City Council - Regular Meeting

We would like to start opening up the municipal and utilities discussion in a new program that the City of Mansfield has called the Hardship Program, which allows a non-city person to tap into the utilities and sewer of the City of Mansfield. pretty neat program they do have once it's voted upon they would then go to the codes and permits apply for the proper coding and from that date forward they would have one year to finalize the program with that Tracy if you'd like to go in a little bit more detail hi I'm here on behalf of the law director's office mr. Madden is on vacation and mr.

poorly should be joining us, but anyway, it is a new program for the city of Mansfield. So property owners that are not in the city, can have if they have hardships can actually apply for a petition to tap into city utilities water or sewer what they do is they fill out a hardship petition and it is reviewed by the law director's office and then it is also brought before the engineer's office to make sure that the utilities would be available for that homeowner to tap in and once we determine that we will we approve the hardship and then put it before the council for a vote um once those hardships if they are approved by the council then those homeowners would go to codes and permits to request a permit for a tap at their own expense and then from that date of the tap permit they would have one year to annex into the city of mansfield for their property So there are two hardship petitions that's going before council this evening. It's for owners, the Mullahans at 1945 Middle Belleville, and then the second is Mr. and Mrs. Perry at 1095 Country Club Drive.

I'll leave it at that.

Do we have any questions from council?

What do you term hardship?

An example would be if their current well or septic system is failing and it is not affordable for them to be able to replace those services so that there is an option that they can tap into the city. So it depends upon the application. There's different reasons. For instance, I believe the one on Country Club Drive that they've had problems with wells and that they don't have water available at their property at this time. So that would be a good example or a failing system that is not able to be repaired at a costly thing that where the homeowner can afford it.

I just wanted to ask on this hardship that you're, so do we take a look at, are we looking at like where they sit financially or the hardship is just based on this is a relatively expensive, what is the criterion for that?

I, that I do not know. Um, I believe did, did a director Madden speak with you about that director Anders?

Yes. Can you hear?

Is this on?

Oh, okay. This is a program that's been in effect for some time, and we just now started implementing it because we had several people requesting it. So this is our typical way that we would handle a hardship case or any case where they want to come and hook up to city services, which is water and sewer. That's what we're basically looking at. We have several areas that the EPA has designated as the water is unsafe. So therefore, a lot of those folks have no choice but to come to the city. So this is the mechanism that they use in order to get city services if they're outside the city.

Thank you. My question is, how will we be handling because they're needing to annex within a given period of time. How are we handling that if it's an island? Like, are the houses between city limits and them getting annexed? Or is it just this house and it's an island of its own? How is that going to be handled? Mr. Bianchi, can you assist with that?

I don't think either of these are creating an island. Is that correct?

The homes would have to be contiguous with the existing corp line. So both of these are and an island wouldn't be created.

And to clarify that when we talk about a hardship, that's a hardship that the city is not entering into any kind of expenses. They're completely absorbing expenses for what's being done.

Correct. The homeowner is responsible for paying for the permit fee. The homeowner is responsible for the TAP fees and as well as obtaining legal for the annexation as well.

Okay. And the construction of?

Correct. Yes.

Any further questions? With that being said, we conclude our meeting. Thank you.

Just so everybody knows, our next committee meeting is scheduled for 620. Since it is so advertised, we cannot start it until 630, so that's kind of why the pause. Thank you.

6 p.m. We will begin the airport committee. We'll do a roll call. Councilwoman Roberts.

Point of order. Your meeting's at 6.50.

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I said 6.30. See, this is why I need glasses. Never mind. I guess I'm really eager, so.

So at 6.30 p.m., I'll call the economic development order meeting subcommittee to order. Mr. Miranda's here, yes, and Ms. Robertson?

Here.

All right. This evening, we have several pieces of legislation we're excited to bring forward. We have some new and exciting things going on and development of some businesses out by the airport, I think, in general. Barrett Thomas is our economic development. You've got a fancier title than that, but he's the guy. And I'm going to let him walk through these and take it away, Barrett.

Thanks, David. I've never had competing committee meetings at the same time. This is really, really exciting. So the first thing we're going to do is talk about R.G. Smith. So R.G. Smith is a company that's been around in Mansfield for a long time, and they are expanding. And here to talk about that is Rick Reese from R.G. Smith. Tell us a little bit about the company and why you're expanding.

Sure. R.G. Smith's been in business for well over 100 years. We've been in the Mansfield area since 92. We've had a couple of different expansions. Our current expansion will be almost doubling our size and our capacity. We're a industrial contractor, and we service basically a 60-mile radius. They're, again, just strictly industrial. We do on-site services along with a lot of specialty fabrication. So this is going to allow us to expand, probably increase a minimum of 8 to 10 new employees.

So R.G. Smith is one of our union shops, and most of your clients are union manufacturers.

Typically, but not all.

And they are fabricating things that we have in Mansfield. So the lids that go on top of the arc furnaces.

Yeah, we do a lot of work for Cleveland Cliffs in general. One of our biggest customers is Cleveland Cliffs here in Mansfield, along with other sites they have around the state of Ohio. Yeah.

So part of our manufacturing supply chain doing some really big, heavy stuff. The expansion that they're putting on is on their Sixth Street facility. If you drive down Sixth Street, some of the best looking properties is the property they own. So we're excited to have this investment in Mansfield and having that help support our manufacturing supply chain. So the legislation before council tonight is a community reinvestment area tax abatement. This would be a 12-year, 60% abatement that will kind of follow the traditional path through the abatement process. So happy to answer any other questions or any other questions for Mr. Reese.

Are there any questions for this week?

So you said this would add an additional six to eight employees? Yes.

I'm saying 8 to 10.

8 to 10. Yes. So are these jobs, is this like a specialty skill or can this be entry level?

Yes, it can be entry level. We are typically hiring a lot of our new employees out of the joint vocational schools. Okay. The Pioneer, Mansfield here.

And I know he did ask if you were talking about union, but I often ask about prevailing wages. So what does this wage look like yearly wise? Because some of the questions that I ask, like a lot of times when we look at place cities that are close to us in Mansfield, just average city median Mansfield, we're below like our existing cities by almost 20 to $30,000. And we, to maintain where we don't have continuous, like, brain drain where we don't continuously have, you know, adults that aren't able to purchase homes. That's one of the questions that I often ask when companies are asking us for these things, the value to our city.

Yeah, I understand. So we, we are, as Baird said, a strictly union company. Okay. So we hire union iron workers, union sheet metal workers, plumbers, pipe fitters. So the average wage you're going to be in that $35 an hour. With overtime, they're going to make a lot more money.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

So it is a very good skill trade to get into. And we're always looking for new employees that want to work and enjoy working with their hands. And we can get them signed up at the union hall and put them to work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else? Thank you, Barrett. We'll go right on to the next one. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith. You're probably not Mr. Smith. No, I'm not. All right. Thanks for coming.

The next piece of legislation I'd like to talk about is in regard to NIS Aviation. So several years ago, probably 2022, City Council did a tax abatement regarding NIS Aviation and the hangar that they built for the FBO out there. That one was a 100% tax abatement with a pilot, a payment in lieu of taxes direct to the schools. That structure, we have kind of retired, especially where you prescribe exactly how many dollars that pilot is for. The problem there is that we end up guessing at one point in time what the future values of the properties will be and all the taxes for 15 years, which... We found out it doesn't work terribly well. So most of these we have gone through and amended. This is one that I caught going through all the tax abatements this year and found out this is, I think, the last one where we've got this mismatch that hasn't been amended. So this is taking that tax abatement from 100% with the school compensation agreement with the pilot down to a 55% agreement with no school compensation. So this will cancel the school compensation agreement. The company and the school have agreed on a payment for the past three years and the schools and the company are all in agreement. They've all interested in this, but obviously this is a city council matter. So that's what that legislation is. So it will do both things, go from 100 to 55% and cancel the school compensation agreement. Happy to answer questions.

Thank you, Barrett. Do we have questions on this one? Cool. Let's go on.

All right. Brian, we're going to talk about Newman Technologies. So Newman Technologies, this has been reported in the local media previously. They've got a big expansion project, but I'm going to let Mr. Baker describe that for himself.

So those of you who may not be familiar with Newman, we are a tier one automotive supplier. We've been here, next year will be 40 years. So we've been here since 1987. Start off on Newman Street, hence the name Newman Technology. We started just under 40,000 square feet. And as of now, we're just over a million square feet of production space. So we have an opportunity through our customers, through community support, through our workers to gain some additional business. We are planning to add on a 24,500 square foot building, and that's going to allow us to put in a 1500 ton stamping press brand new. So that press is going to allow us to work with some materials that we're currently not able to do. So we do have some business for that now, as well as potential for the future. So that's kind of the cornerstone of a $74 million investment between the building machinery and equipment for some new model parts. Yeah, not all of that is in that new addition. That's about 30 million of the 74 and a half million. So all of that combined should generate about 70 new jobs. So those jobs, in case anybody's asking, about half of them are entry-level, normal floor associate production worker, and the other half are leadership level and a lot of skilled trades. So we need tool and die workers. We need mechanical engineers, electric engineers, robotic programmers. So anticipating the question. The wage should be, depending on the position, anywhere between $25 to $35 per hour. Again, not including overtime or anything like that. So when you load in our base wage, we generally work four 10-hour days. But we also have attendance bonuses, annual bonuses, and all the benefits that go along with that.

So health care is not included?

Not included in that figure. That's on top of that wage, yeah.

So this expansion is a little unique. This is a relatively small footprint, 25,000 square feet, but a lot of jobs, so 70 jobs. So often we're looking at something like 100,000 square feet and 15 jobs. So this is a huge jobs per square foot ratio. And that puts this into a special category, especially as it relates to the school system. So what we're talking about now is a CRA tax abatement. Because the payroll is high enough that it goes over a threshold at the state level, we are negotiating with the schools to find a solution that works for everyone. So the solution that we all kind of collectively came up with is instead of doing a 75% abatement, we will do a 100% abatement. And the company, Newman Technologies, will make a 50% pilot payment in lieu of taxes direct to the schools. In addition to that, the city will use some of the increase in income tax that we get to help compensate the schools so they are made whole in this instance, which is unusual. So again, it's because two things. The jobs per square foot are very high for this project, and the schools are in kind of a special financial situation at this point. So the city administration wanted to be sure to be a good, helpful partner with the schools as we go through this. So the city will be putting a small portion of the increased income tax into this project. I ran a whole bunch of numbers for this. It is a lot less than if we had done a direct job creation tax credit. So the city does a local JCTC. So this is a better deal for the city doing it in this direction. In addition, we've got several kind of projects stopgaps measures to make sure that the city isn't on the hook for an outsized amount of money. So all of this will be covered through the increased revenue. So happy to answer questions about that or about Newman Technology.

Questions down there? Yes, Ms. Weiss.

I do have a question. So you said the schools will be made whole with how this takes place. So Newman Technology will explain that a little bit more to me.

Yeah. This one's a little complicated. So out of the full amount of property tax, the schools are getting currently 74% of that. Newman Technologies is going to make a 50% payment direct to the schools, and the city is making up that remaining 24% out of this dedicated revenue stream of increased income tax.

Ms. Robinson?

Thank you, Mr. Falquette. So first of all, I just want to thank Newman Technology for the investment in our community. It's always nice to see manufacturers that's been here for so long be able to continue to invest in our community and our citizens. And also to R.G. Smith, Mr. Reese, thank you. We appreciate that. So I just wanted to express that. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Well said. Anybody else? Yes, Mrs. Meyer.

Do you have an anticipated completion date for the expansion?

Within three years, the 70 jobs. So this particular expansion should be done by the end of next year. And then we have some additional machinery equipment coming online. But within the next three years, we should generate those jobs.

Very exciting. Thank you so much.

I've got a real quick manufacturing question I just have to ask. I was in a completely other end of the business. A 15-ton press was a large press for us, so you'd added a couple zeros. Are you doing big sheet metal panels? Are you spanking out some heavy thickness? Can you say about what would this piece look like? It obviously is going to be bigger than it would fit on the table.

So we can go thickness from 0.4 millimeter up to, I believe the spec on this press is going to be 3.5 millimeter thickness.

So this will be a progressive press.

Now we also do stamp some blanks or transfer presses that run off of blanks. This is a coil fed progressive press. So you're talking basically like the size of a door panel, a car door panel.

That helps. That helps a lot. All right. Anybody else? Last call. All right. Thank you, Barrett. I think that's all of them, right? Yep. Thanks. So at 6.45, I will call the Economic Development Committee meeting to a close, and we'll start another five minutes of dead air. Thank you.

Good evening. It is 6.50 and I have the right time now. We'll start the airport committee and roll call. Councilwoman Robertson? Here. Councilwoman Davis-Weiss?

Here.

Thank you. We are here to discuss the Mansfield-Lawn Regional Airport Economic Development Strategic Plan. And for this plan, we're going to welcome our Director of Economic Development, Barrett Thomas, to please come back up.

Thanks. Yeah, thank you. So this is an airport economic development plan. Most airports don't have this. Most airports do have an airport master plan. So that is an FAA document that they help fund and create. That's not what this is, and that's not what I'm trying to replace. Really, this started from having conversations where people say things like, yeah, we've got this airport. I wish somebody would do something with that. And that's hard to do. How do you do that? So I've had a lot of conversations with a lot of people over the years and gone to conferences. And that's really kind of the bulk of this plan and where this came from. talking with experts that know a whole lot more than me. As you know, Councilman Diaz, the airport is like a whole separate language and you got to learn like what's an RPZ and why do you have to protect it? Why is this a big deal? So this plan is really my kind of layman's version of how would we as a community leverage an asset like the airport for economic development? So I understand this is 26 pages, which is not short, but the executive summary on page one really kind of lays out a high level. What are we looking at? And the goal here is six different things. I think we can leverage the asset of our airport to help bring some economic development. The first one is we have a really unique asset in what we call the 508 building. All the buildings out there are numbered. Number 508 is the special building that is, you can drive into the front and park there. And then as you walk out the backside, you're on the inside secure side of the fence. So- That is kind of a through the fence operation that is a special thing in airport land. That's a technical term, airport land, where, you know, that would be an ideal building to house a workforce operation. So something like an A&P, which is. airframe and power plant uh so like a maintenance program that teaches people how to work on airplanes uh there is a shortage i've got a uh kind of a study talking about the where the jobs are in the aerospace industry uh number one shortage is not surprising to anybody the faa uh air traffic controllers there's only one place that trains those people it's in oklahoma city the faa owns that no one else gets to play uh the second one is in air aircraft maintenance So all the aircraft that you see flying around all have to be certified every year. There's kind of annual checks and checks for every so many hours it flies. All of that stuff has to happen. We have some of that capacity at our airport, but that's certainly something we can grow. And if we end up with a school teaching students how to do that, that workforce then becomes a huge draw for a lot of the other things in this plan. So that's the first one. The second one is real estate. So this is kind of the classic economic development version where we're talking about sites and readiness and how do we make sure that we have the right opportunities, the right land lined up for opportunities that the airport can go after. Um, three is targeted business aviation attraction. So this is kind of the traditional economic, uh, the traditional airport stuff. So this is an MRO, which is a maintenance repair and overhaul. Um, is it overhaul? Is that right?

Porch.

Overall? Okay. So that would be the maintenance organization. Again, we have modern avionics that does some of that, but it's not a full MRO shop. Charters and air taxis, air cargo, logistics, AAM support, and kind of general aviation. That's the stuff that is kind of the bread and butter of an airport of our size. The fourth is defense adjacent companies. So the 179th and their cyberspace wing really gives the city a unique opportunity to leverage those skill sets and those people that are coming into town every month for drill. So that will probably be yet another kind of different document of how do we leverage that as an asset because it doesn't necessarily fall into this. but they are at the airport and we've got land there that is a really good fit uh there will be other ideally more military and federal installation those missions that want to co-locate uh in the way that um you know wright patterson has collected a lot of missions and then other private organizations that want to be nearby the the 179th so there's more to come on that uh the fifth pillar is advanced air mobility this this is aam advanced air mobility is all the new stuff that flies that is not kind of traditional airplanes and helicopters so this is drones this is flying cars this is the future and all the super fun stuff and we want to make sure that mansfield is on the map uh literally we have an opportunity to get on the map of the air corridors uh that the state is putting together So we want to make sure that we have a coordinated plan to make sure that Mansfield is featured as that new industry starts developing. The last one is airfield readiness, grant execution and governance. So that is kind of the traditional like maintenance of the airport. We've been doing that at a really high level for an airport of our size for a long time. So Mark and Mike have really knocked out of the park getting airport maintenance done. So those are kind of the six pillars of this. Each page in here, the pillars are one to one and a half pages. So there's kind of a lot of space in the 26 pages of white space. And then I broke out all the extra stuff at the end in these appendices. to kind of keep each section short. So if you want to know more about other Ohio airports and where we fit in to the spectrum out of Ohio airports, that's in here. If you want to know how vertiports work and what the FAA thinks the vertiports are going to look like, that's in the back. A vertiport is a kind of collection of heliports with electric chargers that are going to charge the new EV tolls, which is an electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle. So the flying cars are going to land at the vertiport. The world's going to change. It's going to be awesome. And Mansfield's going to be on the list. So yeah, There's a lot of things in here and I get really excited. I hear myself talking too fast. I know that, but I'm excited. So happy to answer questions. I am really interested in feedback on this plan. This is a collection of a whole bunch of conversations and meetings and stuff that I've been to kind of filtered into a way that makes sense. I hope it makes sense. I've had everybody associated with the airport take a look at this. So the MAVCOM committee has this. Gorman Rupp has seen this. Mark and Mike at the airport who run the airport, the FBO. I've gotten feedback from pretty much all of those folks. So I'm interested in feedback from council. I think we've got more readings on this, so you don't have to come up with answers now. But this is also not a document I want to freeze in time of like this particular month that this got approved. So I think the legislation is written such that we can adapt this and update it as we go along. So it's like the economic development and the administration support a new change. So Pillar 5, for example, the Advanced Air Mobility section, that just got totally rewritten. Last week, we had Ted Angel, who is the Executive Director of the National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence, which is located in Springfield. He spent the day here in Mansfield going through all the assets we have, talking about what NAMC is, There's a fun acronym NAMC can do and how we can fit in with the work that they're doing and get put on that map for advanced air mobility, talking about how we do advocacy at the state level to get ODOT to put us on the air corridor map, all that kind of stuff. So as these things, as we continue to have these conversations and work with these partners, we're going to continue to update this. We are not asking for dollars for this at this point. But this is the plan. When we come back later and ask for money, it'll be for things that are in this plan because we're moving this along.

THANK YOU, BARRETT. AND YOU'RE RIGHT, FOR THOSE WHO AREN'T REALLY FAMILIAR WITH EVERYTHING THAT GOES ON AT THE AIRPORT, IT IS A WHOLE DIFFERENT LANGUAGE. I MEAN, AND FOR THOSE HERE, MAVCOM IS A BIMONTHLY MEETING THAT A LOT OF THE PRESIDENTS ORGANIZATIONS WITHIN THE AIRPORT ATTEND AS WELL AS COUNCILWOMEN, ROBERTSON, DAVIS, WE ARE WELL-VERSED WITH EVERYTHING. When it comes to plans, I always get scared, but we met and I like how this is set up and I like that it's still pretty new in its infancy. And I love that you made it more comprehensible for people like myself when it comes to the six pillars. And the airport has been, I'm still amazed when I hear people in the community say, How come nothing's happening at the airport when there's so much happening at the airport? And I think all the people who've been involved in this throughout the years is a testament to why it's so great. But I did want to make that comment. I don't know if you would have any questions, Councilwoman Daley?

My question or I want to ask like for targeting business would be number three would be like for commercial planes to come here where instead of me going to Cleveland or Columbus, I can fly from here.

Commercial air service is very tricky. So JobsOhio with the state level economic development organization has a huge push for more air service in Ohio. They're working on that really hard. I don't know if commercial air service in the traditional way is gonna work in Mansfield. But what could work is the air taxi, like the flying car version where you get on, you know, in the advanced air mobility version of that in Mansfield fly to maybe Detroit and you get a direct flight to London. Yeah. something like that could be possible.

Um, but it may not be the traditional version of like having a small airplane to just a small personal that comes here. That's, I know they're small ones who come here. Right. Yeah. But, um, An elder of mine, she's passed away, but she told me she left from that airport to New York years ago. So at one point, you guys were doing that. But that would be nice.

It would be nice. That was before my time here.

Yeah, way before your time. She was like 90 years old. Councilwoman Dave Suisse.

Yes. First and foremost, great job on this. I think it's well documented and it does. For a long time, I as well have felt like the logistic relevancy of Mansfield to Cleveland and Columbus and not to utilize an airport is something that we need to do. You talked about utilizing the schools, and I think this is a great idea. When we have these schools in mind for doing that, will there be... large incentives for all schools to take this? Will we or are we specifically looking at certain area of schools or will this specifically be something that we'll try and get Mansfield City Schools to do like a pre kind of program to aviation or some form of that?

Yeah, it's a good question. So usually so in airframe and power plant school is going to be a specific school that is licensed through the FAA to teach those things. But we also host an Aviation Career Day, which I think this year is September 16th. And we've had, so last year I think we had 55 high school kids from probably seven different schools go through. And there were a lot of high school kids that were in their career classes at high school that come in and see those things. So Mansfield in particular has the auto tech program. They went to modern avionics and were looking at those planes going, Wait a minute. This is this is the same stuff. Like this is still an engine. It's a piston. It's turned the opposite direction. We still understand how all this stuff works. And they said, yes. And if you work here and do this work, you'll get paid twice as much. Incredibly high standards because airworthiness. But this is a big deal. There's a lot of career opportunities here. Like saw the light turn on. It was it was pretty exciting.

So I'm excited about that, but I was just hoping, I was like, let's make sure we keep Mansfield on the map for that. The other half, as this continues, what I would be looking for to see more is the environmental impact. That's always a question that we're getting. That's what I'm always getting from constituents. And I understand that any type of development is going to have it's going to have some environmental impact, but how do we minimize that? How close can we get to the zero admissions as possible? I know this is air, but I love that this one company said that Mansfield was long looked at, but how close do we get to that? And that's what I would like to see added to it as we continue to update this.

Yeah. So reusing buildings that already exist is a great way to reduce impact. And a lot of the new aviation technologies are all electric. So it's the whole new world. Great.

Councilwoman Robertson.

Thank you. To echo what Councilperson Davis-Weiss said, very well put together. Being a part of MavCom and that committee, it's encouraging and enlightening when you go out there cold feet and not knowing anything to get educated in all the acronyms and the different things that go on. That committee's definitely committed to expanding and making Lahm Airport the best it can be. Also, I just want to say that I love the proactiveness that we're starting ahead and look to the future to be ready for that. And in case you didn't know, I'm sure Safety Director Porch probably know this, but Timo actually has a car version of a drone that you can order online. Scary thought at the same time. I don't know that we want car drones flying around out there, but that was interesting. So thank you very much for that presentation. Appreciate you. Thanks.

Are there any other questions from the council at large? If not, we thank you, Barrett. And it is 7.06 and we will conclude the airport committee meeting.

Okay, then. With that, it's 7.06. I will call this meeting of Mansfield City Caucus to order. And first, are there any committee reports? And I'm sure Mr. Diaz has a few.

I do. I only have four. TRY TO GIVE SOME UPDATES THAT ARE HAPPENING BEFORE OUR NEXT MEETING ON AUGUST 4TH. AND WE'LL STAY WITH THE AIRPORT. SO SATURDAY, AUGUST 1ST WILL BE THE ANNUAL MANSFIELD AIRPORT DAY AND FLY-IN. THAT IS A FREE EVENT FOR THE WHOLE COMMUNITY. THIS YEAR WILL BE A LITTLE DIFFERENT. IT WILL BE DURING THE DAYTIME HOURS FROM 8 A.M. TO 2 p.m., so be sure to come out to that. There'll be a lot of things for everyone. This Saturday, we have the annual Oasis Church Block Party. This will be on Chester and the North End. We encourage you to come out. There'll be food. There'll be plenty of vendors. There'll be just everything for all ages, including music. Saturday, that'll be at, I forget the time. Saturday also at 3 p.m. at the Fairgrounds will be the annual... It's become an annual festival. It's the Cypher City Hip-Hop Festival, which will highlight all local rap, hip-hop musicians in the community. And they also have a really cool portion, which they have... folks who create beats and it's like a beat battle. So be sure to support that. And the final thing I wanted to just highlight is, uh, next Friday will be, uh, the final Friday at the brickyard. And as always, July is the most live, most biggest. So come down, there'll be, uh, drinks for adults and food trucks and music and, um, yeah, free event. And that concludes my community announcements.

Any other committee reports or community announcements, I guess, also might say? Okay. Mayor, it's your turn.

Okay, I'm going to use my time tonight to introduce our new Mayor's Beautification Award. Some of you hopefully saw this. We announced this back in June. With the goal of highlighting, I feel like a lot of times we spend too much time talking about folks that can't keep track of their property, and we don't put the spotlight on folks that do. And so we wanted to start this as a positive reinforcement and really highlighting when you drive around the city on every street, there are people that are taking good care of their houses. They're investing in them. And I think tonight we've got a commercial property to honor and a residential property to honor residents. And these were ones that caught my eye. I will say for council members, for the we have a big audience tonight, we are looking for nominations. It can be for a commercial building. It can be residential. It can be a nonprofit. But if you've driven around and you've noticed or you see a neighbor taking really good care, all you got to do is call the mayor's office and submit the address and we'll take a look at it. Our plan is to give these awards out through October. So April through October annually from here on out. And then we're going to do a special one at Christmas for holiday lights because, you know, we know a lot of people go above and beyond. So with that, I'm going to transfer down to the. All right. So. I have options. State or not a state. Okay. All right, so up first we have the vaguely historic lofts. Mr. Andrew Wapham, the owner is here joining us tonight. He sent in some pictures to show you the external changes that they have made on the building. we're really highlighting the external piece, but if you haven't been in it, I would encourage you to go visit it. They have apartments for rent. They have short-term Airbnbs for rent. It's a great place for folks that want to stay downtown. I think there might be a few other photos there, Heath. So you can see, especially as we get ready to finish the Main Street Corridor, what a great investment they have made on their exterior facility. And so we wanted to honor Mr. Watham tonight with our first award. Okay. All right. And the other one is a property that I have been keeping my eye on. It's 597 West 4th Street. Kyle Brandon and Teddy Owens, if you guys want to come up. This is, as I drive down West 4th Street almost daily, if not multiple times a day, all of a sudden one day I was like, what happened to that house? You know, it started with the paint that you can see. And every time I go by, I feel like I'm seeing a lot more. And I do know because I I sneaked on your Facebook page. You're doing a lot of work inside, too. But truly, you know, thanks for investing in this part of Mansfield, particularly. Thanks for putting so much effort into it. And I just thought it would be nice to recognize you. So, you know, folks are seeing the work that you're doing.

And I've fallen in love with finding a balance between not only remodeling, but also restoring. We're finding hidden pocket doors and hidden staircases and hidden curio cabinets. And I want to bring all of that back. And we are this far along because I want to give a special shout out to the library and their Power tools are free at the library. If you did not know this, I did not know this. Tell all of your friends because I wouldn't be this far along without the tools at the library. And Mary, the director of the library, is here because I went in to visit her and almost broke down into tears when I found out about this award. So thank you. It means so much.

That's awesome. What a great connection there. I think there might be one more photo, Heath. Gives you at least a peek at the inside. So thank you and congratulations.

Thank you.

and I see the rest of my time.

Director Andrews?

Just a couple of quick updates. Just July 4th day, we had a very successful event for the Vass Bender Fountain Rededication. It's up and running as one of the highlights of our Central Park District. The other thing that we had was our opening of the time capsule. And what we've done is we had an intraday Zetta, which is here. She digitized everything that was in the capsule, and we hope to publish that someplace on our website, as well as take some of the artifacts and have them on display as well for people to see. And we're also working on collecting stuff for the 200th anniversary. 300, sorry. 300 anniversary that will actually put some things in a time capsule as well. A couple other things is coming up. We have two dedications that are going to be coming up soon. The Maple Lake, we had the Bad Magic Skate Park is going to be doing a dedication on July 29th at 2 p.m. And that is at Maple Lake Park. The other one is Prospect Park, and that is a joint working relationship with Mansfield Rotary Club, Alumni Roofing, Purdy Construction, and Richland Public Health. We put in a new shelter house there. We've also put in a grill, basketball court, and baseball diamond upgrades and benches. So that will be on August the 25th at 1130. So we have a couple other coming up, but those are the ones that we have finalized and are coming up soon. Nothing further.

Director porch. Thank you, Mr. President. The only thing I have to report speaking on the airport is the resurfacing project for runway one, four, three, two is on schedule and will be done by the end of the month. So it's looking fabulous. And then the runway will be, or the airport will be completely open with both runways. That's all I have.

Director converse.

Thank you, Mr. President. I just have a couple updates from finance. We are fully staffed on our finance side now with the addition of a finance clerk, and we have a new income tax director starting in August that we're excited about. We just got back from the OML tax conference and learned about some upgrades that are coming through from our software provider. So we're hoping to bring some advancements next year with our tax division. And today you should have all received your copy of the second quarter finance report. So a couple highlights from there. General fund revenue is at 57% of the budget and 4% higher than last year. So that's looking great. And that's due to income tax collections. So they are up over last year, largely because of withholding. Business net profit tax is still down 2%. So we continue to monitor that. But again, that has been the trend for several years now. I think we might end up at the point where we won't be able to rely on business net profit as a good indicator of revenue to come in the future. Water revenue is down. It's at 46% of the budget and 8% down from last year. And I know that the administration is still looking into that. It's all due to commercial receipts. So residentially, everything is still fine. And general fund transfers are up 33% over last year, but that's because of the increased support needed for the safety fund. and those are all the highlights I have for you.

Okay, thank you. And last, Deputy Director Corley. Okay, thank you. With that, we shall proceed with legislation. First piece of legislation this evening is 26-118, and I'll call on Mrs. Meyer.

Thank you, sir. 26118 will be honoring Lieutenant Donald Reinhart upon his retirement from the Mansfield Police Department.

I don't believe that he's here.

I don't think he's here. Okay. Any questions, comments from counsel? Okay. Moving on then to 26-119, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. This is to appoint Chelsea Thompson to the Downtown Improvement Advisory Board. This is to fill a term that was vacated. And if you don't know, Chelsea is the CEO over at the Renaissance Theater, a very inspired person. I think she'll do a great job.

Any discussion from council on 26-119? Okay. Next, 26-120, Mr. Miranda.

This would be approving the hardship petition of Michael Mullen and Nicole Mullen of 1945 Middle Belleville Road, Mansfield, Ohio, 44904, and gaining a one-year license to tap into the city water and sanitary sewer system at their own expense and declaring an emergency.

Any questions or discussion from council?

Mr. President.

Yes, Mr. Falken, I'm sorry.

I apologize for being a couple minutes late because I could have maybe asked this earlier. Are either one of these 120, 121 actually coming into the city immediately? And if no, are they both in the paperwork expected that someday without a date, they'd be available to come in at a later time when the city was more contiguous. Does that make sense?

So from our vote tonight, then they would go and petition to codes and permits for approval. They would have within one year to then have it completed and have the permits for annexation into the city.

Thank you. Okay, any other discussion on 121? Okay, then moving on to 26-121, Mr. Miranda.

This would be approving the hardship petition for Monty G. Perry and Mary Perry of 1095 Country Club Drive, Mansfield, Ohio, 44906, and granting a one-year license to tap into the city water and the sanitary sewer systems at their own expense and declaring an emergency.

Any discussion on Bill 26-121? Okay. Bill 26-122, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you. This is the R.G. Smith Company tax abatement with 8 to 10 new employees coming along, and we had a presentation earlier on that.

Okay.

Any further questions or discussion on 26-122? Okay, moving on to 26-123. Thank you, Mr. President.

This is the NIS Aviation corrected tax abatement, 15 years, 55% payment in lieu of tax to the schools. And that was included in Barrett's presentation.

Okay. Anything further on 26-123? Okay, 26-124, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. 124, and if you don't mind, 125 are both Newman Technology with the industrial expansion there on Carnes Road, and the 125 has to do with the school district agreement. All that was presented with Mr. Thomas earlier today.

Any other further discussion questions on 26-124 and 26-125? Okay, hearing none, moving on to Bill 26-126. Mr. Diaz?

Bill 26-126 is approving the attached import economic development plan that Director of Economic Development, Barrett Thomas, highlighted so eloquently.

Okay, and that is for, that is a caucus only. But is there any other questions, discussion on 126? Okay. Bill 26-127, Mrs. Meyer.

Thank you, sir. 26-127 will be authorizing the Safety Service Director to accept and appropriate funds received via donations in the amount of $7,175 to be used towards the Safety Town program.

Is there any questions, discussion on 127? Okay. Moving on to 26-128. Mrs. Meyer?

Thank you, sir. 26-128 will be also authorizing direct reports to accept and appropriate a grant from the Richland County Foundation in the amount of $1,000 to be used for safety town.

Any discussion on 26-128? Okay. Bill 26-129, Mrs. Meyer. Okay.

Thank you. Bill 26-129 will be authorizing the Public Works Director to accept and appropriate donations in the amount of $500 from Mechanics Bank, $500 from the Richland County Health Department. $250 from the Rich History Alliance, $250 from Destination Mansfield, and $250 from Mansfield Linens and Events, each to be used for the America 250 celebration.

Any discussion on Bill 26-129? Mr. Falkett?

I just want to just shout out to all of the last three, all the people that donate to make our city a better place. It's a wonderful thing.

Yes. Thank you. Okay. There being no further discussion on that, we shall move on to Bill 26-130. Mrs. Meyer? Yes.

No, you're correct. 26130 will be authorizing the safety service director to accept and appropriate an anonymous donation in the amount of $5,500 to purchase two LifePak 335 monitor printers and the associated applies from the Stryker Sales Corporation for the Mansfield Fire Department. Very generous donation.

Very, very appreciative. Any discussion, questions, discussion? I shouldn't have any questions on a donation like that, but on Bill 26-130. Okay. Moving on to Bill 26-131, Mrs. Meyer.

26-131 will be authorizing the safety service director to accept and appropriate a bulletproof vest partnership grant in the amount of $21,225.36 from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to be used for the purchase of bulletproof vests. And that is a match.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-131?

As long as she brought up match, just for the record, I'm assuming we have the money to make the match. All right. Very good.

Okay. Nothing further on 131. We shall move on to Bill 26-132. Once again, Mrs. Meyer.

Thank you, sir. Authorizing the safety director to accept and appropriate an EMS training and equipment grant in the amount of $2,500 from the Ohio Department of Public Safety Emergency Medical Services Division to be used for EMS equipment.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-132, Ms. Mount?

Thank you, Mr. President. Do you know what this is going to be used to purchase?

It's Rescue Randy. It's one of the training dummies. They call him Rescue Randy.

Thank you very much.

Don't ask me why.

Now you know it's Rescue Randy. Okay. Anything further on 26-132, Rescue Randy? Okay. I'm sorry. 26-133, Mr. Miranda.

Authorizing the Public Works Director to advertise for bids and enter into a contract and or contracts for custodial services in the Mansfield Municipal Building, the Water Waste Treatment Plant Office Building, and the Water Treatment Office Plant Building, and the Utilities Collection Building.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-133? Mm-hmm.

I guess. Go ahead. I would like to move this to be moved for a vote for this evening. Okay. That's what I was going to ask if you wanted to do.

Okay. It's been regularly moved and seconded that we move bill 26-133 up for a vote tonight in council. And the motion is before you, council. Okay. Motion passes eight to zero. That's one. Not again. Yeah, I'm sorry, seven. My quick count.

Yeah, you're not logged in, it says. You were.

I was, but it showed the legislation just didn't show the vote.

Yeah, just shut it off and go back.

Does that mean everybody's?

Yeah, I'll reset it.

Okay. Okay. Try it again. Okay. Now it passes 8-0. Sorry about that. Okay. Moving on to Bill 26-134, Mr. Miranda. This is Dr. Isaacs.

This is authorizing the Public Works Director to advertise for bids and enter into contracts for salt supply.

Do you wish to move it forward?

I wish to move this up for a vote for this evening.

Second.

Okay, it's been regularly moved and seconded. We wait for the readings of Bill 26-134 and bring it forward for a final vote in Council this evening.

Okay, one,

Okay, got eight for sure this time, so motion passes. Moving on to Bill 26-135, Mr. Falkett. Thank you, Mr. President. This is for

Appropriating $80,000 from unappropriated computerization fund for replacing equipment and updating software. This is a project that Mr. Messer has worked on in the courts.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-135? Okay. Okay. Hearing none, moving on to Bill 26-136. Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. This one is for $35,000 to help them balance the budget so they can send certified court notices. They've got some increased supply costs declared emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-136? And our last piece of legislation for caucus is 26-137. Ms. Mount.

Thank you, Mr. President. Bill 26-137 is vacating a right-of-way located at 100 Carnes Road, as described in the petition, retaining utility rights and easements therein, and declaring an emergency. And that pertains to the exhibit that you would have before you.

Okay. Is there any discussion on Bill 26-137? Okay. Hearing none, is there anything else to come before caucus this evening? If not, I take a motion to adjourn. Second. It's been regularly moved and seconded. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

Okay.

All opposed, same. With that, we are adjourned. I will now call this session on Mansfield City Council to order. Please stand for the pledge and remain standing for the prayer.

Let us bow.

Heavenly Father, we pray that you would guide us this evening and help us to make wise decisions on the matters before us. Please guide and protect those who protect and serve our citizens. Please bless the proceedings with your grace and wisdom. Amen.

The clerk will now call the roll.

Mr. Miranda?

Present.

Mrs. Meyer? Present. Mrs. Davis-Weiss? Present. Ms. Daly? Here. Mr. Diaz? Here. Ms. Mount? Here. Ms. Robertson? Here. Mr. Falkwet?

Here.

President Scott?

Present. Unless there is an objection, the reading of the journal and correspondence will be dispensed with. Okay, hearing no objection, we shall move on. I do have one person signed up for public comment. Jamila O'Neill, if you want to come forward to the microphone here. Okay. either one and as our practice is we give you three minutes and there's really no interaction between council you just make your presentation and then we move on and please state your name and address

church sometimes.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Reverend Jamila O'Neill. I am the pastor at Greater Mitchell Chapel AME Church located on Adam Street in Mansfield, Ohio. I am not a resident here. However, the people that I shepherd are here in Mansfield, Ohio. I just want to say thank you for allowing me just a brief moment to speak. So good evening. My name is Reverend Jamila O'Neill. Again, the pastor of Greater Mitchell Chapel AME Church here in Mansfield, even though I live in Cleveland, Ohio. I'm really here just to, I guess, express... sorrow as well as try to understand what is going on here in Mansfield, Ohio. And this is regarding the incident with the officer and Mr. Calvin Caldwell. This has deeply shaken myself as well as other members, especially when there are additional incidents that is coming forward as far as police brutality that is happening here in Mansfield, Ohio. Excuse me. As a mother of two sons, there was no way that I could just not at least say something, especially when my two sons come to church with me every time, every Sunday. We drive up. I'm going to be honest, Mansfield, I think, is the last place that I was ever feeling like I had to be concerned that something would happen and that my sons might be pulled out. and beaten by a police officer. So I'm just a little concerned. But I think what pains me the most is the silence from our city's leadership. I've been diligently watching the news. The members have been keeping me abreast and updated and still I have not heard any type of comment or response. From the mayor and Mayor Jody, I respect you 110%, you know that. Or from other leaders within the government here at Mansfield, Ohio. And so I am just asking that we receive some type of response. some type of public comment, something that says that the community as a whole and the government officials do not agree with nor stand by any type of form of police brutality. We're not saying, hey, choose sides. We're just saying, choose a side of right, which says, period. We don't agree with police brutality. We all don't know the full situation at hand, but I think that a statement or a comment is warranted, and I can't see where it would hurt where the community and also the leadership would make that statement. Thank you again for your time.

Thank you. Okay, that was the only person we had signed up for public comment. So are there any other committee reports? Is there anything further from the mayor and the directors?

I, Louie mentioned my intern, but I did want to take a moment to introduce her. Zetta Anderson is in the back. She has joined the mayor's office this summer. She is going into her senior year at Miami of Ohio, studying marketing, and she's been doing a great job for us. She worked on a lot of the America 250 work that we did. So all of the posts, all the posters, all of that, she's cataloged. That was a big box of time capsule things and a lot of paper in there. And she has cataloged all of that for us. She's also working on some other communications things before she's up this summer. But Zed is a graduate of Mansfield Senior High School and just an all around terrific student. Great to be. We have enjoyed having her on the floor with us tonight and just wanted to highlight her and her work tonight. So thanks.

Anything further? Okay. With that, we shall proceed with legislation. And I'll call on Ms. Daly. We have no late bills, but we'll call for the suspension of the rules.

Thank you, Mr. President. Suspension of the rules. 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.

Okay, it's been regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote on the motion. Got it. Motion passes 8-0. Okay, moving on to legislation. Our first piece is 26-118. Mrs. Meyer.

Thank you, sir. I move that Bill 26-118 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second.

Been ready to move and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-118.

Honoring Lieutenant Donald Reinhart upon his retirement from the Mansfield Police Department.

Any, I'm going to say questions. Any discussion on 26-118? Okay, if he was here, I'm sure everybody would have something good to say. But since he can't be here, we'll move on. With that, Mrs. Meyer?

Thank you, sir. I move that Bill 26-118 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second. Been regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage in Bill 26-118. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-119, Mr. Paquette.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-119 be read and placed on the floor for discussion.

Second.

And regularly moved and seconded, the clerk shall read Bill 26-119.

appointing the following member to the Downtown Improvement Advisory Board to commence service immediately to replace a resigning member for the term which commenced commencing July 1st, 2026 and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-119? Hearing none, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-119 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second. Been regularly moved and seconded. Council should cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-119. Bill passes 8-0.

Bill 26-1E, Mr. Miranda. Thank you, Mr. President. This approving the hardship petition for Michael Mullen and Nicole Mullen of 1945 Middle Belleville. You want to come up here? Sure. Mr. President, I move that Bill 26-120 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second.

In regular moving, second.

Now the clerk shall read 26-120.

Improving the hardship petition of Michael Mullahan and Nicole Mullahan of 1945 Middle Belleville Road, Mansfield, Ohio, 44904, and granting one-year license to tap into the city water and sanitary sewer systems at their own expense and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-120? Hearing none, Mr. Miranda. I'm sorry, Miss Bailey.

I just noticed that it's a one-year license. So after that, it's renewable. I just didn't notice that it's only one year.

I believe it's because they have to annex at the end of one year. So we're allowing them to come on to the city utilities early before the annexation is complete.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions, discussion on 120?

Mr. President, I move that Bill 26-120 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. Councilor Shester, vote for final passage of Bill 26-120. Bill passes eight to zero. Bill 26-121, Mr. Miranda.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-121 be read and please spawn the floor for discussion.

Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-121.

approving the hardship petition of Monty G. Perry and Marie Perry of 1095 Country Club Drive, Mansfield, Ohio, 44906, and granting a one-year license to tap into the city water and sanitary sewer systems at their own expense and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-121?

Hearing none, Mr. Miranda. Mr. President, I move that Bill 26-121 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second.

And regularly moved and seconded.

Council, shall I cast a vote for final passage of Bill 26-121? Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-122, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-122 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second. Then Raglan moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-122.

Authorizing the mayor and the public works director to enter into a community reinvestment area agreement with R.G. Smith Company and Ohio Corporation, its successors, assigns, and affiliates for their planned project expanding industrial space in the city of Mansfield.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-122? Hearing none, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-122 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second. And regular move and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-122. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-123, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-123 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second. Been regularly moving. Seconded the clerk shall read Bill 26-123.

authorizing the mayor and the public works director to enter into an amended community reinvestment area agreement with NIS Aviation FBOLLC, an Ohio limited liability company, amending the previous CRA agreement with NIS Aviation FBOLLC, an Ohio limited liability company, entered into via ordinance number 21-005, and terminating the CRA school compensation agreement entered into via ordinance number 21-006 for the completed construction project located at 2000 Harrington Memorial Drive.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-123? Hearing none, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-123 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second. And regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-123. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-124, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-124 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-124.

Authorizing the mayor and the public works director to enter into a community reinvestment area agreement with Newman Technology Incorporated, its successors, assigns, and affiliates for the planned project expanding the industrial building located at 100 Carnes Road in the city of Mansfield.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-124? Hearing none, Mr. Falkett?

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-124 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second. And really moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-124. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-125, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-125 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second. Been regularly moving. Seconded that the clerk shall read Bill 26-125.

authorizing the mayor and the public works director to enter into a community reinvestment area compensation agreement with Newman Technology Incorporated, its successors, assigns, and affiliates, and the Madison Local School District to compensate the school district with the intent that the school district be kept whole on the exempted value for community reinvestment agreement between the city and Newman Technology Incorporated for the planned project expanding the industrial building location at 100 Carnes Road in the city of Mansfield.

Any discussion on bill 26 dash one 25, Mr. President, Mr. Fouquet.

Thank you. I just want to reiterate on all four pieces of legislation of economic development, that it's a wonderful thing that we have, um, businesses expanding in the city of Mansfield. I want to thank Barrett Thomas for his efforts and reaching out and getting these things done. And also going back in the history books and finding out where mistakes were made and getting those fixed as well. So I think we kind of covered all that before, but this is the official part of the meeting. I just wanted that on the record. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there any other discussion on 125? Hearing none, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-125 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second. Been regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-125. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-127, Mrs. Meyer.

Thank you, sir. I move that Bill 26-127 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-127.

Authorizing the Safety Service Director to accept and appropriate funds received via donations in the amount of $7,175 to be used for the Safety Town program.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-127? Hearing none, Mrs. Meyer.

Thank you, sir. I move that Bill 26-127 be placed on the floor for final passage. Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-127. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-128, Mrs. Meyer.

Thank you, sir. I move that Bill 26-128 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second.

Been read and moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-128.

Authorizing the Safety Service Director to accept and appropriate a grant from the Richland County Foundation in the amount of $1,000 to be used for the Safety Town Program and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-128? Hearing none, Mrs. Meyer?

Thank you, sir. I move that Bill 26-128 be placed upon the floor for final passage. Second.

It's been regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-128. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-129, Mrs. Meyer.

Thank you, sir. I move that Bill 26-129 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-129.

authorizing the Public Works Director to accept and appropriate donations, a donation in the amount of $500 from the Mechanics Bank, $500 from the Richland County Health Department, $250 from the Rich History Alliance, $250 from Destination Mansfield, and $250 from Mansfield Lenins and Events, each to be used for the America 250 celebration and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-129? Hearing none, Mrs. Meyer?

Thank you, sir. I move Bill 26-129 be placed on the floor for final passage.

Second. Been regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-129. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-130, Mrs. Meyer. Thank you, sir.

I move that Bill 26-130 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-130.

authorizing the Safety Service Director to accept and appropriate an anonymous donation in the amount of $5,500 to purchase two LifePak 35 monitor printers and associated supplies from the Stryker Sales Corp. for the Mansfield Fire Department and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-130? Hearing none, Mrs. Meyer?

Thank you, sir. I move that Bill 26-130 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second. And regularly moved and seconded, council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-130. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-131, Mrs. Meyer.

Thank you, sir. I move 26-131 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second.

And regularly moved and seconded, the clerk shall read Bill 26-131.

Authorizing the Safety Service Director to accept and appropriate a bulletproof vest partnership grant in the amount of $21,225.36 from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to be used for the purchase of a bulletproof vest and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-131? Hearing none, Mrs. Meyer?

Thank you, sir. I move that Bill 26-131 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second.

It's been regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-131. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-132, Mrs. Meyer. Thank you, sir. I move that Bill 26-132 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-132.

Authorizing the Safety Service Director to accept and appropriate an EMS training and equipment grant in the amount of $2,500 from the Ohio Department of Public Safety Emergency Medical Services Division to be used for EMS equipment in the City of Mansfield and declaring an emergency.

Is there any question or discussion on Bill 26-132? Hearing none, Mrs. Meyer.

Thank you, sir. I move that Bill 26-132 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-132. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-132.

33, Mr. Miranda. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-133 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second. Been regularly moved and seconded.

The clerk shall read Bill 26-133.

Authorizing the Public Works Director to advertise for bids and enter into a contract or contracts for custodial services in the Mansfield Municipal Building, the Wastewater Treatment Plant Office Building, and the Water Treatment Plant Office Building and the Utility Collections Building.

Is there any questions, discussion on Bill 26-133?

Hearing none, Mr. Miranda. Mr. President, I move that Bill 26-133 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-133. Bill passes 8-0.

Bill 26-134, Mr. Miranda. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-134 be placed on the floor for discussion.

Second.

And regularly move and second it. The clerk shall read Bill 26-134.

Authorizing the Public Works Director to advertise for bids and enter into a contract for salt supply.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-134? Mrs. Meyer?

Given that the news reported the county did not receive any bids for salt supply, how do we stand going into the season?

Good question. We are going to put the bid out and see if we're successful. I mean, this is the process that we have. Richland County was one of a few counties where ODOT did not receive bids. So we're hoping that reapplying and all that will be interesting. So that's why we're doing it. Do we have leftover? We have some leftover, yes, we do.

Okay. Any other further questions, discussion on 134? Hearing none, Mr. Miranda.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-134 be placed on the floor for final passage.

Second. Been regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-134. The bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-135, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-135 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-135.

appropriating the sum of $80,000 from the Unappropriated Court Computerization Fund, number 219, for the purpose of replacing computer equipment and updating software to implement a paperless filing project to allow citizens to file some actions electronically and declaring an emergency.

Is there any questions, discussion on Bill 26-135? Hearing none, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-135 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-135. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-136, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-136 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second.

Your regular movement seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-136.

Appropriating the sum of $35,000 from the unappropriated court cost fund number 226 for the purpose of sending certified court notices and increased supply costs and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on bill 26-136? Hearing none, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that bill 26-136 be placed upon the floor for final consideration.

Second. And regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of bill 26-136. Bill passes 8-0. And our final bill, bill 26-137, Ms. Mount.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that bill 26-137 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. The clerk shall read bill 26-137.

Vacating a portion of right-of-way located at 100 Carnes Road, Mansfield, Ohio, as described on the petition, retaining the utility rights and easements therein and declaring an emergency.

Any discussion on bill 26-137? Ms. Mount?

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-137 be placed upon the floor for final consideration. Second.

And regularly moved and seconded. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-137. Bill passes 8 to 0. That is complete. Yes, Mayor?

Would you be willing to give me a couple of minutes to speak? Yes, certainly. OK. Did I interrupt you? No, go ahead. Okay. Well, I wanted to address the comments that were made during public comment. For those that don't attend council, we typically don't do that. And it always feels very awkward because obviously you're speaking very passionately from your heart. And, you know, we will be making more comments on things. But part of why we haven't said anything yet is certainly to let the process play out. We do have a very stringent internal discussion. investigation process, when complaints are made from the public, we go through a multi-step process. Last year, I believe it was in 2025, we had a public hearing or public town hall with NAACP group. And we did talk about a lot of that there and how we look at all of those situations. In the aftermath of this, we did have a meeting with leaders of the NAACP and MIMA. And we talked not so much about this specific situation because when legal things get involved, you just really can't. And I certainly understand that that's not always a satisfactory answer, but it is the truth. but we did talk at a higher level. We talked about the additional training that our officers are going through on an annual basis. We have increased our training. We have two of our officers in here tonight. We are doing a lot of training with the officers. They go through de-escalation training. They're going through racial bias training or implicit bias training, I should say. And, you know, thankfully, thanks to the state, we've been able to really step up training. They have stepped forward and allowed us to have more money. We also do, we've tracked and looked at, particularly after this, you We always have reports that in an investigation, whenever there is a resistance to arrest, and those numbers have actually gone down, even though our total arrest counts have gone up in the last five years. So we do want to put some of that data out and just, you know, let people know the steps that we're taking. Um, we did talk with the NAACP and MIMA. We're setting up quarterly meetings. Um, and I certainly would welcome other members of the community to join those. Um, I'm always happy to visit groups. Um, we're happy to go out to, uh, public town halls. And, and we talked about that with them because I think that, um, the last thing you want to do is be building those relationships in a moment of crisis, right? And I see a lot of familiar faces in the audience that I have built relationships with, but certainly there's always room for improvement and there's always room for us to do more. So I just wanted to at least at a high level say, you know, please know that, you know, we take concerns very seriously, as does the department. We try to let things run through their course. And I think that we'll have more. that we can share in the future. But certainly, you know, Pastor O'Neill, I'd be more than happy to sit down with you and any of your congregants if they have concerns. We take that seriously and I've heard it from others as well. So I didn't want to just leave this council meeting and you feeling like, wow, I spoke on this really serious issue and the mayor just blew me off because that's certainly not my intention. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. I saw your hand there.

I did. And, uh, certainly on a lighter note after the last meeting, which was ages ago, it seemed like, uh, we noticed that the flag actually, both of them were pretty sad shape. It's hard to see them. Um, but the, uh, clerk got them down and sent them out to cleaning at brass hangar. And, uh, So it really looks sharp now. I noticed it was much bolder. And the good news is he does American flags no cost. So we like that. And I just wanted to thank him. I wanted to thank the clerk for taking care of it. And in case you didn't notice, the flag's a little spiffier now. Thank you. And I'll move to close.

Is there anything further come before council? With that, I'll accept Mr. Falkett's motion to close.

Second.

It's been a regularly moving second. We close this council meeting. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed, same.

We are adjourned.