City Council - Regular Meeting

begin a public utility meeting um take roll call uh council person delay mount how are you so we'll take a quick pause So fortunately, you needed five minutes, so we'll be safe.

All right, go ahead.

uh thank you for the chance to speak to the utility committee and the other members of council and the mayor who are here mr law director thank you all um my uh i'm eric miller i live at 693 coleman road i'm part of the cff their third ward residents here uh who are part of this fellowship uh bob nye Sitting behind me, all three of us live on Coleman Road. Chad Cullen, the good news for you folks is Chad's my timekeeper. He's going to stop me from overrunning my limits. He's got the timer running on me now.

I will escort him out of here.

yes he's ready and would you enjoy escorting me taser huh taser okay so uh james boyd sends his regrets he was going to be here but he can't and so i'm filling in for him and um you folks some of you have been hearing from me about this going back to before the water main initiative passed i was telling many of you at that time that the Water Main Initiative, once it was passed, was viewed as a precursor to then addressing the reservoir and addressing the issue of HABs. So I'm not going to repeat the things you've heard from me before. I understand from the city, their position is that they don't disagree with our experts. We have two experts of outstanding caliber who have proofread everything that was submitted to the city back in June. And Tim Barra also wrote an essay on the general topic for us to distribute to the public in case we needed to do a public education campaign. So you know we have experts that we're relying on for the substance of this movement. We have people ready to put together a public-private partnership. We started out with a $5,000 pledge to activate PRIVATE DONATIONS TO MATCH THE CITY IF THE CITY COMES UP WITH FUNDS TO START ADDRESSING THE ISSUE THAT'S SET FORTH IN THE WRITTEN MATERIAL. NOW, UNSOLICITED, WE JUST GOT AN ADDITIONAL COMMITMENT FROM JACK BARGEHEISER OF $2,000. SO WE'VE GOT THAT. AND I'D ASK YOU FOLKS TO LOOK INTO IT. THE MAIN THING I'M PRESENTING. The main thing I'm presenting to you today is we'd like to get notice as we have a right to be notified of any official city council meetings that would relate to the issues we've identified and then secondly Something we don't have a right to but we would ask that if a city employee is Going to be speaking at a public meeting on an issue that would relate to the budget or to the reservoir either speaking directly to it or taking Q&A on the subject if we could get notice of that or Well, we've got a lot of members, and our membership is growing, and we'd want to inform people, whether it's a neighborhood meeting or whatever, that we could have a member there so we can continue to expand our public education effort. In a nutshell, we've heard there's no money. Our view is the long-term costs are so great that we need to find a way to find the money now to avoid far greater expense later. OK, so got one minute and I don't. I mean, I'm I have nothing more to say than that. I'm ready to leave within my time limit. You'll know where to find us.

Anybody have any questions?

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay. I forgot to mention James sends his regrets. James Boyd, our chairman, was going to be here on family employment. All right. Hey, thank you very much. Thank you.

At this time, we'll conclude the Municipality and Public Utilities Committee. Mr. President.

Thank you. Hey, it's 6.50. The Finance Committee would like to have a committee meeting. Ms. Mount's here and Ms. Robertson's here. And our special guest tonight is Kelly Blankenship, the Finance Director.

Hello.

just been a year it's only been a year yeah i know i know i've got it written down multiple places kelly converse our finance director and mark huckleberry our i.t person and uh we just wanted to go over the recent state financial audit um We don't have any specific legislation tonight to vote on, but it's been a news topic and finance just wants to make sure everybody on council is aware and had an opportunity to see a financial audit letter and summary. And there's a lot of information flying around. So here's a chance to have Kelly give us a and ask some questions if we have any. Go ahead, Kelly.

Thank you. Is this on? Can you hear me okay? Okay. I prepared a statement that is going to be more succinct than me trying to verbally cover everything. The city's 2025 financial audit resulted in an unmodified opinion, which is a clean opinion. with no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in financial statement internal controls, no material financial statement noncompliance, and no findings related to our federal programs. Those are strong audit results and reflect the work performed throughout the department to maintain accurate financial reporting and compliance. the auditor of state also issued several management letter recommendations those matters do not rise to the level of reportable financial statement findings but they identify opportunities to strengthen our operations as we do following each audit finance will review those recommendations with the responsible departments establish the appropriate corrective actions and follow up to ensure they are addressed before the next audit cycle Separately, the auditor of state issued a finding for recovery related to the 2025 payment redirect fraud. The finding relates to the $5,000 insurance deductible that remained following the city's bank and insurance recoveries. That $5,000 has since been reimbursed in full by PEP, and AOS therefore reports the finding as repaid under audit. Ultimately, the entire $748,145.46 fraudulent payment was recovered. The auditor concluded that the absence of a formal written independent vendor verification procedure at the time constituted negligence under Ohio law. The city's official response, which is included in the audit provides additional context regarding the financial safeguards that existed at the time. Our response to the fraud and the corrective measures implemented afterward. The fraud exposed a vulnerability in our vendor verification process, and we addressed it comprehensively. We formalized independent vendor verification requirements, strengthened electronic payment procedures and segregation of duties, expanded cybersecurity and fraud prevention training, implemented additional security measures, and adopted formal cybersecurity and payment security policies. As finance director, I will continually evaluate the systems and procedures entrusted to my office and strengthen them as risks evolve. I am proud of the city's recovery efforts, grateful that the entire fraudulent payment was recovered, and confident that the finance department's payment security practices are substantially stronger today as a result of what we learned. And another thing that I want to make sure you're aware of is that the state conducted the audit in 2025 not because of the fraud. We had an independent auditing firm that we had doing our audit for the last 10 years. We're allowed to be with an independent firm for 10 years max, and then the state automatically comes back to do the audit. because we had a clean audit again, we are being sent out to another independent firm. So the state will not be back next year. And we are anticipating seeing next week, the responses to the RFP. We have interviewed with six different independent auditing firms. So for the next five year cycle, we'll have a different auditing firm conducting the audit. So I created just this, handout for you that kind of summarizes everything that I had said. Again, it was a clean audit. We have addressed the finding that everything was recovered. And then in the management letter, we listed separately all of those issues there. The public records training was related to a council member who forgot to take the public records training during their term of office. The fuel card accountability was mainly related to the parks department and I think the turnover in that department contributed to some of that. And so we are going to conduct another training with them and have been monitoring the way that they're using their credit card going forward. We've spoken with Tori and. The engineering department is the one who is in control of the cards and issuing pins to users. One of the problems that the auditors identified is that when employees would leave employment with the city, the new employees were allowed to use that former employee's pin, which then prevents anyone from knowing who actually used the gas card. So that I know for sure has been rectified and is shored up for this year. And then Hutt can speak to the IT management concerns.

All right. Why don't we take a break? Thank you, Kelly. Let's ask if anybody on the finance committee has any questions at this minute, and then we'll go on. And then anybody on council have any questions? Yes, I see a hand. Go ahead.

Forgive my ignorance. What does PEP stand for?

public employees pool. It's our insurance provider.

Okay. I figured it was some sort of insurance, but I wasn't sure what that stood for. Okay.

Yes, go ahead.

So after we did this recovery, it's 2025, did we see like a significant increase in what then our PEP insurance would be after that, after this reimbursement? Because all of this was recovered through insurance, correct?

Right, right. We don't have the current rates yet.

Okay.

Is the PEP insurance and the insurance two separate policies?

It's all the same.

It's all the same. So the insurance was about $211,000. Yes. We had when we...

saw the insurance recovery, the 200,000 came from PEP. We also had a policy with Hartford that was separate and had a separate, it wasn't labeled cybersecurity, but it was something else that covered those kinds of incidents as well. So two different insurance providers were instrumental in this.

Okay. And the banking, banking was able to claw back just over half a million dollars. That's not insurance. That was very helpful.

Yeah. And unusual.

Okay.

Back to council.

That was the question I was going to ask about the 536. So in total, it was 748,000 that was lost, so to speak. Okay. And the bank recovered 536, and then you were covered with insurance for the rest.

Yes. Okay.

yes michael so moving forward do we still have the the two coverage the two different policies to cover us in the same type of protection yes and i think we have increased our cyber security protection with pep okay go ahead thank you chair um

Were they able to identify the person or people involved in this?

I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to share.

If it's confidential, if not.

So Mansfield Police obviously started the investigation, then turned that over with the assistance of the FBI. So typically when this type of fraud occurs, it's overseas activities, which we rely on federal partners to assist. So I know suspects have been identified. I do not know the status as that's a federal investigation.

All right. So I think the good news is that the audit overall was clean. It was clean enough that they are allowing us to go back to auditor instead of the state. The state coming in is mandatory every 10 years. But if they were to come in more often, that would usually be a signal that there was a concerned at the state level. Yes. So they're not concerned at this time. Correct. All right. So let's move forward with the management letter. These are recommendations that also came out of the audit, and several of them had to do with IT. I understand IT probably also has some security issues. But what can you tell us about what IT – is doing, and it's probably important that it's done by the end of the calendar year. How's IT doing with their recommendations from the audit?

So my plan here is I'll go through these four. We'll play a little rapid fire. I'm going to keep them vague due to some of the sensitivities, but I think we can communicate effectively in the setting. For some context here, we're in progress with most of the things that you see. You know me well, Dave. You know that I don't like to produce garbage, so I would like... The overall kind of thing I want to convey here is a little grace and some time, but I do think your deadline is reasonable. And with that, we'll get into it. I'll kind of talk about the bullet points that you see on each of these. If you have questions about some of the text, obviously feel free to ask any questions. um for logical access um mfa was in progress during the audit that was a very complex project for the city that touched every single user and every single machine in the city we had everything from some ada requirements that we had to meet with that to individual departments that are not say technologically driven that we had to offer some advanced training on that we we decided we would go to some one-on-one aspects with that And that wasn't a feature that we could just roll out to all of our users and all of our machines. That is all but done. We just have a couple of, again, those non-technical departments that we want to work with exclusively with that feature, but also greater cybersecurity, greater technical best practices. software number one that you read there. This is in progress right now. I'm in constant communications with that department. This is challenging because they have another their individual regulatory agency they have a requirement that they have to meet so going on the back end and kind of changing some of these global permissions could spin that a little bit out of control i know these seem pretty basic but it could it is a global setting so not to derail their other requirement that they have um we are kind of i will say a holding pattern on that and but very quick fixes on that um And we're kind of glad it was brought to our attention. The second software there, this was a software-wide problem for that vendor. They have been in constant communication with us, and they have a major rollout to address the issues that are outlined in that one. for a security administration. You see we're back to software number one there. This requirement, we had no notification from that vendor to the IT team. We've corrected that issue. So we are now in the notification process for being notified on updates. in regards to the accounts that is on the department the individual departments that have individual software solutions are required to manage their users that can't possibly fall on me global city-wide softwares take 365 for example that does fall on me and uh we uh we we audit and look at our users often get to that here in a moment In regards to the network, we have implemented new onboarding and offboarding policies as a direct result of this audit. We are now in the direct onboarding process. So every employee that comes in, traditionally, they went to payroll, went to HR. went back down to their department, started their career. They now have to meet with me and I meet with them for about a half hour each and we go over the basics of our technology that we use and obviously cybersecurity related. I harp on the people that deal with personal identifying information and they're moving funds. They get a little extra time with me because their due diligence is exponential. For bullet point number two, annual review of personnel. We do do this. This is a documentation recommendation here. So I'll come back to documentation here towards the end in an overall kind of aspect. The fire suppression system has been inspected and it's good as of today. All right, to number four.

Let's see here. You're in the actual report. You're not in the summary. So we did get that actual report. He's just using the actual report. Yeah, I'm just using it. I saw some people dancing around. It's not the Kelly Converse report. Okay.

all right i'm sorry to slow you down but just wanted to clarify okay for the recovery the easiest way i can explain this is we we provided the auditors our technical recovery uh procedures they were very happy with those procedures but they wanted more logical procedures so uh how it goes down to the end user so they wanted like some protocols and some processes that we will use for all of our employees. Again, that's a documentation issue. This is the paramount thing that I'm working on right now. And I'll kind of come back to the documentation. All of the bullet points, again, I'm in the original letter here. Those are either already addressed or will come back to those logical expectations that the auditor has set forth. And I can speak to those individually at any point that you'd like. In regards to training, I will take the hit on this one. You probably saw some of our training maybe last year, earlier this year. I put an end to it. It didn't meet my standards. So I have been researching and demoing a training management console that I can use for 470 employees, keep track of their training, hold them accountable, et cetera, et cetera. I have that to present to the administration on Thursday during my budget meeting. apologize. I was sick last week. That should have been complete, but I'm hoping that they like what they see and we can go that route. This will allow me to individually manage the training of all of our employees to include all of you. This training looks more adaptable to our total employee workforce rather than highly technical or non-technical. It's a good kind of place to meet in the middle. Now, I have already started new cybersecurity trainings in a variety of ways. We did an in-person training. I think a couple of you went to that and we spoke at length on cybersecurity. We harped on phishing. We talked about best practices for using your technology. That training was well received. We hope to do more of those in the future. I have to adjust to the learner. I can't just automatically send out an email and say, take this training. It doesn't work that way. I have to have one-on-one time with certain employees. I have to have department-wide trainings with departments. And it's nearly impossible to get a couple house bills sent out in 2025 and try to get all this done in 2026. I've done the best I can on that. And training is paramount to me. If you know my track record here at the city, I take that very seriously. And I think you're going to like what you see as we go down the pipe. But again, to reiterate on the training component, I meet with every employee that's hired from now on, and we touch it right off the bat at the beginning of their career, down to the suspicious link in the email, down to how to shut your computer down correctly. And that's all new. It's been well-received. I've had the first two kind of newer employees come to me. I have three police officers that were recently hired that I have to get to now. And it doesn't matter what your role is in the city, you will get one-on-one cybersecurity training that will be the point will be driven home how important this is to stay up with and on but ultimately the prior training it was subpar it wasn't good enough it was cheap and it was miserable to manage and i and uh you all and every employee that works in the city deserves better and they deserve better training on that aspect I'm thankful for the administration. I want to kind of highlight that they doubled the IT budget coming into their city. We have an internal team and an external team that work together seamlessly. All of them are fantastic, and we will continue to take this hard. I have met with Director Porch and the mayor and said, I'm getting ready to go lock myself in my office for six months and get this writing done. The day-to-day, put the fires out, tickets, I'm getting out of that mix. And that will affect some of you. That will affect a lot of employees. I am somewhat the only person that knows a few things around here. So obviously I'm going to have to get on that stuff. But yeah, Overall, when you see two softwares that were hit, we have over 140. We're in procurement with two more right now. We have to have complete buy-in from every department head and every employee to take cybersecurity seriously, and I think we have. I like to compare this, when I kind of came in a couple years ago, we had a really good house, but it needed maintained. And the administration and I and our partners, we made the decision it was more cost effective and easier, timelier to build a new house. I made the decision to, we're gonna come back and write the documentation after the house was built. And we're gonna get to that. The documentation is the key thing in these recommendations. And though this looks a little daunting, I personally believe it wasn't too bad. It was just finding software solutions, like the cybersecurity training solution that we use. It didn't work. It was a small business type driven software. And we are a local government entity. And we have to find one that plays more towards that. But we have a very knowledgeable city employee base on technology. Overall, they're all great. They take this very seriously. And I pledge to meet all of these recommendations that the auditor has given. And I also want to add one more thing. And I'm just saying this is the first ever audit of an IT department in the state of Ohio's history. So anytime I get audited, and Councilman Robertson, you can attest to this for like the leads component. When I get an auditor and I say, I want it straight. turn over every rock give me everything you can nail me because that gives me my blueprint to to come back and say all right here's what we got to fix guys and my guys and our external partners take it very seriously and uh we're on it i just know uh it's i just asked for a little time and grace i don't want to i don't want to bring back garbage it's that simple so with that i'll take any questions

I want to thank you for that pretty complete, thorough response. I think my biggest timing has just to do with the calendar year and the audit review. So next year in 27, they're going to come back and look at 26. And of course, the recommendations at 26. And of course, they're They're just going to cut it off on December 31st, whether you're done or not. And that's how they're going to look at the audit next year. So I understand things take time. I also understand auditors come in and say, well, what do you get done by December 31st? And that's probably going to be the driver for the next year's audit.

I'll work as hard as I can.

I appreciate that. So with, with my council members. All right.

So you mentioned there was a portion where you said there is a portion that the departments are responsible for their own underlying. You said those leads. Yes. Explain that to me a little bit.

That would be user management. So there's citywide software that everybody uses, say her software for the financial ERP. The several 365 is the big one, right? Everyone's using that. That falls on me. So we do those audits and we do that user management, the license assignments. We make sure the licenses are pulled off, assigned to an oncoming employee, stuff like that. Now we have individual softwares at individual departments. Take GIS that the engineer Bianchi does. He's responsible for the users that use that software. And then when somebody comes or goes, he's to remove them and add the new ones, stuff like that. Now, if that ties back into the greater network, of course, we work with him on that stuff.

Okay. That's what I was just being like cautious of. I know that can sometimes that gets hairy where people are utilizing their own. So, and it's just, you check it afterwards. Like, is there a timeframe that is given to you? Like if somebody leaves the system, does he immediately have to remove them and take them out? Like how much access do they have? Is there a 30 day window, five day window?

So human resources will notify us when an employee goes. In the past, we would kill the user, is what we call it, and then we shut them off, and then that shuts down email, access to the network, all that stuff. Problem is we're in a cloud-based world now, right? So we do expect to have training with the department heads and the people that they delegate this responsible to, that they have to get into those cloud-based solutions and kill those users. We try to tie as much as that back to the network security. So when we at my level, when we shut that person off, it shuts that cloud account off. But not all solutions are like that. They're kind of you purchase one and then you build your users and they're able to use that. And I can have some sensitive information in it. And those department heads have to be disciplined enough. to either delegate that or ensure that that gets completed. And most, if not all, are very good at that. And audits are good to find the human error, the clerical error that happens when a user is not removed. Go ahead.

You mentioned that you meet with every new person.

Based on the recommendations from the auditor. In the past, I had not. But we started that on August 1.

You personally or you mean your department?

I personally do. They're scheduled with me.

So wouldn't it be better if you also delegate to somebody else? I mean, on the, you, for you to meet with.

Well, we have a labor management issue there. So I have a bargaining unit.

That would be a problem. That's that kind of whole of your time when you could be working on something else.

Yeah. So that's, that doesn't fall under their purview and their job description.

Thank you.

Anyone else? All right. Well, thank you, both of you, Mr. Congress, Huckleberry, and we appreciate it. So at 7.16, I'll close the Finance Committee meeting.

Okay. Can you all hear me now better? At 716, I'll call this session of Mansfield City Caucus, Council Caucus meeting to order. Are there any committee reports?

Mr. Diaz. Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to highlight some things happening this week, beginning with Thursday. Thursday, UMADOP of Mansfield and WEACT and a few other partners are hosting the first SPARK conference that will be held at Mansfield Senior High this Thursday, beginning at 9 o'clock. And the purpose of it is to introduce current Mansfield senior students to alumni who went on to do very great, successful things and sharing their stories and really just giving more hope and paving a road of endless opportunity for our students and our community. So very excited about that. If you're able to come to it, please come. Saturday has a lot of things happening. DMI is hosting its quarterly Secret City Tour featuring some new buildings that haven't been involved in it before. There's also the annual Bandifest Arts Festival. The Phoenix Brewery will be celebrating the Oktoberfest. Mansfield Murals and Mansfield Library will be partnering for Luminous Art, which is Murals Coming Alive, which will be located at the library. The Renaissance is hosting its Mansfield Symphony Radiant and Beautiful Concert. And then Mansfield Playhouse is hosting a production, Dear Evan Hansen. In the conclude, I'd like to also highlight that at Mansfield Speedway this Saturday, beginning at nine, which is registration, will be the walk to end Alzheimer's event. So if you're able to go to that, you have a lot of things to do this weekend. And that concludes some announcements. Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. On economic development, at our last meeting, we had a public hearing. There were questions by a constituent. I attempted to get answers from the Area Agency on Aging. This has to do with the Lexington veterans thing. Their person was not available tonight due to a previous conflict. They also indicated that some of the questions, they're not going to have answers for a little while because this is a new process for them. So we're looking at maybe sitting down with them in November. Cheryl Myers has some interest in that. So she and I may go out to their agency and sit down with this person and get a preliminary overview of what's going on, and if it's worthwhile, we'll have her come in for economic development at a later date. But we have not forgotten those questions, and they have the questions, and we'll keep you updated as things progress. Thank you.

You're welcome. Anyone else? Committee reports or public? Affairs. Okay. Mayor? Okay.

A few updates and then I have our next beautification award to give out tonight. So I wanted to just let everyone know I spoke last week at the last. Yeah, I think it was last week. Weeks are running together now for the Ohio Mayors Alliance. They are launching an initiative to try to lobby the state legislature to create a core cities transformation fund for And what they're proposing to use is not taking money away from anything else in the state budget. It would be using excess revenues. The idea behind this is somewhat similar to what used to happen once upon a time with the local government fund. But it would be available for cities and in some cases, villages and townships to help with certain things such as housing, infrastructure needs, as well as. police and safety service, not infrastructure, but benefits needs. So the whole thing was, I guess, unveiled last week at the conference. I am one of the ones that is out in the forefront of this. I just wanted to let council know. If you have a chance to talk to state legislators later this year, of course, none of this will do anything until next year. But, you know, no matter which way the election goes, we know there's going to be new governor. And so they're trying to get out ahead of that. And that would be, you know, I think everyone understands that. having state money to help us with things that we're already doing but don't have enough money to always add other things would be really transformational here. So would love your support when it comes down to it. Did want to let everyone know the West Park Shopping Plaza bids were opened this morning. It has not been awarded yet, so the land bank will be scheduling a special meeting. They're basically... going through all of the bids and making sure everything was bid correctly. There's a number of alternatives in this bid so that we could make sure we didn't get stuck in a situation where we couldn't do everything. But it does look like there's a encouraging, I'll call it. So hopefully more to come on that, but I would hope that we'll start seeing shovels knocking things over probably maybe by the end of October, early November. So that's great news and we'll all celebrate that one. Did want to let council know we have two more staff members participating in Leadership Unlimited this year. I know some of you have participated in it yourself. We have our assistant police chief, Mike Napier, is in it, and our new parks department superintendent, Mike Woodger. They started with their retreat a couple weeks ago and are anxious to get going this year. And just wanted to remind everyone, Monday we have the Circle Dog Park ribbon cutting with our friends at Rotary. That's at 4 o'clock. Earlier that day at 1130, we're going to be hosting State Farm agents Mike Donahue and Mark Lamoureux received nets that can go up on all of the city's basketball courts. So they're donating those. We'll be at Maple Lake Park at 1130 a.m. So, and tonight I wanted to award our next beautification award. Heath, is there a picture? Excellent. So tonight we're giving an award to Platinum Family Wealth. We have Mr. Rick Shostet here, and I believe we'll have some photos here. If you know their spot, I'm sure you know their spot. It's at the corner of First and Diamond Street. They took this property and completely renovated the whole thing. And so their beautification really is much more than just an external beautification. But the entire property has been well-maintained since they did that renovation. It has become a really beautiful corner on the beginning of downtown, especially in an area that is it is much needed and the greenery and all of that that they have. So I just wanted to take a moment to give them a shout out. So, Rick, I'll meet you down front. There's that for you. We have a steak we can give you if you want it outside. And then there's that. Thank you. Anything you want to share with council or anyone about what you're doing?

No, just that it was, you know, I've obviously been working on it every day. It's literally out there every day, and I enjoy it. It's something I really enjoy, so I'm glad to see that you guys noticed.

How long have you been in there?

I should know this. No, that's right. It's October 2020, actually. Yeah.

COVID messes with your photography. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, thanks for investing. Thank you so much. Will you take a photo of us? Thank you. IT slash photographer. Do it all. but as I was getting ready this morning, I almost put a different outfit on. When I got to the city building, I was looking at the photos up and I was like, I almost wore the exact same outfit this month. I'm done.

Director Porch. Just one thing, sir. So tomorrow they're doing the aviation career day out at the airport. So we, uh, all, I think all Richland County schools are some are participating in that event. So that starts at nine. I know Mike and Mark and the chamber do a lot of work to get that program going. And, uh, If you have a chance, please stop out. And if not, make sure at some point, maybe next year, you see the event. So it seems to grow every year. It's a wonderful event. So that's all I have.

Okay.

Director Converse.

Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to share that our new income tax director, David Alvarez, started working with us on August 31st, and he relocated here from Utah, and we are excited to have him. He's got a very comprehensive background in tax preparation, and we're going to teach him tax administration, and we're looking forward to redesigning and restructuring the income tax division of finance. So more to come on that.

Okay, thank you. Deputy Director Madden? No updates from the Law Director's Office. Okay. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. I guess we shall now proceed with legislation for caucus. We will start with Bill 26-160. Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. This has to do with the... annual dance back and forth between the city and the county on how much money we're going to certify as our income from the real estate tax and for the city of mansfield um two million five hundred forty seven thousand and three hundred dollars is that and if i may on bill 26161 the township has basically the same thing. The township income is $94,500. The total amount is $2,641,800 between the two bills. And those amounts are going to be used in the budget when the time comes. Okay.

Is there any questions from council? Any discussion on bills 26-160 and 161? OK. Hearing none, we'll move on to Bill 26-162. And I'm going to call on Mr. Miranda for this one.

Thank you, Mr. President. A resolution ordinance to adopt the five-year update of the Soil Waste Management Plan of Richland County.

Mayor, if you want to.

Just for newer council members, I serve on the Solid Waste Management Board along with several others, including Commissioner Banks, township folks, and some private folks. So we did adopt this as the Solid Waste Management Board. Um, it is really continuing the work that they do. So they're overseeing the landfills, um, as well as the recycling that you see that's happening in the area. Of course, their facility is out on national parkway, um, out by Trimble and, uh, Eddie Hale is their executive director. They do really great work. Um, and they have been very supportive of the city. Uh, the sheriff's office has their, uh, Deputy that focuses on littering and dumping, which does include the city of Mansfield area. So I just wanted to let everyone know if you didn't have a chance to go through everything. The board has recommended approval and or we have approved it pending all of the different legislative authorities. And they're really doing some great work. Thanks.

OK, is there any up? I'm sorry, I'm doing it.

I have a question. You said they have litter police now. How many do they have? Because we need it in my era.

So they have one deputy that's for the entire county. So, you know, how it generally works for them, because, of course, you know, when they're coming into another jurisdiction is a police report is filed. So codes and permits often will work with. And I think actually the neighborhood impact section is kind of assisting with some of those, unless it's obviously something serious coming through patrol departments. You know, we have an ongoing battle on Arch Street with dumping that happens there. And there's lots of other locations around the city. I did just you know, I mean, we could keep him busy in the city of Mansfield alone, much less the rest of the county. But I did just kind of bring up to both sides, our side and to Deputy Loney that, you know, It's probably time for us to just sit down together and talk about where we're seeing things, challenges and where things can go better. I mean, not that it's bad, but just how do we both target where we're seeing issues? So, yeah, that's that's what it is.

So one of the challenges I see is the cost for people to dump like beds and stuff like that. So if I have some time, when I was living in Tennessee, the city itself had a place for people to take it to free of cost. So you would not have had dump. I know if we had that, I'm sure we'd not have so much dumping. But just a thought.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, well, it's costly. It's just a difficult subject here because, of course, our trash services are privatized. Yes. Well, there's a lot of them. So Now, NECIC has been doing the dumpster days for many, many years. They always get a good turnout. We do have someone that is willing to sponsor dumpster days up more towards the Glessner Avenue neighborhood, which also could use a decent clean out. We're trying to find volunteers right now to help us staff that. So, you know, I think short of what you're suggesting, at least trying to make sure that some of those are taking place around the city certainly would help. So it's definitely, it's a big issue and, and, uh, yeah, I'll leave it at that.

Okay. Any other questions? Council, Mr. Miranda.

So, um, um, the awareness part of this, is this from a citizen calling in saying there's a trash issue or is this the deputy going to be driving around making observations and creating what sparks the ball moving forward?

It's a little bit of both. More often than not, though, they want a police report filed before they're doing that. He does know some of our regular dumping grounds, though, and does some regular patrols. He also one of the things he does look for is unauthorized trash. Yeah. Yeah, haulers. Thank you. So they're all supposed to be registered in the city of Mansfield. So he has our list. He has absolutely pulled over unauthorized trash haulers. He also will sometimes sit up on 13 North. And if trash haulers don't have their loads secured and trash is blown out, he will ticket them for that as well. So, you know, kind of a variety, but it really needs to... When you're talking about something in the city, it's more than... More likely than not, it has to start with the city reaching out to him just because of the jurisdiction.

This is Davis Weiss.

And I'm sorry, just to add to that. So you were saying you were looking for volunteers to take over the dumpster days. What does that look like? Do you need someone to where like any CIC is like the spot and basically kind of utilizes their staff? Is that what you're looking for?

Yeah, more or less. I think the hospital has shown an openness to having it on their property. So, but we need folks to, I think that we can probably get some help from the city with, you know, haulers and backhoes and loaders and stuff. So, so we have that kind of thing, but people directing traffic and, and, and things like they do for, for that day.

Yeah.

okay any other questions discussion on 162 okay seeing none we shall move on so miss mount if you want to just for caucus purposes just kind of lump all together 26-163 through 26-171 yes thank you mr president since they're all demolitions

26163 is a demo order for 281 Myers Avenue. 26164 is a demolition order for 479 Wayne Street. 26165 is a demolition order for 503 Woodland Avenue. 26166 is a demolition order for 550 Broadview Avenue. 26167 is a demolition order for 623 West 4th Street. 26168, demolition order for 838 Danwood Road. 26169, demolition order for 48 Douglas Avenue. 26170, demolition order for 86 Home Avenue. And 26171, demolition order for 217 Cole Street.

Is there any questions, discussion on these nine pieces of legislation concerning demolition?

Mr. President, can I just add? So the state does have a demolition grant open right now for application. So we did talk with the land bank about as long as properties have been legislated, they can be put in for a potential match in that grant. So there's a chance we wouldn't have to use pride funds with a lot of these. So I just thought I would let you know.

Very good. Thank you for the input. Okay. Anything else? That concludes our legislation. Is there anything else to come before caucus this evening before we adjourn? I'll accept a motion to adjourn.

Move to close.

Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. We adjourn caucus. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same. With that, I shall call this session of Mansfield City Council to order. Please stand for the pledge and remain standing for the prayer.

Heavenly Father, we ask you for guidance and wisdom and knowledge. We ask you to look over our safety services, all of our fire, EMTs, police officers, especially our three new police officers. Look over everyone else that is here in our community. We ask this in your name. Amen.

With that, the clerk shall 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. Falkwatt.

Here.

President Scott.

Present. Unless there are an objection, the reading of the journal and correspondence will be dispensed with. Hearing no objection, we will dispense with that. Okay, we'll proceed into public comment. I do have two people signed up for a public comment. When I call your name, please come up to the podium and table, podium, whatever. And when you get there, please state your name and address. And as is always customary, we allow you three minutes. And so with that, I will call on Melissa Baldrige.

Melissa Baldridge, 414 Fifth Avenue. Thank you for the opportunity to be heard. I'm just a basic, simple citizen. I'm part of the 25% of Mansfield's population living below the poverty level. And I wish to address the basic, simple need for affordable water with reasonable fees. When the service fees are more than the service, that is unreasonable and unacceptable. When the fees are the same, whether you use 10 gallons of water or 10,000 gallons of water, that is unreasonable and unacceptable. The more usage, the more you will need maintenance and service. The fees should be calculated according to usage. Even when I whittle my water usage to $19, add in the current fees and that bill is closer to 50 bucks. So I asked Google, is it normal for service fees to be more than the service? Google says this is abnormal and could even be considered a predatory technique used to discriminate against the most vulnerable. Speaking of the most vulnerable, time is of the essence because 39% of the children in Minnesota under 18 experience poverty. I would really like our paid and elected officials to be aware and actively seeking a solution and open to suggestions. Like consider a sliding scale on the fees according to an individual's income. It's not, I'm all for beautification. Children, veterans, disabled, elderly, going without showers, baths. going without clean clothes, wearing the same clothes as yesterday, their basic needs being ignored. I'm not for that. And one is in direct correlation with the other. Working together for a clean, beautiful, safe city because it should go without saying. Not having affordable water is not safe. Surgeries can go into infections. Diabetics get infected. People can lose limbs. This leaves at least 25% of Mansfield population out of the beautification. We can't paint or spruce up our properties without water for cleanup. I can't power wash my sidewalks, my porches, siding, garages, or sheds. I'm limited to planning because I can't water it. Self-sustaining? No, I can't garden. Children and grandkids aren't missing learning out on gardening and family bonding and splashing or just having their toes in the dirt. We deserve the basic, simple necessities, and we shouldn't be put in a position to have to beg, borrow, or steal to get it. As I understand it, the mayor and the city council are the only ones who can make these adjustments. 39% of our population is counting on you. Please remember, this is also a great percentage of the population who will be making voting decisions when it's your turn to get old and disabled.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time. And I would also like to suggest maybe exchange some volunteer for a dumpster days for some water fees. I'd be all for that as well. Thank you for your time.

OK. Juanita Harris?

Yes.

Same name, address, and three minutes.

My name is Juanita Harris. I live at 335 Cedar Street, Mansfield, Ohio. And thank you for allowing me to speak at this time. My issue is I've been living on Cedar Street for a while now and Mansfield all my life. And the street sign on Cedar Street, which to me is a simple fix, but maybe it's not. has not been replaced. So when they tore the building down, and I can't say when the sign came down, but I know it's down. So it's been down like, I know, two, almost going on three months. So I have called the city department. So I've done my just duty. I tried to collect the right people to get this solved, but it has been unanswered. So to me, it should be an issue because I know, I mean, it shouldn't be an issue because I did ask for stop signs and it has been played and I appreciate that because people are just flying through the streets and stuff. So now I'm just asking to put my street sign back up on Cedar Street because you wouldn't know what the street was by going by unless you know where it is. So that's my concern now and it's just please have my street, not my street, but it is, I live there. Cedar Street, put it back up there. So just want to have that noted then come here and I called the mayor office. I didn't call pretty much everywhere trying to get that done. So that's what I just want to come to today, discuss. And thank you.

Okay.

Thank you. Do we know the cross street?

Spring mill.

Spring mill. Thank you.

it has been turned into the street department it but i will call to make sure it gets moved up the list thank you okay are there any further committee reports public announcements okay mayor directors we're all good okay moving along then to we will Ms. Daly for suspension of the rules. We have no late bills, as I understand. So, suspension of the rules. It's your fault.

Thank you.

Suspension of no late bills. 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.

Been regularly moved and seconded. Council has the motion before them.

I'M JUST NOT GOING TO BE NICE TODAY. MOTION PASSES 8-0.

WHAT? I DON'T MIND HOW IT SAYS.

YEAH, IT DID SAY. IT'S GOING TO BE CORRECT. Okay, moving along. Bill 26-160, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-160 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second. Regularly moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-160.

I accept the amounts and rates as determined by the Budget Commission for the City of Mansfield.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-160? Hearing none, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-160 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second. I move and second that Council cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-160. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-161, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-161 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second.

I move that the clerk shall read Bill 26-161.

Accept the amounts and rates as determined by the Budget Commission for Mansfield Township.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-161? Hearing none, Mr. Falkett.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-161 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second. I move and second. So I'll cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-161. Bill passes eight to zero.

Bill 26-162, Mr. Miranda. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-162 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second. And regularly moving and seconded, the clerk shall read Bill 26-162.

A resolution ordinance to adopt the five-year update of the Solid Waste Management Plan of Richland County, Ohio.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-162? Hearing done, Mr. Miranda.

Mr. President, I move that Bill 26-162 be placed upon the floor for final passage.

Second. Been a regular move and seconded. Council shall cast a vote for final passage of Bill 26-162. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-163, Ms. Mount.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-163 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-163.

declaring the remains of a designated deteriorated two-story aluminum-sided residential structure with two outbuildings, 281 Myers Avenue, to be insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, and dangerous to life and other property, directing the demolition thereof by city forces or contract labor materials and equipment, and declaring an emergency.

Any discussion on Bill 26-163? Hearing none, Ms. Mount?

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-163 be placed upon the floor for final consideration. Second.

And we're going to move to second. And Council Castor vote for final passage of Bill 26-163. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-164, Ms. Melton.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-164 be read and placed up on the floor for discussion. Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-164.

declaring the remains of a designated deteriorated two-story wood-sided residential structure with miscellaneous structures 479 Wayne Street to be insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, and dangerous to life and other property, directing the demolition thereof by city forces or contract labor, materials, and equipment, and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-164? Hearing none, Ms. Mount?

Thank you, Mr. President. I move Bill 26-164 be placed on the floor for final consideration. Second.

Second. We move to second. The council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-164. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-165, Ms. Mountain.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move Bill 26-165 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. Clerk shall read Bill 26-165.

declaring the remains of a designated deteriorated two-story asbestos-sided residential structure with no outbuildings, 503 Woodland Avenue, to be insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, and dangerous to life and other property, directing the demolition thereof by city forces or contract labor, materials, and equipment, and declaring an emergency.

Ending discussion on Bill 26-165. Hearing none, Ms. Mount.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move Bill 26-165 be placed upon the floor for final consideration. Second.

In a regular movement, seconding council structure for final passage of Bill 26-165. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-166, Ms. Mount.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move Bill 26-166 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second.

Been regularly moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-166.

Declaring the remains of a designated, deteriorated, single-story, asbestos-sided residential structure with detached wood-sided garage 550 Broadview Avenue to be insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, and dangerous to life and other property, directing the demolition thereof by city forces or contract labor, materials, and equipment, and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-166? Hearing none, Ms. Mount.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move Bill 26-166 be placed upon the floor for final consideration. Second.

I move to second and Councilor Shuck has to vote for final passage of Bill 26-166. The bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-167, Ms. Mount.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move Bill 26-167 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second.

The clerk shall read Bill 26-167.

Declaring the remains of a designated deteriorated two-story aluminum-sided residential structure with miscellaneous structures 623 West 4th Street to be insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, and dangerous to life and other property, directing the demolition thereof by city forces or contract labor, materials, and equipment, and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-167? Hearing none, Ms. Mount.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move Bill 26-167 be placed upon the floor for final consideration. Second.

And we're going to move and second it. So shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-167. Bill passes eight to zero. Bill 26-168, Ms. Mount.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move Bill 26-168 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second.

Been read and moved and seconded. Clerk shall read Bill 26-168.

declaring the remains of a designated deteriorated single-story vinyl-sided residential structure with garage 838 Danwood Road to be insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, and dangerous to life and other property, directing the demolition thereof by city forces or contract labor, materials, and equipment, and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-168? Ms. Mount?

This is one that I've gotten a lot of complaints from neighbors on, so I'm grateful. It's been about five years in coming because of the issues with the owner and not making the necessary repairs, but I'm grateful to see it's finally being taken down.

Very good. Anything else? Hearing none, Ms. Mount?

Thank you, Mr. President. I move Bill 26-168 be placed on the floor for final consideration. Second.

And we're going to move the second. Council shall cast their vote for final passage of Bill 26-168. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-169, Ms. Mount. Thank you, Mr. President. I move Bill 26-169 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion.

Second.

Regulatory move and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-169.

declaring the remains of a designated deteriorated two-story wood-sided commercial structure with no outbuildings, 48 Douglas Avenue, to be insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, and dangerous to life and other property, directing the demolition thereof by city forces or contract labor, materials, and equipment, and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-169? Hearing none, Ms. Mount?

Thank you, Mr. President. I move Bill 26-169 be placed upon the floor for final consideration. Second.

I'm ready to move to second. Councilor Shester, vote for final passage of Bill 26-169. Bill passes 8-0. Bill 26-170, Ms. Mountain.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-170 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second.

We're going to move in the second. The clerk shall read Bill 26-170.

Declaring the remains of a designated deteriorated two-story wood-sided residential structure with shed structures, 86 Home Avenue, to be insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, and dangerous to life and other property, directing the demolition thereof by city forces or contract labor, materials, and equipment, and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-170? Hearing none, Ms. Mount?

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-170 be placed upon the floor for final consideration. Second.

And regular moved and seconded. The clerk shall read Bill 26-170. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, you don't have to. Okay. Council shall cast their vote. Which you did, and it passes 8-0. Thank you. Sorry about that, Council. I know. At least we only got one more to do. Yes. 26-171. Ms. Miles.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-171 be read and placed upon the floor for discussion. Second. Second.

We're moving seconded. Clerk shall read Bill 26-171. Okay.

Declaring the remains of a designated deteriorated two-story aluminum-sided residential structure with miscellaneous structures, 217 Cole Street, to be insecure, unsafe, structurally defective, and dangerous to life and other property, directing the demolition thereof by city forces or contract labor, materials, and equipment, and declaring an emergency.

Is there any discussion on Bill 26-171? No. Hearing none, Ms. Mount.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Bill 26-171 be placed upon the floor for final consideration. Second.

We're going to move to second. Council shall cast their vote for final passes. Bill 26-171. Bill passes 8-0. That concludes our legislation for this evening. Is there anything further to come before Council this evening?

mrs meyer the um uh list here the current uh review board um was this given to us for a specific reason or just information um so deb's woman has stepped down okay she's resigning so we are not going to fill that seat until

we're not going to appoint somebody until January 1st for that seat. So to help her, if anybody knows, if anybody is interested, she is starting to look for somebody in her ward, but there are others that are going to be expiring at the end of this year. So we need to be looking for people now so we can appoint them in January if the people that are seating now are not going to stay.

Okay. Ms. Baum.

Would we want that legislation like in December so that they're good to start? Ideally in December. So they start doing it. Okay. So we need to be looking now and confirming. Yeah.

I don't think we've ever had a poll.

I thought I had. So the others that have.

Is there anything else to come before council before I ask you to close it?

Move to close.

Second.

Then we move to second. We adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed, same. We are adjourned.