City Council - Regular Meeting

It is Tuesday, June 16th. It is 645. We're going to call the meeting to order.

Mayor Tiffany Hollis.

Here.

Ryan Green. Here. Melanie Barnard. Matthew Huggins.

Here.

Kyle Cook. Here. Jeff Barr. Present. Nicole Shook.

Here. Tonight's invocation will be given by Council President Green.

Everybody bow your heads. Lord, we ask at this meeting tonight, first as always, we want to watch out for our first responders, our military fighting overseas. I want to ask for you to help us do the best we can as council people to be fast and accurate in our decision making and do everything to the best of our abilities to help us to make our decisions tonight. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

First item on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Would anyone like to make a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. I'll second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Action on minutes. Would anyone like to make a motion on the minutes for April 7th, 2026?

Make a motion to accept the minutes as written from April 7th, 2026.

I'll second.

Everyone was present. Are all in favor?

Yes.

Anyone opposed?

Next is citizen comments on matters not on the agenda. Do you have any speaker slips tonight?

I have no speaker slips.

Moving on to council committee reports. Design review board was canceled on June 9th. Their next meeting is June 23rd. Planning and zoning was also canceled. I don't believe there were any applications or anything pending for planning and zoning, so it was canceled. Their next meeting is June 23rd as well. Safety and service met tonight. Ryan, you're the chair.

Yes, so we had a really ambitious meeting tonight. We talked about at great length our roads here in the city. So we want to do quite a bit with those, but obviously we're hemmed in by our budget. So we got some great reports from our staff on how... those roads are looking and where we should probably prioritize. We took a look at some options for funding, such as the IRT, having the military come in to potentially do some repairs there, our schedule with potholes. We did not get to the DORA, and we discussed a few other items, but mostly roads and some of those things.

Our next meeting on the 21st is going to occur at 4 o'clock. Yes. Because we have another ambitious agenda on that meeting, right? Yes. Yep.

Does anyone have any questions for safety and service? Everybody was here for it. Next is Finance Committee met tonight also. Councilman Barnard is the chair, but he was not here this evening. Jeff, would you like to give an update from Finance Committee?

We did. We had the Finance Director, Mr. Dillon, thanks for giving us an update. Quite a few items on there. Had a lot of questions from Council. Appreciate the effort on there. We talked about the audits. Good news on those, that they're moving forward, being completed. They're done on a two-year cycle. I think that's important to call out at the meeting of the whole here. That's all.

Matt, did you want to highlight anything else from finance?

No, go ahead. Okay, good.

Next, the Rules Committee has not met since our last meeting, and the next is also still to be determined. Greater Johnstown Parks and Rec District updates? Nicole, do you have anything?

There's really nothing new. They're just still working on getting a survey together. They're helping with the fireworks as well, and there's really just no other updates at this time. Okay, thank you.

Is there, I'm sorry, I have a question. Sure, no, go ahead. Has there been any movement from the judicial point on the Miles Estate property, or is it still stagnant?

No, it's still stagnant.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Next, we'll move on to director reports. Service director report first. Mr. Liggett?

Yes, I'll hit the highlights here. Item one, water plant update. We hold our weekly construction meetings on the 6th, 13th, 21st, and 28th. Critical items that were discussed last month is the plant had to be out, completely shut down, forced outages. We had to run new electric to the well fields, so the plant had to be shut down. Spent a lot of time with the electricians working over this, and also we had some valving that had to go on the existing cleric cone, which caused another outage. We've simply been handling that by having our starting operators come in at 4 a.m. instead of 6. We're running, getting ahead, shutting down midday so that contractors can do their work, and then firing back up, and hopefully not staying too much past 10 o'clock in the evening. Jumping all the way down to number four, leak detection. We did have a repair on a service line at B46 South Main and found a higher hydrant on Middleburn leaking. That repair was made as well. Just to update again on item seven, micro-sealing and crack-sealing on Concord and Buena Vista has been moved back to late June. The early spring rains or late spring rains I guess, cause the company that's doing that work, Strolzer, to get behind, so we are waiting on their catch-up to get those two roads done. Now, the crack sealing has already been completed on both of those roads, but the micro seal has not been scheduled yet. And as some of the committee knows, item 8, initial road grading, has been turned into the committee. Number 9, it was determined that we would get the bid out for the Mill and Fill paving on Leafy Dale and Hershing Roads. And the last item, number 10, our new... GIS team is working with Johnstown. We're starting to get all information converted from iWorks to IMGIS, and that's going pretty well so far. Any questions on anything?

Is that what they're marking with paint right now?

On water.

Water? Yeah, okay. I just was curious. One other thing I was going to ask about that took up a lot of your vacation was the giant water main break.

The giant water main break, yes. That will be in Jude's report, but I'll bring you up to date on it. 12-inch duct iron water main blew about a softball-sized hole out of the side of it. We lost about a half million gallons during that. I was on the phone with the repair crew during that whole endeavor. Got it banded. The rest of the pipe looks solid. It could have just been a manufacturer's defect in that portion of the pipe. We don't see or believe that there'll be any reason or thought that there'll be more breaks in that area. The road has been repaired. We undermined losing that half a million gallons blowing out through that softball size hole. We undermined about a 20 by 16 foot section of State Route 62. We stoned it, then we flash-filled it, which is a light-duty concrete, so there'd be no settling. And then the patch has been paved over the top of it. We did call them back in for a repave. There was a pretty good hump in the middle of it. We got it about as good as we can think at this time until there's a mill and relay of the whole rope. Perfect. How old was that pipe? Well, I think that was put in in the early 2000s, so it was 20-some years old, but that's not old for Dr. White. We like to see the Dr. White 60, 70, 80 years old before you get into, depending on the corrosivity in the ground. But there did not appear to be any other problem with the pipe because I conferred with the guys on site and said, you know, what are you seeing? Is there pitting? Do you see rust holes, pin holes? They said no, it's just almost one perfectly round spot. So it could have just been a defect in the pipe.

I'm guessing there's no warranty. Oh, no. Right, no warranty, but was there anything to do with new construction in the area or pressure changes, anything like that? No.

Okay. After 27 years, that section blew, and we put a band on it. It's been backfilled properly, so we don't expect any more problems. I can't tell you the cost of that repair yet, but it's major.

Well, they got here very quickly, too. I mean, everybody did a good job getting it.

Mayor?

Yes.

So that comes on the heel that in our safety and service meeting we were talking about, Jack had mentioned Lee Fidel and Pershing. Instead of 140, it was going up to 170. Kind of explained, I had asked the question of... We have the appropriations now that all of council is here. There wasn't a need to reappropriate or anything to complete that.

We don't need to reappropriate. You might have legislation to award the project. After the bid.

We're going to put bids out and then... Legislate to award it to whoever gets that bid.

Right. I just want to put it out there of transparency that even though it's not part of the... 37 Leafy Dell intersection improvement. Correct. We have the funds to budget it to do Leafy Dell. To the school. To the school. And all of Pershing. And all of the remaining of Pershing where we stopped last year all the way to 37.

One other question along the lines of that. Is that a situation where if we had an emergency connect with another service provider that no one would have lost water in the city?

No, to make that type of repair with that type of water coming out of the pipe, we did have to shut down that section. The flow of water and pressure was too great and too dangerous to put a man in the hole with that type of flow. So regardless of an interconnection, we would have had to shut that section down. There would have been a boil alert.

All that still would have happened.

Now what would have happened if that leak would have went on, because as I said, we lost a half million gallons, and we only have 1.5 million gallons above ground total. If that leak would have went on further, if that would have happened in the middle of the night, we could have found ourselves in a low... Low pressure, low water situation. That's where the interconnection would have come back in. We could have called and said, hey, we need to open this valve. Our towers are low, and we could have refilled. But since it happened when it happened, crews were on site. We started getting valves shut down almost immediately once we were notified.

And I don't know if anyone else reached out, but I just want to publicly thank Linking Regional, I believe, reached out and offered to assist in any way they could, which it's nice to have neighboring providers.

Yes, CJ called me and said if we needed support with clamps, fittings, or pieces of pipe, they had a full warehouse, which I thanked him for that. Of course, we keep a lot of stock in. Right.

It's good that you have those relationships, though, that you've built. Does anyone else have anything for Jack?

Appreciate the effort. You were on vacation that week of staying in touch with your team and the team's effort as well to come to resolution. Thanks for the dedication. Appreciate it.

Okay, we'll move on to Chief Smart.

So for us, for the month of May, we hired one officer. He starts June 29th. That would have put us up to full staff. Yesterday, I was informed by Sergeant Cooper Ryder that he would be beginning his retirement. His date is July 17th. He has almost 30 years of service with our police department. I received... an award for our best grant. We had quite a bit of officers that would do for their bests. It cost somewhere around $10,000 total, and I was able to secure a grant through the state of Ohio for about $75,000.

Nice. That's great.

It's not fully awarded, but as long as I continue doing what I'm supposed to do with the grant, I'll get that award, and I'll probably get that check by August sometime.

Awesome. Okay.

That's all I have for now.

Does anyone have anything for Chief Smart? Questions? Good? Okay.

Thank you.

New, we're going to do a finance director report. I don't know that we've ever done that, but I'm excited about it, Mr. Delandy. I know we've never done this in a public meeting, so if you just want to hit your highlights, what you think is most important.

Actually, Mr. Barr hit most of them, too, but my report's a little different. It has the report's goals and status on some of the things going on. So really, we'll be looking at focusing on trying to get the handbook, get that taken care of here probably within the next month or two. We've been saying that for like two years, and it's close. We'd like to get that done. We hit on the water expansion as far as some of the funds that's been flowing through. Actually, just within the last couple of months, we hit about $6 million on the water points, and we're anticipating $38 million. So they've been busy, obviously. We talked about the... Audits 2021 completed, 22, 23 completed, 24 and 25, anticipating them getting onboarded. in july hopefully end of june but hopefully those wrapped up by the end of august so we will be we do biannual audits two years so that'll be good we hit on the lease agreement with the school district for this building and also the taffies so i know we need to be meeting with them and working towards Obviously there's a list of items on there if you have questions or comments or need anything else reach out to me.

I think the big thing for us as far as funding goes is obviously roads this year and how all that works out.

I have it written down. I will, for the next meeting, have the capital and just let you know as far as what we anticipate, what we have appropriated for this year. However, what we have carryover and also what we can project carryover on. I mean, our income taxes are, you know, we're projecting maybe a couple hundred thousand more than we need to budget. So we'll have 28% to the market.

Yeah, I think that'll be great to show the infrastructure, what we're putting into it, what we plan to put in, and so people can show that.

Go ahead, Jack. So for this year, just to add on to what Dave just said, as you know, we're going to be doing the micro-sealing on, Concord and Buena Vista, I think that's about $130,000. And with the additional work that we're going to do this year on Leafy Dale and Pershing, that'll bring that total to around $300,000 we spent on roads this year.

With the $130,000, though, we did capture that from last year's fund. So that would be a carrier. We set that P.O. up. with 25 funds before the end of the year.

So then the rest of the things that you will be looking at and making decisions on will be for the year of 2026.

Okay, that's why I was just getting ready to ask because the 6237, the project... That's going to go for next year's budget, though. Is that right?

Well, the way I understand the high public works, that money should be released around the first of July, the first week of July. I said it because July 4th always gets in the way of that. So that work, now that's the 6237 intersection, probably should start fall of this year.

So will the city's portion of that be out of this year's budget or will that come out of next year's budget?

That will probably come out next year.

Next year's budget? Okay.

You might have addressed this in finance, so I apologize, but where are we with the CIC?

CIC? Actually, we talked about it. We need to finalize, well, it expires September of this year, so we'll revamp that. We did give handouts as far as the one thing is how the question from the attorneys is how that would get funded. Obviously, there's different ways to fund that, but that would be the critical thing. And also, we will have the attorneys update And that needs to be done here within the next month or two, but I just want to make sure it will cost some money. I don't think a lot, but to get them to update.

Do we have the timeline on when that will be established by chance?

No. It expires the 16th of September, so I would anticipate, as soon as I give them the green light, I mean, I'm hoping within a couple weeks to a month, I mean, they should have that update. Because I think it's just the board and then legislation to come back in here, articles in the corporation, update those. Okay.

Thank you. Of course, the other big thing for funding as we head in July here is fireworks. How much do we have in that budget for fireworks this year?

Actually, how that was set up, we would give the greater parks $10,000. Okay.

And have we done any other fundraising or anything on fireworks this year? Do we have any money coming in additionally to that?

Actually, Troy brought that up at the township meeting that we had a donation.

Yes, they had a donation of $15,000. Oh, nice. Yep. They had it by Miller's, or not Miller, sorry, Williams Pipeline. And they will be, they're deciding what to do with that money. So, I mean, I didn't hear any more discussion about it.

Okay. And that's already come in then?

I don't know. They haven't received it yet. As far as the last meeting, they have not received it.

So are they planning for that for next year or for this year?

Again, they have not decided.

Wait a second. We didn't actually vote to pay that. We put it in, we kind of earmarked it. Am I wrong on that? It was appropriated, but we haven't actually voted to spend that money for fireworks.

It's been appropriated, but not encumbered.

Okay.

Right?

Right. I mean, but once it's appropriate, I mean, if you're saying not to pay it, I mean, we have it appropriated that we can pay it as far as if they would request that, unless you have a different alternative motive to not pay it, but it's in there to be paid.

Well, yeah, if we get the donation to pay for the fireworks this year, that's awesome.

I think it's probably a conversation that just needs to happen.

We do have $2,000 that could offset that. $2,000?

Yeah, if we get the donation to pay for the fireworks, that's big. Yeah. I'd be interested to find out more about that.

So should we... Donnie's not here, but can we make sure that that gets on the agenda for the next finance committee to have a conversation? Okay.

Well, that'll be in July. That's true. Yeah, sorry.

My gosh, where is time going?

Right, so if somebody's paying for the fireworks, then we need to know that.

Yeah. They haven't decided what to do with that money. That could be for next year because it has been told to them after you guys discussed the budget in 2025 that that $10,000 for the city will probably not be there next year. So they may be using that money to save for next year's fireworks. So they have the money to do that. So, you know, I can bring back a report on what they plan to do with that money. Or you can go to a Greater Johnstown Parks and Rec meeting as well. They're on the last Thursday of the month at 630 here. But, again, they'll need money for next year to be able to offset the $10,000. They're probably not going to get from the city. Okay.

Yeah, that'll be an interesting one. Before we literally light $10,000 on fire, I'd like to know if somebody else could pay for it this year, especially with all the costs and things that we have going on.

I don't know the best way to move forward on that or where that conversation needs to take place, but it obviously needs to be addressed. Anyone have any recommendations? No.

Yeah, if our staff's able to check up on that and just let us know if that donation's coming in and then we don't necessarily have, if it's appropriate, you don't necessarily have to spend it. So it's discretionary. So our city manager could probably make that call, correct? Sure. If the donation comes in and we don't have to spend it, I mean, I'd hate to spend money we don't have to.

I'll contact you.

Unless the show is doubling in size this year.

Who do I need to contact?

Who do we contact on that?

The chair of the Parks and Rec. Which is? Board.

Is it Ashley? No, it's Daryl. Daryl Warnett.

The Greater Johnstown Rec and Park District chair is Daryl Warnett.

Give me a name, phone number, whatever. I'll contact him.

Okay.

That'd be fine. Thank you.

Any other questions for Mr. Delaney? Thank you for your first public meeting report. I appreciate it. It was great.

Yeah, thank you.

Next, we're moving on to tabled legislation, Resolution 2026-19, a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a lease amendment with American Legion Post 254. Originally introduced on March 3rd, and it has been tabled since. Is there any desire to discuss this tonight or take action?

We have not heard anything back from the Legion.

So we do not need to take any action. We just leave it table correct, Teresa. Thank you.

I do have one thing on that. We need to address it with the Legion, but if they are not appropriating the funds to build it out anymore, and all we're waiting on is the chart to... Yeah, the amortization. Thank you. For that, then we could just mix that part and move on with what they added to as far as...

So you're saying take it off the...

I would think that if they came back with just the updates without the amortization chart, we could get it off the table.

How about I contact Mr. Szabo and make sure he gets a report to us before the next meeting?

Yeah, or if he doesn't want to add the amortization charges without the report, let's just move forward without that because really that's a moot point without them getting the funds to build out right now. And we can always address it once they get back to that point of building out. But we can still add the other additions that they wanted in the list.

I'll make sure we have an update before your next meeting. Thank you.

Yeah, their project may have changed, but I definitely want to do something with this. Or if they don't want to do something with this, I want to know so that we can act, you know.

Anyone have anything else for that? Good. Okay, moving on. Public hearings of legislation. Ordinance 06-2026, an ordinance to amend Chapter 1141 of the city's codified ordinances. Jamie, are you presenting or Mr. Underhill?

I believe that the city is an applicant on this ordinance revision as well. And the idea here is so that as we advance collectively advance initiatives with the new community authority and infrastructure that would be one new community authority that ensures new parcels benefiting from the infrastructure pays their fair share and joins the new community authority. By having one community authority and aligning interests between the city and its neighbors, we can avoid having multiple new community authorities that have competing rates or competing interests. So it's all the same bucket. And again, the city has control of the funds. The city has control of the board on the NCA. And this is just to ensure that there aren't additional new community authorities popping up in different areas. ONE, HAVE A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE WITH A LOWER MILLAGE OR LOWER RATE AS WELL AS NOT NECESSARILY PAYING THEIR FAIR SHARE AND BENEFITING FROM INFRASTRUCTURE SO THAT EVERYTHING ALIGNS WITH THE CITY AND THE QUICKER EVERYBODY GETS PAID BACK, THE QUICKER THE CITY THEN WOULD GET ITS FUNDS TOO.

A COUPLE THINGS I WANT TO ASK ABOUT WITH THIS, AND YOU MAY BE ABLE TO HELP, YOU MAY NOT. THIS IS KIND OF JUST A RANDOM QUESTION, BUT SO WITH NEW PARCELS AND NEW ENTITIES COMING IN, LIKE WE'VE HAD SOME OTHER DEVELOPMENTS THAT HAVE COME UP, PEOPLE, YOU KNOW, TALKING ABOUT DEVELOPERS AND THINGS COMING IN. everybody going into one NCA. If New Albany Company is not the only developer that we have in this mix anymore, how does that work exactly to bring in other entities or if you had a large property come in that we wanted to work with, how does that work?

So I think there's a couple of different ways that it's carved up. One is, let's say a new property comes in and they join the MCA and they're a part of it and they're benefiting. Everybody's playing by the same rules. So I think the question you're asking is like seats on the board, too.

Right. All the above, but seats on the board, things like that, because obviously... THE DEVELOPER IS GOING TO WANT SOME SAY ON THAT BOARD AS WELL. OF COURSE. SO HOW DOES THAT ALL WORK OUT?

SO I THINK WE DO NEED TO FIGURE THAT OUT. ONE IS, YOU KNOW, If somebody joins, I think there's a minimum of five acres. So if somebody joins with six acres versus 500 acres, what's your voice? How does that work? I believe the NCAA board has to have a seven-seat minimum, but you can have more than seven seats as well on the board. So you could add additional seats to the board to accommodate if, for example, another user came in with a couple hundred acres.

Right. And we'd have to figure out the best way to do that because, obviously, as you see with seven seats, things get a little convoluted. So maybe that might not be the best way to do it.

Absolutely.

Aaron Underhill, Underhill & Lodge, representing New Albany County. I think some of the details lie in the documentation that created the new community authority. Some of those rules are set forth there, and so we can go back and look at those ourselves, but I think some of the rules for that may be spelled out in those documents.

I think they are, and we're in a different time now than when we started this project. Things are different across the board, so we may need to reexamine that and take a look at how we can do that or do it better. But I think obviously over the years, and it may not happen this year, but over the years, 20 years down the road, I think we're going to have other people involved with this, and I want to figure it out now what the best way is to do that. And then to your other point, about other NCAAs in the area. We've talked about our legacy business park over there potentially. As that develops, an NCAA might come up there or in another part of town. So I want to work on how we can absorb that the best, too. Because I agree with you. I don't want multiple NCAAs. It's like having multiple HOAs. I live in Leafydale, and we have several in there. It's not the best working environment.

Yeah, I just think it's an administrative headache at the time, so to speak.

Right.

We can confirm the rules that are currently in the NCAA bylaws. Okay. And then maybe also look at some other case studies for the way this has been enacted around the state of Oklahoma as well when other developments come in.

Okay. Do you like to communicate with Jeff ahead of time? Yeah. You guys will have the information.

That's the best way to do it. We appreciate it.

On the flip side of it, what is the number one or number two negative of having just one NCA?

No, it wouldn't fit at all.

And you have to give me an answer. You have to give a negative.

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

That was your worst trade? Yeah.

Yeah. That's the worst question. Too critical.

Yeah, but that's... In an interview, you just say, I'm too organized.

Yeah. No, we... Well, okay, so if you had, let's use Brian's example, the existing business park, if they had immediate needs and wanted to fund something that was in conflict of the funds being

I mean, for instance, they've been there since 1983. There's more land to develop there, but all of their infrastructure is antiquated. And if they wanted to modernize the infrastructure and things in that neighborhood, that would probably be the best conduit to do that because it's a mutually advantageous relationship there. So if we create that.

Now, in the bylaws, there are guardrails because the NCAA bylaw right now has to – PRIORITIZE FUNDS FOR INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS TO HELP, ESSENTIALLY TO HELP PROMOTE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. SO IF YOU HAVE SOMEBODY JOINING THE NCA THAT ISN'T...

I WOULD SUGGEST...

I'M TRYING TO THINK. I'M TRYING TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, CHEF. THAT ISN'T GENERATING FUNDS... MIGHT BE THE ONLY REASON TO HAVE TWO. YOU PROBABLY WOULDN'T BE ALLOCATING COSTS TO REINVEST INTO THAT PROJECT. BECAUSE I CAN'T COMPARE THE APPLES TO APPLES. I'M SURE I DON'T LIKE THAT ALL OF IT.

WELL, I THINK We're going to end up, you know, so nothing's going to say that any monies collected from anywhere has to go into one pot for only one purpose. I think every project is going to be evaluated by the board and where are those funds needing to be used. Maybe the downside of the big project we're talking about, the infrastructure, is we're going to need to make sure that there are enough dollars allocated to that project to support it. So maybe having a separate one allows you to keep two buckets. However, I think the board's still going to have a lot of discretion in terms of dealing with each project as it comes and where you're allocating dollars.

So our existing Commerce Park, if they wanted, collectively all of them, they could or could not join this NCA?

If they're not currently eligible, I mean, there's a path to making them eligible. Okay.

Here's a contiguous mileage.

Yeah.

There's a contiguous mileage, I think, to add into that, but that could always be amended.

Now, the NCA, the... The mission of the NCA is that development pay for itself. So the new development comes on as this voluntary tax. The tax ends up on the auditor's bill in perpetuity. So having an existing business join an NCA, it's a tough ask unless there were probably substantial infrastructure costs that they were able and willing to pay for.

But this, okay, answers the question. There is, if they wanted to.

For example, if a company that is in existence right now was looking at doing a pretty substantial expansion, it may behoove them to be a part of the NCA tape.

Correct. But this also does not prevent an existing commerce park if they wanted to form their own?

That's a great point. That would be absolutely correct.

Right. They could still form their own.

This is cleaner. This is creating triggers to compel someone who needs entitlements of some sort to join. But if they wanted to do something separate and apart themselves, this would not compel in that situation them to join this particular one.

Right. Okay.

YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING.

YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING.

YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING.

YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST READING. YEAH, THIS IS JUST THE FIRST I know Kyle, Matt, and I mean, Nicole's probably more familiar with it from her former job.

Yeah, it was me, Nicole, and Donnie were the ones that were on here at that point.

But there's... Okay, anyone else have anything for this one? No? Open for public comment? Anyone? Hearing none, we'll move on. You guys might as well stay put. To Ordinance 07-2026, an ordinance to amend Chapter 1165 of the city's codified ordinances. You're on again. Thank you.

Well, so this one, you know, we... For those of you who were on this council, you know the amount of work that went into drafting the original PD district legislation. And the PD district itself was a whole, I think it was 85 or 88 page document itself. As time has evolved and moved on, things have changed with Intel and the amount of employees they're planning to bring. Some of the commitments that were made on the private side to them are sort of not as important now given that the employment base, at least in the shorter term, is not going to be what we once thought it was. Hopefully in the long run it gets there. So there are a couple things we're trying to accomplish with this proposed legislation. One is to, and the main one is to create this housing bank concept. And what we're doing with this is creating a procedure whereby the Planning Commission would have a role, as they would with any other rezoning, to make a recommendation to council. But council would have the ultimate say about the rules under which such a bank could be created. This is not creating a bank. I think that was a little bit of a misconception early on when we started presenting this, but it's providing a process under which legally we could do that, and it will be like any other rezoning. If you don't like what we're doing with the housing bank or where we ultimately want to place the units, you will have an ultimate review and approval authority. So that's the first thing we're doing. And I think a couple things that came up at the planning commission involved, you know, is there a fee that could be maybe paid to the city in exchange for allowing these transfers to occur? We think we're open to that conversation, but we think that's better had when we have an actual project to bring forth. The other thing had to do with a unit conversion. So it may be, although we have all these multifamily units that are allowed on the current site, Maybe we want to convert those to single family or town homes or something. And so as a part of that negotiation on the zoning, we would come up with some sort of a conversion mechanism. We know that one apartment housing unit is not the same as a single family unit, especially as it relates to school impacts. So we said publicly a number of times that we'll continue to work with the school district when the time comes on what those appropriate conversion rates will be. The other thing that I think we're trying to do is we could go and rezone this property and frankly we think later this year or maybe early next we'll be rezoning the entire PD district to try to position it for more economic development opportunity. So right now the eastern, say, one-third of the site is allowed to be developed with residential multifamily and mixed use and not the employment generating type uses. So we're seeing a lot of opportunities. I mean, we even have a project now that we're chasing, right, that could be a big employment generator. I think some of you are probably aware of it. We would need to reposition the site to allow those sorts of uses on that eastern one-third. The problem is if we do that, we think those units are still valuable, not only clearly to us as the private developers, but also to the community. I'll get to that in a minute. But we may not have somewhere to place them, or if we find another property to place them, we'll just be doing it to do it, so to speak, and it may not be the best long-range solution for the community. So we feel like having this ability to have these units sit in the bank until a better opportunity arises where we all agree that those units would be appropriate is a great tool to have in the toolbox. I was saying to the Planning Commission that, you know, one reason we think preserving these units is valuable is you have other big land opportunities for development of residential that, you know, you may have a density in your mind as a council or as a city that you think is appropriate maybe another developer believes that they should have more units or they want to have more units on their property this would allow some of these units that could be placed somewhere else to be transferred to that property and therefore on an overall basis the community maybe ends up with less units so anyway trying to lay ground groundwork here to create a mechanism for us to have further conversations but without it We think we'll be left in a position if we were to pursue this rezoning that I mentioned to either lose those units completely or have to identify a property and kind of place them and set them there until we do find another right opportunity. So we think this is a good middle ground. It is something that has been used in New Albany, and while it's not in their code per se, it is in their master PUD that was created in 1998. And we have transferred units countless times using the zoning process there. It's worked very well. Anyway, I think the bottom line is this is a procedural mechanism, and you're not making any decisions about committing these units to somewhere else at this time.

Thank you for bringing up the fee that we discussed. A couple other things that planning did bring up was some type of cap on the fact that if we do decide to annex, that essentially does grow the number of units. but we would want to keep that at maybe 12, and then also a potential shelf life on those to where it would give future council the opportunity to revisit it as well. But we can further discuss it.

So what's been happening, we've been sort of rinsing and repeating as we've kind of filled in, what we've called the missing teeth, and added to the PD district has added a number of units as well.

So there is a formula in there where if you add land to the PD district, that does increase the units, right? That's right. You're going to get rid of that, correct?

Well, it'll be in the discussion.

We do have a pending... ZONING THAT HAS BEEN PROPOSED WITH THAT SAME CONCEPT, BUT AFTER THAT ONE, I THINK WE CAN MAKE SURE THAT WE WON'T DO IT AFTER THAT ONE. RIGHT.

SO WITH THAT, AND THEN, I'M SORRY, GO AHEAD.

NO, I'M SORRY. SO YOU'RE STILL GOING TO BE, SO IS IT GOING TO STAY AT 1,200 OR IS IT GOING TO BE MORE ADDED BECAUSE OF

And because of we're going to annex in some additional property there have been a number of So this will be the fifth time that there have been additional acreage, so I don't have the exact total number but all of those Annexations and zones have added units and something more than 1200 now we can that's another piece of homework we have I

Yeah, I'd like to know the exact amount that we're looking at right now.

Yeah, we see some other opportunities to kind of square off the area where, you know, we were bounded by the roads on all sides. But, you know, we can commit to you that as we come forward with those new zonings that we will not. we will eliminate that provision for that acreage.

Thank you.

Also, you're defining units as multifamily in this instance, correct? You're meaning apartments in your units. That's right. Is that what you're talking about? That's right. Okay, so the units you're defining are multifamily or basically apartments.

That's right.

They're not single family. The units are not single family. That's correct. That is not the definition here.

That's correct. Okay. Now, when we get into a rezoning where we might want to put those units in the bank or transfer them somewhere else, that's where there will be a negotiation about, well, maybe it's two or three units for every one single family unit or something. But right now they are apartments.

They are apartments. Okay. I just want to take a moment and reiterate and clarify this ordinance that we're, well we're not voting on it tonight, we'll be voting on it in July. does not establish a housing bank. This just establishes a process for planning and zoning to make amendments to our planned development district zoning. So we are only making an amendment to the process. We are not actually establishing or committing to any number of units in any way, shape, or form. Those conversations still have to go through planning and zoning when a proposed project comes up. Yes, and then ultimately it will come back to council. So this is just a placeholder so that that process can happen further down the road when there are projects.

You're not changing in any way in the same discretion you have as with any other zoning. It's just kind of to allow this creativity to be discussed.

Yeah. Sorry, Chef.

No, I can wait. I do have a question slash comment though. So on this conversion formula, who's involved, and I'll just get right to it, is that I feel like the school board or persons that are very familiar with this

I think when we get to that point, all of those same key stakeholders that we had originally involved when the PD district was being formed would have a seat at the table to negotiate and discuss all of that. I think we have an established, trusted relationship with...

Absolutely. So that will happen to that...

once there's a proposed project, and if it is single-family homes, then we would do the conversion rate and have to agree on all of that at that point.

Should we as the city take a lead to work with our school board prior to... I don't know if it'd be the Planning and Zoning Chair. I think the School District Liaison Committee is... Is that a venue to have those discussions and do them now rather than wait so that... I'd say for myself speaking is that I can get my head wrapped around it all and hear from the school board through the school board liaison I think is a good venue for us to... We're working together, but also independently working with our school board folks to get their input, hear what they have to say, get a head around, and I'd probably say that I'd be leaning to them as the experts to say, hey, this is what we think.

Well, and I think the last conversation, sorry, this doesn't apply to you guys really, but with the school board and Dr. Wagner was... the school establishing what they're comfortable, giving us basically a report back, like this is where we're at. They have a great plan for growth, and as long as we stay congruent with them, regardless if it's the housing bank that's going to impact it or if it's another developer that comes in, we have to maintain that model of growth.

So with Dr. Wagner's resignation and the new school superintendent, how should we reach out to them to engage and have that conversation with them so that they can help us put pen to paper so that when we're meeting with the development folks hey, we went through this exercise and we felt like this is something.

Mr. Sheridan, could you set up a meeting with Dr. Wagner and the new superintendent, and then we'll set up a plan, get something planned.

A school liaison committee, too.

I think initially they could probably meet and determine a time and who should be present so that we don't have quorum and all of the things.

Yeah, because the July meeting will be here before we know it. We did have another... Teresa, we had something that we added in planning and zoning too, right?

Following the amendment process, planning and zoning commission has the ability to make a recommendation to council when they send this back for approval. So they did make a recommendation. I don't know if you kept note of it, Aaron, but it was under 116506 on page 9 of the... document under C-5, they made a recommendation to replace the wording that said, in accordance with applicable procedures. They wanted to change that to say, in city council's sole discretion. our legal counsel. I'll copy Mr. Underhill on it, too, and Jamie.

Is that okay?

That's fine, yeah.

See if that, you know, I don't know when it would change much. So, Mr. Barr, I think, you know, our thought is after we get through this process of getting the procedure in place and we're going to have a period of at least two or three months.

I mean, that'd be the earliest we can file, you know, rezoning on PD, right? Oh, yeah.

So there's going to be time in between there to start hashing that out. So maybe when we do come in with the actual rezoning application, we can put that aside and concentrate on other things, and we can have an established... you know, handshake, so to speak, on what those conversion rates will be?

Yeah, I don't mind that approach. I just don't want to, you know, I want to do our due diligence that we're not on different ends of the spectrum, right? Right. If we're here, we can work those things out.

And even on the conversion rate, ultimately city council, we vote yes or no on that.

But any of the details we can work out ahead of time. Yeah. From the perspective of getting the school board involved is my point, so that's great. And then I'm assuming part of these things working behind the scenes through administration is, because I think I heard from you guys, is the, I'll just say, compensation agreement on all of this as well too, right?

Yes, in terms of, yes, there's some of the economics behind it. The other thing would probably be good to hash out ahead of time.

Which this allows us an avenue to be able to have those negotiations and set those terms.

To your point, I think it's probably advantageous for us all to have those discussions informally before dropping an application. So that's where you're going, and I agree.

Yeah, that's where I'm going. Cool. Great. Thank you. So this is first hearing, right?

Yeah, this is just a reading, and we'll vote on it on July 21st. But again, it's not to take any action. It's just to provide a mechanism for us to be able to make the amendments, and it would go to Planning Attorney first at that point. But a lot of conversations will happen between now and then.

And we've got some... Great reading, too. Yeah, a lot. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. And we'll open for public comment also. Does anyone have anything for this? Hearing none, we will move on. We have introduction of legislation. We have none, and so we will move on to other business. Ms. Shook, do you have anything for other business?

Yeah, I have a few things. First, I'd like to know what council's intentions are with the Charter Commission. We have had three applicants. We've had the job posted for 90 days. We've had three applicants now, and I just don't know how long we want to keep this posted and if we're planning on interviewing these applicants.

Definitely want to interview. Whether we interview these applicants or keep it posted longer, I don't know about that. But I definitely do want to interview this time, yeah.

You mean interview these applicants?

Because we didn't interview the last time when we voted. No, we did not.

We only had two when we appointed right in January. It was the first meeting. We appointed the two that were there. Yeah. But I'm throwing it out there. Are we going to go through with this charter commission? Are we going to give every applicant a chance to interview? Or are we just going to call them in? Are we going to keep it posted for 120 more days, 50 days? What is it?

Well, I'm actually, if I can... I actually have a lot of notes on there. I've given this a lot of thought, being new to council like this, and I saw the applicants, the three applicants come through. I'm not going to read my notes here word for word. Our charter review is not due again for two or three years, and that's okay to jump the gun on this. I think with that being said, and again, it's just an opinion of a council person, is I think we can take the time and interview properly. I've interviewed a lot of people in my life, and I've actually had to fire a few people in my life. And I think jumping the gun and just putting somebody in, and I appreciate any citizen that wants to put their time in and volunteer, but this is something that we're going to do to change a charter that's going to maybe affect generations of people in this town, not just because maybe I like this person or somebody else likes this person or they're our neighbor or they're a good friend and I think they would be doing a good job. So I think it's very important that we interview them. get a background of what they do, what they're going to bring to the table, and exactly what this commission is actually going to be doing. I've heard the rumors. I've heard everything out there on the street. Is it just because we don't like appointing a mayor and we want to elect a mayor? Well, if we're not going to change the actual position of mayor in town, where they're actually getting more power than what they do now, it's a lesson in fertility at that point. When you're looking at a charter like we have, where it's a You know, council-run, city manager, city. Now, if we're going to change the whole governing principles of our town at 5,300 or 5,500 people, there's going to be an expectation of our city citizens that if we're going to change whatever we're changing, whether it's the mayor, whether it's the council, whether it's the whole setup, there's going to be expectations there. We have to be willing to say, are these expectations going to be met? For example, if we switch to an elected mayor position, and that's just one of the things I've heard talked about, what is that job of that elected mayor and where does that fit in with somebody like a city manager? Additionally, where does the money come from to pay for a mayor at that point? Because a mayor that's going to be a full-time mayor and have a full-time job like that is not going to work in Johnstown for about $6,000 a year. Somebody can debate that with me, but they're not going to be able to be in Johnstown. So I think the commission is fine to move forward with. I would actually like to see another eight to ten applicants on here so we have a full gamut of people that we can interview based on their backgrounds and what qualifies them to actually rewrite law for this city. And that's what they're doing. They're rewriting the guiding principles. If we go back to the forefathers that started America, most of them were attorneys in their life. They read the law. They understood. Just my two cents, my soapbox, and I'll get off of it now.

No, I think that some of the significance of... Reviewing the charter and knowing that it's the governing piece of document of the city kind of got lost in the wayside. Ultimately, this committee will make recommendations to council, council will vote, and then it would have to be put on a ballot to and then ultimately the entire community would vote to make those changes to the charter.

And one thing that I forgot to mention, I do realize that our charter hasn't been touched since we became a city. So from a technical aspect, there are going to be things in our charter that we have to rewrite through our legal counsel that we're going to have to bring forth that are a necessity from going to a village in the city. But everything else is what I'm talking about. All the surrounding parts of that is what I'm talking about.

Well, and I think the importance of interviewing and making sure that we keep this until we find the right people, because what we're looking for is people to identify our weak spots.

Yes.

And fix those now while we have the opportunity to do that. And as much as possible, complete as possible, to set a firm foundation for the next 10, 15, 20 years. So I personally think it's important that we keep it open and keep continuing to interview until we feel confident in the committee that we find. Not to dismiss what you said, you know, anyone that wants to volunteer, we appreciate that. every hour, minute that anyone gives. It is a thankless job, most of the committees, planning and zoning. But yeah, so I agree.

So we're on agreement that we're not just going to appoint somebody then like we did in January. Yes. Is that correct?

Yeah, I mean, it's been done that way. I mean, we need to do something new here. It's been done that way as, well, this is all we have that showed up, so I guess we hire them. We've been doing it that way.

I don't disagree, but that was what was done in January.

Councils did it before us, and I didn't agree with it in January. I wanted to interview people, but... It's sad that we put these positions out here. We advertise. I think we could do a better job advertising. I don't have an answer for you what that is, but I think we can do a better job of advertising to get positions filled. We have people who, I joke, we have people that come to these meetings and have better attendance than some of the council people, but we need to get... people involved in these committees. We need to get it, you know, we need to get these things. I don't know what it takes to get people interested in this, but we need to do it. We have... We have time, though.

We have a timeline. We can't keep people hanging on.

Right. We have time here.

We have a timeline.

Because as Matt said, we have a couple years. We're early because it's every, what, 10 years? Yes, it is. So it's every 10 years. I was on the last one. That was my first foray into Johnstown politics. So, I mean, whoever gets involved in these things may be around for a while. We need to make sure that it's going to be people who have an interest, know what they're doing, things like that. But we can't do anything this year anyway because we're already into – We're already at the end of June. To put this on a ballot for the public to vote on whatever is presented would have to be in to the county by August. So we're done for this year.

I get that, but I'm asking about the process.

I'm with you.

We're going to keep posting it, and we're going to keep it out there, and people are going to keep applying. And what do we say back to them? Thank you for your application. We're going to review this in six months.

Well, and to my other point, we need to make a decision, too. If nobody is applying, I mean, at the end of the day, we want a citizen-led initiative where citizens are looking at this, making a recommendation to this board. We put it on the ballot after we take a look at it. So we want all that. But if the citizens aren't interested, at what point does this board just take a look at it ourselves and put it out there? Because either way, the citizens are going to vote on it. They've elected us. So, I mean, we're going to have to have that conversation.

We have citizens right now that are willing to serve right now. That's what I'm saying. I'm like, they're willing to serve on this commission. That's all I'm saying is that it's all conflicting here.

I think Nicole doesn't want to have citizens out there that applied to just be hanging in the wind waiting to find out.

Oh, just the people that are sitting on the board right now are hanging in the wind as well.

Yeah, if people are sitting on the board. To Matt's point, what direction does the board that's currently there have in what they're doing in it? What's the direction to the charter review board? What does it mean to rewrite the law? So I think it's kind of both. Probably need a deadline, but at the same time, probably need direction too.

We need some parameters. I agree.

Yeah, and we're shooting for the spring election of next year at this point. So we need to get this group together. It takes several months. What, two or three months? I think last time when I was on it, it was probably two or three months for them to go through it, make a recommendation to us. It'll sit with us for at least one meeting as an introduction. So we have some time on this to get it together.

Is it possible to do a three-person delegation to interview these three candidates so that, to Ms. Shook's point, they can be interviewed by the three-person delegation, it makes it easy, and if they feel that all three, one, two, whatever, then they move forward, too, so that we can move the process forward?

I think that's fair. If everyone else is okay with that. I agree that setting, you know, if you have an applicant, we need to interview them within, say, 30 days of their application or something. We do need to probably set some parameters around that so that... Now, whether we actually, maybe that's not someone that we're going to put in the seat, but at least they'll have their interview and have the conversations take place.

The delegation can at least say, hey, they have some value. And if we don't have the two out of that, then we keep going.

Exactly.

Okay. I've got a couple other things. Sorry. I know that we're doing the manager reports. Are we going to bring back the city manager report? I know we just got famous director. I know we used to have city manager report. I'm just offering if we're going to bring that back as well. In the public meeting? Yeah, we had that. When the previous manager was here, we had city manager report. I am fully supportive of that.

That should be easy. I would like to see that back in the report.

That's my take on that. Everybody else has to present. That's my city manager as well.

Happy to do it.

And I just got some shout-outs. I just want to congratulate the regional track team, or Johnstown track, I'm sorry, for their regionals participation. Cameron Beverick broke a 48-year record on the 800 meters. So that was a pretty big accomplishment there. And then, hold on, I got some things here. So softball. Sorry, they gave me their updates. So softball, JHS Varsity won three OHSAA tournament games to become Central 2 district champions, won an additional game for a total of four wins to become a Division 5 regional finalist. Lost in the regional final against a really tough Liberty Union team, but eventually placed second in the state for Division 5. And then lacrosse, Johnstown lacrosse finished the season with a 10-8 record and won and hosted their very first ever playoff game. Senior goalie Ben Smith and junior midfielder Will Taylor received first-team Ohio lacrosse league awards. Coach Levi Jacob received mid-Ohio lacrosse league coach of the year, and his brother... Isaiah Jacob was Division II Region VII Assistant Coach of the Year. So we have some really good sporting teams here in Johnstown. And I wanted to acknowledge all those. So congratulations to Johnstown High School Athletics. I'm done. Mr. Barr?

Just wanted to take a moment and... welcome Dr. Lewis Kramer, our new superintendent of schools, I think takes July 1, the new position, and publicly thanking Dr. Phil Wagner for his time as superintendent of schools. I believe his last day is June 30 as he moves on to the Ohio State Superintendent of Public Instruction in his next role. So just wanted to Give him best wishes in his new role. Looking forward to having Dr. Kramer.

We are working on coordinating a time for them to be on the agenda. So Dr. Kramer will come in and meet all of council at the same time. Working on that.

Great.

Anything else for you?

The Johnstown 12U Elite Team won tonight their baseball game. There was a certain number 17. It is sixth home run of the season.

Congrats.

We'll acknowledge him and his teammates. Thanks.

That's all. Yeah, that's great.

Nicole and I met with two members of the school board in a township. Matt.

Oh, and Matt.

Sorry, Matt.

I'm trying to bring you in here.

I'm easily forgettable. It's absolutely fine. Most people forget me.

We even sat next to each other.

I know. You tried to hold my hand. It's weird.

And discussed, you know, started that initial meeting. There was a discussion. Township, right? Yes, township. City, township, and school board.

Okay, that's right.

We did discuss keeping, at one point we were talking about rotating, but not a lot of progress really happens with rotating. So if everybody here is okay with it, we keep the three members from council that will go. The two school board members are going to go back and see if they can do the same thing. And then Township Trustee would be the same as well, just to kind of keep that. Actually, Township said he was going to rotate.

They said they were going to rotate.

Well, I'll tell you what, I shouldn't have been the one presenting this because I've gotten it wrong so far.

No, no, I'm just saying he was the only one who said they wanted to rotate.

I think you're doing great, Kyle. Thank you. I appreciate it. But we plan to meet again on July 29th. um but yeah there was some interest in having a kind of a work session on economic development and stuff like that to where anybody that would want to attend could attend um so if council wants to do that or public would like to attend we can add that to one of our agendas similar to what we did before before a council meeting yeah i would love to see that happen i think that would be a great

I mean, a lot of things that we need to... There's a lot of topics that we could cover.

Well, we'll discuss them in this next meeting when a good date for that would be.

We have to make sure we don't break quorum or how we have to set that up to make sure that doesn't happen.

I think if we do it as a workshop, we won't be breaking quorum.

I think it's public. If we just announce it to the public, I think we're good.

That's all I have.

That's all you have? Okay.

Yeah, I've got a couple things here, so bear with me. So again, we talked about it in safety and service, but the project coming up at Leafy Dell and 37, we're going to try to get some information out about that to the public. Definitely important that we get as much information out as we can. So we're going to do that through our staff here. So watch for those and spread that information around when it comes out to the public. Um, we need to try to get everybody on the same page with that. And then even as they change lanes throughout the project, as it evolves and gets done, we need to get that information out the best we can. Um, that's going to affect a lot of things coming up. We have a lot of, um, different events coming up in downtown. So we need to get that information out there. Um, going off of our, uh, manager's report last week, um, LCATS, I was going to ask about LCATS. I guess we had voted to get out of LCATS. Is that our current status is we are out of that?

Yeah, I met with them this morning. They informed me that our decision to move out of LCATS was irrevocable. That we could not go back in, ask for elaborate, elaborate a little bit. And they said, well, they would have to change their bylaws. And at some point they would need the governor's approval to modify. So I was surprised at that.

Right. I'm not sure council understood what they did when they did that. There may have been some temporary insanity going on there. So I don't know that they got that information when they made that decision. And we had a council vote on that. Yes, we have.

To join MORPC. To go to MORPC.

But I'm not sure if we knew that it was going to permanently remove us from LCATS at the time. So we want to take a look at that. The Personnel Board of Review, what is our current status on that? When's the last time they had a meeting?

I'm sorry, on what?

The Personnel Board of Review. When did they have a meeting last?

It's been a while.

Okay. That's...

I don't schedule those, and the board itself doesn't schedule them. That comes from our legal counsel and... What's his name? Mr. Rippenhoff. It's Mr. Rippenhoff.

Yeah, he's the one that asked me about that was a high priority to get the personnel board reconstituted.

Okay. Yeah, we definitely need to take a look at that, talk to the people that are on it. That may be another committee that we have to advertise and get that back going again. That's something with employee issues that have happened. We need to have that.

Is that required under our charter, the personnel review?

It is. Since we became a city, we had to have a citizen personnel board review. It used to be a council committee. But once we became a city, I'm told that... That was why we had to make it all.

Under Ohio Administrative? Under OAC?

Yeah, and it's been four years since I've talked about it, but there was a reason that we had to do that for our attorney. And it had to do with becoming a city.

Teresa, can you send us who is currently on that board and whatever we need to do to move forward?

I think if there's not a need to meet, there's... You don't need it. There's not a regular scheduled meeting. It comes from Dave Riefenhoff.

I assume he has a reason. Yeah, if Dave's saying that we need to check on it, we should check on that and make sure that it's... Did he say what we need to check on?

He just said that was a priority from a personnel standpoint that we have a legally reconstituted personnel board. That's all you want to believe? We have the first audit.

It might be an easy email just to make sure that it's there and they're still interested.

I'll send you who's on it and double check the terms.

And if they haven't met in a long time, gauge their level of interest maybe.

If there's any action we do need to take, let's just make sure that we are on track.

Because that's one of those ones that will have an employee issue all of a sudden, need it and not have it. So we should make sure to check on that. As I heard some of the meeting here today, it seems like we're going to do well with grants this year. It seems like we've tried really hard with grants this year. So do we have a running tally of grants that we can make public? I think that would be something that we should probably advertise as we're able to get money and show that we're hunting down money in addition to our normal tax revenues. We should probably put that out there. keep a running tally and be able to advertise that. So to show that we're working on that. Other than that, the Legion breakfast is this Saturday. Is that this Saturday? Yeah. So they are making money for the Johnstown Big Red Band. So we need to make sure we support that.

And the diner is closed this Saturday to drive everyone to that breakfast.

There you go. So there's no other breakfast in town. Get over there. Get your breakfast at the Legion. That's right. McDonald's breakfast, you don't need it. So other than that, I was glad to see that you guys are talking about the school board and the new superintendent. I was going to put on here to advocate for a school board liaison committee meeting with the superintendent. But if we already have things in the works, we can just proceed with that. Other than that, that's all I have.

Mr. Huggins?

Well, I had one, but I've got two now. Because we were talking about the fireworks. And unfortunately, Jamie, I'm going to put you on the spot. Based on New Albany Company and Johnstown Land Company's great relationship with Johnstown, and I'm asking us not to influence any vote with a yay or nay, is the New Albany Company willing to donate the $10,000 to pay for our fireworks this year? Don't have to answer me. You can go to Mr. Ebbing, but let us know. This is an honest question. We were talking about it. Why not be brave and ask for it? I mean... Just ask. That's all I'm doing. Thank you. My next thing is, I did some homework on this, guys, so just bear with me. I am probably going to read this word for word. I'll give a little background here. From the time I started running for council, whether it's Facebook or InstaSlam or, you know, X, whatever, in meetings here, through emails. I've heard one word over and over and over and over. Can anybody want to guess what that word is? Transparency. So I want to present something tonight. More willing to have a conversation about it after I read what I have here. If somebody makes a motion to want to move forward with it, that's fine with me. I'm going to designate this as what I call the Johnstown Transparency Act. And I'm just going to read to you guys what I have here. I said, one of the most important responsibilities of local government is maintaining the trust of taxpayers we serve. While Johnstown already makes a significant amount of information available to the public, access to financial information can often require residents to search through meeting packets, annual reports, audit documents at various locations on the city's website. I believe we, as a council, have an opportunity to improve transparency and public confidence. by creating a centralized transparency portal on our city of Johnstown website that provides residents with easy access to our financial information and historical records. This proposal is not intended to create additional financial reporting requirements for any of our staff. Rather, it's intended to make information that is already being produced by the city easier for residents to locate, review, and understand. One of the people I thought about was Ms. Treece over here, who is a strong backbone for this city. THAT PROBABLY COULD USE HER TIME A LOT BETTER THAN RESEARCHING THINGS FOR PUBLIC RECORDS THAT WOULD BE AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE PRETTY EASILY. THE PORTAL WOULD SERVE AS A SINGLE LOCATION FOR FINANCIAL INFORMATION, INCLUDING ANNUAL BUDGETS, MONTHLY BUDGET TO ACTUAL REPORTS, REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE SUMMARIES, ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORTS, STATE AUDIT REPORTS, AUDIT MANAGEMENT LETTERS AND COMMUNICATIONS, CORRECTIVE ACTION PLANS WHEN APPLICABLE, AND HISTORIC AND FINANCIAL RECORDS MAINTAINED ONLINE FOR A MINIMUM OF TEN YEARS. The why it matters is pretty easy. Transparency should not depend on public records requests, social media discussions, word of mouth, or individual interpretations of events. Residents should be able to obtain accurate information directly from their local government in a format that is organized, consistent, and easy to access. Providing this information in a centralized location would do these things for us. It would strengthen the public confidence in our city government. It would improve accountability and the transparency. It would provide a single source of factual financial information, reduce confusion and misinformation, and allow residents to better understand long-term financial trends within the city. It would also demonstrate Johnstown's commitment to openness and responsible stewardship of their money. And that's a big one for me as a taxpayer. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT MY MONEY IS DOING AND WHERE IT'S GOING AND MAKE SURE IT'S NOT BEING WASTED. NOW, THE EXAMPLES FROM OTHER COMMUNITIES, AND I HAD TO GO OUT AND FIND OUT WHERE OTHER COMMUNITIES WERE DOING THIS. SO SEVERAL OHIO COMMUNITIES, AND I JUST PICKED THREE, ALREADY PROVIDE THIS LEVEL OF TRANSPARENCY THROUGH THEIR DEDICATED FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY PORTALS. The City of Hudson provides residents with access to current historical budgets, audit reports, monthly financial reports, monthly expense transparency reports, and multi-year financial plans through its finance department website. Hudson maintains years of historical financial information in a centralized location available to the public. Huber Heights also maintains a portal such as this that allows residents to review the budget data, financial reports, so on and so forth. The one I paid closer attention to was the city of Bellbrook, Ohio. It also operates a financial transparency center that provides current historical financial information, downloadable financial records, budget data, and an open checkbook system. I want to be clear what that means. It means every check that this city cuts is available on their website to view. Every single one. So what does that really mean for us? It just really means that this is out there, it's able to be used. The purpose of this proposal is simple. Residents should not have to search multiple sources to understand the condition of their government. Taxpayers deserve a straightforward way to review budgets, financial reports, and audit information directly from the city. The Johnstown Transparency Act would establish a long-term commitment to openness, accessibility, and accountability that remains in place regardless of future administrations or councils. I have already reached out to the city manager of Bellbrook twice and I have not yet to communicate with him. One of the things that I want to ask him about their system is they use a system called cleargov.com. It's based out of Massachusetts. The reason I'm looking at cleargov.com is strictly because no matter how novice you are online or how good you are online, and I have one, I have a printout of it here. It is set up so it is very, very easy to see all the demographics of your city, average incomes for your city, what your houses cost in your city, and then it goes into all the reports for your fund balances and everything else. And you can see the total budgeted for the city here. I don't know anything about this company. I haven't talked to this company, but I think it would be worth for them to come in and lease this. maybe show us what they have. This is software, so it would definitely be a cost. But putting that out there would alleviate a lot of questions that we've had for the past five years in this city about, hey, where's our money getting spent? Where's our money going? This is the part I like, the checkbook register. Pretty simple, pretty straightforward. You click a couple buttons and you're into it. So this is something that I kind of feel passionate about. I think it's an important thing for the city. I think in the world that we live in, there shouldn't be any secrets for our government. We are here, and I'm going to include all of us, we are here to work for the people that are sitting out there. Our accountability is out there, not so much with each other. SO THIS IS SOMETHING THAT I WOULD LOVE FOR THE CITY TO EXPLORE. INITIALLY, I THINK WE'RE PROBABLY LOOKING AT $50,000 TO $100,000 FOR SOFTWARE LIKE THIS TO HOST IT EVERY YEAR, JUST BECAUSE I'M FAMILIAR WITH SOFTWARE OF THIS TYPE FROM MY PROFESSIONAL LIFE. BUT I THINK THE COST BENEFIT IS THERE. I THINK THE BENEFITS FAR OUTWEIGH THE COST. AND I THINK IT WOULD ACTUALLY SAVE OUR CITY EMPLOYEES SOME TIME AS WELL.

Matt, do you think it's something we could strike up the conversation in finance committee?

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's... I mean, I don't think it's... I'll be honest with you. I don't think it's strictly a finance thing, Jeff. I think it's a whole city thing.

You can start somewhere to start exploring, to your point. I think that's what you're really asking, right? Yeah. Where do we start? How do we look into it, et cetera? I'm sure the city manager can make a quick phone call to say, how much does it cost a year? Sure. I'm hoping that it's not 50 to 100 because I also have software that's purchasing for different things. Well, if...

What their website shows me and what I've researched so far, there's different modules you can pick.

I'm open to it.

At least if we can look at it, and I know that we're doing an update on our website, if there are things we can at least pull cheaply, ideas that they have that we could at least do on a budget, I think it's cool.

Like scheduling a presentation or something from them?

Yeah, I mean presentation, we could definitely do a presentation on it. I think it's great.

You know what I think you're looking at? There's a high check. It's run through the state of Ohio. You can write every single check and upload it and they'll have it. I mean, I guess Johnstown had it. Hilliard had it. We would... It would take your revenue, your expenditures, every check you wanted, like you're saying. And it would, I don't even know if it charged us. If it was, it was very minimal. Johnstown had it 19 through 21. So, I mean, it's there.

And it kind of compiles everything. You go through the gov, I mean, what you're talking about is very good.

You can get a smaller version, right, for free or minimal charge. that is uploaded right off the UAN. The UAN is a software that a lot of governments use. It's run by the state of Ohio. So that we can look into the Ohio checkbook, which probably will give you initially what you're looking for for way less cost. And it's with the software that the city's using, it should

Yeah, I think that's a great idea. The more money we can save doing this, I think the big thing that we've got to look at as a group is simplicity of use.

If you want to look at it, there is a link under the finance department on our website. Okay. That'll give you 19 through 21. Okay. That's great. Go in and see how you like it.

I'll definitely take a look. I know we're updating our website. The landing page when we update the... All that too, yeah.

And then can someone, I don't know who this wants to fall on to task, but what we need to do to reinitiate that or reestablish that and the costs involved with that so we can, yeah.

That can be in the, bring this up at the next finance committee meeting. You can follow up on that. Okay. Yeah.

That's all I have.

That was a big one. Thank you for all your work on that. Appreciate it. I know you put a lot of time in on it. Mr. Sheridan, do you have anything?

I do not.

Anyone else? Staff? Anything?

Just a reminder that the next meeting, there's no meetings the first two Tuesdays in July.

Yes, our next meeting is July 21st.

What? That is amazing.

It is the 21st.

Okay, so our next regular council meeting will be July 21st.

Wow.

Happy break.

Aren't you in the dunk tank?

So if anybody wants to dunk... I'm in the dunk tank. We're all in the dunk tank. She asked us when she was up here, and we all agreed to be in the dunk tank.

No, I did not. No, I did not.

Kyle, I'd be more than happy, even though it would really mess up my hair, but I'm going to be on a boat in the Chesapeake Bay. Well, your kids can dunk you. That's going to mess up your hair, too. My kids aren't going to be with me there.

I'm going to have Jack test the water before I say yes to it. That was terrible last time. Yeah, they had ice.

Well, it was cleaner last time. That was two years ago. Two years ago, they got the water out of the pond. And then last year, I made sure it was out of the tap, and then we added ice.

Jamie, did you have something?

That was fun. If you donated a certain amount of money, ice went in.

I don't have an answer for you on the fireworks today. Poor Jamie.

He's like, why did he do this to me?

We are working on a couple initiatives. So in various counties where we're doing work, including Lincoln County, we are setting up a donor advised fund. for Licking County businesses and it's going to be, we're going to make a donation more than $10,000 to this fund this year and the Licking County Foundation is going to be the ones managing the money and managing the applications and we're donating the funds to the Licking County Foundation. BUT WE WILL PROBABLY ASK YOUR HELP LATER THIS SUMMER TO GET THE WORD OUT, BUT WE WANT TO HAVE THE IDEA OF THESE GRANTS ARE SOMETHING MORE SUBSTANTIAL THAT WOULD GO TOWARDS CERTAIN INITIATIVES, AND IT WILL BE OUTLINED IN THE APPLICATION, WHETHER IT'S EDUCATION, SUSTAINABILITY, HEALTH AND WELLNESS, AND CERTAIN THINGS ALONG THOSE LINES. IT COULD BE FOR BUSINESSES OR OTHER INITIATIVES, TOO. ACTUALLY, It's not for businesses. I think it has to go to a 501c3. But we are making a substantial donation to the Licking County Foundation. So that's kind of hot off the press. And those details will be coming out soon. Thank you.

If no one else has anything, anyone want to make a motion to adjourn? I'll make a motion to adjourn.

I'll second.

All in favor?

Aye.