City Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, good afternoon. I'm Montgomery County Commission President Carolyn Rice, and on behalf of my fellow commissioners, Mary McDonald and Judy Dodge, and our county administrator, Michael Colbert, I welcome you and thank you for joining us today. While the city and the county work together all the time on many projects, this is actually the first time in 10 years that we have held this formal joint meeting. We appreciate the opportunity to come together to discuss issues of shared interest and strengthen the partnership between our organizations. You know in fact I hope that in 2027 and beyond we can meet like this once or twice a year to discuss initiatives and topics of mutual interest. By working together and bringing our respective perspectives, expertise, and responsibilities to the table, we can better serve our residents and communities. Therefore, I hereby call to order this special meeting of the Montgomery County Board of County Commissioners and the City of Dayton Mayor and Commissioners on this 10th day of August, 2026. At this time, I ask that the clerk call the role of the Montgomery County Board of County Commissioners.

Commissioner Dodge?

Here.

Commissioner McDonald? Here. Commissioner Rice?

Here.

I'll call the roll for the City of Dayton Commission. Mayor Turner-Sloss? Aye. Commissioner Matt Joseph? Aye. Commissioner Chris Shaw?

Aye.

Commissioner Daryl Fairchild?

Aye.

Commissioner Darius Beckham? Aye. May I have a motion to excuse Commissioner Matt Joseph?

So moved. Second the motion, Your Honor.

Thank you. All right. Let us all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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, good afternoon. Great afternoon, everyone. I'm gonna break protocol just a tad bit. So how's everyone doing today? To our residents, community leaders and stakeholders, activists, business leaders, Congressman Turner, state representatives, city and county commissioners and administrators, thank you. Thank you all for being here this afternoon. Take it all in. I want you all to pause and look around the room. County commissioners, members of Congress, city commissioners, state representatives, local officials, neighbors, pastors, activists, business owners, people who want a trusted and responsible government, people who want the same innovative and collaborative energy for our neighborhoods and in downtown. This does not happen by accident. This happened because Dayton decided to do something and not to wait. I will not stand before you and pretend that this is a comfortable space. It is not, and it is not supposed to be. There are people here today who disagree with each other about policy, priorities, what the city owes downtown, what it owes to the neighborhoods. This disagreement is real. And I'm not going to insult you by pretending it away. But here it is. It is also real. Not one person in this room loves Dayton less than the person sitting next to them. So today, we are not Republicans. We are not Democrats. We are not liberals. We are not conservatives. We are not downtown. We are not the neighborhoods. Today we are, in fact, Dayton. And Dayton does not have the luxury of waiting for everyone to agree before it decides to do something or to act. Dr. King said it best. We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now. That is the space. That is the city. Different ships, different political ideologies, different neighborhoods, different struggles to get here, but the same boat and the same obstacles and opportunities are rising underneath all of us. So my charge to everyone this afternoon in this room is simple. Leave your flag at the door, not because it doesn't matter, but because today, Dayton matters more. Our next speaker does not need Dayton to explain as to who he is. He grew up here. Congressman Turner was in fact born and raised right here in Dayton, went to Belmont High School, and came home after law school to build his career in the city. Before he ever set foot in Washington, D.C., he served as mayor of Dayton for eight years. So when he talks about the city, he's not talking about a district on a map. He's talking about home. Now, I'll tell you this. Congressman Turner and I, we may not agree on everything. And I don't think anyone in this room expect us to. But he said yes to being here today in this room with all of us. And that says a lot of things. That says something. That's what showing up for Dayton looks like, regardless of your party, affiliation, or your ideologies. Congressman Turner, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for your leadership for our community. I greatly appreciate it. You work to do the work that you do. It's been great getting to know you, and it's been great seeing your leadership for the community. I want to thank President Sue Edwards for her leadership of Wright State University and for her acceptance of this task of today, of convening as a facilitator this meeting. I called her and asked her if she would come and join us as a facilitator for this meeting, which she greatly accepted. I appreciate her leadership in the region because she sees her leadership of Wright State University as a regional responsibility, and we appreciate you doing that. I want to thank Sinclair Community College and President Johnson because Sinclair Community College also looks at itself as a regional leader, and President Johnson certainly has done that. I was just with him in Clark County. And you are exemplary. The national awards that you have received and the lives that you have changed in our community are incredible. Thank you for everything that you do. It's always extraordinary to be here on your campus to see what you have done to transform community colleges, work training, and education. Thank you for your leadership. I want to thank our Dayton City Commissioners and our County Commissioners, the fact that you have invited us into your joint meeting. And as the President of the County Commission has said, this is the first time that they have done so in 10 years, that they have come together. And I think that they deserve a round of applause from us just for the leadership having done that. And you guys look great. Thank you all for being here today. This is an exciting opportunity and this is an exciting meeting. And I want to give some context as to what the purpose is and how we came together to what will be today an opportunity for us to listen to the downtown Dayton Working Group. I was asked at the end of last year from leaders in our community, both elected officials and business community leaders, to convene a group to begin a discussion about the issue of safety in downtown Dayton. The concern was that in order for downtown to continue to be a place where people can work, live, play, visit and invest and grow, that downtown needs to be a place where people feel safe and that we needed to have a dialogue about how we could ensure uh... that all the investment everything that we have done as a region because we made a decision these two bodies including our state and our uh... congressional delegation it really was our congressional delegation because we've taken federal state and local dollars and stack them together to make an unbelievable investment in downtown to ensure it was transformed so that downtown would remain our magnet of the region that we would not let it decay and that people would see it as a place to convene. And in order to do that we had to do an assessment of what are we doing to ensure that it remains that. And in that we had a focus group style discussion about what are some of the things that we're facing What jurisdictions do those issues, where do they lie? And what are some of the recommendations that we could make that would affect those jurisdictions? Now, thank you, Mayor. Dayton is my home. I went to the Dayton Public Schools. I live here. Dayton is important to me. Now, Dayton is important. to everyone on this stage. And I know Dayton is important to everyone who is here. That's why these recommendations are very important. But let's be clear. This is why the Dayton City Commission and the County Commission have come together. This is a dialogue. These are not one person's recommendations. These are not my recommendations, although I do agree with them and I do endorse them. And certainly the City Commission has reviewed these recommendations and even issued a report about these recommendations. But this is the beginning of a dialogue about how do we take from these recommendations a further dialogue and formulate a to-do list about what are we going to do about security for downtown, about safety, and about some of the social issues that we need to do to address and to address some of these social issues that affect people who are in downtown and who also we need to be concerned with. Now, the people who we're in the working group include myself, Erhard, sorry, Prettauer. I can say your name when I'm standing in front of you, but I always stumble over it when I'm trying to read it. I'm sorry, Erhard. CEO, care source, and perhaps if you're here, if you don't mind standing. The CEO and President of Stratacast, Chris Regal, Jason Woodard, Principal of Woodard Development, Willis Blackshear, our Ohio Senate District 6, Phil Plummer, Representative, Ohio District 39. Desiree Thames, District 38. Representative, Tom Young, District 37. Representative, Andrea White, District 36. Mary McDonald, Montgomery County Commissioner. Rob Streck, Sheriff, Montgomery County. Shanice Turner Schloss stood in after former Mayor Jeff Mims had served. Chris Shaw, Commissioner, City of Dayton. Darius Beckham, of course, now being a Commissioner. and Eric Spina, president of the University of Dayton. He served and then, of course, now we greatly appreciate the input of both presidents from Wright State and Sinclair. Now, we have a great deal of work to do. Some of these recommendations fall solely within one governmental jurisdiction. Some of them overlap. Some of them are going to take Some of them are going to take some additional vetting. But let's be clear. All of these are all of our responsibility. And all of them relate to our humanity responsibility to each other and to all of the people who are in our community. We broke our working group into four different categories. It includes justice and policing, which we'll have a presentation by State Representative Phil Plummer, social service update by State Representative Andrea White, intergovernmental update by State Representative Tom Young, business and community update by Jason Woodard. Now, it's my honor where I get to introduce Dr. Sue Edwards. There is perhaps no one better to guide our conversation today than the person I now have the privilege of introducing. Dr. Sue Edwards has distinguished herself as a thoughtful, energetic, and collaborative leader for both Wright State University and for the Miami Valley. She understands the importance of partnership. She understands how closely the success of our universities, businesses, governments, and neighborhoods are connected. And throughout her leadership in this community, she has demonstrated a willingness to bring people together around the opportunities and challenges that will shape our region's future. We are fortunate to have her leadership here today. Please join me in welcoming the president of Wright State University and moderator of today's meeting, Dr. Sue Edwards.

Thank you, Congressman Turner. Thanks for your leadership and for pulling the working groups together. This really is a monumental occasion because it brings together public, private and community partners who are all represented here today. And the reason behind it, thank you, Mayor, is that we are all partners. Everybody is here because we love Dayton and we call it home. So good afternoon and thank you everyone for your attendance. It's a privilege to join you and to serve as the moderator for this important public conversation. I'd also like to thank Commissioner Rice, Mayor Turner-Sloss, our county and city commissioners, the member of the Downtown Dayton Working Group, the elected officials, business leaders, law enforcement representatives, service providers and community members who have joined us today. I also want to thank my colleague, Steve, for allowing Sinclair Community College to host today's event. So before we hear from our subgroups, it's important that we briefly explain what brought us here to today's meeting. As Congressman Turner said, this effort began last summer when downtown business leaders raised some concerns about public safety conditions surrounding the RTA hub and the effect those issues and the public perception of those issues were having on employees, businesses and the continued investment downtown. Those initial conversations led Congressman Turner to begin meeting with businesses, governmental leaders in October. He agreed to facilitate a broader process through which community could identify areas of concern, develop possible solutions, and build consensus around a path forward. Some action began almost immediately. Following conversations with the working group, the City of Dayton implemented the Main Street Visibility Project in late October, adding police coverage during early morning hours and established a central business district substation near the RTA hub. At the same time, the working group organized itself around four interconnected areas, justice and policing, social services, intergovernmental coordination, and the downtown business community. Then on October 31st, each subgroup identified the principal issues within its area, developed initial recommendations, and identified the additional partners needed to advance the work. In December, the full working group reviewed and approved the findings and the recommendations. At the end of the year, the working group formally presented its recommendations to the city of Dayton and Montgomery County. The request was not simply that the recommendations be received, but that they carefully evaluated with clear direction, accountability, and implementation of plans. On January 14th, the Dayton City Commission unanimously adopted a resolution recognizing the working group and directing the city administration to review its recommendations. Over the following weeks, city leaders evaluated the proposals, examined the relevant data and existing policies, and identified actions already underway, as well as areas requiring additional study or coordination. In March, Mayor Ternesloss presented the city's formal response to the working group. That response demonstrated that important progress had already been made while also making it clear that many of these issues extended beyond the authority or capacity of any one government agency or organisation. So that brings us to today. This public meeting is an opportunity to take the next step, to share the working group's findings, to review the progress made to date, to bring city and county leadership into the same public conversation, and for all of us to hear directly from the members of the community. The purpose is not simply to revisit the concerns that initiated this process, but to focus on solutions and shared responsibility. Downtown Dayton belongs to all of us. It is a centre of business, government, education, arts and entertainment, but it is also a neighbourhood and a gathering place for the entire region. Its success affects our ability to attract and retain businesses, students, employees, families and visitors. We will begin today by hearing from leaders of each of the four subgroups. Following those presentations, we will invite discussion among our county commissioners, mayor and city commissioners, and then provide an opportunity for public comment. Our first update comes from the Justice and Policing Subgroup. The subgroup examined concerns about criminal activity and property damage downtown, including challenges surrounding the RTA hub. Its work considered how to strengthen the visible law enforcement presence downtown, expand real-time monitoring, improve communication among law enforcement agencies and private security providers, and better coordinate the Dayton Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, institutional police departments, and other public safety partners. The subgroup also considered whether enforcement efforts are being adequately supported throughout the judicial process, including proposals related to court structure, prosecution, and accountability for offenses committed downtown. To present the subgroup's work, recommendations, and their progress to date, please welcome State Representative Phil Plummer.

thanks president you guys thanks for coming out today the citizens you guys are the heart and soul of our communities so thanks for coming out and we're all ears we're listening to you guys we work for you so feel free to contact us anytime and i promise you i will call you back i've got tasks with the justice and policing update you know luckily i did 30 years in law enforcement and know a little bit about this um you guys i watch the city council meetings city commission meetings all the time and uh I feel your passion about the neighborhoods and we're going to work with you guys about the neighborhoods, but we're, this is about downtown and I know some of you get upset about the investment downtown, but downtown is a driving economic engine that helps support our schools. It helps support our police and fire and first responders. So this, this is a massive project. So let's not solely focus on one single investment. We're going to, we're going to work on other issues here. The mayor's doing a good job. She's getting into the community. She's listening to you guys. She's doing tours. So I'm very proud of what she does. When I legislate, you guys, I do it on three principles. We all want good schools. We all can agree on that. We all can agree on safe communities. We all can agree on good job opportunities to keep our kids here. So that's how I legislate. And we're moving the needle forward here, you guys. We're bringing good businesses here so our kids can stay here and live the American dream that we all live. So let's be patient and get through this presentation. I'm not going to read these slides, but I'm going to give you a general overview of it. So this came together. A couple years ago, we met with about 24 business leaders downtown and they said, you know, we need to really work on downtown or we may be pulling out. We may be leaving the city and we don't want to leave the city because we love the city. So we got together under Congressman Turner's leadership to start working on this and we've made great progress. We've made big investments. Andrea White will tell you about the investments in our homeless shelters. Unfortunately, we've had other cities uber homeless people to our communities. We all want to help people, but we can't afford to help the entire state's homeless population. We have a mental health problem. That's one reason I left the sheriff's office and went to the state to help fix this mental health problem. Bless those people. But here we are with what we're doing. So there's a perception issue with the crime and the activities downtown. And sometimes perception is reality in people's minds. If they're afraid to come downtown because of safety, we're going to lose investments. You have great concerts, you have great events downtown, and we want people to come downtown. And a lot of this was geared around the RTA hub. And I want to thank the Dayton Police Department, Chief Henderson, the sheriff, Sheriff Rob Streck. They've made the investment downtown. They've listened. They have a policing hub right next to the RTA hub, which is making a big difference, because visibility is very important. Visibility makes people feel safe. Next slide, please. So now we already have an increased presence downtown. We have a great camera system where the county and the city is sharing cameras. And they have an intelligence center where these cameras are being watched all the time. And we're all leery about big government watching us. But when it comes to public safety, it's just for your guys' safety. It's not big government watching us. I trust you on that. Yeah, we'll talk about flock cameras someday also. I got a fix for that. So the city of Dayton and the county, you know, they both have properties downtown. We gotta figure out who's really responsible for what. So they're working together on this to figure out, you know, like the county courthouse, the county plaza, who polices these jurisdictions. They're working on that, but I've seen tremendous, tremendous growth here with them working together. Because a lot of times police departments, we get in silos and we do this, you do that. Well, they're really doing a good job working together. Next slide, please. So we have the new intelligence center downtown. They're communicating with each other. We have the Dayton Police Department down at the RTA hub. Next slide, please. The next piece I want to work on is the judicial piece. We want to get a judge that controls the downtown docket and not magistrates, not somebody coming and going. We have a lot of specialty courts in Montgomery County. We have specialty courts for the mental health, substance abuse, the veterans. So we want one judge to take care of a health docket downtown. So you know you got say 25 people that keep getting arrested. We want one judge to take ownership to that and get these people the proper services they need to get them get them housing you know get them get them safe give them a good place to live so they're safe. So that's our next step in this process is get one judge to control downtown and we all have a problem we can call that judge and say this person needs help he's back downtown causing problems. Next slide please. So That's it. A lot of it's in the Dayton, the court system. Some of the officers we've heard, they just didn't want to enforce laws or arrest people because nothing happened once they got into the judicial system. So that's a very crucial piece of this puzzle. Like I said, it's ownership. It's about ownership. So that's the next step we're going to do here. Next slide, please. So like I said, starting this off, downtown is the economic core. It helps fund our schools. It helps fund public safety. So Like I told you guys before I started my presentation, we hear you loud and clear about the neighborhoods. That's on the agenda. But we're going to get downtown fixed. Then we move into the neighborhood. So a lot of you guys, I've worked with you through the years. Your passion is great. Stay with us in this fight. What really got me engaged was when the high school kid got murdered downtown. I said, enough of that. We've got to keep our kids safe. We've got to get them to school. We have to keep them in school. That is the extent of my presentation. You guys, like I said, thank you for your time. Thank you for coming out and stay in touch and give us a call on how we can continue to help you. Thanks.

Thank you, Representative Plummer. As highlighted, our next update is highly relevant. It is from the social services subgroup. The subgroup examined the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness, mental health challenges and other crises downtown. It's worth considering how to better understand the population being served. maintain a comprehensive inventory of available programs, improve coordination among service providers, reduce unnecessary duplication, and connect individuals with appropriate and effective assistance. The subgroup also considered conditions surrounding the downtown RTA hub, including public safety. the needs of students who rely on that public transport, and the coordination of services involving the RTA, Dayton Public Schools, Montgomery County, and other community partners. To present the subgroup's work recommendations and their progress to date, please welcome State Representative Andrea White.

I'm very happy to be here today. I've been coming downtown since I was a teenager. And then I worked downtown as a student when the arcade was thriving the first, or maybe the second or third time around. But as I have seen over the years, we stand on the backs today, everyone in this room, of all the individuals who gave their time and their passion and their resources to try to keep our downtown vital and growing. There was a day in my early adulthood, we didn't have the Dayton Dragons, we didn't have Riverscape, we didn't have the Schuster Center. All of these wonderful things have happened and come together. And I will tell you from my past before I was in government, I worked as a business consultant and I helped with strategic communication and employee recruitment and retention and things like that. And you know what it takes to get people to come here? They want things to do and they want to see a vibrant community. And that keeps them here because of the quality of life. The suburbs and the neighborhoods are important, but the downtown is that vital draw that helps us attract and sustain and actually fund a lot of the things that happen in our community. So that's why it was important to me. I'm honored that my district actually includes parts of downtown now, the House District 36. And as I've gone about the community, I've seen and heard from people. They're concerned there's more people on the streets living in tents They're concerned that they're being approached. They're not sure what to do. How do these people get the help they need? They're also concerned when they hear about issues of violence or kids being victimized. And so some of that is perception. And then there's the realities that get magnified because of the day and age we live in. But for the most part, as you have heard and seen in the newspapers, crime has been down. And I want to applaud the city and the county and the sheriff and everyone, the Dayton police who have stepped up and said, look, we're gonna lean in a little bit here and send a message that we don't tolerate this here. And so I think the important thing is people need help and they need access to resources. So one of the things I wanted to talk about is just the beauty about it is we all say different ideas, but we all want the same thing, a place where people feel safe, that they're thriving, that kids can grow and flourish, and they'll come back here and keep working. And so thank you, Congressman Turner, for bringing us all together. And sometimes, you know, this renewed focus and energy generates ideas and just talking about it gets things done, right? And so the fact that people got together recommendations were shared, plans were already in place in some regards, or things were being done that were beefed up. And so as you look at this, the fact that the capital budget was coming, And we knew that the homeless issue was growing, the concern for having renovations and reinvigorations so that people who are here, whether they're brought here by another community, they came for VA services, or they're living on the streets because they're afraid to go in a shelter, or they've lost their housing, et cetera, there were issues. And so the city had a plan The state, our legislative delegation, was able to come together and bring $1 million to support the Gateway Men's Shelter. Congressman Turner was able to get $1 million to bring that funding. And I do want to pause and highlight, I wanted to say this up front, Senator Willis Blackshear was a part of this social services work group. Regina Holman, and our friend who could not be here today but who was able to speak into these recommendations, Karen Wick Gagnon, who loved downtown and was a champion for many years. And so these recommendations were from our subgroup sharing with this larger focus group, adding to it, and then bringing it before the community. So if we look at this, as has been referred to before, we don't know where people are coming from. There's a lot of rumors, there's a lot of thoughts, and so we need to ask individuals, what do you need? Meet them where they're at on the street. And I will tell you, you know the city and the county have had some street outreach, but the city's focus on really beefing that up And the county coming alongside and Miami Valley Housing Opportunities, let's talk to individuals because street outreach works. It's worked in other cities around our state and around the nation and meeting people where they're at and asking them what they need and why they're here and where they'd like to be is the first step in solving this issue. And then we need to look at the resources, right? We've got to, if we could go back one, we've got to look at the resources that we have. You know, what are the resources? Are there duplications? We have a shortage. In case those of you who are in the nonprofit world and government world haven't noticed, we got a shortage of resources. We got a shortage of money to fund, and we have a silo. all across the community of all these groups, how can we come together and look at shared service models and look at duplication and say, how do we reduce this so that we are actually more effective together? And that might mean having to give in a little bit to some of the things we've been doing, but if we come together and talk and figure out ways we can be more efficient together, we're gonna serve more people. Okay, another thing then is about, so we could go to the next slide. So once we know all of that, helping individuals get what they need, but then helping them have a pathway to get home. A lot of individuals are brought here and don't know how to get home. They don't have a place to live here or other. And so our goal is to try to help people be on track for finding housing, moving forward, as well as being able to return to their home communities. The group home issue has been a very high level topic. Dayton has been particularly hit with the number 70, 80 group homes just in the juvenile sector, and that is far more than the entire state. Representative Plummer and I worked with many of you in this room on that issue. The city has had a moratorium. There's other kinds of group homes. We encourage the city to continue that moratorium and build into the code as you have been working on the steps you need to enable that to be spread across the community and those places to go in safe neighborhoods so that we're not re-traumatizing kids pulled out of one dangerous situation and put into a situation with poor housing and poor supervision and so we encourage the city as part of the recommendations also to enforce the existing code and to update the ordinances so that when you have larger groups of people kind of congregating around businesses people are trying to participate in or go to work in that those codes are being enforced and may be looked at to see what else can we do so that we have free-flowing sidewalks and we have safe pathways for people in the community. So then the next thing that we look at is the issue with the RTA hub. And Rep Plummer has already talked about this. You've heard about this in the news. But the main thing, because we do have thousands of kids going through the hub every day, we've got to figure out what are the after school services and resources. And again, just like the schools can't solve all the problems in the home, the schools are not alone going to be able to solve problems that occur with after school programming. And many community groups are doing after school programming. I think of the Boys and Girls Club. I think of Omega CDC. I think of Hundreds of street saints who have small programs, whether it's computer coding classes or the libraries and all these things. We've gotta do an inventory. What exactly is available for kids and what should be available? And our ESC and our business advisory council and SOCHI, they're all working on internships with our schools to provide workforce pathways and so with Dayton starting the next generation leadership, Ford leadership, we can really take a look at this and say what else can we be doing after school to support our kids that are coming downtown so they have a place to go, they're moving forward and they have a pathway. We've already discussed the police force and the bottom line is we wanna protect kids, ensure they're not victimized, that they have opportunities and ensure that downtown is a safe place for everyone, and that means that everyone has a purpose and a place for being there. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Representative White. Our third update comes from the intergovernmental subgroup. Many of the issues affecting downtown cross jurisdictional boundaries and involve responsibilities shared among the city of Dayton, Montgomery County, and the state of Ohio. This subgroup examined gaps in communication and coordination that can result in overlapping or sometimes disconnected policies, services, and funding. Its work focused on establishing a regular communication among governmental partners involving consistency and efficiency of public policy. Coordinating the implementation of the working group's recommendations and identifying opportunities to attract new businesses downtown while retaining those already here. To present the subgroup's work, recommendations, and their progress to date, please welcome State Representative Tom Young.

Thank you all for being here today. Representative White and Plummer and I over the last year and a half have been meeting with groups in the region and primarily a working group with the help of the Dayton Foundation to find out where do we start? How do we bring the silos that exist in Montgomery County at all levels to to a point where we have a coordinated effort to help us in Columbus better serve the county and the region. It was very difficult to find one person. It was difficult to find a group of three or four people because we do not have major corporations like we used to in the day where corporate executives would stand up and take control of the situation. We are blessed. with some very strong companies, CareSource being one of those. But one person stood up, and that's Congressman Turner. And he asked us to come to a meeting. We didn't know how that was going to evolve. And so what you see here today is an outline of a potential future of what we can do together. And one of the things that we found, and you will hear this, the word silo. When we're in Columbus, Senator Blackshear, Representative Plummer, and White, Thames, and I, we're dealing with billions of dollars in the operating budget and the capital budget. And when we come to Montgomery County, there is something called the PDAC process. It's highly complex, it's multi-tiered, And some of those priorities don't coordinate with what we hear and see in our own communities. The challenge we have here is that we have no consistent structure requiring the city of Dayton, Montgomery County, and the state of Ohio to coordinate major policy projects, funding decisions, economic development priorities. Each level of government can make a reasonable decision on its own that unintentionally conflict with what other levels are trying to accomplish, and we see that. This is not a personality challenge. It is an institutional challenge that we face here in Montgomery County. The result, we have duplicative programs, as has been presented previously. We have competing incentives, inconsistent regulations, and here's the most important thing. These dollars aren't ours. They're yours. Wasted tax dollars and no focus. That's what we have to accomplish with this intergovernmental affairs. The goal here is that we create this entity, we meet regularly, and we are accountable, not to us, to you. Montgomery County, Dayton, and the state of Ohio, we serve the same citizens. We depend upon the same regional economic government. Government shouldn't operate at three separate systems and levels when decisions of one directly affect the other two. Better coordination will not solve every challenge we face in the region. but it can eliminate the unnecessary duplication we spoke about. There are three goals here, simple. Three levels of government, one regional strategy, and measurable results. We are not discussing outcomes. We have to focus on outcomes as well. What do we want? How do we want to get there? The bottom line is we need to communicate, we need to coordinate, we need to assign responsibility, and measure the results. I didn't want to repeat every single thing that you've seen up there, but there's been many discussions about this, and you as the community have a responsibility to partner with us. I would ask you all to do this. We are taking this very seriously. We are all sincere about this. We don't always agree, but we have to start working together. I would say to you all, we don't have all the solutions. Criticism is fine, but working with us and working with the elected officials will get us much further than the way that we've been doing it in the past.

Thank you, Representative Young. Our final update comes from the business community subgroup. The issues addressed by the other three subgroups directly affect how employees, customers, residents and potential investors experience the downtown. The business community subgroup examined how public safety, access to services and governmental coordination influence public perception, business confidence, economic development and continued capital investment. It's work considered how the business community can assist in implementing the other subgroups recommendations, whether downtown specific economic development or redevelopment funds can further encourage other investments. And how the organizations serving the downtown businesses can coordinate their work, improve effectiveness and avoid unnecessary duplication. To present the subgroup's work, recommendations, and their progress to date, please welcome Jason Woodard of Woodard Development, the chair of the Downtown Dayton Partnership.

Thank you, Sue. Good afternoon to all of you, and thank you for being here. I have the privilege to represent the business community subgroup And as Sue mentioned, we really have two main areas of focus. Really, this is about the business community accepting their responsibility to help engage with the other three subgroups to implement these recommendations. The second area is to create a downtown specific development fund to encourage capital investment downtown. I've been fortunate to be downtown on a daily basis for the last 15 years and see what has happened in downtown, the transformation that's occurred, and I know the potential that it has. We've seen a lot of great activity, a lot of great growth, and our job at the business community is to make sure that continues to happen. The second issue really surrounds all the great groups that serve the downtown business community, the residents of Dayton, and making sure that those organizations work together, eliminate duplication, and are effective in deploying limited resources as effectively as possible. Some of those organizations, I happen to be the chair along with the mayor of the Downtown Dayton Partnership. We have the Dayton Chamber. We have the Dayton Development Coalition. We have Destination Dayton. Just by name alone, it's confusing. So our job is to help streamline those, make sure that we're delivering the best possible outcomes from each area of focus that those organizations have. At the end of the day, we've had great momentum on the economic development front and capital investment. And our subgroup responsibility is to help make sure that that continues. We all want a downtown that's a great place to live, work, play, and visit. It is the economic driver of the region and we want to make it comfortable for everybody to have a great experience and talk about all the great things that occur in Dayton. Thank you.

So thank you to each of our presenters and to the members of all of the four subgroups for their diligent efforts throughout the process. The work presented today does actually reflect many months of thoughtful discussion, careful review, collaboration among elected officials, law enforcement agencies, service providers, business leaders, and other community partners. Your willingness to identify these issues, consider different perspectives, and develop recommendations has provided an important foundation for the work to come ahead. As we've heard, the issues affecting downtown are interconnected and meaningful progress will require continued communication, shared responsibility and sustained cooperation across all organisations and jurisdictions. It is multifaceted. It is not a singular linear pathway. So I want to thank everybody for their presentations today. And at this time, I will turn the program over to Mayor Shanice Turner-Sloss and Montgomery County Commissioner President Carolyn Rice. Thank you.

Well, thank you so much. And I'm going to discuss some themes. We actually saw a lot of these recommendations months ago. And when the mayor was new in her office, I immediately reached out on behalf of us to start this work so we have been at it for some months because montgomery county is committed to being a strong partner to the many communities certainly dayton which we were talking about today but many communities throughout our county and this joint meeting really reinforces i hope you can see our shared commitment to creating a safe vibrant and welcoming downtown Strong partnerships and we've heard this theme over and over are built through communication, coordination and a shared commitment to serving residents, which we certainly have. Now, just to list a few of the investments that we've made in downtown Dayton. Montgomery County has invested more than $15.5 million in downtown Dayton over the past five years, demonstrating our long-term commitment to the success of downtown. The county has made targeted investments that align with our roles and responsibilities. These include $97,000, which we had a press conference just a short while ago, for the downtown Dayton Street Outreach Program, which we were speaking about, Andrea, some of your concerns with the outreach with the homeless. So we are investing in additional personnel. We were already investing, but we're adding additional 97,000 with housing, employment, and assessment services. So it's the whole bundle of services that we can give while supporting a safer downtown because we really care about the people that find themselves in their situation. The county has installed four security cameras. at the historic courthouse to expand coverage. We heard about that during Representative Plummer's remarks, including portions of courthouse square. And the goal of that is to improve coordination with public safety and our partners. And it is my understanding that's integrated and all of the police force or law enforcement are talking to each other, but just to see signs if anything is happening. We also provide approximately $3.2 million annually, not just one time, but annually, to the Downtown Dayton Partnership, Destination Dayton, the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Dayton Development Coalition. So we have long believed in the institutions, and can they be better? We're always working to be better. So we welcome those comments to be part of that. So the bottom line is that working together, we can create a successful downtown. But it does require, as we've heard over and over, coordinated efforts among multiple partners. And each organization brings its unique authority, resources, and expertise to the table. The city of Dayton obviously has a key leadership role in addressing problems within its jurisdiction. Montgomery County will continue to provide support through our program services and resources that we deliver, not just in Dayton, but across the county. Our local congressmen and our state legislators, I'm so encouraged, will also play a pivotal role in this success of downtown and all of Dayton. We look forward to your continued partnership, involvement, and investment in these issues. And the strongest outcomes are achieved when each organization remains focused on its mission while also working together, as Representative Young pointed out, that we are coordinating and talking to one another to advance shared priorities. Now, just a lot of times there's confusion about what Montgomery County does and what cities do and villages. So bear with me. I'm just going to give an overview of what our responsibilities. Montgomery County's work extends to every community, neighborhood, and resident across Montgomery County. We proudly serve more than 537,000 residents across every city, village, and township. Our responsibilities include human services, water services, wastewater services, solid waste services, infrastructure, and workforce development. And we know that these services impact residents every day and remain central to our mission, so throughout the entire county. We are devoted to serving residents every day, all of these residents. We administer more than $143.7 million in our human services levy that supports programs throughout our community. We have Atomos, which is our alcohol, drug addiction, and mental health services. You've heard a lot about that. We've heard about some of the behavioral health, so that is that organization. Children's services, developmental disability services, public health, Dayton and Montgomery County, Stillwater Center, community-based services, homeless services, and other older adult services. So there's a huge gamut. I say that we address all of our citizens before they're born, until they pass away, and every version in between. We're there to provide those services. Through Montgomery County's Children's Services, we work to protect children, strengthen families, and provide stability for children who need support. In 2025, we provided care and services for 824 children in our custody, ensuring they had access to the resources and support that they need to thrive. We also helped connect nearly 80,000 residents to SNAP benefits, those who need food, they live in food insecure houses, and more than 150,000 residents to access Medicaid assistance. We provide water and sewer services to over 230,000 customers, and we believe and know that these services strengthen families, improve quality of life, and support communities throughout our county. What do we do to invest to improve the quality of life for all of our county residents? Montgomery County is making strategic investments in every corner of our community to improve quality of life, strengthen neighborhoods, and expand opportunities for residents. These investments are focused on the services and infrastructure that matter most, including workforce development, public safety, behavioral health, sewer infrastructure, food security and opportunities for children and families. And just to give you a brief list, not all, but of some of those investments, we are making a 40 million dollar job and training and investment in a 40 million dollar job and training center. that will be in Harrison Township. We just last week, I see Crystal in the back, Crystal Allen from the Boys and Girls Club of Dayton. Just last week, we announced a $250,000 investment in the Boys and Girls Club of Dayton for their new facility and their life and workforce readiness center. More than $60 million, we are making an investment of more than $60 million in water and sewer infrastructure projects planned just for this year in 2026. We are making a $20 million behavioral health unit for our jail to help our sheriff and those who oversee the jail to have a better environment within. We hope to keep people out of the jail, but if they're in there, we wanna make sure they get the care and the medical needs that are served. We are also investing in a $1.3 million safety net portal. Now that sounds like a mouthful. It will be introduced in October and the goal of that system that came out of our behavioral health task force a couple years ago that we had all the stakeholders in the room. I served on that task force and one of those recommendations was to create this portal so that no matter where an individual, whether you see them in downtown You see them in a neighborhood, you see them out in the country. We can more immediately know who they are, if they've been in our system, so whether they show up in law enforcement, an emergency room, with one of the behavioral health providers, so they get the medicine and care and get back to the services they need so that they get better and get stabilized as soon as possible. We also made a $1.4 million investment in the revitalization of the Madison Lakes Conference and Training Center, and that is out in Trotwood. It is a modern workforce investment center now and used by a lot of people. We also made a $1.5 million investment. If you remember, about a year ago this time in August of last year, we diverted money to give it to the food bank because they had lost significant funding and we didn't want to see our people going hungry. So we made that. And that is to help our children, our families, our seniors have the food that they need. And finally, we did a $2 million Employment Opportunity Center investment a few years ago out on West 3rd Street across from the VA, and we really try to connect a lot of our citizens with the services that are available. Is that everything we've done? No, it is not. But I hope it gives you all some idea of the vast array of ways that we are helping not only in downtown, not only in Dayton, but across our county. So every one of our investments is guided by the same goal. We want to ensure that our residents have access to the resources, infrastructure and opportunities they need to thrive regardless of where they live. So key takeaways, Montgomery County shares the goal of creating the downtown that serves residents, supports businesses and welcomes visitors. We truly, truly do share that goal. We also want to be a strong partner with the City of Dayton and all our other jurisdictions. So I know I made that pledge to you when you first came into office, and I pledge to all of you that we are good, strong partners with you moving forward. Our investments, I believe, demonstrate our commitment to downtown, while our mission requires us to remain focused on serving residents across all neighborhoods. You bet. Strong partnerships work best when each organization leads where it has the authority, expertise, and resources to make the greatest impact.

Thank you, Commissioner. I really appreciate the update in highlighting a number of things that you all are doing in partnership with the city of Dayton as well as with our regional partners overall. I also want to take a moment to thank Congressman Turner for his leadership. Thank you to all of the state representatives for your leadership as well as Dr. Edwards. Thank you for moderating today's session as well as all of those that are here. this afternoon. Thank you, Dr. Spinas. Good to see you as well as Dr. Johnson. Thank you as well. I'm going to actually invite my colleagues, because we do this work jointly together. So we're going to talk about some of the various different things. We're going to have a conversation. Yes, we're going to have a conversation and discuss some of the various different things that we're working on. As mentioned, you've already highlighted the street outreach program, which I'm very excited about. We had a press conference a couple weeks ago. We have some great data to report out. And I really want to uplift the staff that has done the work, the necessary work. So thank you to the staff, the city manager's office, And Ritter from our human service manager from our planning and neighborhood development department. Thank you, Michael Colbert, for your leadership, as well as all of the commissioners, County Commissioner McDonald, Dodge, and Rice. So what we have is the partnership with MVHO, Miami Valley Housing Opportunity, which is in fact a street outreach program. And it's not only focused on downtown, but as well as in our neighborhood. So we're glad to expand those services out into our neighborhoods. And thus far, we have made great milestones actually going back to June of 2026 of this year. 90 connections were made with 31 new individuals enrolled in services and progressing towards permanent housing. Six people referred to community mental health services. Four people successfully linked to substance use service. Three people successfully obtained employment. 12 people have moved from the street into housing. And then we also are working again with more work that is coming online so that we continue those efforts. So I'm very happy to report that out. Very much so. And so we hope that we can expand that out. We know that this partnership is for a year and partnership for excuse me, a pilot. But the hope is that we will be able to expand that. So I'm going to turn it over to my colleagues, see if they have anything to add about the street outreach and the work that we're doing. I also want to highlight our COC, which is Continuum of Care. There's a lot of great work that is being done there. We just awarded an agreement probably about a month ago for our Continuum of Care, and that is to make sure that we are providing Permanent supportive housing throughout this throughout the city of Dayton and partnership through with the county Outreach we know that that work is vital and we want to Any comments or questions that you want to

Thank you, Your Honor. I appreciate the opportunity. First of all, thank you all for attending today. You could be spending your time elsewhere, but you're here with us, so appreciate that. Congressman Turner, thank you for convening this group. Mayor, thank you for stepping in and, of course, leading as well. Ten years is a long time, so I think it is in all of our best interest to to continue these discussions and ensure that any shared priorities we have are being discussed. I briefly was a part of this working group out of respect for Sunshine, right? More than three of us, more than two of us, I'm sorry, cannot be in a closed meeting at once, right? Obviously why this meeting is public today. So I stepped away, but glad to see some of these updates and recommendations come forward. pleased with the progress we've made on Gateway Homeless Shelter. I think that is extremely important. As we see homelessness increasing across the country, including our city of Dayton, this investment, thanks to Congressman Turner, our state partners, and the city, will really help expand capacity and move individuals from instability to hopefully a pathway to home ownership and stability. So very glad about that. I just wanted to speak to one particular recommendation, and then I'm going to defer to my colleagues. i noticed and i saw the from the social services committee led by rep andrea i saw one of the recommendations was to encourage dayton public schools to find an alternative to rta obviously there's been a lot of complexity and a lot of challenges around busing i know superintendent david lawrence is in the room Rep Turner specifically, who has attended some of these meetings as well, has introduced a bill targeted at relieving public school districts from having to charter, or I'm sorry, having to bus charter school students. Of course we want all of our students in this region and this city to get to school on time and learn and become contributing members of our city, but I think it would not be fair to simply put the burden back on Dayton Public Schools as it relates to this matter. I very much believe that as a body, our two elective institutions have a responsibility I think to help lobby for this bill and to work with Dayton Public Schools to ensure that they don't have a responsibility that they cannot meet obviously they've been doing it to the best of their ability but we can't ignore that that is a real problem as it relates to busing our students so I am happy to support that and I hope that all of us elected to our respective offices could figure out a way, not just for Dayton but for our state, to ensure that public school districts no longer have to ensure that every other charter school district in their jurisdiction also is bussed. Those are all my comments. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you all for convening.

Thank you, Commissioner Beckham. Commissioner Fairchild.

Yes. The things that I affirm in our time together is the fact that we have gathered for the first time in 10 years and want to thank all the colleagues, congressmen, state reps, county commissioners, and city commissioners, and citizens for coming out. And President Rice, I appreciate your pledge to work more with us. And I personally make that pledge, and I believe my colleagues will also. We have too much work to do. not to do it together. And I also want to affirm that there's a focus on safety, and I believe that that's genuine and it's something that every one of our citizens deserves. And Mayor, I want to congratulate you. You worked very hard to get that additional outreach, working with the Miami Valley Housing Opportunities. And so that is a great first step to address people who are having mental health or addiction issues and getting them connected with the resources they need.

And I also want to affirm Representative Young.

One of the things that I've been kind of working for is Too often we hear about all the inputs that are going in and we don't have objective outputs that we're measuring and we have no idea whether we're moving the needle one way or the other. And so I affirm your desire to have some clear objectives, particularly when we're working together and we have to come down with clear strategies and tactics. The critique that I have is that even today we heard inputs without any outputs. And so we just need to move beyond that. And then I think it's also short-sighted to talk about the perceived safety of downtown. When a critical incident gets reported on Dayton Daily News or WHIO, they make no distinction of whether it occurred in the central business district or not. And it is all of Dayton that is perceived to be unsafe. And so to focus narrowly on downtown without recognizing that the neighborhood issues and violence that occurs there isn't just as important, particularly for the stated goal of changing the perception is just short-sighted. And finally, I would just say that, you know, whether... is a child who dies at the bus hub, or a child who's shot in a car in their car seat, or a young woman who's killed in her bed by a drive-by, or a young man killed on Philadelphia. Every life is equally valuable, and each family grieves the same, and the community should be standing alongside all these families with a commitment to end violence across the whole community. constructively moving forward. I support the mayor's initiative to reimagine public safety. I think at the core, that is the work we need to do to address violence across the region. And as I've stated earlier, working on those clear objectives to move forward.

Thank you, Commissioner Fairchild. Commissioner Shaw.

Thank you, Mayor, for the opportunity.

And thank you to everyone gathered here today, especially the elected officials statewide, countywide, of course our local, but also Congressman Turner for convening this. It's an important conversation to have. It's one that is overdue. I'm really surprised it's been 10 years since we've gathered, and we should keep it up. And I appreciate and support the commitment to do so. There's a lot of work to be done. There has been a perception of lack of safety in the downtown, and that's why we gathered here today, because we are trying to protect this very important economic development engine, not only for our city, but for our county and for our entire region. And it's just critically important that we support and protect the investments that we made therein. Having said that, there are so many other things that we need to be doing out into the neighborhoods. I agree with that totally and I appreciate the work that the mayor and my colleagues have been doing in that space. With the understanding that 70% of the money that we generate to do so comes from the urban core and we just have to center that and make sure that we are able to protect those investments. Anyway, having said that, you know, Dayton is the county seat. for this county. And again, this very important economic development driver. And I just appreciate the investments that the county has made alongside of us, especially with the cameras that you're gonna provide and the investment and homelessness outreach. I just recently met with MBHO to talk about this and really to dig deep. And I just see just a huge opportunity. So I wanna thank you again, Mayor, for your leadership in that space. And I would, of course, support that. I appreciate Commissioner Rice for kind of laying out what the county investments have looked like and what their responsibilities are, especially human services related. and all of those things overlap with everything that we do in this county. I'm on a great many boards, county boards in this community, 16 boards total, and I'm not quite sure how many boards I am on specific to the county, like the Workforce Investment Board, which is critically important for us to connect our young people and not so young people to these great opportunities that are coming our way. Also the Human Services Levy and Family Children's First Council. All these things work to reduce poverty and to ultimately address the safety issues across our city and our county. And I'm just glad to work on those initiatives, and I have been doing that over the years, and glad to to come alongside the county commissioners in doing that work. So we are all committed to this vision, a vision of safety, a vision of prosperity, a vision of connectivity in this community. And we just have to all work together. But we cannot do it without you, the people. As we work and we put out these policy prescriptions, it requires that we come together as a community and do this work together. So I look forward to engaging with all of you all in the future and continuing to do the great work to move this city and this county and this region forward. Thank you very much, Mayor.

Thank you, Commissioner. I believe at this time, Commissioner, President Rice, that we should probably entertain questions at this time, given the time limit.

I know that there are individuals who have submitted their names, so the two clerks will manage this process.

Thank you.

As a reminder, when your name is called, you'll have three minutes to speak. I have a timer here. The first person is Destiny Brown. Please come up to the microphone and you'll have three minutes to speak. There's microphones on either aisle.

Hi. Good afternoon. Destiny Brown. Do I need to say my address and all that, or am I good? Good. Uh, there are two realities in our county. I first want to thank y'all for coming together, um, 10 years down the line, but there's two realities in our county and one of them, um, you know, Dayton is known as the land of innovation. Um, but for many people, Dayton is in the county is the land of deterioration as well. So I think some of the challenges that we face and that we're seeing, um, I think there's a perception and it seems that it was alluded to when When Plummer got up and shared that he watched the commission meetings, there was a need for downtown investment as was echoed by many people. I think there's a perception that people or community members are opposed to downtown investment. I think that the challenge is really that equity is where there is frustration. If we are looking at even Commissioner Rice mentioned, you know, $15 million that the county contributed to downtown Dayton, and then $250,000 to the Boys and Girls Club. When we're having a dialogue about investment, to say that in the same paragraph feels not equitable. Many of your houses cost more than $250,000, so to give that to the Boys and Girls Club, who is doing like major heavy lift of work for our youth and community in the face of huge downtown investments doesn't feel, we don't feel the humanity in that. The other reality is that Dayton is one of the cities in the country that spearheaded and really was the first place to implement redlining. And when we think about the land of innovation, they are known, Dayton and Springfield, for starting redlining and really kind of rolling it out in the country. And if we look today in our communities, we are among the most hyper-segregated places in the country. And considering these investments we're making, we have to ask ourselves, what role are we playing in continuing it or creating modes of equity? So to say even for, you know, when Mr. Turner came up and mentioned downtown Dayton over and over again, and Mr. Plummer comes up and says that neighborhoods are on the agenda but not right now, and then for Chris Shaw to say that we have to protect our downtown investments, this is the language I would imagine was used when redlining was implemented years ago. So we have to consider what role are we playing and what this means for our community.

Thank you.

Thank you. Larry Hayden.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Larry Hayden. Let me just say this before I start. This just seems like an upscale for NCA. You're still promoting what we talked about in the city commission. But my question, I think it's great that both of you are together. My question is to both of you together, have you lost touch with your communities? I don't know if you lost touch or you just don't care. Let's talk about the school. In the beginning, this is the beginning year of the school. Some of my figures are a little lax. In 2022, there were 703,000 students in the Dayton, in the Ohio public school. 42% of those were on Medicaid from K through 12. Okay? 3.1 million of Medicaid in Ohio and 400,000 Medicaid just in Montgomery County. You know, all the educational scholars have admitted that when children don't have breakfast, it's hard for them, the students, to focus because they're hungry. Okay? So please forgive me. I'm sorry. It hasn't happened yet because it delayed because of mid-term elections. But it's still on the books, I want you to know. And it will still be used. But by the way, there are more military families in pantry lines than any time in history. So I ask, have you lost your touch? As you can see, I'm with the Dayton Tenant Union. And ladies and gentlemen, we have people living in unhabitable conditions. And the landlords are getting paid. People are living in mold, lead, no water, no heat, no air conditions. You know, why should we allow greed to dictate safety in a healthy environment? In 2024, there was over 2,000 residents that got evicted, 98% of them lost because of no representation. Listen, at the Dayton Tenant Union, we openly invite you to talk to us about a housing trust fund, you know, just so that the health benefits would be better for the residents in Montgomery County.

So I ask you, have you lost touch with your community?

You know, we have a government official who could create laws better for our residents in Montgomery County. And it's sad to say, if there's no money gained, then it's not important. I mean, we have cities that are complaining about the manager's operation and dissatisfaction on how it runs the city. But we have elected officials that boast that they would approve the city manager another 10 years. So you're not even listening to the residents. So have you lost touch in the community? You were elected by the people, for the people, and you made a promise that you would protect and serve them. So I ask the question, have you lost touch with the community or have we lost touch with you? Thank you, Mr. Hayden.

Thank you, Mr. Hayden.

David Williamson.

Good afternoon. This is such a great idea, David Williamson. I've had the honor to serve as the City Commission's appointment to the Regional Transit Authority for now almost 15 years. and as the county commission's appointment to the Dayton Metro Library. So I bring a little bit of institutional knowledge of both of those organizations to this discussion. It's appropriate we're having this meeting in the Fred Smith Auditorium. Those of us who knew Fred Smith, worked with Fred Smith, knew that he brought from the business community a sense of collaboration and problem solving to all of the fine, fine work that he did in this community. So it's appropriate that we ended up here. I do want to address a couple of things. that when we go about identifying problems, don't just create boogeymen to throw money at for political purposes that you can then use for or against your candidacy or against your opponent. Make sure that we identify a problem that really exists, and then let's go about solving the problem. The second thing I'd like to bring up is this discussion about homelessness and mental illness and keeping well aware of the fact those two issues creep together, but they're separate issues. Not all homeless people are mentally ill. Not all mentally ill people are homeless. So you have to address each of them in their own lane. And I want to put a challenge out to our elected representatives, to the state representatives and to our state senator who is here. Mental health issue is really a legislative issue. It's statewide. It's not just countywide. We used to have, back in the old, old days, places where people with mental illness could go, and that they would go to court, and that the courts would then commit them, either temporarily or long term. And in fact, up at the top of Wayne Avenue, which is now one Wilmington place that used to be the old mental facility here in town. Well, then it got to a place where the treatment of people in those places got so bad because we had people that were untrained and not qualified to take care of the residents that it ended up being like the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. So the answer was, let's close them all down. And so we now have the mentally ill on the streets. And Sheriff Streck will tell you that the largest mental health facility in the county is the county jail.

Thank you, sir.

And we are asking law enforcement.

Sir, you're at your three minutes. We have to stay on strict time. So thank you very much. Thank you. For your time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Williams. I invite you for a conversation after. Mr. Wontenza.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Good afternoon.

If downtown is to be safe for all people, then ICE has to be abolished. And Mr. Turner is a fervent supporter of ICE. Also, federal, state, and local law enforcement must respect the Fourth Amendment rights of all the people. Currently, that is not a reality. Downtown is safer than our neighborhoods. I attend city commission meetings regularly and my car has never been stolen downtown and I always park it downtown. In the last three months, in my neighborhood, my car has been stolen three times. So in the three times that my car has been stolen, the police have not wanted to prosecute the thieves not once. I've had to insist that they do. So now we're trying to get a special judge just for downtown? What about where I live? I mean, is there going to be a special judge for me when my car is stolen? There have been arsons in my neighborhood. Tasty Bird, there was an arson there. Just the other day, there was an arson at the corner of Broadway and Grand. And the police, excuse me, the firefighters let it burn. So now, I don't recall having a major fire downtown. My question, though, really, is this concern for the child who was murdered downtown. Is that about a genuine concern for that child who was murdered or is it because there was bad publicity for downtown? There are far more kids murdered in our neighborhood than downtown and I think the priorities are in the wrong place. Um, lastly, my question is, uh, these, a lot of these people who have gotten up and spoken, how many of them live in Dayton? I'm not talking about people who are called to speak. I'm talking about those representatives.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Your time is up. Thank you very much for your comments.

Thank you, Mr. Watson. Terry Sims.

Good afternoon. Thank you everyone for coming together. I have an ask and it's simple. I'm asking to prioritize and advocate for universal childcare. As we talk about downtown, we talk about the workforce, we talk about all the things that need to go. I am an owner of a corporation for over 30 years. I am also the First Lady of Felons with a Future, BRAVE, and also Biden's Interrupter Program. I'm also an advocate in my community. As the pandemic has taught us in America that childcare is not a luxury, childcare is an essential infrastructure. The reason why I bring this up is because parents are struggling to pay for childcare. When children stop, and childcare stop, parents cannot go to work. Downtown becomes affected. Children don't go to school. They don't think school is important. Businesses lose workers. Children lose critical opportunities to learn and grow and bring Dayton and other public schools up. The pandemic was not just, it did not just create childcare problem, it also exposed it. Today parents are paying more than $21,000 a year for just child care.

We are asking families to financially prepare for college before their children can even spell college because they're paying for child care.

We are investing in Dayton. We also have to remember we need to invest in child care. Parents cannot work, business cannot retain employees, education can learn, I mean educators can live livable wages and children enter school better prepared and succeeding. Childcare is not just babysitting, it is an educational program. Childcare is the workforce behind the workforce. Childcare is our economy development. We stand here to talk about not just downtown, but universal childcare. It is important for us to not just invest in our city, but also to invest in our future. That starts from birth to five. Research have shown that so many times. So investing in childcare is investing in Dayton, Ohio, our community, and America. So this is why we're standing here.

Thank you, Ms. Simpson.

Thank you both. Thank you. Ebony Hastings.

I appreciate seeing you all. today sitting at the same table. But I want us to think bigger than downtown. We can make downtown safer. We can build hotels, housing, and businesses. We can bring millions of federal dollars into Dayton. But if the families living five or 10 minutes away still see vacant houses, deteriorating streets, struggling business corridors, unsafe properties, and very little economic opportunity, then we haven't solved Dayton's problems, we've moved the resources around it. Congressman Turner, you have shown that you can bring federal dollars back into this community. My question is, can we build the same kind of working groups in federal, state, county, and city partnerships specifically around Dayton's neighborhoods? Montgomery County commissioners, county dollars flows to the city every year. Residents deserve a public accounting of where that money lands and whether it reaches the neighborhoods it was intended to serve. I want to see North Main Street, West Third Street, and our east and west Dayton neighborhoods receive the same urgency, coordination, and measurable goals we are giving downtown. And when public money is invested, residents should be able to see where the money went. Who received the contracts? How many Dayton residents were hired? How many local businesses benefited? What measurable improvements did residents receive? If we want more Dayton residents building Dayton businesses, we must build the on-ramp, not just publish the address. A strong downtown should be the result of a strong Dayton, not an island surrounded by neighborhoods still waiting for investments. I am asking everyone sitting here today to make neighborhood investment the next intergovernmental priority. And then in reference to what you all have said to us today, you keep calling this an institutional challenge, but the institution making these decisions with our money, Dayton reports 36.2 million in city participation towards a 720.8 million in downtown development. compared with only 8.4 million towards 305 million in West Dayton. Yet we still aren't being shown clearly what downtown actually returns to the city budget. And now we're talking about dedicating one of our already limited judges specifically to downtown? Something I can't even find being done this way in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, or Toledo. At what point does East and West Dayton get the same level of urgency, coordination, and resources? We pay taxes too. We are Dayton too. And downtown should not get a separate level of government simply because powerful people have decided that downtown is a priority. Thank you, Ms. Hastings.

Tom Herner.

Hi, my name is Tom Herner.

Hello.

Thank you guys for having this panel. I see today a panel of distinguished leaders who are doing the work for our region. People like Carolyn Rice, like Judy Dodge, like Chris Shaw, like Daryl Fairchild, like Darius Beckham, and like Mayor Shanice Turner-Sloss. And I want to thank you guys for your work. I want to talk about a few of the things we heard today. I heard leaders talk about the work that they're doing in our community. And I saw some other politicians get up on the podium and talk a lot without saying a lot. We heard Representative Young tell us that he struggled to find people to join the downtown Dayton working subgroup because there aren't enough big businesses lending leaders to it. When Representative Young wants to hear from his constituents, he looks first to business and business owners. He never once mentioned citizens or constituents in his speech. He talked about how wasting our tax dollars with no focus is how he views things going at the State House and throughout our state, a three-term rep. He thinks that we have to create working groups of executives and look to them to serve our constituents and our citizens. I saw Phil Plummer and Andrea White talk about our schools, how helping our schools will help reduce crime in downtown Dayton, which is funny, because in our last state budget, all three of them voted to rob our public schools of over a billion dollars a year. It's true that our community will rise or fall to the level that we invest in our public schools. To watch three representatives talk about how we need to promote our public schools when they do the opposite is a farce, it's a travesty. We need to elect leaders who will focus on the issues that matter. Funding our schools, reducing our property taxes and our cost of living, promoting affordable healthcare for our citizens. If you take care of your constituents instead of the special interests that you guys do take care of, our neighborhoods will all be safer. Thank you for your time.

You know, I don't really even know where to start because there's so much that I want to say. Number one, I think that it's sad that Mike Turner could not stay to hear from his own constituents and hear from the people who wanted to talk to him. He got up and left. $15 million. Thank you, Carolyn Rice, for telling us about the $15 million you all have already invested in downtown. That's not enough? For the oligarchs in the room? No, I'm serious. That's not enough? What was the $15 million spent on? $15 million has already been invested? This is a farce. I'm trying to be so respectful right now because I'm so angry at what's happening in this room. Phil Plummer, you're looking at me like, I met with you when you were the sheriff. Do you remember that? And I tried to get you to do collaboration back then for violence prevention. I tried to get you to pull together People, the different affinity groups, the colleges and the universities. And you told me, no, that's not my job. That ain't what the sheriff do. That's exactly what you said. The other piece is this. I have not heard a root cause analysis from all these smart people. Y'all elected officials. I have to say that it's very interesting that you all are sitting in the city of Dayton and you get all Republicans to speak. All of them were Republicans. This is ridiculous. The people who live within the city limits of Dayton and vote didn't vote for most of the people that were speaking. Where is their voice? When you all have a community group and a business group, where's the faith community? Where's the different affinity groups at the table? Y'all only talking to business people and oligarchs. And then you keep saying it's the economic engine. Y'all didn't give us no data. Y'all didn't prove nothing. What kind of presentation was this? My 12-year-old could have did a better job. No, seriously. You all gave a presentation. There was no data, no facts, and the police was in all the buckets. Social services is the police now? This is a shame. and a sham, and there is no love in this. And I'm gonna tell you something, because there were no faith leaders there, there was nobody, nobody with a conscience seemed to be at the table on this. Because what you all are doing, and I'm gonna say it very clear, I'm gonna speak straight words like I always speak. You all are walling off downtown as a playground for elites and And oligarchs, that is inhumane and that is not acceptable in this city or nowhere. You all need to cut up this whole entire thing and start over, period. Thank you, Ms. DuBois.

Janice Chin.

She's had enough.

Go ahead.

Rodney Stark.

Where do we start here? Let's start with the elephant that left the room. The elephant that left the room is not an authority on crime. He supports a president that has been convicted 34 times Yeah, he's been convicted 34 times and also accused of sexual assault of a woman he has to pay out over $5 million to. And this is who Mike Turner supports. This is who Phil Palmer supports. It is to every last person you see sitting over there supports. You want to talk about homeless? Talk about their president that they support. This is the reason why people are being kicked out of their homes. This is the reason why health care is spiking, and they can't afford their medicine and whatnot, and can't afford their rent, and can't afford their houses, and they're out on the street. This is who Mike Turner is. Mike Turner is concerned about his neighborhood, which is his neighborhood is downtown, Dayton. I am ashamed of most of you that's sitting up there. because you let them come in here, you let Mike Turner consistently and Phil Plummer come in here and dog walk you every single time. And I am sick of it. Phil Plummer, you wanna be the expert on crime? Let's talk about crime downtown. Let's talk about the county jail where people are being hurt, killed, and maimed in the county jail down there that guess what? These people are supposed to be safeguarding these prisoners. Not hurting them. I'm a veteran. And guess what? I took prisoners of war. And we had to safeguard them. Make sure that they were OK. Make sure that they were fed. Don't look over here at me like I'm saying something wrong. I'm ashamed of you. And some of you, I put your campaign signs in my yard. It's a darn shame. Let's focus on all of Dayton and all of Dayton neighborhoods and all four corners. When all four corners are taken care of, your downtown's gonna be okay. But not until. Come to my neighborhood, look at the blight. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Starks. Zandra Phillips.

E. Louis Kenner.

Jeanette Brunson.

Good evening. Good evening. I'm so glad to be here and to see everybody. But you know, it's just like they said. I've heard a lot of talk about downtown today, okay? But I lived in an apartment building right here in Trotwood, where it was black mold all in the building. All the people, it was supposed to be a building for senior citizens. But then they revised it and let any and everybody live in there. People were afraid to speak out because they were afraid they would be put out. So they had to live in a building where the ceiling was falling down in black mold. And I came to commissioners, I was calling everybody I could think of. Housing authority, just different people I was calling. I couldn't get no help from nobody until I called the mayor in Trotwood. And she gave me Larry's number to call. And we started the ball rolling. I went to court because I had been putting my money in Estro because I thought it was unfair for us to live in a building infested with black mold, and nobody, nobody, you talking about downtown, we talking about right here off of South, nobody would do nothing. Everybody was saying, we don't have nobody in our department that handles black mold. Who does? What are you waiting on? Black mold kills, and you got senior citizens living in a community like that, and nobody cares. Nobody cares, you know? But you can talk about the high rise and stuff that you build in downtown Dayton. But like they said, right over here in Trotwood, what is happening? What is happening? Why are people having to live like that with mold? Why are our senior citizens afraid to speak out because they were afraid of getting put out because they were telling the truth? I was fortunate enough to get out And I've been out a couple of months. But nothing has changed. At Pleasantwood on Dillinger, it's the same thing.

Thank you, Ms. Brunson. I appreciate your words. Thank you.

Ms. Brunson, I think you mispronounced my name.

Did we let Ms. Brunner? I think that was it.

Hey y'all. Y'all all know me. I've talked to all of you guys before. I'm a community organizer. Majority of the people in this room know who I am. I brought ways that y'all can engage with us. You guys need to know how you meet us where we are. I hear a lot today about we need y'all as the community to do this thing that we just came up with where y'all weren't in the room. Why? Why were we not in the room? Direct experience. Direct experience. Direct experience. Direct experiences. are the people who are the experts on our community. The people who don't live here, you might have a property here, you might get somebody to pay you rent that lives here, you might have a business that makes money off of us here, but we don't see you. There's no reason why All of you guys up here can't hold those folks over there accountable for listening to us here. There's no reason. We show up and we talk to y'all because y'all are accessible. Because we see you, because y'all at the grocery store, I see you at the West Social, I see you downtown at the parade, I see you at the hospital, I see you at the parades, I see y'all at everything. So I can talk to y'all. But when I get together with Mr. Larry and we talk about housing, then we could talk to Zakiya about racial injustice. We could talk to Mr. Watenza about what's going on with these kids in this school. And we all are connecting with each other, but then y'all not taking our things that we're uplifting and taking them to the next level. That's why we depend on y'all. We want you to take our ideas to the next level. I've worked with every single one of y'all on a professional level, not in the community, on a professional level. And where I'm coming up short and talking to the people who I work with and the people who are really out here doing this work, really doing this work, not because they have a 501c3 and they get tax exempt status, but it's because I'm saying, hey y'all, listen, I know we all keep saying we have these problems. Let's go talk to Shanice. Shanice, we need you to go tell Phil Plummer. We need to tell Andrea White. tom young we need to tell um um mike turner i keep forgetting his name because we down there don't see him but we need to really have y'all go out there and advocate for us and so i'm gonna give y'all this right here and i would love for you guys to come out and really talk to the people all of us we all thank you thank you very much ma'am you're at the end of your time i need y'all to take this thank you very much thank you thank you miss weiner

I can't. I'm going to speak. I can't sit here and hear so much and so much pain and agony in the community. When the mayor came into place, when the mayor came into office, Michael Colbert and I met with her. We poured out our thoughts and our concerns for the community to her. because I understand that this was not done in the past. I listened to Carolyn Rice tell me that there was a time when the mayor that was in place would meet, and then there were no more meetings, no more conversations. When I met with Mayor Sloss, she said, I don't want my city to be a police state. I don't want downtown to be that. We talked about ways we could work together to be able to make sure that downtown was taken care of and our administrator initiated things to make this happen, to feel like it was a safe place and to do our part. This conversation has turned into a conversation around the city of Dayton and the challenges and not so much what has happened with the county commissioners. We are always gonna be here with 28 cities and townships that we take care of. We are always going to be here. And we shared that understanding with the mayor when we met with her. But our challenge here and my challenge for today is holding our administrator and hopefully the city manager of the city of Dayton come together to be able to listen to these initiatives and work together as solving things for people. But again, what happens in the way that this structure is set up is Dayton is its own entity, as Centerville and Kettering, all of them that have a mayor or a trustee. The county is here for all of them, and we have been. And as Carolyn has mentioned, there were things that have been done, but it is so obvious that the pain that people are feeling here today is it's not gone out far enough. And my hope, my hope is with our administrator and with the city manager, and I did ask both of you, myself, to come together with a conversation because our people are hurting. These people are hurting in ways that we are not able to help, you too. are going to be the individuals that are going to have to help us to get there. And it is my hope in front of all of these people here, because I have had this conversation with you both, is that we will move in that area. Because what we're hearing, and we continue to hear. Now, I've been out throughout the county and talked to people downtown. I'm downtown all the time. And I've never been afraid. Thank you. Telling the truth. And I know that. I know that there are some challenges to people who may not be aware of folks, but this fear and this perception is not real. There are challenges that we can deal with, but the people that I see that are downtown that people may have big concerns with are people that need services, that need help, and we are trying to address those things. The mayor has just been in place very few months and our promise to her is we will follow her leadership of her city and that is what it is that our agreement was the day that we met and I think that again that is the fairness that we would offer any other city any other mayor or or trustees out here in terms of helping them and I want the mayor to know again today we still pledge our promise to be here for you and your leadership. And the only way that we can take care of all these citizens is that the commission works together to be able to hear this. And to me, it's not about the majority and all that. It's about these people. They are hurting out here. the investment that needs to go out into these neighborhoods. Because when we run people out of downtown, they run into neighborhoods that already are overrun with challenges. And until we do that, we are just kicking the can down the road. So this is a conversation that has to happen with all of us. And I do believe that if there were the best of intentions But it does take an entire conversation with everyone at the table. When we were called together for each of my colleagues, when we were called together, we didn't know what we were coming for. When the commissioner asked, when the congressman asked us to come together, we come together. We come to see what it is that he's asking of us. But there are people who were missing from the conversation. But as we have said throughout this process, this is just the beginning. The mayor is out here every single week trying to reach people in the community. And that is the kind of reach it is going to take for all of us to be able to deal with these challenges. And trust me, my colleagues, my administrator, he is going to be there for this community. And we are holding him accountable in making those things happen. And I hope that you all will be able to hold your manager in this way. And I just had to say this because I'm not going out of here looking like, I am 100% about everything that has happened, because I am not. But I do know that we are doing at our level, our level best, to meet the needs of the citizens from this place where we sit. And that's with taking care of 28 cities and townships. that we love and we care about with the few dollars that we have. And I do believe out of this conversation, I'll have more conversations with Phil and with Andrea and with Tom and with Congressman Turner, because again, they did not have you in the room. And again, I do believe that there is an opportunity to have deeper conversation. Yeah. So thank you.

Please note that Congressman Turner had to catch a flight for a hearing, yes. We have one more speaker, please.

Peggy Nagel. I pass. Okay.

I would like to invite my colleagues if they have any comments or anything that they would like to note at this time. Is that fair? I know we're close to time. And I know many of us have had hard stops in meetings. But Commissioner Beckham, do you have any comments or closing? Commissioner Fairchild? Commissioner Shaw? No. Thank you. Thank you.

No, this has been a very, I think, a productive meeting. And I noticed that we introduced two presidents from our universities. And I have to give a shout out to the University of Dayton president, President Spina. Thank you for coming. So thanks everybody, our legislators and everybody else for being here. It's very informative and appreciate everybody's input. Thank you.

Do I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Second.

Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you all.