City Council - Regular Meeting

Because the folks that are here that are going to be here, I'll go ahead and on time call the July 6th, 2026 Finance Committee to order. Councilman Bullock is coming back from a family vacation. So he'll be here later this evening, but not for this meeting. But myself and Councilperson Striebig, I think represent the forum. WE'RE GOING TO MOVE ON. THE FIRST ITEM UP FOR BUSINESS IS THE REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF THE JUNE 29, 2026 FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES. I WILL GO AHEAD AND MOVE APPROVAL. SECOND. THERE'S A FIRST AND A SECOND. ANY DISCUSSION? IT'S PASSED BECAUSE WE'RE THE TWO, SO YOUR SECOND GOT US THERE. And as we discussed at the end of the last committee meeting, we're going to try to keep it tight to a half hour because there's a committee meeting after this, some very important issues. But wanted to see how much we could accomplish in the half hour that we have and see whether we need to come back in the next week or two to finish out some of these budget priorities and talk about process. So rather than me continuing to talk, I will go ahead. And we have three left. So we'll see if we can get through them. I do not want to shortchange them. So if we need more time, we will schedule more time. The first one is the implementation of the racial equity plan. And I believe that is Councilperson Hamilton-Steiner? Or yes? OK. So I guess the floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair Baker. So the city of Lakewood, via resolution, created the Anti-Racism Task Force to advise and work with administration to ensure the value of anti-racism is foundational and unambiguously expressed in all city objectives involving safety, housing, education, culture, and community wellness. It was in direct response to the George Floyd protest in 2020 and is intended to ensure that Lakewood lives up to its values of being an inclusive and welcoming community. So to just talk through a little bit, so the desired outcome is for implementation of recommendations from the racial equity plan. The racial equity plan will present an opportunity for a public discussion of what an inclusive liquid looks like and how to achieve it. While racial is in the name, it is not only about inclusivity for race. It will involve inclusivity for race, gender, sexuality, sex, religious affiliation, belief, association, disability, and other identities from historically marginalized groups and lesser heard voices. It is a recognition of the necessity to deconstruct institutional oppression that harms not just racial groups, but is harmful to all demographics and counterproductive to a democratic society. Progress will be demonstrated by steps taken to address the recommendation in the racial equity plan. So I did reach out to Director Berry to just get a status update on where things are. And the consultant is finishing up the racial equity plan and will provide that to the Anti-Racism Task Force. And the Anti-Racism ARTF will review THE PLAN AND EITHER APPROVE IT, AND THEN ONCE THEY'VE APPROVED THAT, DIRECTOR BERRY PLANS TO PUT TOGETHER A COMMUNICATION AND REFER THAT TO COUNCIL. AND THEN I'M ASSUMING THE NEXT STEP WOULD BE A REFERRAL AND WE WILL DISCUSS THAT. AND MY THOUGHT OF EVERYTHING IS THAT IT WOULD MIRROR OTHER PLANS THAT HAVE BEEN APPROVED BY THIS BODY AND WE GO FROM THERE.

THANK YOU. ANYTHING FROM THE COUNCIL PRESIDENT OR COUNCIL PRESIDENT STRIBIG, AS I KNOW YOU'RE KIND OF CO-WORKERS ON THIS?

I'M HAPPY TO JOIN THIS EFFORT TO BRING MORE INCLUSION ACROSS OUR COMMUNITY, AND I'M LOOKING VERY MUCH FORWARD TO SEEING THE PLANS FROM THE CONSULTANT AND HELPING IMPLEMENT THOSE ACROSS our city so that we can get more involvement and more participation from everyone in town and not just some of those people that have the privilege of paying attention because they have additional time. Thank you.

Council President Kuppel?

Thanks, and I'll just follow up. This was a few years ago. A couple budget priority processes in a row were put in money for us to do this plan, essentially, because we had the anti-racism task force, and without having a consultant and some guidance to figure out, it's not really fair to just put in a group of volunteers. How should we solve hundreds of years of racism? racism in our city and how we do this. The Anti-Racism Task Force was charged with being unambiguously expressed in all of our city services and policies and those things. Without seeing what the racial equity plan is yet, I don't know quite what implementation looks like, but I think like before where it was important to put some dollars towards this work, I think it will be important to have some funds because unlike we've done other, we do active transportation and we do climate action and all these other things without some money. And depending on what all the aspects of this are, we don't quite know what that will hit. Some of it will be carried forth by staff, but there may be additional consultant work or additional outreach pieces or those sorts of things. I'm not quite sure what the dollar amount should be, though, without seeing the plan finished and what's included.

Well, I think what might be helpful is it sounds like there is some funds that the three of you would like to see in the 2027 budget. So perhaps if between now and the end of the month, we can come up with kind of what that number is based on consultation with Director Berry and whomever else. And then that's what goes in kind of our report out as a priority. I think maybe that would be a good process, if that's OK with you all.

Yeah, I think that's good. I will probably look into and dig into what we did with the community health needs assessment. Because I know after that process, there was an additional layer where there was some community engagement work that I am not sure was built into the initial scope of work. I would have to reach out to Assistant Director Boss, and he may know more about that and maybe reach out and see how that process played out. Because I would see us mirroring that very similar to the community, how we did the community health needs assessment.

Great.

Anything from the administration? I don't see Director Berry here. Okay. Well, thank you. The next one is the community circulator that I used to ride as a kid. I assume this is Councilperson Hamilton's signer as well.

Yes. Thank you, Chair Baker. So in 2009, due to low ridership and high cost, Lakewood's community circulator was disbanded. This elimination of a publicly popular service has left a void in the community. Despite this, the service remains in public conversations and has high public support. An opportunity exists to tackle the challenge of low ridership, high cost, and high public support and deep dive into the transit feasibility study report from 2024. and work on implementing the recommendations from ITERUS. So, you know, in community conversations that I have with people whenever this is brought up or they mention it, they get excited about it, the possibility of it. And if I had to be careful, because they're like, you're bringing me the circulator. I'm like, no, no, we're going to talk about it. We're going to see if it's truly possible and really dig into the study. I mean, we hired a consultant to do this work. And it's sitting there. And I think it would be a waste of public dollars not to dig into it. We may come out of that process like this isn't feasible right now at this time. Or we may come out of that process with some sort of lower level type of service that we could provide residents. I don't know what the outcome would be, but I think we should put something forth. We should make some sort of effort. So what I would like to see is putting forth a long-term plan with some short-term outcomes to implement a new version of the Lakewood Community Circulator to address the gap in transportation services and improve mobility for more Lakewood residents and non-residents within our community. And I think it's in line with our active transportation, safe streets, complete streets, the ADA transparency transition plan, our climate action plan, and really our overall community vision of making sure that people are able to get in and around our community no matter what type of mode of transportation that they're using. So I think I would love to convene a working group to deep dive into this, into the transit feasibility study.

Yeah, because my mind is already racing, because while I'm not a sponsor of this, particularly in the relation to this, I have high interest in this subject. I also think it ties into, like, micromobility issues, accessible stuff where, you know, it's like kind of supplementing services that our TA already provides, we provide through our human resource department. I even think about, like, when I was at Ohio State, you know, I got a CODA pass free because I was a student. Is there a way we can... study models with RTA, you know, with like if you're a liquid resident, you get RTA, you know, like so then you can ride that for free, right? But is that enough, right? And so I think, so what do we think for the 2027 budget and what do we think beyond that? Is this more policy at this point than budget? Or I guess I'm looking to you guys to tell me what you think.

Yeah, sure. I'm happy to weigh in. Thanks, Chair. I'm in agreement with everything Councilperson Hamilton and the Senator had to say. We have a study. It's kind of sitting there on the shelf, but I do feel we owe it to the community to have a bigger conversation about this. I, too, hear constantly from folks about how great it was having the circulator. I also understand that that's a great big expensive project and there's a reason why we don't have anymore because it's it just is it's a tough financial thing to work around but I'm willing to have that happy to have that conversation and willing to work with everybody to see if there are steps we can tape to because I agree with you as well Councilman Baker that this is there's so many things this is plugs into that could make life a heck of a lot better for a lot of Lakewood residents so happy to work on it

Yeah, and I almost think, because I mean, this was a me problem when I was 17 years old. But I lived as far west as you could live in Lakewood. And my dad left for work at 6.30 AM to go to the job site. And I was expected to get to Bunce Road every day. And I was expected to get back from Bunce Road to my home. I think I lived closer to Rocky River High School at the time. So I think it's a ripe area for partnership and for communication with the schools about what this looks like. So I'm excited to help that conversation. And so I think maybe it's more policy. And I mean, we can convene a working group. Because the report, while I appreciate the administration's efforts to kind of push it forward, it was more so of like a data collection on what you could do and what it would cost. what maybe the need is amongst the community and how we can interplay folks and kind of have interlapping interests met and maybe come up with a model for cost sharing. Council President Keppel.

Thank you. And I'm also not a member of this group because we're limited to three. Certainly something I'm interested in. And as I recall, when we went through the feasibility study report that was done in 2024, didn't explore every possible option. And some of the challenges, if we think about, when we talk about bringing back community circulator, whether we're talking about bringing it back as it was, or are we, what are we, trying to accomplish and are there other creative solutions because for instance you know we have the senior transportation vans and that that was talked about some during that that study and some of the funding streams that go towards those are restricted but then are there other ways to use those at other times so they're not just sitting at cove you know I'm going to Kent State was we had the campus loop every seven minutes and it's free to get on and off and people use it all the time because you don't have that barrier. What would be some of the barriers? I think having a working group looking at this, maybe when we look at the, the potential of whether it's specifically having RTA run a thing or are there other creative solutions and what do those look like? And are they you know, folks, we hear nostalgia, and people remember fondly about it, and, but then now there's also different solutions that didn't exist then, too, like, you know, Uber, and, you know, all those sorts of things, too, so I think it's, you know, worth discussing what is the problem we're trying to solve, and what's the best way to solve it.

Councilperson Strubeck.

Thank you. I agree with what you're saying. I hadn't considered partnering with the school. So that's an interesting idea, and I'm sure very useful for the students. So thank you for bringing that to my attention. And I agree with President Keppel on the use of other alternative types of transportation, including Lyft. And I know the YMCA has a van that they've talked about using. There's other ways instead of just a bus THAT GOES AROUND AND AROUND AND AROUND, AND HOPEFULLY SOMEBODY'S WAITING THERE FOR THEM TO PICK UP. I THINK THAT THAT'S WHERE THAT EXPENSE COMES IN OF FUEL AND MAINTENANCE OF VEHICLES. SO, YES, I'M VERY INTERESTED. I'M VERY INTERESTED AND ANXIOUS TO HEAR WHAT COMES OUT OF THIS COMMITTEE. THANK YOU.

YEAH, AND THAT'S WHERE I THINK, YOU KNOW, IT'S RIPE WITH THE CONVERSATION I THINK THE SCHOOLS ARE HAVING WITH THE TRANSITION PLAN FOR ELEMENTARY KIDS. You know, we, and this is where you kind of get left if you're from 14 to, you know, and you haven't quite got a driver's license or your family can't buy you a car, and you live in Lakewood and you happen to live not near the center of town, it does create challenges for you to get to school every day. So there may be ways we can collaborate with the schools on that, and I'd be happy to join that conversation. But it sounds like this is more policy than budget for 2027. And then Councilman Bixenstein.

Thank you, Vice President Baker. And I concur with my colleagues. I'm excited to explore this. In some ways, I see the circulator, even if it took on a different iteration, you know, all these years later, it sort of has that feeling of connective tissue the same way that Block Club program does, where You have all these issues in the community, traffic and parking and mobility and senior mobility and small business community and all these potential issues that this could help alleviate in some form or fashion. And I realize there are certainly hurdles. Admittedly, I never got to ride the circulator. I arrived in Lakewood the same year that it closed down. But I'm happy to explore the possibility. AND BE ABLE TO TELL COMMUNITY MEMBERS. I HAD SOMEONE EVEN TODAY UNPROVOKED JUST ASK ME, HEY, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE CIRCULATOR? BUT BE ABLE TO TELL FOLKS, REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME, THAT WE DID EXPLORE THE FEASIBILITY OF THIS.

THANK YOU. SO I THINK, UNLESS WE HAVE ANY OTHER COMMENTS ON THAT ONE, I THINK WE'RE GOOD. We actually may get through all of these tonight. So we'll see. We have 13 minutes. We'll see how it goes. Expansion of winter sidewalk maintenance in the winter. Who is kind of the initial spokesperson? Councilman Hamilton's time.

I pulled it up. All right. Thank you, Chair Baker. So winter 2025-2026 seemed to be a particularly tough winter, as it seemed. There are periods without a break in the weather, providing for time to clear not only roads but sidewalks. Due to the effects of climate change, we can expect that winter weather will continue to be brutal, harsh, and long. This presents a perfect opportunity to prepare our community to be ready for the harsh winter and maintain safe and accessible sidewalks. And so we all benefit, obviously, from sidewalks that are clear of snow and ice, which make for unsafe terrain for those walking, biking, children, and younger youth, and those utilizing wheelchair or other mobility devices. The desired outcome is to pilot a city-run snow clearing service focusing on high-need areas based on certain criteria, such as areas with high populations of seniors, those with mobility issues, young children, including high-walking areas used by students. um so this really came out of um just a lot of community feedback and emails that were sent i mean we all were received a lot of emails and i do recall that this conversation had come up maybe a few years ago even before i got in council um and i had just started looking just out of curiosity because there was a resident that i come to a meeting and after a meeting was talking to Councilman Bullock in particular and just talking, you know, like, hey, this city does it and this city does it. And so as, and this was really one of those last, I wasn't even sure I was going to put this forward because I know that it's a lot of work and I have a lot of, you know, items already that I'm either leading or helping. But I do think that this one is important. And it's in line with our climate action plan and active transportation plan, and complete streets, and the ADA transition plan, and our community vision, and even a racial equity plan. And I think that it is something that is important that we should look at to see what would a beefed up sidewalk maintenance program look like. And when I just did some quick research, Chicago, Illinois has rolled out a pilot program. And so I did model some of the language that I talk about having a pilot program. They're doing a pilot program that is focusing on high need areas. So I know this would be a heavy lift to do it, and I know it would be a high dollar amount, but I do think that if we're going to talk about being a community that is walkable, we need to live up to those walkability standards. Otherwise, we need to stop saying that we're a walkable community if we're not going to live up to it. So I do think that it is important. And I would love to see us pursue this. And we may decide that this is policy for 2027 and shoot for 2028 for an actual budget item.

Councilman Bixenstein. Thank you, Council President Baker and Council President Hamilton-Steiner. I'm happy to support.

Give me a promotion, thanks.

Excuse me, Council Vice President Baker. Very unintentional, Council President Keffel. I'm happy to support this initiative. You know, every winner is different. This past winter started on Thanksgiving Day and continued through the end of March. So that was four months. That's a third of the year. And if we're going to be a walkable community, I'd prefer to be a walkable community year round, not two thirds of the year. And, you know, obviously I realize there's, you know, we have to be realistic and about what we can accomplish. You know, we have 180 miles of sidewalk as Director Gordon here, you know, watches for my reaction on this. And I realize, you know, the likelihood of clearing 180 miles of sidewalk is not high whatsoever. But if we can make incremental progress in having more of our city cleared during winter, I would consider that a win, and I'm happy to explore that possibility.

I certainly have thoughts, but I would like to, and I know we have a, Plow plan, kind of a cold weather plan about priority streets and secondary streets and safety routes. And I know that we do some sidewalk clearing, particularly in the parks and then along the marginals. And the school does some. Can you kind of walk us through that, Director Gordon?

Sure. Thank you, Vice President Baker. That is correct. Obviously, we're going to start with the main roads, go to the seconds, go to the sides. Bike lanes are done after that as well. intersections things of that nature and then along with that we do do the sidewalks in the parks any city-owned properties bridges some certain high-volume areas things like that recently we started doing when we can and when the resources are available we are starting to help assist clearing where school crossing guards are as priority and and again I mean This winter was brutal, let's all be honest. And along with all of that, we also have to work with the building department for when businesses don't clear their sidewalks, then we go and clear it for them. And then they are charged accordingly. So I think there's a lot of work that goes into the winter time that maybe a lot of folks aren't aware of. And I have to tread very, very lightly with, okay, we'll do all that, and then we'll do even more. And again, not that I'm against sidewalk clearing in the city that I came from. We did perform it there, and there were a lot of obstacles that I went through with that program that I am very well aware of that I think others should be made aware of as well. It's easy to say, oh, just start in these areas, and it could get very dicey very quickly. in regards to where you start, where you finish, the next time where you start, where you finish, and things of that nature. It has to be very well thought out, and it takes time to get to that point. So I think it's something that everybody needs to consider. I do have experience with this, which is good. So if it is something that Council wants to move forward with, it's going to take some time.

THANK YOU, DR. GORDON. AND MAYBE IT'S GOOD OR BAD, YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH IT, BECAUSE IT DOESN'T SEEM LIKE YOUR EXPERIENCE IS THAT GREAT. BUT I DO THINK THAT THERE IS, SO THIS INTERPLAYS, BECAUSE EVEN JUST FROM, IT'S NOT SOMETHING YOU MENTIONED, BUT I THINK ABOUT IT, YOU KNOW, I WALK UP SPRING GARDEN AND THE SIDEWALKS ARE 36 INCHES, AND THEN I WALK UP ANOTHER STREET AND THE SIDEWALKS ARE, YOU KNOW, FOUR FEET OR FIVE FEET, RIGHT? SO FINDING THAT RIGHT EQUIPMENT THAT CAN DO ALL OF THEM AND NOT HIT SPRINKLER HEADS OR HAVE, disputes with property owners about turfing your lawn or whatever. So it is complicated. But what I will say is this should be viewed, and I'm willing to help, because I think you have to have a plan, right? A plan almost as detailed as our street clearing plan, if not more, if you really want to do it. And I think what you have to do is, for example, Bunce Road, up by the Metro Parks on Detroit has shared use path. Those are 10 feet wide. It's easy to get equipment that can clear snow off a 10-foot wide path. It's hard to get equipment that can clear snow off a 36-inch path, right? So you have to think about what streets can allow that. And then certain priority corridors for either kids walking. But when you have bunts in place, you have a north-south all the way from Clifton all the way to Lakewood Heights. SO YOU KIND OF HAVE THAT NORTH-SOUTH ROUTE. AND THEN IF YOU THINK ABOUT EAST-WEST ROUTE. SO IT'S KIND OF LIKE LOOK AT OUR ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION PLAN. LOOK AT THE PRIORITY CORRIDORS WE HAVE WHERE WE'RE THINKING ABOUT GETTING SHARED USE PASS. BECAUSE THAT'S THE MOST RIPE PLACE TO HAVE US CLEAR IS SHARED USE PASS. because they even have something that can be patched more than a sidewalk can, right? And so am I going down the right road?

No, you're 100% right. Perfect example is the Bunce Road shared use path will be maintained by the city in the winter for snow clearance. So that will be getting done. We're also going to be taking on the Lake Clifton Connector shared use path as well. So now I'm adding two more things to the yearly snow clearing priority list. And Councilman Baker hit it right on the head. When you look at Lakewood, and you look at equipment, and you look, OK, how wide do we want to go? How small do you want to go with sidewalk clearing? There's just so many areas where, credit to Councilman Baker again, you go from four foot to three foot to, in some cases, really even smaller than three foot, plus you have utilities to worry about. I mean, I just think about the Detroit corridor as an example. If you were to put a sidewalk plow going down the Detroit corridor from Sloan all the way down, that's a tight fit. That's a tight fit with people. That's a tight fit with businesses. When you get on some of the side streets, as Councilman Baker said, and you are using snow clearing equipment, you got to be really, really careful to not be digging up people's yards and things of that nature. So it can be done would be my word. It's going to take a lot of effort, a lot of planning. And if it were to be done, it's going to need to be done the right way. And that's going to take some research. And again, you know, I'm just reiterating, it's going to take some time.

Now, I don't want to speak for my colleagues that are, because I also like, this is an interest of mine as well, but I'm not listed because we can only have three. Do you think that's something that would benefit from some funds for a engineer to help put together some sort of plan or analysis, or do you think that that is something that over time, because what I'm hearing, I'm hearing that we already might be getting some budget requests for more FTEs and public works for some of the things that you're already talking about that the city's already going to take on. Maybe some more equipment. I know these things aren't cheap. I do know that, for example, the Metro Parks, and I live near there, and in the wintertime I'm a winter runner, and I appreciate that I know that those paths are going to be cleared. Don't salt, right? So you might still slip on some ice, but at least the snow is going to be gone. And so is that something that you think this year some engineering firm for 20 grand can help us look at it? Or would you prefer that that be something that is staff driven?

I'll be honest that we've already began looking into this a little bit further after last winter. Internally, I took a very hard look at last winter in potential areas that I felt we could get better on. And we have those meetings at the end and beginning of every year. And there are certain areas that we could get better with, and I know that, and we will. But we've already began looking into it, looking at what other cities were using for sidewalk clearing and things of that nature. So we've slowly, would be the word I would use, started to have the discussions on it. And I also have to take a hard look at staff as well. Because in the wintertime, just so everybody knows, it's all hands on deck in public works. I mean, we are pulling people from every department to assist with snow removal, and that includes the wastewater treatment plant. So again, you know, when certain things happen and you're floating people around, whether it's a water break, you know, and I'm sending a bunch of guys a water break and then we're backfilling what they were doing, there's a lot of factors to consider. But I would say at this time right now, we're beginning to have discussions on it. I'm more than willing to meet with council to kind of, kind of, talk through what I know and my experience with it, and I'm sure for at least this year, we could probably start working on a policy and then take a little harder look beyond this year as to whether we could, if that's doable, moving forward.

This is good. There's some shared interests and shared priority now. primarily this is a budgetary discussion, right? And so is there funds that you think would be helpful to you? Like, I know that when, and this is just me being a staff at a public entity, right? There's a thousand needs and you do what you can and then you get to the other stuff, right? I'm sure that's how the planning department feels all the time. I'm sure your department feels the same way too. Would it benefit from having a little bit of money for an engineer to kind of put together the high level of what it could look like, kind of like a prioritization based upon widths of sidewalks or walking routes, or is that something that in this budget you don't think would be helpful to you?

I mean, I don't think it would be helpful at this time. I would be willing to talk further about that, again, after this time, but I think I think there's a lot to talk about, especially after this winter, on exactly what everybody is looking for. It's easy to say, oh, we just want all the sidewalks cleared. And here's where we want you to start. OK? Great.

Well, just like anything else, I think it needs what's your guiding principle? What are you trying to do? What are you trying to accomplish? What's most important, right?

Correct. So I mean, personally, I think it would be best if we could meet and discuss. And then I could probably answer that question a little bit further after that time, because then I would have a little bit more. I think we would all have a general understanding of where we stand. And then I could certainly answer that question after that.

All right. Well, I guess for our purposes, we have a few more days for folks to meet with Director Gordon to see if there's some money we could think about in the 2027 budget. WE'RE TWO MINUTES OVER, SO I APOLOGIZE. ALTHOUGH, IS THAT EVERYTHING ON WINTER CLEARING? COUNCILPERSON?

THANK YOU. I WANTED TO SAY THANK YOU TO DIRECTOR GORDON FOR THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT AND THE JOB THAT THEY DO ON THE STREETS AND SIDEWALKS. AND I DO THINK THAT THERE IS ROOM IN WHATEVER THIS POLICY BECOMES IS TO CHECK IN WITH PRIVATE BUSINESSES AND ALSO LANDLORDS, LCCs THAT OWN BUSINESSES. to find out what their winter snow removal plan is. That simple question. What is your plan for snow removal this year? I know when it snows, my tenants understand that as soon as we dig ourselves out, we will be over to dig you out. I don't know that all landlords maintain their sidewalks in the city, but I would like to see an emphasis either through the landlord education program or however else the city is communicating with small businesses to find out what their actual plan is.

Dr. Gordon.

So thank you, Councilwoman Striebig. Just so you're aware, the building department does, around the second week of October, they do send inspectors out to try to hit all the commercial storefronts down Madison, Detroit, to remind the shop owners to shovel their walks the morning of a snow event. And then therefore, if the snow has not been removed, they place a blue snow violation on the building. And obviously, their focus initially is on the commercial corridors and properties that surround schools. That's directly from the building department. And at the end of the day, if they're not compliant, then they reach out to us to help on those corridors. And we go and do it. And then they are served with that nuisance.

You get to pick axes out and axe up the ice.

Yeah, it's not the most pleasant experience. But we do it.

So I think this is ripe for more discussion for the people that really want to see this with Director Gordon. Sounds like there's already good work being done. But whatever council can do to help supplement, we want to do it. Thank you. Anything else? Councilperson Striebeck.

I'm sorry, not on this topic. Did you want to say something?

No, I was going to say, thank you, Chair Baker. And Director Gordon, I will be following up and send you an email, and we can get those discussions started.

I just, one final comment from me. The six pages of my priorities are not attached to this document. I know I'm alphabetically the next one here. I'm just, I'm kidding you all, of course. Everything that I had on my list, including inclusion, block clubs, mental health, safety, and recreation, were all included in all of your priorities. So I thank you all for being so on top of the ball that I didn't even have to bring a priority to this list. So thank you very much.

You actually made me very nervous. I was like, man, we got it done.

And I was like, shut up.

Yeah. Well, without objection, we are adjourned. Sorry, Councilman Evans, for taking five minutes of your time.

All right. I will call to order the July 6th. meeting of the Housing Planning and Development Committee. A couple items on the agenda. First, approval of the minutes from the June 29th to November 26th meeting of the Housing Planning and Development Committee. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Seconded. This is our quorum right now, so that passes. Next order of business, update to code amendments regarding bike infrastructure. Specifically at the time, shared use code, path code amendments, this kind of came out of the Buntz Road project as a way of how we're going to police and regulate that path, but this has quickly grown into a much larger issue that's affecting all the parts of infrastructure in the city, not just shared youth paths, sidewalks and roads as well in regards to e-mobility devices, bikes and scooters specifically. I know myself, this is something that's really been problematic over this last year as the explosion of these devices has really, it's just gone crazy. There's so many more. So happy to start this discussion today. I wish we had somebody from the police here. But I believe I will turn this over to Assistant Director Boss, who has some slides to walk through. And then we can have a discussion after that. Thanks.

Thank you, Councilman and President, Vice President. I appreciate the opportunity to come in. I can just provide a, I will try to be quick, but this is not, I think as the introduction kind of inferred, This is an effort that's kind of branched over time as it's tried to get its arms just around the complexity, the growing and increasing complexity of the issue. I think you're all aware, any time that we update our code, especially with kind of spot corrections or updating, we try to nest whatever corrections are with Ohio Revised Code, and so I will point out as we kind of go through this where I've been able to be like, in a lot of these instances, working with the case board on these, the option was do we keep what we have or do we look to adopt what ORC has or do we define our own thing? You can always go your own direction, but it is more difficult when you don't nest with ORC because you're kind of going out on a limb. especially when you start talking about enforceability, law enforcement, and things. If Lakewood has a unique code, it does make it harder, I think, for them. But based on the complexity of this, I had broken this down into three parts. We have gotten through one of them so far in two meetings with the case. That just shows you the detail of the discussion and the amount of work the case members and the discussion has put into this. And it's all been very good. And so I think we've kind of arrived at at least a good point with the definitions, I will say. This was what was provided to you back in November. It was an update that was intended to kind of bring the code up to speed with some of the ORC updates that have happened over time. updated some definitions, but we really weren't looking to do a total overhaul of the bike and motorcycle code. The introduction of some regulations for shared use paths was built on some of the resident input that we had gotten up to that point with the Bunce project, which admittedly was a little bent in one direction. And so the interaction with the case board, I think, has been very valuable in that to bring in a lot of different perspectives. And I know you'll hear from them hopefully tonight. And you'll likely continue to hear from them because there are a ton of perspectives from a million different directions on this in terms of what should be allowed where. And ultimately, that's what makes this very difficult. And so I'll talk through that a little bit just to get into it. But really to go back to the first part was we wanted to kind of pick what devices or things do you want to define. You have to define things that you will then regulate. If you define something, typically there is an intention that later on you will regulate it in some way, shape, or form. So there's some kind of the progression of choices that we tried to walk and help the case board through on this. And that's why it took a little bit longer. It's taking a little bit longer to go through it. But I think that the outcome is going to be good. So that first part was talking about definitions. So really, the first change that we had in the November amendment was just to update the definition of motorized bicycle. So for whatever reason, Ohio Revised Code updated their definition of motorized bicycle. And a motorized bicycle is the common, it would be a moped. If you're my age and you were the cool kid in middle school, you had a moped. That's what this is. It is a gas-powered device that has pedals on it. And so it's still kind of an archaic definition. It still defines things by a 50 cubic centimeter piston-driven engine. So what ORC did was to differentiate it was they just put a statement at the end of this that this does not mean electronic bicycles. So in our conversation with Case, and we'll get into our own kind of obsolete term, which is mobility devices, in the direction that the recommendation of CASE was to go to the new ORC definition, which I think is low-speed micromobility devices. So they wanted it, and that's why this is a little kind of back to the future. So in this definition for motorized bicycle, the recommendation from CASE was to make sure that we differentiated both electronic bicycles and low-speed micromobility devices from a motorized bicycle. And there's reasons for that. But that's where we are right now, just with the update, simply the update of the motorized bicycle definition. So as we go through this, what you'll see is yellow generally is what we have now. Blue were kind of the new options that the case board could consider. And I put the red text in here is generally what the case recommended, just to kind of code it. So our current definitions right now, you can see there's mobility device. Yeah, go ahead.

Thanks. For clarification, I just wanted to ask about, because when I hear mobility device, I think for accessibility for people with disabilities. Was that discussed as part of this discussion? It sure was. I'll get into that here in a second. I'm sorry.

Yeah, so mobility device, you know, Right, wrong, or indifferent, in 2019 when we updated that, mobility device was the term for the Ohio revised code that meant e-scooters and e-bikes at that point in time. We used it. Cleveland used it. Cleveland still has it. We still have it. But it does, to your point, Council President, it does introduce a little bit of confusion. It does have the kind of differentiator there of an assisted mobility device. But even our own code talks about a motorized wheelchair, which I've been told that is also kind of an obsolete or archaic term that's in our code. But this is kind of what we have right now. We do have a definition for electronic bicycle. We do have a definition for electric scooter. So kind of the first question for the case board was this is, do we retain mobility device at the top? If so, with the red text there, if we do retain this, is there a new term for that assisted mobility device? Or do you pull that out or something to kind of correct that issue? You can see what Cleveland has right now. mobility device. And then kind of the option, and what I got back from CASE is kind of the red, hey, we want this, we're checking this, is that generally CASE Board agreed to align with ORC and then provide a little bit of edits there. So the current ORC definition for a low-speed micromobility device there is that first box where it says current ORC. What the case board liked, and we haven't finalized the language on this, was that so Metro Parks also has the same definition, but they tend a regular bike. So because you don't want regulations also to be a barrier to people.

You know, those are under 20, typically at least the electric powered part of it.

Tonight, because it wasn't shown in the agenda, so I wasn't sure how much the spikes, the class one, two, and three, which are used by.

An amendment to the third amended charter of the city of Lakewood in order to clarify the various paths in which.

Graham's obvious successes while also examining opportunities for improvement. Among the questions worthy of discussion are whether the existing thresholds continue to reflect the current best practices, whether the resident engagement process could be tweaked, whether the project should be prioritized through a citywide safety framework in addition to neighborhood requests, and whether the program should be codified into late codified ordinances or remain administratively handled. and whether additional traffic calming treatment should be considered as new design standards continue to evolve. As council has heard from residents over the past several years about the program, some residents have expressed that some streets and neighborhoods might be more willing to accept physical interventions even if the criteria are not met. This communication seeks to identify opportunities to improve so that we can strengthen public confidence in the program. Accordingly, we respectfully request the administration work collaboratively with council to conduct a comprehensive review of the program by referring this communication to COMMITTEE AND POSSIBLY EVEN PLANNING COMMISSION AND OTHER COMPLETE STATES AND EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD. THIS REVIEW SHOULD INCLUDE AN ASSESSMENT OF THE CURRENT POLICIES, CRITERIA, PROJECT DELIVERY PROCESS, PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT PROCESSES, AVAILABLE FUNDING STRATEGIES, AND OPPORTUNITIES TO POTENTIALLY BETTER ALIGN WITH THE PROGRAM WITH THE CITY'S ADOPTED TRANSPORTATION SAFETY GOALS. WE LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH THE ADMINISTRATION AND OUR COLLEAGUES, OUR BOARDS, AND RESIDENTS TO EVALUATE THE PROGRAM AND IDENTIFY THOUGHTFUL REFINEMENT, IF ANY, THAT WILL HELP LAKEWOOD REMAIN ONE OF THE I WOULD MAKE A MOTION TO REFER THIS TO HOUSING PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT UNLESS WE WANT TO GO COW. I THINK HOUSING PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT IS THE APPROPRIATE PLACE FOR IT. AND THEN ALSO PLANNING COMMISSION AND COMPLETE STREETS EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD. I THINK THAT COULD BE ONE MOTION TO REFER THAT. I WILL MAKE THAT MOTION.

THE MOTION IS TO REFER IT TO HOUSING PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE.

of Council, Planning Commission, and the Complete Streets Education Advisory Board.

I'll second. Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion? Council Member Bixensine?

Thank you, President Keppel, and thank you, Vice President Baker. I'm really pleased to support this initiative, and I do want to thank the planning department and Assistant Director Boss, of course, as well, for all the progress that's been made in the last decade with traffic calming. My street went through the process a number of years ago, and we did not qualify for infrastructure, but we did get a radar sign. And it happens to be located right outside my house. And so every so often I'll look out the window and I'll see Director Voss up there checking this radar sign that happens to be located outside my window. But anyways, I'm really pleased to have an opportunity to look at this through a fresh lens. For me, my interest stemmed in part from some residents in the Birdtown neighborhood who really stressed that, you know, here we have some terrific driver-centric metrics for traffic calming. Could we now incorporate some neighborhood and pedestrian-centric criteria to complement the driver-centric criteria? So I look forward to being part of this process, and thank you, Vice President Baker.

Thank you. Any further discussion on the motion to refer? Councilman Bullock?

Thanks, Madam President. Thanks to my colleagues. I agree with everything laid out in the letter. And there are other Ohio municipalities who put their programs in legislation. We have not done that to date, but we can. So I agree with the evaluation of the standards by which we qualify a street for different There's a spectrum of different interventions, and we've got a thoughtful process, but I agree with the review and recalibration. I also note we've got FUNDS FOR TWO ADDITIONAL STREETS THIS YEAR ALLOCATED IN THE 2026 CITY COUNCIL BUDGET PRIORITIES THAT WAS ALLOCATED TO CASE SO THAT CASE COULD IN THEORY THIS YEAR ACT ON TWO ADDITIONAL STREETS IN 2026 TO IMPLEMENT SPEED TABLES WAS THE ESTIMATED BUDGET. OF, YOU KNOW, SO THAT CAPACITY EXISTS TODAY. WE PROBABLY HAVEN'T MOVED ON THAT AS FAR AS I KNOW, PRECISELY BECAUSE RIGHT NOW WE'VE GOT AN ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESS AND THAT'S IT. BUT I'M REMINDING US ALL OF THAT BECAUSE COUNCIL HAS ALREADY AFFIRMED IN OUR BUDGET THAT WE PRIORITIZE THIS AND WANT TO EXPAND THIS.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none, on the motion to refer, all those in favor?

Aye.

And that motion passes.

Item 10, communication from Council Members Bixenstein, Evans, and Striebig regarding building stronger block level connections. Is this Council Member Evans?

Thank you, President Keppel.

Dear colleagues, sustainable civic engagement is built from the neighborhood up, strengthening the block and you strengthen the city. Lakewood has a proud tradition of block clubs and parties stretching back more than 50 years. The city has dozens of officially recognized block clubs and 66 block party permits were issued last year. Yet despite this solid foundation, we believe significant potential exists to grow and foster our community connectedness through pursuing a neighborhood and belonging strategy. Recently, oversight of the City of Lakewood's Block Club program was transferred from the administration to council. We have already commenced efforts to reimagine this program. Over the last three months, we have partnered with two community leaders and council clerks to launch an initiative seeking to achieve stronger neighborhood-level community building. Our goal, turning neighborhoods into communities to build and thicken social capital. To this end, a series of five meetings has produced a framework for immediate next steps to audit Lakewood's social infrastructure. The first step consists of hosting three focus groups aimed at garnering feedback from the neighborhood leaders who are already involved in block-level community building, formally or informally. Focus groups have been scheduled as follows, Thursday, July 9th, Saturday, July 11th, and Tuesday, July 14th. We look forward to meeting with neighborhood leaders in the weeks ahead and using their feedback to help inform next steps as we continue to develop a long-term neighboring and belonging strategy. I'll just quickly add to this that we're looking forward to taking the information, what we learned in those meetings in July and using the month of August during recess to analyze what we heard and formulate a plan for moving forward and look forward to having another item on the agenda, communication in September to talk about what the next steps are. And I'll make a motion to receive and file this communication.

Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion? Council Member Bixenstein?

Thank you, President Keppel. I just want to thank Councilperson Evans and Councilperson Striebig for their leadership with this initiative. I certainly share the enthusiasm regarding this notion that strengthening your block is an essential way to strengthen our community on a block-level basis, and I look forward to the upcoming focus groups.

That's member stupid. Thank you also. Thank you to both my Council colleagues for your work on this in the administration for seeing the need to to bring this back to City Council. For for expanding this program and and. And to echo Councilman Bixenstein's words, I think that. And this has always been my vision as a former block captain of 13 years was to make this a much. BETTER TOOL TO COMMUNICATE WITH NEIGHBORS WHO ARE ALREADY CHECKING ON EACH OTHER TO WORK WITH THE COMMUNITY PARAMEDIC PROGRAM AND JUST ALL THE DIFFERENT POSSIBILITIES THAT WE COULD EXPAND COMMUNICATION BETWEEN NEIGHBORS. I'M REALLY THRILLED THAT WE'RE GOING TO START THESE COMMUNITY FOCUS GROUPS AND I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THOSE MEETINGS. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. COUNCILPERSON HAMILTON-STEINER.

Thank you, President Kuppel. And I just want to commend my council colleagues for putting in the effort to provide the support for the block clubs. Having gone to a lot of block parties last year, Lakewood loves their block parties. And every block party is different. There's no two that are the same. And they like to compete to see who's who's got the best block parties. The verdict's still out for me for that one who has the best ones. But I just appreciate you all for bringing this together. And I think this is a great tool to build community. And especially as we see what happens when communications, we're not able to communicate through phone or electronics or anything like that, that these block clubs are going to be a critical point of communication and emergency response, potentially.

Thank you. Yes, and, you know, this is something council has talked about. You know, when we talk about our council priorities, we were all unanimous in wanting to improve communication and education efforts with residents about a variety of topics to make sure that folks know about resources available, but also that we're receiving. Communication is two ways, right? And so these provide, you know, strong block clubs provide both a way for residents to be informed and have referrals to the correct resources and people know about things that are available to them, but also to engage with us and so that we know how to support them better. So it's just all around a very good thing. And I'm excited to see how this moves forward. And I'm excited for council to take the lead on this. So thank you. All right. Council Member Vixenstein.

Thank you. I'd be remiss not to add, I want to thank our three clerks because they've also played a really vital role in this process so far. So thank you very much.

Thanks. Definitely worth celebrating the clerk's efforts always. All right. Any further discussion on the motion to receive and file the communication?

Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. And that motion passes. Item 11, report from Councilmember Hamilton-Steiner regarding June meeting of the Lakewood Animal Safety and Welfare Advisory Board. Councilmember Hamilton-Steiner.

Thank you, President Kuppel. Dear colleagues, LISWAB met on Wednesday, June 17th in their monthly meeting location at the East Conference Room in Lakewood City Hall. The meeting began with an update from ACO Cremley with this monthly report and data update. The report was produced in a new report format. LISWAB members plan to review the data to better understand this new layout. There was an overall animal control shelter discussion, which involved the current name of the shelter. A concerned resident reached out to the LeSwab chair to share their concerns. The concerned resident feels as though the Lakewood Animal Control and Shelter is not living up to the definition of how a shelter operates. Discussion continued where Lesoib recognized the current functions of the Lakewood Animal Control and Shelter, the ordinances which relate to the operations of the Lakewood Animal Control and Shelter, and whether there are standard operating procedures for the shelter. A community concern was brought up by a resident who provided public comment, sharing their experience with the shelter, which has motivated Lesoib to research best practices and standard operating procedures for municipal animal shelters. Lesoib intends to provide some recommendations through their council liaison to bring to the administration of Lakewood City Council. CLAWS, Citizens Committee for Lakewood's Animals and Shelter, will have a presence at the Lakewood Arts Fest. Volunteers have been requested to bake dog treats and donations of water and or soda and other handmade items for the pet treat bake sale. This is part of their annual fundraiser to support the work of CLAWS. If anyone is interested in supporting CLAWS, please reach out to me and I can connect you with a CLAWS board member. I move to receive and file that communication.

Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. And that motion passes.

Item 12, communication from Councilmember Hamilton-Steiner regarding OMB's proposed changes to federal financial assistance for effective date 10-1-2026. Councilmember Hamilton-Steiner.

Thank you, President Keppel. Dear colleagues, I want to draw your attention to the potential overhaul of the federal financial assistance via a proposed rule by the Office of Management and Budget, OMB. The Code of Federal Regulations 2 CFR 200, otherwise known as Uniform Guidance, provides agency-wide policies and requirements related to financial assistance, which include grants, cooperative agreements, and other funding mechanisms. The purpose of the proposed OMB changes is to, one, improve transparency, accountability, and oversight, two, clarify status of OMB's policies, and three, reduce recipient burden. These sweeping changes are alarming in that it has the potential to fundamentally alter and change the federal grant-making landscape. Some of the proposed revisions, which would be the most harmful, include, and this is not in an exhaustive list, section 200.202, alignment with federal administration priorities, would force alignment of program goals with that of the administration's policies and priorities. SECTION 200.205, GRANTEE PROPOSAL SELECTION, WOULD CREATE A PROCESS FOR PRE-ISSUANCE REVIEW TO DETERMINE IF GRANTEES ARE CONSISTENT WITH APPLICABLE LAW. SECTION 200.206, APPLICANT RISK ASSESSMENT, WOULD DETERMINE IF AN AWARDEE IS ENGAGED IN ACTIVITIES OR BEHAVIORS OUT OF ALIGNMENT WITH FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LAWS OR THOSE INCONSISTENT WITH RELIGIOUS LIBERTY LAWS OR IF THE APPLICANT HAS MEMBERSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS THAT VIOLATE FEDERAL LAW. SECTION 200.211, 340, 341, 342, and 343. ABILITY TO TERMINATE OR SUSPEND FUNDS. TERMINATION PROVISION IN FEDERAL AWARDS WOULD ALLOW FOR THE TERMINATION OF FEDERAL AWARDS FOR ANY SORT OF VIOLATION OR FAILURES, INCLUDING FAILURE TO ADVANCE THE NATIONAL INTEREST OR FEDERAL AGENCY PRIORITIES. Section 200.208, new terms and conditions, would allow for terms and conditions to be added to an award after a period of performance has started. Section 200.300, limits on DEI, gender ideology, and discrimination, would ensure that grant funds and subawards are not used to fund or promote illegal DEI, gender ideology, or the gender transition of a person under age 19. Section 200.218, disparate impact, would prohibit the use of disparate impact studies, litigation, or other related activities related to disparate impact liability. Section 200.111, language access, removes agency discretion language which would have previously allowed for issuing or translating of awards in languages other than English. Section 200.205, review of proposals, would eliminate the merit review process. Section 200.202, community engagement, removes previous guidance that required federal agencies to engage with members of the community that would benefit from or be impacted by a program. Section 200.318, hiring preferences and goals, would remove references to hiring preference goals for high poverty areas, disadvantaged communities, or high unemployment areas. SECTION 200.300 PUBLIC WELFARE AND ENVIRONMENT WOULD ELIMINATE THE REQUIREMENT THAT FEDERAL AGENCIES OPERATE IN COMPLIANCE WITH FEDERAL LAWS RELATED TO PUBLIC WELFARE AND THE ENVIRONMENT. Ultimately, these proposed changes will remove uniform guidance as the guide and change it to regulation and limit the autonomy of federal agencies in addition to the consolidation of grant-making decisions and put them in the hands of political appointees. If these changes are implemented, there will be significant impact all over from nonprofits to higher education to school districts and local government to business, affecting health and human services, education, mental health and substance use services to our research landscape. No one will be untouched, as this would also include pass-through funding, otherwise known as subawards, and not just direct awards made. The comment period is open and will close on July 13th. I'm encouraging everyone, all of my council colleagues, please, to go to the Federal Register, Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance, and make a public comment. And for members of the public, there is a link, a direct link that you can go to. and make a public comment as well. By law, each comment has to be considered, so please make your comments count. Thank you. I move to receive and file that communication.

Second. Motion's been made and seconded. An open discussion just by saying thank you, Councilmember Hamilton-Steiner, for making us all aware of this. I know in your other full-time job, this would certainly come up. I just wanted to clarify, in the first page, it says the purpose of these changes are these three things. Is this the alleged purpose of these changes? Because it doesn't seem like... The changes you list actually would be accomplishing those stated goals?

Yes. That is what they are stating the purpose is. So that's emphasizing that that is what they're saying those proposed changes are. And then this is, so each section below, that's what they're proposing those changes to be. I see.

And do you know if they define what illegal DEI is?

So if you actually go to the Federal Register, if you go to that link, it's filled with a lot of propaganda. And it's essentially, they're saying that diversity, equity, and inclusion, anything, it's illegal.

I'll just note, too, the section talking about removing the need for public engagement about the group affected by the award is absolutely backwards, as we're looking to increase public engagement. So thank you for bringing this to attention. I'll certainly add a comment myself. Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none, on the motion to receive and file, all those in favor? Aye. And that motion passes.

Item 13, communication from Councilmember Bullock regarding resuming deliberations on proposed rules for Lakewood property seeking to operate as short-term rentals. Councilmember Bullock.

Hello?

OKAY, THANKS.

THANKS, KYLE. THANK YOU, MADAM PRESIDENT. DEAR MAYOR AND MEMBER OF COUNCIL, MEMBERS OF COUNCIL, PLEASE SEE ATTACHED TO THE PROPOSED ORDINANCE TO CONTINUE OUR CONSIDERATION OF POTENTIAL RULES TO REGULATE LAKEWOOD PROPERTY SEEKING TO OPERATE AS AIRBNB'S OR SHORT-TERM RENTALS. THIS PROPOSAL IS A STARTING POINT INTENDED TO REINITIATE DELIBERATION BY COUNCIL BEGUN LAST YEAR AND BY PUBLIC INPUT TO COMMUNITY AT LARGE. ALTHOUGH IT IS NOT CLEAR THAT SHORT-TERM RENTAL OPERATION IN LAKEWOOD IS ILLEGAL AND PERMITTED USE, THE PRACTICE HAS EXPLODED IN RECENT YEARS. WHILE THE CITY OF LAKEWOOD KNOWS OF SEVERAL DOZEN SUCH PROPERTIES, AN INFORMAL SEARCH ON COMMERCIAL SHORT-TERM RENTAL WEBSITES REVEALS SEVERAL HUNDRED BEING MADE AVAILABLE FOR SHORT-TERM RENTAL. City Council and City Hall have received an increasing number of complaints about the presence and operation of short-term rentals in our neighborhoods, who are reported to result in a range of impacts ranging from middling to severe, such as altered neighborhood character, parking impacts, eroded perceptions of safety, greater pressure on housing affordability, and at times, large and disruptive parties, chronic nuisance behaviors, or outright crime. ALSO RECEIVED FEEDBACK SUPPORTING SHORT-TERM RENTAL OPERATIONS AS A CONVENIENT AND COST EFFECTIVE WAY TO HOST OUT-OF-TOWN FAMILY AND GUESTS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO NEARBY HOTELS. PROPONENTS OF SHORT-TERM RENTAL OPERATIONS STATE THAT THE ACUTELY PROBLEMATIC GUEST BEHAVIORS ARE INFREQUENT. A WORD ABOUT THE LAWS ALREADY ON THE BOOK. SINCE 2006, LAKEWOOD HAS ALLOWED BED AND BREAKFAST PER LAKEWOOD CODIFIED ORDINANCES 116103C AS A CONDITIONALLY PERMITTED USE quote, in any commercial district or multiple family residential district, AND PROVIDED THAT, QUOTE, THE BUILDING IN WHICH A BED AND BREAKFAST ESTABLISHMENT IS LOCATED IS A SINGLE-FAMILY DWELLING WHICH SERVES AS THE PRINCIPAL RESIDENCE OF THE APPLICANT AND IS RECOGNIZED ARCHITECTURALLY, HISTORICALLY, OR AS ARCHITECTURALLY, HISTORICALLY, OR CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT. LAKEWOOD'S EXISTING LAWS ALSO LIMIT THE NUMBER OF DAYS GUESTS MAY STAY, REQUIRE OFF-STREET PARKING, AND PROHIBIT RENTALS FOR, QUOTE, SPECIAL GATHERINGS AND PARTIES. THERE'S WEDDING RECEPTIONS, I THINK, ARE INCLUDED AS WELL, AMONG OTHER REGULATIONS. To my knowledge, no property currently operating in Lakewood has been granted such a conditional use permit, although I'd be happy to work with the planning department to confirm that. AND MAY NOT EVEN HAVE APPLIED. WE ALSO KNOW THAT MANY SHORT-TERM RENTAL PROPERTIES ARE OPERATING IN SINGLE FAMILY AND SINGLE AND TWO FAMILY DISTRICTS. READING THIS SECTION REVEALS THAT A PREVIOUS CITY COUNCIL PUT CAREFUL THOUGHT TO COMMERCIAL SHORT-TERM RENTAL OPERATION IN A RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT EVEN WHEN THE USE IS ANTICIPATED TO BE ORDERLY AND LAW ABIDING AND FREE OF CHRONIC NUISANCE BEHAVIORS AND EVEN CRIMES. Note that Lakewood's laws predates Airbnbs. We adopted this in 2006, even before I served. So I can't claim to be involved in this one. Airbnbs first arose as a practice in San Francisco in August 2008. THE GOALS OF A LAKEWOOD SHORT-TERM RENTAL POLICY TODAY, WHETHER ADOPTED LEGISLATIVELY OR ADMINISTRATIVELY, MIGHT PURSUE ANY OF SEVERAL GOALS. AND PROBABLY COULDN'T DO ALL OF THESE, BUT THIS REPRESENTS A SPECTRUM. TO ALLOW, FOR EXAMPLE, NUMBER ONE, TO ALLOW FOR OPERATION IN A MANNER THAT ACHIEVES QUALITY, SAFETY, AND OPERATOR ACCOUNTABILITY. Number two, to protect against crime and nuisance behavior. Number three, to protect against crime and the risk of crime. Number three, to protect residential properties from significant alteration for commercial use. Next. Keep going. Next, to prioritize the availability of Lakewood housing stock for long-term residents as prices AND PRICES AS AFFORDABLE AS POSSIBLE RATHER THAN PROFIT MAXIMIZING. NEXT, TO PROTECT CHARACTER, PARKING ACCESS, AND THE PERCEPTION OF SAFETY IN RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS ZONED FOR RESIDENTIAL USE. NEXT, TO DESIGN A SET OF OVERSIGHT AND ENFORCEMENT RULES THAT ARE TIME EFFICIENT AND PRACTICABLE FOR CITY PERSONNEL TO IMPLEMENT WITHOUT SIGNIFICANT STRAIN, COST, OR TIME. I THINK THAT ONE'S KEY. NEXT, TO PROTECT IMPACTED NEIGHBORS FROM THE BURDEN OF REPORTING AND PURSUING ENFORCEMENT FOR PROBLEMS THEY DIDN'T CREATE. NEXT, TO ENSURE FEES AND TAXES ARE COLLECTED BY THE CITY FOR SHORT-TERM RENTAL COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY AND OR OTHERS NOT LISTED HERE. THE ORDINANCE PROPOSED HERE AS A STARTING POINT WOULD REQUIRE CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT, CLARIFYING THAT SHORT-TERM RENTALS ARE INCLUDED IN THE DEFINITION OF BED AND BREAKFAST ESTABLISHMENT, WHICH IS A TERM OF ART IN OUR CODE. Next, require owner occupancy. Next, prohibit any short-term rentals inside condominiums or other multifamily apartment buildings, three suites or larger. Next, prohibit short-term rentals within 1,500 feet of a school. And establish requirements for compliance with safety, quality, informational disclosure. And establish a means of accountability of conditions and operations of the property fell short of the requirements. NOW, IN SEPARATE BUT DIRECTLY RELATED MATTERS, CITY COUNCIL MIGHT REVIEW LAKEWOOD'S CHRONIC NUISANCE ORDINANCE TO ASSESS WHETHER IT IS STRONG ENOUGH TO FACILITATE ABATEMENT OF NUISANCE CONDITIONS AT PROPERTIES BEING USED AS SHORT-TERM RENTALS. THAT DOESN'T REQUIRE LAW CHANGE, NECESSARILY, BUT DOES SIMILAR TO THE E-DIRK BIKE MISUSE CONVERSATION REQUIRE AN ASSESSMENT OF OUR POLICIES AND PROCEDURES AND OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION. AND FINALLY, OUR TAX LAWS, FEE STRUCTURES, AND COLLECTION METHODS TO ENSURE SHORT-TERM RENTAL ACTIVITY IS PAYING TAXES AND FEES ON GENERATED REVENUE TO OFFSET THE COST OF INCREASED CITY OVERSIGHT. Please refer this communication and proposed ordinance to a committee of councils choosing for further consideration. Sincerely.

Thank you. So I would think that the ordinance would go to Housing Planning and Development. Councilmember Evans, you'd like the communication as well? OK. So I will move to refer to Housing Planning and Development.

Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. And that motion passes.

Item 14, Ordinance 282026, an ordinance to take effect immediately clarifying that short-term rentals are a form of bed and breakfast establishment pursuant to liquid codified ordinance 116103C and establishing additional criteria regulating this conditional use.

I move to refer to housing planning and development. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion?

Thank you. This, again, is a starting point. I've drafted this without consultation with the administration. In a direct sense, I have consulted with the administration about the factors in play that I listed in the communication, but consider this a first draft. I think city council and the community as a whole has several choice points here, and I try to indicate that in the letter, which is Do we think it's an amenity that is important to preserve the operation of? Or do we think it is something that impacts residential zoned districts in a way that deserves special care and oversight? And I don't know that there's a right answer to that other than what we as a community want to decide. This gets into the classic dilemmas of zoned districts, what the law allows in a zoned district, what exceptions could be allowed in those zone districts and what processes we follow to consider those exceptions. So what I've attempted to do is actually take a little C conservative approach to a proposed change by making slight amendments or proposing slight amendments to something that's been in the books for more than 20 years, for exactly 20 years. and begin there. So certainly there needs to be some feedback. I have over the last 12 months talked to proponents as well as opponents. I will observe that there's a tendency to in our development procedures to favor new development. I am sympathetic to neighbors who bought in a residential neighborhood under the existing residential rules and then later are experiencing commercial operations impacting them without their consent. And in this case, really without notice because we don't even have procedures to invite public input as we would when we're following a conditional use permit. So I do think, speaking for myself, that there's quite a number of legitimate concerns by impacted neighbors. But I approach this with an open mind. So I look forward to the discussion.

Thank you. All right. Any further discussion on the motion to refer to housing planning and development? Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye. And that motion passes. Item 15, communication from Planning Director Byington and Development Officer Wyman regarding amended Fiscal Year 26 HUD Annual Action Plan Resolution 202566A.

Thank you, President Keppel and members of City Council. On April 3rd, 2026, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development informed the city that the 2026 Community Development Block Grant Award was going to be $1,915,618 and the Emergency Solutions Grant Award would be $166,057. Because Lakewood's HUD Annual Action Plan cannot be submitted until actual funding awards are announced and the City must adopt budget legislation prior to the end of each fiscal year, the allocation recommendations approved by Lakewood's Citizens Advisory Committee were based on estimates of the 2026 CDBG dollar amount at $1,750,000 and ESG at $160,000. Now that Lakewood's actual federal funding awards have been announced, FY26 Action Plan Resolution 2025-66 must be amended to include the additional funds. To minimize duplication of effort, HUD requires grantees to develop contingency provisions language describing the city's approach to aligning estimated allocations with actual funding awards once they are known. These guidelines, approved by the CAC on September 10th of 2025, were utilized to distribute the additional CDBG amount of $165,618 and the additional ESG amount of $6,057. The additional CDBG funds were applied to public service activities to maintain those services at the minimum 15% of total funding. The administration line item was increased to maintain the maximum of 20% of total funding, and the remainder was allocated to street resurfacing. The additional ESG funds were applied to homelessness prevention assistance. We respectfully submit the amended FY26 HUD annual action plan resolution and the citizen advisory committee's final actual FY26 CDBG and ESG allocation recommendations. Thank you.

Thank you. I will move to receive and file the communication.

Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye. And that motion passes. Item 16, resolution 2025-66A, a resolution to take effect immediately amending resolution 2025-66, adopted November 17, 2025, authorizing and directing the mayor to submit the fiscal year one-year action plan of the five-year consolidated plan, which includes dollar allocations and activities to be funded with federal CDBG and ESG resources Any other entitlement funds received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, all amendments thereto and all understandings and assurances contained therein and incorporates the city's application to HUD for fiscal year 26 CDBG and ESG funds. Move to adopt.

Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor?

Aye. And that motion passes. Item 17, June 2026, finance department vendor report submitted pursuant to liquid codified ordinance 11103. Move to receive and file.

Second.

Motion's been made and seconded.

Discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. And that motion passes.

Item 18, liquor permit, QAJ Enterprise LLC at 14000 Detroit Avenue. Don't think we have the report on this one yet.

Is that correct?

That's correct, Madam President. We finally got the paperwork.

Oh, great.

Yes, so it will be done soon.

OK, great. I mean, you guys have been a little busy, but thank you. I know there's been some trouble getting things from the liquor control and back and forth, so yeah.

For some reason, this one's been exceptional. We've probably, because Clerk Bach's been a great help. Yeah, this one's been a challenge.

Well, thank you. And we don't have the next one either, right? Is that correct? OK, all right, great. All right, so I will move to defer.

Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. And that motion passes.

Item 19, liquor permit regarding Sini Hospitality LLC at 16806 Madison Avenue. Move to defer.

Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. And that motion passes. OK, we are now to public comment. I have four folks signed in to speak. I'll go through those in order. When I call your name, you can come up. Looks like the microphone is already on, so you don't need to push anything. You'll have up to five minutes. You can address the chair. That's me. Please address the chair. You avoid personalities. You'll state your name and address for the record. And I think that takes it away. All right. So first up is Don Nottage. Welcome.

Good evening, distinguished council people, Madam Mayor, Police Chief. Don R. Nottage, 2159 Morrison Avenue in Lakewood. My name is Don Nottage, and my wife Renee and I have been Lakewood residents for over 25 years. Prior to that, my family had moved to Lakewood in 1974 from the east side of Cleveland. My grandfather, Alex Momrick, along with his father, were builders of many houses in Lakewood going back to the 1920s. In all that time, I've never experienced the conditions I was put through on July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Let's cut to the chase. Over those three days, our power was shut off without warning four times. During that time, we were sent vague, half-hearted apologies by First Energy concerning repair schedules as well as AI-generated phone calls saying that there would be quote-unquote planned outages for one hour and subsequently four to five hours with power. That was a lie. Our power was out for over six hours each time. On July 3rd, after a late dinner, our power went out again, as did our Cox cable bundled phone service. I'm a severe asthma sufferer, and we have medically indicated air purifiers in our house. Due to the rapidly rising heat and humidity, my breathing situation started to become critical. None of my rescue medications were working. Our Verizon service was also down. I became faint, dizzy and started to have cognitive issues. My wife helped me into the car and we rushed to Lakewood ER on Detroit. I was treated for dehydration, heat stroke and asthma symptoms that were addressed. We were in the ER for over four hours. I want to also point out that my wife has epilepsy in which she requires regular sleep. She wasn't able to get any that night. Both of us had our health in danger due to a situation that should never have been allowed to happen in 2026. On July 2nd, our mayor put out a statement starting with, we hear you, and then went on to blame First Energy for the entire thing. Well, hear this. Over 30 years, I worked for four Cleveland mayors. I personally witnessed effective leadership and ineffective leadership, and I know it when I see it. I've seen effective solutions be applied across the board to the myriad of problems a big city faces. I've seen politicians and corporations work together to get things done. I was there when problems got solved, when problems got kicked under the table. I witnessed that too. You are our elected officials. You have a responsibility to provide health and safety to your constituents. That's what we pay you to do. It's time for creative solutions to be enacted, including lawsuits and exploring the enlistment of a different utility provider instead of Lakewood continuously kicking this issue down the road and pointing fingers. And in my opinion, it's frankly irresponsible to build more multi-unit apartment complexes all over the city that will even further stress this failing power grid. If this situation isn't more creatively addressed by this body, people could very well die. I almost did. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Thank you, and I just want to acknowledge, first of all, that I'm sorry for everything that you went through. Many of our residents did. We heard from a lot. I spent those three days, I know Vice President Baker did as well, and other council members of responding to folks in the mayor's office as well. We do have another person signed in to speak about First Energy, and then I thought maybe I'll give the mayor a chance to respond, unless you'd like to do that now.

If I could respond now just to a couple things. And first of all, I want to say thank you for being here. And I'm sorry that this has happened to you. I truly am. As I've said many times and as I've spoken to First Energy, we are talking about life and death here. There are people with your issues, your wife issues, and it needs to be addressed. Some of the things that we have done, and I'm working on putting together a timeline for the public so you can all see a little bit of the work that maybe has gone behind the scenes so we can communicate it a little bit better. But I have a timeline in front of me I want to go through just a little bit so everyone knows some of the work that we've been doing and the law department has been doing. First I want to set the stage is that the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio is the regulatory agency for utilities. So through them is the only way that we can effectuate change through First Energy. So in June of last year we formally petitioned PUCO to investigate the outages from June of last year. Four days later they responded and they launched a formal investigation. By the end of July, their investigation resulted in a letter of probable non-compliance to First Energy. And they noted that several outages in Lakewood were caused by equipment or line failures that are not weather-related events. And it also identified a significant amount of older infrastructure compared to surrounding areas. In October, PUCO formally orders First Energy to install new transformers and complete inspection repair of poles and equipment no later than the end of this year. In the month of October, we also file a legal intervention to oppose First Energy's application to lower its reliability standards with PUCO. In December, in partnership with City Council, they issue a resolution supporting intervention and First Energy's petition to lower those reliability standards. We submitted an affidavit with supporting evidence and opposition of First Energy's petition to lower its reliability standards. Law Director Vargo in February participated in those hearings and cross-examines First Energy officials. We did just see that new transformer was delivered to the Birdtown substation. It is not up and running yet, but it was delivered. And then on June 24, PUCO sides with Lakewood, and they did deny their application to lower the reliability standards. And as of today, I have submitted another complaint to PUCO regarding these last power outages. And just a few things I want to highlight I've now asked for additional financial components to the matter, which include I'm requesting significant direct fines to First Energy, refunds of payments to ratepayers, and other creative options, such as an escrow system that will withhold all ratepayer utility bill payments until the issues in Lakewood are fully resolved. Thank you. So I just want you to know, it may seem like it's behind the scenes, but we are working, the law department is working, we are working very hard to push First Energy as hard as we can and work to have PUCO really come down on this corrupt entity.

Thank you, Mayor, for your efforts. And please keep everyone in the loop. Keep your constituents in the loop through the website or whatever, and make sure people are understanding and that they can have some peace of mind for the future. Because this was bad, as we know. And there's a lot of ripple effects occurring around this. So thank you for your efforts. Please continue.

Absolutely. Thank you. And I just, communication might not be my strong suit, and I work on it very hard every day. We do a lot of really good work at this city. And so we did talk today about maybe getting a website together about First Energy, putting the timeline together about resources for individuals. So we are working to make that improvement because it is important for all of our residents to know all of this work that's being done, and we're fighting hard for all of you.

Yes, a timeline would be, a graphic timeline of things that are happening would be very helpful. for everyone to see.

Thank you. Thanks. Yeah, and I just want to note with that, too, is that that decision by PUCO to not allow first energy. So when they came to us and said, we're going to try to do better on one side in the public, and then behind the scenes we're saying, but we're going to try to lower these reliability standards. They made their announcement that they were delivering that new transformer the day before this decision came out in the papers that PUCO had denied their request to lower their standards. So they can put out a press release when they want to announce like, hey, look, we're doing something great, but they can't put one out to tell you what's happening with your power. I want to point that out and notice that one of the things that was cited in their decision to not allow them to lower their reliability standards was all of your public comments. So I know everybody's tired of submitting public comments to PUCO, but it was cited multiple times in their decision about how much Lakewood residents have suffered and how unacceptable it is. So it is important that we all keep raising our voices as well.

Absolutely. And let me thank all of City Council for your support and your partnership. And as we've tackled this together, I want to recognize all of you. And I do want to call out one council member in particular, which is Tom Bullock, who has a lot of experience in our energy and has been quite helpful as we look to fight with Pucco in some of this. So I want to compliment him as well.

Thank you. All right, next we have Ben Jackson. You can come on up to the microphone. And I'll just note, too, is with public comment, it's not really a back and forth, but I know this is a hot topic, so I want to be a little lenient and I want to give the mayor a chance to respond, but just so we know. Okay, go ahead, Ben.

Thank you everyone for giving me a few minutes. I came here specifically to ask that you guys look into this idea of an escrow account. I think that is the most effective method that we can use, especially for a publicly traded utility. If they start to get nervous about the amount of revenue, if we build in covenants to say If you don't meet certain timelines, some of this money in the SESCRO is coming back. I think we have a much stronger ability to bring them to heel. So I'm glad to hear that. Thank you very much. And if there's anything that we can do, please keep telling us suggestions and that kind of thing around comments and that sort of thing. A coordinated voice, I think, is very valuable. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Next up is Matt Herberger. Welcome back.

Hello, Matt Herberger, 1448 Ponce Road. I'm not here to talk about First Energy, but I will say I've had many disagreements with the city and the administration, but I will give credit to the mayor. I think you're doing an outstanding job holding First Energy to account and and I do. I have many disagreements, but on that front, I think you're doing a great job. So I'm here to talk about something entirely different, unrelated, I think, mostly to what we're talking about. I JUST HAVE A SUGGESTION. FOR THOSE OF YOU, SOME OF YOU KNOW ME, I LIVE ON BUNCH ROAD. THERE'S A MULTIMODAL PROJECT GOING IN, AND I'VE BEEN OPPOSED TO IT, AS HAVE MANY OF MY NEIGHBORS, AND IT'S PROCEEDING AS PLANNED. AND I CAME ACROSS AN IDEA THAT EVEN THE PLANNING DIRECTOR WILL LIKE. because it's easy. Swap the sidewalk for the tree lawn and the tree lawn for the multimodal path on my street. So you extend my yard out further, you plant the trees there, and the multimodal path is adjacent to the roadway. Two things. It creates a buffer zone for the residents there from the traffic that inevitably will be increased, particularly with e-bikes. And it'll give the e-bikes egress and ingress into the multimodal path. And for you, sir, all you got to do is rotate that blueprint 180 degrees, and it'll fit the same way. Think about it. Just think about it. I know it's crazy. I was thinking about it tonight. I just want to suggest that. And then just to touch on one other subject that I think is concerning a lot of people, and it does tie into the multimodal path. These e-bikes, it's exploding. And I know we've touched on it. And I know all of you are educated people and you read and you see what's happening. You see the accidents happening, right? We do see it. We got to get out ahead of it. WE ARE RIGHT, AND I KNOW YOU'RE SAYING LET'S PUT IT INTO MEETINGS, LET'S TALK ABOUT IT. IT'S COMING SO QUICKLY. I WAS JUST, MY DAUGHTER IS A LIFEGUARD AT LAKEWOOD PUBLIC, AT THE POOL AT LAKEWOOD PARK. There's kids doing wheelies right in front of it on their e-bikes. It's almost like it's instantaneous. And my concern is I understand Lakewood wants to do a multimodal paths and they want to increase that. This may damage that and this could be a real problem. We need to find these solutions between pedestrians, regular bikes, e-bikes, motorized bikes. And I'm really concerned because it's caught me by surprise how quickly it's happening and I think it's catching all of us a little bit. And I think we need to get out ahead of it and make sure that we've got regulations in place or we've got ideas about how we control it to make sure people are safe. Because God forbid, like at Hilliard and Madison, too late we find out, hey, we built something, we expected people to follow the rules, they didn't, and someone dies, someone's injured. Right? All good? Thank you.

My pleasure. Thank you. And I'll just, on that, we actually, earlier this evening, we had in our Housing Plan Development Committee, we were talking about the legislation around shared use paths, and that includes definitions of various e-bikes. There's all different sort of categories. But in that, we talked about what I think what we're all seeing right now, and we've had a lot of public discussion feedback as we've had our council community conversations of the little electric they're sort of the updated version of the mopeds that for those of us that are old enough to remember mopeds but but we're seeing children riding them and they're they're going they're go away faster than at the level one two and three e-bikes you know might go 20 miles an hour 20 miles or some of those these are have throttles and can go way faster than that and they're going fast on the sidewalk and in places that is very dangerous. So we did have conversation with that tonight too about not necessarily waiting till we have the full shared use path regulation done to take some action on those because they're they are just kind of exploding. And I think a lot of parents aren't realizing they're being marketed to them as e-bikes, but they're really essentially electric mopeds. And back in the day, you had to have a specific license. You had to be a certain age. there are potential actions we can take with that too and I'm keep looking over at the chief too because it's like we were talking about that tonight and we have to I'll have to follow up with you about that but but so that that is I think one of the things we're all seeing all of a sudden is they're just kind of appearing everywhere and particularly on the sidewalks and it can be very dangerous for folks pedestrians and people with disabilities and seniors so So we agree, and we were actually talking about it earlier tonight. So thank you. All right. Next up is Dennis Kowecki. Oh, great. Come on up. Yep. Good job.

My name is Dennis Kowecki. I live on 2160 Morrison. And the reason I'm here is on my street, we're having problems. I've talked to people, called up at the city hall here. I've been in the city of Lakewood for 53 years at the same residence. So I've been around when they collected garbage from the back. That was great. But in the meantime, somewhere along the line, Lakewood's lost its oomph to take care of, to watch over properties. What I have on my street is a house that's been bad for 53 years. Well, guess what? The gentleman finally died. He was a hoarder. Okay. That was about four years ago. The house is still there. The only thing that's happened, it got painted. Nothing else has happened to it. I've called up. They said, oh, they're waiting for permits to get it done. I mean, this house didn't even have stairs going downstairs. They rotted out. The steps were. And again, I heard, well, they're getting permits and going out with it. It's been way too long. And it started right from the lawn. He doesn't have a lawn. He has some kind of plants that just grew. And you had a tree in there that was never taken care of. It was all over the place. That's gone finally. They've cleaned that up a little bit. But this house has been sitting there, just stagnant. And I go down the street, I don't see anybody there. And if they are there, they're not very long. And we got a second house on our street that's been abandoned for over a couple years. First, we went through neighbors, or the people that lived in it were terrible, okay? They had 13 cars in the driveway and out on the street. And guess who they were parked next to? John. You ever see his place? It's immaculate, okay? And this house, we've called up, talked to people, while they're getting permits and working on it i've been monitoring that house and there's only been a couple people there maybe 15 minutes at the most and they pull out and pull in i don't know what they're doing pull out nothing done the backyard is terrible i mean it's never been taken care of since the other people that were in there with the 13 cars and it wasn't only 13 cars it was a whole mess of people We told them about the noise and everything. And nothing's been done. We've called the city up many times. Don has done so himself. I just want to know why this isn't being taken care of. I mean, they got a gravel driveway in there for 53 years. It's not cement. Now, I know there must be some kind of code that says if you have a gravel and you don't do anything, maybe you can keep it. But you know, this is... 2026 I mean I don't know why this can't be done and right now in that yard there's another dumpster in there this is number nine full-size dumpster I mean myself I personally think the house should have been taken down and put a new one up I mean that's how bad it was That's all I got to say. I'm just wondering when it's going to be taken care of and why we can't get it going. I mean, the rats in the backyard, garbage in the backyard. You know how a backyard is when it's not taken care of and you got trees. It's just a mess. The outside of the house looks nice because they painted it, but the inside and everything else is a total mess. And it hurts me even more is because I knew those people that lived there before. And then when other people came in at dawn and I were trying to get rid of, everybody just said, well, there's nothing we can really do with it. And there's 13 cars. And with the loud mufflers that they had on them at all times, not like regular working hours, but kind of like happy hours. They were coming in at 2, 3 in the morning, 4 o'clock in the morning. I just want to know when that will be taken care of. They're gone already, but we got another one in there. And now, like I said, he's just doing nothing with it. That's all I got to say about that. It's like Forrest Gump.

Well, thank you. I'm not familiar with those specific houses. I don't know. Probably the building commissioner would be, who is not here. But I imagine if someone from the administration would want to talk to you, get those specific addresses after the meeting.

The building department and that. They called back, and I can't remember her name right offhand. And she said, well, we're waiting for permits. Well, that was the permit to paint the place on the one, and it's painted already, and nothing else has been done. Again, no contractors in there, no nothing. And, you know, I pay good taxes in Lakewood. I've been here a long time. You know, I remember when I got cited one time for having paint not painted on one of my boards, okay? And here I got houses that are falling apart. Nothing's being done.

And that is part of the building code enforcement. I see Director Gordon jumping in.

Thank you, President Keppel. After the city council meeting, I'll take down your name and address and your contact information, and I'll pass it along to the building commissioner for you.

Don has called. I have called. You know, nothing. It's like everybody's afraid to, like, press them, it seems like, from the city. You know, like, well, you know, that's all right if there's nobody there. Well, it's not all right.

Although I'm not the building commissioner, the least I could do is take down your contact information and get it to the proper people for you.

Okay. Well, that'd be great. Maybe I should have came to the meeting a long time ago. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. And you don't have to wait to come to the meeting either. You can always email your council people and we can get you in contact with them as well. Or the mayor's office. Any of us can get you to the right people. Okay. That's everybody I've signed in to speak. Did anyone else want to speak who had not signed in? Nope. Okay. All right. With that, then we are at the end of public comment. I want to thank everyone for coming. We do have, so announcements. I just want to first express profound appreciation to our city staff for everyone who, all the employees. I would go through all the departments, but I don't want to miss anyone, but I'll just say it was really all hands on deck. This whole labor or Labor Day, 4th of July weekend, and even before. And I just really want to appreciate, I saw, you know, certainly our public safety forces, public works out in force, keeping the parks clean, Melissa Garrett and all the team putting on the parade. just really everywhere I looked I saw city vehicles and city staff members giving up their holiday to make ours safe and very special so I just want to express appreciation for that and you know and during all those power outages as we're returning all those calls and there's the incident at Marks Plaza. Never a dull moment, appreciate the police getting right on that. I just want to express appreciation to all of our city staff. We're working very hard. Our Human Services Department, We're giving up their holiday to open Cove as a cooling center. So just good work all around and appreciated. And then I also just want to also note that our word for council community conversation is coming up July 16th at 6 PM at Madison Library. Madison Branch of the Lakewood Public Library. So if you live in Ward 4, you'll want to come and chat with Councilman Bixenstein and the at-large council members. But of course, all are welcome. We've had some really great conversations with folks at those about a variety of topics. It's not just what's happening in that ward, so it's worth attending any of those. All right, and then I'll open up other council members' announcements. Council Member Strebeck.

Thank you. One for the calendar for the next two weeks is on July 14th is International Non-Binary People's Day. So keep those folks in mind on that date. Thank you. Thank you.

Other council members' announcements? Announcements from the administration? Nope. With that, then no further business to come before council. Without objection, we are adjourned.

Thank you. Thank you.