City Council - Regular Meeting

Uh the Rotary Club has asked for a moment of council's time to make a presentation for a new program called the Rotary Club of Kent's Parade of Flags. This will be a new initiative that starts next year and uh we are on board as far as central maintenance goes to assist and help with this program. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Nathia in order to explain what the program is and let you know how we can help.

Thank you both, Dave and Melanie. Um, hi, I'm Nathia Bankraman. I'm part of our Rotary Club, part of the board actually. Um, and we have a lot of our board members here to support this um, this presentation and thank you all for giving us an audience with all of you to seek approval for this program. Um, I'm not sure if a lot of you are familiar with Rotary. Uh, I know of course Dave and and Roger are. Um, but we do a lot of work to um, raise funds to put back into the community. And so this is a program that we've seen a lot of our neighboring cities Rotary clubs do and we thought it would be a great thing to also implement here in Kent. And it's this um, Rotary uh, Kent Rotary Flag Program or Parade of Flags. Um it's called both of those kinds of both of those things. Um and we've met with quite a few of those the other cities um at Rotary Clubs to understand how the program has worked in their cities. What have been um the goods and the the pros and the cons and um we feel like we have a good handle on this and in our conversation um on Monday that we have we have a a lot of good stuff that came out of that question and we'll definitely be working with the city on implementing this program. So, just to kind of give you a brief um overview of the program, it's what we're looking to do is it's a subscription model for our citizens. And what um what they would do is they would annuallyly give a donation um and then what Rotary would do was help facilitate um with volunteers um to place a flag, an American flag um in the um the Devil strip or I think you guys the treeine um property or depending on how the housing where the h how the house is positioned pretty much near the curb um about like maybe we were talking about exactly what it would be maybe 3 ft 4 feet. Um, but what we would do is make sure that it would look very nicely

across the tree line. If you can kind of see this first picture right here on the first page, um, you can see a picture of this is actually Twinsburg when they do this program and how the trees are aligned. So, it it looks really beautiful when they're up and um when they're up and a whole neighborhood can do it. So, that that is what we're envisioning for this. And so, we're planning to do this for five different holidays. Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Veterans. And what we would be doing is placing um and I'll kind of go through the execution, but we're placing a tube in in the uh in the uh bevel strip to which would hold a flag, and then we would put a 10-ft pole flag uh a 10-ft pole flag um in that hole during those um holidays. and the the what we would do is enlist the help of certain student organizations and clubs to help us put the flags out a couple days before the holiday and remove it two days after the holiday. So, it just be there for a short period of time during those five holidays. And so, um I think this goes over the list of um you know, there's a lot of community benefits with this. It enhances community aesthetics and pride, fosters patriotism, um supports local projects, and promotes collaboration. So, um I kind of wrote a little bit more, but all of you have that. I'm going to go through this quickly because I feel like you're all very familiar with this program to begin with. So, um the execution rotary club would be the ones in charge of installing the sleeve bases that I just told you about, which would be these PVC pipings, um that would go into the ground. We would be in charge of that. And during when it's not in use, we would put a a plug over top of it. It would be flush to the ground so um no one would have no one would see that. No. So no one would have any issues when doing their lawn care. So that's what it would look like. And then

um for the implementation of the flags um we what we do is then involve as I mentioned local community groups such as high school teen boosters, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts um to help um put the flags up, face them and pick them up and from that they would actually get some of the proceeds as well for their teams um and clubs. So it's also a fundraiser for them as well. So, we'd be helping out those things and getting the school community as well involved with doing service within our community. Um, and then for us, the Rotary Club would be in charge of the flag and um staff maintain it, store it, take care good care of it. All of that will be done by our club. So, um yeah, and part of that would be the yeah, care, storage, delivery, and pickup. So, we'll make sure of all of that. And then for us, we'll also be um monitoring the subscript subscriptions. So, we would do a website as well as actually doing mailers out to people um to have them subscribe to the program. So, that's basically uh an overview of that. Um and just wanted to see if you guys had any questions.

Any questions from council at this point? Yes, I did.

Yeah. Um, this does look very nice, this picture, but I don't know a lot of neighborhoods in Kent that have that be beautiful tree lawn. Um, that looks like that. So, um, and also, and maybe this is for Melanie, I'm just wondering, we tell residents not to put signs in the tree lines on a pretty regular basis. I tell people that. Um that would certainly be a part of the education of this as we were helping them establish the program for sure because all signage has to go through community development. The the pole that they're recommending that they're going to use is a 3/4 inch PVC. So the pole itself is going to be pretty small. So an ability to place a sign or something else on it would be difficult. And again they're going to drop it off and pick it up. So there wouldn't be any remnants left behind that would give them that opportunity to hang something else from it. I'm just wondering my question would be so for the people in the neighborhood who suddenly see these flags appear um is would there be any signage saying something about Rotary? This is a this is a program of Rotary. I mean because it's hard to educate the public honestly and and and making that one exception to the tree lawn. We would want to be clear that this is something sanctioned by the city, you know, and not like, okay, now it's a free-for-all,

right? So, what I would say is it's our responsibility to make sure that we educate and promote it. The more we educate and promote it, so for us, it should benefit us because maybe more people would like to get involved. So, our plan was to do some flyers um and just notify other um organizations as well and then um have a website and um possibly do some um what I I'll get into some bulletins as well around the the community to educate

on behalf of the city too. I could include it as a part of a tree city in the spring so that I could put that under the service side with names and numbers to contact. We will also have close contact with them on that as well because we anticipate probably 80% of the phone calls will be coming to us and we'll have to redirect them. So we'll hope to educate our staff as well so that we know what the right answers are and to whom they have to get in touch with. So So okay, it's it would be published in the Tree City Bulletin which is one of the very few things that everybody sees. Yeah. So um also like I was thinking about like a a neighborhood like South Water Street where the tree lines are like this big. Would that then go into the private property owners yards? And so the visibility issue,

this the size of the flag is 3 feet by 5T and it's more of a banner than a flag. So it's not going to wave in the traditional way that it's going to be pretty set and stiff. So that's why we have to be careful. We've already um agreed that we would meet out with them once they have their subscribers so that we can begin to set those back. You don't want to put it 2 feet behind the curb and allow it to hang 3 feet into the road. So we've got to make sure that we've got that clearance. If it's a small area of that nature, then yes, it would have to sit on the back side of the sidewalk and be in the private property then. Okay. So, the city would be involved with det making those determinations. We would assist them with the correct location. Yes. Okay.

For now. Yeah. Chris. Yeah. Thank you. Can you share a little bit about you said you were going to plan to involve uh student groups in the picking up and the and the moving. Can you share more or do you have groups lined up? We don't have groups lined up yet because we were seeking for approval before we we um kind of publicize that we are wanting to um get um we've talked to a few groups al about the possibility of doing such service projects with us. Um but yes, we haven't we don't know exactly who yet wanted to get the approval before.

Okay. Um related question is packet mentions picking up or placing the flags being as a fundraiser is part of the $55 then just directed to those groups. It is exactly this is a nice way to get community funds out to local Exactly. That's exactly right. So last question is, have you given any thought to this being available to businesses or I mean the par parade routes and things like that?

Yeah, great question. Definitely we wanted to include uh we want to include businesses. We did have some conversations about that because it may be difficult especially for the downtown area. So we do need to put a little bit more thought into that of what that would look like. Um but the idea is that we would branch into uh branch this um to include um businesses as well. Thank you. Other questions? Oh yes.

Can I just can I just add I mean those questions your comments both of you were were exactly what we had in our meeting and you know they walked in they were all smiles and then their eyes got bigger as we asked more and more questions. But I I feel like they've been very thoughtful about it. Um we reassured them that like look we we roll out new programs before and we can plan all we want until it gets out there. We're going to learn a lot when you get out there and all those kind of nuances that you're talking about. We said the same thing. Well, some of these neighborhoods like was this one Twinsburg or where was some of the other uh Worcester was another one? Um and then Wodsworth

and so it's like a lot bigger like tree lawn areas and we said Kent's different. It's older. it's this and but at the end of the day we were like we'll work with you. We'll just have one of our people um kind of join you out there, walk the areas if you get a subscriber that you're scratching your head about and can't figure out how to make it work. Um so I you know we at the end of the day were like it's a it's a worthy cause, a worthy program. It's a proven program. We're willing to staff support it. I do think it's maybe worth kind of doing it on a for a first year basis. Give it a try. You know, you do that. Council does that sometimes. One of the things that I wonder is and once you start allocating the rightway, there could be a line of people that want to have allocations in the right away. We love Rotary, but do we love others? And and then how do you start? Well, we got to choose between Rotary and Lions. I don't know. What do we do? We'll have an arm wrestling match. You know, like um those are legitimate things that we may have to cross those at some point. But I also am a believer that you don't tr not try things because you're forecasting all the things that could go wrong. Let's go out. Let's put it out there.

These are people in the community. They're not going anywhere. They're going to work with us. We're not going anywhere. So I um from the staff perspective, we're willing to kind of give it a give it a try. And um but we would like your authorization of that. And even if it is for like a one you come back in a year and report on how it went and and you know if we decide at that point that we've got 30 other organizations lined up we might have to figure out well we'll do a lottery this year it's Lions next year it's Kowanas then it's whoever. I don't think that'll happen but we got to think that way because we're a city. So thank you. Other questions from council. I

Yeah, I guess I'm a little bit more concerned about just the the people in the neighborhoods wanting to well, they see this, they want to do that. Um, [clears throat] and also, you know, we I live in a mixed student neighborhood where there's marauding students, [laughter] so, you know, there may be some vandalism. Um, I guess my one of my questions is, has you considered doing this on different days maybe for with Kent flags? Great question. So, we also talked about that too. Our club has been wanting to tie in something with Kent as well and especially with the new flag, we thought that that would be something we could also kind of put into this as well. So, we definitely have thought of that too and would love to do such such a thing.

Yeah, I would feel like I would want to subscribe to even though I have one flying in front of my house, but that would be fun. Arbor Day maybe. Yeah. Other questions from council? Seeing no questions from council, is there anyone in the audience who'd like to speak to this issue? Seeing no one wanting to speak to this issue, is there anyone who'd like to make a motion? Yes. Uh, I'd like to move to approve. Uh, I think this is a really interesting idea and I like really interesting ideas, so I hope it's really successful and it raises a lot of money. So, I'm curious to see where it goes. So, thank you for bringing this to us. I'll second.

Any further comments? All those in favor signify by saying I. Those opposed, same sign. There you go, Mr. Amar. One more. Yeah.

Thank you guys. Uh, we have also a proposed revision to ordinance 90103. And Mr. Bowling is Oh, that's not Mr. Bowling. little short to [laughter] no. Uh Jim had a great uh evening planned for him tonight. And so I told him, "Absolutely, you must go." I'm a little jealous. He's over at the Kent Theater listening to the Irish Tenders, I believe, for Christmas. So I'm like, I just should have taken that spot. Anyways, this one's quick and easy. We're in the process right now of updating all of our um [clears throat] standards and uh construction drawings, and part of that was a culvert pipe. And when we went through the codes, we noticed that we had some conflicting information in there. So, we are before council tonight to ask for section 901.03 repair and replacement standards be amended so that it will no longer read that it can be replaced in type and kind of materials, but in accordance with the standards and specifications of the deputy service director and superintendent of engineering as that is the standards that we'll be continuing to use. So, you'll see me here in the next couple months or Jim in the next couple months as we continue to update our standards and specifications and this is the first one. So, we're looking for support of this and we would ask uh your consideration and request that you approve this with the emergency clause.

Okay. Any questions from council? Yes. So, does that mean you're going to get away from steel pipes maybe? Yes, sir. Okay. I figured you call Okay. Other questions from council? Seeing none, anyone in the audience wish to speak to this? Seeing none, back to councel. Move to approve. Second. Any other comments? Mike. No. The emergency. Yes. With the emergency. With the emergency. Yes. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Thank you very much.

Okay. We're going to go back to the agenda here and we're going to go to the committee of the whole and city department staff updates. Mr. Cecil, I don't want to say we only have one. That makes it sound like he's not worthy, but he is. Nick's here tonight. He had uh at your table you will see it doesn't have a front cover. Um he's trying to compete with Rhonda and her budget. you know, but uh in case you wonder if we're prepared for cyber security, the answer is yes, but there's always more to do. And that's Nick's been working on that and the state's pushing that. So, he's just here to give you a quick update on that.

Yeah. Thanks, Dave. So, as Dave said, uh the new Ohio Revised Code, they released uh House Bill 96. It actually mandates that we had a lot of these policies in more slimmed down forms. And what you'll see in the very back is our end user policy. this is what we already had in existence and it had much slimmer versions of these but now that they're required um by this new house bill it was a response to a lot of the local municipalities and the the data compromises in the last two years I believe there were 16 smaller municipalities in Ohio alone that had data breaches or compromises of another nature that were that were reported that we're aware of um so that being said the state responded and said you guys need to take this stuff more seriously and this is a more you need to be more active in this and so the policies you have before you are the six required categories that the state required and these are the policies that we've developed to meet those requirements. So

you guys have questions or want to look through those. Anybody have any questions for Nick? They're really exciting. Hope can attest to it too. They're they're [laughter] quite exciting and engaging. I did um take a look at the um that House bill and compared it to what Nick gave me um because he worked with the consultant. I will tell you this is one of the most impressive um policies I've ever seen and they touched on everything that the law required. So it's we're covered. Yeah. I'll tell you he seems like a nice guy but when it comes to cyber security he's not so nice. He is uh he draws a really hard line.

I don't never want to be the person standing in front of you saying we've had to activate one of these procedures. So yes, we take them very seriously. Appreciate it. Roger. Yeah, Nick. Uh first of all, impressive. Thank you. Um from your perspective though, you know, these this is a document

from the actual um infrastructure and the things that we've already done. Where would you place us in terms of security? Well, as I always try to tell the staff, unfortunately, statistically, it is not a matter of if you will be compromised. It is a it is a matter of when. Statistically, however, that being said, I do believe that we rate higher than I mean, again, I always tell her this and I think she thinks I'm making, you know, blowing smoke, but Rhonda actually working with our finance director, she has also been very cyber security conscious and has done a nice job, you know, funding us and supporting these security initiatives. So as a city based on the support of the department head has like I said especially financially I do place us well above a lot of our neighboring or sister cities I think we have done an excellent job internally again security is not always a popular thing I know that you know Duo is not everyone's favorite friend however [laughter] however it is a hugely important component of our security posture and again I I appreciate everyone's adopting of it and patience with us as we add some of these layers of security.

Thank you. Thank you. Any further questions from councel? Melissa. So this is all policy which is great and very instructive and something I know almost nothing about. What what when we look at the budget for which Rhonda put together for us, is there money covering kind of the upgrades that might be necessary to meet these? So realistic are we already in good shape? Realistically, through our own efforts internally, we are already meeting or exceeding what the policy requires. Thank you. Yes. Further, Nick, did you want these booklets back?

Yes, please. Because this will actually have to come to be adopted and approved in January. So, these were just for you guys to look at. Yeah. Thanks, Nick. Um first some of this um looking at the very back some of this the social media policy feel like council should should get updated on um I'm often speaking um from a place of you know as a councilman and it's good to review some of these these these bullets um what about AI any is there is there a is there a city AI policy in terms of employees using

so that was not that wasn't required by the state bill but yes so when the city when we engaged with this firm to develop policies the six core policies that were initially started were the six core policies to meet the state requirement however there are four additional policies that we are currently working through one of which is the AI cool component yes I hope you'll come back and share that with us absolutely sure yeah one last question uh we haven't we haven't had a breach but have we recognized attempt Have there been any any kind of attempts that that somehow register with

this isn't an attempt. This is no attempt by any means to scare you or anything every day. Yes, there are logs constantly against the firewall attempting to remotely access the VPN system. There are logs against our email accounts every single that's why Duo is where it is. I mean that's why those things exist. Yes, our we also contract with a cyber security firm. They are our MSSP, our managed security services provider. And they watch 247 and monitor those logs and events and perform analytics against them. And then they either address them in real time or based on what the event is, it gets forwarded to myself and my team through our ticketing system. And then we address it internally or perform remedial training or whatever it may be. But yes, consistently.

Yeah. I think it's it it sounds to un you know educated somewhat boring but I think the people in the community need to know how the expertise that we have in this uh situation really is protecting our whole community. Yes. So we take the data within the system very seriously. Like I said it's not always convenient or everyone's best. You know they don't always love it. But at the end of the day my job is to be the defense of people's protected information and that's you know that's what we're here to do.

Very good. Thank you. My workplace has extensive training that everybody has to participate in. It's just different scenarios and you know so that you can recognize when something may be a fake like you know we did have Jerry Biala sending us notifications to hurry up and to get gift cards. Right. But you know that kind of thing that was pretty blatantly um odd but you know there are things that you know everybody fails on. Are you thinking of doing a staff training program

is required the the very the second to last so the very last section is the existing but the second to last is actually the security awareness training policy and yes that will be coming.

Yeah because that's it already exists in a much smaller form. Um, one of the required things and again that we worked on this through Rhonda is there's the fraud, waste and abuse training that is required and so that has components of it but we hope to bolster that with an additional training component that's actually part of our that was part of the reason we went to the Office 365 suite. It actually has a built-in set of tools that you can send out. And because it is the email platform, it can it has a lot of pieces built into itself to prevent those things from coming through. But because it's both the email platform, it can send those fake emails and they look more real because it is our email platform. And so it's a little bit more in-depth of training. Yes. And so if you click on something or if you forward it, it knows that and then it signs [clears throat] you up for training and it says, "All right, well, off you go."

And then you and then per the policy, you have a certain amount of time to complete said training or, you know, then we have to move on to the next. I have to go talk to your manager or whoever. But yes. Yeah. My company's very adamant that we are all responsible. Not just the IT people. Correct. At the end of the day, we are all responsible for the data within our system. That is absolutely correct. Further questions? Anyone from the audience? I think we don't need any action, but thank you very much, Nick.

Yeah. So, and then the next thing with some of this is we acknowledge that the laptops that you guys were given were not quite uh functional for the position. So the question is we we would like to see more engagement and adoption through those. A lot of your communications do constitute public record and so we would like to see those things routing through the things that we back up and maintain for public record. So that being said, we acknowledge that the laptops based on the fact that you aren't within our network consistently was not the right solution. The proposal and what we're looking for your feedback on is we'd like to do iPads in the next round of replacements. Would that do you feel that that would be more conducive to you using them and would they be wellreceived? I guess that's for you guys. Okay. Yeah.

Would that be something that be easier to Well, I mean, I do need your old one back. [laughter] I guess I would consume that. Very good. Sounds like it. Okay. Okay. Thanks. Thanks, Nick. I'm going to turn it over to um community development. All righty. So we have Bridget coming up here uh to discuss proposed updates to the sustainability commission ordinance. Thank you Bridget.

Yes, thank you. So since 1995 there have been three ordinances on the books for the sustainability commission and unlike other boards there's a lot of specificity in these which means that they become um outdated or conflictual if there's changes or transitions in the goal or objective of a board. So typically the ordinance themselves is a little more generic. Hope can speak to that because she usually writes those but the specificity is enclo encapsulated in the bylaws and the rules of procedure. Typically those also reflect Robert's rules. So these do one of the most important things with the sustainability commission is that now we do have a climate action plan. So um and we do have a full-time sustainability coordinator. So, um I know that the members, the chair and a member of the sustainability commission had been working with Julie on the BI by bylaws. Uh one of the things we want to move to the forefront is transitioning to activities that promote our climate action plan. We want to allow for that input in advisory, education, and outreach, but still of course connecting to the sustainability commission. One of the other issues we've had is that there's a lot of tableabling and a lot of events associated with this. And Julie, because we had evening meetings plus her time tableing, we went through overtime across all boards and commissions in our department um earlier than we should have. So, we wanted to be more strategic with how we organize those board the board. So there's quarterly meetings, but I there was a question that came up with the um Monday night when the draft was shown to them. So I did put in there, you have a new version from what was in the packet in blue um that work sessions and uh special meetings can be can be convened at any time. That is standard Robert's rules and procedure. It's the same that could be happen with council or any other board of commission. But because

those questions came up, I actually built that into the uh the uh rules and procedures and bylaws so that it was there so the members could see that we would really like to see more ad hoc meetings focused on targeted areas in our climate action plan. We need to develop programming, outreach and education initiatives that we can present um to have standard meetings with the same things on the agenda and not getting out there. Um, as uh as Judy mentioned in her interview, she really likes to focus on stationary energy. We would love an education and outreach program that Julie can be working on and we can have our volunteers on that sustainability commission going out and talk, but that takes time and usually that work is best done in small ad hoc groups. So, that's what we're hoping this transition allows for. Another thing by making it in the bylaws and in the rules of procedure is then if there is a shift, if they decide they want to add another, you know, we have three components that have been targeted um in this, but maybe they want to add a fourth or change it, it can be done through a vote of the board versus an action of council. Of course, council's always kept apprised of this because our sustainability coordinator, Julie, gives you monthly updates and quarterly updates. Um so you would be made aware of that but it would just allow for easier pivots when we issues come up and it also would reflect more the approach that is used with all the boards and commissions of which nine are in this department.

Any questions from council?

Okay. Uh anyone from the audience? So when you come up to the microphone, please just say your name and your address for us just for the record. Thanks. Judy Nelson, 330 Wetstone. Um so as Bridget indicated, we had discussion at our meeting on Monday concerned about this change and so we voted that um I as chair would come before you and issue a comment statement. Um so I'm here to do that. And so um though we understand and appreciate the budgetary restrictions of the city, we the volunteer community members of the commission are concerned by the reduction in the number of meetings to be held dearly starting in 2026. We feel the work of this committee is important and the progress made towards a more sustainable future is a benefit to all res Kent residents. Reducing the meetings from 12 yearly to only four will limit our ability to provide input and do the work outlined by these new bylaws and rules of procedure. Um, as Bridget indicated, she did add that additional section. That section has not been discussed within the commission me with the commission members. So, I cannot say whether or not they feel that um sufficiently covers their concerns. Um, so on a personal note, I hope that you all had a chance to read the Sustainable Kent e newswsletter that was in your packet. Um, it's a special edition and it covered the October sustainability month that the mayor proclaimed. Um, we feel that we are pleased with the um response from the community. Um, we'd certainly love to grow that particular program event for the future years ahead. But thank you. Appreciate it.

Any other comments from the audience? Back to council. Yes, Heidi. Um, I would kind of like to have more time on this to consider, you know, to talk to people other people in the commission and um there there are a lot of changes that I do have some concern with and I just and I'd like to talk to Bridget further too actually and also our sustainability um coordinator. Um, I I know there's two weeks between this meeting and the next, but um I I just feel like I can't really vote on this yet. I'm concerned about the co the cohesiveness of the group if it only meets once every quarter and only two people from the commission can be on an ad hoc committee. If the meetings were held didn't run as long as they did and Julie wasn't also responsible for tableabling all the events, we wouldn't be running through the overtime. That's part of the issue. So, with the meetings, they could meet monthly if we could move some of those meetings during regular hours. All of our advisory boards do not meet

monthly. The only ones that meet monthly are Quai Judicial, which is the BCA and the Planning Commission. and even those only convene if there's a case. Advisory commissions do much of their work through uh ad hoc and uh meetings that are held during time. So these meetings run any typically more than two hours every month and when I get called and notified that we're running and remember I have nine boards and commissions. Correct. So I have to manage the budget for the overtime and compensatory hours across the entire team. Would would the city participate in all the ad hoc commit meetings?

Uh we usually have the sustainability coordinator participate in that. Yes, because we have a coordinator now. We're trying to move things from talking in a room to project implementation and program design so we can start getting things out to the community. But she is part of all the meetings typically. There are some that she's not, but she's been engaged because we now full have a full-time staff person and we're trying to get things moving forward. So, they can meet monthly. It's the they they run two hours once a month, 12 months out of the year, plus there's tableabling events and Julie does much of the does a lot of the tableling. The volunteers do some of the tableabling, but um Julie has done those that other members can't. So, that that that time is just really adding up. I also have another question about the membership. I find it intriguing that one of the appointed citizens can be a current member of city Kent city.

That was actually run by the sustainability commission. Actually, everything that's in here other than the Robert's rules came out of the sustainability commission uh small group and that was Tracy and Judy. So, they could answer those questions for you. But that was a request from them. So, if one of them wants to speak to that. Yeah. I I just want to say I do I do like that very much in the sense that I thought there should be a liaison. Um but that would take away one of the five citizen members. So that would that would be my concern from the board. So that would is that a question that you want someone Yeah. Yeah. that would necessarily take away from

is there someone from the board question the administration really only did the Robert's rules and uh the most much of the work was done with the ad hoc group which are they're here so Tracy

okay so our thinking was if you if you look at the original ordinance it was very across the board at all departments involved in the city that the sustainability commission would be interacting with. And so when we looked at how could we transition from that ordinance to a current day, the idea of having a council member serve on that on the on the commission with us gives us that opportunity to um engage the the larger um city aspects. Also when I looked at what other cities were doing for me personally um many of them the sustainability work that was being done was being guided by the mayor by very much very very the officials were involved in that process and so I thought well how can we integrate some of that into this and and make it work for the city.

Are there any follow-up questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate you responding. So to clarify, Tracy Wallock would serve on the sustainability committee while acting as a city council member. I would assume Hoken speaks this that council would appoint

when they do the boards and Yeah. Got it. But that did come out of commission the administration to clarify. Um, Heidi, we did the Roberts rules of order, the the logistics of it, but the three components that came out of the ad hoc bylaws committee that was comprised of Tracy, Judy, and Julie and um the four meetings was also something, but I will tell you that was brought up by me because of the issue that was brought up during our budgetary discussions that the amount of overtime and compensatory time was getting um high. So, but and everything else is just Robert's rules of order. If you look at it, they're just the standard Robertson rules of order from virtually every board and commission that we we use. Very routine. None none of it is specific to sustainability other than the three components and that is actually you know and that was all structured that and the council person that was structured by the the ad hoc committee themselves. Is there any further questions or discussion from councel? Would anyone like to make a motion?

I'll move to approve with uh emergency clause. Please second. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I mean I'm staying right now. Thank you.

Thank you. It's that time of year um for the budget and I think I say this every year so forgive me for repeating myself but it really feels this way. It's kind of anticlimactic because so much work goes into this, you know, it's literally they start almost as soon as they finish this one. Uh and uh or we start we all start and there's multi- layers of this and you know it starts literally at the ground level and then it works its way up through the department supervision and into the leadership team and and at the end of the day Rhonda he makes the final call with in consultation obviously with with each of the department heads. I mean she's this is not a unilateral budget. We it's very much a collaborative budget and um I just want to say a few words in that it is largely a status quo budget. I mean there's changes to it and the numbers change but most of those changes are fairly small. This does not solve this budget does not address the big staffing gap issues that we presented. That's a conversation that we started this year knowing full well that this is going to carry into 26. Um, so we'll keep having that conversation, but don't this budget doesn't figure that out and it doesn't fix it. So, um, it does it kind of tweaks at the edges. Uh, much of the increases unfortunately are just the costs of things going up, energy, uh, supplies, materials, labor. Um, you know, our health care plan still does pretty well, but things go up.

Yeah,

Suzanne does a great job. I know she whispered in my ear that I think we might save some money with our new prescription plan that I negotiated. So, so, uh, she's always working on trying to contain those costs. I I know we've talked about the health care and and, uh, you Melissa has some experience in this and she's like, "Wow, you actually been successful with a self-funded plan because [clears throat] that's not often easy our size." And that's true because a pool just as Suzanne always says it just takes a couple cases of really expensive um you know health care needs in in a year that can really throw it out of whack. But knock on wood it's been working for us and so we'll take it. We'll keep working it. Um and and um so you know but those are kind of routine you'll see the routine increases in there. Um there we are ending the year uh this year as far as like our big our big revenue source which is income tax. I was dismayed when Rhonda she started the year so much better than way she's ending the year because we were we were ahead once again for like third or fourth year in a row. Um but by the end of the year looks like we may be just about even where we were last year. Now keep in mind that was three successive years of growth. So, I ain't complaining about that situ situation. I just prefer to always see the trend going, you know, up. Um, but so, like we've said all every year, we budget conservatively. We we assume kind of low-end revenues and high-end costs so that in the course of the year, things work themselves out hopefully favorably to us. And uh again, knock on wood and some did good due diligence across all the departments. It's worked out. And u you know the labor issues, it's why we had these conversations to you back in the summer leading into we need three new fire, three new police, three new service. And

you you heard it echoed again with Bridget on a smaller scale. Overtime is is an issue for us. We are a really relatively small staff overall and um we still but our service levels aren't really any smaller than the other cities. They're comparable and sometimes better. You know, we heard our IT situation were better and we're proud of that and we don't want to lose that. But it it there gets to be points where um I don't know if you call them breaking points, but Bridget kind of drew a line in the sand, right, on that issue, like I can't keep doing this to my staff or I'm going to lose good people. That's kind of a consistent refrain that's underlying this entire budget, which is why we've kind of got your attention on this issue heading into next year. Um so I'm just saying it again, not to beat a dead horse, but I don't want anyone to be surprised when we're, you know, looking at the kind of needs that we've presented. And I don't know yet how we're going to fund it, but um like everything we do, it'll be multifaceted probably uh strategic and um as thoughtful as we can be and as sensitive to the ability to pay in the community with the level of services that people desire and it's always that tension, right? Try to find that equilibrium point. Um so I don't know, Ronda, there's a you can cover your basics. Um I just want to offer that context heading into it and uh it's your your floor.

Okay. So like Dave said uh like the capital plan the budget book is a culmination and collaboration between the departments their their staff um the city manager and the budget and finance department. Um, we can start. If you look in the budget overview, page 1-1, you'll notice that the income tax revenue, we did increase it from last year to 21, million150, which is about a $400,000 increase from last year or 1.93%. But as Dave also said, our income taxes for 2025, it's at 31% increase from last year. So, we didn't want to increase to this year too much. Um, and then the other thing to give you an idea of why our taxes are going down, Kent State is normally, I guess in the past, before I was here, they were probably about 40% of our income tax revenue. Last year, they were 28.89%. In 2025 through November, they're at 27.14%. So, they are going down quite a bit. Um and that's just comparative compared to our totals. Uh the other thing you'll notice in the revenue section is interest income. Um you'll see that interest income has been pretty good in the past few years. Interest rates were rising. We took advantage. Uh we still have budgeted for next year 1.3 million. It's not as much as 2025, but interest rates are going to be coming down in 2026. And we are trying to make a a concerted effort to um invest our money three, four, five years out. We're max we can go five years out. Um but we're trying to get as high as percentages as we can. So we're trying to be diligent in doing our dilig due diligence for revenue.

the other um most of the other revenue is comparable for 2025 except you'll notice that the grant revenue did go down because of obviously the East Main Street project is budgeted in 2025. So you won't see that in 2024 but you will see that there's 9.6 6 million of loans and that's going to be for the influence uh headworks building that's projected for 2026. On 1-5, this is a page of our estimated expenditures. Um under the totals for 2026, you'll notice that the capital projects has decreased from 2025, decreased about $8.6 million. The majority of that is due to the east main street project obviously that was in 2025 also. Um and then it does include the headworks building like I just said. Um most of the other items that are going up is because of like Dave said rising cost of labor, insurance, energy, material supplies, everything. the um the um yeah [laughter] the inflation rate for 2025 through September was 3.01% and so you see that our um personnel is going up 4.4% which is slightly higher but that's also due to our union contracts and due to some additional uh personnel that we've added. And then on 1-7, this is this basically the same information. It's just detailed out into um the categories that we have to include in our financial statements. You will notice that the total expenditures exceed the total estimated revenues. This is due to timing differences of projects that are being performed. And then it's an intentional

spendown of some of our capital project dollars as well as the you know the enterprise fund dollars as well which are like the water sewer um storm water funds. Other than that I think everybody everything else is pretty pretty much the same as you know from last year to this year. Yeah, we talked about there's, you know, there are some new program areas, but where those are, we're shifting money from within, so we're not adding to things. For example, the neighborhood grants program. Uh, I think we Bridget mentioned it might have been last month that we're going to take some of those funds and you create a new homeowner u down payment assistance.

Down payment assistance. So, that's new, but it's really just a reallocation of some funds. And there is a few other areas like that where we're trying to shift as priority priority shift. Um [clears throat] yeah, right. And I guess we'll talk about the personnel. There's really uh no new personnel funded, right? Like there's no new personnel. There's some shifts that we have included um that are will be discussed in executive session later under the the personnel. Um but none of the new department that they've come to you and discussed their needs. None of that is in here.

Are there questions from council? I don't know how you Yeah, I I was trying to find it when my book fell apart. Um [clears throat] I was really interested in the undesated fund or you know sometimes we refer to it as our rainy day but it's pretty significant.

It is you're talking um at the back of the book. Yeah, back. Um, but that is like there's some things that we don't really budget for. Like we're not budgeting for um well, things that we don't know might come up. Um, you know, there might be opportunities that we want to take advantage of or is that is that something that we sometimes might looking at 10-8? managers there. Yeah. Um it's a little bit larger than that.

I mean, I think if if we're hearing your question right, yes, that's what during the course of the year, things come up that we don't necessarily anticipate or things, you know, come before council and someone asks for let's give some money to Ken social services for family community services, some extra money there. And that that was a small allocation, but yeah, that's the kind of stuff that we would dip into the undesated fund balance. And um you're right, it is at a record high, which is great. Now, it's not recurring money, so it is a savings account. Can't use it to pay people because they're going to go away. It'll it'll drain each year and it'll be gone. But we can use it for Yeah. for other things, for contracts, for updating the housing study or, you know, there are different things that we use that for. And and and in this year, it's a it's a nice buffer where we intentionally sometimes have reasons where we're going to overspend due to timing or just priorities. And that's where that comes out of. We have you adopted a fiscal policy um a certain percentage has to be kept in reserve and I think you're you're well above that. I don't know what the exact percentage is but um you're probably 30% above that. I don't know if Rhonda has a better handle on that. It looks like on page four, Roman numeral 4, that it's almost $18 million, which is double that from 2010, which is pretty impressive that we've managed to set aside that level of funding. Not that I want to spend it all, [laughter]

right? But it goes past. Remember when I when I arrived here, we were in a structural deficit every year. Yep. We spent more not in intentionally because we had extra, but because we had no choice just to keep the doors and lights on, we were a structural deficit. So to now be on the other end of that sure is nice. I wish it was a recurring I wish I could keep using that money multiple times over. But absolutely and it's allowed us to do things and to be more aggressive in areas in terms of investing city money on strategic priorities. Yes. I mean Chris was talking about some stuff with me before the meeting and you know it maybe we want to hire somebody like a contractor.

So you can we use a lot more contract support than we ever have because that's money I could do that for. If I if I run out I just cut them loose. So that's why you've seen more, maybe you haven't noticed, but we've used more consultants in in different ways and that's where that helps too. So yeah, it affords you us a level of flexibility that we've never really enjoyed and so it's it's nice,

right? But we wouldn't want to put it we wouldn't want to take that from that for our operations and maintenance. We would want to, you know, reserve that for some special opportunity, one-time kind of thing. opportunities. Opportunities. Yes. [snorts]

This might also be for Suzanne, but I I'd like to have a little bit of an understanding of how we are approaching like going back out to bid for health insurance, making sure that we are consistent and you know, it is going to be a continuing escalation across the country of healthcare costs escalating. So just maybe a little bit of an explanation of how we approach that long term since we are self-funded. And for anybody who doesn't know the difference, it is a a mechanism where we're actually paying healthcare claims as opposed to paying premiums to a health insurance company. It's a little more risk, but it's also a little more reward. And kudos to the to the city for coming up with this. um not many cities, not many organizations our size take that risk, but hopefully it's paid off. So, just a little understanding of how frequently we're going out to bid for who's administering our plan and who and how we get stop loss, too. So, we actually have a broker that handles it for us, okay?

And they do it annually. Um so, every year it's looked at and the changes definitely depend on the stop loss, right? and how we're looking for the larger claims uh which you know determine our stop loss which then keeps us self-funded.

Right. Right. And I mean consistency of benefits for our team so important. Making sure we have really good high quality care for all of our team so important, but sometimes it might make sense to maybe look around at another broker just as an option to see what other things might be available out there because stop loss is there's kind of a both an art and a science to it. And so we're going to have to be really strategic about that as we move forward. We have actually had three different brokers within the last 15-ish years. So that's good. That's good. We do. So do you have a plan to go out and at least get bids, competing bids for that

for the broker? Yeah. Uh we're all done for this year. Well, I didn't mean for this year, but just like what changed not too long ago. So good. No, that's really good. Couple years,

right? Just like auto insurance and some other things, we need to always be looking for somebody who can be a really good partner because what we're doing is complicated and there's a high risk and so just making sure we have all the right partners and that we are taking care of our team. But it is really a high cost aspect, but I have really good faith in the two of you and that you've done a really great job. And when Dave and I had that conversation and he told me that we were self-funded, I was like, "Wow. That's pretty unusual. So, thank you both of

you. All of our investment one evolution that all of our money not spending.

So all the money is pulled together and we we invest it in what we're allowed to invest it in. The state of Ohio in the compliance supplement has very strict guidelines as to what we can and can't invest in. So we have to adhere to that. So we have financial ad pardon me. No coins. No coins. No Bitcoin. [laughter] So we have a financial advisor that helps us out and you know we um talk to them about our debt. We talk to them about um potentially paying it off early when we we when we can.

Uh we talk to them about the different types of investments that we have. So, we're pretty diligent about trying to get the interest rates as high as we can for as long as we can up to that fiveyear max. Um, the the managed reserves that's in the back, that's something that was put together. And every year there's 20 25,000 uh dollars that are added to that every single year. So, it's not the interest doesn't go into this. It's it's mostly in the interest of the city.

Correct. Yes. Oh yeah, absolutely.

There's a lot to do. Rainy day. Oh, question. Rhonda, can I ask a very granular question about the city council budget? Okay.

Page 22. This is really just to help us us as council explain folks ask Um, notice that the O andM budget is reflecting a 34% increase um, from 2025. As far as I can tell, that increase is largely driven by the inclusion of 21,900 in utilities. Can you just explain so that we could explain it why that's included now and not in previous years? This year uh we actually because we have NOEC and NOEX's prices increased dramatically for next year. So we had we were able to cover our bills with last year's budget. Y

this year we we we would not be able to do that for next year. Okay. And then you have to keep in mind that the budget was also increased because it now includes civil service whereas in past years it had in 2025 we combined it. So 2025 and 2026 it includes civil service. So this when it says utilities, we're talking about city council and the civil services share of the utilities that Right. It's this council chambers. It's this building was never in our budget before. Y

it was always because we didn't have we had it last year, but prices really weren't we didn't know what the total cost of the building was going to be. So, we've probably uh adjusted our budget lines accordingly for 2025, which you'll see in the appropriation amendment uh for this month. However, now that we know what the cost of the building is, we have to we're allocating that to the various departments that are within this building. So, city council has responsibility for this room and the mayor has responsibility for his office, Cathy's office, city manager has his and so forth. Okay. So, that's that's a pretty big difference from last year. It's a big room. Thanks. It's a lot to eat. Yeah.

One thing I noticed was the IT budget under general government is really the highest uh in the first listing. Anyways, um and I know that that has been a growth area for us out of necessity and it's helped us save funding in other ways. Um but I'm just wondering is there a place where that is where we can see how that how much that has grown from the last say the last three years or something.

If you look at uh 2-35 you'll see the IT department the the last few pages of that section. One of the things that when I first started here, it was one person and all of the um services that that that person utilized to to run the city was outsourced. So instead of outsourcing those services, we then brought it inhouse, got a new um director, manager at the time, got a director and then have hired two new staff for the IT department. So that's the re the main reason. So we were reduced the outsourcing. But then what you'll see is um they're taking on a lot of the services that we provide. Say for example AT&T is all now under one department. Instead of being under various departments, he's taking on it. He's taking on certain um projects under his wing versus showing those in various other locations. So we can kind of have a better idea of where to look for certain costs.

Is there like it share per department?

Yeah, if you look at the next page 3-36 and 37. So the general fund pays for 75% of it and then water sewer solid waste and storm water share in the cost of the IT department. We found that bringing it under better in order to raise the bar on our IT, we needed to do a better job of integrating our systems. I mean, that was kind of the big message when Nick was hired. It was like we need to in we can't have all these like off-the-shelf single software platforms that don't talk to each other department. So, we've moved and you've we've we're super grateful and mostly the purchases are done through the capital plan. I mean, through the capital budget, but you've we've made over a million dollars. It's like 1.2 and there's more coming. And I was talking to Nick today about some all of those are on a shared platform. They're super cyberpected, but it's that integration of data. It really elevates. It has that synergistic effect. It's not just one plus one equals two. It's like 1 plus 1 equals four because you can really now when you know when chief is inspecting his fire inspectors are inspecting somewhere that can communicate that data back to Bridg's department and the police could have access to that data too if they're running a call. We never had that before and and to be able to do that though required someone's navigating that and so letting each department do their thing. It wasn't as effective as this case we're going to bring under house. They still do some of their stuff, but it's largely driven by Nick's office now. So,

yeah, it's a wonderful change. I mean, it's been drastic from the time I started to and the cyber security that's a must. I mean, I I can't tell you how many cities have gotten hacked by ransomware. Saw it on Cleveland, Columbus, my former city that I worked at. Um, yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, thank you. Sounds like a necessary growth. We go to the audience yet? No. Anybody in the audience have any discussion? Back to council.

I just like to say I um if I may just appreciate all the work that went into this. Um this is a incredibly extensive document. Um, appreciate it. Can't believe that I just call you to a random page and you can explain just like one line item. I can believe it. [laughter] It every day.

Huge congratulations. Um, and I appreciate the introduction. I I really, you know, I don't know who wrote that, but it I was struck by this stat that it costs 80,000 per day to perform city services and half of that is fire and police. I think that really lays bare um for me kind of how much goes into just keeping the city running. So, thank you for making it understandable. I would like to move to authorize this budget with the emergency clause. Second. Second.

Um further discussion anyone? Well, I'd just like to say Chris Chris really said it all and um I'm always in awe of the work that's done here and just great fiscal management. So, thank you.

You and the staff do a marvelous job. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah, I I know I'm going to beat a dead horse here, but I don't know that everyone appreciates the strategic decision making that goes in to a comprehensive budget like this. And I I I think that's I think sometimes people think that decisions are made just willy-nilly. And it's not that way. every decision there's weight and counterweights and and I I just commend our city for their strategic approach to budgeting and and basically uh personnel and all the other items that come in. Well, thank you for that heart of it.

Further, all those in favor? Opposed? Thank you. You have a couple more, don't you? One more. [laughter]

So, for fiscal 2025, fiscal year 25, we are doing our final appropriation amendment request. However, you won't see a memo detailing out what we're asking for because our POS are closing tomorrow and we're starting to look at line by line all of our accounts and looking at anywhere there's negatives, looking where we can pull from one line to another to help cover costs. And so the final appropriation ordinance will be um to you at the next meeting. So this is just my blanket PO so to speak for the next amendment. So we have to approve this blanket. That's a blank blank check, isn't it? Kind of.

Okay. [laughter] But yes, this is questions other than we do this every year. I know it's every year. Yes. Move to approve with the emergency second. No, there was no one in the audience that'd like to speak to. [laughter] They got me myself. Okay. So, it's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor?

Opposed? It passes. Thank you, Brandon. This is my yearly request to ask council to authorize a contract with the public defenders office to allow indigent um defendants who have been charged with uh under city ordinances with crimes that we are um able to pay them. Same thing every year. Great. Every year. Questions? Anybody in the audience have a question? Back to councel. Move to approve with emergency. Second. Seconded. All those in favor?

I opposed. Thank you. Hope that's it for you. You need to read off the for No. Yeah. Well, we have nothing under health public safety, not nothing on land use committee and uh we already discreet sidewalks. All right. I'd like to move an executive session to review the proposed change to the city's 2026 position allocation ordinance and general compensation plan and also to consider the appointment employment dismissal discipline promotion to motion compensation of a public employee or official. Second.

Okay. Roll call, please. Mr. Amry, [snorts] yes. Miss Silka, Mr. Clapper, yes. Mr. Deleó, yes. Mr. Hook, yes. Miss Rosenberg, yes. Miss Schaefer Bish, yes. Mr. Sedot, yes. Mr. Turner, Mr. Turner's asked to be excused. Motion. Second. All those in favor? I Okay,

we'll meet in the There's no lights in the uh room here, so we'll meet in the community room. Is that Rhonda Wy's back? We just did. I just did. I know. I'm sorry. I didn't think we during committee. I didn't think we excused except during executive session. Maybe that that's what I