City Council - Regular Meeting

It's three committee meetings. They're run by the committee chairperson. We have a caucus meeting which I will preside over which normally is Phil Scott. He is out. I am his substitute. And then after that meeting, we have the council meeting. At the beginning of the council meeting, during that opening section, we have public comment. There's a public comment sign up over by that entry door. You do need to be signed up to get called. And with that, I will um wait for 6:30 and our committee meetings to start. All right, with that it's 6:30. Um, and I will open the public or excuse me, the employee relations committee. Um, take a quick roll call. Uh, Councilman Diaz

here. Councilwoman Robertson here. Okay. So, let's see. Um, I'm just going to go ahead. Director May, why don't you just come on down and I'll just let you have the floor. How's that? Sounds great. Okay. I haven't had to do this yet. The button. Yeah, it's on. I think it's on.

It's on. Okay. All right. Well, good evening, Councilwoman Meyer and members of council. As Councilwoman Meyer stated, I'm here to talk about what's commonly called the personnel ordinance. So, the version that you should have before you this evening, we'll go ahead and we'll start with um the uh job classification paygrade increases as per our ask me contract. You have a variety of job classifications in that contract. You also have six different pay grades represented by that contract. So, in tonight's version, you will see three different job classifications that have an increase to their pay grade. Those classifications include our repairmen. Our repairmen right now, we have a total of six. Five of those are in our water repair, one in our sewer repair. The mechanics, we have four in our service complex as well as three others. Two in our fire department, one in our police department, and one body shop repair worker. Each of those job classifications we are requesting to increase their pay grade by one grade. So in the instance of the mechanics and the body shop workers to increase their pay grade from what is labeled a 15 at this time to that of a 16. In the case of our repairmen to increase what is currently a 13 to what would be called a pay grade of a 14.

Okay. So could you you and I spoke about this already. Um, could you give me or could you let the rest of the committee um know about the scenario that we talked about? We talked about the the repairmen being out on the job site. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

So, our repairman right now, as I stated, they are a pay grade of 13. Now, repairman, I think, is a very challenging position. They have a lot of responsibilities, but I'll give you one possible scenario. When a repairman is fixing, say, hypothetically, a pipe in the roadway, they would typically have to call in a mason to concrete and patch over that. However, by increasing his pay grade, it's going to put them on the same pay grade as that of a mason. Therefore, it's going to contractually make it much easier for them to go ahead and finish that job kind of in one false swoop, making it simpler both for the city as well as for our citizens. Councilwoman, can I just add real quick? I just want to say thanks to ASME. Um, we had a uh this came out of a good dialogue at an LMC with them and just talking about how do we get those holes patched faster and so I appreciate their leaders being willing to work with us on theou to get this done and we're excited for what it can bring.

Did you use the acronym LMC? Oh, sorry. labor management committee. So, we do that with each of our unions um during non-negotiating time to just talk about issues that maybe both sides are having and how do we collectively solve them and it's been very productive for us. Thank you. Um are there questions so far from the committee? Nope. No questions. No. Anyone on council have other questions? Chairman Meyer.

Yes. I have probably brought this up in the past because I've always had a hard time with changing the numbering system rather than changing the pay associated with the number. Um, so you're bumping 15 to 16, 13 to 14. Um, we just had a contract I I understand you're doing anou, but we just had a contract negotiation. I'm not sure why this wasn't hammered out in that version. Um, one of the other concerns I always have is what about the current 16 and 14 job holders? All of a sudden, these people are now being bumped up. They've been waved and now they can do concrete work and masonary work with a simple pay increase. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but that's kind of what I see. And I if I'm a 16 job holder today before this goes into effect. Am I going to come in tomorrow to the LMC and say, "Hey, I I am got these special skills and I think I should be a 17 or something along that line." And I'm not sure why that doesn't open Pandora's box, so to speak, where that, you know, one, you're you're happy for this guy because he's got bumped up, but then you're saying, "Wow, now he's equal to me. He wasn't yesterday. Maybe I should be bumped up." Um, the other thing I noticed is on the 11, the 13 labor class, that group of workers, the laborer classification's an 11. Yes, sir.

There's there's no 12 right now. He could go for I'm I'm the laborer could go from 11 to a 13, I'm sure, with education, time, and all that. And that would make sense. Um, but that's two pay grade raises. And now now you're stretching that even um further. The 11's going to go to a 14 um because there is nothing in the middle. I I I I mean to me the the the it's stirrations are getting wider which may be okay on the one hand but um I know how people some people learn faster and slower than others and not to have a 12 and a 13 before the 14. I'm not sure if that's necessary, but it just seems like we're we're making it further and further apart. Um that my other concern about this especially we just because it's done outside the labor negotiation um and we just had increased all the pay wages for all the pays. Um so they just got a pay increase now they're getting another one. This is like the secret extra pay raise. So it's like a two pay raise in three months. That's what it feels like. That's what it looks like to me. I don't know. That's a lot of questions. a lot of commentary. I don't know if you've got any uh thoughts or concerns about all of that.

Well, if I kind of think on on where to begin with all of that. Uh the first thing I will stress when you're talking about the numbers. Why does it say 13 or 14 or 15 or 16? That corresponds to the wage scale in the contract. So, it has to state that number. It can't give a range like we do for our non-bargaining employees. It has to correspond with the contract. The ask me bargaining unit in of itself. Just as the mayor stated, this discussion was born actually brought to us by the union as posing a solution in our labor management committee which does occur outside of the formal negotiations as a way to keep open lines of communication between the city administration and the bargaining unit as a whole. In fact, the bargaining unit and themselves have already signed anou in favor of these changes that will be filed with serve should this legislation pass this evening. I would just add that in the contract before the one we recently passed, a lot of the different um classifications were given raises um or given bumps and steps including laborer. um one that was not was repair worker and another was mechanics. And so from a especially on the mechanic side, from a competitive standpoint for us to hire qualified people, we feel that that is is important. Um and you know there have been instances I know dispatch in in recent memory got such uh an increase outside of a typical contract cycle. Um, you know, to me, uh, we get constant complaints from residents saying, "Why are holes open in the road for so long?" And we just don't have, we have a lot of masons and we have a lot of skilled mason work that they need to do. So, this gives us the ability on the patches in the holes or the the patches in the road to get that open more quickly so

that people aren't seeing those sit there for for weeks. I mean we have a hardworking crew but you know we do have to abide by the rules of the contract and that's you know this is our proposal to fix that and and you know it and also gave us a chance to um get the mechanics into a more competitive rate and I will expand upon what the mayor stated not in the current cycle that ASME is in but in the contract uh prior to that 51% of the bargaining unit received what's called a grade increase which is what what is being proposed post here that 51% did not include the mechanics, repair workers or body shop workers answer. Okay. Okay.

Sure. Yes. Thank you. Um I will say I well I got one question next to in parentheses it has a number and is that the number of masons and the and laborers that are currently assigned? Do you have what section you're referring to? Yeah, it's it's that position uh you're talking about. It says repair worker, but there's no number like how many repair workers we have. Are the numbers in parenthesis? I'm assuming that those are um actual positions that for that that job. Correct.

Yes, ma'am. So, for example, if you look at section 30 where you see water repair division, you will see repair worker parentheses 6. That's how many we are authorized to have. Does that mean that we have that many currently filled? No, we currently have five that are filled, but we are authorized to have six. If you see no number next to it, that means we are only authorized to have one. So, for example, sewer repair, we are authorized to have one repair worker and we have one repair worker.

Okay. And I and I think that's some of this uh to getting I just wanted to point that out um to make sure it's been a while since I've uh seen some of this. So I wanted to make sure that you know you also understood that there is just maybe that one or two people. So adding this does add to that and I think that helps a little bit to answer some of uh Councilman Falquet's question. It's not unusual either coming from a labor side to have a labor committee m meetings. Um, a lot of times in contract negotiations that I have participated in, you will wait and have a labor management committee meeting on a certain area because you may hold up the contract on something that really isn't a piece for everyone. So, that's really not unusual to have that done. I've seen that done. We we did at police department on different times. It's like, look, we'll address that later with. And you did state that they voted on it, correct? Everyone voted on that that this change you said.

So they don't the way this is NASM's perview. They don't hold a vote but it has been approved by their staff representative and their union president. Okay. And that that helps clarify that. Um right now it's all the questions I have. Maybe help add a little bit. Thank you. Just go ahead. Thank you. Um two questions. one I'm assuming the budget accommodates for the increases that that this will be for the individuals affected. That is my understanding. It does and there's no you know this is going forward in the year. So there's nothing that's you know going in a rears.

Okay. And then just to clarify it looks like the maximum level position we have in here is a pay grade of 16 and the lowest is now an 11. That is correct council mount. Okay. And there are twelves and 13s. They're just in other departments. Correct. So not every department has um one at each level. Yeah. We just no longer have pay grades of one through 10 at all in any department. Correct. Yeah. That was eliminated in previous contracts. Thank you. So not only going back to the fixing the holes and and we're behind on that. This addresses being competitive in the workforce and maintaining these folks. I certainly do.

That gives us the ability to get caught up on some of the issues we have that are lagging because we don't have enough personnel. I believe so, Councilman Miranda. Yes.

And I will note too, this is how it it operated for a long time, the complex. Um, and that was switched a couple couple cycles ago where the the team went out and they did all of the forms of repair. So, it's really returning us back to how they did it for a long time. Anyone else on council have questions? Um my my only question I noticed there were a couple where the um pay increases in fire police chief assistant chiefs um those were going up. Those are within our budgets.

Yeah. And those again are in relation to the recently settled contract. So, you know, we we waited um you know, we we did pass along uh the the um more typical increases this year like all non-bargaining got, but we did want to wait and see where the contract settled out before we made final decisions. So, and when will those go into effect? Uh we'll work on it over the next uh couple weeks most likely. Yeah.

Okay. We do need we will be bringing the benefits ordinance to council too probably uh either in the second half of May or beginning of June and that we were kind of waiting for all of the contracts to settle. So we're going to align things across our bargaining units and our non-bargaining units with that. Yes. And and uh also this mayor and you could probably answer this uh as far as the pay range increases um that doesn't mean that those positions automatically go to the high end. This is something to cover correct the percentages that um were awarded already in the police and fire contracts to bring those. Correct.

Yes, absolutely. We we don't um we are typically not at the top levels of those. Um, so we always want to make sure that we're keeping ourselves some room. Um, and I know in past, you know, I'm I'm trying to give us room so we're not having to come back every year for increases. Um, so, you know, we we have bumped those numbers up a little bit. And we've also been trailing the lower numbers just to make sure that we're not leaving them because, you know, when you when you hire for these positions, if if uh as it was done in the past, if the low range is still at a very low range, it impacts who you're getting uh to apply. Anyone else? Nope.

All right. Thank you, director. Thank you. Uh, and with that, I'll entertain a motion to close the employee relations motion. Second. Second.

All right. And at 6:46, I will open the safety committee meeting. Um, we are going to be discussing several pieces of legislation, but let's start with uh bill 26-82. Um, this will be the fire prevention code uh that we're making some amendments to or changes to. Um, so chief, yep, we're going to Chief Crow here with us. So, you and I met and we discussed, but I'm just going to let you take the reigns and

we'll just go right through it.

No, good evening, council. Um the intention of this uh of this legislation is to update our fire prevention codes relating to our permits and fees section. Uh mostly it's to eliminate some parts that are duplicative with other areas of our ordinances such as the uh public assembly both indoor and outdoor. Uh those currently aren't handled in the fire department. They're handled at the safety director's level. So having them in there is a little confusing. Um, we also wanted to add some language that gives the safety director uh a little bit of leeway to determine if there if you would uh like to wave all or parts of some of the fees, especially if it's related to our schools or nonprofits or other other uh community organizations that are holding events that are not generating a profit and are are just for public benefit. It gives him the discretion to do that. Um those particularly are consist of fireworks andor having squads stand by for certain types of events. Um, another goal of this is to um kind of simplify our fee structure for those events rather than having flat fees to base it on actual hourly rates of the people that are required to attend those. Uh, and then we eliminated an entire table there of permits that are what the fire code considers discretionary, which means that a department, a fire department like ours can or may uh implement those types of programs and permits. We currently don't implement any of those programs. So, it's a little bit confusing when people, even our own guys, read that section of the code and they say, well, why aren't we permitting repair shops? And it's like, well, it's it's allowable by the fire code. We currently don't do that. So, we should just eliminate those. And if we do in the future want to uh implement one of those programs, then we should come to council, explain the the purpose of what that new program will be, and have you authorize it and establish a permit fee and all the other rules for it rather than just having it sit in there and and not really serve a purpose. So, I think those were the main goals uh as we went through this round of review.

All right. Does anyone on the committee have any questions?

I just have one. It's okay. Thank you. Um, so these are uh in line with any state requirements as well. So, we're not violating anything that maybe the state would require of someone by removing these. We're just It's just our municipal ones. Correct. No. Yeah. So, the ones that are required by the fire code is um in table uh 1502.4.2, those are required that we regulate those, we are keeping those. And then the ones that are listed as operational permits are the discretionary that we can remove. All right. Thank you, Chief. Yep. Thank you.

Anyone else? Thank you very much. And at 650 I will close. Um so we're going to uh bill 26-076. That will be that's just a quick um many thanks to Mechanics Bank. They're going to be donating uh $200 for our bike palooa. So uh and then 26-077 will be um appointing members to the police review and community police relations commission. So we thank you to all of my colleagues sitting up here. Um we will be appointing four new members this evening to the first ward will be um and if if you're here kind of raise your hand when I call your name. Um the first ward will be Nikki Jaruta. Okay. And the second ward Jason Taylor. Uh fifth ward Michelle Isaac. Okay. And the sixth ward Sarah Hampton. Okay. Fantastic. Thank you all very much for being willing to serve. We certainly appreciate it. Um and then we'll we'll get to that when we get into council. Okay. Um I think with that I can close the safety committee at 6:51. Okay. Thank you, Councilwoman

Meyer. Um, at this time it's 6:50 and I would like to call the claims committee uh into session and uh roll. Councilwoman Daly and Councilman Miranda present. All right. So, we have four claims we're going to discuss here. Sorry, lots of paperwork. Give me a minute. And uh uh Tracy is here from the law director's office as well. Good evening.

As is uh assistant uh law director Madden. So we're going to start out with the first claim. It's claim uh number 15-052025. Is there anyone here in reference to this claim? It's James Dylan. No. Okay. Tracy, you wanna

Yes. Uh thank you. Uh this claim is regarding a sewer backup from the floor drain in a basement. Um the claimant or the applicant stated that one to or excuse me, three to four basement rooms had up to 4 in deep of uh sewage backup and he did um have plumbers bills that he sent in that were actually paid. He does not have insurance to cover the sewer backup as we have learned that most insurance companies will not cover groundwater claims to their homeowners insurance. Um the amount of the claim is $1,775. The law director's office in doing our investigation did locate work orders pertaining to the issues at or near the claim address. I actually spoke with the sewer supervisor Tracy Ranolds um about the Shaw Rogue backups and he is very wellversed in that area and one of the concerns that the claimant had was that he noticed pri about a week prior to his uh issue he noticed that there was work being done on a manhole a few blocks down from his house. Supervisor Ranold told me that that was not um related to his specific claim that Mr. Ranolds was very well verssed and said that he believes that it was the sewer line that ran between the property of the claimant and his neighbor at 591 and 583 Shaw Road and that it is a um propriet a non-proprietary line and that that was blocked a lateral excuse me a lateral line running between the two houses and not from the city line. So, it was recommendation of the law director's office to deny the claim in the full amount of $1,775. Okay. Thank you. Does anyone from the committee have any questions about this?

Basically, they're stating that it was not a city line that was blocked. Any questions from the committee? Anyone from council? Okay, moving on. Next one is claim number 28-1020225 for Nick Godfrey. Mr. Godfrey here. Okay. One, hold up one second, Tracy, if you would. Uh, President President Falquette, do we need to do a motion to accept the law directors? I think you should. I think on each individual one, you should take a vote. I got ahead of myself.

So, it's official. Yeah. Okay. So, in reference to claim number 15-052025 um to deny the claims. Do I have a motion on this to deny this claim? There's a motion to deny the claim based on law director's recommendation. Do I have a second? It has been seconded. Now, we can move on. Sorry about that.

My mistake as well. So, thank you for that. Okay. Okay. The second one again is claim number 28-1020225 for Nick Godfrey. Uh this actually was another sewer back up um into his rental property and that rental property is located oh on Buckley Avenue, 283 Buckley Avenue. Um there was a city work order and that the field notes on that work order state that the main was blocked and that it was flushed at 312 feet and cleared. Um Mr. Godfree's claim amount is $182712. However, the receipts that he submitted that were paid only total $162712 where he's asking for an additional $200 towards his water bill. um the law director's office after doing our investigation, we recommend a settlement of the 162712, the amount of the actual paid submitted receipts and denying that additional $200. Okay, any questions from the committee members? Any questions from anyone on council or anyone else? Okay, I will take a motion that we approve the settlement in the amount of $16,26,000. Listen to me. I'm just throwing money around right now.

There you go. $162712 and in the amount of the sub receipts that were submitted. So that's my motion. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor? I

motion passes that one. Thank you. The next one is claim number 30-110525 for Samantha Joe Henthornne. Samantha here. No, Samantha. Okay. Okay. This one is a water main break. and Miss Henthorn lives at 213 Pearl Avenue um which has quite a few problems uh with the water lines that they're trying to repair. Uh basically there was a work order that the law director's office located that was dated 1027 where the city repaired an 8 in 8 in main water man with an SS band which I believe that is stainless steel band. Is that correct? Thank you. Uh the owner called the complex again on 11:7 which is roughly a week later say stating that the line was leaking flooded her basement the second time. The city reopened that work order and tightened that stainless steel band uh to correct the problem. Uh, basically the claimant submitted documentation. Um, I should say that she submitted basically, let me get the name of the company so I don't get it wrong like I did last time. Um, I believe it's the basement doctor. Yes, the basement doctor. And it was actually just a quote and not a paid receipt for repairs done to our basement. Um, so she does have homeowners insurance, but again, the homeowner's insurance does not cover groundwater losses. Um, their actual letter says that uh, escape water from city water supplying lines are considered groundwater and exclusion on your policy. So, her homeowners insurance did not cover it. She does not have any paid submitted receipts. The only thing that she submitted was um the

amount of people that worked with her to clean up the two water main breaks and the dam or excuse me the uh damage to her basement. And she submitted basically a total of 60 hours for two cleanups for backup into her basement. And I I want to say this, this waterline break, unfortunately on her street was a large break. We viewed video and saw the actual water coming down the street. So, it was extensive. So, unfortunately, she did not have anything to put in other than the 60 hours. So, it is the recommendation of the law director's office to pay the claimant a settlement amount of $1,500, which represents 60 hours of personal work time at $25 per hour for the uh output of that labor to clean up that pro those two problems. Is there any questions from the committee members in reference to this claim?

Miss Daily. So, I'm looking at I have pictures that her yard is torn up. So, the city will be repairing that also. Yes, that is an open work order. Okay. Just making sure. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions from committee or council? Miss Mo, Councilman Mo, thank you. I don't have the u same bundles. What was the estimate from the basement doctor? if I remember. Yeah, the total claim was for over $5,900.

$59.99 $5,992 for them to do the cleanup. Okay. Thank you. And I believe the law director's office did talk with her and she was in a I believe at the time she seemed favorable toward what they were proposing. Any additional questions? Okay. I'll entertain a motion that we follow the law director's recommendation and settle and paying a settlement of $1,500 in reference to this claim. Put it move it forward to legislation. I'll move forward motion to follow the law director's recommendation.

So, Councilman Miranda seconding. All those in favor? I that covers that. Okay. The last one um here and I believe we're actually caught up. We we went through some back ones from 24 all 25 and uh this this is the the as of Thursday we were caught up. So yes Tracy if you'd like to go. It is my pleasure to to say this last one. Uh this claim is claim number 32-112425 for Alexa Mabberry. Is Alexa here? No.

Okay. Thank you. Um this claim initial amount was $5236. Um her claim was that she stated that it was the third incident and the second time in the same spot um among many damages and flooding caused uh to her basement. So this I checked the claims master list and there was no previous claims filed by Miss Mabry for the previous issues that she's had. But I did locate several service cor uh excuse me, service request and work orders at the claimants's address for mainline checks and leaks. Uh Steve Brown, the supervisor at the service complex, stated that there's a large trunk in the area that feeds half a man's field and that it has his words were monster pressure and that unfortunately the city cannot control when that main breaks. So, Miss Mabberry lives adjacent to that monster line. Um, she submitted two receipts. One for Menard's for a replacement water heater and another one for Dave Cobb who is at HVAC and it was for a furnace control board. The total of those two receipts were for $997.93. The difference of that for the claim that she councilman mount is that um the difference of that claim was is that she also had a estimate from a cleanup for 4292 that was that work was never completed or paid for. So, it is the position of the law director's office to pay the claimant a reduced settlement amount of $997.93 cents representing the total of actual receded damages that she submitted.

And if I see on here, she did not have insurance. No, she does not carry insurance. So, the recommendation is why is to cover those actual receipts that were submitted. Is there any questions from the committee on this? Anybody else from council? Miss Mount. What was the location again on this one? 287 Central Avenue. Thank you. Any other questions?

I guess I I just think that we might be setting a precedent here if we're paying out for things like this when it's uh not necessarily a controllable situation. So I I'm not sure that I've heard the city paying for claims like this before. So I just wanted to at least raise that because I think you know we have lots of water mane breaks hundreds a year. So if we're going to go down this I do believe we are going to have a lot more claims and I think council should think about that carefully. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Madden, do you have anything to add to that? Um,

yeah, I would just say that uh we do take these claims very seriously. We do an investigation uh for each individual claim and so any recommendation we have is based on a uh on a fact-specific basis of uh of what we think the liability um very well could be if if it came to uh you know litigation. Thank you. Any other questions? I'll entertain a motion to that we follow the law director's uh direction and do a reduced settlement of $997.93 representing the actual receipted damages. We have a second. Miss Dailyy, all those in favor.

Miss Daily, were you in favor? You say I ask is this. All in favor? Okay. We'll move on for uh city council to consider legislation on. That is the end of the uh claims committee and I'll call a motion to adjurnn here at 7:05. Seconded. I'll second it. Thank you. We're journ. All right. At 7:05, I will call Mansfield City Council Caucus meeting to order. Do we have any committee reports from council? Mr. Diaz.

Thank you, Mr. President. Just a few here. Um this week coming up we want to um announce that this Saturday I believe at 10:00 on the corner spring mill Bowman is going to be the annual dumpster day hosted by NCIC. It's a partnership with Earth Stewardship Program. The cool thing about this is you can bring anything except for things like tires and paints. Otherwise it's a free service. Um load up um and like I said it'll be going on till about 1:00. Um with the weather breaking, did want to remind everyone about the homeless response task force. We tend to do that when um we're seeing a lot more uh activity throughout the community. Um people think when you're unhouse or homeless, it's typically in the downtown area and that's not the case. And situation with the homeless response task force is it's a unique partnership with um our police department and social workers at Catalyst and they work hand inand to identify if anyone is homeless or you know they need any support. So, it's um it's great partnership and we encourage the community to call the emergency uh police uh line if you do suspect someone is um loitering somewhere or they're um squatting in a house, commercial building, just ensure that they're safe and everyone else is safe. And then the last announcement is something that I don't know if a lot of people know that, but every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday is the Americanore uh I connect. It's a program uh offered for those 60 years old and above. Although if you're a little bit below 60, they'll still let you come. And uh they uh meet typically at Oasis of Love Church on Tuesdays. And uh in the friendly house on Wednesdays and Fridays and what it entails is um exercise, socialization, um they do like community outings, um just everything. And as you know, education on spam and telemarketers and stuff like that. So, if you know anyone in your family or you yourself is interested, uh, check it

out. Again, that's the Marcore I connect program. And that concludes my announcements. Thank you, Mr. Diaz, for your timely community updates. Would the mayor like to address council?

Yes, sir. So, uh, before I uh there's two things. First, I want to make sure we have a great crowd tonight, which is great. Uh, Saturday, May 9th, we have our annual Bika Palooa event. Um, Mansfield Police Community Policing Division heads that up with many community partners. They have dozens and dozens of bikes for children of all ages to give out. That's going to be taking place at North Lake Park from 10 to 2. So, we need your help because we want to make sure that we're getting kids there. So, I would ask folks if you see it on Facebook, if you can share it, if you can uh share with families who have children, that would be great recipients. um they do a really great job with this every year. Kudos to uh police also joined by fire and and many other community agencies to put this all together. And then the second thing is I wanted to um obviously there's been uh a lot of conversation in the community over the past week about a potential economic development project. Um, typically I'm not addressing it in this way, but um, I released a statement just before council and so I wanted to just go ahead and read my statement so that everyone here is aware of of what was released and and uh, you know, where the city is at this point uh, regarding that potential data center. So, the city of Mansfield routinely works on potential projects with developers in many sectors including industrial, commercial, residential, and technology. That process can span years or months as details are explored and refined before presenting a final proposal for consideration. In this case, the proposed data center project started as a concept with a much smaller scope. As the proposal evolved, it became significantly larger and more complex to consider. As that happened, we began

engaging regional and state resources to assist. The project still had many important unanswered questions which were essential to being able to consider it fully. We had made clear to energy acres that we needed further definition, coordination, and answers to key questions before taking any further steps. The developer moved forward with the public meeting last week without prior local coordination and this made clear that we are not in alignment and so we have communicated to them that we will no longer pursue this project. I don't take a decision like this lightly because I know that we need to continue to attract businesses, jobs, and new residents. Projects of this scale must be fully vetted as well as coordinated and aligned with the community before they can move forward. Ultimately, a development must work for the community, not just in the community. And so, you know, I just wanted to make sure that everyone is aware where that is standing right now. At any point in time, we are talking to lots of developers and we take that very seriously to make sure that we're finding good partners and we're bringing quality developments into the city of Mansfield. So, thanks to everyone who reached out. I know council folks uh received a lot of feedback and and many others. Um, and I will be following up with all the emails and the the phone calls that I got as well, but I wanted to make sure that the statement got out to everyone at once. Thanks.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, Director Andrew, anything this evening?

As the weather's warming up, we're starting to do some more projects outdoors with renovations at the parks. Uh, we're continually to looking at u getting the the dam repaired at Liberty Park. So, we hope to finish up those dam repairs uh this week. Uh the other thing that we're looking at is we have a new vac truck that we that we're leasing for five years, and that's significant because it helps us with the sewer repairs and backing out those lines. And this truck has a lot more capability and dependability than our other unit did. So, this is going to make us more efficient, be able to do things more quickly and more efficiently. The other thing we're working on is is completion of the water plant project that we started. Some of the things we're working on right now, we're looking at renovating and reconditioning three of our wells and we hope to have those completed by June. And that's essential making sure that we have good dependable water sources when we need those. Uh some of the other things that we're looking at is we have several positions open. We have seasonal positions open in in the parks and in codes and permits. We also have several positions open in our complex as well. So, if someone is interested in working with the city, please go to our website and look at those opportunities for employment. That's all I have. Thank you,

Director Porch. Yes, just a couple things. The the fire department uh finally received their new hazmat spill truck. Uh they have sent that off to be marked to be schemed for the Mansfield Fire Department. Uh the chief expects to have that in service in May. So that old hazmat truck is uh will be put out of service. Obviously it had a lot of years on it and uh looking forward to having uh modern up-to-date equipment for the fire department for this use. So I know the the chief's excited to have it. Uh the police department, they finished up the assessment uh through accreditation two weeks ago. Uh the mayor sat down with the assessor for an exit interview. Uh the police department chose three focus areas through accreditation was internal affairs, use of force and our public communication center. So that when the assessors arrive to the police department, they take extra care and pay particular attention to those areas. So, I'm proud to report to council that zero findings were found throughout the accreditation process, especially in those three areas of focus. Um although the assessor could not inform the mayor that uh the police department will be reacredited because that reacredit out in Omaha, Nebraska in July. So that's when the the chief and the command staff will go in front of the commission for the final uh determination if they'll receive reacredititation. But I have no doubt that they'll uh the uh will definitely succeed in that. And it's important to note that only 5% of law enforcement agencies in this country have accreditation and Mansville police is

one. So should we should be very proud of that fact. So that's all I have. Well, congratulations on the current progress. And do you think the fire department might show off their new vehicle at a pre prior to a council meeting in the future? Yeah, we'll have them throw out some gas in the road and we'll get the hazmat truck going and the chief will put on a demonstration. All right, sounds good. Director Converse,

thank you. So, we're um very happy to be on the other side of tax day and uh I think we managed traffic a lot better this year than we did in previous years. It was nice to have the first floor open. We didn't have um many taxpayers who were complaining about the process and having to wait, those who decided to come at the last minute. I do have some numbers for you preliminarily about um the first part of revenue. So income tax revenue overall is 1% up as compared to this point last year, but that's because of the water main tax. When you take out the water main tax, we're actually 2% less than year-over-year, but we are at 30% of what we've estimated. So from a budgetary standpoint, we're doing well. Um water revenue is at 24% of the budget, but it is 1% down over this point last year. Sewer revenue on the other hand is at 26% of budget and 4% up over last year. So that's a a better more welcome trend in sewer. Again, water seems to be still located in commercial accounts. And I know we're still reviewing that, but haven't found anything that is out of the ordinary. I know the mayor's uh working group has uh been really diligently looking into the causes of the decrease and have found valid concerns or valid reasoning for the decreases on all of those accounts so far. That's all I have.

Thank you, director and assistant law director Madden. Uh no updates from the law director's office this evening. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right. We'll now proceed with legislation. First up, um, Councilwoman Davis. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, at this time, I move that we um bring 26074 to the floor to be read, placed upon the floor for discussion. Oh, just that's in the next part. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, you just you just introduce it. Tell us what it's about.

I'm just telling you what it's about. I apologize. This is a long day. Yes. Um, this is authorizing public works director to accept the appropriate donation in the amount of $4,300 from the Mansfield Rotary Club Incorporated in declaring an emergency.

Are there any questions? Of course, we thank the Rotary Club for their donation and uh public works directors got plans for this? Yeah, the Rotary Club has been very helpful in helping us with the dog park at Sturkl Park. And so this is to provide ADA walkway to uh the dog park area. Thank you. Um Miss Davis, you have the next one.

Thank you. At this time, I'm sorry. This is authorizing public works to also accept an appropriate grant in the amount of 14,000 $14,468,000 from the rich yes from the Richland Public Health and declaring an emergency.

Does anyone have any question or comment on that including the public works director on where he may spend that money? Uh that money is going to be used at Prospect Park for new basketball goals. Uh we had it uh paved and we also had it striped earlier this week. So the goals would actually make that a a new basketball court there. Any other questions or comments from councel? Mrs. Meyer, you're up next.

Thank you, sir. uh 26-076 uh as discussed in committee will be authorizing the safety service director to accept and appropriate a donation in the amount of $200 from mechanics bank to be used for bike pulooa. Thank you very much to mechanics and 26-077 be will be appointing the members to the police review and community police relations commission um set appointments to be effective immediately and once again thank you all being willing to step up

and I think the previous bike donations can be used for purchase of bicycles or support items for the bike palooa event. Um, anyone on council have questions on the on the previous two items? All right, I'm up next on 26078. This is appointing Jessica Gribbon to the Downtown Improvement Advisory Board commencing July 1st. Any questions there? All right, Mrs. Meyer, you're up again.

Thank you, sir. uh 26-079 uh as discussed in our employee relations committee adopting personnel positions, pay grades, and salaries for certain employees of the city of Mansfield 2026 payroll year.

Any questions on that one? All right, I'm up next. We've got the uh mayor and the public works director entering into a community reinvestment agreement and the following one 26081 is related to that um with the Mansfield forward fund um developing a project at the 116 Park Avenue West. Uh we did not have a committee meeting on this, but if anyone has questions, we are graced tonight with uh several key players with that um project. Uh Barrett, who's usually in the middle of all economic development, uh Mr. Jay Goyle and Mr. Dave, I hope I'm right. I All right, they're all here. if you have any questions or comments on that project. Um, it's gotten some nice press recently. Miss Robinson,

thank you. Uh, Council President, um, I have a question. Um, as far as goes, how soon do you think, uh, you would get started on I mean, what's the earliest do you think or you get started should everything fall into place on this? Yep. On up, gentlemen. We would um we would anticipate I would say probably in August or September beginning beginning renovations assuming everything happens that still needs to happen. That answered my question. Thank you.

Uh Mr. ideas. Um, for those who aren't here, we're talking about the hotel development, the former Holiday in, and I just we're excited. I mean, that's been an area that has had a lot of like question marks above it and with everything happening with the expansion of downtown. I just applaud you guys for really investing in that entire structure. And um, I remember what it was in his heyday. I think you're going to do you're going to elevate it. So, thank you again.

Thank you, Mrs. Meyer. Jay, thank you for being here. You and I spoke and I just wanted to publicly say I'm fully in support of the project. Uh it's I I trust that that your group is going to do, you know, make it even better than what it was before. So, thank you for taking the time and the energy and investing in our city. We appreciate it. Thank you. Anyone else on council, Mr. Miranda? So expected start time August, September, completion time,

we're hoping to be ready to have a grand opening late May, early June of 2027. And on that note, again to mirror really appreciate what your group has put together. Um downtown the down the Mansfield area does not have a a good hotel solution and that's quite quite the village. So, I'm very pleased and excited of what the energy you're going to bring and and bring back to Mansfield. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone? Yes.

I have to say something. When I just moved here, um our furniture didn't didn't arrive. So, my husband company at the time put us up at that hotel and I did we did enjoy staying there when it was holidaying. That was like 2006. So, it was really nice then. Thank you for doing that. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Yeah, I just wanted to say thanks. I mean, this is a good example of um a positive project that they have been working on and we've been talking to them for quite some time. Um I see Snal is here as well and I know you know that Jay has really put a lot of work into getting local investors behind the project. Um, this is something that our community has needed for a while is a downtown hotel that is uh in good shape and uh that people want to stay at. So, you know, I just wanted to add my thanks. I think we've got some really good momentum now uh with a lot of the projects that are currently in the works. So, thanks again for you both stepping up and all of your investors.

Thank you. Anyone else? You you want to go again? Yeah, I think it's fitting too because it's right beside the Renaissance. You bring it back to Murphy's Lounge. Um, so I' I've heard stories about Murphy's Lounge. I I myself uh haven't experienced it, but we do plan on eventually reactivating all of the spaces within the hotel.

Yeah. And I guess I too will um close up with I'm was very happy to see the who's who of local investors that were involved which I think is really important for our particular community. If that's all um go ahead. I just I I want to echo a lot of what everyone said, but also, you know, Mansfield, I've been here my entire life pretty much. And uh remember downtown when our parents would be like, "No, you're not taking your skateboard down there and running, you know, anywhere near downtown." And I'd get chased out of the parking garage by the police because I shouldn't have been in there skateboarding. And uh you know, you see, you know, with the start of the carousel district and that really started to change downtown and now you see what's going on. you know, we've cleaned up a lot of vacant houses around town and then we refocused with rising, you know, Ma Mansfield Rising and then you start seeing our local people like the mayor said and and many others here that get that take that investment like the FerniaS and now you and that brings me a lot of joy. So, thank you for that.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. And as you know, as as mentioned, it certainly isn't just me. We've got a great team. uh Snighles um my my partner in this uh he's the one who brings the uh operating experience for the hospitality uh portion and we have a great group of local investors who are fully behind us so we're excited about that as well. All right. Oh, Miss M.

Thank you to add to it's hard to add to what everybody else has said, but thank you for saving a building that was at that point that we can still hopefully save it. So often the buildings around here get to that point they have to be torn down which is a huge expense and then an empty space where there had been something worthwhile. So I'm so happy to see somebody saving a building when it was just barely in the nick of time. Thank you. All right, Miss Whis Davis.

And I didn't want to belabor it. That's why I thought everybody was commenting. But I do want to thank you very much. Um, one of the things that I definitely like to see is is when we have someone like you who has been a phenomenal like superstar, done stuff in the state house and then continuously bringing things back that bring value to the city. We appreciate that and your team all the way around. So, thank you for the work on this. Thank you. I appreciate that.

All right, we'll excuse you now. Thank you for coming forward. Yeah. All right, Mrs. Meyer 082. uh 26-8082 amending and uh as we talked about in the safety committee amending and enacting chapters 1502 of the Mansfield codified ordinances of 1997 concerning the Mansfield Fire Prevention Code and I would like to move this forward. Make a motion to move it forward.

Second. I have a motion in a second to uh eliminate all further readings of 26082 and move it forward for final uh consideration this evening. Do you have that magic one? All right. It'll be up before us in just a moment if there's a moment for any question and then we'll vote. There you go. 8 to zero passes. We'll vote on that this evening. The final one this evening is mine 26083. This is ARPA funds American Rescue Plan. Uh we have some money that um leftover change so to speak, but big money $104,250.17. Uh that money is being requested to direct towards the Westinghouse Arch, which I believe is some architectural feature for historical significance. Uh Blair is here this evening to talk about that. And the second half of this is $372,429.118 um to go towards the wayfinder project, a project which we've already have some funding going towards that. Um does anyone have any questions for Blair about the uh arch? Somebody ask him something because I'm sure he's got a picture. Mr. Miranda,

what are some of the timelines on it?

Yeah. So, we're a little constrained um with the Westinghouse party. I think it's the Westinghouse party that's going to be happening. So, we're being mindful of that. We don't want to the site is nice and seated and green. Uh we don't want to start construction on the side of that, create a money mess. So we would be uh starting at this point after that party is completed. So do you have an approximate calendar, day, month, season?

No, we don't have a signed agreement with uh our uh it's WR restoration is the company that's been approved by the land bank to do the work. Uh we don't have a signed agreement yet because we didn't have uh full funding yet. So Okay. All right. And we're all cognizant of extreme uh time constraints on this uh fund.

Yeah. Everything still has to be spent by the end of this year. And the restrictions from the Department of Treasury were that we could only move money to projects that had been previously um voted on and awarded. So technically um this contract is with the Richland County Land Bank. Um, so, uh, this gets them to being able to be at a point I think they're being you'll be able to move forward, I think, with a little more.

Yes. And the the construction of the of the doorway itself is fairly simple. So, it's going to be a concrete masonry wall, cinder blocks with a veneer of brick, and then reuse of in the photo I've got, you can see kind of the square rectangle details with the arrows and then the doorway itself. Those will all be reused pieces from the original doorway that was deconstructed um during the demolition of the a building. So, um yeah, it should be a pretty quick project. It's it's not very big. It's uh about 29 feet by 19 feet. So, 29 ft wide, 19 ft tall. So,

okay, Mrs. this kind of I mean when this was deconstructed is I mean like just how many pieces is this in at this point? I'm just kind of curious. Um it is in just under 40 pieces. It looks like 38. So um it it we are going to be able to reuse all original pieces except for the base stones. Those will have to be reconstructed. They were too too damaged just based off of water and salt. uh the proximity to the road really did a number on them. So, all right. Anyone else? You can give us an update when you know more. Yeah, we can put a picture up on the screen next time. Sure. All right.

All righty. Any questions on the wayfinder segment? Mayor, do you want to just interject? I just was going to say he can give you a brief update. So, they have been working. Of course, we had previously approved um a half a million dollars of ARPA funds uh to this project. Um and anyone who's done construction knows when you get into the middle of a project um they did have some uh some more uh remediation that they had to do um in order to move forward. So, I'll hand it to Miles.

Yeah. So, overall project is going well. Uh thank you again for having me allowing me to be here. Uh just kind of typed up a quick onepage document with some photos so you all could see the progress. Again, project overall is going well. As the mayor mentioned, we did have some unexpected costs there which I've listed. Um all of those change orders have been approved. Everything that's ital atalicized is related strictly to mold damage. Um so upon receiving the property, we knew that the mold damage was going to be there. We didn't realize quite how significant that was going to be. So once we kind of got into it, it was a little bit more than we initially planned. Um really we've done everything the absolute right way. So we're you know we're certainly mindful of the all the uh all-in expenses but want to make sure that we're making this a building to be in for for many years to come. So that included some damp proofing. Uh we now have some subp pumps that are installed. You can see on the back of the photos there. Um one of the photos actually shows the conduit that was totally rusted away just because again of the mold damage. So um the other uh outstanding issue that we had was some asbestous abatement that we were initially not aware of that has since been remedied as well. So um you can see there the total unexpected costs. The acred expenses to date are just over a million dollars and this initial 2.2 to 2.3 million project is now approaching 2.8 but as the mayor mentioned that that I think is kind of part for the course. So I'm more than happy to take any questions. Actually, if you drove by today, you would see that the balcony out front is totally down. Um, so the balcony there and the artist rendered drawing on the front has since been removed. That was structurally unsafe. And so we again want to do it the right way. We've completely torn that down and we'll be rebuilding that as well.

Questions, Mrs. M. Thank you. You still on target to be able to finish this by December of this year? Yep. So, contractually, the contractor must be done by October 25th of this year. Uh he is still planning for the second week of September. So very good. Yep. More hands up. Mr. Diaz Miles, just thank you. You this this has been your life. You've been non-stop doing this and I know you're being bombarded with people asking you the progress of wayfinders and it's unfortunate we have to expand to house this growing need, but that's the reality of it. But I just want to thank you. I I know your team and um I think this is exciting and uh and just a good job.

Thank you. So we saw record high last year in terms of shelter numbers. We saw 650 individuals uh looking at annualized numbers through 26 were on pace to see 792. So to your point, the need is unfortunately growing. And real quick, uh the housing capability at at on a day when it's all done, how many people can you hold in here? So in our current shelter, 58. Okay. Okay. And about a 4,700 foot building with a basement. This will allow 78 to 80 in an almost 13,000t space. Okay. Anybody else? Um All right. Thank you.

Thank you. And that concludes the um caucus. Unless something comes up, I'll make a motion to close. Second. All those in favor say I. I. We're closed. 7:37. At 7:38, I'll now open Mansfield City Council. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for a quick uh comment. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Heavenly Father, we ask that you look over our proceedings this evening. Give us guidance and wisdom. Please bless our city and take care to watch over our safety service forces. Amen. Amen. Clerk will now call the role.

Mr. Miranda, present. Mrs. Meyer, present. Mrs. Davis Whis, present. Miss Daly, present. Mr. Diaz here. Miss Mount here. Miss Robertson here. Mr. Falcott here. President Scott. Make a motion that Mr. Scott be excused. Second.

It's been moved and seconded that we excuse Mr. Scott from tonight's e uh meeting. All those please vote. passes 8 to zero. All right. Unless there's an objection, the reading of the journal and correspondence will be dispensed with. We do have late bills. Miss Whis, I apologize.

Miss Dailyaly, my apologies, Miss Dailyy. I move with Thank you, Mr. President. I move with respect to bill 26-076 26-078, 26-080, 26-081, and 26-083. that the rules requiring legislation be submitted by Monday at 4 PM be suspended and that bill 26-076 26-078 26-080 26-081 and 26-083 be allowed on the floor this evening.

Second. It's been moved and seconded to allow several bills on the floor this evening. We'll cast a vote on that. Suspension of the rules. Hang on. We got a move.

Passes 8 to zero. Those bills will be allowed on the floor this evening. All right, let's suspend some rules. Okay. I move with respect to all bills that come before council this evening that the rule requiring reading on three different days be suspended and that each bill be read one time by title only. Second.

Thank you. It's been moved and seconded that we suspend reading three separate times and that we just read the titles only. If there's no question, we can go ahead and vote. passes 8 to zero. All right. Now, it's time for public comments. All right. Sherry Ramsey is up first. This evening, what we uh do as we've always done, we have uh the speakers are called, they uh state their name and their address. um they have up to three minutes to discuss what's on their mind. Also, just uh for comment for a lot of new faces in here, there's generally no interaction between the uh council or the staff or anything up here. We you just get to state your case. We've got your address here and uh if there's followup needed, it'll probably happen at a later time. Um, so Miss Ramsey,

yes, my name is Sherry Ramsey, nine Pinewood Drive, Shelby, Ohio. And I have been working with the group that's been outside today. This planning to come up here and speak was a decision we made before we heard what you had said, but we also feel like we need to kind of continue to move forward a little just because you never know. And I would like to speak when it comes to like health problems that this place could cause. I know I personally have a child with severe asthma. We've been hospitalized multiple times in Akran and the his pulmonary specialist has stated that environmental um things like wind, the wildfires, the smoke, anything that's outside the norm can exag make it worse. And um I know there's a lot of people with breathing issues um of many different things and that could make it worse. And I know most of the time when things like this come across the special needs community is not looked at. Um they're just not even considered um in projects like this. And I know even something as seemingly insignificant as the noise level, I know kids with sensory issues, adults with sensory issues, especially those on the spectrum, that the noise would be a huge trigger for them. And um

I just am worried that if this does go through, even if it doesn't happen in Mansfield, um that it could really cause some major health issues for people and some other ones that we don't always look at. And that's all.

Thank you. All right, Pamela Taylor. My name is Pamela Taylor. I live at 2515 Ant Tilberg Road just north of town by pretty close to General Store. And I just want to start by closing my eyes and asking God to lead me what I'm going to say to you because I represent a team. It's not just my voice. It is their voice that I'm representing here tonight. It's a team of the people that are outside. You probably saw them when you came in tonight. let you know if you haven't signed the ballot or the petition, it's not a ballot, it's a petition that we are um from the state of Ohio, we are going to continue to move forth with that and if you want to contact any of us, I know your meeting is going to be too long tonight, but please reach out and we will come to you if necessary that you can sign that petition. I want to thank you all for everything that you do and I have have the utmost respect and esteem for you. Thank you, mayor, for your your announcement this evening. And it has been wellreceived. My topic, she talked about air. She talked about noise. Will you? That was brief, but it was very well spoken. Thank you. I want to talk about the water. When they build a data center, no matter how big it is, how small it is, they use a tremendous amount of water. And I'm not going to go back to where I was going to talk about where they were going to tap into for that source because this may not even occur. But if for the future knowledge, people on my team would like you to know that they are concerned with the amount of water that would be used, especially those of us who live in the area who have wells. If we look into the research of data centers and other areas, it can actually affect wells within a 10 to 15 mile range. Um there's a lady that speaks that her water is now the color of milk. She can't they can't drink it. She spent

thousands of dollars. she can't drink her water. Um, wells actually have to be redug. They have to be redone. Our aquafer if you wait, you know, and you guys, you know, about if they would get into your your water system here. But the one thing I wanted to bring up too is that there was a lady on our team that brought something I didn't know. Did you know that when they use the water to cool those status owners, it's not just plain water. There's a chemical that's added in and other additives into that water. One is called ethylene glycol. It's e h e t h y l e n e. Second word g l y c o l. It is actually a a part of a composition of anifreeze.

Now just imagine if we have something like that and they're using these this immense amount of water and we get a leak. Am I on time? 30 seconds to go. If I just imagine if there's a spillover and it gets into our aquifers. if it gets into the system. We have to make sure that we protect our water source. It is absolutely precious. And they also want to ask if something would happen, if our water then would run low, who's going to what are we going to do? And if people get sick from it, who will be responsible? Will the companies that possibly will come into our area or into the state be responsible to help those that become ill? Thank you. Or have other things occur? I thank you for your time. Thank you for helping me.

No problem. Uh Tammy McQuillin.

Well, I can make this brief since this has pretty much been dealt with. Miss McQuillin, if you could start with your name and address.

I'm sorry. Tammy McQuillin, uh, 1680 Executive Court, Department 118, Mansfield, Ohio. And again, I can make this short since this has kind of been dealt with. And I appreciate uh, Councilman Aurelius taking the lead on this and addressing people's concern. I appreciate uh, our mayor coming out with a strong statement. I kind of knew that uh, Mr. Cutter was kind of full of it when he was making his presentation and I'm very glad that our mayor kind of shot him down. Um what I would like to see our council u consider on this issue is a possible moratorum so that this issue can be studied more the effects economic uh advantages so on so forth. Some communities have already uh instituted moratoriums like Sunbury, Kent, Jerome Township in Union County, uh Monroe Township in Adams County, and a couple of even done temporary bans. So, I'd like to see us consider that because there's still concern that this issue isn't done with. So, thank you.

Thank you, Miss McCauley. Tim Goff, I hope Tim, if I'm pronouncing your last name wrong, it's G O U G H. Oh, no. I don't have anything. All right. Well, thanks for coming tonight. I'm glad to see you. All right. Uh Jeff Willis.

Good evening, council. Uh thank you for your time. Uh I'm here to Mr. Willis. Oh, yeah. Jeffrey Willis, 709 Wallace Road. Uh I'm here to speak about the the BIES expansion, the uh annexation.

I wanted to thank the mayor uh for your statement on the data center. That's a very uh analogous thing to what we're dealing with with the BIES thing. I I just asking for equal consideration. I I really appreciated one of a lot of the things you said in that statement. So, uh I grew up here. I am concerned about the water out there. Uh I basically just have a set of questions that are regarding the wetlands out there. Uh in a prior meeting it was stated that the 401 or 404 EPA permit will be uh not sought by the company. I've spoke with people from the EPA and they said that there's no permit uh in in the works. I also spoke to some people from the Army Corps and they said that there's a redetermination on the wetlands. And so I guess I'm having a hard time understanding how that's going to be changed, annexed, the zoning change because as I and I'm not at all uh aware of some of these things. I'm a complete greenhorn when it comes to, you know, these topics, but I don't understand how uh zoning can change with a wetlands and have that permit not be pulled. According to what I've researched, it says that that's a necessary thing. It's it uh kicks off a whole uh protocol for what's called Nexus federal guidelines survey and study of the area that determines the viability. So I guess my question is why would that land be being why would the wetlands be uh redetermined or why is there redetermination there when no drainage has changed, the soil is the same? Uh that's very linked to our water supply. We're all on wells out there. We're all very concerned about the the wellwater also. And so I guess additional questions. Uh the Zimmer

property that's across the way there, it seems as if that's already been annexed. I don't own any of those properties, but I'm just wondering why that's not up for consideration because that's also seeming like it's going to go to the same zoning. It's already annexed and it would save the the city a lot of money not running services to the other side of the highway. That's a big question I have. I know I'm not the property owner. So, uh I have another I have a question of when we get to see engineered plans on how this is going to a about 30 seconds.

Okay. Uh it Thank you for that. Uh it for according to my research, BIES uses about 37 gallons a day or 37,000 gallons a day water. Uh I I don't think any of those questions have been answered. The representative was here last week. He just said he's working with ODOT and the EPA and such. I feel like the the residents of the area would really benefit from seeing some of those engineered plans so we can understand how that's not going to affect our resources. Okay. And that's all I have. Thank you.

All right. That's our uh concluding comment this evening. Committee reports. the mayor. I did forget one thing. I just wanted to say the state of the city address um will be next Tuesday uh right back here at 7 o'clock. There will be a live stream on Facebook. Uh but you are also welcome to come in person. Uh we have a a short video to kind of recap the year and then there'll be a a conversation for about 30 minutes um led by Carl Hunnel and uh talking about all the things that are happening in the city. So wanted to make sure everyone is aware.

Director Andress, Director Porch, Director Converse, Assistant Law Director. All right. Thank you very much, everyone. All right. Let's see here. Proceed with legislation. Mrs. Robertson, you're up first. This was the uh one we tabled last time. 26052. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to ask Adrian to go ahead and step up in case there's any uh discussion. Um this is in reference uh I move that bill 26-052 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. The clerk can now read uh 26052. Authorizing the mayor to submit an annual action plan for PY 2026 indicating proposed uses for the city's 2026 community development block grant funds under the provisions of public law 93-383 as amended and declaring an emergency. Do we have question or comments for Miss Acriman? Gonna let her off easy. Should be happy with that. Thanks, Adrian.

All right. I would like to make a motion that uh myself and Miss Davis Swiss be allowed to abstain from the vote. Second. It's been moved and seconded to allow the distension by Councilman Falquet and Davis Whis. passes. Passes. All right. So, we'll be abstaining. Um, Miss Robertson.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that bill 26-052 be placed upon the floor for final passage. Second. All right. It's been moved and seconded. Um, Councilman Adrian is Yeah, I need to abstain. So, yeah. What? I was like, wait, I knew I had to. So, yeah. All right. We don't want that in the headlines. Sorry, we we'll we'll amend the uh why. And add real Can we Can we do a quick So, I make a motion that we amend the previous vote.

We just add him on to a brand new one. Just the way Just the way it's done. That one's over with. We need a new motion to allow um Councilman uh Diaz to abstain. I make a motion that we allow Councilman Relio Diaz to abstain. Second. Second. It's been moved and seconded. We're going to take a roll call vote when you can say. No, that's for the thing. We got a roll call vote. Diaz, right, Miss uh Robinson, we're voting on whether or not he abain. Yes, I'm a Yes, Mr. Miranda. Yes. No. Yes, Miss Dwise. Yes,

that's Dailyy. Yes, Mr. Diaz. Yeah, you're a yes here. And and Miss Mount. Yes. All right. So, three of us get to abstain. And now if there's no further question, comment or discussion, we can now cast our votes um for the uh mayor's plan. It passes five yeses, zero nos, three abstensions. Think we meet the minimum requirements?

All right, that one's finally done. All right, Miss Davis Whis, you're up next. Thank you, Mr. President. At this time, I move I move that bill 26074 be placed upon the floor for discussion. Second. It's been moved and seconded. The clerk will now read bill 26074. Authorizing the public works director to accept and appropriate a donation in the amount of $4,300 from the Mansfield Rotary Club FNDT Incorporated and declaring an emergency. Questions or comments? Hearing? None. Miss Davis.

Yes. At this time, I move that Bill 26074 be placed upon the floor for final passage. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please cast a vote for final passage on 26074. Passes 8 to zero. Miss Swiss 26075. Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. At this time, I move that bill 26075 um be be um bred and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second. It's been moved and seconded. The clerk will now read 26-075.

Authorizing the public works director to accept and appropriate a grant in the amount of $14,468 from Richland Public Health and declaring an emergency. Questions or comments? Miss Davis Whis. Thank you. I move that bill 26075 be placed upon the floor for final passage at this time. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please test your votes for 26075. Passes 8 to zero. Miss Meyer. Thank you, sir. I move that bill 26-076 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. The clerk will now read 26076. Authorizing the safety service director to accept and appropriate a donation in the amount of $200 from Mechanics Bank to be used for Bik Palooa and declaring an emergency. Questions and comments. Mrs. Meyer. Thank you, sir. I move that bill 26-076 be placed upon the floor for final passage. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. 26076 passes 8 to zero. Mrs. Meyer 26077. Thank you, sir. I move that bill 26-077 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. The clerk may now read 26077. Appointing members to the police review and community police relations commission and appointments to be effective immediately and declaring an emergency. Questions or comments? Miss Robinson. I just want to thank those who stepped up and chose to serve on this board. It can be uh it's a voluntary position. It can be time consuming and uh you got a great leader up there that's that if you need some experiences, see Tammy. But I just want to thank you uh for doing this service to our community. Mr. Diaz,

I definitely want to echo that. You know, um it's a it's a I think huge honor to be on. I wish more people were interested in it and um you know, obviously you care a whole lot and definitely look to Tammy. I mean, she's holding it down over there. And um I know ju and just on, you know, on a ward five level, I know it's been really hard to identify people who um were either interested Um, and so, um, thank you for stepping up, Michelle. I really appreciate that. Yes. And W three, the place to be. I definitely had

definitely have to shout out Tammy, the neighbor and leader of this. Thank you so much. And even helping with other wards, be able to find people. So, we truly appreciate Thank you guys for stepping up. This is amazing. So, we appreciate you so much. Yes, ma'am. Just wanted to say thank you to Sarah. It was a little bit of a challenge with W six back and forth, but when she expressed interest, it was right away. So, thank you for answering that call. I'm glad to be here. Anyone else? All right, Mrs. Meyer. All right. So, I now uh let's see. I move that bill 26-077 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote on 2677. Bless you. Passes eight to zero. I've got 2678. I move that bill 26078 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second. It's been moved and seconded. The clerk will now read bill 26078. Appointing the following member to the downtown improvement advisory board for a term commencing July 1st, 2026 and declaring an emergency.

Questions or comments? Um maybe everybody knows Miss Gribbon's been recently appointed the president of the uh Chamber of Commerce. So we're glad to have her involved in a lot of different committees around here. There's nothing else. I move that bill 2678 placed upon the floor for final consideration. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote for 6078.

Passes 8 to zero. Mrs. Meyer. Thank you, sir. As um discussed in employee rat. Nope. Nope. I I move that 26-079 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second. Been moved and seconded. The clerk may now read 26079. Adopting personnel positions, pay grades, and salaries for certain employees of the city of Mansville 20126 payroll year and declaring an emergency. Questions and comments hearing none. Mrs. Meyer. Thank you, sir. I move that bill 26-079 be placed upon the floor for final passage. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Bill 26079 passes 8 to zero. 26080. I move that bill 26080 be read and placed upon the floor for consideration. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. The clerk will now read bill 26-080. authorizing the mayor and the public works director to enter into a community reinvestment area agreement with Park Hospitality LLC and Ohio Limited Liability Company, its successors, assigns, and affiliates for their planned project adding housing, commercial space, and retail space in the city of Mansville and declaring an emergency. Questions, comments? Thank you, gentlemen, for coming this evening. Um, I move that bill 26080 be put upon the floor for final vote. Second.

And move and seconded. Please cast your vote. 26080. Passes 8 to zero. 26081. I move that bill 26081 be read and placed upon the floor for consideration and discussion. Second. It's been moved and seconded. The clerk will now read bill 26081.

An ordinance authorizing a development agreement with the Mansfield the Mansville Ford Fund LLC and Ohio Limited Liability Company is successors assigned and affiliates providing for a project to redevelop a historically significant hotel property located at 116 Park Avenue West, Mansfield, Ohio 44902 and declaring an emergency. Questions or comments? Hearing none. I move that bill 26081 be placed upon the floor for final vote. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your ballot. Passes 8 to zero. 26082. Mrs. Meyer. Thank you, sir. I move that bill 26-082 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second. It's been moved and seconded. The clerk may now read bill 26-082, amending and enacting chapters 1502 of the Mansfield codified ordinances of 1997 concerning the Mansfield Fire Prevention Code,

questions or comments? Guess the chief left. I was going to thank him for cleaning this up. Oh. Um, anybody else? You'll tell him. Great. All right. I move the bill 26080. Um, that one's yours. That one's yours. I'm trying to get to the end. I got the last one. You go ahead, Mrs. Meyer. I move that bill 26-082 be read to be placed upon the floor for final passage. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote on 26.82. Passes 8 to zero. I I get to mine now again. 26083. I move that it be uh read and placed upon the floor for consideration. Second. It's been moved and seconded. The clerk may now read bill 26083. Reallocate unused American Rescue Plan funds within previously approved projects in accordance with requirements of the American Rescue Plan Act, also known as ARPA, and an applicable regulations.

Questions and comments? I move that bill 26083 be placed upon the floor for final consideration. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please cast your vote. Bill 26083 passes 8. Is there anything else to come before city council this evening? I move that we adjourn. I second that motion. All those in favor say I. I. We are adjourned at 8:09 p.m. Thank you very much for your attendance this evening.