City Council - Regular Meeting

I swear to God.

¶¶

I'm Samir Bankston. Would you lead us in the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, This evening, council is grateful to have my friend Pastor Arthur Davis from the Mount Nebo Baptist Church here to lead us in prayer. Pastor, thank you for being back to council with us.

Let us pray. Gracious and eternal God, we pause at the beginning of this meeting to acknowledge your presence and ask for your guidance. We thank you for the city of Columbus, for its people, its neighborhoods, its families, and for all who call this city home. Thank you for those who have accepted the responsibility of public service and for every person gathered here tonight with the desire to make our city stronger, safer, and better. God, we ask that you grant wisdom to the members of this council. Give them clarity in their decisions, compassion in their deliberations, and courage to do what is right, even when doing what is right is difficult. Remind them that behind every resolution, every ordinance, every decision, and every vote are real people whose real lives will be impacted by the work done in this chamber. May we never forget the voices that are too often unheard, the neighborhoods that too often feel overlooked, the families struggling to make ends meet, our children who deserve opportunity, our seniors who deserve dignity, and every resident who deserves to feel seen, valued, protected, and represented. Bless our mayor, our city council president, every member of the council, city employees, first responders, community leaders, and all who work each day for the good of Columbus. Thank you for every hand that worked to restore our city from recent storms. And Lord, we thank you for the protection of those underfed and unhoused that had to endure. Now tonight, God, where there is division, give us understanding. Where there is disagreement, give us respect. Where there is difficult decisions, give us wisdom. Where there are challenges facing our city, give us courage to confront them together. May the work accomplished here tonight move Columbus toward greater justice, greater opportunity, greater unity, and greater hope. Bless this meeting. Guide every decision. and every discussion. May all that is done ultimately serve the people of this great city. In your holy name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor. Clerk, please call the roll.

Bankston, Barrosa de Padilla, de Ock, Howard Dorns, Remy Ross, Vice President Hardin. Any person who takes any action to obstruct or interfere with the conduct of tonight's meeting may be charged with disturbing a lawful meeting pursuant to Columbus City Code 2317.12. Any person who enters those areas of city council chambers reserved for city officials or invited guests may be charged with criminal trespass pursuant to Columbus city code 2311.21. Can I get motion to dismiss with the reading of the journal? Clerk, please call the roll.

Are there any additions or corrections to the journal? Hearing none, the journal is approved and this week's communication received by the city clerk's office are listed on the agenda. and will be published in the city bulletin. Are there any other communications to be read into the record?

Not at this time.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. We are going a bit out of order today. Several, I think four of our nine council members have kindergartners this year who are going to starting school. Council Member Bankston had to step out last week for his son. Council Member Green is out tonight for parent-teacher conference, and I will be leaving as soon as we take our first vote to join my son for his Meet the Teacher. So thank you all, my colleagues, for that discretion, and thank you to the community for understanding. We are going to, are there any requests by members of council for the removal of an ordinance or resolution from the consent portion of the agenda? Hearing none, may we now have a motion to waive the reading of Title 30 legislation by the city clerk. Clerk, please call the roll.

Bankston, Barrosa de Padilla, de Ock, Howard Dorns, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President Hart.

Thank you. Will the clerk now read into the record ordinance numbers of 30 legislation on tonight's agenda for first reading?

In Finance and Governance, we have ordinances 2013, 2193, and 2258-2026. Economic Development and Small and Minority Business Committee, we have ordinances 2226, 2228, 2229, 2230, and 2231-2026. Public Service and Transportation Committee Ordinances 2088, 2094, and 2180, I'm sorry, 2118, 2165, 2175, and 2266-2026. Neighborhoods Recreation and Parks Committee Resolution 166X-2026. Workforce Education and Labor Committee Ordinances 2069, 2070, and 2079-2026. Health, Human Services, and Equity Committee Ordinance 2236-2026. Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee Ordinances 2086, 2210, and 2263-2026. Housing, Homelessness, and Building Committee Ordinances 2218 and 2294-2026. Public Utilities and Sustainability Committee Ordinances 1305, 2061, 2062, 2067, 2074, 2103, 2109, 2121, 2122, 2129, 2139, 2142, 2148, 2158, 2171, 2172, 2179, 2186, 2187, 2188, 2227, 2238, and 2247-2026. Zoning Committee, we have rezoning 1931-2026, variances 1932 and 2073-2026. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We don't have any speakers on the first reading portion of the agenda. The following ordinance appear on our agenda as consent. Would you read those into the record now? Yes. Resolutions of Expression 176X, 177X, 162X, and 163X-2026. Finance and Governance Committee, we have Ordinances 1653, 1960, 1969, 2032, 2084, 2085, 2140, 2159, 2217, 2255, 2259, 2269, 2276, 2285, 2290, and 2300-2026. Economic Development and Small and Minority Business Committee, Ordinances 2221, 2224, 2225, 2279, 2310, and 2311-2026. Public Service and Transportation Committee, Resolution 174X, 175X-2026. Ordinances 2102, 2106, 2183, and 2190-2026. Neighborhoods Recreation and Parks Committee, Resolution 167X-2026. Workforce Education and Labor Committee, Ordinance 2015 and 2027-2026. Health, Human Services, and Equity Committee, Ordinances 1939, 2093, 2144, 2146, and 2264-2026. Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee, ordinances 2119, 2143, 2147, 2157, 2219, 2220, and 2262-2026. Housing, Homelessness, and Building Committee, ordinances 2138, 2189, and 2241-2026. Public Utilities and Sustainability Committee, ordinances 2213 and 2261-2026.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Are there any questions or comments from the consent portion of the agenda? Hearing none, may I have a motion to approve for these items designated as consent? Clerk, please call the roll.

Bankstem, Barossa de Padilla, de Acower, Dorns, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President Hardin.

By voice, I apologize.

Yes, I'm sorry. There's Bankstem.

Yes, with the exception of Ordinance 2147-2026, from which I abstain. Barossa de Padilla. Yes.

Dayock Howard? Yes. Dorrance? Yes. Remy? Yes. Ross? Yes. Weish? Yes. President Hardin?

Yes, with the noted exception. The consent agenda is passed. We'll now proceed with the second reading of 30-day postponed emergency legislation. Like I said just a second ago, we're going to go out of order and go to the Rules and Policy Committee. Council members will go back to announcements and resolutions after we work through our two ordinances in the Rules and Policy Committee, but I chair that committee. And we have two pieces, Ordinance 2355-2026, as well as 2354-2026. Before I throw it over to Press Pro Tim to lead this portion, of our meeting and conversation, I'd like to say a few things about how we got here and where we are going. As Columbus grows, we talk a lot about issues like housing, transportation, zoning, economic development, and public safety, but foundational to all of those issues are issues like democracy, transparency, representation, and governance. Democracy is not static, and good government requires us to periodically step back and ask whether the structures we created are still serving their purpose. As our city grows, we need to give more folks a seat at the table, and making sure that every neighborhood has a champion so that our growth benefits everyone is a top priority. And that's why we're here today, to take a bold step toward change. First, and sincerely, we want to congratulate Our City, Our State. The work that you have done over the last year, talking to more than 23,000 of our residents. It can only be applauded. You saw an issue, you went out and did the work, you advocated. I don't think there was a festival or a grocery store that I went to that somebody did not come up to me with a petition. That was good work, and you got us to this point, and sincerely we say congratulations. And then secondly, I also wanted to thank them for, after they got there, the legislation or initiative to the ballot, essentially, they also were not afraid to come and have conversations with council. And for seven weeks or so, members of the coalition and members of this body sat in a hot room upstairs and tried to figure this thing out. And so I want to thank them for that. I think those conversations were in good faith, and I think that it was a good use of our time. With that, I also want to thank my colleagues, many of whom joined those meetings and joined those conversations. Those were led by Press Pro Tim Dorans, but specifically Council Member Bankston and Borosa de Padilla, but most of our colleagues that sat in those. And it led to where we are today. We ultimately couldn't get to one single ballot measure, but they did encourage us to submit one to complement theirs, and we'll do that this evening. I want to be very clear. I support putting both measures before Columbus voters. I will be voting for both, and I will encourage folks to vote for both because I said it the other day. My mentor, former Mayor Coleman, said that a city that stays the same falls behind. This is an opportunity for us to take a step forward together that I believe will continue to build trust in this institution, in this body, as well as being common sense in how we continue to govern for an entire city. I am very proud of this process and how we got here. With that, I'm going to kick it over to our leader on this, Press Pro Temp.

Well, thank you, Council President. I think a lot of my comments are going to echo yours. But as I said earlier, tonight is a historic evening at Columbus City Council. We as a body, but more importantly as a community, are coming together to make a decision on how this legislative body should be structured moving into the future. While the votes we're taking tonight are on new proposals, this debate is certainly not new. It's one that for more than a century has been debated by council members and the community. During this past year, I've heard a lot of ideas and opinions about what people in Columbus think would be best for our city. First, allow me to acknowledge, as I have in the past, that our current system must change. In that change, personally to me, I personally support moving the majority of council seats to true district representation. Again, echoing President Hardin's comments, I want to thank and congratulate the RCDR State Coalition for their work to ensure that we move forward to real reform on this aspect of council structure. Again, I also appreciate the good faith dialogue, even if it was in a hot room over many weeks with both representatives from their coalition and council members towards a potential framework that both they and council could support. In those discussions, we identified, I think, key variables that we need to be addressed in order to build a clear, more transparent, and ultimately fair council system. Again, while those discussions did not result in us being able to advance a single joint proposal to voters this fall, I appreciate the coalition inviting council to move forward its own charter amendment on this topic so long as it did not conflict with theirs. I've worked very hard over the past several weeks with my colleagues in an attempt to do just that. Council's proposal seeks to complement the Our City, Our State proposal in a number of ways, adding a total of four at-large seats to the nine district seats established by the coalition charter amendment. These at-large seats will be phased in over the 2027 and 2029 election cycles. We've heard from leaders in the African-American community and labor leaders that these seats are important for racial representation and to have elected leaders that are focused on policy issues that know no neighborhood boundary, like addressing homelessness, building more affordable housing, targeting infrastructure investments to neighborhoods with the greatest need, and more. Council's amendment will also redraw the council district maps as soon as practically possible, slated to be ready for the 2029 election cycle. While we further debate over how these maps may or may not have an impact on minority representation on council, we should all be able to acknowledge that learning from the lessons of how these maps were drawn previously are critical to ensure that new maps and district lines are better suited for representation concerns as they become true district seats. In our discussions with the coalition, we also talked a lot about the need for campaign finance reform to go along with these changes to council structure. And that's why I'm announcing that at our meeting on August 31st, I will bring forward legislation to reduce campaign finance contributions by half, for the first and for the first time, cap in-kind transfers between campaign committees. We will have that on first read on the 31st with expected passage in September. Before I open things up to my colleagues and move into public testimony, I again want to thank their coalition for their willingness to engage and many other constituencies that have got us here tonight. While I know there are many things that we may disagree about on the pathway forward tonight, I believe that this council has tried its best to listen and to learn and lean into an effort to build a system that hopefully ended a debate that has endured for decades. Thanks to the RCDRSA leadership for taking a chance by engaging with us meaningfully and directly. It would have been easy for folks to avoid this dialogue. But you all did the hard thing in helping to try and find a pathway that sought to address the concerns articulated by those outside of your coalition. Tonight, as President Hardin is as well, I will be a yes vote on both of these charter amendments. I'll be a yes vote this fall at the ballot box, and I'll be encouraging both my colleagues and all residents and voters in our community to do exactly the same as we head towards this fall's election. With that, I want to pause and open it up to my council colleagues. Councilor Brostadeputia.

Thank you, President Pro Tem Dorns. I did write... Let's see how this goes, friends. Okay, I was going to talk in first draft, but I did write something, so I'm probably going to go off script just a little bit. First, I want to say how grateful I am to the Our City, Our Say Coalition. and the more than 200 volunteers who gathered literally thousands of signatures to put this effort on the ballot. I also want to thank and acknowledge the longtime community leaders and advocates who have carried this fight for representation forward for decades. I believe that change only happens but for the people, and this is a perfect example of that. And in November, the people will have their say. I'm proud to support Our City, Our Say because Columbus residents deserve a city council that is more directly accountable to the people and the neighborhoods it serves. I've listened to long-time community leaders, communities of color, neighborhood advocates, and residents across Columbus who have been asking for greater representation and for continued leadership that reflects the communities we serve. And though those voices matter, and after years of advocacy for real district representation, I believe we have a responsibility to listen and to act. Our city, our say, is an important first step toward building a more accountable and representative city hall. And at the same time, I believe we must continue the work of ensuring our system protects the voting power of communities of color, keeps neighborhoods meaningfully represented, and gives us the tools to address challenges that affect the entire city. I was proud of the work that we did together with my colleagues and the negotiating team for our city RSA. While we went through the process of challenging ideas and concepts and pushing for progress, it was inspiring to see diverse perspectives at the table planning for a better Columbus for all of us. I was also cleanly aware of the voices that for a myriad of reasons had not been at the table to share their concerns. And at such a critical time when we are restructuring how our city operates, it felt imperative to me to not leave options on the table as we discuss representation and campaign finance and access issues that would give us even closer to more accountability and equity and representation. And that's why I support this approach. It's a yes and. Nine district elected members, additional at-large representation, and an independent process to redraw our district map so they make sense for our people. We can strengthen neighborhood accountability while preserving the ability to tackle citywide challenges together. For me, this is ultimately about who government works for. It should empower the people, not protect the people who hold office. And I trust that our people, the people of Columbus, know what their communities need. They deserve to know who is accountable to them and to have the power to demand change when our government falls short. And I believe that this is an important step forward to a more accountable representative city hall. And now it's time to let the people decide.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Any other comments? Council Member Bankston?

you president pro tim again thank you for your leadership on this i'll be brief and not to echo i think what my colleagues said but just wanted to again echo thanks to our city rsa for coming to that table i said this at the hearing and i think what i hope they came away with i know i did was that this wasn't about political points or or posturing it was really about folks coming together who cared about the direction of this city and so i want to thank them because it's because of that simple fix getting to districts why we're now here to have a broader conversation about comprehensive election reform that I believe will stand the test of time and shape this city so again thank you to our city our say and I echo and say this that I will be voting yes on both issues I will go proudly to my party and to other folks and ask them to endorse both issues because it I think is going to take both issues for us to really bring that comprehensive election reform to this community for the next generation of Columbus residents. So again, thank you, Council President, for your leadership. Thank you again to the residents for lifting your voices and pushing us to be here.

Any other comments from Council Member White?

First, I will echo the congrats to the Our City, Our State folks. As one of the signers, I was happy to see that you guys are moving forward with the ballot initiative. I think even at the time, though, I was pretty clear and felt like that was not enough to address a lot of the concerns. I'm happy to see that we're doing the campaign finance stuff. I'm happy to see that we'll have an at-large view of the city. But I want to encourage us not to be stagnant. What has been done is good. There is more that needs to be done. This is not a part-time job. It needs to be a full-time job. So I would be one in favor of us seeing another Charter Review Commission at some point in time to get us to that point. But I do want to congratulate you, President Pro Tem, and all the work kind of going back and forth because it is not easy to negotiate with folks. especially when there is an assumption that trust is not there, right? And so who wants to show their cards first? I'm glad we got to this resolution, but I just want to encourage us to say there is more we should be doing, and this should not be the only time that we change our system. Like, it should be fluid to kind of move with the growth of the city.

Thank you, Council Member. Any other comments from colleagues? Seeing none, as the Council President said, we're doing a few things out of order. And since we have, I think, a number of speakers that are seeking to speak on both Ordinance 2355 and 2354, We're just going to actually have speakers sort of come up at one time for both before I ask for a vote of my colleagues. So I'm going to call folks a little bit out of order just to make sure we have some semblance of keeping things in line here. But first, I want to ask Mr. Jesse Vogel and Mr. Maitland Neff to come forward as they are representing the Our City, Our State coalition here this evening with us. Welcome back, council gentlemen.

Good afternoon, Council President Hardin, Pro Tem Dorans, and members of Council. My name is Maitland Neff. I am proud to be here tonight on behalf of Our City, Our Say, a nonpartisan coalition of individuals and organizations representing varying areas of advocacy that has, since its inception, been rooted in the belief that everyday people deserve a meaningful voice in the decisions that shape the communities we call home. Government should not be static or unchanging. their structures should adapt to better represent the interests of the public. In this case, our proposed charter amendment is simple, to have only the people who actually live in each of our nine districts vote on the council person who represents them. Nationally, Columbus is an outlier. Among the 30 largest cities, we are the only one in which the majority of people may vote for a candidate who does not represent them. This summer, I spoke with over 1,500 residents who understand that this system is not working for them and they are not being heard. We believe that this change will be one step towards ensuring our local government is beholden to the struggling and disenfranchised many rather than the wealthy few who may have the financial means to fund citywide campaigns and as a result have an outsized influence on politics and governing decisions in Columbus. We also recognize that council intends to place its own charter amendment on the November ballot. We want to be clear, we do not view this measure as standing in direct contradiction to ours. Instead, we see this as an opportunity for both choices to be placed before Columbus voters and for the people to have the final say on how they want their city council to be structured moving forward. However, I would like to focus my remaining remarks on the citizen-led initiative of Our City, Our Say and the significance of this moment for the people of our city. Tonight marks a historic moment in the pursuit of meaningful municipal representation in Columbus. By formally referring the Our City, Our State proposal to the ballot, council has ensured that this decision will not be made behind closed doors, but will ultimately be placed in the hands of Columbus voters. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the more than 250 volunteers who knocked on doors, stood outside of coffee shops, attended events at Bicentennial Park, at Pride, Confess, Juneteenth, and more, in the rain and summer heat to have this conversation with Columbus, one person at a time. This includes one volunteer who knocked on the door and spoke to an individual who was part of an effort to deliver district representation in 1975. 23,188 people took the time to sign this petition in near unanimous agreement that our local democracy needs to be more accountable and responsive to the concerns of residents and neighborhoods in our city. We hope that all council members will publicly support the Our City, Our Say campaign, as some of you already have to varying degrees, including a special thank you to Council Member Green for her recent statement in support of our initiative. We look forward to working with and being in community alongside City Council and to all those who believe in a government that is of, by, and for the people of Columbus. We're also asking that Columbus vote yes on our charter amendment. We are excited to continue engaging in this voter registration and awareness campaign in the months leading up to November 3rd. We will continue to meet residents where they are at, in their neighborhoods, community events, and door-to-door. Please join us in this effort. We would love to stand alongside of you. Thank you.

Good evening, council members. and good evening to all those in the chamber and watching online. My name is Jesse Vogel and I am a member of the Our City, Our Say Coalition along with Maitland Neff standing next to me. I too want to celebrate what Our City, Our Say has done, giving Columbus voters the opportunity to have a city council where each member is elected in their district by the district to have the council member of their choosing. Congratulations to the coalition partners, the 17 organizations, the over 250 people who gathered over 23,000 signatures in just 115 days in a few months. Today, council is taking this required procedural step of referring our city, our state's proposal for nine real districts to the November ballot. And that is because of the organizing that this coalition has done. I must say, I know firsthand something about the importance of this change. As a candidate for city council last year, I heard questions and concerns about our system, where a council member is elected to represent a district, but the whole city votes. It doesn't make sense to voters, it sows distrust, and it makes accountability hard. The result in last year's election, where I won more votes in the district and came up short citywide, I think it's safe to say is one that no one wanted. But that result provided an opportunity for this dialogue, and hopefully for some change. And I'm grateful for the organizers and volunteers who have taken that opportunity and run with it, building truthfully on decades of advocacy around this issue for real words. We have a moment in politics, and we can take it or not take it, and we all have decided to take it. I don't take that for granted. Today, in addition to referring Our City, Our State's proposal for nine districts to the ballot, this council plans to vote to refer another measure to the ballot for voters' consideration, which in addition to providing nine real districts would add four at-large seats phased in over four years, initiate a public process for looking at the maps, and reducing the number of signatures required to get on the ballot for a district seat. This council's leadership has also provided an opportunity to take a look at campaign finance rules and make some change. I agree, Council Member Weish, on all kinds of issues, more is needed. To those who are skeptical of the decision to refer something else to the ballot, adding at-large seats in the coalition that I've been working with, I hear you. I've been frustrated to watch at times local government make choices that prioritize at times big money interests over the needs of real people in our city. I don't like that either, and I believe that these at-large races at times can contribute to that disconnect. And yet I also believe that this choice to put something on the ballot that also provides the change that our city, our state has been demanding, nine real districts, you all are voting on that as well, that demonstrates the power of this coalition's work. I believe it reflects as well how one might expect a representative democracy and local government to work. People organize for a change. Others express concerns and additional demands, and elected officials respond. The concerns shared by some union leaders, faith leaders, and black community leaders that we have heard throughout this discussion are genuine concerns, and I believe that this body's effort to incorporate those concerns is in good faith, and that this whole thing reflects some progress. Ultimately, we all know what we need is not just a council structured that provides greater accountability and more responsiveness and more democracy, but a council that delivers all of that. So the work of the organizers, including those here in this room tonight, those outside this hall earlier, advocating not just on council structure, but on other issues, that work must and will continue. The people in November will decide our council structure, and then it's up to all of us to continue to build a city that works better for all. So thanks.

Thank you both. The next speaker to come for council on these charter amendments is Mr. Will Harvin.

Good evening, President Hardin, Pro Tem Dorns, members of City Council, Columbus City Council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Will Harmon and I am the president of Ask Me Local 1632. Last week, I submitted a statement that was presented before you all and asked this council to maintain some form of at-large representation on council to make sure that council could maintain a citywide view while making needed changes to stay responsive to the people of Columbus. Today, I am here in person. I am happy to say that in Labor's view, this amendment helps to accomplish that. Columbus is one of the fastest growing cities in the country, and the problems we face are growing right along with us. the expansion of flock cameras across our neighborhoods, the desperate need for more housing, and a state and federal government that seem more interested in making our job harder than helping us do it. None of those problems stop at a district line. They are citywide challenges, and my members need a council that can see the whole picture as well as they see the small details. Adding four at-large seats over two election cycles is a smart, measured approach to make sure that we can keep that whole picture view. It prevents too big of a change too quickly. It avoids having to draw straws to see who goes up for reelection first, and it makes sure that at no point do the at-large members control council. They will be just another voice on it. I also want to mention how I appreciate that this amendment calls for the district map to be redrawn in 2027. As many people have mentioned, the current maps were not designed to be voting districts, just equally sized chunks of the city to avoid one neighborhood electing all of council. So getting that redraw on the books is an important step toward making sure this council actually reflects the city it represents. A lot of attention has been put on to the importance of a simple solution. And I think that this is a much more complex problem than what people are giving it credit for. So I want to thank you all for this reasonable, thoughtful approach. We urge council to move forward with this amendment. Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, President Harmon. Any questions from council? Seeing none, thank you for being here. Appreciate it. The next speaker to come for council is Mr. Willis Brown. Is Mr. Brown with us? Please let the record reflect that Mr. Wells-Brown was not here. Next speaker is Ms. Rachel Wenning. Ms. Wenning here. Don't see her either. Next speaker to come for counsel is Kaz Camara. Mr. Camara here. Please let the record reflect that Mr. Camara is not here. I know I saw Mr. Nathaniel Wilkins. Mr. Wilkins. Mr. Wilkins. Welcome back to council, sir.

Thank you for having me. 1612 Arlington Avenue, Mr. Latham, George Wilkins. First of all, I would love to see a larger district. And let me tell you why I suggested 13 city council members and five large seats. I think four large seats is not ethical. We're also leaving out the multidisability people, visually impaired, and multi-handicapped. 13 seats will represent the whole entire city and having not four seats, but another seat that's what represent to multi-disability people, the hearing impaired, and multi-handicapped. This is a good idea to step along with the city of Columbus, why the city is still growing. The reason why I suggest this, my own ideas, is because I took and bought a house in Linden, and I came through all of this. And instead of having this like this, this is an old book I printed back in, 2007 I got some books like this and so again see my neighborhood not to be this this empty empty properties torn up properties that's what I see every day and so with this idea we want to bring city council four steam ahead with 13 city council members and five seats at large that's dealing with Domestic violence problems from properties and things businesses going under properties that's falling in disrepair. So again, I'm all for this. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Wilkins. We do have a couple of other speakers. Is there a Miss Becky Walcott with us? Believe Miss Walcott's with us is Miss Sarah Cherry with us. Believe that those are all the folks that had signed up to speak on either charter amendment. I do want to pause and see if any of the folks, Ms. Rachel Wenning, Mr. Wells-Brown, Mr. Kaz Kimura, Ms. Becky Walcott, Ms. Sarah Cherry, if any of those folks are in chambers. I am not seeing anyone. So we will move on to the legislation. First is ordinance number 2354-2026. To submit to the electors of the city of Columbus a special election to be held concurrently with a regular general election on November 3rd. The question of amending the charter of the city of Columbus. Such question shall be known as proposed charter amendment number one, city council district elections. Do my colleagues have any questions or comments? Seeing none, I move for passage.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Is it 2, 3, 5, 4? We're doing 2, 3, 5, 4 first.

4, 5, 4. Bankston, Perosa de Padilla, de Ockhour, Dorns, Remy, Ross, White, President Hardin.

Pass. Thank you. Next, we move to ordinance number 2355-2026 to submit the electors of the City of Columbus a special election to be held concurrently with a regular general election on November 3rd, 2026. The question of amending the charter of the City of Columbus, such question to be known as proposed charter amendment number two, City Council at large compliments. Do any of my colleagues have any questions or comments? Seeing none, I move for passage. Click.

Oh, I'm sorry. First, I move as submitted to the clerk.

Second. Clerk, please call the roll. Amended. Now I move for passage as amended. Second. Clerk, please call the roll.

Passed. Thank you, my colleagues.

We'll now go back into somewhat irregular order. I'm going to throw things over to Council Member Ross for a special recognition.

Thank you.

Council Member Ross.

Thank you, President Pro Tem Dorans. If I could ask for representatives from our Division of Fire, representatives from our Division of Police, representatives from our Department of Rec and Parks, our Department of Public Health, from Team Rubicon, representatives from Tent City Showers, representatives from Columbus Water and Power, and the Department of Neighborhoods. Could you all come to the front for me? I hate to call you out, but I need to call you out. If you are already here, you can stand up, would you, please? Thank you. Yes, thank you so much, Edward Jones, for standing. And are we still waiting? Is David?

Is he gathering other folks?

Yes, there are. There you are. Department of Public Service, could you also please stand? Thank you. Department of Development, could you also please stand? Thank you. Ten City Showers, did you guys make it in? Could you all come up for me, please? Thank you. You might as well stand. I asked for both divisions to stand, but yes, Public Safety can also stand. Thank you. Do we have members of Team Rubicon here? OK. I'll hold tight. Now I'm making you guys stand up for a long time, and I apologize. Chief, is Team Rubicon actually coming in, or are they on their way to City Hall? Okay. I don't want to keep people standing for too long. All right. I'm going to start, and then we'll When Team Rubicon comes in, we can just give them a round of applause. How about we do that? So for the past several weeks, we have been dealing with an extraordinarily difficult and devastating issue for the city of Columbus, being hit by tornadoes, harsh winds, and storms. And the recent weather emergencies have left many residents without power, food, personal belongings, and in some cases, a place to call home. My thoughts and prayers are certainly with every individual and family who has been affected. And it's oftentimes during disaster and crisis that the strength, resilience, and preparedness of our city are put to the test. Having been at the forefront of crisis in our community, I knew immediately that we needed to lean in and come together and galvanize as much support as possible to assist our neighbors in their time of need. I'm deeply grateful to my colleagues on city council who have stepped forward in countless ways such as organizing cleanups, making calls, canvassing communities, listening to resident stories, advocating for resources for support, standing in the gap, brainstorming solutions, and deploying a coordinated response, and being boots on the ground. I want to also extend my sincere appreciation to my team for their dedication, for leaning in, and for working alongside me throughout this response. Also like to recognize, in particular, Councilmember Lourdes Barrosa de Padilla and her team, Councilmember Weish and his team, Councilmember Green and her team for their tireless efforts and commitment to our residents. And I'd also like to surprise someone. Is she around? Is Catherine Cole here? Are on their way. We'll do that later. We'll do that later. Let me take a moment to recognize our first responders and the many organizations and businesses that have answered the call to serve our residents, including our administration, the Division of Police, the Division of Fire, the Department of Building and Zoning Services. You were supposed to come up, Director Salabrizi, Director Messer. Thank you for standing. Our Department of Code Enforcement, Department of Neighborhoods, Columbus Water and Power, Department of Public Service, Department of Safety, Team Rubicon, BESA, Soul Classics, Legal Aid, Charity Newsies, Southeast Lions, CME Bank, McDonald's, and the Mendoza Company. Your partnership and compassion and commitment have made such a meaningful difference in this time. And to Tent City Showers, thank you. To Team Rubicon that is coming in right now, round of applause. Thank you so much. These are... a group of volunteers that came into our community, answered the call without hesitation to support our residents. And we are so thankful and so grateful to each and every one of you for all that you have done for the residents of this city. And certainly while the tornadoes have passed and the flooding has seemingly subsided, we're gonna cross our fingers. Many people are beginning to find their way back toward a sense of normalcy. What I do also know is that far too many of our neighbors are still without the necessities that they need to recover and rebuild. And so our work here is not done. And so while I am thankful of everything we have done to now, I certainly appreciate our continued partnership in the days to come to ensure that all of our residents are able to start over and to stabilize as we continue this work. So thank you. to everyone. And before I wrap, I want to just give a little bit of an update and brag on behalf of Team Rubicon. As of today, they have removed 35,000 cubic feet of debris. They have served over 80 families at 80 different unique locations. And they have generated over 145 different work orders in response to this disaster. So Ralph, Team Rubicon, again, we applaud you. Tent City Showers, to the administration and all of the directors who have stepped up to provide a coordinated response, thank you so much. To residents, if you are still in need of support and if you are still in need of help, Team Rubicon will be here through August 30th. You are free to call 614-645-3111 if you need support, if you need help. They will deploy volunteers. They are not asking for information other than your name, where you live, and what kind of help you need. So if you need help, please, please reach out to them. They are incredible human beings who have stepped up to help our city in a mammoth way. And so at this point in time, I would ask all of my colleagues if we could just stand up and give a round of applause to everyone who has helped us during this time. I have a partner in crime, and her name is Catherine Cole. I have not seen someone step up in such a big way ever in my time as both a city attorney and even as my short period of time as a council member. I mean, I'm talking spending her own resources on I'm talking spending over 12, 14-hour days to coordinate our volunteers. I'm talking 6 a.m. in the morning serving food, coming back for lunch, coming back for dinner. So, Catherine Cole, if you could just come up here and allow us to thank you in a big, big, big way. Thank you. Catherine, you are the epitome of what public service is and should be. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for the long days, the long hours that you have worked to support council and to support the residents of this community. You are absolutely necessary. We would not know what we would do without you, and we appreciate all that you have done. Thank you all.

Council Member.

Before I wrap with this recognition moment, do I have any comments?

Yes, Council Member Ross, I just also wanted to say, I just also wanted to thank you for your leadership. I think one thing that we are learning as a city is that we talk about how Columbus is growing, we talk about how we need to pivot a lot, but we don't also talk about the conditions of the world and how they're rapidly changing. You know, we have seen some of the worst

no storms this year.

We have seen high temperatures this year. We have seen record rainfall this year. And so I think as a city, one muscle that we are building is how do we respond? And so understanding, you know, in the midst of this storm, there were many things happening from folks being displaced to trees that folks can't take care of. We want a tree canopy, but when you have a 40 foot tall tree. It's expensive to take care of. And so there's lots of questions that we're grappling with as a city. And so I just want to thank you for your leadership of stepping into those gaps of working from the council side of figuring out how we could meet, especially for you and I, where. you know, some of the hardest hit places were in your district and in mine. I also just want to thank Team Rubicon. This is, first of all, they have served our country as veterans, but then decided to serve, and they're coming to different places. They're sleeping on cots. We're providing you good meals, but still. which Catherine has been instrumental in getting to all of you. But, you know, I was an AmeriCorps volunteer, so I know what this is like when you're working in disaster relief and traveling to different places. And so I just really want to thank you for your service. I think that this is, when we talk about communities coming together to stack hands, you know, from BESA to we talked about folks giving us not just meals for folks here, but meals for folks at the shelter, the Red Cross, shoes for kids who are starting their first day. Imagine. that your first day of school comes and you're sleeping in a gym in one of our rec centers. And that was a reality that some of our families are facing. And I know that there are still folks out there, because in a city of a million people, it's sometimes hard to find the resources that are there. But just please know, if folks are seeing this, Please continue to call 311. Please continue to call to these folks who we have for another week or so in our city so that we can continue to address the issues. But I think that this is also just a moment for us as a city to really build this muscle of how we're showing up for our folks as the world is really rapidly changing. So thank you again for your leadership and thank you for all of our colleagues who pitched in at different times.

Absolutely. Thank you, Councilmember. Any other comments, questions? All right, one last round of applause for all of you. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts.

Thank you, Councilmember Ross. I think we're gonna get ourselves back in regular order. Do you have anything, any other announcements?

I did, but I didn't know how we wanted to.

Why don't we just go around? So we'll go ahead and get back in a regular order, go back around the dais.

We're here with the Safety Not Surveillance Coalition, and we are here to deliver our written signatures. We have just about 700 signatures, and we will not be ignored.

Yeah, if you could hand those to staff. David, you take those. We'll make sure that all the councilmen.

Can we see them give it to you? Sure.

Here, bring them over here. Thank you.

Thank you.

Pass it down.

Excuse me, Ms. Ross and Saturday.

Had a good time, didn't we?

Thank you very much. All right. Back into regular order. We'll go around for announcements. Council Member Bankston.

Well, good evening, everyone, and welcome back to council. Again, echoes of thanks and gratitude to our first responders as well. A couple announcements from me this evening. First, I want to discuss our voice, our choice budget. We have one week left for idea collections and so excited to see what has come in so far. Right now, we have over 350 ideas that have been submitted. And I can confidently say that the engagement so far has been incredible, and I've thoroughly enjoyed reading the great ideas submitted on the platform. A lot of them over a million dollars, but we'll figure that out in the next phase. Next Monday, August 31st, and again, I want to say that you have until the 28th to submit those ideas. So please go on to the website, submit those ideas, work with our community-based organizations to get those in. Next Monday, August 31st, we'll be stepping into the most critical phase of this entire process, and that is the proposal development phase. And we need you to help lead it as a budget delegate or a budget facilitator. As we have said throughout this entire process, participatory budgeting is really about the people and making sure that they are involved every step of the way. Budget delegates will work with city staff and experts to evaluate those community ideas that we've been gathering, check the feasibility, and transform those raw suggestions into fully cost proposals ready for residents to vote on later this year. Our budget facilitators will mediate these discussions to help keep them inclusive, fair, and focused, and make sure that it reaches the essence of the proposals themselves. Budget delegates and facilitators are truly the backbone of this next phase, so we need your leadership and expertise and community ideas to come together to make the final ballot. So please, if you are interested in being a budget delegate or a budget facilitator, it's really simple. Just check the volunteer box when you submit an idea online. You can apply at common.oneproject.org slash Columbus or email us at participatorybudgeting at columbus.gov to confirm your interests, or with any questions you may have. Please lean in and volunteer to ensure that we can continue the success that we have seen so far. So really looking forward to, again, those ideas coming to fruition and voting on them later this year. I also want to get ahead of September. September is Sickle Cell Awareness Month, and we'll be kicking it off here in the city of Columbus. As many of you know from me, this is very personal. My wife Habiba lives with sickle cell disease, and sickle cell disproportionately affects black and brown communities across the country. In fact, one out of every 365 black children that are born in this country lives with the disease. And also Latino communities are impacted as well, so how fitting in September for us to both celebrate both of those milestones of Latino Heritage Month as well as Sickle Cell Awareness Month. So join me on Thursday, September 3rd. The City of Columbus is partnering with the American Red Cross for our Sickle Cell Awareness Month kickoff blood drive. at the Fran Ryan Center from 12 to 6 p.m. And this will not be your typical blood drive. Okay, we're going to have a good time, y'all. So if you get what they say is deferred and you can't give the day, stick around because we're going to have a DJ. We'll have a mocktail bar. That means no alcohol for folks that don't want to mocktails yet. Okay, you can't drink and give blood. Okay, but I got some juice for you. There will be free health screenings and also a chance to connect with local health organizations. during that day. Again, we're really excited. We want to bring some energy to this. I always say this, that when it comes to the blood supply, we are the chain. We are the supply chain for that. And so when we talk about shortages and we talk about that, it's our responsibility to step up for our neighbors and to give blood. So one donation, one hour of your time, it can save up to actually three lives. So please join us September 3rd at the Fran Ryer Center, and let's show up for our neighbors together. Again, that's the kickoff to the blood drives. As always, every year in September, we will have different blood drives throughout the entire city. I want to say thank you in advance to all of our city employees. Every single year, you guys knock it out of the park and we exceed our goals. And so thank you, thank you, thank you. We're showing up for our neighbors every single day, showing up for our neighbors when we're in the midst of crisis, like extreme weather, but also just showing up by giving blood and saving lives. You guys are amazing. So with that, that's all I have.

Thank you, Councillor Murray-Bakeson. Councillor Brostaday-Padilla.

Thanks, Pro Tem. Just a few announcements. First, welcome back to school for all of our kiddos who started last week. It's funny, as we have many kindergartners starting, I have a college student who's starting. So sending love to all the people who sent out their babies to colleges all around the country. um but with that now that school is back in session this is just another reminder to all of our drivers that we are going to in the mornings and in the after school time that there will be young people actually we just have a great sidewalk project that we're going to talk about in just a little bit but we are going to have more young people on our roads riding their bikes to school walking to school etc so just be aware of your surroundings especially in our neighborhoods as our kids are walking to and from school we want everyone We always want everyone to get to where they're going safely and get back home safely, but especially during this time of the year. That also goes for our college campuses that have been a little quiet, especially at OSU when you're traveling down High Street. Watch out for all of those pedestrians. Also, I want to... September's a funky month because we don't have a lot of council meetings. So coming up, it is Latino Heritage Month. Thanks for the tee-up, Councilmember Bankston. Please save the date for September 17th, We will be hosting the Padrino Ceremony and the Illumination for Latino Heritage Month here at Columbus City Hall. I also want to congratulate Festival Latino that celebrated this past weekend in a new venue, which... unfortunately was moved because of some things that were happening in our community to make our community feel a little safer. But it was a tremendous success. So I want to thank everyone who came out to support our Latino businesses. We had a record number of Latino businesses that were local representative at Festival Latino this year. And so we want to keep that energy going. So make sure you join us on the 17th and on October 3rd for our big Latino Heritage Month event, La Feria. You'll be hearing much more. If you don't follow us on social media, please look up Latino Heritage CBUS.

That's all for me.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Day-Achauer. Thank you, President Pro Tem. First, I would like to... make everybody aware that we have our last two Rise Up CBUS events happening this year. This will be on August 27th at Coleraine Elementary, and the other will be on September 10th at First Church of God, and both of these will take place from 4.30 to 7.30 p.m. As always, these are free, family-friendly, outdoor community gatherings hosted by the Department of Neighborhoods. There will be complimentary meals, live music, local performances and children's activities like games or bounce houses. Additionally, residents can engage one-on-one with city staff and community partners to navigate municipal programs, utility resources, and safety initiatives. So mark your calendars and let's close out this summer season of community events aimed at building up our community ties. Secondly, my Getting Grant Ready Academy initiative has been accepting applications from eligible nonprofits since the beginning of August. and will continue through the end of the month. As a reminder, this program is a no-cost, nine-month program for young grassroots Columbus nonprofits looking to create sustainability and build a diversified funding foundation that doesn't depend solely on government funding. You can head to the Council's social media pages or my social media to learn more and get the link to apply, or you can contact my office if you have any questions. And finally, before Council went on recess, I was proud to sponsor, along with my colleagues Rimi and Ross, a new initiative with the National Veterans Memorial and Museum aimed at reimagining how we memorialize the tragedies of September 11th, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Instead of the traditional remembrance ceremony this year, the Memorial Museum will be leading the community in a national day of service that honors how our country came together after one of our darkest days by hosting community-focused service projects. These projects will be happening at our community centers in the weeks leading up to and following 9-11, where neighbors can come together in service. This will culminate on September 11th at the Memorial Museum's with a meal packing service event where hundreds of volunteers from our neighborhoods, businesses, and nonprofits will come together to pack 117,000, that's 117,000 meal kits to be distributed through local food pantries. We also encourage people to create their own day of service. For example, pick up trash in your neighborhood, help an elderly neighbor, volunteer for a nonprofit. come out into your community and make 9-11 a day of service. There will be announcements coming up on our social media, both city council and the Memorial Museum on ways to get involved in service projects in your community. And that's all for me this evening.

Thank you, Council Member Ramey. Council Member Ross.

Okay, I'm going to do this right and talk in the mic in the right way, hopefully. I'm still learning. Just bear with me. Just a couple announcements. So I did want to give a quick shout out. Last week, the Urban League hosted pitches from small businesses in the King Lincoln Bronzeville neighborhood as a part of the Clean and Safe Corridor. So I want to take a moment just to shout out the winners of those pitches. So shout out to this year's award recipients, Glamour Girls on the Go, Elite Beauty and Barber Supply, Avenue, Dominique African Hair Braiding, and Learning on Mount Vernon. We certainly appreciate all of our small businesses, and particularly our minority small businesses, which serve as the heartbeat of many of our communities. And so it was very cool to spend some time at the Urban League and with those small businesses, understanding all of the work that they are doing to invest back in our community.

So congratulations to all of you.

On August the 25th at 6 p.m., I have the fortune of spending some time with the Italian Village Society and the Short North Civic Association for their monthly meeting. It will be at Seven Sons Brewing, 1101 North 4th Street. And we are going to engage in conversation around transportation, safe streets, small business growth, housing, and quality of life issues. And I would invite any of you who either live in the Italian Village community or the Short North community and want to hang out with me and have some fun conversation to attend. Again, we are there on August the 25th at 6 p.m. at 7th Sun Brewery. On Saturday, August 29th, the Kingdom Image Arts will host a back-to-school festival at 2501 Mock Road, Columbus, Ohio, 43219, to help families to prepare for the school year. So if you are in need or just want to hang for some entertainment and food, you can meet Kingdom Image Arts from 12 to 3 p.m. on August the 29th. Last announcement is there is a free Franklin County criminal record sealing and expungement clinic on Saturday, August 29th at 9 a.m. It is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Westgate Community Center, 455 Southwest Gate Avenue. It is a resource fair open to all and will be held in conjunction with this event. Space is limited. Pre-registration deadline has passed, but if you need access, please give my office a call and we will try to make that happen for you. That is it for me.

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Weitsch.

Thank you, President Pro Tem. Just one quick announcement. Our next Wednesdays with the Whites will take place this Wednesday, August 26th from 5 to 7 p.m. at Smokey Road Brethren Church located at 7260 Smokey Road Road. Great opportunity to discuss issues you're seeing in the community or to provide feedback on policy initiatives that I'm currently working on. RSVPs are encouraged, but walk-ins are always welcome. So I hope to see folks there on Wednesday. Thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember. We're going to do one more thing out of order, then I swear. We're going to get back to how things normally run around here. So we're going to stick in the Rules and Policy Committee, and I'm going to bring forward Resolution Number 0183-2026. I want to invite the Zone In team up to the podium as I introduce the ordinance. Council's intention to amend the zoning map by rezoning certain properties from Title 33 zoning code district regulations to Title 34 2024 zoning code district designations and declared emergency. Two years ago, this council stood together to launch the first phase of Zone N. We made a commitment to the people of Columbus. We looked at a zoning code that was trapped in the 1950s, a code that was defined by outdated standards, red lines, and red tape. We knew that modernizing our code along our major transit corridors so we could build the housing our growing city desperately needs and actually make Columbus more affordable. And now, two years later, we know that zoning is working. This summer, we've started to see positive data from our efforts as reports show that Columbus is punching well above its weight class. While housing permits have stalled across the country, Columbus has defined that national trend. In fact, we achieved the third highest multifamily permit rate out of the top 50 metropolitan areas in the entire country. And most importantly, for working class families, this surge in building is doing exactly what it was designed to do, stabilize housing costs. This past June, the median asking rent in Columbus was actually down compared to the previous year. Zoning is not just a policy concept anymore. It's a proven success that's keeping more money in the pockets of our residents. But this first phase wasn't enough. It only touched about 13,000 parcels within the city, roughly about 4%. If we truly want to see an affordable, walkable, and sustainable future for our next generations, we cannot stop at just the major corridors. That's why I'm so incredibly proud to stand here today to help launch the second phase of Zone In. We're expanding this initiative to tackle over 70,000 parcels, representing over 40% of Columbus. and we're taking the lessons of phase one and using them to zone the city comprehensively. Before I turn it over to the zoning team for a presentation, I want to offer the floor of the Director of Building and Zoning Services, Scott Messer. Director Messer, the floor is yours.

Thanks, President Pro Tem Dorans, other members of council. I'm very excited about this resolution and phase two of the zone in initiative first. I would like to say thanks to the chair of zoning Mr. Dorns and as well as his team and other members of council and your teams as well Department of Development the zone in team our consultants everyone is collaborated and collaborated and contributed to this phase two and We continue to look forward to the community input that we're going to be receiving to help shape this phase as it did in phase one. As we have throughout the Zone In initiative, we remain committed to responsibly creating more housing, growing strategically as a city, supporting high-quality development, and connecting housing, jobs, and transportation. There's still a lot of work to be done, but I'm excited about where we are, and I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish with this Phase 2 initiative in Zone In. Thanks.

Thank you, Director Messer. Any questions from my council likes for Director Messer? Seeing none, I want to invite Louis Taba, our project manager from the zoning team, forward and make a presentation. Mr. Taba, welcome back to council, sir.

So thank you for, well, President Pro Tem Dorns, members of council, thank you so much for having me here again today. We're very excited to present to you this resolution to rezone for phase two. As we continue our work to update the zoning code comprehensively for the first time in 70 years, we are excited to present this resolution which will expand economic and housing opportunities to all Columbus residents. Our proposal will modernize the zoning code to support job growth, build more housing and foster prosperity citywide. So this is our timeline. We are currently on schedule for our zone in timeline where we had planned to get phase two before council for consideration in fall of 2026. You were provided with a packet as part of this resolution. This packet includes a mayoral letter, a proposal summary, zone in phase two goals and priorities, policy review, community engagement summary, technical summary, capacity report, code, which is the public review draft. Then we have a map series and a parcel list as well as part of this packet. This packet is based off of the council adopted phase two priorities, which to touch base on our leverage additional corridors to create more housing, grow the local economy to support neighborhood investment, connect housing, jobs and transportation and promote high quality development. So in 2025, we focused a lot on the Columbus growth strategy. It created the policy basis for phase two by categorizing the phase two parcels into three main buckets, mixed use, industrial warehouse, and business and institutional campus land use categories. These provided the policy basis and the mapping locations for the zoning districts, which are part of this resolution. So since the adoption of the growth strategy in January of 2026, we've been working with our consultants, Lisa Wise Consulting and Opticos to create zoning districts that work for the city of Columbus and achieve the goals of Zone In and the growth strategy. This phase will include 15 mapped districts. Six of them will be from phase one, the mixed use districts adopted in 2024. And we have nine new districts, three which will be industrial, three which will be office and institutional campus, and three which will be industrial, and I got out of order, but three will also be mixed use. So nine new mixed use, nine new districts. The code before you has gone through a lot of technical analysis and community engagement. I want to touch base on that. But it was heavily informed by internal review process, which included 12 city departments and divisions, which provided comments to our earlier versions of the draft. And their input helped change and shape this proposal before you at this point in time. Community engagement, we have been conducting for two years, very robust and extensive community engagement. So not just what we did in 2025, where we engaged with thousands of residents and had our survey and made over 19,000 changes based off of their engagement to the growth strategy. But in 2026, we have engaged and attended over 122 community events. We've shared our updates with over 1800 community members. We've had area commission and major civic engagement. One thing we've done is we go one month to the area commissions and present to them an update. And the next month we have a one-on-one reservation time where they can come meet with us and we discuss the project with them. The zoning advisory committee made up of community members and members from the different development sectors have reviewed this proposal and for the most part they are highly supportive of the work we've done. We've been doing newsletters and social media posts. We've been doing stakeholder meetings. We've been doing rise up events. And this is all just leading up to the heavy engagement that we plan on doing as part of the 60 day public comment period. So this public review draft, a couple proposal highlights, we have over 70,650 parcels as part of this phase, which represents over 40% of the city. And we have the capacity based off of our Cascadia housing analysis for an additional, well for 119,000 plus units in this area, up from the original, which was 13,000. Couple code highlights is that we continue housing incentives in a lot of the districts as was adopted in the 2024 zoning districts. We continue to have market driven parking and removing parking minimums. We have cleaner design standards which create predictability for the community and the development community. We expand mixed use opportunities throughout the city. We have modern employment districts and we have improved industrial neighborhood compatibility, which should assist in a lot of the older pre-1950s areas of the city. So with adoption of this resolution, we would begin our fall timeline where we plan on having the six-day public comment period starting after adoption of this resolution. That will be kicked off by 205,000 mailers going out to property owners, renters, and tenants in the city and those within 125 feet of affected properties. We will have a public survey, which is partially a map survey and a code survey. We're going to have a zoning gallery. We're going to have our public webinar. We're going to have a Reddit Ask Me Anything, which are quite popular, actually. We're going to do two public hearings, stakeholder interviews, and scheduled events at the gallery. After that 60-day public comment period, we'll look at all public comments, analyze it, take it in, and see what changes we need to make to our proposal based off that public comment. We're going to have two public hearings during the 60-day public comment period, and then we're going to have two additional public hearings after the 60-day public comment period. And then we hope to come to council for a first and second reading for this phase of work. So with that, we look forward to your support on this proposal. We ask that you adopt this resolution so we can begin our community engagement and help expand economic and housing opportunities to all Columbus residents.

Thank you, Mr. Tabak. Questions for my colleagues? So Lewis, a couple of things, just for you to underline yet again, this is something we've talked a lot about in the first phase of zoning, but here as well about what the potential change could be from a housing development standpoint compared to what the current land use rules are compared to what is being proposed here today. What is that change based upon what the analysis of the experts say?

Yes, so based off of the housing analysis report which was created by our consultant. Currently, the phase two focus areas allow for 13,637 units. And as I indicated that with adoption of the zoning code as it would stand right now, we would go to 119,000 units.

And, you know, the projections for here within Central Ohio, not just Columbus, but in Central Ohio, is that we need about 200,000 housing units for the next 10 years, just sort of stabilized costs. So we're talking about the first phase went from, you know, 4,000 to 6,000 or so to 88,000 here we're talking about. a jump up to 100 plus thousands. This is a really big deal when we think about the land use rules and as it relates to one of the most important issues that's affecting Columbus. I think the other thing is that this phase isn't just about housing. And housing can look a lot of different ways in different areas of the city. But I think one thing when we think about council members that represent areas of Columbus that are more suburban in nature, about how this really affects commercial and retail and industrial developments there. And if you could talk a little bit about that focus in this phase on that, because I know We talked, and we're going to continue to talk a lot about housing in the second phase, but this is something that is also very, very important towards when we think about how do we encourage job growth, how do we get ahead of things as retail and commercial environments may be changing. We don't shop the same way we did 10, 20 years ago, let alone 70 years ago, and what these changes could mean for that kind of proactive approach rather than being reactive.

Yeah, I mean, so two things that we're looking at is a lot of additional commercial corridors throughout the city that weren't picked up in phase one. Things like Hilliard Rome Road, Henderson Road, sections of Carl Road, these major corridors that for up until now have been zoned purely commercial. What we're trying to do is open up uses on these corridors to allow more of a mix of uses. So it's not just purely commercial, but would allow for mixed use. It would allow for light industrial, other kinds of uses in some of these areas. The other thing we're trying to do is looking at older kind of office sites. Things that back in the 1980s and the 70s and the 90s, these standalone office developments that were kind of isolated, surrounded by parking. How do we allow that to change with time? How do we allow that to open up to be in a more mixed use environment that supports class A office? And so what this proposal does is it creates an opportunity, a by-right residential development in some of these areas, which would allow for the modernization of these office districts, of these purely single-use districts into more of a mixed use and allow more flexibility.

Thank you. Other questions for council members? So we do have a couple of public speakers signed to speak on the ordinance, but I do want to make a couple of things clear before we get to those public speakers. What we're voting on here is merely the resolution that begins the six-a-day public comment period. So I think we went through this a couple times in the first phase about sort of where we're at in the process, and Mr. Tava sort of outlined that in his presentation. But the point of this 60-day public comment period is just that, is to make sure that the public has the opportunity to be well-informed, that the public has their voice heard by this body. I think that we've demonstrated in the first phase that this body will expect to make changes based upon the feedback that we hear from individuals at the public hearings. AT COUNCIL AND OTHER TYPES OF EVENTS. WE HAD CITY PLANNERS THAT LITERALLY LOOKED AT OVER 1900 INDIVIDUAL COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS. IF FOLKS SUBMITTED A COMMENT, FOLKS HAD A QUESTION, LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE WAS ANALYZED BY ONE OF OUR PLANNERS TO SEE WHETHER OR NOT WE SHOULD MAKE CHANGES BASED ON BOTH PUBLIC HEARINGS AND THE HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF HOURS OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT. THAT LED TO WELL OVER 100 CHANGES BOTH BETWEEN THE MAP AND THE CODE ITSELF. So as we think about the second phase, and it expands to revitalize commercial hubs, industrial sectors, and institutional campuses, that feedback is going to be vital towards what ultimately gets voted on by this body. Because, again, we have two things here. We have both zoning districts, which are sort of the rules of the road, but then we apply those zoning districts to the map. And I think as we continue to have these zoning discussions, we're able to hopefully have folks – you know, understand more and more about how this ultimately is going to affect, you know, their lives and their neighborhoods. You can view a draft code online. You can visit the interactive gallery, which is here downtown, which also comes with free parking. Right, Mr. Teva?

That's correct.

Free parking. Or at an upcoming public hearing. The first of four will take place a week from today. That will be, I'm sorry, a week, next week. Actually, this week, I'm sorry. We will have Thursday, August 27th at 6 p.m. at Galloway Ridge Intermediate School at the Far West Side in the Westland area, where we'll hear an overview of the proposed code and map from our zoning team and certainly encourage members of the public to tune in and certainly join us for that. And again, we do have two public speakers who signed up to speak on this ordinance. I want to invite the first forward, Mr. Wade Jordan. Mr. Jordan, welcome back to council, sir.

How's everybody? Thanks, President Pro Temp, Dorrance, and members of council. My name's Wade Jordan. I'm the CEO of WJ3 Enterprises. I'm a local builder, developer, and contractor, and a lifelong resident of the Hilltop Westside Columbus. I'm moving, I need support to move phase two of the zoning initiative forward. My perspective comes from working in these neighborhoods every day. I'm not only reviewing plans on paper, I'm working towards permitting and developing the process of building buildings, and I also get to watch these neighborhoods change in real time. I see both opportunities Columbus has and obstacles created by the zoning code largely written for the city that existed over 70 years. Columbus is growing, and we need zoning rules that affect where our city is going. Phase two can help create more mixed-use areas where people can live closer to their jobs, shops, restaurants, services, and public transportation. We need more walkable neighborhoods and more opportunities for housing in places where residents can easily connect with the rest of the community. We also need modern zoning for business and institutional campuses, including hospitals, universities, and office parks. These are major centers for employment and services. Their zoning should provide flexibility to grow and useful amenities where appropriate, incorporate housing while fitting responsibility into surrounding neighborhoods. As someone who works directly in development, I also understand the value of clear and predictable rules. When builders, property owners, businesses, and residents understand what can be built from the beginning, it reduces uncertainty and makes it easier to produce thoughtful, high-quality projects. Clear standards also give neighborhoods a better understanding of what the future development will also look like. This proposal is not the end of the conversation. Advancing the resolution will only begin the 60-day public review period where residents, renters, property owners, area commissions, and other stakeholders can study the proposal and help improve it. I encourage council to move phase two forward and give the public that opportunity. I support this work because I want Columbus to remain a city where people can find housing, reach jobs and services, start businesses, and build strong neighborhoods. As the city grows, our zoning code must grow with it. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Jordan. Any questions for my colleagues for our public speaker? Thank you, sir. Appreciate you being here. Our next public speaker is Mr. Lonnie Watson. Mr. Watson, welcome back to council.

Good evening, President Pro Tem Doran, Council Members. My name is Lonnie Watson. I am the Executive Director for Eastland Development for Growth and Equity, also known as EDGE. I am here today in support of advancing the Zone N resolution. Zone N is basically about preparing Columbus for the future. It's about expanding job opportunities, increased housing options, and laying the foundation for infrastructure investment that connects people to where they live, work, and play. In Eastland, the area of Columbus that I'm representing. I'm sorry, what district is that?

It's Eastland.

You took my minutes. We face the challenges that I just outlined. but they can only be addressed through effectively better planning and processes that reflect both the realities of the neighborhoods and the future needs of the city. Zone In is all about strengthening our economy and providing greater flexibility for businesses, developers, and institutions while establishing clear expectations for how job centers and new developments integrate into surrounding communities. As Columbus grows... We must take a holistic approach to assessing how development affects traffic, transit, pedestrians, parking, and the overall quality of life of our residents. If this resolution passes this evening, the 60-day public comment period begins. And it begins on August 25th. So I strongly encourage all the residents of every part of our city to engage in that process. I also encourage the Zone N project team to cast a wide net in promoting its public webinars by utilizing traditional and social media platforms and reaching as many people as possible. I would even suggest holding a citywide town hall meeting. I think public engagement should not end with the comment period closes. Residents should have a platform to share feedback raise concerns, and help shape how zoning is implemented. Ongoing public engagement will build trust and help ensure that policies remain responsive to the needs of the people that they serve. I respectfully request that City Council advance this resolution and the public comment period can begin. residents will have a chance to shape the future of columbus so in closing i want to reiterate that when the public speaks the city should not only listen but the city should act by listening and responding to public input we can strengthen community trust promote equity and build a strong or more prosperous columbus for everyone that's my thank you mr watson any questions yeah all right you can beat the clock even with council members interrupting you

What district number is that, Council Member? No problem.

Eight. District eight. I just wanted to just also thank you. Thank you, Chair, for giving me the opportunity. I just also wanted to thank you for coming. I think, you know, we've been having lots of conversations about CDCs in particular and how we think about community development corporations. They were started during the Civil Rights Movement to ensure that as the public was getting cut out of many deals that this was a way for them to say, these are the things that we want to see in our community. And I think this second phase of Zone In also allows for that clarity, especially as I think about our last speaker who is a local housing provider. as I think about Eastland and all of the local businesses that we have there, and as we think about investing in that prosperity of Eastland so it can be what it once was, that having clear zoning guidelines is going to be crucial to so many of our business owners that are the lifeblood of our community and ensuring that as they think about how they grow their business or where they put their business that they have clear guidelines because we've heard a lot about how that is challenging, especially as I think about the Eastland area for our... black-owned and immigrant-owned businesses that sometimes have some extra barriers for how they grow and how they develop. And so having processes that are clear, having processes that they can understand is going to be vital. And I especially appreciate you also stating how we continue to get better because I think You know, I think if there was a theme for this council meeting, it's about that, is how do we continue to get better and better at serving our residents. And so that also means making it easier for them to participate and having that lower barrier. So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member. Any other questions or comments, Council Members? Thank you, Mr. Watson. Um, before I call for a vote in this resolution, I just want to, again, I think reemphasize the first phase of zoning, I think was the closest collaboration I have seen during my near eight years on this body between council and this administration and the most intense public engagements I've seen between those two branches of government and folks across, uh, the city. It's something I was very, very proud of that I expect us to do hand in glove again. to make sure as we make what will be a big change for our residents and for the city that is done so with the community to make sure they come along with us because this has decades-long generational change attached to it to address so many things that we know we have to do both as a council and as administration to help bring this type of land use rules and regulations from the 1950s, not only to the 2026, but into, you know, the next 50 and 60 years ourselves. So with that, I move for adoption on resolution number 0183X-2026. Second. Clerk, please call the roll.

Bank Stemperosa de Padilla de Alcoward Dorns Remy Ross Weiss.

Resolution adopted.

Sorry, I did that backwards. Sorry. Can you do that again? Yep. Can you do that again? Banks, Timber, Rosa, Day-Fadil, Day-Ochauer, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President Pro, Tim, Dorrance. Resolution adopted.

Is there a motion to go into recess? Clerk, please call the roll.

Banks, Timber, Rosa, Day-Fadil, Day-Ochauer, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President Pro, Tim, Dorrance.

We are in recess. We'll break for zoning for five minutes.

Thank you. Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. I'm

Thank you.

Thank you. Bye.

Reading the journal.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Are there any additions or corrections to the journal? Hearing no additions or corrections, the journal is approved. We'll now go to the zoning committee. I chair that committee and all members serve. Before we begin tonight's agenda, first a little bit of housekeeping. Will the clerk please read the numbers of legislation in the zoning committee this evening that require a waiver of second reading?

Rezonings, Ordinance 185 and 2167-2026, variances 1930, 2040, I'm sorry, 2240 and 2252-2026. Thank you, clerk. And I move to waive second reading on those items. Clerk, please spell the roll. Bankson, Barrosa, De Padilla, De Acao, Remy, Ross, Vice President, Pro Tem, Dorrance.

Waived. As always, allow me to briefly explain our rules speaking before counsel on rezonings and variances. We will only hear a staff presentation for ordinance that have a disapproval from a recommending body or if we have a public speaker sign to speak against an ordinance. We permit up to three speakers on each side of an ordinance through proponents, three opponents. We ask that those speakers limit their remarks to three minutes for the stand of real city council. All speakers on the council variance, including city staff, air commissioners, applicants, and members of the public will be sworn in before they give testimony. A representative of an air commission is always able to speak in ordinance and do not need to fill out a speaker slip. but we do ask you to alert city staff of your intentions to speak at this committee hearing. Representatives of a civic association do need to follow a speaker slip because civic associations are not formally recognized under Columbus City Code. This evening, we do not have any public speaker slips signed up to speak on any ordinance. On the advice of the city attorney's office, I will now swear in city staff. Please stand and raise your right hand and be sworn in. Do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give? Shove it the truth, nothing but the truth, as you shall answer under pains of penalty of perjury. So please say I do. Thank you. Please let the record reflect that Tim Dietrich from the Department of Building and Zoning Services have been sworn in. First, we have ordinance number 0185-2026 to rezone 1100 Frank Road being 2.25 plus acres located the northwest corner of Frank Road and Brown Road from our rural district to CPD Commercial Plan Development District. The site consists of 11 parcels to develop a mix of uses, including segregated dwellings, auto sales, and a billboard, all currently zoned to our rural district as a result of annexation in the city of Columbus. Proposed rezoning will allow limited commercial development, including auto sales and fuel sales within two sub-areas. The proposal is consistent with the Columbus Growth Strategy, and the development text includes commitments to traffic improvements and buffering and screening from adjacent residential uses. Burroughsville is approved by the city staff and the Development Commission and Southwest Area Commission. Any questions or comments from colleagues? Seeing none, I move for passage. Is there a second? Yes. Clerk, please call the roll.

Bankson, Burroughsville, De Padilla, De Ocala, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro Tem, Dorrance.

Passed. Next, we have a vote in number 2167-2026 to rezone 865 North Wilson Road, being 1.05 plus acres located in the northwest corner of North Wilson Road in Farrell Place from C4 Commercial District to C4 Commercial District. Second, a system of one parcel developed with an automotive sales facility and a request for rezoning will allow regional scale commercial uses and are consistent with both the Quilliams growth strategy and existing development zoning patterns along the section of North Wilson Road. Proposed as approved by the City Staff Development Commission and the Greater Hilltop Area Commission. Any questions or comments from my colleagues? Seeing none, I move for passage. Clerk, please call the roll.

Banks, Timberwell State, Padilla, Day, Ock, Howard, Ramey, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro, Tim, Dorrance.

Passed. Moving on to the council variances. First, we have ordinance number 1930-2026, a grant of variance provisions in section 3332.033, R1 residential district 3312.49C, required parking in the Columbus City Codes, property located at 1930 Walnut Hill Park Drive, to a shared living facility, reduced parking in the R1 residential district. This site consists of a single unit dwelling and the request of council variance will allow the site to be used as a shared living facility with a maximum of six residents. A council variance is required because a shared living facility with six occupants is not allowed in the current zoning district. A variance to reduce required parking from seven to four spaces is also included in the request. The proposal is approved from city staff and the Far East Area Commission. I first move to accept the entire staff report into evidence as an exhibit. Clerk, please call the roll.

Banks, Timber, Rosa, De Padilla, De Alcala, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro, Tim, Dorrance.

Accepted. Next, I move to adopt the finance of staff with the finance of council.

Clerk, please call the roll. Banks, Timber, Rosa, De Padilla, De Alcala, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro, Tim, Dorrance. Adopted. And finally, I move for passage. Clerk, please call the roll.

Next, we have Ordinance 2240-2026, a grant of variance provisions of Section 33555.03, C-4, permitted use of the Columbus City Go-To Property located at 445 East 17th Avenue to allow parking and rental of moving trucks in the C-3 Commercial District. The site consists of two parcels developed by a retail establishment. The Council of Variants requests allow parking of moving trucks. The Council of Variants is required because the current zoning district does not allow parking and rental moving trucks to be located on site. The proposal is consistent with the Columbus Growth Strategy and design guidelines with fencing, landscaping, and screening. The parking lot is also included. Additionally, the Department of Public Service has imposed additional conditions requiring the number of and size of vehicles stored on site and maneuvering of said vehicles. Proposals of approval from city staff and the University Area Commission. Do my colleagues have any questions or comments? Seeing none, I first move to accept the entire staff report into evidence as an exhibit. Second. Clerk, please call the roll.

Banks, Timber, Rosa, De Padilla, Day, Ock, Howard, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro, Tim, Dorns. Accepted. I next move to adopt the finance of the staff, the finance of the council. Second. Clerk, please call the roll. Banks, Timber, Rosa, De Padilla, Day, Ock, Howard, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro, Tim, Dorns. Accept or adopted and finally move a passage. Clerk, please call the roll. Banks, Denver, Rosa, De Padilla, De Occo, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro, Tim, Dorrance.

Next, we have ordinance number 2252-2026, grant of variance provisions section 34.E. I'm sorry, 34E20-100A, use table 34E90-090C, regional activity center, building permit 34E90-090F, regional activity center, facade 34E20-090G, regional activity center. On-site parking in 34F040-030A1A, procedures for large sites, site plan for large development sites. The Columbus City Coast property located at 2675 Bryce Road to allow light industrial uses with reduced development standards in the RAC Regional Activity Center District. This site consists of one parcel developed at an existing big box retail store. The requested council variance will allow the site to be redeveloped with up to 144,000 square feet of light industrial uses. A council variance is required because the current zoning district only allows up to 10,000 square foot of artists and manufacturing uses, while the applicant proposes limited industrial uses, including storage, distribution, and wholesaling. They requested use, which includes a mix of industrial and office uses, while utilizing the existing development site and notes the building elevations landscape plan are also consistent with the Columbus growth strategy, mixed use design guidelines. Approval is approved by MC staff and the Far East Area Commission. I first move to accept the entire staff report into evidence as an exhibit.

Clerk, please call the roll. Banks, Timber, Rosa, De Padilla, De Acau, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro, Tim, Dorrance. Accepted. Next move to adopt the finance draft is the Finance Council. Clerk, please call the roll. Banks, Timber, Rosa, De Padilla, De Acau, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro, Tim, Dorrance.

Adopted. And finally, move for passage. Clerk, please call the roll.

Banks, Timber, Rosa, De Padilla, De Acau, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro, Tim, Dorrance.

Passed. Seeing no other business, I come before the Zoning Committee this evening. Can I get a motion to adjourn? Clerk, please call the roll.

Banks, Timber, Rosa, De Padilla, De Acao, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro, Tim, Dorns. We are adjourned.

Thank you. Thank you.

I'm sorry, is there a motion to reconvene meeting number 35? So moved. Clerk, please call the roll. Bankston, Barrosa, de Padilla, de Alcow, Remy, Ross, Vice President, Pro Tem, Dorns.

We are reconvened. We will now move back to regular order. And our first committee to come for counsel is the Finance and Governance Committee. Council Member Bankston chairs that committee. Council Member Flores, yours.

Thank you, President Pro Tem. First up in the Finance and Governance Committee for second read, we have Ordinance 1868-2026 to authorize the Finance and Management Director on behalf of the Fleet Management Division to enter into a contract for the purchase of two hardware things thermals, supporting the fuel-focused fuel management system with Asset Works LLC to waive competitive bidding provisions of Columbus City Code to authorize the Director of Finance and Management to associate all general budget reservations resulting from this ordinance with the appropriate universal term contract purchase agreement and to establish related purchase orders for electrical repairs for the Fleet Management Division to authorize expenditure of $97,000 from the Fleet Management Capital Fund and to declare an emergency. As stated in the title, this ordinance purchases two Fuel Focus hardware terminals from AssetWorks LLC and authorizes the installation of upgraded power and data for the city's five fueling stations. Fuel Focus serves as the Fleet Management Division's primary platform for monitoring, managing, and analyzing fuel transactions and consumption the system enables real-time tracking of fuel receipts and usage through integrated card reader technology enhancing operational efficiency and data accuracy in fleet fuel operations asset works llc provides fleet management with a suite of software solutions to assist with the operations of the city's over 6 000 vehicles and monitor motorized equipment. The waiver of competitive bid is because of the use of a universal term contract. An emergency action is requested so that the fuel sites can be upgraded and available to provide fuel to designated locations without interruption. Are there any questions or comments from my colleagues? Seeing none, I move for passage.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Or it is passed.

Next, we have Ordinance 2104-2026 to authorize the Finance and Management Director to enter into a contract with Byers, Minton & Associates, LLC for a consulting services contract related to state government relations to waive the competitive bidding provisions of Columbus City Code Chapter 329 to authorize the expenditure of $60,000 from the general fund and to declare an emergency. This ordinance authorizes a contract with Byers, Minton, LLC. Byers, Minton serves as a consultant for the city and provides state of Ohio government relations. Whatever competitive bid is for the ongoing nature of this contract. Are there any questions or comments from my colleagues? Council Member White.

Yeah, Chair, appreciate you kicking it to me. I'm really surprised that we are moving forward with this agreement. As someone who has had to allow departments to realize that there are state issues impacting their business, as well as policy decisions that are happening at the Statehouse and not being informed, why are we choosing to go with this consultant?

I thank you for the concerns customer what I know that this is primarily a contract that the mayor's office utilizes but director if you want to speak to that question.

Yes, thank you chair banks and councilor Weiss yeah buyers men has partnered with us in the past to keep us advised of you know state legislature changes that could impact city operations and so we you know respectfully request to continue that partnership.

I appreciate you mentioning that director, but don't they also consult for others who would come before us for business? It seems a little like a conflict of interest to utilize someone else who's utilizing their services to get in front of us.

Thanks, Council Member Weish. I'm not aware of that.

Do we have a full accounting of the contracts that they have with other external entities?

With external entities?

Yes, outside the city of Columbus. I do not. Is that something we can get prior to approving this agreement?

I can certainly work towards that, sir. I don't have that information. It's not something we keep in the finance department. They're engaging with entities outside the city, but...

Yeah, I'm just, I'm really concerned. There have been things that have come up that impact the work of Columbus Water and Power that we had to notify Columbus Water and Power of. And if their job is to be at the state house and see the bills coming through there, that might impact the city of Columbus. That should be their responsibility. So I'd be curious from the mayor's perspective in terms of what is the ROI? Are they actually doing the work that we're paying for or what?

Director, I don't know if you want to answer. I mean, absolutely. Council member, why don't you bring up some good points? I think we can definitely get those answered. I don't know if we want to get the conflict question answered by our city attorney's office, because I think that they would probably have a better way in there. Possibly. If not, I'm putting you on the spot here.

Thank you, Council Member Bankston. I am not specifically aware of the other clients that are represented by Byers-Mitton. I have worked with their representative on various issues, specifically related to legislative changes at the General Assembly that might impact the city of Columbus. I've personally worked with the consultant that we're referring to here on matters pertaining to misdemeanor investigative subpoenas was one that was fairly recent. Worked with him on matters pertaining to, I'm trying to remember what they all are, but the nature of the relationship as I understand it. in terms of how the city engages this particular contractor, is if there is an issue related to state law that's negatively impacting how the city's operations are happening, or if there's an issue with maybe an interpretation of state law that's making it challenging, particularly in the area of criminal justice, which is where I was working on these issues with him. We would use the advice and guidance of this particular individual to assist us in getting the appropriate General Assemblyman and or woman to help us move those legislative changes forward.

Thank you for that. Just real quick, just because I'm not sure if that's clear. If there is somebody who has business before the city of Columbus and they have buyers as their contracted lobbyists, does it create a conflict of interest for us to also utilize them too?

And that's going to depend on who their third party contractor would be. There could be circumstances in which there is a conflict, and we would have to know whether or not there is specifically a conflict between that representation and the representation of the city. But this individual contractor doesn't always represent the city's interests in all things. They are reached out to when we need representation, and so we would have to look at that on a case-by-case basis, and we'd be happy to do that for you, but I don't have the particular set of client lists in front of me at the moment.

Thank you. I would not feel comfortable moving forward without the client list, but I'm one of none.

And I think it's fair to get you a scope of the work as well, Council Member Weitsch. Are there any other questions or concerns from my colleagues?

Is this a retainer whereby we're just paying on it, or do we owe this particular vendor money? At the moment.

This is a renewal contract. It is a retainer that we have had for many years standing with buyers. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from our colleagues? Seeing none, I move for passage by voice. Clerk, please call the roll.

Bankston?

Yes.

Barbosa de Padilla?

Yes.

Dayakower? Yes. Ramey? Yes. Ross? Yes. Weish? No. President Pro Tem Dorrance?

Yes. Ordinance passed.

Thank you. Next, we have Ordinance 2194-2026. This is to authorize the Director of Finance and Management to enter into contract with SGI Matrix LLC for security system parts installation maintenance, monitoring repair and support services for security access equipment, at various city facilities to waive the competitive bidding provisions of city code and to authorize the expenditure of $160,000 from the general fund for the division of facilities and to allow for the payment invoices for expenses incurred for the period beginning August 1, 2026 to the date of issuance of a purchase order for the new contract and to declare an emergency. This legislation authorizes a contract with SGI Matrix LLC for security system support SGI matrix provides both the access control hardware panels and card readers as well as the software to monitor control access and secure facilities under the purview of the facilities management division. Due to the proprietary nature of the security software and compatibility with existing security equipment, it is in the city's best interest to maintain consistency with existing security infrastructure and continue its contractual relationship with SGI Matrix LLC. Are there any questions or comments from my colleagues? Seeing none, I move for passage.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Passed. I would like to make a motion to reconsider ordinance number 2104-2026. Second. Clerk, please call the roll by voice.

Bankston? Yes. Barroso-Deputia?

Yeah. So we are going to reconsider ordinance number 210, I'm sorry, 2104 task 2026. The clerk did not have a second to move that forward. And also because that's currently up as an emergency measure, there needs to be seven votes in order for that to be passed.

And we only have six.

Yeah. So, Council Member Bankston, just so you're aware, that needs seven votes for passage under these rules. Got it. Okay. So, I'm making a motion to reconsider ordinance number 2104-2026. Second. Clerk, please call the roll by voice.

Okay. Bankston?

Yes.

Barroso-Deputia? Yes. This is to reconsider. Yes. This is to reconsider the vote. Yes. So, Dayakower? Yes. Remy? Yes. Ross? Yes. Weish? Yes. President Pro Tem Dorrance?

Yes. Okay. Do I need to reread the ordinance? Yes. Okay. Ordinance 2104-2026 to authorize the Finance and Management Director to enter into a contract with Byron Mittens and Associates LLC for a consulting services contract related to state government relations to waive the competitive bidding provisions of the to authorize the expenditure of $60,000 from the general fund and to declare an emergency. At this time, I will move to refer this ordinance back to committee.

Yes, sir. Clerk, please call the roll. By voice. By voice.

Yep. Bankston.

Yes.

Barrosa-De Padilla. Yes. Day-Ocower. Yes. Remy.

Yes.

Ross. Yes. Weiss. Yes. President Protem-Dorns.

Yes. Refer to committee.

Thank you, President Pro Tem. That's all I have on my committees this evening.

Thank you all. Next we have Committee Comfort Councils, the Public Service and Transportation Committee. That committee is chaired by Council Member Rosa De Padilla. The floor is yours, Council Member.

Thank you, President Pro Tem. This evening we have three items on second read for public service and transportation. The first is Ordinance 1712-2026 to amend the 2025 Capital Improvement Budget to authorize the transfer of funds within the Streets and Highways Bond Fund to appropriate funds within the Federal Transportation Grants Fund to authorize the Director of Public Service to enter into contract with Access Civil Construction LLC for the pedestrian FRA-SRTS Sunbury-Agla Road project to authorize the expenditure of up to $1,869,713. sixty nine thousand seven hundred and thirteen dollars and eight cents from the streets and highways bond fund and the federal transportation grants fund for the project to repay any unused grant funds at the end of the grant project or period and to declare an emergency so i'm really excited about this project because this is about sidewalks and we just talked a little bit about making sure that our kids have Safe Passages to Schools. So this project consists of constructing sidewalks along Agler Road from Sunbury to Cassidy, along Sunbury from Agler to North Mifflin Middle School, and from Cassidy Ave from Agler Road to Cassidy Alternative Elementary School.

Feels very confusing. Sidewalks all the way around.

Installation of the sidewalk will include curb ramps, drive approaches, and signing and pavement markings. Stormwater drainage improvements will also be made where necessary. Portions of the sidewalk project are located on the Vision Zero high injury network due to the number of serious or fatal crashes and or crashes involving vulnerable road users like people walking, biking, or on a motorcycle. These Vision Zero safety improvements are designed to increase visibility of people walking and separate those vulnerable roadway users from vehicle traffic. The estimated notice to proceed date is July 15, 2026. Director, is there anything that you want to say about these sidewalks? I'm always excited when we can talk about how we are putting in sidewalks, but especially when they, again, create those safe passages to schools.

All right, good evening, President Pro Tem Dorans and Chair Borosade Padilla and other members of council. We are very excited about this project as well. Our partners over at the Ohio Department of Transportation helped to fund this project. This is a safe routes to school project that will be connecting safe connections that provide greater walking and biking access to students and families to two Columbus City School buildings. You had kind of said it, huh? Cassidy Elementary and Mifflin Middle School. And the new sidewalks and shared use path will also make access to Northeast Park and Howard Community Center safer as well for that whole community. And this is a part of a much larger network that we're building that's going to connect to the Alum Creek Trail all the way down Cassidy through a Franklin County project and to the city of Bexley, but also into the Alum Creek Trail that way. I mean, it's going to make a really nice connection.

Yeah, which is amazing because if folks didn't know, you could actually start at Wolf Park and go all the way to Cleveland Avenue through our trails. And so this is, I think, also just another, I think when you look at roads like Sunbury, Agler, that are highly trafficked roads and don't have that safe passage for folks to walk, I just want to give credit to the department and also thanks to ODOT for partnering with us on this. The director and I were just talking today about sidewalks on Barnett. I'm lifelong Eastsider. I've taken Barnett. It is definitely a scary path and there's no sidewalks along that street. And so I just am very excited about what this means for folks who are living in that area. We've had folks who have come in and talked about Sunbury and the challenges and Agler. And so again, that bigger walkable connected community is just so important. So do my colleagues have any additional questions or comments? Seeing none, I move for passage.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Banks, Timber, Rosa, De Padilla, De Ock, Howard, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro, Tim, Dorrance. Ordinance passed.

Thank you. Next we have Ordinance 1966-2026 to amend the 2025 Capital Improvement Budget to authorize the Director of Public Service to enter into contract with Strasser Construction Incorporated for the resurfacing 2026 slurry seal project to authorize the expenditure of up to $1,223,682.86 from the Streets and Highways Bond Fund for the project and to declare an emergency. So this contract includes slurry sealing And I'm going to stop there for just a second.

Director, can you tell us what slurry sealing is? Good evening. Just so the people know.

Good evening again, members of council. Chair, this is a preventative maintenance strategy that we use. It performs preventative maintenance. We're going to use it to prevent. It extends the life of pavement. The pavement starts cracking. We slurry seal it into there and it helps extend the life of the pavement.

So this is essentially getting like those little cracks, right? Yes.

And slurry seal is that black stuff that looks like somebody drew crayons all over, black crayons all over, or tar all over the pavement, but it is actually extending the life of the pavement.

Perfect. Especially when we're talking about street resurfacing, this is like the in-between. So slurry sealing on 33 city streets, microsurfacing on 16 city streets, and this contract will also apply asphalt rejuvenation agent to 17 city streets. city streets and apply a seal code to eight shared use paths and other work as may be necessary. The estimated to proceed date is September 16, 2026. Director, will there be a list of the streets online that folks can look at?

Yes, there will be. We've got a there's 66 streets and eight shared use paths around the city that we are going to be slowly sealing with this contract.

Perfect. And also, I just encourage folks, I know that we're a little bit past high pothole season, but obviously with the rains and other things, some more have popped up. So if you do see those potholes or there is a condition of your street that is challenging, please put in those 311 requests. That's how we make determinations on the streets that we will be slurring or other things. Do my colleagues have any additional questions or comments? Seeing none, I move for passage.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you. And last but not least, we have Ordinance 2141-2026 to amend the 2025 Capital Improvement Budget to authorize the transfer of funds within the Streets and Highways Bond Fund to authorize the Director of Public Service to enter into a contract modification with Canvas consulting LLC in connection with the Vision Zero Multilingual Outreach Research and Education Project and to authorize the expenditure up to $500,000 from the Streets and Highways Bond Fund to pay for the project and to declare an emergency. The Vision Zero Multilingual Outreach Research and Education Project may be used to create signage in English, Haitian Creole, French, Portuguese, Nepali, and Spanish to communicate with those directly impacted by roadway safety projects, specifically around the high injury network corridors like Livingston Avenue, Hamilton Road, and Roberts Road. This equitable, multilingual outreach approach to those living and traveling where new traffic patterns are being constructed will help reduce serious injuries and fatal crashes as part of Vision Zero. So I just want to say one quick thing, and then I'll hand it over to Director Scocco if there's something else that you want to add. But part of this is to ensure that, again, that we have equitable access for all of our communities. So Vision Zero is, again, our vision that we will have zero injuries or fatalities due to crashes. And so the department has been doing really amazing work with both our outreach teams and then our – kind of a commission around Vision Zero, but this will really help to ensure that we really have a campaign that reaches everybody and that everybody understands the Vision Zero principles. Director, is there anything that you would add? Okay.

Good evening again, President Pro Tem Dorans, Chair Barrosa-Davidillo, members of council. This contract modification continues to advance the implementation of key Vision Zero action plan strategy to broaden Vision Zero awareness through an education campaign and multilingual approach. The focus is straightforward, to highlight zero principles that prioritize protecting lives on our roadways, to educate everyone about the traffic safety laws no matter how they get around, and to encourage safe behaviors to save lives. I think I will note so far that this year our Vision Zero team has interacted directly with more than 3,000 people at over 50 community events. So we use this contract to do all of that outreach.

And I also want to just shout out Canvas Consulting because that is a local black-owned business, also a Columbus kid, Yavez, who has helped to, I mean, I think with anything in a city this large, you know, running a campaign, we are not going to have all of the resources in which to do that. And so when we spend these kind of dollars, it's just important for us to get the word out. We've done that around pay equity and other campaigns that we're running. And so... The fact that not only that we're doing this to ensure that we're including everyone in this effort, but also that we are investing those dollars right back into our community, right back into a small local business is also something that should be highlighted as well. Do my colleagues have any additional questions or comments? Seeing none, I move for passage.

Clerk, please call the roll. Bank Simborosa de Padilla de Alcala Remy Ross, Vice President Pro Tem Dorns. Ordinance passed. Thank you so much.

It's all for me this evening.

Thank you, Chair. The next committee to come for counsel is the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee. That committee is chaired by Council Member Remy. The floor is yours, sir.

Thank you very much, President Pro Tem. Tonight in the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee, we have three ordinances on second read. The first is 2066-2026. to authorize the Director of Public Safety on behalf of the Division of Fire to enter into a contract with Deakin International for live mum annual maintenance and support services. for the Division of Fire for Year 2 starting September 1, 2026, to authorize the expenditure of $24,441 from the General Fund to waive the competitive bidding provisions of the Columbus City Code and to declare an emergency. This ordinance funds Year 2 of the LIBMOM, the Fire Division's real-time deployment tool that helps dispatchers identify coverage gaps and reposition apparatus when units are already on calls. A bid waiver is requested because Deakin owns the proprietary, highly customized LiveMOM software, already in use by the Division of Fire, and the city is not seeking to replace the system. Emergency action is requested to avoid a lapse in funding and keep LiveMOM maintenance and support uninterrupted. Are there any questions or comments from my colleagues? Seeing none, I move for passage.

Clerk, please call the roll. Bankston, Barroso de Padilla, de Alcázar, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President Pro, Jim Dorrance.

Or it is passed. Next, step 22, 23, 2026, to authorize the director of the Department of Public Safety on behalf of the Division of Police to enter into contract with Penlink Limited to provide computer software licenses and subscriptions that aid in obtaining and analyzing electronic information crucial to solving cases to waive the competitive bidding provisions of the Columbus City Code. to authorize the expenditure of $139,680.33 from the Law Enforcement Contraband Seizure Fund and to declare an emergency. This ordinance renews PenLink software used by police investigators to collect, organize, map, and analyze electronic evidence from sources such as phones and social media during criminal investigations. A bid waiver is requested because PenLink is the sole provider of its software, training, and maintenance updates, hardware, and configurations, and the system must be purchased immediately. and serviced by Penlink to protect existing warranties. Emergency action is requested to keep these investigative software licenses, subscriptions, and training available without interruption. We do have one public speaker on this ordinance, and I'd like to ask Kat Finneran to come down to the podium. Welcome back to council. You have three minutes to share your remarks. Please share any organization you may represent as well.

All right.

Hello, my name is Kat Finneran, and I'm here speaking again as a participant in 614 Ice Watch, a citywide community defense and rapid response network tracking ice and other fascist activity across central Ohio. So correct me if I'm wrong. Penlink is a law enforcement technology company that sells a suite of digital intelligence and surveillance products. Council is considering the renewal of two of those products, PLX and GeoTime. PLX is Penlink's core investigative platform, allowing police to collect, analyze, search, and connect telecommunications and other digital evidence, while GeoTime is a geospatial analysis tool for mapping and analyzing location data over time. So if data integration is the point of these tools, a question I have is whether or not Columbus takes flock data and puts it into the pin link geotime analytical environment. And of course, regardless of whether or not it does, do you know who can access that information? We know it collects, and under what circumstances? I would also like to know whether Columbus PLX and GeoTime systems have any interoperability or data sharing relationship with other products sold by Penlink, considering the fact that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, also contracts with Penlink through some of their other products, namely WeBlock and Tangles. So is there a corporate wide interoperability or data sharing relationship between the products that you have tracking us and the ones ICE uses to abduct our immigrant neighbors? Is there a very clear wall between those products inside of the company? Simply, I would like to better understand if this is another backdoor to our personal data collected by FLOC, and if not, is it by itself similar to FLOC and how widely the information collected from us is accessible to other law enforcement agencies, particularly the Department of Homeland Security and its sub-agency, Immigration Customs Enforcement and its sub-agencies, Enforcement and Removal Operations, and Homeland Security Investigations, HSI. And a reminder that HSI is not separate from ICE. It is a sub-agency within ICE. All HSI agents are by definition ICE agents. I wanted to clarify that because there was some confusion about it at the meeting at FLOC last week. I'm asking these questions because I noticed when you all initially entered into these contracts, none of you asked them. And in order for me to not lose my damn mind about that, I have to believe that you, council, have just been naive about surveillance technology like Flock and Penlink up to this point. Because unlike these contracts where you do have agency, I know you, we, I have so little agency over what is happening to immigrants in our city right now. This morning, a Haitian woman with a surveillance monitor on her ankle, whose husband had already been detained by ICE earlier this month, walked into the Westerville ICE field office and with four children waiting at home, she was also detained. Those that were able to leave the field office this morning told community members who sat outside the building providing resources to our immigrant neighbors how this mother started screaming and crying and didn't stop for a long time. I wasn't there to hear her screams in person this morning, but I heard them nonetheless all day. I really think it's important that you try and hear them right now too. Try and see her four children right now without their mother and father. because I, for one, continue to find it profoundly offensive that I have to keep taking time away from the spreadsheet that we all maintain as a community with the faces and names of people abducted and disappeared to come down here and beg y'all to stop making it so easy to add names to the goddamn list. Like I said, I have to believe you didn't know better, that you didn't know what questions to ask, but you do now, don't you? Will you take the time to ask them and wait to have them answer to this time? I hope so.

Thank you, Ms. Finneran. Deputy Director, I want to get a little bit of feedback from you, but also, you know, it's my understanding that none of this information is accessible without a warrant. Is that correct?

President Pro Tem Dorns, Council Member Remy, members of council, that is correct. This piece of software is utilized to obtain information, electronic information, and it is obtained with a warrant.

And they're pulling that information off of existing cell phones, like like it said, and then also social media, is that correct?

That's correct, yes.

Do any of my colleagues have any additional questions? Yes, President Protin.

Deputy Director, I think one of the specific questions from the public speaker was about who has access to information that is held by the database internally at the city. So I know you mentioned that the platform is utilized for information that's gained through a warrant through the judicial system. So once the information is housed on this platform within the city of Columbus, can any other law enforcement agencies access that, or is that an internal tool only to the city?

That information would be accessed by the investigators who are investigating the crime and the authorization that's permitted by the warrant. Correct.

So, again, a follow-up on that. So, again, it's not as if – I'm just asking that question out loud here – So that information is held within the city of Columbus for our division of police to access the information for investigative purposes. It's not like an external database that can be accessed by external entities.

That's correct.

All right. Are there any other questions? Council Member Brose, the deputy.

So to that point, There's no data sharing with this particular tool. It is only a data collection tool.

To my knowledge, that's correct, Councilmember. This isn't open. It's not akin to FLOC, if that's your question.

Well, no, that isn't my question. My question is there's a data, there's data collection that I'm holding and there's data sharing that I'm sharing. And so what I'm asking is the data that this collects, are we just collecting it to what, I just want to know like in very simple English terms, we collect this data, does it go anywhere? Do we share it with anyone or do we just hold on to it?

It's the data that's collected is used as part of criminal investigations. So I can't say as a general matter that it wouldn't be shared with other entities that are involved in that criminal investigation. But I can confirm that.

I would feel comfortable if we could confirm that. I mean, if we could do it by voice, I'm not sure what everyone else is feeling, but I'm just saying if we pass it and then you confirm it, that's not helping because I don't feel comfortable voting on something that I'm unsure of.

I hear you. Thank you. I move to refer to committee. Second. Clerk, please call the roll.

Bankston, Burrell, Sade, Padilla, Day, Ock, Howard, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President, Pro, Tim, Dorans. Refer to committee.

Next is 2260-2026 to authorize municipal court clerk to modify and extend the contract one year plus an additional option year with Huntington National Bank for bank, credit card, and electronic payment services for the municipal court clerk's office to waive the competitive provisions of the Columbus City Code to authorize the expenditure of $22,000 from the general fund and to declare an emergency. This ordinance extends the municipal court clerk's banking, credit card, and electronic payment services with Huntington for one year with an additional option year. A bid waiver is requested to give the clerk additional time to evaluate the recently added electronic payment service and prepare a new RFP that includes banking, credit card, and electronic services together. Emergency action is requested to maintain uninterrupted banking, credit card, and electronic payment services while that RFP is prepared. Are there any questions or comments from my colleagues? Seeing none, I move for passage.

Clerk, please call the roll. Bankston, Rosaday, Padilla, Day, O'Connor, Remy, Ross, Weiss, President Pro Tem, Dorrance.

Ordinance passed. Thank you very much. That's all I have this evening.

Thank you, Chair. The last committee to come for council is the Public Utilities and Sustainability Committee. Council Member White shares that committee. The floor is yours, sir.

Thank you, President Pro Tem. I have one ordinance in Public Utilities and Sustainability Committee this evening, and that is ordinance... 2001-2026, who authorized the Director of Finance and Management to enter into a contribution agreement with the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio, SWACO, for the Department of Public Services' Georgesville Refuse Station and SWACO Transfer Station Phase 2 project. to authorize the receipt, deposit, appropriation, and expenditure of $1,255,686.02 within these streets and highways non-bond fund to authorize an amendment to the 2025 capital improvement budget and to declare an emergency. This ordinance enables the city to conduct necessary renovations and improvements at the Georgesville Road refuse and transfer station. The city and SWACO have agreed to jointly undertake this renovation since both entities conduct operations at the facility. Emergency designation is requested in order to adhere to the project schedule and meet project commitments. Let me stop there and see if there are any questions or comments from my colleagues. Seeing none, I move for passage.

Clerk, please call the roll. Bankston, Barrosa, De Padilla, De Aca, Rarimi, Ross, Weiss, President Pearl, Tim, Dorns.

Order is passed.

Thank you. That is all I have for my committee this evening.

Thank you, Councilmember. Is there a motion to adjourn? Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you.

Regular meeting number 35 is adjourned. We will move into non-agenda speakers.

Thank you.