a long time, but so I'm gonna keep it strictly on Denison splash pad, unless you guys have questions about other things, feel free to ask those questions. So specifically about Denison, I understand that this has been going on for a very long time, more specifically longer than I've been here. I came on board at the end of October, of 2024 and got inherited this splash pad as long as well as the current administration. We went through quite a few different hurdles with this thing. They had basically, they had a PO in place that basically said, we're going to put a splash pad in this area. But there was nothing planned for specifically regarding underground utilities, water hookups, a bathroom in the area, none of that. So when I came on board, obviously we demolished the old pool house. And once we demolished that old pool house, the decision was made to demolish that. We had to reconfigure where that splash pad was gonna go. So that took a big chunk of last year and what we decided to do is put it in the place that it is. And then this year, take care of a lot of the underground utilities and all that good stuff. Obviously, it hasn't been moving as quickly as we'd like to due to a number of circumstances. Number one, finding good help nowadays is hard to come by. So we found a great contractor in the name of Fabrizi. Some of you guys are familiar with it. They're the same people that are working on the strand project. They were able to help us out, take care of some underground utilities, run the sanitary lines, the water lines, different things like that. Then we ran into some hurdles of Cleveland Water, who unfortunately doesn't operate as quickly as we would like them to as well too. So we've been waiting on a permit for quite a while. So with the help of the mayor and also Michael Reese, our city administrator, we were able to make some phone calls and kind of bump our priority to the top of the list and get that taken care of. So we were finally able to make some progress to secure a permit. If you guys have been over there lately, I'm talking about within the past week, you see that we spent all of last week, we doing concrete work. That was very important in the operations to make it ADA accessible and all that good stuff. So all the concrete work we're happy to say is completely done. We have Febreze. They're going to be back on site at the end of this week or early next week to take care of the final water line, which means that once Febreze is done, they only are going to need a day or two. We will have running water in that area as well, too. Monday I got confirmation that the splash pad installers will be onsite. They're going to be onsite probably from Monday through Wednesday of next week, um, to do their, their work of putting up the play features and then also fine tuning and getting the splash pad up and running. And in the meantime, Febreze is going to try to get out at the end of this week, early next week as well to, to, um, top soil the entire area and hydro seated as well too. So, um, We're hoping and praying that by the end of next week, I can't promise anything, but I'm not gonna, I'm just relaying information that I've been given that we'll have somewhat of an operational splash pad that's alternative to all the pieces of the puzzle falling in place like they're supposed to. As far as the top playground, we're about third in line to get with our installer to get that done. So that will be installed in September as well too. I don't know when in September, so I can't give you a hard date, but in September they have promised us that that top playground will be installed at that time as well. So we're looking by the end of September, we'll have a fully operational, both splash pad and top playground. The nice part about the splash pad is that it's not like the swimming pool. where we have a hard date when it's going to be closed. If we're able to get it operational, say hypothetically in the next week or so, we have a nice timeline where we can leave that splash pad open for the residents to enjoy. And we thank the residents big time in that area and in the surrounding areas as well, too, just for being patient with us, because I understand that this dates back all the way to 2021. maybe even before that. So we just thank the residents for being super patient with us. My biggest thing is that I've always, I always do things and do them the correct way instead of speeding them along just to get them done. I've been involved in some pool renovations and different things like that in my previous job back in the city of Brook Park. And I've seen things rush through and it's never been a good situation. It's led to leaking of water and it's hard to trace lines after that all happens. So my biggest thing is that I'm trying to get it done but I'm trying to get it done the right way so that the residents can enjoy this, not just this year, but for the next 25 years to come. So that basically concludes my report. So if I'll answer any questions that anybody may have.

Questions for Director Gonzalez? Yes. Council Vice President.

When the splash pad does open soon, will you have lifeguards on duty or will it be a non-lifeguard situation?

So splash pads do not need lifeguards, so it would be a non-lifeguard situation.

Thank you.

Where will the top playground be located in relation to the splash pad?

It's going to be right next to it. So if you guys are familiar with that, the mini brick wall, the circular mini brick wall, it's going to be right in that location right there.

Okay.

And I have to say the soccer field and the renovated tennis court and pickleball courts look great. Thank you. Really shaping up.

This will really bring all of that.

Oh yeah. Anybody else? Oh, councilwoman Cohen.

yes thank you so much dr gonzalez quick question um a resident contacted me asking if there was going to be a fence put either around the playground or the uh the splash pad do you have any information on that you can share at this current time there's no plans for any splash pad or any fencing around the splash pad okay is there any concern about safety as a because i've been is the splash pad near the street and i haven't been over there since earlier in the summer i think before even

In my opinion, I think we're far enough away from the street where there's no concerns.

Okay, thank you.

All right, thank you, Director Gonzalez. Thank you, have a good night. You too. All right, next, we're gonna move on to the report of the clerk of council.

I'd just like to notify council that I have received a notice to legislative authority from the Ohio Department of Liquor Control for the transfer of a D5 liquor permit from Tricat LLC to High Key on Lee located at 2279 slash 2281 Lee Road. This matter has been referred to the chief police and mayor.

All right, thank you, Addie. Any public comment on legislative items?

I have one for legislative items.

Dustin Russell.

All right. Dustin, while you're walking up, and this is for people who are gonna be commenting later, make sure you say your name and your address when you come up, or at least the street you live on.

All right. Dustin Russell, 2188 Demington. President Kuda, members of council, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here in support of Resolution 159-2026, recognizing September as Suicide Prevention Month. There are subjects we discuss in this chamber where reasonable people can disagree, sometimes strongly. This should not be one of them, because behind every statistic in this resolution is a human being. And far too often, the people around them simply do not know how much pain they were carrying. One statistic among many in this resolution especially caught my attention. Men are nearly four times as likely to die by suicide. I think that deserves our attention. A lot of men were raised to believe that when life gets difficult, you keep your head down, go to work, take care of your family, and deal with problems yourself. There is something admirable about strength and resilience, but strength should never mean suffering and silence. Sometimes the strongest words a person can say is I need help. And sometimes the most important thing another person can say is talk to me. That is why awareness matters. Not because a proclamation or a resolution itself can solve this problem, but a community can create a culture where people pay attention to one another. where we notice when somebody disappears from the places they used to be. We live in an era where we can communicate instantly with hundreds or thousands of people, and yet people can still feel profoundly alone. That means community matters more, not less. Family matters, friendship matters, faith communities, schools, coaches, employers, neighborhood organizations, first responders, counselors, all of them matter. And sometimes simply knowing that another human being genuinely cares whether you are here tomorrow matters more than we realize. So I appreciate council bringing attention to suicide prevention, the warning signs and the resources available to people in crisis. We should never assume that somebody else will make the call to start the conversation, that somebody may be us. Every life in Cleveland Heights has value. Every person deserves to know that their worst day does not have to be their last day. And every one of us has a role in reminding our neighbors of that. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

All right, we're gonna move on to first readings for consideration for adoption. Andy, it's all yours.

I have resolution number 144-2026 on first reading. A resolution appointing Matt Alden as a member of the Board of Zoning Appeals of the City of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Councilmember Cobb.

So moved.

Second.

All right, any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes. And just by the way, we discussed all of this in Committee of the Whole right before this.

Next, I have resolution number 145-2026 on first reading, a resolution giving consent to the Director of Transportation of the State of Ohio for the Heights Regional Greenway Phase One Project, authorizing the execution of agreements required by the Ohio Department of Transportation and declaring the necessity that this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras.

So moved. Second. Second.

All right, it's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? The motion passes.

Next, I have resolution number 146-2026 on first reading. A resolution approving the report of the Assessment Equalization Board appointed to hear objections 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? All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? That motion passes.

Next I have ordinance number 147-2026 on first reading, an ordinance determining to proceed with the assessment of a portion of the expensive street lighting within the city of Cleveland Heights, levying assessments for said purpose 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 148-2026 on first reading. A resolution approving the report of the Assessment Equalization Board appointed to hear objections 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 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? All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? That motion passes.

Next I have ordinance number 149-2026 on first reading, an ordinance determining to proceed with the assessment of a portion of the expense of improvement of streets and parkways, including grading, draining, curbing, paving and repaving, repairing, sweeping or cleaning thereof, removing snow therefrom and planting, maintaining and removing shade trees thereon within the city of Cleveland Heights, levying assessments for said purpose and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras.

So moved. Second. Any discussion? I would just say that these assessments have not been adjusted for 12 years. This adjustment is needed. And the notices were sent out. There were three people that made objections and found no basis for those. And so we are moving forward. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes.

Next I have resolution number 150-2026 on first reading, a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with SELCO partnership doing business as Verizon Wireless for cellular and related telecommunication services and equipment and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras.

Council President. Yes. I'd like to inform the council since this is a contract with my employer, I've recused myself from the discussion and I will recuse myself from the vote.

Thank you, Councilwoman. So moved. Second. All right, any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes.

Next I have resolution number 156-2026 on first reading, a resolution memorializing council's approval of a use variance concerning the property at 2536 Noble Road pursuant to section 1115.07I of the codified ordinances of the city of Cleveland Heights as described in BZA calendar number 3659A 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. Now we're on to first readings only.

I have ordinance number 151-2026 on first reading, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute an intergovernmental agreement with the city of East Cleveland to facilitate completion of the Taylor Road corridor project and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras. I have resolution number 152-2026 on first reading. A resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a community cost share agreement with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to fund a pre-designed study of the culvert at MLK Junior Drive and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras. I have resolution number 153-2026 on first reading. A resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a community cost share agreement with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to fund an exploratory investigation of outfall DBMB0746 and declaring the necessity of this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure. Introduced by Mayor Petras. I have resolution number 154-2026 on first reading, a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a community cost share agreement with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to fund the citywide catch basin project and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras. I have ordinance number 155-2026 on first reading and ordinance amending chapter 143 landmark commission of the codified ordinances of Cleveland Heights, Ohio and repealing the prior version introduced by council member Cohen and Mayor Petras. I have resolution number 157-2026 on first reading, a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into agreements with Best Equipment Company and Classic Ford Mentor for the acquisition of a Loadmaster Elite Body for the Refuse and Recycling Division of the Department of Public Works and declaring the necessity of this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure. I have resolution number 160-2026 on first reading. A resolution accepting the recommendations of the Tax Incentive Review Council concerning community reinvestment area tax exemption agreements within the city of Cleveland Heights. Introduced by Mayor Petras and all city council members.

Okay, on the second readings, we have one and we are gonna vote on this tonight.

I have ordinance number 123-2026 on second reading. An ordinance declaring improvements to a certain parcel within the city of Cleveland Heights to be a public purpose exempting the improvements to such parcel from real property taxations for a period of 30 years. requiring the owners of such parcels to make service payments in lieu of taxes, establishing an urban redevelopment tax increment equivalent fund for the deposit of such payments and approving a development agreement with the owner of said parcel all pursuant to sections 5709.41, 5709.42 and 5709.43 of the Ohio revised code and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras.

So moved.

Second.

All right, very good. Any comments on this? All right, I would just thank the owner of the building for giving a soft landing to the long-term residents there by controlling the rental increases over the next three years.

I'd also like to say this is a non-school district TIF and it could have been, and it's nice to work with the developer that comes to us in such a fashion so our schools don't necessarily have to pay a price for a TIF.

Very important, thank you. All right, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes. Now we're onto the consent agenda. Can we just do these two separately or do we have to?

Sure, why not?

I have resolution number 158-2026 on first reading a resolution joining committees throughout the nation and proclaiming September of 2026 Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and declaring necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by all city council members and Mayor Petras. So moved.

Second.

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

Next, I have resolution number 159-2026 on first reading, a resolution recognizing September 2026 as suicide prevention month and declaring the necessity this legislation become immediately effective as an emergency measure introduced by Mayor Petras.

So moved. Second. All right, any discussion? Thank you, Dustin Russell, if you're still here. or for speaking up on this issue. When I was a substitute, before I was a teacher and I was a substitute teacher, just for a short time, there was a kid who came up to me in the hallway and said, there's a boy in the bathroom trying to hang himself. And yeah, I didn't know whether he was telling the truth or not. I didn't know the kid. Turns out it was exactly what happened. Thank God his attempt failed. But my point is that anytime any of us get information about something that may or may not be happening, just take it seriously, play it on the safe side. That's what you should always do. Any other comments? All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? That motion passes. We are now on to committee reports. Who would like to go first? Councilman Pusch.

On next Monday, the 24th at five o'clock, we have a series of committee meetings. One of them is the finance committee. We haven't met in a while, but it's a good time. I hear we're gonna get some good reports. So we have that going on. We also have the public safety and health committee that is also meeting close to six o'clock, but I think it's kind of a fluid kind of time schedule. We will be discussing the deer management public hearing that we had and outcomes. My goal is to move this out of committee and give it to the law department and make sure the administration is working on it, which I do know they are working on it as we speak. We're also having a presentation from our planning department. We have a million dollar demonstration grant for traffic safety will be disclosed. Disclosed to us will be all the things that they're gonna be spending that million dollars on. So that's all I have to say.

I just wanted to announce that the Housing and Building Committee will be holding a public input session on developing legislation regarding the operation of short-term rental units in the City of Cleveland Heights. We're gonna be joining many other municipalities in considering this important issue, and we invite the public's input. That will be at 6 p.m. here.

Thank you, Councilwoman Stone. Madam Vice President.

There'll be two presentations during the August 24th Committee of the Whole. Catalina Wagers will be presenting an initiative that encourages restaurants to limit the use of plastic foodware. And Deanna Bremer-Fisher will advise council on some sustainability programs she hopes to have in the 2027 budget. The Climate and Sustainability Committee meets tomorrow at 4 p.m. The Temporary Transportation and Mobility Committee meets August 26th at 7 p.m. Thank you. Thank you.

Councilwoman Cohn.

Yes, thank you. Also next Monday we'll be continuing our discussion on accessory dwelling units and we will be looking at a draft of a new piece of legislation that is meant to provide more public comment and input and public hearings around significant changes to our park. And lastly, I want to flag for the public that on Monday, August 31st at 5 30 PM, we'll be having a council work session. I believe we may have titled that a little bit differently on the zoning code update. So for those of you who are interested in our overhaul of the zoning code, that would be a meeting to watch or attend. Thank you.

All right. You're welcome. Any other reports? All right, I just wanna thank all of council for during our six week break. So many of you were working on things and especially Councilman Posh and Madam Vice President for doing the DER management hearing during the break. Really appreciate that. We are gonna move on to, let's see, public comment. These are general public comments. How many do we have? 30. 30, okay. So we're gonna have to go to two minutes because I mean, that's an hour right there. And that's if you all run to the podium. Again, name, street, city, when you come up and let's go.

Melody Joy Hart.

And thank you all for coming. We always appreciate that.

Melody Joy Hart, Monmouth Road. Thank you for taking the actions to limit the entities that can access our data and the time requirements. This five-year contract was signed in 2024, so it doesn't expire until 2029 with little ability to change it. This was all, of course, before the 287G contract with thousands of law enforcement agencies were added to flock, before the current administration began talking more about potentially forcing local police to be involved, before the administration ended legal status of TPS and parole for over 300,000 Haitians and Syrians. So things have changed. where cameras were added to ensure police could solve crimes quickly like the Taylor Road shooting a number of years ago. I think we can all agree that the original purpose of helping our officers fight crime is a great reason to add cameras. but now it has become a nationwide web of privacy violations in support of a lawless agency, ICE. Ironically, Flock can terminate the contract for morality violations by the city, but we don't have much opportunity to change this contract.

Since they have actually a license for our data,

They can use the data as long as they deem it in their sole discretion as being reasonable. So we can limit access to the data we hold, but they also have access to the license. And thank you again for your diligence. and for all the protections you've put in place and thank you to Chief Britton and all of our great police officers for all they do. Now we're asking you to pivot and look for alternatives for these cameras. There must be alternatives that can help us solve crimes, but that don't provide the licensure for unbridled use by a flock. So we ask that you change the contract if you could, but to actually look at alternatives. And thank you for all your work, thank you. Gary Benjamin.

Gary Benjamin, I also live on Monmouth Road. And I want to thank you for that actions you have taken so far as well. I read the contract. I wanted to see what it said about owning the data and owning the equipment. So we own the data, they own the equipment. FLOC owns the programming. But there is, as Melody mentioned, a license. In that license, it allows FLOC to share data that we own with other organizations or people under any one of two conditions. If the law requires FLOC to share the information or if FLOC has a good faith belief that sharing is reasonably necessary, I'm quoting here, to comply with legal process and force the contract with Cleveland Heights or detect, prevent, or otherwise address security privacy fraud or technical issues or emergencies. I'm not quite sure what that means. The words good faith effort and finding something reasonable stand out to me. When this contract was entered into, We weren't running into the same problems we have with ICE now, where they make up warrants in the office and show up at your door saying you have a legal duty to comply with us. One of the things I'd like you to ask FLOC is what do they do with those warrants? The ACLU and other organizations, Catholic Charities among others, train us in if someone shows up at your door with that warrant, don't let them in. They need a judicial warrant. It needs to be issued by due process. There needs to be a reason for that warrant to be issued. So much has changed. So much has deteriorated since February of 2024. I appreciate your diligence, but I think we need to go a couple steps farther. Finding a different provider would be the best solution, but I really would like to know what FLOC does with those non-judicial warrants. Thank you.

CJ Nash.

CJ Nash, Vandemar Street, Cleveland Heights. I put a paper on all of your desks so you can see it. Since I only got two minutes, I'm gonna try to do this really quick. This right here is on Glenwood and Noble. This is the start of what I call a dump. It's little now. do something about it before it gets big. There is a company doing some sort of road work or sewer work, and this is, we've given them permission to put their stuff here. We've been watching this for over a year as it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, and it gets more and more junk. You could see the kiddie pool, you could see someone's cooler. I mean, all these pictures show you a bunch of garbage. It's like your kid. If you've got kids, you have to put guardrails on them and you have to teach them what they can do and what they can't do. If you don't, it's not going to take long till your whole house smells like sweaty sports gear. And this is exactly what's going on here. We haven't put any guardrails on them and they're getting bigger and bigger and worse and worse. They now have a dumpster in there. They've got different vehicles in there, they've got different trailers in there. A big thing for me, I used to be HAZWOPER, if you look at these photos, there's a bunch of 55 gallon drums in there. Those are for hazardous material. Okay, fine, when you're doing road work, you're gonna get hazardous material. Two problems, look at these pictures, some of them are damaged. You cannot use dented, damaged 55 gallon drums for hazardous material. If you're gonna put hazardous material in there, where's your secondary containment? There is none. Please, as a city, if we're going to allow them to use this as a staging area, which I know sometimes you have to, we need to put guardrails on them. We need to go and we need to monitor it. And as they start getting bigger and bigger and throwing their stuff away because they just want to go home, we need to tell them, no, get this in order, get your stuff in gear, clean it up. This is our city, not yours. Thank you.

Thank you, CJ, for drawing this to our attention. I asked Director Klingscale maybe two months ago or three months ago when they first, this little area first appeared to have construction equipment on it. Yeah, okay, so far too long and it's growing. And I hope that you'll check into it, Mayor Petras, This is not right. This is a residential neighborhood and this construction company is using it as CJ called it a dump. They have no regards for that residential area at all.

It's the first I'm learning of it. We'll gladly look into it.

Mark Gatozzi.

2651 Euclid Heights Boulevard. I'll be quick. So I'm not here with Deflock or any of that, although I do support Deflocking Cleveland Heights and Cuyahoga County, broadly speaking. The reason why I'm actually here is to follow up on an email exchange that we had about drones. I found out that the Cleveland Heights Police Department was utilizing drones. I gave you a series of technical questions and this morning you responded to me with your fact finding that you found, which was about a three page finding from the police department about their policy. And it answered a zero of 11 of the questions that I had. No, they are very technical questions, but it is concerning after two weeks, that was the response I got. And just to keep it straightforward and because we have limited time here. The one question that I would like an answer to is what are deploying these UAVs. Is it part 107 specifically, or have they already received a certificate of authorization? Because the video I sent you, if it's a part 107, they broke federal law. And I think that's something that we need to know publicly. We need to talk about it. I think there needs to be greater oversight by city council about that.

So it is in the hands of the law department. I will follow up with that. So...

I gave you what they gave me. Okay. Well, I do think there needs to be more follow-up. Another important question, I guess, relevant to this, I did ask if there are flock drones, and I never got a response back to that, which I think the public should know. If people in this room aren't aware, I'm sure a lot are, flock does sell drones.

No.

They're not flock drones? Okay.

Do we know the vendor? Mr. President, we have only one flock product, which is I made license plate readers. I'm aware that there's like facial recognition products and others, but we only have one product. Are we aware of the vendor of the UAS system? I have no idea, Mark. Okay. Thank you.

Geraldine Blair.

Geraldine Blair Vandermeer. I have lived on my street for 53 years. I was here last year. Some of you might remember. I complained about a tree and tree roots that was on my tree line. And that was growing and messing up my sidewalk. And at the time, we had Mayor Serrin, and he assured me at this meeting that my tree would be removed, the tree roots would be taken care of, my grass would be replanted, and everything would be restored. Well, he was replaced. After he was gone, the next day he sent out forestry to my home and they were supposed to do the work. It took them until December the 3rd to come out to remove the tree. And in the process of removing the tree, they, took out a big hunk of my Japanese maple tree. They never removed the stump. Now I have trees growing out of my tree, out of my lawn. My sidewalk is coming uneven. And I called Forestry Department. They never answered the phone. It is now over a year. I can't get your mayor line, Mr. Todd. So now I'm here again. I can't believe staying in Cleveland Heights for 53 years, paying my taxes, a good neighbor, And no one can do anything about this tree and all these trees that is growing in my yard. And now someone is responsible for it. Not me, because it's going to have to be dug up. So could you please give me a answer? Why forestry have not come out and taking this stump out of my tree line and remove all those roots.

I apologize that they did not get back to you. And I could ask that they look into this. I don't know if the details at the moment of the situation, but I could ask that they take a special look at it and see what they might be able to do to help you with it. And we can make sure that we take your info so that we can follow up with you and make sure that you get a response.

We have our contact information.

And if you would like, we're happy to take pictures too and share.

Okay, please do. Because I have waited a year for this. And I want you to see my Japanese maple trees because I am so upset. My husband planted this tree. You see this big hump that is out of it? I would like for you, I even called him after they did it and asked him, will you please come back and look at my tree? He never showed up. And I don't believe they would have done anyone else the way they have done me. Yes.

Thank you. Bryn Adams.

Good evening, my name is Brynn Adams. I'm a Cleveland resident, but I spend a great deal of time in Cleveland Heights. And to me, Cleveland Heights has always felt like a uniquely fun and welcoming part of Northeast Ohio. But now that it is virtually impossible to enter or leave the city without being tracked by an AI spy camera, the vibe has shifted. For that reason, I'm here tonight to ask you to cancel your flock contract. Like the city of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights seems to believe that it's possible to have their cake and eat it too. You think you can deploy a tool that is designed at a fundamental level to violate civil liberties and then somehow protect your citizens from those violations by tweaking a few settings. It doesn't work like that. The reason Flock is valued at $8 billion is because it facilitates mass data collection and frictionless information sharing. The thing about it that both investors and law enforcement find attractive is that it is building out an infrastructure to allow for continuous pervasive tracking of all of us. By participating in this contract, you are putting current and future residents of Cleveland Heights at risk of stalking, racial profiling, state violence, and authoritarian repression. Toggling off the national lookup tool is not going to protect us. And if you think it will, you're being naive. How many more bombshell news stories have to break before we finally accept that these AI surveillance technologies are immune to meaningful regulation? How much more time and effort are we going to spend putting lipstick on this pig instead of investing in the well-being of our communities? Flock is flailing. They are hugely unpopular with the American public across all political affiliations, and the so-called reforms and guardrails they've implemented recently are nothing more than them trying to cover their asses. But it is too late to put the cap back in the bag. We already know that this company and this entire industry is morally bankrupt, untrustworthy, and hell-bent on taking advantage of us. Stop falling for it. Stop using technology as a crutch. Cancel this contract and use the resources for something productive. Thank you.

Suzanne Zilber.

I'm Suzanne Zilber, I live on Edge Hill Road, and I'm from Showing Up for Racial Justice Northeast Ohio in Cleveland Heights for Immigrant Rights. We all want freedom from crime, and we also want freedom from warrantless nationwide surveillance. While we asked council to cancel the flock contract, we acknowledge the council made concrete usage changes in response to community concerns. City Council's April resolution took the number of outside agencies with access to our flock data down from 2,600 to 130. The city turned off the nationwide and statewide lookup features and excluded Ohio agencies that hold a 287 agreement to collaborate with ICE. But none of those changes closes the structural gap that we are concerned about. Nothing stops the 130 agencies from running a search at another department's informal request and simply relaying the result by phone or in person. Shrinking the list of agencies with formal access changes who could do it. It doesn't change whether a search itself can happen off the books. The resolution itself only restricts sharing when a city employee knows a request was made for civil immigration enforcement, a standard that's easy to talk around and hard to enforce. There is still no audit requirement, no independent oversight, and no penalty if any of this happens. Per Contract Section 5.3, FLAW can independently access, use, and disclose data to law enforcement and others who are legally required to do so or based on its good faith belief that disclosure is reasonably necessary without needing approval from Cleveland Heights. So the bottom line is that Cleveland Heights data ownership is subject to significant workarounds. Real progress on paper doesn't mean the risk is gone. A smaller agency list with no enforcement mechanism behind it is a statement of intent, not a guarantee. Good intentions do not control what a network surveillance system does once the data leaves the building.

Janine Gurry.

Good evening, my name is Janine Gurry and I live on Burlington Road and I'm a member of Showing Up for Racial Justice Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Heights for Immigrant Rights. Each of you have chosen to serve on this council because you were called by a set of values. And these values include things like public service, stewardship and commitment to the wellbeing of the community. Those values not only inspire your service, they also provide common ground as you work together on difficult decisions. Tonight, I really do ask you to consider how those values apply to the city's use of flock safety cameras. This is not again, this is not a question of intent. I believe your intent is to improve public safety. The concern is the structure of the system itself. So the reality is you wanna know the mayor actually has stepped forward and shared his efforts to adopt stronger safeguards. That holds great merit, but unfortunately in the reality that these protections simply cannot close the fundamental loophole of an open system. For example, questions to be considered, can an officer as he's conducting a search at the request or informal request of another agency and simply relay the results over to them? Do Ohio agencies or can Ohio agencies without the 287 agreements still have full access to the network? And finally, can federal agencies obtain information through cooperating local departments? The only way to ensure that our community's data is used consistently with the values that you seek to uphold is truly to end this contract. We know that other Ohio communities have also been exploring this, either by increasing the safeguards or even just allowing the contract to be canceled. Those such communities include Dayton and Coshocton County. I would encourage this council to approach them and ask them how and why they made those decisions. I encourage you to move forward with both your courage and your leadership. Thank you.

And if you could hold your applause till the end, just so we could, we got like 20 something more speakers. Go ahead.

Lisa Vahey.

My name is Lisa Behe. I live in Shaker Heights on Oxford Road. Thank you to all of you. I spend a significant time in Cleveland Heights at bakeries, Lake Erie, Inc., in your schools. I'm a consultant. And on Sundays and sometimes other days of the week, I'm at Forest Hill Church on the corner of Lee and Monticello, where I'm an elder and an active member. Forest Hill deepened my understanding of who is my neighbor. It brought me into contact with the volunteers and leaders of AMI. Some of those folks are here. I learned about the harm happening at the border from church members who traveled to Texas, and we became a sanctuary church in 2017, seeing the pain and heartache of being called undocumented and also learning what good neighbors can do to ease hurt and harm. We are neighbors, all of you, and I'm bringing news as a neighbor who cares about being in community and asking you to think about canceling your contract with Flock and using those dollars for the work of community and care. In Shaker, we learned that Flock guardrails do not work. We made the adjustment to our Flock contract, and in July, part of our organization, Shake Off Flock, analyzed the data from our external searches. This is after we changed our contract. I'm gonna share two examples. We had over 1,700 searches. Once we turned off the features that we could easily identify as agencies working directly with the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. That is agencies with 287 agreements including the Fusion Center in Cleveland. And we still had vague search term like other and investigation used for searches even with case numbers, right? So we looked at that 163,000 searches and we're still finding that this is happening. Guardrails are not effective. The ACLU National Office did that research. They released a new report on August 13th, just a few days ago. And I'm so grateful that you're taking the concerns of the community seriously, but this is what the ACLU said. Companies like Flock, who's nearly one billion in venture capitalist funding, has locked it into an operational model that seeks to trade our privacy for massive profits. Let's not feed the Flock beast in their profits. Let's do the neighborly thing and think about canceling that contract.

Dave Thomas.

Good evening. Dave Thomas, Shaker Heights resident on Van Aken. As my fellow neighbor mentioned, there are plenty of ways for agencies who pose a dangerous threat to our communities to bypass these guardrails. But here are three examples of technical reasons why it's still not enough. Number one, encryption. Does Flock allow you to bring your own encryption key and certificates for data transmission and storage of the data? Basically, if you don't own the encryption keys, then anyone at Flock with access to those keys or anybody who breaches Flock and gains access to those keys will be able to decrypt that data and read it. Pretty much you can negotiate these contracts until you're blue in the face. But if you don't own that data and that encryption key, then ultimately they can use it for whatever they want. And by the way, the audit logs that are always pulled from records requests are pulled from the flock software and not from AWS or Amazon web services where that data actually resides. So we don't even know if they're actually pulling that data behind the scenes. We just only know if it's being pulled and searched through the flock software. Number two, computer infrastructure, right? Is the data being processed on its own tenant or is it being shared with other agencies? If there's a warrant to AWS and they have to pull that information from the physical hardware, is your data also gonna get caught up in that? That's a very important thing to consider. Number three, AI accuracy and oversight. Question, how many Rs are in the word strawberry? This is acute inaccuracy when writing emails, but this can be dangerous when used in reactive policing using these technologies. Are you practically monitoring for when, not if, the AI makes mistakes as it scans the plates of every single vehicle, not just those attached to crimes? By the way, all these issues and more apply not only to Flock, but with their competitors as well, such as Axon, Motorola, and Leonardo. This is a private company backed by people whose publicly stated worldviews oppose democracy and privacy rights, who sought after government contracts, but didn't think to implement basic security measures and features to present unauthorized access until tons of bad press. We're asking the city of Cleveland Heights to end this contract, not amend it. Thank you.

All right, I thought we were gonna hold the applause. At least I thought it, go ahead.

Ruth Garwood.

That wasn't the easier path. Good evening, I'm Ruth Garwood from Yellowstone Road in Cleveland Heights, and I'm a member of Showing Up for Racial Justice. I appreciate what Cleveland Heights has done to limit access to Cleveland Heights data, but still, flock cameras are a tool that deliver less than promised at too high a cost. Police departments say that FLOC is a valuable and investigative tool. And I don't doubt that individual officers believe that. But I asked you to separate two questions. Does this tool have some investigative value? And can the city use it without exposing residents to a shared surveillance network? The data says no to the second question. And that's the one that matters. A 2021 review of California automatic license plate reader data found only about 0.05% of all license plate scans were ever relevant to an active investigation. That means the overwhelming majority of what these cameras to the doctor, stored and made searchable by outside agencies. Meanwhile, evidence-based public safety investments like traffic calming and better street lighting have real measured track records of reducing harms without building a database that can be turned against our own neighbors. A tool doesn't have to be worthless to be the wrong tool. The question before you is whether the crime solving value of flock outweighs the civil rights and trust cost of keeping our residents inside a nationwide surveillance network. We think the crime solving value of surveillance cameras is outweighed by the civil rights cost.

Aubrey Fagerhauer.

Hello, my name is Aubrey Fagerhaug, valid attempt. I'm a Cleveland Heights resident since 2019. I currently live on Ormond Road and I'm here to voice my opposition to the flock cameras in our city. It is both my personal belief and my constitutional right to privacy that I think these cameras should not be constantly surveilling our community and our citizens. The flock cameras don't just log license plates, but they build this searchable database of vehicles identifying information including make model bumper stickers, damage to the vehicles, and it tracks movement over time. This is incredibly invasive and is totally against our constitutional right to privacy, which is implicit in the Bill of Rights and was established in the court case Griswold versus Connecticut. We have this right to privacy. We should not be surveilled constantly in our own city. This nationwide network records our driving locations without warrant, without suspicion and without consent, which I believe is an unreasonable search of my tracking data and which is directly opposition to my fourth amendment rights. I don't believe our government should be operating or paying for a tool that stocks its own citizens and allows police and others with access to this nationwide network to track its citizens and our community members movements. This is America, we're supposed to be the land of the free, not the surveillance state of Orwell's 1984. Thank you.

Kylie George.

Kylie George. My name is Kylie George. I live in Euclid, but I'm here today as a community organizer in Cleveland Heights. And I want to say that maybe we're all asking the wrong question. Instead of asking whether flock actually keeps us safer, maybe we should ask what infrastructure actually creates safety. Because while yes, flock is infrastructure, but so is a library, so is a community, so are schools, so is lighting. So is a park. So what does public safety actually mean to us in 2026? Is public safety something that we can surveil toward? Or is it something that we build together? Flock costs Cleveland Heights $50,000 every year. When we decide where that $50,000 goes, we aren't only making a budget decision, we're making a decision about what we believe creates safety. What does a safe Cleveland Heights actually look like and feel like for the people who live here? What definition of safety are we using? Information also matters here too. Learning how flock works has not been simple for me. And I'm 35 years old. Residents should be able to understand the systems that are operating within their communities. What does transparency mean if ordinary residents can't reasonably understand where our information and our data is going? Maybe public safety isn't something we surveil our way toward. Maybe it's something that we all build together because community itself is infrastructure. It's our libraries, it's our parks, it's the resources we provide for one another. Every dollar we spend is a choice about which of those things we strengthen. So I think the question I want to leave the council with, Mayor, President, What kind of community do you want to build with us? And what choices are we willing to make together to build it? Thank you. Tom James.

My name is Tom James. I live on Hampshire Road. So Cleveland Heights pays flock safety $50,000 a year $250,000 over the lifetime of this five year contract for a system that has already logged 1700 immigration related searches of our residents data. I'm asking you to imagine what that money could do if it weren't going towards a surveillance vendor. This isn't a hypothetical anymore. On July 31st, just a few weeks ago, the Trump administration ended the federal contract that funded legal representation for more than 20,000 unaccompanied immigrant children nationwide. And that funding cliff does not stop at our city line. It reaches children living right here in Cleveland Heights. Without a lawyer, an unaccompanied child in immigration court is now expected to be ordered deported in roughly 99% of cases. Some members of this council have said before that they don't know of anyone in this city who currently needs legal representation. We do now. And if a local legal defense fund already existed, $50,000 a year could fund real legal representation for our Cleveland Heights residents facing detention or deportation. People who, without a lawyer, are far more likely to lose their case and be separated from their families simply because they couldn't afford representation. It could support Know Your Right trainings, rental and utility assistance for families destabilized by an arrest, or direct support to the community organizations already doing this work on shoestring budgets. This is what actually keeps a community safe. People who trust their local government enough to call when they need help, who aren't afraid to go to work or drop their kids off at school. Surveillance doesn't buy that trust, it erodes it. And we're not only asking you to solve this month's crisis, we're asking this council to stop waiting for documented emergency to create a fund that should already exist. Because the next funding cut out of Washington will create a new version of this same story and next time we want the infrastructure already in place. I'm asking this council to redirect these funds towards something that will actually make Cleveland Heights safer for everyone who lives here.

Steve Hanley. Steve Hanley.

Susan Wood on Edge Hill Road.

We are headed to a- Steve Hanley was called next. Steve Hanley. Oh, I'm sorry. No, it's okay. Is he here?

No. Okay, Bob Close is next.

Bob Close, Kingston Road. In July 8th article of the Plain Dealer, it read that Cleveland has long insisted that the city prohibits its flock surveillance cameras from being used for immigrant enforcement. The article continued, but reporter Sean McDonald found that Cleveland's flock cameras were searched 2,000 times to assist ICE or enforcement or to enforce immigration laws in 2025 alone, including cases where officers found vehicles they were looking for in Cleveland's camera network. So tonight I've been humbled and awed by many of those that have spoken before me. And I've heard the word loopholes and workarounds and other I'm wondering if any of the city officials have heard themselves mothered, oops, Because it seems that the good intentions of the people here are for people who are being victimized by an administration that imposes its will on a nation that has been begging for a fix to our immigration laws. And instead, we taxpayers are forced to pay for masked, rogue bands of armed militias who apprehend immigrants exiting mandated taking their children to school, going to and from jobs that would otherwise go unfilled. Since it has been demonstrated that even law enforcement cannot keep ICE out, I do not believe this body should continue to enlist the services of flock the way they have. Thank you. I yield back 10 seconds.

Hello Council, my name is Quinton Yoder, South Euclid, Bridgeview Drive. I wanna make a couple notes about the revisions that we've made to our flock policy. Council notes that, Flock's technology is incredibly effective at catching criminals. And I actually don't doubt this. I don't doubt that seeing multiple cameras at almost every street corner is effective at catching criminals. In fact, I'd say go a step further and put a Flock camera in everybody's front yard. The question here is not how effective the technology it is. It is the question of what we sacrifice for this technology being effective. And what we sacrifice is our Fourth Amendment rights. If our main concern was catching criminals at any cost, we would allow our police officers to conduct searches without probable cause. We would set up cameras at every single street corner, and we would allow the police to do pretty well whatever they like as far as searching the community. We would catch more criminals this way. That would be more effective. But the conversation is not efficacy. The conversation is, what does this efficacy cost us? And I am not comfortable with what this efficacy costs us. Another thing to note, 130 agencies is still a lot of agencies. Can council guarantee that none of those agencies have a 287G agreement?

Yes? No? The administration has extensively explored that.

We also got a vague term when talking about what counties are able to search. Petrus, you had noted that all of the searches were within the local area. To what degree does that stretch? Is that all of Ohio? Is that certain counties close to us? Is that only Cleveland Heights?

I'm not going to go back and forth, but I will answer this. So it's predominantly in Cuyahoga County. It includes organizations like the Cleveland Clinic, Case Western, organizations in our immediate area, on the highways, like 71, 90, things like that. And that is also subject to public disclosure.

I will end with saying 130 agencies, a lot of agencies that are really hard to police. And you cannot guarantee that these searches are not used for tracking people for abortion access, for immigration. You allowed other speakers to speak longer. I will speak.

No, no, no, no, no. No, I will. No, no, no, no. I'm gaveling you now. Sit down. Thank you. I appreciate it. Go ahead.

Barbie Aguilar. Barbie Aguilar.

Barbie Aguilar.

Hi, my name is Barbie Aguilar. I'm a resident of Eastlake, but my friends and family live here in Cleveland Heights. I'm here today with Cleveland Heights for Immigrant Rights and Cleveland DSA. It's been more than a year since this council has ignored the rights and safety of their constituents. Not only have you failed to provide legal counsel to the people of your community who are racially targeted, and having their lives destroyed, you are now aiding and contributing to the mass surveillance state that threatens all of us. From Palestine to Cleveland, Ohio, the Imperial boomerang is coming back full circle to create and expand the surveillance state and the for-profit prison system. In Palestine, it was called Operation Where's Daddy? where they would target men who went home to their families so they could eventually kill them with drone bombs. Here in the United States, USCIS calls this operation ELITE, where they use the surveillance state to target people of color based on their skin, where they follow them home and target their families to accuse them of crimes and illegal immigration statuses. They're used by abusive law enforcement officers to stalk and target their ex-lovers. They're used to track all electronic devices that are passing within the vehicles. They're used to criminalize women looking for sanctuary and freedom for bodily autonomy outside of their home states. While Cleveland Heights consistently comes in at one of the highest taxed cities in Ohio, their council members continue to tell us there is no money to uphold the rights and dignity of their residents. They claim the surveillance state is being paid for to keep people safe, but we know that is not true, no more than the surveillance state kept the Palestinians safe. If the council is too afraid to stand up to this imperial fascist machine, we'll have no choice but to run candidates against them. While other cities and states move to end their contracts with flock and to provide legal counsel to immigrants who are being stripped of their statuses and left unprotected, let everyone in this room take special note of every council member who is upholding and protecting the authoritarian regime as they move to criminalize and profit on all of our suffering. And to the council members, stand up for human rights and constitutional law or get out of the way so someone else can.

Sammy Lawrence. Sammy Lawrence. No? Eileen Rammerman.

Good evening, council. My name is Eileen Rammerman and I live on Rutherford Road. I am here to support our city's flock safety cameras. I want to thank this council for passing strict legislation that limits data storage to now seven days. and prohibit sharing it with outside agencies for civil immigration enforcement. You have successfully protected our privacy, now we must protect our safety. These cameras are vital tools that help solve violent crimes. Look at what happened right here on Noble Road when Isaac Martin was shot and killed outside the Noble Food Deal. The suspects burned their getaway car to erase the trail. It was regional flock camera data that allowed detectives to identify the suspected shooter in another vehicle, ending a dangerous 72-hour manhunt. Without flock technology, an accused murderer might still be out on our streets. And because Council has already built privacy guardrails, we can confidently support this technology. Please continue standing behind our police and this camera system. And council, please continue to monitor responsible use of this technology to ensure that all residents' rights are respected. Thank you.

Tyrone Jemison.

My name is Tyrone Jimison. I've been a resident and a homeowner for 42 years on Elvin Road. And what has happened is, what is in question is a no parking anytime sign across the street from me and my neighbor at 971. I'm at 967. I questioned why it was erected over a month and a half ago, I couldn't get any answers. I was referred to in four departments and I still couldn't get an answer. So I'm trying to find out since it's there, who determined the same go up what is the range of no parking? Because there's no other sign on that side of the street from Monticello to Noble. And what is the range of no parking anytime? I mean, if someone lives at the corner of Monticello And the sign is in front of, like I said, in my house. Where do you, can you park? Where do you park? I mean, I don't understand what's going on. And who determined that that sign would go up? Mayor, we can look into this, right?

I'm sorry, could you tell me again where it's located, the address you're at?

My address is 967 Elvin Road. My neighbor is 971

but the- Is that Noble Road? Yes.

Elbon Road.

Elbon, okay.

Remember, Noble is Elbon spelled backwards.

Yes, it is. So I'm just trying to find- We'll follow up.

Did you give your contact info when you signed up to speak? I've got your info. Okay, okay. We can look into it and follow up with you.

Susan Wood.

Susan Wood, Edge Hill Road. I think it's obvious after all these voices, we are headed to a fascist future if we are not already there.

Thank you.

You are hearing from some really good voices tonight and I hope you listen. You are hearing from some really good voices tonight and I hope you are listening. I'm going to use my time to concentrate on reproductive freedom. We passed a constitutional amendment in 2023 in Ohio, the right to reproductive freedom. It was a lot of work and we can be proud of doing it in a red state. We are now a beacon for women, not only here, but in less enlightened states. Women come here to seek abortions and luckily for them, there are clinics and organizations that welcome them and make the process possible. But the barriers remain high and automated license plate readers like Flock threaten these individuals' fundamental rights. State surveillance used for reproductive oppression isn't new, but ALPR's unaccountable and dangerous system presents serious and immediate threats to our safety. Law enforcement agencies in anti-abortion states have used the national network to track drivers crossing state lines. Data from these nationwide networks can be searched by law enforcement to track individuals traveling for reproductive care or self-administered abortions in states where the procedure is restricted. The Guardian found in 2022 that some California police departments were sharing license plate reader data with states where abortion is banned, potentially in violation of California's own out-of-state data sharing laws. At the time, a flock executive said that the company's mission was to eliminate crime and that crime was defined by the state or municipality a camera operates in. But it's not only for abortion, a problem for abortion seekers out of state, but also in Ohio, where there is a threat of interpersonal danger for women from husbands or partners and for minors who may seek judicial bypass to obtain an abortion when there is no chance of support from their guardians.

Thank you, I'm sorry, your time is up.

Okay, I have one more sentence.

One sentence.

Thank you. Mayor Petras, unfortunately, there is no such thing as mass surveillance with guardrails. Please cancel our city's plot contract.

My name is Carly Whitaker. I live on Sylvania Road. So I want to talk about who actually profits from this contract because this isn't just a story about a well-funded startup. Flock's biggest investors are personally and financially tied to the same administration that is expanding immigration enforcement across this country. Flock's most recent funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz. His co-founder, Mark Andreessen, personally donated 2.5 million to a pro-Trump political group in 2024. Said publicly he was spending half his time at Mar-a-Lago advising the Trump transition on tech and economic policy, and volunteered as a recruiter for Trump's Department of Government Efficiency. That same funding round also included Founders Fund, the venture firm run by Peter Thiel. Thiel is not a casual political donor. He personally mentored J.D. Vance, introduced him to Donald Trump, and bankrolled his Senate campaign with $15 million, the largest single donation ever made to a Senate candidate in US history. Teal's closest allies now hold posts inside the Trump administration, and his other companies, Palantir and Anduril, have won billions of dollars in new federal contracts, including with the Department of Homeland Security, since Trump returned to office. This is not guilt by association. It is a direct financial relationship. The venture capitalists profiting from flocks growth are the same people with money, access and personal ties inside the administration carrying out the immigration enforcement this data could feed. When we ask whether Cleveland Heights residents are safe from that enforcement apparatus, these are the people we would be trusting to keep them safe.

Jimmy Hicks Jr. Jimmy Hicks, Jr. Jimmy Hicks.

All right. Evening, I didn't think I would be here for this, but Mayor Petras, just want to thank you for coming to my mom's funeral service. Really appreciate that. For Council Suicide Prevention Month, Just here listening to that, very supportive of that. I just did a funeral for a young man that committed suicide at age 21. And through that service had a lot of young people who had come up to me, they were thinking about suicide and I gave them Jeremiah 29 and 11. God said, I know the plans I have for you, plans for good, not for disaster, to bring you a future and a hope. And they needed to know that they have a future and a hope. Also, I'm a prostate cancer survivor. So thank you for that as well. When I got here, I received this form about flock. I thought it was about that, but it had like nine different things on here that I can really agree with eight. As I've been listening to this as a 53-year resident of the city of Cleveland Heights, I'm just looking at the clock. And a grandfather with six grandchildren. And I don't know if you ever heard that Amber alert go off. When you hear it go off, you really get sick. And if it ever went off with my grandkids, any of them, I would want the police to have everything they needed to track down who had my grandchild. And so, Mayor, keep amending. Council, you guys keep finding ways to make it better. But don't take away what we need to fight crime. human trafficking, drug trafficking, all kinds of crime. I gave the police department a license plate of a shooting that happened near the church and they caught them. So, you know, don't take away, I've been here 53 years, don't take away what's keeping me safe for whatever the cause may be, but listen to actual residents.

Graham Ball.

Good evening, Council, Mayor. My name is Graham Ball, I live on Bradford Road. And we cannot say that automated license plate readers are making us safer when the most vulnerable communities, the most vulnerable members of our community are being made less safe, right? And we've seen that from all of the data and the examples that have been given tonight. It doesn't make our community safer. You know, I'm also looking at this nine point proposal from Cleveland Heights from against rights. It's quite good. If anyone hasn't seen it is on their website under their legislative initiatives. All nine I think are excellent. In section two, it talks about changing the language from some laws front to citizen to community member. When I served on the Charter Review Commission for the City of Cleveland Heights a couple years ago, we made a similar adjustment in the charter to update the language, and this was approved by voters when it went to the ballot, where we changed citizen to resident. And we did that explicitly because the word citizen is excluding members of our community from our government, from the systems that are in place to keep us all safe. And so when we have public safety systems that exclude members of our community, then they don't make our community safer. We are a welcoming city. This is something that we've been for a long time. I think that was passed back in 2017. These things that we have in place for the charter, for our laws, they can't just be rhetoric. We've got to put our money where our mouth is. So please cancel this contract, support the legal representation fund, check out these nine points, read them over, they're easy to read. Thank you.

Erica Grazini's. Good evening, Council. Erica Grizenis, Yorkshire Road, Cleveland Heights. I am strongly against having flock or any other license plate surveillance technology in our community. A quote from the June 25th cleveland.com investigative article, over the past year, over 150 outside agencies tapped into Cleveland Heights flock system about 1700 times while using the search term immigration. Another 129 searches of Cleveland Heights flock data used the term protest, including no Kings protest, i.e. flock data is being used to find Cleveland Heights citizens speaking freely against the federal government, not just finding criminals. It allows agencies like ICE to track people of color and nefarious government agencies to track those that disagree with them. Flock is a private company that can share this data without our knowledge even with the so-called guard rails. As my neighbors have said, we do not own this data. We do not control who uses it despite what our contract may say. Allowing flock cameras to surveil our citizens means allowing outside agencies to track our every move, sometimes for bad reasons. There's no way for Cleveland Heights to reliably prevent these agencies from accessing our data, even with the guardrails. There are other data proven tools that police can use and spending money on these tools other than flock. I'm asking you to end the contract with flock or other surveillance cameras that are accessible to agencies outside our community. Thank you.

John Mark Wisniewski.

Hi, my name is John Mark. I'm a resident of Cleveland Heights. I live on Coventry Road. And I believe flock cameras are a violation of our privacy. Flock is a private company that is surveilling us and selling our information. And unlike stuff like GPS data, they don't need a warrant or court order to access this information. And there's dozens of real world examples of flock data that has been grossly misused. I believe Flock has found a legal loophole to profit by surveilling us and selling our information. And I also believe it's the responsibility of our local government to protect us from this. And I also have a completely unrelated topic. I don't have a script for this, so it might be kind of scatterbrained. But I think there's a parking problem in certain neighborhoods of Cleveland Heights. Specifically, I live in the neighborhood that is north of Mayfield in between Coventry and Superior. And they're like... there's generally just not enough parking for people. Like these are all multifamily homes that were probably originally built for a single family and also probably built before cars were popular. So like, you know, in my household, there's, There's six adults in this house and we pack our driveway full and it's so inconvenient for us. And you don't have to take my word for it either. You can like drive through these neighborhoods and you see people, you know, there's no street parking overnight in Cleveland Heights, but people are doing it anyway, because they have to. And I'm assuming these people are just like racking up tickets and people are like parking in their yards and ripping up the grass. And it's just not a good look overall. So I don't know what exactly the solution is, but like, I mean, I can say I personally would absolutely pay for an overnight street parking permit. So this is just another issue that I want to bring up to council. Thank you.

Anastasia Kariliuk.

Hello, my name is Anastasia. I'm a resident. I live on Coventry road near Mayfield, and I am also here to speak against flock. I urge you all the council and the mayor to end our contract as soon as possible and get rid of these cameras. They do not make me feel safe. In fact, I feel less safe living in Cleveland Heights with these cameras knowing how easily the data can be misused, how easily the data can be accessed by all kinds of parties that we don't know about. It feels like a huge violation of my privacy. And yeah, also I second the parking problem. Patricia Frost-Brooks.

Patricia Frost-Brooks, I live on Bainbridge Road and I come here to address some concerns about the over vegetation that is growing in our neighborhood also called weeds in the vacant lots that are behind the homes on Bainbridge. Specifically from maple, and Bainbridge all the way down to the end of the road. In the past years, Cleveland Heights has mowed these lots. They are not being mowed now. Myself and my neighbors have contacted MAC. Myself, I've done it three times by email, six times by voicemail, and I had no return messages or email messages. That is a disrespect to myself and to my neighbors. I then took one day and I met face to face with Mr. Walburn who, and he also told me that he contacted Director Butler about these concerns. And there was some in and out about who was responsible of mowing this lawn or these weeds. It is a system disrespect. As a resident of these overgrown weeds that are growing in these empty lots, I know This conversation has come up before. These lots are owned partially by the city of Cleveland Heights, and the majority of them are owned by the Hebrew Academy. If I am a resident and I had overgrown growth in my neighborhood on my property, I would be fined by the city of Cleveland Heights or told to mow this. Do not respect us and our neighborhood. Find a way to get these empty lots mowed. Thank you.

Pat, I'm sorry that you have reached out so many times and have not received a clear answer. I could talk with staff, get back to you. Also, you have my number. You know that you can always reach out to me. I'm sorry. I don't know the reason behind this, but we'll look into it and I'll follow up with you.

Mayor, I just want to say real quickly that this is one of my concerns about the transfer of public property from Parks and Rec. And maybe this is the housing. Housing, okay. I contacted them too.

Okay.

Alec Popovker.

Good evening, Mayor, President, Councilman. My name is Alec Popovker, Blanche, Cleveland Heights. Resolution 100, 2025, made fighting antisemitism city policy. With anti-Semitism rising sharply, the city now needs a plan with clear deadlines. I'm asking for four steps. First, investigate. Within 60 days, create a permanent social justice committee for every community facing hate or discrimination. It should hear residents review how the city handles complaints and report its findings publicly. Its first work should include complaints involving antisemitism and unequal treatment. Second, educate. Within 90 days, adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism and begin using it to educate city staff and the public. Antisemitism is not always easy to recognize. Education will help the city respond fairly and consistently without limiting free speech. Governor DeWine has encouraged local governments to adopt IHRA. Third, include funding in the 2027 city budget for Jewish heritage and culture program. Community relations should work with a Jewish led group of local residents and organizers. By May, 2027, the city should present Jewish American Heritage Month programs and begin an annual Jewish cultural and pride celebration. The program should also help the city provide properly certified kosher food, respect Shabbat and Jewish holidays, and support public Hanukkah events. Cleveland Heights supports Juneteenth and pride. Jewish residents deserve the same kind of public support. Fourth, preserve. Within six months, bring together the owners of Taylor Road Synagogue, Jewish organizations, preservation experts and residents. They should develop a public plan to keep its Jewish character and make it a living center for Jewish education and culture. These deadlines would turn Resolution 125 into action. Thank you, Alex. Educate, include, and preserve. Thank you. Thank you. I also want to say flock yes. The cameras protect us. And some people fearmonger American government just like they do Israel. That's just part of anti-Semitism that we are not seeing here. Thank you.

And also free Palestine.

Anthony Miozzi.

I'm Anthony, I live on Meadowbrook. Let's talk about public safety. We're gonna pick a handful of people in this room to follow each and every one of you. Write down your license plate, write down your car, where you go, who you talk to, everything you say for seven days, if that's the timeframe we're at now. If we're at seven days, we're gonna write that down, put it in a Google Sheet, and let anyone in this room, anyone in the town go through it, have access, search it. How does that make you feel? Does that make you feel good? No, no, it doesn't. Doesn't make me feel good. I've been here several times over the past couple months talking about this. You said something earlier. One data point is not a statistic in a city of, in a country of 350 million people. You didn't say that there was a flock helping a shooting in Texas earlier. No? Okay. Maybe I misheard. There was a recap downstairs and maybe I just misunderstood. I apologize. That was a misattributed quote. But either way, where is the proof that in a country of 350 million people, Flock does what it says other than just watch us by a billion dollar company who calls me a terrorist and everyone in this room a terrorist? There are better ways to do this and this isn't it.

That's all, Mr. President.

All right, thank you all. Certainly, I just wanna say that I do support the mayor's approach, but we have to be vigilant and I think he made a lot of really good points and I appreciate that. We're gonna move on to... Old business. Old business, is there any old business? After six weeks, any new business? Any new business? No, okay. All right, council member comments? Councilman Posh.

Well, I'd like to announce that Jessica Cohen and myself are hosting on Tuesday the 25th from 6.30 to 7.30 at the Caledonia Community Center, a listening and discussion. We're really here to listen to residents. People here tonight, they have questions. We can be more interactive in that kind of setting. Whereas in a public forum, we can't, but happy to talk to people. There will be ice cream. I do believe I'm gonna try to get kosher friendly ice cream as well as vegan ice cream. So I think we can check all the boxes to make it welcoming for all.

A lot of vegans in Cleveland. Anybody else, council comments? Oh, Vice President Larson.

Yeah, I will reiterate what you said about thanking everyone for coming tonight. I want you to understand that I will continue to support the mayor and his administration in how they monitor the flock data that's collected and that they're in their efforts to protect us. I feel safer in my neighborhood. because of these flock cameras. And I will continue to support his vigilance as he continues to look at these flock cameras, where they're located in the city, where they can do the most good. But there's been a crime or two that's been solved in my neighborhood because of the flock cameras. So thank you very much, Mayor.

All right, any other, yes, Councilwoman Collins.

On the West Coast right now. I wanted to just congratulate Amy Rosenbluth on her proclamation. I know from my husband, who's had numerous interactions with Lake Erie, Inc. for his students here in Cleveland Heights, that it's been an incredible resource. And also congratulate Philly Whedon on his proclamation. I was actually part of the planning commission that approved the conditional use permit for his gym. And every time I drive past it, it is hopping and people are going in and out. So very I'm very excited to see him honored today. Thank you, Mr. President.

You're welcome. Again, any other council comments, then I'll go to the president's report. I'll just say that I am, I missed this. I mean, we were off for six weeks and I, Love that we came back to a vibrant discussion about all kinds of issues tonight. Really appreciate you showing up. Really always appreciate this community. It's just always meaningful to be here and it's an honor to serve you all. And with that, this meeting is adjourned at 9.50.