City Council - Regular Meeting

Is everybody in? My gavel hand's strong.

Is everybody in? Ceremony's about to begin. All right, everyone, I would like to welcome everyone to tonight's City of Dayton Regular City Council Meeting. It is June 9th, 2026, 7 p.m. ish. Roll call please, Ms. Klein.

Member Judd. Present. Member Lovins. Here. Member Horton. Member Neary. Here. Member Neiman. Here. Member Kelly. Here. City Administrator Fawcett.

Here.

City Attorney Edmondson. Here. Mayor Baker.

Here. I'd like to say that Member Horton did reach out to me, and he's unavailable to make it tonight, so he's excused. Could we all please raise for a moment of silence and a Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you very much. For this month's mayor's report, I do not have much reports. That's a good thing, actually. So we're gonna move right along to the approval minutes. So I have a motion to approve the minutes of May 22nd, 2026. So moved. Motion's been made.

I'll second.

Member Cowley made the second. All in favor?

Aye.

Any nays? Any abstentions? The ayes have it. Next on the docket, we have some presentations tonight. And the first is the city auditor, John Chamberlain. John, our favorite of the year.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Mainly his favorite of the year.

Well, if you clap for me tonight, I was at the city of Park Hills back earlier this year, and I finished my presentation, and they just, like, all clapped. And I'm standing there, and I'm like... Very seldom ever do I not know what to say. I have that gift. And I'm like, okay, I'm not sure what to say here. No one's ever clapped for the audit presentation. So that's just a very different thing. Mayor, thank you very much. My name's John Chamberlain. I'm a CPA and partner at Chamberlain O&N Company. And we're a CPA firm in Erlanger that specializes in audits of governmental entities. And we appreciate the opportunity to do the work again this year for the city of Dayton. I want to start off by thanking Jared and Tristan and Jay and your staff, and thank you for taking care of us when we visited you and providing us with everything that we asked for and being a good host for us, and we really appreciate that. You've got a good accounting staff and a good staff here. Jared, the second slide just shows what's called our audit opinion, and we've given what's called an unmodified opinion, meaning that after the audit work that we've completed, that there are no modifications required to the opinion, and that's the highest opinion that we give, that your financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with U.S. standards. generally accepted accounting procedures or accounting principles. So that's a, like I said, that's like the highest opinion As a part of every governmental audit, we do a review of internal controls. We want to make sure that your riskiest assets are protected, your cash assets, the revenue coming in the door, the expenditures going out the door, credit cards, anything like that, debit cards at the bank. We want to make sure those assets are protected. And so we did not identify any weaknesses in internal controls that we considered to be material weaknesses or significant deficiencies. Also, part of your internal controls are your financial reporting, and we made a few adjustments to financial reporting this year after your consultant accountant was here, but not as many as last year, so we went ahead and just removed that item from last year. We do have one issue. As part of every government audit, we do review for compliance, so compliance with Kentucky revised statutes, compliance with any bonds, grant agreements that you might have, making sure you pay your SERS payments that you're contractually required to pay, that type of thing. And there is one issue of noncompliance, and it's really just timeliness of the financial statement audit. And we received from your consultant, and they had planned this a few months ahead of time at least, that we would have everything by May 15th of 2026, and that we would finish it by the 31st, which we did, at 11.06 p.m. But it was by the 31st. But we... It is due, your audit is due to the Department of Local Government by March 1st. So we would normally be doing this presentation in January, December, January, February time frame. So we really want to get that fixed. And so our recommendation to the city in your management comments letter is to review that agreement that you have with the consultant accountant and just to make sure that that you solidify your delivery dates and that type of thing with a consultant. The next slide shows our, we do a letter of correspondence with the city council, and you'll have that letter in your packet. Tristan will make sure everyone has that. So we had no issues that we considered to be significant issues that we'd really want to put in front of you other than that one issue, that one finding of timeliness of the audit report. We did make three planned adjustments to your net position. That's your government-wide net position. And we do the first of these two every year. We've done these every year. We've done the audit. And that's just to adjust the... The net investment return for your investment in the Dayton Bellevue Fire Department, for this city, that's for Dayton and Bellevue both, you have half of the value of the Dayton Bellevue Fire Department on your books as an investment. If that fire department closed up, all those assets would be yours in Bellevue. So that goes on your books as an investment. Unfortunately, because they're a hazardous surge system, they have a very large negative fund balance. And so that goes on your books as a negative balance. Then we also adjusted the OPEB and pension benefit, and we do that annually. We gross that up. That's measured in July. In June of the previous year, June of 2024, it was on your 2025 financial statements, and so we gross that up every year. And then this year we did something new where you've started to lease your police vehicles instead of buying them. This used to be called in the accounting parlance an operating lease, and these never were on the financial statements. up until about three years ago when GASB, the Government Accounting Standards Board, GASB 87, requires that operating leases like this, they go on your financial statements, on your long-term financial statements, as a right-to-use asset. It gets amortized, and then a related lease, current and long-term liability. So those go on your financial statements. So we've added $494,000 of leased vehicles of right of use assets on your financial statements. About $80,000 of that was accumulated amortization for the first year or two. And then $413,000 of related right of use lease liability. And then we also made three unplanned adjustments in the general fund, four in the TIF fund, and one in the urban renewal fund. Again, much fewer than we did in the prior year. The most significant, and that's all detailed in your governance letter, the most significant adjustment that we made in the general fund and the government-wide fund as well was to recognize about $513,000 in the national opioid settlement receivable. And so we recognize that you had already received about $175,000 in the last couple of years. But the accounting treatment for this opioid receivable is to put that on your balance sheet as a receivable until you receive it. And then it's also called a deferred revenue. So it sits on your balance sheet as a deferred revenue until you're ready to use it. And so we'll get more into that in just a minute. So we made that adjustment. So there's currently at June 30, 2025, About a $352,000 receivable. That's what you're left to come in the door. We made a $125,000 prior period adjustment to count the monies that had received in the prior couple of years. We actually took those out of revenue. You received them, put them in revenue. We moved to deferred revenue. And then you have about $513,000 deferred. I'll give a test on that later and have you all explain it to me one by one if you don't mind. So that's one of the bigger adjustments that we made this year. So that is something that's a little bit different, and I'll show you more about that. On the next slide shows your cash and asset position and your statement of government-wide financial statements. And you can see cash there at $5.6 million, up from about $4.6 million last year. So almost a million-dollar increase in cash position, $998,000 increase. And cash has been increasing. You can see that trend line for the green bar for cash has been just increased pretty much every year. The capital assets increased about $570,000 and that's again those right of use assets of almost $500,000 plus about $350,000 of capital assets and add all that with a cumulative depreciation. So your capital assets have increased as well. Back one slide just a second, Jared, if you don't mind. The Government Finance Officers Association recommends municipal governments have about three months of operating expenditures on hand in cash, about one quarter of your year of your operating expenditures on hand in cash. For Dayton, that's about $1.7 million, and you can see there you got about 5.6. You got right at 10 months of operating cash on hand. So you're a very solid cash position. I always encourage cities, you don't necessarily need to scrimp and save if you've got some projects you need. Next slide, please. The yellow is the current liabilities, and that's the accounts payable, things that are due in the current period. That increased slightly, about $85,000 from last year up to about $414,000, and the increase really is due to the the current portion of that right of use asset. So you'll hear me talk about this. That right of use asset liability is what makes up the increase in that current portion. The red is your long-term liability. And you did pay off the fire truck that you had the debt for with the Dayton Bellevue Fire Department, so you paid that off, and then you just immediately replaced it with long-term debt lease liability of about $319,000 there. So just swap one for the other. The green is your investment in the Dayton Bellevue Fire Department, so that's basically half of their net position, obviously a negative net position. And then the 3.5 million, that is your net pension and OPEB liabilities. Yours went up just slightly. In the measurement year, your contributions, your covered payroll had increased about $293,000 in the covered payroll year. And that's why your percentage of the service amount that you own actually increased. And most of those have gone down last year. Yours actually went up a little bit because you're basically paying out a little more in hazardous and non-haz staff. The next slide, this is just an excerpt from your statement of net position. And I think it would be nice to show you some of the financial statements on here. I don't want to go through all of them. But it does show that national opioid receivable, that's that top line that's underlined with $352,000. And that'll go down every year as you start to receive those funds. The boxed area right below that, that's the right of use assets, less the accumulated amortization. So $494,000 in assets, less $80,000 in accumulated amortization. So right at about $414,000, $413,000 net. And then down below that, the two right of use liabilities, the $94,000 and the $319,000 that make up the liabilities related to that. So I just want to show you where those were in your financial. Next slide is the balance sheet, and this is the balance sheet for all funds. So you can see there you had total assets of about $8 million on the balance sheet, and total liabilities are right at $2 million. And these are current assets, current liabilities. This doesn't include your long term. So these are just things that are doing payable here in the next year. And so assets minus liabilities is your net position, and you see your total net position or your fund balance down there, I should say, right at about $6 million, $5.9 million. And then that deferred revenue, you see opioid settlement deferred revenue at $513,000. So that's the total amount of that deferred revenue. So when you start to spend that, what you'll want to do, and Jared and Tristan, I'm going to stomp the floor here so you all pay attention. And remember to ask me this. I know you said something about this. But you'll want to recognize that revenue like it's revenue coming in the door. We'll remove it from the deferred revenue. But when you budget this, budget is revenue coming in the door and then expenditures of the same amount. So when you're ready to use those expenditures, if you wanna use 60,000 of those expenditures in the new fiscal year, you'll wanna budget 60,000 of revenue and 60,000 of it. And like I said, feel free to call and say, what did you say? The next slide is just your revenues versus expenditures from all sources. And this is over the last five years. You see there are total revenues of $7.6 million compared to expenses of almost $6.8 million. About an $815,000 variance to the positive net income of the year. That compares very favorably to last year. Last year was right at about a million. You had some other grants and some other things that came through there last year. let's go to the next the total revenues again right at 7.6 million dollars that's about a 1.7 percent increase uh these are your the sources of your revenues basically uh so your uh taxes of 3.3 million dollars that's about a 19 increase i'm going to point that out point out that that is due to property values new property being built in the city that's obviously not a tax increase so it's it's all pro it's all very um it's very organic growth through property value and new property in the city so that's that's a very good thing for the city uh licensing permits at 2.8 million dollars get about a 10.8 percent increase and that's due to growth in business in the city and collection and an emphasis on collection which you guys have done a good job of So applaud there. And then the other ones really pretty much are very similar year to year, except for intergovernmental, and that was about a 55% decrease. And you'd spent about $494,000 in ARPA funds last year. Do you remember the funds gifted from the federal government that you used for a lot of special... special projects, you had expended those in the prior year, didn't get those funds again this year, and so the governmental revenues decreased by about 15%. Next slide are total expenditures by department. Again, about $6.79 million in expenditures. about a 5.3% increase, so a very reasonable increase. Police at 1.6 million, only about a 0.1% increase, I think that amounted, or a decrease I should say, about a $1,700 decrease, so almost dead on from last year. Professional services at $1.2 million, and that was about 154,000 or 14% increase. Fire and EMS, about 0.4% decrease over the prior year, or right at about $5,000, again, just about dead-ons. General government at 871,000, that's about an 11% increase, roughly $89,000. And then public works, a decrease of about $268,000 or minus 27%. But that's where a good chunk of that ARPA funds, it was spent in public works last year as opposed to capital assets. And so that's why that. And then capital outlay of about $351,000, and that is an increase from last year as well. Recreation, $102,000 increase, about 112% increase there. And then some of the projects for the capital outlay and recreation that we recognize this year were your Forth and Kenton stormwater project, the Irvin Terrace stormwater project. There was a Gill Lynn project. park structure upgrades and cameras, and then Sargent Park Pavilion and trail upgrades, as well as the Riverfront Commons, and then a lot of equipment purchased for police and public works. And then the next slide shows revenues versus expenditures, And for the crowd, we can't really see that slide. You all will get a copy of this. And it's also in the financial statements. All that goes online, I think, on your website. You'll be able to see this. But this is just the revenues versus expenditures. It shows those total revenues of $7 million over in that far right-hand column, and then the $6.7 million of total expenditures, again, in the far right-hand column. But it's also broken down by general fund. the incremental tax fund, and then all the non-major funds. So that's where that comes from. That's page 14 in your financial statements if you want to look at those in more detail. Just one other thing, and this is in your financial statements, and when you get these, I just want to point this out, that the city did budget. They budgeted right at about $10 million in revenue coming in the door, actually had about $9 million. actually had about $9 million of revenue coming in the door. And then, so I'm sorry, about $6 million of revenue coming in the door. And the difference, really, you had budgeted for a grant of about $3 million that you did not receive in the current fiscal year, or in the current being 2025 fiscal year. And then you had budgeted roughly $10.5 million in expenditures, and the general fund expended right at about $5 million, with that $5 million variance being grant expenditures that you didn't expend, that you were promising or that you were forecasting for that. So you did meet your budget requirements of budgeting expenditures within budget, which is a KRS requirement as well. Any questions, anything? Again, in summary, an unmodified opinion and no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses to report, and then the one noncompliance item regarding timeliness of the audit.

We'll definitely try to be more prompt next year, sir. I appreciate that, calling us out. Anybody have any questions for John?

uh two quick ones uh the the debt service i didn't see that in the like last year's budgets or anything so looks like it was kind of maybe a one-time thing for over 141 000 the debts are having debt service as a uh as a budget line item that because of the lease yeah you yeah you really should have um those are the leases are probably rolled through the uh your lease expenses is being being budget, probably through your police and public works department, where you're getting your cars. So it's not really rolling through debt service in the budget. Because it's not really, it's more, it's an operating lease, for lack of a better term. I know those terms went away. The term operating lease has really gone away, but that's really what it is.

Right, I guess my question is, do we need to adjust for that in this current year? because it's showing zero for debt service.

Yeah, the you're you already got it included in your police and public work because you've already got the expenditures included. that you're paying enterprise for your rental, for your leased vehicles, that's already rolling through. So you're not breaking it out by debt service. Got it, okay. If you wanted to do that, you could break that out, but I'm not sure that I would recommend. I think I would keep that in police and fire. It's more descriptive in police and fire.

More transparency that way, yeah. And then the other question is, I guess, as far as your standard practice, do you have a standard audit plan that you cover every year or are there certain things that you take deep dives into every year?

So we change that around a little bit. You know, we don't do the exact same thing every year. We usually ask for different things. There are certain things we do every year. We always look at credit cards. We feel like those are the most, one of the riskiest things that you can do. We'll always look at, we always look at your bank accounts. There's certain things we always look at. We always do a lot, there's some comparative information that we always look at. Your tax revenues, a lot of your revenues, we look at very comparative year to year to year to make sure they're not doing something funky or decreasing. And then expenditures, we're really looking for things that with significant changes, changes from year to year, we're not gonna go look at your utility revenues or something like that. We wanna look at things that have oddball changes, why did something go up or go down dramatically, that type of thing. So we do preliminary analytical procedures that pull out those, that kind of suss those things out or pull those out and say, these are things that, There's been a significant increase or decrease, and so we'll check those accounts out.

Okay. So it's based on what you assess that you decided that deep into?

Yeah, we basically assess a risk factor. Because it's a risk-based audit, we're looking for potential risk. And like I said, your utility bill is not – a great risk unless you see a great difference. So we'll look at other things. We'll look at a lot of miscellaneous accounts and look at things that might be like an oddball account. Great.

Thank you.

Sure. Thank you. Good questions. I can always depend on you to have a good question.

Thank you, Councilman Judd. Any other folks want to question Mr. Hamerly? All right. Well, thank you very much, sir, for your assessment. I appreciate it.

Thank you, John. You have a great night, man. The second crowd.

You are a rock star in Northern Kentucky municipalities now. Good job, man.

after that riveting account uh next up we have the uh the rotary club uh for northern campbell county so we'd love to have you guys speak to uh council i i just uh asked for a little time because if you remember several months ago i came here saying that we were trying to start a rotary club here in dayton and i'm pleased to say that we now have a satellite club here in dayton and part of it has to thank you for allowing us to meet here because uh it gave us a place that we could have people come to and i really appreciate that on that note the name of the club is the rotary satellite club of dayton hybrid And I read in our case means that we're not a traditional Rotary Club with a meeting, a speaker, and a meal plan. We're a Rotary Club that's geared to new generations. And that meaning our particular Rotary Club is intended to be a service-based Rotary Club. And in Rotary's reach out to people of new generations, not mine, but is to consider schedules, to consider what youth want to do and so forth. So this Rotary Club, for the most part right now, has more people 40 and younger and we're based on doing service so our second service project is going to be on june 28th and we're going to be cleaning up the city gathering garbage wherever So I've asked Jarrett for a map and he's gonna get me a map of the city and we're gonna try and plan it out where like maybe a team takes four blocks or something like that. We'll have to figure that out yet. And it will be from 9 a.m. till noon. And we're meeting at the liquor parking lot that worked for us last year, or last, in April, whenever that was. And we're hoping to get a lot of people from the community involved. So spread the word, and we have flyers out there somewhere, and I today contacted, because my position with Rotary is I'm called the assistant governor, and so I'm responsible for all the Rotary clubs in this northern Kentucky area. I'm area one of our district. And I sent out an email. In our Rotary world, it's called the P-mail. and uh to all the rotary rotarians in this in this area today they're supposed to be welcome you into the club so thank you for everything that you've done for us

On June 28th, 9 to 12, what do people bring to participate? Do you have to bring bags?

Well, last time Ben supplied us with, I don't know what you call those things, pickers? Yeah, grabbers. yeah something like that gloves uh uh containers for the garbage which were the buckets right uh uh ben yeah there's five gallon buckets we got a hardware store we can't promote any ones but yeah What we're going to do this time, because we've done a little research on it, is we're going to try and, lots of people said when they were checking out to me at that day of the event, that they were concerned about all the cigarette butts in the city. So I did some research on it, and there's a way that we can recycle cigarette butts and turn it into a park bench. So if we can make that happen, the park bench goes back to the city of Dayton. Cool.

So they can just show up empty-handed and start to work.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Anybody else have any questions? I have about 20 or 25 pickers.

20 or 25 what?

Of the garbage pickers.

Oh, you mean cigarette butts.

Yeah. I wish. I know, man. It was great being young, wasn't it? I could bring them up to the city building. All right.

Cool. Thanks, Jess.

Anybody else?

Any other questions?

Thank you so much for everything that you've done for me.

Well, thank you, Barb. Thank you, Barb. And your organization, your motto is service above self. Yes. And you guys certainly carry that flag, and we appreciate you in the city of Dayton. Next on our docket is the podium is open to anybody who would like to address city council for any of tonight's agenda items. So if you have anything you'd like to speak to council about tonight's agenda items, the podium is yours. Just name and address, please. I don't see anybody bum rushing the podium. So we're gonna go ahead and close that out. Which moves us along to the next docket item, which would be ordinances. The first one is the second reading of ordinance 2026-5. Ms. Klein, please.

An ordinance amending the city of Dayton, Kentucky's annual budget for the fiscal year running from July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026, and estimating revenues and resources and appropriating funds for the city to the full extent authorized by KRS 82082 and interpretive case law.

This was the ordinance that basically made amendments to the budget for last year, not the one we're voting on next, which is for the next fiscal year, but last year to reflect any changes that weren't consistent with the existing budget that was approved. And so that just cleans that up.

Do I have a motion to accept Ordinance 2026-5?

So moved.

Member Judd's made a motion. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Member Neiman. Which opens up for comments, questions, concerns. Anybody like to have comments, questions, or concerns? I have a motion by Member Judd and a second by Member Neiman. Roll call, please.

Member Lovins. Aye. Member Neery. Aye. Member Neiman. Aye. Member Kelly. Aye. Member Judd. Aye.

And the ayes have it. Next in the docket will be second reading of Ordinance 2026-6. Ms. Klein, please.

An ordinance adopting the city of Dayton, Kentucky's annual budget for the fiscal year running from July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 and estimating revenues and resources and appropriating funds for the city to the full extent authorized by KRS 82.082 and interpretive case law.

this is the ordinance that is approving the budget for the upcoming fiscal year which starts july 1. assistant city manager parks went through a very detailed analysis at the last meeting if you have any questions you i would direct him he's the budget director for the city so basically this is adopting the upcoming budget thank you mr fawcett do i have a motion to accept 20 26-6

I'll make the motion.

Member Kelly has made the motion. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Second by Ms. Lovins. Any questions, comments, concerns towards Mr. Burks?

I did a, I know in the ordinance here, or the, yeah, it would be an ordinance that just breaks it down by department. I did some analysis line by line on the budget so we can tell, you know, the motor vehicle tax, what is the increase from last year's, this current year's budget to next year's budget. And is it all right to share this with all the council or?

Yeah.

And it gives you a little bit more insight into individually where in the departments there's some savings and some added expenditures. When we get the financial, the end of the year budget report next month, I'll add a third column in there that'll say, okay, next year we expect to spend this much. And last year we did spend this much versus just what was budgeted. Jared, that is the same document that we were working on that I sent you the other day. For your reading enjoyment. You can't fall asleep tonight, just go through that.

Member Neary, did you have any concerns over any of these items?

Yeah. You don't say um that long without saying yeah.

I have questions that I would rather ask privately because I may be way off base on them. Nothing nefarious or anything, just why we put some things here and not here, that's all. I think the proposed salary changes and the increases that you see, the small incremental increases, are pretty much due to inflation. I don't see anything wild in there. Maybe you could pick something out that would have questions. And I'll direct those questions privately to Mr. Barks and administration rather than bring them up. Because like I said, I don't want to look like a fool. I don't understand half of this stuff. I couldn't be an auditor. I just like Excel spreadsheets. Excel's pretty awesome.

And that's what we need is more auditors.

Yeah, we do. Yeah. Perfect.

I think we need more IT guys, but.

With that said, no concerns for me on this. I like the collaborative effort that we have in the budget process.

Thank you, Mr. Meary. My pleasure, sir. So as far as the second reading of ordinance 2026-6, we have a motion by Member Kelly and a second by Member Lovins. We have comments by Member Neary. Do we have any other comments, questions, concerns? If not, roll call, please.

Member Neary.

Aye.

Member Neiman. Aye. Member Kelly. Aye. Member Judd. Aye. Member Lovins. Aye.

You guys have it. The last in the docket for the ordinances of the evening would be the first reading of ordinance 2026-7. Again, this is just a first reading. Ms. Klein, please.

An ordinance amending the personnel and pay classification plan of the city of Dayton, Kentucky, including establishing city employee salaries for the 2026-2027 fiscal year and amending compensation ranges for these positions.

So under state law, we're supposed to adopt a personnel pay classification plan. We needed to update our previous one because we had some additions added to our personnel, and the ranges have changed in order to reflect actual salaries. So that's what this is for. We passed this two years ago. This is an amendment to that. We passed two years ago.

Thank you, Mr. Fawcett. That, again, is a first reading. So we will have a whole 30 to 31 days, depending on the month, to ask questions. Next up, Orders and Resolutions. The first in the docket would be Order Resolution 2026-8 Romeo. Ms. Klein.

and order resolution authorizing the mayor to execute identification agreements with Jenny F. Schlosser and Beth Finnell in connection with construction of phase two of the Dayton Pike sidewalk project.

So we are getting closer to the point where we're going to try to get a bid out here. We have to get KYTC approval, and their final design plan is just being finished up. But in order to do this sidewalk project, we have to get sign-off from each of the property owners along Dayton Pike. We've gotten a lot of consents that were voluntarily given to us. Jeff Slosher, who is a lawyer, his wife is a co-owner of the property. It's a large track right on the big bend there. It's undeveloped. It actually runs from Lincoln Road all the way down to Dayton Pike. They have several people that were in the group that acquired this property, and they just wanted to make sure that... that if there were any, we don't go on their property, we don't do anything permanent there, we're going out there, do the construction, then once we're done, we come off. So they asked for an indemnification agreement from the city that if, for whatever reason, any issues arise, that we will cover that expense. So I don't see any issues likely to arise, but in order to get this accomplished, I said we'd do that. So that's why it's here. Alex directed the actual dignification agreements and talked to Jeff, too, about it. And I think that they will sign the consent once this agreement is, once we get this agreement signed.

Is there a reason why we don't go ahead and do those to begin with on these types of projects while we wait for the citizens to raise the question of it?

KYTC requires us to get these consents signed. And then if you don't get signed, then you have to go through an event domain process, which takes a long time. And it's more, the project won't get done for probably another year. So the idea is to get the consent signed. And they'll sign the consent once they have this agreement from us. Does that answer your question? I'm not sure if I understood it.

I don't think so. How many people in total were involved in this?

I would say there were about 13 or 14 households. We have about nine signed. We had to change some designs. That's what's delayed a little bit to make some changes. They wanted somebody's driveway or parking pad was reduced. They wanted more space on the other end. Another one wanted to curb it. We had to go back and redesign it. And so once that's done, they've told us they'll sign off on it. So we got about four more to go.

I guess my question is these indemnification agreements make sense to me from a citizen standpoint to begin with. Is there a reason why we don't go ahead and do this for the other nine or 10 people that we already have involved?

Now, I mean, it just, it will take the process further. It was hard enough to track down the property owners in the first place, but generally KYTC doesn't require that. All they want is the consent. But basically saying, you can come on my property, make your improvements, and then when it's done, you're off my property. We're not, this is all in the right of way. We're not on their property to actually, we'd have to get an actual permanent easement if we were on their property making This is just a temporary easement to allow us to go on, do the work. In a few places, we have to grade it a little bit, but they understand that. We explain that to them, and they're fine with it. In the long run, they're all going to benefit because we're going to put a curb here now. That's a big flooding issue, and we'll actually put a little up on the driveways, too, so the water will be contained in the street. Most of it will. And so I think in the long run, they're all going to benefit from this, not just a new sidewalk, but they're also going to have less flooding issues that they currently have.

Gotcha. My question was basically, should we in the future just draft these indemnification agreements and have them ready to go? It sounds like the answer is no.

Yeah, I think it's more complicated. Alex, do you want to?

Yes.

Then you get lawyers involved.

Yeah, yeah. This was in a little bit more of an unusual situation, and there was a lawyer involved on the other side. That's really kind of what was forcing it. We don't love signing indemnifications basically saying we'll fix all the problems, but this was one that required it. So that's why you wouldn't voluntarily give people indemnifications if it's not required by the law. So there were some competing circumstances with lots of heirs that may not even have known they owned the property. So that's what happens when you have remnant of parcels, and this is the case. So we worked on this for about actually three or four months to try to figure out how to handle a situation. So I think this was a pretty good result.

Yeah. And Jeff's a lawyer, a typical lawyer. Give me an agreement. Protect me. Okay.

great thanks for the info okay and this is also very of all the parcels involved in this project this is the most challenging technically because of the drop off and the old stream that was there and everything um so i could see why they would want yeah indemnity on it it's it's more complicated than the rest of it combined put it that way it's only a small section it all comes down to a tiny point but it's right there that turn And then how many properties, how many parcels are we still waiting on sign-offs?

I think three, but I think, I'm talking to Mike, they're waiting for the final design. Once they see the final design, he's got an indication from them they'll sign off on it. So we're hoping... We can still get this thing done, but, again, we have to send it to the state, and they have to approve it. So we're going to try to speed that up if we can, but we know how that's been in the past. So we're hopeful that we can do it this fall, late summer this fall. But we're ready to go as soon as the state signs it. We've got a document ready for the bids.

Okay. Thank you.

So we've had a lot of conversation already out of Robert Stroll's ordinance. Do I have a motion to accept ordinance 2026-8 Romeo?

So moved.

Member Neri's made a motion. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Member Neiman. Which opens it up for conversation because we always forget that line. Anybody else have any conversation?

I helped that, so I apologize as well, Mayor.

That's okay. You're still in the rookie stage. Any other conversation? Roll call, please.

Member Neiman? Aye. Member Kelly? Aye. Member Judd? Aye. Member Lovins? Aye. Member Neary?

Aye. And the ayes have it. Next on the docket would be Order Resolution 2026-9R, Romeo. That's fine.

an order resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a contract with Stephen Arthur Kunath and Catherine Jane Kunath and to accept a declaration of easement from them for the purpose of making public improvements at 152 Grant Park Drive for the purpose of collecting and directing stormwater and groundwater from this property and directing it into the public stormwater system on Grant Park Drive.

So this is phase three of the improvements we're making on Grand Park Drive to deal with stormwater and groundwater issues. This is similar to what we did last year. We had four properties on the south side of Grand Park, down near the circle, where we had a number of problems with sump pumps that were not tied into the sewer system, stormwater sewer system. We did that last year. The project was great. It's been completely dry since we did it, so it's really good. This one is two projects. One's closer up to Michigan Avenue. The other one is down near the end of the street near the circle. One is like last year's. It's a sump pump issue. We're going to tie it in. We'll do a French drain to catch groundwater and dump it into the stormwater system. The other one is a little bit different. It is an actual spring issue, we believe. The sump pumps in that area of Grand Park have already been tied in. to the system. So we think we're really just addressing a spring that's there. So we're going to be installing sewer in the grassy area and then doing an underground French drain that will try to capture water coming from the north side of the street. And we also will do a French train across the street. We have to go across the street to tie into the stormwater sewer over there anyway. So that will be done as well. That one is not requiring a sump pump work. So the city will put that bill. We are seeking SD1 payment for a minimum of 50%, but maybe more. They've agreed to do it in the past, so we suspect that they will agree to do it again. But that is all contingent upon them doing that. The Cunas, because we are going on private property and fixing their issue, will contribute $2,500 towards this project as well. So the total project is around $25,000 for down there, and the other one's around $24,000. We have funds that we've set aside from the TIF fund from this park that would be used to pay for this Grand Park TIF that would be used to pay for this. So it's a good project. We're slowly but surely addressing some of the issues. And at some point, we're going to have to figure out. There's some street sections that probably need to be replaced. That's a lot more expensive. And we are diminishing some of the monies we set aside. So we'll have to wait for them to build up before we do that. But that's probably next year.

That's quite a lengthy explanation, sir, and I appreciate that. With that explanation, do I have a motion to accept Resolution 2026-9 of Romeo?

I'll make that motion.

Member Neiman's made the motion. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Member Kelly's made a second. Now, Mr. Judd, or anybody else on council, would anybody like to have comments, questions, concerns?

No further questions.

Anybody else? This is an important project. Roll call, please.

Member Kelly. Aye. Member Judd. Aye. Member Lovins. Aye. Member Neary. Aye. Member Neiman. Aye.

Any ayes have it? And last on the docket for the order resolutions for the evening would be order resolution 2027-10, Romeo. Ms. Klein, please.

An order resolution approving a City of Dayton Memorial Bench Program to incentivize donations for the purpose, purchase, manufacture, and placement of memorial benches in the city.

So we've recently had a couple of requests from people that want to do memorial benches in the city on behalf of loved ones. This is something that Bellevue does, and so we looked at their program. We think it would be a good idea to do it here. I've also talked with South Bank partners will Webber executive director about they do that too on the benches on the trail Along the river and we'd like to maybe get the same type of inches. They're getting and working with them and purchase them maybe in bulk to get some savings, so Basically if you wanted to do this the person seeking would pay for the bench And the plaque that would go on it, and then we will reinstall it And it could be in our parks probably in our public parks and maybe on the river or on the trail up on the levee too. We looked at our benches in Monument Park and they're getting a little rough, so it would be nice to kind of replace those. These are heavy duty cast iron benches and I think they'll be really a little more attractive than the ones we have there now. So we have somebody right now that's interested in doing it, so we thought we'd go ahead and get this before you guys.

Thank you, Mr. Fawcett. Do I have a motion to accept Order Resolution 2027-10, Romeo?

So moved.

Member Judd has made a motion. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Member Neiman. Any questions, comments, concerns regarding the Order Resolution?

The question would be about maintenance. Are these benches that are going to need painting later on?

They might, but they're power-coded. They're really high-quality benches. I can send you an image of it. Will sent it to me. So, yeah, I think that they'll probably be low-maintenance, but these benches don't last forever. But they're solid. They're a lot more solid than ones we currently have in Monument Park.

Right, but would that then be a city expense or would that be on the... We would maintain them.

Once they were done, we would take responsibility for maintaining them.

Okay, so we get the installation and the maintenance then. That's correct. Okay, thank you.

Excellent question.

And these could only be placed on city property, not private property?

That's correct. They can make suggestions, but under our rules, we make the ultimate decision where they go.

Any other questions, comments, concerns? Roll call, please, Ms. Klein.

Member Judd.

Aye.

Member Lovins. Aye. Member Neary. Aye. Member Neiman. Aye. Member Kelly.

Aye. You guys have it. Moving right along. Next up is the Department Director's Monthly Reports. And I typically go ladies first, but I believe Ms. Patterson's on vacation. Well-deserved.

so uh... we'll see her next month so that brings us right up next uh... we'll go uh... mr lucas ladies first i didn't say it well my favorite saying we're swamped we've been working on a little bit on the river trail and uh... also earlier this last month, we had a couple trees go down that storm, the wind we had. We got that taken care of. The trees that we thought were dying, Jared, on Dayton Pike and down by when you come off of Route 8, go on to Hanson Boulevard, they're starting to grow from the bottom up. I ain't dead yet. No, they're not. I'm going to take two years. And Really, I mean, we're just real busy. I mean, there's our new garbage cans. Those look great.

Those were manufactured here in Dayton at Metal Solutions.

They always work with us. So we'll replace some of the ones on the avenue. We're going to bring them down. We'll repaint them and put them out.

Big shout out to Metal Solutions for, what, 20 years of a partnership with them?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, they'll do about anything for me. I mean, they gave me metal before the whole bit. They're good people. Appreciate them. And he's also looking at building me a box for our dump truck to put our chippings in from the chipper.

Yeah.

He's going to be looking at building that. They're great. They're great to work with.

Yeah, they do, like, really big military projects. Oh, yeah.

And it's right out of here in the industrial zone. With... all the people on the river trail. They're wanting to do a big swing, and Metal Solutions would be perfect for that.

They're the ones that built the swings over in Sawyer Park or whatever that is. Small Park. Small Park. They built those. They can build anything down there.

Yeah, they're nice people.

Yeah, they're really good.

Rick, while we're talking about garbage cans, I want to mention something. So there's a lot of ways you can look at how successful a city is, different metrics you can look at, but we have found a really unique one talking about garbage cans. Tell the council about our downtown garbage cans and how often you have to empty them now compared to the past.

The first three blocks were empty almost every day. I mean, it's that good. How different is that in the past? Well, 10 years ago, we had inmates, not two groups, but two inmates apiece, just going out picking litter all day long. We don't pick litter anymore. We don't have to. I mean, every once in a while, we'll have a little bit in the Monument area, but we don't have to walk on the street to pick litter.

And there's just some more people. Right.

There's a lot more people, but everybody's taking care of their, you know, in front of their house or whatever. But, yeah, we're not doing it hardly ever. I mean, Cassie will send us out on a job sometimes.

Yeah, you always have your days.

That's great. And I think the toters have helped that, too. Oh, yeah. And we don't have nearly as much cans blown over or opening up. So, yeah, I think that really cut down on the litter issue as well.

Yeah, and Memorial Day Parade, I mean, I couldn't have went any better.

Yeah, you guys did a great job.

I mean, we didn't have no issues. I guess, Garrett, when you... Lined them all up. You didn't have no problems down there.

I think when it's smooth as I can remember, the start went as smooth as I can remember. That was a good idea, lining them up on the different streets this year.

That worked out great. I mean, we had the avenue cleaned up, all of our cones and everything up, before the freight people got back and down. I mean, we were able to fall right in behind. No problem. Thank you. Well, it's not a hitch, man. It was great. That's all I have. If anybody's got any questions.

Any questions for Director Lucas? Thanks, sir. Have a good evening. Chief Halfhill, your report for the police department, please.

I have my monthly report. I just got the... Police social work monthly report today, so sorry for that being so late. It's out of my hands, so I'm waiting every month from the dispatch. our police social workers for that. You have my monthly report. The only thing I just want to touch base on, we're still doing the behind the badge on our Facebook page. Seems to be a pretty big hit, getting to know the officers and stuff like that. So it's going along pretty good. I want to give a shout out to Lieutenant Colonel Baldwin. We got accepted for the grant to replace our patrol rifles. That was something that I did when I came here. Eleven years ago, we had Dermo, which was from the military, and they looked like they were from Vietnam. They were very old rifles, so I upgraded those, and they're starting to get a lot of wear and tear on them, so we did receive a grant. to have them replaced, so that's good.

The grant covers all the costs? Because I think we discussed this last year.

Yeah, it's 100%. And that's something Lieutenant Colonel Baldwin, with the state, the state's given a lot of grants out, body armor, helmets, shields, things like that. Hopefully we can get some more shields, but yeah, it's 100% covered. And I got a message today I kind of want to share with you guys. Just a shout out to a couple of our officers. I got a message saying that I'll read it verbatim. I'm writing simply to personally thank the officers who responded to my call last night on 8th. I won't give an address. Myself and my two children were treated kindly and with respect and understand during a difficult time. was a domestic situation my kids both commented after they were at our guys they made a comment in quotes that they were good guys domestic situations are traumatic and it's so embarrassing to be the one with police at your house but knowing that we have caring police in our community it made the experience a lot easier so as a police chief this kind of feedback is invaluable just shows the the type of training validates our training that we constantly take at a yearly basis, and it reinforces a healthy community-oriented policing. So just shout out to those guys. I just kind of want to share that.

hey chief on the opioids uh uh issue they've talked about here i wouldn't have ever even remembered that that's how we're paying for those social workers so yes we're deferring that revenue but it's now finally for the first couple years we were getting it we weren't using it yet but now it's being used every year to pay for those social workers and how's that working out for this it's work it's tremendous i mean we have a great relationship with felicia and the camel county police

She shows up to any call we need her with, any type, and you see the types of calls she assists on homelessness. We're having a lot of homelessness. She's trying to find food, shelter, you name it, domestic situations, trying to help them out, and clothing, you name it. It's been an invaluable tool, something that took officers off the street for sometimes four to five hours to try to assist. citizens struggling. We'd have to go to the hospital, sit with them at the hospital and things like that, which we still do. But we had a subject that, she was a victim of a crime and she tried to take her own life. And we went to the hospital with her, along with our social worker, try to provide her with the things that she needs to try to move forward. So it was a great team effort. Like I said, if we didn't have Felicia or a social worker, we'd be on our own, and we'd probably be off the streets for an extended period of time.

And the great thing that she does is the follow-up, which we don't have the time to do. She does a lot of follow-up, yeah.

She has the time to do that. Sometimes we're on to the next call or the next issue that we have to address immediately, and sometimes it's hard to follow up. She has more time to do that. It's been a great tool. That's all I have.

If anybody has any questions.

Chief, I just wanted to say I had a trial with Sergeant Lynn Kugel today and won against Harry Hellings. Sergeant Lynn Kugel did not know he was going to be in trial until about two hours before, as you know. And he came, showed up, looked like a million bucks, and he was ready to roll. So I really appreciate it. And in the process, sometimes that happens. Subpoenas don't get issued. And he came, and he was ready. I also had the privilege of watching him work with a victim of a city for two hours and 40 minutes to get all the paperwork filled out necessary to be able to ensure that with patience and grace and all the things that are necessary that that girl would not have done but for him, literally, and a social worker. Right. And it was two hours and 40 minutes. I've watched it twice. I'm never going to get that time back. But the bottom line is that Dayton is a safer place because of him. So I should write something up and put it in his file because, I mean, you know, when you're told two hours before you get a trial, I mean, it's a lot.

Luckily it fell on a good day where we had a lot of people here. We had four people on today.

we were able to covering uh... why was gone it's just great uh... obviously working here with you guys the more poorly we don't always have a cooperation with police departments you know it's always our fault we can't do it you know date noise let's go it's fun usually ready to go great department their questions for chief they tds are up and running to just uh...

I think I was down on the last week. I've been down there every day on the quad, on the river walk and stuff like that. So we've been trying to get the ATVs and the side-by-sides, and we've been visible down on the river walk. So you'll see us when we're down there. That's it. Go ahead.

Thanks, sir. You have a good evening.

All right. Thank you.

Last but not least, Chief Schaefer, Fire Department. You guys had a little cookout yesterday.

We did.

How'd that turn out for you, sir?

Good. I think we cooked 100 hamburgers and 80 dogs.

All right. I got one dog in me.

It's your fault.

I could have had more, you said. I'm good.

Now everybody has a copy of my report. 193 runs last month. 49 fire. 144 EMS runs. Training. Big thing on training, beginning of the month, we did a class with Newport and Covington. It was a rail car class. Finley University came down, they brought a, it's a smaller one, but a demo rail car we could get hands on with. So that was a really valuable training to them. Year to date, we're already up to almost 1,000 hours of training department-wide, which is averaging 62 hours a person, which is just outstanding. We did 17 inspections. And we're in the firehouse. We're working on getting some new software, which is going to be really awesome. So just getting that changed over is always fun. Everybody's going through our annual department physicals. So Taney comes in, does blood work there, and then we go to business health and get the physicals. And then everybody had a great day at Memorial Day.

Thank you, Chief. Do you have any questions for the Chief this evening?

Thank you.

You guys also did a killer job, as always, with the Memorial Day Parade, so thank you, sir.

Thank you, Wade.

Thanks for letting us build that amazing float in the firehouse. We enjoy it with you. Okay, last on the docket for the reports would be Mr. Fawcett. You're down to your final six reports. Okay. Make it count.

Not that you're counting. So we've got a couple things I wanted to catch up on. We have a ribbon cutting for the final two phases of Riverfront Commons or the Riverwalk. That will be held at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, January 16th. That's next Tuesday a week. So that's exciting. That will finish the trail in Dayton along the river, and then we'll try to get the other one done next year on top of the levee. Actually, we'll get the design done next year, and then we don't get the funding for the year after that. But that's something that my predecessor will have to – work on um also asphalt has been finished the asphalt work with eaton has been finished in the city they are now doing a little doing some of the striping i know i've seen they've done some some stop lines but they haven't done any of the um yellow lines so they're only going to do it where we had existing lines so the one place where we didn't have existing lines they're going to do it is the new section of route 8 that goes down to main street so we're required to put the l lines back in there and the crosswalk so i think they'll be hopefully doing that in the next few weeks the actual paving is all done we did a big a number of streets this year we expended quite a bit of money but i think they're looking good we had one section of um seventh that was not done because the water district has to make some repairs there it's like a block once those repairs are done we'll do it next year hopefully um in that budget for asphalt pavement um So speaking of sidewalks, we of course talked about the one along Dayton Pike, the long awaited second phase of that project. But we also are undertaking a brand new project that I know Councilman Neary's near and dear to his heart, we are currently in the process of taking, and we're doing this in conjunction with the Housing Authority, a sidewalk from the stairs on the north side of the flood wall over here near Main. And we're doing a sidewalk from there all the way to the the housing authority, and then we're paying for that, and then the housing authority's paying for a sidewalk along their property connecting to, I guess, that third or second avenue? The third avenue.

Yeah. Yeah.

And there'll be ADA ramps there as well. So we're splitting that cost. And so that will give one more way to access our trail system. And Rick has been talking to Meadow Solutions about making the railings to replace the ones that have been damaged and are gone over the years. That's the next phase. But once we get the sidewalks down, we'll work on the railings. So I know it's something you've talked about for a while, and I know you want railings going down the other side. We're looking at that as well. So we're getting a quote from them about that. And then the final thing, Dayton Avenue Steps, Beth. I know this is near your neighborhood and one of the projects you have an interest in. It's about two-thirds, maybe four-fifths of the project is done, the welding's done. So she's got the last section done. up to 10th avenue to go and we are going to be coming there through the public works department and we're going to be prepping the areas that have been welded and then painting those railings so we'll probably start on that when she's finishing up the last part of that so it's looking really good i hope you've been down to look at it i just went down there a couple days ago it looked really nice it's a huge improvement including the brush and the poison ivy and the repairs yeah it's a lot better than it was and She said that it's amazing the number of people that are walking to that all the time. They all want to stop and talk to her. She's trying to walk. We're trying to work and finish the project, but she's great. So, yeah, that project is near completion, so that will be exciting to finish that up. So that's all I have.

That's awesome. We have a lot of great projects going on. And again, so we're using Total Metal Solutions here in Dayton. We're also using, I call her an artist. She's an artist. Because she's an artist.

She's a Dayton resident on Thornton.

Correct. And I believe she was the first lead welder for the Cincinnati Guild that is a female.

Oh, really? Yeah.

So how cool is that?

That's really cool.

So she works her tail off making things happen for us. So if you have a Dayton business and you think that we can help you and provide services that we need, call us. We like to buy from Dayton. Any questions for Administrator Fossett this evening?

Sir, on the steps going over the flood wall, and thanks for pushing that sidewalk project there. I think that's going to really open up the east end of town more to be able to use the river walk up top. I had asked in the past about on Manhattan Boulevard having a marked crosswalk to the bottom of those steps and a pedestrian crossing sign.

Yeah, I talked to Rick about that, and I think when we start doing the painting, that's one of the things we'll do. okay cool so now the trail is done it's going to make more sense that we should have that there because the trail system is now in place up there with with the sidewalk in front of the apartments too so okay that'd be great if we can get that done this year because i often see people right from that ramp by that their dumpster across in the street with their dogs etc yeah we'll do that and we'll put signage up the crossing signage too okay cool

And I've also noticed, been spending some time down on the flood wall and walking the new path along the river, that 25 mile an hour flashing sign makes a big difference. It really does. maybe have one the other direction also. But I know it's all amount. I'm just saying if you come up with some extra cash or something, they're very effective, I think. And I've noticed that there's fewer tickets being written for speeding there. I think that's a result of that. That's all I have, sir.

Administrator Foster, quick clarifying question. When replacing that, are they still going to be steps? I think you mentioned ADA accessible.

No, that's going to be down. We have plans for ADA accessibility up here at the end of March.

So that's going to stay steps?

Yeah. No, no. Yeah, that's going to stay steps there. Got it. Thank you. And so there was some talk about some point in the future, maybe McKinney, somewhere around that area, to do another set of steps. But that's, you know, there's development agreements in place there, too. We have to make sure. But that's existing, so there's no development down there. So, yeah, so those will stay steps. But Berry Street is where the ADA ramp will go down to the trail.

Max, any other questions for Mr. Fossum? All right. Next up, if you are a member of the audience and you'd like to address city council or city administration, you may approach the podium. Just need to know your name and address. Hello.

Hi. My name is Susan Vader. And I live at 1109 and kind of 604 Vine Street. And I'm here today about regulations of Airbnb. I would like to know, well, it appears that the city doesn't really have any besides regular rental.

Correct.

And I'm told that one of the reasons is because of you're waiting for Frankfurt or something because.

There was legislation that was proposed that would limit what cities could do, but that failed, but it's gonna come back again.

Okay, but what about the meantime? I have regulations from neighboring cities, Bellevue, Newport, Fort Thomas. And, I mean, they already have them. I've looked at Covington's, which are a little bit complicated. You know, they go by neighborhoods. But let me tell you how I've been affected. I want to sell my house up on the hill. A few years ago, I missed out on that sale. My allergies are really bad. I missed out on that sale because of the blight at the top of the steps. You know, they were waiting and waiting for that guy to clean up. Took forever. Looks good now. Too late for that sale.

The city cleaned it up.

We cleaned it up. Yeah. All right. So I've been staying at Vine Street probably since March. And my block... From 6th Street to 8th Street, there are three Airbnbs, one on the corner of 7th, one on the corner of Vine Street and 8th, one on the right side, right on the other side of the alley, and one in the alley. Those three Airbnbs have a potential of 23 guests. that takes up a lot of parking. And a city that already has very little parking. These three cities all have regulations about parking for Airbnbs. I know Beth has an Airbnb in my neighborhood. People don't even know it's there because they're not affected. One of the things they always say is, I didn't even know there was one back there. in my neighborhood.

I have my own 15 spots.

I know. That are not public. I mean, and that's great. You know, and it's a lovely Airbnb. And I mean, you know, it won't work for us to do what Fort Thomas does. It's like, I think, there you have to have an off-street parking for every bedroom. But there is something we could do. And it isn't just the parking. Like the guy on Vine Street He doesn't live here in the city. He pulled out all of his turf. He filled the yard with rocks. uh... so he doesn't have to pay anybody to maintain it it becomes blighted with weeds you know which in a way i don't mind so much because at least there's pollinators but what happens then is he comes along and sprays wheat killer all over the place which environmentally that's i mean to take out turf and replace it with rocks isn't good for the environment wheat killer all over the place isn't good either and that the one that was across from 604 vine which is now single family residence um that was a short-term rental they were they also did it that little four-room cottage with two bedrooms one time had four cars so i mean i don't know what we're waiting for but airbnbs You know, I'm not against them, but I think that they undermine community. They change the character of the neighborhood. There are sometimes issues with noise. They decrease affordable or available housing for residents. Families could be moving in, and that affects the school, too. I mean, that affects school attendance. So I'm like, what are we waiting for? Why don't we do something? It's time. I mean, you know, I could tell you other stories about how I've been affected by it, like the parking. Because my nephew shares, he lives above the storefront with his little girl. They've come home in the middle of the night from the hospital and had nowhere to park with their, you know, child that they brought home from the children's hospital. You know, it's pretty annoying to walk out and see your street filled with cars from New Jersey, Iowa, Florida. I mean, you know, I just feel like there's something we can do. I mean, you can issue a certain number of parking passes per bedroom, require people to display them. I mean, I feel like we've dropped the ball. Why aren't we doing something?

I would guess that... My response to you, first of all, I really appreciate your concerns. That's my neighborhood as well. I'm a block away. Yes.

You know, and there's lots more. There's one right across from the guy on 7th or on 8th and Vine. There's one right across the street from him on 8th. There's a lot of them in that neighborhood.

My immediate response is we have not had that many complaints. I'm sitting over here looking at your neighborhood right here, your block, and seeing the gentleman's house who is now all rock versus turf.

Well, he's got two of them. He has one in the alley that used to have three garages in it. He took one garage, made that the entrance to the Airbnb upstairs above the garage. The two other ones he's cleaning out. And I would be willing to bet he intends to rent the garage spaces instead of provide them for the Airbnb. I could be wrong. I don't know what he intends to do. But he owns three of them. He lives in Mason, not in the city.

Okay. So we haven't had many complaints. We will. I'm not going to lie to you. We do get an occasional, like, well, there's a bachelor party here or something like that. That's kind of rare. I'd say it's been years since we've had one of those complaints. These people do come to the city. They do promote our city. They do shop our stores, eat our restaurants, pay our taxes, those types of things. I mean, they are viable... uh... uh... supporters of our city so we're we're not trying to we're trying to pigeonhole ourselves to the point where we're over regulating businesses and then when you have a sub thing of coming out of frankfurt where they're trying to do those things that would override anything that we would do we didn't want to you know lay out legislation that's just going to be overridden by a by a frankfurt legislation those are the reasons that we haven't done anything yet uh haven't had much of a problem contributing to the city the state the state could override anything we do uh doesn't mean that your concerns aren't valid doesn't mean that we don't have some of your same concerns but that's the reason and that's what you're asking i believe

Well, okay, I mean, do you intend to do anything or are you just waiting?

If we have more complaints, if they stop contributing to the city and the state says we're not going to do anything about it.

Well, you know, my experience, and I've talked to lots of these people because they walk down, most of the time they're going to Cincinnati and they're catching an Uber. I mean, I've even tried to talk to them. I walk downtown all the time. I go to OTR.

Yeah.

And I can't even get them to ride a tank bus to catch the... The 12? Or the South Bank to catch the connector, to give up public transportation. And they always ask me about restaurants there. I want to promote the city too. I do care about the city.

I remember a year ago or so I was at Hometown Heroes and there was a dozen folk in there that were from all around who came back to Cincinnati for a UC reunion, a class reunion. And they were like staying in Dayton, Kentucky because it was close to downtown, same reason a lot of us live here. And they found that place and they were eating at Hometown that night because the night before and the night after they were all going out for their reunion. Those types of stories are out there. It's not all bachelor parties. It's not all... Oh, I agree. 90% of the people... Every time I stay at an Airbnb, it's not a bachelor party. Julie and I try to find a nice place to stay in a neighborhood where we can contribute to the local neighborhood because I don't want to stay in downtown Chicago every time. Sometimes I want to sit in the outskirts and feel the neighborhoods. But that it's not the answer to your question you're asking about any type of upcoming legislation and we don't have any but we're interested in it if you have some ideas and j and jared i i well i can give you i made some copies of bellevue oh there you go great i actually did a memo for the council and i presented to them last council meeting i went through all the ordinances talked about what they do in each of the cities so they they have it already well that's what i found out i

I can share that with you if you want. I mean, it's just, it's basically... Well, it's pretty easy to find.

Actually, everybody's was easier than ours were to find. But that's because they didn't really exist, I guess.

Yeah, they're all across the board.

I mean, you know, so I guess you're telling me tough luck. And, you know, I'm thinking, okay, maybe I won't move in Vine Street. I'll just join the party. I have a building. I could have 60 more spaces. And maybe I should get a property manager. I don't want to be a landlord.

Right.

But it is annoying that you never know who lives in your neighborhood when it's overrun with Airbnbs and that street's beginning to feel like it is. Okay. And, you know, I think it's time to maybe try and do something about it because, you know, I don't really think having an excess of Airbnbs helps build communities. I had, there was a woman, I was putting shelf paper and two o'clock in the morning, Saturday night, I heard some party walking up the street. They had come from the mess hall in Fort Thomas. They parked in the yellow at the bottom of the street because there was nowhere else to park. I went out, I said, you know, do you know you're illegally parked? Because it's dangerous to park all the way by the avenue. You know, I said, you're illegally parked, you can get a ticket. They said, well, there's nowhere else to park. You know, we just came from a wedding at the mess hall. I said, why don't you stay in Fort Thomas? Well, there aren't many Airbnbs in Fort Thomas. And, you know, then I let them park. I said, well, I'm not leaving for a while. You can block my driveway. And they blocked my driveway. You know, I mean, I want to promote the community, too. I just think it's about balance, and I feel like in that neighborhood in particular, it's become overrun. My fear is there is a property right now, thank goodness, someone is rehabbing it, but I'm afraid it could become another Airbnb because they're very profitable, especially if you don't live in the city, you know, and you don't have to deal with it.

fill your yard with rocks and you don't even have to hire someone to cut your grass i think the biggest challenge short-term rentals is what's the difference between a short-term rental parking long-term rental parking and privately owner-occupied parking. Parking's an issue everywhere.

Across the city. The city wasn't built... I mean, it's when people had one car per household.

Right.

And that is a problem everywhere. But I can tell you the difference is that an Airbnb tends to have a lot more cars than... you know, another two-bedroom house because they might have four people coming from many different places. You don't need closet space in an Airbnb, but in a house that you live in, you have to have somewhere to put your stuff.

Playing devil's advocate here. Pardon? I'm playing devil's advocate and trying to say one aspect of how challenging this is.

I agree. But you're smart people. Figure it out.

If I have, Jessica, you live on 4th Street, and you have a 25-foot wide lot, which is enough for one car. Should we limit you to just one car? You can't do it. It's public property. That's the challenge. So whether it's owner-occupied long-term rental or what we call a short-term rental, an Airbnb or Vrbo, That's the problem is it's public property. The streets are public property. Anybody can park there. And I can't tell my neighbor that he can only have two cars or four cars based on the number of bedrooms. You just can't do that. It's public property. I think the solution and the other challenge is what is the difference between long-term and short-term? If I have a six-month lease, is that short-term rental or long-term rental?

All these other cities have defined it.

Yeah, they define it as a shorter period of time.

And what I have seen and stayed in different Airbnbs all over the place is they usually keep their places pretty nice or they get a lousy review and then they lose business.

I agree.

So it's not a property maintenance issue. In this town especially and in most cities, it's a parking issue. That's the main complaint. If there's a party going on, it's the same as if some kid's parents are out of town and he throws a party. We get the police department, they're on a nuisance thing. The main issue I see with Airbnbs or any short term rentals is the number of vehicles, correct?

Well, that's the way it affects me the most. I think other people have been affected by things like noise. It's true. You know, I am surprised. I guess I'm the first one here ever complaining on a council meeting.

No, we've been talking about it quite a bit behind the scenes.

would yeah but you know there's also the issue of how it affects the community understood you know and i think that's really an important point the school system loses out on families moving in and collecting revenue for this school system by um attendance you know

Are any of these short-term rental legislation that you've seen, Alex, does that limit the density as far as the number of properties per neighborhood or anything like that?

Covington does.

Covington does. It limits it one per block face in certain areas of the city.

And it's defined by different neighborhoods can have different numbers.

That's correct. Cummington's really the only one. They kind of get in more of the zoning stuff and that issue than just regulatory stuff.

I mean, I feel like my street's pretty saturated. I'd hate to see one more pop up. And that's things you can regulate. Other people are doing it.

Understood. I understand the frustration, especially as far as parking.

I mean, well, I really am thinking, oh, I put a lot of work into it. And I'm thinking, you know, if I can't hack this, maybe I should just join the club, make some money.

There was.

Can I finish, please? Yeah, sure. I'm sorry. All right. Would approaching it at first with residential only parking marked be at least a starter solution? They do that over in Newport, around Newport on the levee. For the few homes that are left there on Monmouth, I think it is, they made it resident parking only for the few houses that are left there. In a neighborhood like that where there is a density, much like we do with handicap parking spots, that you would have resident parking only and resident stickers. The issue then is, what if you have multiple cars and only a small frontage?

Well, yeah, I mean, maybe it has to be more, you know, the guy that has two garages, should those two garages be required for his Airbnb people? I mean, I don't know, maybe he intends to do that, but given that, you know, I don't know. You know, he could also collect revenue from renting those garages. So maybe you need to take a look at each Airbnb. And that's a big job. I mean, I don't know how many we have in the city. They're not all on Airbnb. My cousin came from Memphis and stayed at one on 5th Street through VRBO. They had off-street parking. It was the Airbnb completely had a big thing about how not to bother the neighbors, you know, all of that. I mean, some of these poor Thomases look pretty good to me. I like it, but, you know, it wouldn't work here. It's not realistic to expect people to provide off-street parking for every bedroom. I mean, we don't even have that for our residents. It wouldn't work.

Cassie has a list of the ones that we suspect are Airbnbs. She was supposed to present them. She's sick tonight. So I do have a list. We've gone through it. Last meeting, you asked me to put that together. I have it. I'll send it out to you all. I can't remember the number, but it's growing.

Yeah, it is. And, I mean, I'd like you at least to take a look at it because I can tell you it's not no fun. I mean, I like to meet people from other places, and I like to promote the city. But it's also, there's also some things that go on, one nearby me, I don't really want to go on the record. I think, isn't this streamed or somewhere online?

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't, I mean, quietly, I'm a little bit scared a little bit also. So there's some crazy stuff that's happened. But yeah. You know, it is a little bit frightening all the time to have strangers that... I'm pretty close to the sidewalk, you know, lots of people walking. Or to walk out, and I should tell the chief also, last week, or the week before I went down, I came home, there was a truck parked the wrong way, big tires, almost the size of me, 18 inches. From the curb, I went and talked to, I rode by the police station. The officer was there. She was wonderful. She came, responded. When I came back around, she was in the alley. I'm sure she probably ticketed in person. And I'm not sure if it was even an Airbnb person, but she was right on it, and I appreciated that. So, you know, I hate coming here and complaining, but I know that it can be a thankless job, but this is a really difficult situation, and I'd like you at least to take a look at it. And, you know, in saying I'm going to wait for Frankfurt, to me, I mean, what are you waiting for? How many have sprung up meanwhile?

It was literally a month ago. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. When SETS closed. We literally just passed a resolution asking Frankfurt not to.

Yeah, which I think is a good idea. Here are three different cities with three different policies. How can one thing work for everyone? It can't. You know, we have to design something that works for us. All right, well.

Sue, if you would give me those copies of the other ones, I promise you we all will try and get something done. I summarized those in the memo, the same one. Understood. I just wanted to see the details on them. Got it. Thank you.

And the quick point I was gonna make, sorry, over here. Oh, sure. Is that there is a city parking pad grant allotment. It does not qualify for the landlords themselves, but residents of the city of Dayton, if they would like to build a parking pad off street, there is a program available where we cover half the cost.

Well, I know about that. I just don't have space. Actually, I have a driveway. I don't park in it because I don't wanna block the sidewalk. You know, there are a lot of places in the city where the sidewalks block. I only do it in emergency, but I do it. I don't think you're supposed to block the sidewalk. I actually have tenants who have gotten a ticket for that. And then, I think it was in this very room, I asked... if it was okay if I blocked my own driveway. I know that, Jay, you told me, and I think someone else here told me it was okay to block my own sidewalk. Recently, someone parked in front of my house for more than a week. I went down to complain about it. I spoke to, I believe it was Marcy, is that the clerk? Yes. Yeah, okay. Marcy told me there's an ordinance that I'm not allowed to block my own driveway.

I think that's right.

Okay.

The issue is it's about enforcement. Most of the time, if the residents block their own driveway, it's not going to be a problem. It's when residents have somebody blocking their driveway that they call the police.

Right, because I, the resident, will call.

That's usually a call.

Yeah, but if I block my own driveway, I'm not going to get a ticket. But there is one that says that, even I'm not allowed to. Is that correct?

That's correct. That's what the ordinance says. That's correct.

Okay.

But it's an enforcement issue, and usually they're not going to enforce it unless you call.

It's not enforced unless there's a complaint about it.

Generally, generally that's the case.

Generally, okay. And only the resident would complain normally.

That's usually the case. That's right.

Okay. So the guy who owns the Airbnb that I'm complaining about reports me for it. which i am a little nervous about that and and a few other things um but you know you wouldn't give me a ticket probably not i don't think so okay all right well thanks all righty bye thank you thank you sue we really appreciate you well i have one more question what's up

So I'm just told, I just said that we need, we're, we're, we're, I told him that next month, I mean, next week, we got to get that plaque finished. We talked to somebody about it. We got to get it done. So this summer we'll get done. I promise. I told, I said, Joe, Jeff Volter asked about it too. So we'll have it done this summer.

Thanks, Sue. We truly appreciate you. Anybody else in the audience like to approach council, city administration, talk about the reds? Don't talk about the reds.

Jerry, come on up so we can hear you.

We've got to make sure you can be heard, sir. You know the audio system. Come on.

This is just you guys personally. I have one quick comment. Jerry Huntley, 585. In reviewing the budget, you guys are doing an awesome job. I've been around a lot of different councils, businesses, and things. You're doing it the right way.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Anybody else like to come up and tell us how great we're doing? Anyone? Don't bum rush the show now. Come on.

Very impressive.

Thank you, Jerry. All right. So we'll go ahead and close out audience comments. Next up is new business from the city council. First on the doc would be update from city council committees. Mr. Judd.

No meeting for the Finance Committee since the last meeting of City Council, and the Sports and Rec Committee is continuing to push for the run and walk clubs, but outside of that, no new news.

I see. Very aggressive, sir. I love that you're out there. What day do you run and walk?

Monday evenings, 6 p.m., El Senor Pig. Wednesday mornings, 6.15 a.m., at Elliott Coffee.

That's awesome, man. So Monday evenings and Wednesday mornings, if you guys are looking to start your evening off or start your morning off, get Mr. Judd.

Wait, I have a quick question. It's a run and walk club?

Yes, last week we only walked.

And then the next week you run?

No, it's whatever people want to do. There's a three-mile run loop we do or a one-and-a-half-mile walk loop. They both get you back in about a half hour-ish on average speeds. So we meet at 6 and we be back there by 6.30 to start eating or drinking or whatever you want to do.

So you decide right then and there you want to walk or you want to run?

Yeah, I do, based on the people that attend.

Okay.

Yeah, all skills. I adapt to what they want to do.

Well, I would like to go to the walk, and I would not like to go to the run. That's fine.

I'll walk with you.

Okay.

All levels of mobility are welcomed. Any other council committees?

Oh, and dogs are welcome as well. Oh.

Very puppy-friendly.

The Marketing and Communication Committee did not meet last month because of a lack of a quorum. But we do have our next meeting tomorrow night right here at 6 p.m. And public is invited to put their eight cents in.

All right. Marcom, check. Anybody else? Any other committees? I'm missing.

And actually, on that topic, sir... The postcard that was sent out? Yeah. This is the kind of stuff we've been talking about. Thank you to administration for getting this done. That's the kind of communication that this committee is trying to get more of. And if you didn't get one of these, just stop by the city building, I presume, or call and we'll mail you one?

Yeah, I believe we have some left over at the city building, don't we?

Great.

Thank you. I have mine on my refrigerator just up by the house. Look at my fridge. You'll know what's up. Yeah. All right. Anybody else have any new business for the evening for city council?

The only other new business I have, sir, is last night at the park board meeting. Yes, sir. It was discussed to have a 40th anniversary celebration for Sergeant Park as a volunteer cleanup.

Yeah, over the hill, I believe we called it.

Go over the hill, clean it up. Yeah. And I think the date set for that was July the 12th.

July 12th.

Which I think is before our next council meeting. That's why I'm bringing it up now. Understood. So keep an eye out for that. The more volunteers, the better.

Thank you. That was a great park board meeting as well. Any other new business for city council?

I was going to say, I've got one thing just maybe to think about would be perhaps to consider changing our council time from 7 to 6.30. just to kind of finish a little earlier in the evening for everyone who does have to get up early in the morning, but I don't know if that's realistic for everyone's schedule, but I thought I'd at least throw it out there for consideration.

I don't know who originally, I've been coming to these council meetings for almost 20 years now, and it's never changed. I think, Sue, you might know, you might have been coming longer. Has it ever not been Tuesday at seven? Yeah, I mean, I had no idea who set that forth. I always think it's kind of odd because most of us get off work at 5, gives you time to go home, change your shoes.

Now, and just something for us to consider, you know, when we changed, you know, from the first, so I thought we'd get crazy and change the time too.

I'm not against it. If you guys want to think about it for a month and we'll put it on next agenda, I don't care, 6.30 versus 7.

6.15 a.m. maybe? No, we're not doing that.

Some of us have to sleep in. We should ease it. But if you want to think about it for a month and then talk about it again next month, 630, I have no problem with it. It gets us out of here. I mean, I usually don't eat before I get here, so usually I'm famished.

That's probably why I thought of it.

Yeah, I'm with you. And Joy's over texting me like, dinner? I'm like, maybe. All right, so think about that for next month for 630 versus 7. Any other comments for your new business? All right. Do we have a reason for executive session this evening? We do not. No executive session. Would anybody like to make a motion for adjournment?

I'll make that motion.

Member Niemann's made the motion. Do I have a second? Second. Member Neary's made a second. All in favor? Aye.