City Council - Regular Meeting

Do you have power? All right, we'll call committee of the whole to order. Um, I will first move to approve the minutes of the February 23rd meeting without the necessity of a reading.

Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. All right. So, first up, we have um communication for me regarding the public art master plan. Um and I see that we have Amanda Kramer here. So, thank you for joining us and director Bington. Um I will kick it over to you guys.

Hi everybody. Thank you for having me here tonight to give you a little update on our public art master plan. Um, we've been working with the with the Kyhoga County Planning Commission since the summer on this project. We entered into their community services community planning services program for a grant for this. So, we were able to uh to get that started in the summer. They actually were able to table at the Lakewood Arts Festival, which is great. Um our internal group that's been meeting on this is uh myself um a couple members from our member of the guard advisory board. Councilman Evans has has been engaged. Um the schools have been around chamber live and um Nick from public works has been attending as well trying to keep me in a in a tight tight space. Um our timeline has been is pretty accurate to this point. They started with current conditions. Um really trying to understand where we were where we uh as they studied a lot of the our existing demographics where we had issues with accessibility or equity um and just really trying to get a good grasp of where we were. We had are concurrently going through the implementation and the vision and recommendations right now. So they started the vision and recommendations in October and they're just finishing that up now and at the same time we're going through the implementation. The implementation is essentially giving us the tools to make those things happen. So funding strategies uh partners that we should tap into that we've not tapped into before things along those lines. And then we are looking for the final plan roll out in late spring this year. Um, as I mentioned, we have had um some engagement since the beginning. We had the this steering committee that we've been working. The county also met with individual stakeholders. And I'll show you the list of stakeholders here

shortly, but um a good group. And then we had a community survey with 800 responses. We, you can see in the picture here, we did an engagement at the high school, which was daunting for me, but um actually really nice and really wellreceived. Um, then we have another one coming up at St. Eds that we're going to be going to do the same thing. So, that one should be pretty interesting because it's a lot of kids that don't live here. So, I'm interested to see their perspective as visitors. Um, and then we were also discussing doing a senior engagement with Barton communities or at Cove um just to try to touch those populations that aren't always accounted for or can't always make a public meeting. Then we will do the standard public meeting that everybody's invited to. Uh I believe that they're also going to do an artist roundtable with some artists that I wasn't able to get to come to our meetings just to see how they felt about our processes, how how things have worked for them, how successful or you know where they see opportunities. So the input from the steering committee, the steering committee was first and foremost um just really wanting to get a more diversified public art um program. And we, you know, we we do great with murals. Murals are great. Uh but they wanted to see a little bit of a difference with uh sculptural art, functional art, uh temporary opportunities. You know, we'd love to have traveling art come here, but we don't really have a, you know, a standard of how we would allow that. So, that's those were the um the input from there. The public art locations, they like it on the main corridors. there was an interest in seeing it in some more residential areas. Maybe like how, you know, we can have an art tour of everybody who's painted their garage and made it um an artistic piece. The installation of public art has wildly been or generally been pretty successful, but we have had

some we do have some issues with the vinyl. It doesn't stay on very well. It's expensive and we're paying a fabricator, not an artist. Uh which is challenging, but it's safer for the brick, but then we can't paint on the brick. So, this was kind of some of those things that we wanted to hash out and figure out. Um, as I discussed before, we wanted to talk compensation with the artists and make sure there was a standard. Uh, right now, I do my best research and come up with some numbers and see how many people apply. And if a lot of people apply, then it seems like we're doing pretty good. But we want to make sure that it's competitive but reasonable um, and practical within our budget. Um, for maintenance and removal, we also wanted to consider some of, you know, we don't have a lifespan on all of our art. We want to know when our art should start to be cycled out, when it is at the end of its life, and we want to be proactive with it instead of clamoring to get some maintenance in there. So, we don't have a maintenance plan in place for much of our art public art right now, but we want to make it a line item in our budget so that it's something that is consistent and addressed every every year. So this is a group of people that of organizations that met with uh the county uh local community institutions, public library, YMCA, by Lakewood, etc. And then also some more regional organizations um in the arts but also just providers. This group had a pretty similar amount of feedback. There was, you know, the opportunity for different forms of art, different themes and purposes. They did see a good opportunity to consider our accessibility and equity. You don't really think that a mural is challenging for people to see, but until you think about people who are vision impaired or, you know, they they can't reach something um it, you know, there's just different obstacles that we came across

while going through this process. That was really interesting. Through our community survey, we did get 800 responses. Over 90% of respondents felt good or very good about public art in Lakewood. So it is a popular program. The uh the favorites are shown here. Um so a nice mix of some of those were installed on the sailboat one is installed on the aluminum panels. There's a 3D sculpture and then we do have a vinyl hand painted etc. I'm not going to go too far into the the community survey feedback, but uh again, very favorable, but people generally want to see them in our commercial corridors, parks, public spaces. Uh murals are challenging, but people love them. So, there has definitely there's that is what I get asked about most frequently without a doubt is where can I put my mural or can I put a mural in my building? So, that is that is a big one. But there was also infrastructure like our traffic signal boxes and sculptures. The themes nature, community diversity, pretty um pretty lakewood centric ideas. Uh the one thing that I thought was really interesting in this one was showing how much people actually this is Lakewood. Everybody wants to be engaged here and you can see that in this the volunteering was the most popular form of support for these people. So, a lot of people can't go out there and donate or, you know, go to a class, but they want to be a part of the art installation. They want to help prep a wall for a mural or whatever the case may be. So, while it's not financial support, we have community support in that way. Um, I'm only going to show you two maps. There were many more. Um, this is an existing public art map. So, I along with Josh and the public works department have our inventory map. It is pretty up to date. This one is not because it was before all the traffic signal boxes were wrapped. So, there's about 42 spots missing on here. So, but

it is pretty much the same general uh general uh details. So, this is a quarter mile walkshed from where there is any piece of public art. So, you can see that the corridor most of the corridors along Detroit Madison are are within that quarter mile walkshed. Um, so there's not really any surprises here. Uh, the opportunity inventory shows a lot of opportunity in those same places. Um, and this wasn't surprising to me. Uh, I think we talked a little bit about this in our committee meetings that we wanted to push back a little bit on some of these options and to maybe try to think a little bit outside of just the commercial corridor. With some of our projects recently, we've really tried to bleed into the residential areas that have been really successful that people see while they're walking their dog up the street. So, so just to give you an understanding of where we go with this, we start with the vision and the guiding principles and then it gets more and more defined. So, we with the vision, we go to the goals and then strategies and action items. I'm not going to read the vision, but you can see some of our bolded type here is the inclusiveness, the accessibility, uh, creating innovation, placemaking, functionality, authentic. That was really important. We didn't want it to feel, um, not native to Lakewood, but it's a whole thing. Um, so those were the big important things that that we were going through with our guiding principles. Another thing was the functionality. We'd really like to kill two birds with one stone whenever we can around here. And we see that a lot with like the asphalt art that we did around haze, which is beautifying a public space, but also sending an alarm to pedestrians, cars, etc. So, so far we have four goals that we're working through and then each one of

them has specific recommendations for each of them. And again, I'm not going to take up too much of your time because I know you have a full agenda tonight, but these are those goals. Continuing to work with what we have and be have a diverse form of public art. Um, target areas, working to make sure we're embracing all aspects of equity and making our processes more sustainable for the public art advisory board. We have a group of volunteers who are very willing to do the work and um I think that there are some opportunities for them to help me, help us, help everybody to get a better understanding of of what they're doing and um just really make this a fully engaged board. Again, I'm not going to go through each of these individually. These are the types of art that we were going to explore. commercial corridors, gateways were huge, parks, green space, um residential options, community institutions, ensuring public art in Lakewood embraces all aspects of equity. So again, this is a representation of not only the art but also the artists. Um and then the fourth goal was making that sustaining process and looking at altering funding strategies, not just coming out of the capital budget. Um the planning and process of it all and engagement outreach and installation and maintenance. So I breeze through that. So feel free to make me dial back wherever you need me to.

Thank you. Um could you go back to the slide that had the types of art, please? I think it was after that. Yeah, I think

there we go. Okay. So, could you talk a little bit about um performance and temporary art? I know you mentioned about the installation. So, that or the um traveling art. So, that would be more like a sculpture that goes from city to city, that kind of thing. But then performance, are we talking ballet, opera, interactive performance? All of the above. What are

all of the above? Okay. Uh generally with our public art programs where I've only said no to a few people. Um but we are generally pretty receptive to almost anything. There's definitely been discussion about public art with ballet with um you know bringing the Beck Center out into the street and like coming having this huge institution that we have and why aren't they engaging in our street a little bit more to bring that part of the institution out. Um we're really open for anything and the ballet the musical performances have been something that's been a discussion a lot. Um, I will say the high schoolers were not interested in seeing ballet, but you know, sure, take it how you want it.

I mean, there's many other forms of dance as well, so doesn't just because I studied ballet doesn't mean it has to be ballet. Um, so, uh, also wanted to ask about, um, interactive art and you mentioned about the opportunities for volunteers. I think it was friends of impet park maybe where they did a big um mural project where the community came and helped paint it which I thought was a really cool experience and I know you worked on the with the kids doing the crosswalks which is also a very cool experience. So um is that something also thought about if we're pay like potentially working with an um educational artist to work with the community is that also part of this

Yeah. So, as you mentioned the the asphalt art, we did have the kids go out there do it and it was really interesting while we were out there and I showed some of them on my phone just where the artists had been earlier that day or earlier that week and they were like, "Whoa, they do this for a job." They thought it was really interesting. So, I think showing them that they could do this for a job, showing them those kind of opportunities exist and then they took a lot of ownership of it afterwards. They said, "Oh, my sister helped design this or my that's my sister's little dragon that you So when they can see themselves in it, there's so much more ownership of it. It's um it just is much more successful. So that is a big component and I think we want to find other ways to incorporate those kinds of things more into our everyday projects because they're not always accessible to that type of engagement. But that's another reason that we were moving more towards painted art and things like that because when you have a vinyl that's printed off site and then installed, it's not a a big process. You know, it was really nice to see people Aaron Casey just did a um a mural next to Magically Found. It's the the Sunflower mural and he did it for free because he just wanted to put his name out there and he got a lot of attention. he it was it's that's kind of the performance art of it. So we want to see that as much as we can too.

Thank you. And then I also wanted to ask about in terms of art and the parks um you know and I know we have in the long-term capital planning looking at um some of us have talked about particularly with Bernice Pike Park of wanting to see some sort of artwork art path talking about um history of female leaders in the city and the suffragette movement and all that sort of stuff. And it's in there's some money planned in the capital plan for improving that park generally. But um in terms of um how this plan intersects with larger capital um long-term planning like with the parks um how how is that being considered as part of is it being considered as part of this plan or how how are those two things intersecting if

yeah so one of the things I sort of breeze past in the the graphs shown was asked if there should be a part for art essentially with any new project. So, like for example, if it was in the past like the downtown development would have a requirement for a public art component. You know, the city of Cleveland does that. Um, they, you know, most of these bigger developments are going to do that anyway. You know, I talked with Castle last week about some of their plans. So, they're already in the works, but making it a requirement as opposed to a recommendation. Um, every time we do a a plan that I've been a part of, there's been a demand for more public art. when we did the Madison Park master plan, everybody wanted to see more art in the park. So, I it's definitely something that's at the forefront. It's not It is a part of this to it is written all over this at this point to have art in the park and have that be um a strategic part of those investments. And again, killing two birds with one stone, we need more lighting in this space. So, let's make it a lit seesaw like they have in Canada or let's make this a glow-in-the-dark bike bike bike lane, which um did give Nick a little bit of concern, but he said we'll figure it out.

Cool. Um council members, Vice President Baker.

Uh yeah, another cool there there's this I think it's all called like glowstone and it's in Michigan. They use it in their parks and it's essentially like solar rocks that are put into the asphalt mix that like light up paths. Um, and they do it in Detroit in the Detroit metro region a lot. And that's like kind of creativity meeting public works. But just thought I'd say that because it dripped my mind. The other thing is if you can go to the slide about like um locations or like opportunities. Um I view this and I am totally other side of the brain than art, but I always appreciate it. But I look at this as like um if I were a billboard operator, a marketing person, like how could I get our brand or name out there as much as possible? Vehicle counts, pedestrian counts, traffic counts, those types of things. And this follows that, right? You know, it's kind of like a if you were Lamar and you wanted to get a billboard up, you'd look at these locations. I would point you a little bit more towards the excess lands around I90. Um so the city, it's taken a while, Director Bind, but we'll get there. Um it's like four acres I think total and there are no areas of higher vehicle counts than off of I90. Uh so I see those more as like gateway opportunities. Um and maybe illuminated signage or something to that extent. But same with the front of Winterhurst, which I think is on here. Um but if you go further down Marginal on Lakewood Heights, there's another little green space there. And then you get off of McKinley, you know. So there's just opportunities and I um no offense to Parma, I love Parma, but rarely are they out in front of us, but like when you get off 176 onto whatever, there's they they at least painted the fence looks nicer than just a fence, right? So it provides a gateway element and those are things I think we can do. We just have cedar fences. Um we can engage people a little bit more when they drive into Lakewood and let them know they're coming here, whether that's like big letters or something, right? I'm this is I'm not that person. I'm the person that can identify real estate where we can put it. So, I think we should think

about those areas because we will fully own them soon and there will be opportunities for us to do these. I would just ask that you consider that. Thank you. Uh, Councilman Evans.

Uh, yes. Thank you, Chair. Um, to to my colleague, um, I I think there is actually a dot missing on here because we did talk about that entire gateway, that Hillyard. um given the impending you know potential replacement of that bridge and Riverside Drive there would be opportunity and that's also an area where public art could be functional making that a lot safer for getting folks across that uh pretty dangerous little part to the northern part of Lakewood where you live come from. So, um it's definitely something we talked um I just but I I just wanted to say this is a great overview, but like when when the entire report is available, I I encourage everybody to take a look at it because there's a lot more information than this in there. Um the process was very thorough. Um as uh planner um has said that I was involved so I was had the opportunity to do that which was um great. So I first saw firsthand all the great work. So, thank uh team at planning and the uh our partners at Kyaha County. Um I think this is a great document. It's going to be really helpful to um us as a city and also, you know, we're to the point where we need to attract public artists and have them be looking forward to work here. And they want to do that in a place that has a plan and is like intentional about the things they're doing. that's more attractive a lot of times than just some random one-off thing because that knows that make sure that that person knows what they're getting into dealing with with us. So, uh it's really important. This has been in the works for a long time. Public art master plan. We've been talking about it since before public art advisory board was even put into place. So, thanks everybody for their hard work on it. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Uh Council Member Bixenstein. Thank you, uh Madam President. Uh I want to echo Council Member Breven's uh sentiments. I really appreciate everybody's efforts uh to this end and um you know even just this uh presentation all the visuals um being being reminded oh yeah I forgot about that particular mural it goes to show the the you know the depth of of uh public art we we currently have and clearly we have a plan in place for for more um I was just curious I know it's um early but um uh birds of bird of bird town has the um initial response um been uh you know about what you expected has it has it fairly strong.

It's been stronger than I expected to be totally honest. Um I thought that was going to be a bit of a niche project that would only attract a few artists. And the way these work is that I get a couple of stragglers at the beginning and then at my deadline at noon, I get 20 emails at 11:30 or between 11:30 and noon. So, um I've already gotten several so I expect a bunch more to come in. Glad to hear that. Uh, Councilman, Council Member Stig,

thank you. Um, thank you for this report. I I really appreciate this. This is something that, um, the Lakewood Youth Council has been talking about. They are very interested in a battle of the bands for high school students. I have to I have to connect you with Era um from the mental health committee specifically and I don't want to lose that point that art is um is important for mental health not only for the spectators of it but also for the participants and I love that you you also pointed out that people in Lakewood are are are ready to volunteer to help with this and I think that that aspect of actually creating the art and we see that right when we we get cool snowfalls where you can make snowmen and All of a sudden, poof, you have all these snowmen pop or and women, snow families popping up across the city, right? Because people enjoy, right, creating that and then you it's cool to watch it melt in that whole that whole piece. And I also um I also wanted to along that that very same line, the removal of this heart. It hadn't crossed my mind, but I I appreciate that, too, because sometimes you see some of those things and they're like, "Yeah, that doesn't look so good anymore." So, I appreciate that you have a timeline and a focus on that. Thank you very much.

Thank you, uh, Council Member, uh, Hamilton Steiner.

Thank you, uh, President Keell. Um, thank you so much for presenting this and I am so glad that we as a community, um, and as a city governance are investing in in public art. um public investment in the arts is so important and um you know especially when our federal government is eliminating funding for art and um and I think there's you know an opportunity that we can sort of that we can set that standard and say no you know no art is very important. It's important for our mental health as councilwoman um Stubig has mentioned um and it's just you know important um for all of us in the community and I think that um there's also an opportunity to involve young people. Uh my daughter is um at Hayes and that project that happened over there with the curb ups was just an awesome experience for that entire class to participate in that. Um, and and I think if we can have more involvement of our young people into the arts, um, because they're naturally intuitive and naturally artistic, um, I think that there's a lot of opportunity and there's even a lot of opportunity, um, to teach, you know, art and to teach the business side of art, um, as well and and how you you can make a living um, doing what you love and and doing your passion. And maybe if more people actually did their passion and what they loved, we'd have a lot more happier people. So, let's encourage people to um do their passion and live their passion. And if art is their passion, let's let's say you can do this and here's how you can do it.

Thank you, uh, Council Member Bullet.

Thanks. Um, thanks, Madam Chair, Amanda, Director Bington, and Mayor, thanks for your work on this. It's got to be probably the biggest impact for the smallest cost investment that we've got around. You know, it's real flowering around the community literally because you see all this color. But, um, our consistent effort has really been a wonderful thing to see and and I think I'm hearing unanimous support for more. To me, now we're in the growth mindset uh uh mode where we got to challenge ourselves to do more and different. And I'm glad that is in the plan, especially on the different media, you know, growing beyond murals. I love how you are trying to push art into the neighborhoods as much as possible. Do you think there's opportunities for that? Probably around uh this council woman to my my left, your right, her neighborhood near Roosevelt Elementary is kind of in in the you know, so there's going to be and and Hayes that Councilwoman Hamilton Steiner just said, you know, there's some public spaces and approaches there that are are are great as well. So that it's it's um something that we discover as we walk and bike around the town um and visit, you know, visit friends and neighbors. So one other uh one question, one one more comment. I think I'd love us to see if we push on the content a little bit and support some risk in the actual what the art is. There's a tendency for us to celebrate local. So, you go to a Cleveland art show, there's a lot of steel bridges and and steel yards and uh sports teams and, you know, rock hall type stuff and that's all wonderful and we could do more and I think we've laid a nice baseline of celebrating our community. The bird town birds for bird town is a great theme. Um maybe the next pass on that is the historic the ethnic historic neighbor, you know, an industrial past of bird town just as a

for instance. But maybe it's got nothing to do with um anything particular to Lakewood. It's just that some some artist who's got a vision who lives here or works for our community does something unique. And that's I think the one example of that's the Lakewood Library sculpture is an abstract piece. It's a very nice piece. It doesn't tie itself to anything local. So I'll stop my artistic uh content comments there. But you know um we we so we should keep improving in my opinion. Um last question is who's got the curation function so that where we could way find we can inform we can celebrate a new piece or or the first piece or a classic piece on his 10th anniversary or something. Um at one point we talked about maybe the Beck Center hosting something. I don't know if we've got a coherent index. Um, but that's a whole function that we could potentially grow into. And then that also invites the the point I think you're implying here, which is some art pieces may come down someday. Or do we envision all of them to last for a hundred years each? And if not, how do we make that schedule and those decisions? I I don't know. But it it that may be an aspect of the plan. So that and what I mean by that is a curation. Literally I just went to the art museum on the east side yesterday with my kids. Um how do they rotate from their uh collection into their galleries? You know those kinds of decisions. We may be approaching the the stage of maturity for our public art program where we could start to think about those things.

So So any quick answers on that? Um in your back pocket? I I do have some answers for you actually. Um

I think the the programming is is a really important push that we've almost we've talked about in our group almost making it like a ribbon cutting sort of a thing. We have this great art. What do we do to roll it out? You know that that kind of a process. I think those wins should be celebrated and uh we've talked about having various types of art walks and tours. Uh you know people are definitely interested in that. I am the public art department. So, um I think part of this plan was a really a strong um path forward for me to make those things happen that are doable internally um or you know seeing where we can outsource things and being strategic about that outsourcing. You know, if we're going to make this investment, we have this plan that shows that it's worthy of it. And that was a big deal with with our plan as well. Um, regarding, you know, the end of life with some of our our art, I would love to see, you know, we're taking this mural down, who wants a piece of it kind of a thing. And it's just you can take home this piece and or we can give it back to the artist. They can do what they what they please with it. So, we have thought about that. We've thought about many many things. It's a very um all over the place kind of a committee, but the county is doing a nice job of putting all of our thoughts into a well schooled plan.

Thank you. And I think just kind of piggy backing on Council Bulock's question I had noted um on the the walking map and I just pulled up on the website and there is a nice clickable walking map people can click on and see who the artist is and that sort of thing. But if um part of the plan is also like we're saying about doing the art walks um about potentially engaging whether it's the public art advisory board or other groups to sort of be dosent at times or um you know there could be more content about like not just who the artist is but why this piece was created and that sort of thing. and um not asking you to personally do all that, but that that is something that um you know I could see community members engaging with um with as well. We have a the community journalism program as well um through the land and um folks with the observer. So there could be opportunities to highlight art that well way as well. Council members, any other questions or comments? All right. Um, well, thank you uh for the presentation and for the work on this. Um, you know, as a undergrad art major, I appreciate it personally and love seeing it around town. So glad to see us have a cohesive plan. Um, art is obviously subjective and so it's good to have a plan for how we maintain it and expand it and and you put the public dollars to good purpose. So, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your time, everybody. Thank you. All right. Um so I'll um just to clean up our um docket, I'll just um move to uh receive and file the communication regarding the public art master plan. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes.

Okay. So, next um the rest of our time this evening we have for the charter view um amendments. Uh so just to reiterate, we uh had the charter review commission in 2024. There were six general recommendations that came out of that and the communication that we did that showed link to that report. You can take a look at all that. Um the I thought tonight we would start with some of the sort of lowhanging fruit um of those. Some of them are more complicated than others. uh and then decide which, if any, we want to um the long-term goal is to get these out of committee back to full counsel. If we're going to have any of them on the ballot for November, we would need to get them ideally out of committee prior to August recess because the deadline for the um November election would be the like the first week of September. So there we want to make sure we're not right up against that deadline when we come back from recess and we want to have time for them to go to the board of elections. We'd also want to have time to um help the public understand any of the ones that we are putting forward for the their consideration. So just talking about timeline, I do not expect that we will be um necessarily ready. We maybe we will, but I don't expect we'll probably be ready to take action on any of these tonight. But we thought we could start the discussion. So with that, um I thought probably the um one of the maybe I might be wrong about this, but one of the simpler ones to look at is the one regarding the red lining, uh which is

18.

Thank you. 18 2026. So this one is essentially currently the way the charter is written. Um it's it's that the ordinances resolution or section of an ordinance or resolution needs to be completely listed out, repealed. Um and then the new part put in which can make legislation very lengthy and challenging for folks to read. Um and now that technology allows for the practice of redlinining where we can essentially highlight what's different underline strike through etc. um can make it clearer, particularly um in my opinion for members of the public when I remember coming as a member of the public and reading the entire old version first and being like very much against what that was and then realizing, oh, the next part says that will all be repealed and I just wasted all my time reading that. So, um so that that's the idea of um this ordinance. So, uh, any council members have comments on this one? Vice President Baker?

Uh, yeah, I I certainly agree, um, that it's a good cleanup. Uh, I think if it was just this one, I don't know that I would, you know, send the board of election scrambling to come up with a a ballot issue for it, but I think as a package of of ones that we're going with, I think is I would certainly support it. Council member Stubic,

thank you. I've also fell victim to that um trap where I'm reading and I'm like, "No, that's not what we wanted. That's exactly the opposite." And then you keep reading and oh, this this is the repeal part. So then I go back through and I cross everything out. And the same thing happened uh numerous times when we were looking at the TNR with uh with Lewis. We're going through and I'm like, "No, no, no, no. That's the repeal part." So to make it a lot easier to review, I think is is a no-brainer for me. Thank you. There council members comments, thoughts. Council member Bulock,

this is Thank you, Madam Chair. This is very technical and minor, but are we being overly prescriptive in how we say that redlinining should happen? Um, you know, it's specifying how redlining. I'm I'm recalling in the old days there were prescriptive ways of providing public notice. It was newspapers at first and then at one point it was even like on a bulletin board from the AOL days. that got repealed. So now we try to find general language that doesn't require something this specific. Now I guess that's really a question for the attorneys in the room that method is universal enough to put in our charter then I agree with the spirit of it certainly. Thanks.

Vice President Baker. Yeah. Yeah, I mean you the profession and perhaps some of the gentlemen in the back and I wasn't there when word perfect was around or maybe Ernie, but uh but but generally speaking, Word Perfect did the same thing that Microsoft Word does and will do the same thing as Google does, right? Or whatever the the word processing is. So to the point of how it's drafted, I think it basically says it's like new stuff underlined, old stuff struck through. Um and I think that's as old as legisl legislative drafting for the history of our country has been. Um and so I think that's pretty safe. Um, at least I don't want to speak for the law department though. Law department care to chime in?

You are correct, Councilman Baker. It does say revisions or amendments to an ordinance or resolution shall be clearly indicated by underlining any language inserted and by striking through any language that is removed. All right. Um, any other council members care to have opinions, thoughts on this one? Yeah, I'm just happy to say I think it's makes a lot of sense and support.

All right. Um, let's carry on because I think the general consensus is um we could take a vote on this one to refer favorably out of committee if we think that it is structurally ready for that. Um, I'm eyeing the law department to see if they have any concerns about what the language of how this is currently written. Um, but we might want to wait to do that if we're um, I guess we could go ahead and do it, but I just want to before we would actually pass it out of full counsel and refer back to the um, refer it to the board of elections. I think the general idea was we wouldn't just send this one if we So, we kind of want to wait and see if we are sending any of the other ones before we would vote this one at full counsel. Um was my understanding from how I was reading the room uh that we probably wouldn't just do this one um the board of elections, but we could go ahead and vote it out of committee if we think it's um ready. Madam Chair.

Yes. M I I I think um getting it out of committee might be helpful for record keeping purposes in the committee and then it can just be on the full council docket and then if there more accumulated we could do that. We could always defer it in the Yeah. full council. So okay. So I will move to recommend favorably uh back to full counsel. 1820 26. 18 2026. Yes. Um second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any Madam President? Uh, Council Member Hamilton Stein.

Thank you. Thank you, uh, President Keell. So, um, out of, um, a sheer abundance of caution, um, in order not to give an appearance of impropriy, um, due to my prior service on the Charter Review Commission uh, two years ago, I will be recusing myself from participating in the dialogues regarding the amendments as well as, um, from voting. Thank you, Councilwoman. All right. Any further discussion on 182026? So, we have a motion to refer favorably back to full counsel. All those in favor? I I abstensions abstain. Against.

And that motion passes. All right. So, let's uh jump to the ordinance 20226. This one is uh how the charter can be amended. And as my recollection from the charter review commission's discussion presentation to us in the report was that essentially it doesn't actually they're not looking to actually change how it's amended, but just the language of how it's explained how it can be amended. It was a little confusing. So it had said amendments to this charter may be submitted or this is the current language amendments to this charter in section B may be or in section B it says amendments to the charter may be submitted to the registered voters of the city by a twothirds vote of all council members and comma upon petition signed by 10% of the registered voters of the city proposing an amendment comma shall be submitted to the voters of council voters by council and so instead um that was a little confusing because the intent is that um and law department, correct me if I'm wrong, but the I think the intent of that language was that charter amendments could be uh essentially could come from council or they could come as recommended from the charter review or just by council or by petition of the voters. So if the if the voters directly want to petition for a charter amendment, they could do so. But it's a little the way that was worded um the charter review commission felt was a little confusing. So the redlinined language says council may by affirmative vote at of at least twothirds of council members submit any proposed amendment to the charter to the registered voters of the city for approval or upon receipt of a petition signed by not less than 10% of the registered voters of the city

setting forth any proposed amendment to the charter. council shall submit such proposed amendment to the registered voters of the city for approval. So that was that. So essentially the same process just making it hopefully clearer to voters about how chart amendments could happen. Madam Chair, councilman happy to support that. Yeah. Other councilman. Yep. Any anyone comments, questions, concerns law department? Any concerns about how currently drafted? Okay. All right. So, with that, um, I will move to refer favorably, uh, back to full counsel, uh,

2020 2026. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. Abstensions. Abstain.

And everyone else already voted yes. So, that motion passes. All right. clean up the docket nicely tonight. All right. So, what is the next easiest one? Oh, let's do 172026. So, this is the one um regarding council appointments. So there was a lot of discussion um you know we committee of the whole met with the charter view commission also prior to the recommendations um and talked about vacancies. So in the report there was a lot of conversation and and in the discussion of the charter view commission about how vacancies on council um are handled. We had a lot of conversation amongst ourselves as well of how while ideally we'd love for the voters to decide every single time that's not always practical. Um so uh this language sort of the idea is the count uh charter review commission wanted to essentially codify um I'll just say my understanding is the charter review commission wanted to codify the current practice of since I've been on council and I think even before as long as I can we've the liquid cities council's practice has been to do an open call for applicants interview publicly and then do an appointment. Not all cities do that. Um, famously some of our neighbors will do the uh last minute step down so that they can appoint their successor. Um, and that's not what we want to achieve here. And I think we all have the goal of trying to make it as open and transparent as possible. So

this the idea is to codify the practice we've been doing of um doing the open call for applicants and doing public candidate interviews. So that language is in section B. Um adding language, prior to making any appointment, council shall first issue an open call for all interested candidates to submit applications and upon council's review of the application, she'll hold candidate interviews in public session. Um there is a change here. So if the vacancy occurs more than 2 years and 120 days uh before the municipal primary election. So this is changed to filing deadline and the reason for that is um partly because if there's another um amendment talking about rank choice voting. If we were to go with rank choice voting, it could potentially eliminate the primary. And so rather than prior to the primary, it would need to be before the filing deadline, which would be dependent. Um, and regardless, even if it's before the um so regardless if if we did a primary election, so this would actually the filing deadline would be before the what would have been the primary election. So I'm happy to talk through any of that that part of it of the timing wise but the um or any of the other elements. So that is what this one is about. Any feedback comments? Okay.

Can you councilman bullet

um the prior to um let me just see if I understand the reading here. So, first of all, I support the spirit of it and I think we've been doing it for long because I've been around or or maybe the second year since I was around. Um, prior to making any appointment, um, council shall first issue an open call. That that makes sense. And then upon council's review of applications, shall hold candidate interviews in public session? Do you interpret shall hold candidate interviews to mean any candidate interviews that council decides to hold shall be done in public session or does it mean council shall hold candidate interviews for all applicants received or something else? It's it's um vague uh and maybe artfully so or intentionally so. I I I think I probably do lean towards having the charter not be so prescriptive to the elected body that um there is no discretion afforded. But on the other hand, you're you're just talking about holding interviews. So and and I think the convenor the the chair of of the meeting would have some parliamentary discretion to structure the meeting for long or short interviews, etc. Right. So, I don't know what the intent was or what the reading is.

Well, I'll just say my intent was introducing all these was just following, you know, trying to give the charter view commission put in their time to make recommendations and ask us to look at these things. And so, I thought we should So, there's there's two different intents. There's could be like what I think as one individual council member and what the charter view commission intended. So, for what they intended, I'd have I'm looking at I would look at what their report says. Um, my recollection was slightly different. Yeah. Um, at least in the second part of the language. Okay.

Um, Madam Chair, it's okay. I mean, I'm not Thank you. And and I'm not um asking us to reconstruct verbatim, you know, their their intent report. I guess point is I'm raising that question now for our consideration and I'd certainly welcome any charter review commission member who would like to you know speaker light on that but to me that's that's a not not a trivial point. Um so wanted to flag that. May

may I suggest we we ask the law department I I think um this would require a few things. we issue an open call um and then we hold interviews in the public. I think those are the two things that this requires. Um could the law department clarify that point? We could also table this one and come back to it um when we're having a fuller conversation with rank choice voting because I think the the second part there regarding the date is connected to that one. And so um it may affect the language of this one based on that one is another. So that could be a continued conversation between now and the next time we convene.

Dr. Mr. Vgo, I I agree with you, Council President. Let's keep that in committee. Uh if it depends on language from other uh proposals, other proposed charter amendments, we'll deal with them and be informed. Thank you.

Okay. All right. So, let's pause on that one and then we have the ordinance 2022. Um so this one came out of both the charter review commission and the civil service commission um had made recommendations to council regarding or they expressed concern through their individual bodies and then um they also met together about how often um both how often council and mayoral salaries are amended. Um there was a lot of discussion in the report um both the civil service commission's report and the charter review commission's report about the methodology um and some recommendations that came out of that and then since then we got um further information from the law department about um one of the things that civil service commission had suggested in terms of having a built-in process for salary increases that that would not be practicable with um Ohio ethics laws because for various reasons. But so um then this is looking at more less than the amounts but the timing. So, one of the things that came out is that the way it's currently written um the the review the charter calls for review during after the year of a presidential election which is an even year election. municipal elections are in oddyear elections. And so then by the time they

meet and it's and it goes through then that elected official particularly so like if that happens on the year when it's the maril and the ward council members it might not go wouldn't be actionable change until another four-year term has passed. So that was some of what was discussed with this whole thing. So, um there were um some of the other things of this too is the timing. So, um, because July of 1st of a presidential election, I'm sorry, I had this all written out because it is the timing is very confusing. like if July 1 or if they if the Civil Service Commission does the review in July of a presidential election, um they have to be and then make a written report to council and then you have the amount of time that for the readings of council to enact anything um or to let it pass without with it within 90 days. And now you're um past the filing deadline potentially for new candidates to know what the salary would be. So hence the March 1 um pushing it back and then in the municipal election so that it would be prior to um anyone choosing to file they would know what the upcoming salary for the new term would be is the idea. Pause there for

any council members, questions, comments. I'll um chair um the the charter review recommended some similar language um but a little different um and they recommended I think deletion of the 10% thing but we don't have that in um what's proposed and I'm wondering the kind of distinction there so if unless I I get the charter review report um talks it it deletes uh approved by the mayor. However, no increase in salary under the section shall exceed 10% for the salary for the office of mayor or council unless there has been no increase in salary for the preceding 10 years. Um and then we keep that cap and what's I think on the docket. Um but it's it changes it the preceding eight years. I'm just curious as they kind of I could see either or, right? Um

I don't recall. I think maybe because the terms are four years and I also looked at the civil service commission's report. Oh, so you're kind of blending the civil service harder. Okay, I get right. Yeah. Um because some of the things the civil service commission asked, they asked us to implement an like some change but then we couldn't do that and so trying to combine both recommendations is the thought. Director Shaw, sorry. Go ahead. I was just going to say I would recommend that we keep this one in committee just to clarify that along with the others that we'll be reviewing.

That's what I was going to say. You're a great lawyer. All right. Any other feedback discussion? Okay. So, we'll we'll keep that one in. Um and then finally, oh, redistricting. Okay. So, let's try that one. Uh so this one basically came out of looking at currently I don't think I believe the charter does not um say have any process for how um doesn't require them to be looked at. I think it just says that council sets them. I could be wrong about that. Um, so this sets a way for council to redistrict to the city. um that hasn't happened for many years and sets a process uh some of the to make them potentially uh looking at best practices in terms of being com being contiguous, compact, bounded by natural boundaries or street lines and um to try to essentially have as as much as possible equal divisions of population within a certain level. It also suggests using the planning commission um to help review and make if necessary appropriate redivisions of the city into four words. Um and I think the idea there being um we've

seen from the state level of elected officials trying to choose their voters and trying to um take it out of elected officials hands and into more neutral body and having some sort of process. So it's not necessarily that it's a huge problem here. Although Ward 4 currently is does have a significantly larger population um that would fall outside of the these proposed best practices. So creates a process. Yep. Council member Stri.

Thank you. Um I am supportive of this um in establishing a process uh because there isn't one. I would I would be careful to base it solely on population. As we know, Ward 4 is heavy population because of the Gold Coast, which has their own communities there. And I I don't know that I've ever heard Council Person Marks or Council Person Ali ever say that, "Oh my gosh, I have so much more work than any of you." Because those communities are communities within themselves. And I don't know that they'll be calling you that because their trash wasn't picked up or because um their their parking lot wasn't plowed because they are communities in and of themselves. So I would just while I while I appreciate that we need a process in place, I don't know that solely on um population is is worth being the only criteria. Vice President Baker.

Yeah, and that's a good good point. Uh, Council President, I' I've thought about this. I've wrestled with this because I do think that there is some, and this is where I'm like nostalgia, cultural history. I do like the fact that all four wards have, generally speaking, Lakewood, the closer we are to the lake, nicer, you know, lake, right? Uh, and then we literally have railroad tracks little south and then we go further towards 90. Um, I do like that the four words are broken up into like your neighbors in the north, your neighbors in the south, and everyone in between. And I do think, you know, I I've talked to other W4 council members and, you know, technically on the polar polarities, right? Ward one is the smallest populationwise. It's the biggest surface area wise. I believe there was a report a couple years ago that um council president Ali had kind of put together with some help from outside entity um to show that kind of disparity. I think I probably get just as many calls if not more than the word for person. So it's but that's not what we're doing here, right? It's not about number of calls. it's about number of of residents and constituents. So those are kind of competing forces, right? Um and so I I I like I like setting up a process to try to do something. Uh because otherwise stasis would be bad and it would just be driven by the people sitting here would would then be then how we pick our awards or we just keep them because of um you know inertia. In this case, no inertia, no movement. So we just stay the same. So I like the idea of putting something in the charter that would require some sort of um annual proc or like not or you know decant yeah dennial review or process. I do I would like to have some suggestion about you know fidelity to kind of traditional awards in the sense of north south. I actually but I'm trying to find a way to put that in a charter right because I I like that but I don't know if you guys do or if the community does. So that's different,

right? Or do we want to have kind of all the folks south of Madison in one ward and then Madison to Detroit and then right like so you can also break it down east west if you want to which I think would be worthy um just different. Uh so I I'd like a little bit more time to think about this one but I also would like all of your input or the the administration's input or public input on kind of how they feel about it. Uh because I certainly know the and I think the charter review commission did an admiral job of like giving us something trying to depoliticize it because I think and those are the two things I can certainly agree with. Uh but there is some wiggle room in the middle as to how we kind of really put it forward. Council member Evans.

Thank you, Chair. Um I I agree. I think we do need a process in place and I also uh agree with uh Councilman Baker about the the nature of our wards that do run north to south. Um I think that is important. um it it that all of us uh you know represent a fairly diverse population with that layout. Um it's historically important. I think it's important the way we do our jobs. So I agree. I' I'd love to take some more time to put some more thought into this.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh I too agree. I do like the the vertical nature of our wards. Um, and uh, to council person's Tribig's point, um, you know, I I honestly don't really even know if I get more um, more calls than um, the rest of the ward council people, but you know, I agree Ward 4 is unique with the gold the Gold Coast. Um, and so I I I do like the idea of establishing a process, but um, I I I don't necessarily think that we have to um, reinvent the the wheel as far as the geographical layout of our wards.

Thank you. Um, yeah, I think I've thought about those two in terms of um, well, in a couple ways. One, one of the things that came up in the charter view commission meetings um, which I was able to attend more of, I think, than a lot of council members just by, um, nature of being president, not having to be at other committees all the time when they met. But um that there was discussion too about uh not just the number of calls or feel like their constituents aren't represented. Um I don't know that that's necessarily the case, but more that it's good to have a you know the charter being our with with a number of these being our essentially constitution of setting up a best practice before there's a problematic council. And so sort of the same thing when we were talking about the appointment process. You know, I don't think that anyone on this body currently would um think of anything in terms of redistricting other than the best um best thing for our residents and have that in in mind. Um but we see it play out um in other communities and at the state level and federal level of um that that can happen. And so it's good to have things established pri not just as norms. We've seen norms be broken a lot in the last eight years um or more however long it feels like interminable. Um the other part is that we also talked about the charter review commission also talked about um an example was when we had the ARPA funds and uh each council member had a had an equal uh portion of those funds to essentially allocate. And so in that sense, the Ward 4 residents

would have a lower percentage of funds per constituent if each council member were to, you know, use their funds for their ward only. That's not exactly how any of it worked out, but just as an example of um thinking about, you know, equity and fairness and how we're doing this. So I do think the north south does provide just on that point separate point um and the what is what the charter view commission recommended in terms of the best practices of being contiguous compact territory natural boundary street lines the ways are ours are currently drawn north south does that they're not gerrymandered they're very clear um so you know I think following

the half street thing always got me right where Well, I'm on Woodward. Well, which side of Woodward?

Yeah, Bell Avenue is always the same. Yeah, it's taking me and as an atlarge council member, it's like taken me even longer to learn them because they're all my constituents. So, I don't know. You live in Lakewood? You're one of mine. Um, so sometimes I struggle with that, but they're really pretty simple. So, the processes laid out here, in my opinion, would probably lead to, if anything, like moving to both sides of the street or something. Um, one of the other um, elements of this is whether or not planning commission is the correct body. Um, part of the reason that I had suggested planning commission to the charter review commission when they were thinking about um, a different body than us drawing them was that they would be accustomed to looking at natural boundaries and street design. However, I do recognize that the planning commission is not necessarily the most um you know, it's a small smaller body and maybe not the most representative. So, it could also go to citizens advisory commission or um there could be other ways to look at that too. It could be a convened group um that happens, you know, that we appoint and the mayor appoints and they draw them. So, there could be other ways to look at that too. So for representation,

sure, Councilman Bullet,

um I guess I'll largely agree with with what's said been said before and maybe we work on this further for a future committee session. Um I will say on the record, I also support the north to south. I think there's huge strengths to that. I saw recently a 100-year-old ward map of Lakewood that also was north to south. So there's continuity here um that I think is valuable to retain. Currently the process um I I don't have an well I don't have an objection to the planning commission being the body but the current process would be that the council is compelled to implement what the planning commission recommends unless it's not contiguous compact or bounded by natural boundaries or street lines and not equal in population. So you could do quadrants too. Um uh and the planning commission is currently um said so it says uh shall if shall review and make if necessary appropriate redivvisions of the city into four words. So, if necessary is a I think probably intentionally um artfully not specific term, but maybe to me that's where my mind goes as well is how much of a population change merits this test and to make sure we have a thoughtful process is what I'm driving at. would probably have continuity because the lake was built out except for some new larger um apartment developments in W three and W two and maybe W three again. So in some ways um I it's probably a best practice largely um because we we should experience fairly continuous um

population distribution unless there's a change in birth rates. But anyway, thank you for the thoughtful discussion.

So any other comments, council members? So, we can we can keep this one in and uh folks can think about it. Um potentially suggest amendments or um substitute drafts if there's something else um you want to see. Uh so then finally we are to um the rank choice voting one which is ordinance 212026. Um, so like with all these other ones, um, so when we went to put the the the six, um, ordinances on, they're not all necessarily exactly as, uh, recommended from the charter review commission. And that is because as we've talked through some of these other ones as between the charter review commission's initial recommendation sometimes we had other we had conversation with them we had conversation with just like the civil service commission and then we found out we couldn't do some of the things that we thought the civil service commission asked us to do or suggested we do to solve the problem. So ultimately each of these drafts is intended to try to solve the six identified items um from the charter review commission. Um this one is the most significantly different from the specific language recommended by the charter view commission. And rather than dig into all of that tonight, I think you know we we have the general question before us. So all of this was also being looked at in be prior to the passage of Senate Bill 63. So that has now um passed the house. We as the charter view was working through it, they didn't know

whether it would pass or not. Um we didn't know when we first when we talked about this initially or again in that July meeting. Um and we had some conversation with the law department on the floor that night about whether the language is proposed to the charter review commission wanted to give voters options. So, or wanted to give a council the option of um adopting ranked choice voting based on the a charter amendment that the voters could vote on and say, "Okay, council can have this option." But then we were concerned that with SB63 that wouldn't work as well and that would be more risky. So, the language um they submitted is another alternative. We also have a draft from the law department um that's more of the language that which is what the charter view commission suggested. So what I would suggest is one um just be we want to be thinking about how council members feel about rank choice voting generally. Is this something that we want to pursue in some manner? And then um looking at how you know my my goal with bringing this forward is essentially to honor charter view commission asked us to look at this. Um the ground has been shifting under our feet. So what to what the best way to look at this is I honestly do not know. Um so wanted to bring it to committee and have us all start thinking about it and work with the law department um on what if any solution we want to submit to voters. So, Vice President Baker.

Yes. Thank you. And I I um you know, high high level just a couple comments. Uh I think rank choice voting is good. Um I do also think that our, you know, fidelity to the budget of the city and kind of making sure that we don't put ourselves in a litigation risk is also good. So, so you have competing goods, right? Um and and I think, you know, this discussion is right for us to have. Um because I and and I just it makes me so upset that you know we say we have we're a home rule state but every time you know the legislature doesn't like something or you know the kind of power structure they try to take away your home rule power. So it's it's it's just frustrating from a kind of autonomy standpoint. This is a municipal election. We're not changing the way you know state reps are elected or whatever. Um so we should have the freedom to do that. Now the question I have and this is you know looking at the draft. So if you look at the draft the charter review commission and there was some language in the report and they were it was clear that there was some give and take among charter review members about kind of what would be the best. I think there were a couple folks on charter review that were very in favor of rank choice voting. I think there were a couple people that not necessarily were against it but didn't see the utility of it. Didn't nec they thought it was a little risky. Um and so they they basically settled on this compromise which is council can basically as long as there's adequate time before the election either say do plurality voting which is what we've always done right um it's what Lakewood has typically done there's primaries you know how we've always done it and then but by ordinance council can also set it as a rank choice voting um election and as I understand it I I I I read this house bill or whatever That's a Senate bill that's currently sitting on the governor's desk. That's correct. Right. Uh and it says, and this is this is where I think the risk is, and I'm interested in the law department's um analysis on

this. It says, I believe by like by ordinance or by resolution, but it doesn't necessarily say by charter. Is that accurate?

That's accurate, Vice President. And so that then I think um there's a you know they they amend this and say by charter right like so that you kind of like leave your chin out there um you know for state legislators to hit it um and and take away our local government funds right uh that every other municipality is otherwise entitled to. So, that's where I'm having some consternation is that um and and is that right? Could that be litigated? Perhaps. Um I'd rather have uh interest groups that are interested in this pay those litigation costs than the taxpayers of Lakewood. Um would be my sense there. Um cuz I I do think that rank choice voting is the best way to get common sense candidates elected. Um it takes away extremes. Um it encourages people to get involved that maybe haven't been involved in the past and there's a lot of really good empirical data to support that. But lawsuits are expensive. Um and so that's where I'm having I'm just expressing for my colleagues, right? what what my concerns are and kind of where I'm at on this. And does the governor even sign this, right? Um I think he will, but but I don't know. He's surprised me in the past um in both good ways and bad ways. Uh so those are my comments about it. I don't know if the law department has any other comments about it.

We can um uh thank you uh through the chair. We can certainly uh speak to the risk of those funds along the lines that the vice president was speaking. Uh and I'm glad to do so now on a hypothetical basis because we don't know what charter language is before you that you're considering is it that recommended by the commission or is it something separate as recommended by the council itself or a sponsoring individual? Uh so I could speak to it uh regardless of what version you're considering if you want me to speak further to the the risk of the local government funds because we have looked at it thoroughly. We did legal research and uh I I'll share that with you right now. Uh it's along the lines um how do we assess the risk of not having the reference to the word charter in Senate Bill 63? And of course uh the amendment by uh the general assembly is is a major risk as the vice president notes. But you look at uh analogous cases because there's nothing directly on point. But one analogous case is the Supreme Court 2022 case of Newberg Heights dealing with uh the revenue derived from uh speed cameras for a municipality. And there the general

director Vargo um and this is the only reason I'm asking this is um whether or not you want to dispense legal advice to potential litigation in open meeting or not. And so I'm just um

I thank you for that. Uh I've considered that thoroughly, spoke with Miss Swallow and very comfortable with what we're going to lay out. Uh it's pretty objective. The the risk uh is whether we accept the risk, but the risk is there. If you look at the analogous case and and there's no secret to this case uh it's been cited by the legislative authority that also rendered an opinion uh regarding rank choice voting. Um, but in that case, the Supreme Court of Ohio said two things that were critical. Number one, that the General Assembly has the power of the purse by constitution. Number two, there's no constitutional right of any city to receive local government funds. The Supreme Court made no distinction about what type of city you are, charter or otherwise, did not reference the home rule significance of a charter city. There were no exceptions. Um, in addition, we start here that the state has the funds right now. We don't have them and the state is coming after them and we can rely on some language uh that we think favors us. They have the funds. It would be our burden, as the vice president says, through legal burden and expense to try to seek those funds on this glitch in the in the in the Senate bill. Here's another analogy. We know how we struggled with whether we were going to receive our cannabis funds. Our right to the local portion of those cannabis funds is set forth in the Ohio statute. The statute lays it out perfectly. We as a host city to a dispensary, we're entitled to 36% of the excise tax of the state exise tax for the dispensaries. And yet the general assembly did not care that we were a charter city or not.

We were at risk and there was a lot of talk as to whether they were going to withhold those funds. They have those funds. So c can do we assess a risk? Is anybody here comfortable that the general assembly would give up the funds to us because we happen to be a charter city when there's no reference uh to the Supreme Court of that? And of course, Senate Bill 63 doesn't say if you want to uh if you want to uh enact rank choice voting, you have to do it by charter. Otherwise, we're going to keep your funds. You have to assess whether it's a sound judgment to accept the legal risk uh of those funds when that general assembly and we know everything that they said about the cannabis. We know what they did with speed cameras making no distinction as to whether you're a charter city or otherwise. Do we accept the risk of $2.6 million of local um government funds to be withheld?

Director, I'm going to pause you there just because we're almost out of time. Sure. Um I do just want to also note so the the risk is one element the um the benefit of rank choice voting is another and then the specific legislation um which version. So there's the language the um charter review commission suggested that had the giving council the option and then the version that's before us is that uh submitted is different than that and the reason for that is because based on a previous conversation like this we were concerned that having that option took away that loophole of the charter. This version includes a severability clause um that says if anything uh is found is held to be unconstitutional may result in the loss of state funding per state law such provisions shall become null and void. So that this is a continued conversation. We're not going to get through this all tonight. Um but I did want to take a moment just because I know we have some folks here. Um I see a couple people who were on the charter review commission. So, if there was um if folks had wanted to give public comment on any of this, I wanted to create a little bit of time to allow for that. Um, come on up. Uh, Mr. Wley, push the button and so they can hear you on the recording. Should turn green. There you go.

Nice. Nice to see everybody. Those of you that I don't know, nice to meet you. Um, I'm Jim Woolly. I'm a longtime Lakewood resident. I'm a longtime lawyer, but not a very good one, but I've been at it for a while. I I I also have served as a judge um here in in this town. Um and and and there's a this discussion over uh rank choice voting that I've heard tonight and been part of on the charter review commission is it's a very important discussion, meaningful discussion. But what I didn't I wanted to bring something to to the attention of of um you folks here tonight that I think is a hopefully it's not a big deal, but potential issue or problem. I I read in the Lakewood Observer uh quotes and articles written from this council saying that the charter uh commission had recommended lake uh rank choice voting and we didn't we recommended something very specific and something very different and and and I don't see any of that being qualified or corrected anywhere. So, as we go forward on something this controversial, which may have us all in court one day and arguing about what this is, I think it's probably important that we be pretty careful about when we talk publicly about these things. Um, because we didn't recommend rank choice voting. We recommend we we wrote in our report about all these uncertainties and why it was right to maybe pump the brakes on this and not fully in a fullthrowed way recommend it. And then I read in the observer that it's we've recommended it. We didn't recommend it. So I hope that by bringing it to everybody's attention, we can maybe um avoid whatever sort of fallout there might be from something like that going forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, yeah, and I'll just clarify on page nine of the charter review commission's report, it says the majority of commission members are supportive of the city adopting rank choice voting in the near future. Um, and then goes on to say, but given the uncertainty of the timeline needed to implement this overhaul, commission decided to recommend providing the city with the authority but c allow council the greatest flexibility possible. And that's what we discussed at the July meeting and had um some preliminary uh recommendation conversation with the law department that um doing it directly to the with the voters in the charter reduce the poss reduce the risk but there's still risk. So hence the um you know if that's not specific enough to say recommended the majority of commission members are supportive of the city adopting rank choice voting. My intent was simply to express that or to to address the recommendations from the charter review commission and make sure that we had something to look at and begin working on. So if that clarifies uh Dean, come on up.

Push. It should be green. Push it so it's green.

Oh no, I lost 5 seconds. Um council, um madame mayor, thank you um for taking these issues so seriously. Thank you for giving us a city well run enough that we had to look for problems on the charter review commission. I don't think we found any major ones, but we did come up with several recommendations for improvement. On the issue of rank choice voting, um I actually, and people will be surprised to hear this, I I do share many of the concerns Councilman Baker raised. The legal risk environment has changed significantly since we made the recommendation we made about rank choice voting, which ultimately was to give council the power to decide. I described it often as a trap door clause, right? If state law were to change, Lakewood has a trapoor to escape um a sticky legal situation. Um but I I'm really here to make one simple ask of the city um which is that I hope that the law department's assessment of this issue can be made public so we can have a wholesome public discussion of it if it is to end up on the ballot. Otherwise, I think we're setting our ourselves up for another election cycle of rumor mongering and political backbiting, which none of us want and which will only leave us more divided and weaker coming out of it. Um, this is important enough, I think, and citizens are already hearing competing legal analysis around this issue. So, it's important that the city's position be made clear, but also debatable so that they can make an informed decision in November if they are asked to make such a decision. On the litigation front, um, again, I I agree with much of what Councilman Baker said. I will raise though that as a liquid taxpayer, I think we have to recognize that eventually we're going to have to decide uh at what point we signal to voters that we are willing uh to stand up and speak for what we want to an unearned supermajority in Columbus. I don't think voters always want us to be uh so meek and to acquies proactively to what Columbus desires. Um, if we don't signal to people that we're willing to fight for home rule, that we're willing to fight for our

right to live in a community that reflects our values, that we're willing to fight for the right to live in a community where our judgment about how we should be governed matters, um, then voters will lose faith in the ability of their democracy to preserve that for them. Um, and so, you know, this is a bit abstract in the face of nuts and bolts decisions about the charter amendment process, state budgets, but it is important. I don't think that we should um write off as litigation risk uh the potential value of signaling to people like hey we are going to fight for things that you say you want um and that we're not going to accept uh authoritarian actions out of a government which acts like it has the mandate from heaven but actually has the support of about 55% of the public vote. Thank you.

Thank you. Um did anyone else want to submit public comment for the charter view? um section. Sorry, folks. We're finishing up committee of the whole uh and then we'll get to full counsel. Yep. Come on up. Thank you. You know, I'm always hesitant to speak where I don't pay taxes. Um but this does affect us. I'm with Michelle B. Jackson with Ranked Ohio and I don't want us to sort of go too quickly over the severability clause. Um what Dean just said is so pertinent for progressive communities in this environment in the United States of America that we do not acquies in advance. Next thing is going to be we don't want you to have blue cars. We don't want you to have electric cars. We'll withhold you money if you buy an electric car or set up electric car stations. So I think that the we're anxious to hear what the law department has to say. Um but it's very important that we have national organizations that are partnering with us. We are talking about what would happen in the case of litigation. We are hoping to avoid that by suggesting a severability clause and also um perhaps extending the time to that you even have right now it's 2029 extended to 2030 whatever. Um but we have to really make decisions based on like Dean says our values. Don't get hung up on the what if what if. Focus on values and we what we need to do as progressive communities and progressive organizations to to keep this country semi-democratic. That's all I have. Oh, and thank God that back when my ancestors were coming along that they did not acquies and I'd still be picking cotton, I wouldn't be here. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Um, anyone else who wanted to speak on the charter elements before we wrap up committee of the whole? So, um, we'll we'll pause on these. Um, council members do some reflection. We'll work with the law department. Councilman Bulock.

Matt Madam President or Madam Chair. Thank you. Um, and I'll be brief. First of all, thank you for the work you put in to prepare. I I hear what you said a number of times. The intent is to give council an option and to also respond as a body to the hard work of the charter review commission and I see a number of them out here today. Dean, you know, I respect your work. Mr. Will, respect your work and I'm I'm missing people. Um, but but thank you for your thoughtfulness. The on on this one, um, I want to add to a question of the law department. Um the it there's a section in here which would say council authority the council shall by ordinance establish ballot form process and a third thing procedure for filling vacancies. The question would be and I'm looking at the statute the state statute that's on the governor's desk. Um it says if the secretary of state determines the county or municipal corporation has by resolution or ordinance approved the use of rank voting etc. So the question would be would the state secretary of state who has unfortunately not really been all that impartial of a um juror these days uh would they have discretion to say that one sub element of the charter defined process that we're considering here would that be enough to trigger their point or not so so that's just a question for now I also note that the governor's even if he doesn't sign they've got a super majority fortunately I look up to 60% % um and they've passed this ordinance by or the the state has passed by by more than 60% both chambers what they what they've proposed. So so I'll say for the record it's very um obnoxious to put it mildly that the state would take away the community's choice. I think it's a now it's a good question to me whether the community wants this or not. I think it would be merited meritorious to have a public discussion in the library uh in

the neighborhoods and so on and so forth but but it certainly is a thoughtful recommendation by number of citizens and what this proposes to do is truncate all of that and we're certainly capable and liquid of self-governance but um to the point of somebody uh who made public comment I mean it's essentially the a bomb of penalties to threaten all not a portion but all local government funds. So they could be less um uh less forceful but but that that's just an observation for the moment. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. So we will pause there. We're going to um no further business before committee of the whole without objection. Committee the whole is adjourned. Uh we'll just pause for just a few minutes to reset and then we'll start full counsel. You heal. Okay. because they're repurposing. No, I was here for this and I'll probably

So Yes. Thank you. I've read the whole Yeah. But I can walk That's exactly what I want.

How are you? Fair. Firefighters are firefighters again. They're going somewhere. fire scenario. Get a whistle. I get

Yeah, he's going to put some Good. How are you? All right. Thanks for your patience everyone. We'll call full council to order. If you are able, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. We'll now pause for a moment of silence.

Madame clerk, please call the role. Vice President Baker, here. Council member Bixenstein, Council member Bullock here. Council member Evans here. President Keell here. Council member Hamilton Steiner here. Council member Strebig here. Reading and disposal of the minutes of the regular meeting of council held March 2nd, 2026. Move to approve without the necessity of a reading. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor?

I. And that motion passes. Um, without objection, we have I would like to move items 14 through 18 to the top. Uh, we have a series of um resolutions. Uh, we'll probably do a photo with each one, but we'll get through all four of them and then we'll come down for pictures. But hearing no objection, item 14. Item 14, communication from council member Bixenstein regarding 40th anniversary of the Shore Restaurant.

Council member Bixenstein. Thank you, President Keell. Dear colleagues, much has changed in our city over the last 40 years, but one establishment located at Detroit and Hopkins avenues near the eastern edge of our city remains a beloved diner style ery and landmark four decades later. Lakewood residents Angelo and Tina Scanzos first opened Shore Restaurant for business on March 25th, 1986. Since then, this Lakewood institution has become renowned for its delicious food and kind hospitality. To this day, as Angelo and Tina continue to operate their ery with help from their son, Steve and Mike, Shore Restaurant serves as an outstanding and unpretentious spot for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or a coffee meeting. My personal favorite dish is the corn beef omelette. Perhaps no situation better exemplifies Angelo and Tina's commitment to their business and their community than a setback they endured in 2014. A sudden collapse of or ornate facade from the front of their historic building left a pile of rubble on the sidewalk below. As Tina told 19 Action News at the time, "We are so happy that nobody was hurt. We have insurance." Angelo and Tina committed to rebuilding in the spirit of the structure's historic architecture and spent the better part of two years doing just that. Terracotta, tiles, and all. Today, the building that houses Shore Restaurant continues to reflect the same historic splendor passers by have enjoyed for more than a century. Thank you, Angelo and and Tina, for your longtime commitment to the Lakewood community and congratulations on 40 years of Shore Restaurant. We are grateful to have you, your family, and your business in this community. Can't wait to stop in for breakfast again soon.

Thank you. I'll move to receive and file that communication. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion. Um hearing. Yep. Anyone? No. Vice President Baker. Yeah. Uh I I just thank you uh Council Bixenstein for bringing this forward. I I've had breakfast there many times. Wonderful people. Always engaging and that's part of what makes Lakewood so unique is the ability to go in somewhere. I call it like the social infrastructure of our community. Uh makes people feel seen, gives them a forum to meet folks and interact. So thank you for your um continued presence in Lakewood uh residents and business owners. And thanks for bringing this forward.

Thank you. Um Councilman Bulock. Thank well said by both council members and I'll also just underscore the thanks for restoring that facade when uh that collapsed. That's not a small amount of work and it's a really gorgeous building. U so thank you for for reinvesting in in the building and in our streetscape once again.

Thank you. Um, I'll just add that I knew the shore restaurant had been as around as long as I could remember in Lakewood, but I did not realize it had been 40 years. So, knowing how challenging the restaurant industry can be, particularly during the pandemic years, um, it's an absolutely remarkable achievement and a testament to the loyal customer base and the anchor that Angelot Tina and the staff have created in Ward for. I want to thank uh them for being their continued commitment to being part of our Lakewood community and congratulations Any further discussion? All right. Hearing none on the um motion to receive and file the communication. All those in favor?

I. And that motion passes. Item 15, resolution 202615, a resolution to recognize the Shore Restaurant on its 40th anniversary as a beloved flagship ery in Lakewood's Ward 4. Move to adopt. Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion. Um, I'll just add so we have um three more resolutions after this that also will have a ceremonial copy. So, we'll do all four of those and then we'll come down and do photos with anyone who'd like to come forward for any of of those. So, just a little housekeeping um assuming they all pass, but um whichever one's passed, we'll do pictures for. All right. So, um right now uh we have a motion, a second to adopt resolution 202615. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes.

Item 16, resolution 202616, a resolution endorsing issue two, the new 6.9 mil tax levy proposed by Lakewood City School District to maintain the district's existing standards of excellence in programming, teaching, technology, and security. Uh, Vice President Baker, do you want to

Yeah. Uh, thank you, President Keell. Um, so I'm I'm happy to bring forward this uh resolution in support of the levy uh with the Lakewood City Schools uh issue two uh that will be on the May ballot. Um I, you know, growing up in Lakewood, I'm a product of Lakewood City Schools. Uh I came from a family with more of a a technical uh blueco collar background, but I went to a school system that saw that I could do other things other than that. Um, and I had siblings that also went into the trades and did fine, but uh, you know, I had guidance counselors at the high school that said, "You're a good student. You you cons should consider going to college." Um, and so I did and and and the rest is history. And I I I feel like in this community, it's always been the great equalizer. Um, so if you grow up in Lakewood and you go to the schools, you can live, you know, um, in an apartment building, but you're still going to go to school with kids that live in Clifton Park or Overlook Park or other neighborhoods. And I think that that creates a really great dynamic um to grow up in Lakewood and to become a productive citizen that understands that everyone's not like you. Um and there are different people out there and it enriches um your experience. And what I will say is I did live in this community when the last levy didn't pass and it was in the '9s. Um, and it was a tough time uh in the community because it signal it signaled to um folks that were thinking about moving to Lakewood or folks that were thinking about whether or not to go buy a big house out in the hinterlands. Um, and a decision about the schools and whether or not the community supports it is a factor uh as a family whether you're looking to come here to this town or you're looking to stay in this town. Um, and so we have an opportunity as a community to show as a city, a city government to show that we support the schools, uh, and we support investment in the youth of our community. Uh, and not only the

youth, but the school also runs the CRAC department, which also has adult programming as well, uh, for continuing education for adults. and and since that levy failed in the '9s and I was in the school at the time and I can remember the the dark cloud that it put over the students and the administrators and the teachers in the schools. Um, and what I will say is lately though, and I've been enlightened by this, is that in 2013 and 2020, uh, more than 68% of voters approved the past two levies that we've put forward this community. Um, so I'm here to uh, you know, ask my colleagues to support this. Um, and I'll acknowledge that, you know, the the decision to repurpose Lincoln was a hard one. Um, and I've heard a lot from constituents, friends, people I've grown up with about it. Uh, and they're valid concerns. Uh, and I think each of us on this dis have talked to our colleagues at the school board about our opinions about it. Um, but at the end of the day, um, this levy is a it's it's a it's a chance for our community to say we support the students in the schools or we don't. And that will send a message to people that live here and people that may move here about whether or not this community supports the schools and I certainly support the schools. So, I'm happy to bring this forward and interested in your comments. Thank you.

Thank you, uh, Council Member Hamilton Steiner. Uh, thank you, President Keell, and thank you, Vice President Baker, for bringing this um resolution forward and and for your remarks. I am also a graduate of um a product of Lakewood Public Schools, and I too remember when the levy did not pass and it was devastating and that's all that's all we talked about. So, if you don't think that the students are talking in the school about the levies, they are. Um, and they will certainly be talking about this if it doesn't pass. Um, and what that means and, you know, and what are the what what cuts are going to be made and and how is this going to affect them? Um, and so I just and I know it's hard. I know it's, you know, you're going forward asking for money for more additional dollars, but I I just need folks to also understand what's happening, the the bigger picture that Lakewood is operating within. Um, so public schools are funded. We get a number of sources. There's um this public education, there's the state government um provides some money and that comes from primarily income and and sales tax. Then you have your local taxes, your property taxes. Then you have the federal government, which primarily is through federal income tax. Our state, the state of Ohio, is giving less and less money to public schools and more to private entities, including private schools through through vouchers. This difference has to be made up somewhere. And that difference is happening through our local taxes. And the federal government on top of that is also distributing less and less money. So more and more is being put on the backs of us at the local levels. Overall education in Ohio around 50% is made up of your local property taxes. 37%

um is from the state and just some years ago it used to be 44%. And that percentage is decreasing and getting smaller and smaller each year. And 13% is the federal. So that just gives you a little bit of context and when we when you talk about, you know, I can't afford any more, we all understand that right now the state of Ohio is not funding the schools in public education how it's supposed to be funded and how their funding has actually been determined to be unconstitutional. So the it so you can't take your frustration out on our kids. We have to put our frustrations where they need to go and we need to demand Columbus do the right thing and fund our public education.

Thank you. Uh Council Member Stuben.

Thank you. Um I too experienced levy failure in the 80s. Youngans youngans um not in this school district but in Northville. And it wasn't one, it was multiple. It was seemed like year after year after year they failed repeatedly and we saw those cuts and we saw the the music programs and the athletic programs and those programs um the art programs that started to get cut. So while I don't have children in Lakewood City schools and I've not had children in Lakewood City schools, I am fully in support of this levy. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh Council Member Evans. Uh thank you, President Keell. Um I agree with everything my colleagues have said. Um I myself am not a product of Lakewood schools. Um but um the the schools here were a big reason I decided to raise my family here. I do have two children. One is all the way through. Um all the schools and I have a junior still left of the high school and the um the experience they've had at our schools has just been amazing. Um, so I'm I'm very proud to support join my colleagues in supporting this resolution and supporting the levy to keep our schools strong for our kids. Thanks. Thank you, Council Member Bixenstein.

Just to echo the sentiments of my of my uh council colleagues, I too uh not a product of the school district, but have two uh kids who are in elementary school and will be in the district for a long time. We we're incredibly grateful for the public the public education they're receiving here in Lakewood and I'm happy to support uh this uh resolution. Thank you for bringing it forward. Uh Vice President Baker. Thank you, Council Member Bullet.

Thanks, Madam President. So, um I'm also supporting the levy and happy to do so uh but with a couple additional thoughts uh because it comes at a little bit of a cost. Um more than a little bit of a cost. Um, so first I agree with what uh some first of all I know there's levy leaders uh and community members out in the audience tonight and thanks for your service and your leadership. some of my colleagues did a very eloquent job of of articulating why uh we should support the schools and I agree and and I like uh some others here have my children in schools and they're having a fantastic experience and I'm part of my favorite times in Lakewood is walking to school and meeting my neighbors as they also walk their kids to school. So all of that is is really front and center and I'm I'm I'm grateful. I also know that um some of the school leadership was working hard to ensure that any reductions would not come to to their budget would not come out of programs and teaching. Uh that's why the focus was on facility changes. Um that's a painful change uh that the schools voted on last year. We certainly lived through that in the city side of things. Painful loss of Lakewood Hospital. So I I empathize with that difficult leadership decision they made. Um I think the city so so um the city is going to continue partner I pardon me I will continue partnering with the schools in on the things the city works to support schools for that's some public safety things some infrastructure planning safe routes to schools. Um and there's uh parks and recreation programming. Uh there's there's actually quite a lot that we partner on and so it's appropriate that we continue working with each other. The city can certainly bring more to that table. I hope the schools will continue partnering with us. The walkability is going to be crucial because if we're if

the plan goes forward as is intended where we're going to be down to six instead of seven elementary schools, that's going to have a ripple effect on walking conditions and walking distances. And I think it's important that the city do everything we can to help make good on the slogan that Lakewood Walking School District and make it a reality for more and more of us. Um so that's that's a important um an ongoing obligation and task that I I look forward to working with the schools on. Um on the other side of it is the affordability of taxes. Um so I support the levy. I think there's no choice other than to do that. But I do it without um failing to acknowledge that there are residents in Lakewood who are who are are already under financial pressure. And and so I'm voting tonight to endorse more financial costs on on a home that somebody may have worked in worked for years to own and and lived in and raised their family in. and we want to create a wonderful school district, but if we're pricing people out of our community, we're also losing something. So, I don't have a solution for that. That's a long-term trend, but I I want to name it and acknowledge it and challenge all of us to to work on that. and and and those are those are big issues to either find affordable housing or to find ways to save and and maybe make um it less expensive to live in our community. Um but as others have said on the on the dis here tonight, I think, you know, it's got to be unimpeachable support um for our for our our schools. And I remember there's a former mayor who said, you know, you can't have a good well all good communities have good schools. So, we want to make sure we support from the city side, the school side, and I think that's what we're planning to do tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, before I go to We do have some folks signed in for public comment on this uh issue. Um, I just need to uh announce that um unfortunately um because my business does work with the uh Lakewood Recreation Department, which um is included in this levy and through the Lakewood City Schools, I'll be abstaining on this vote. Um okay, so we do have uh folks signed in. The first is uh Beth Blackmire. Welcome back. When you come up, you'll have up to five minutes. The mic's already on, so you don't need to push anything and address your comments to me, please.

Well, it's already on. Good. Okay. Well, thanks. Thanks for having me. Um, you know, I just wanted to say it really it it it's I guess, you know, I I want to speak to the heart of this. It's it's a little hurtful to hear um thanks for supporting our schools and and you know the message that we're getting and of course that's you know if I was trying to push something through I'd probably say the same thing. If you don't support this you don't support our schools and let me just speak from a perspective of someone who's been supporting these schools for years and years and years and years and years. I've been here since 1991. I've been paying rent the first four years and then I bought a house in 1996. Um that I've been paying uh mortgage payments and property tax on for the last 30 plus years. Um and so I you know I've done a tremendous amount of supporting of p of Lakewood schools and I love Lakewood. I love Lakewood. I love the schools. Just because I don't agree with this levy does not mean I don't support our kids and it doesn't mean I don't support our schools. That said, we've got a problem in Lakewood and that problem is we are coming up short in affordability and one of those reasons is because we are paying a tremendously high property tax rate, one of the highest in certainly Kyhoga County. And if you go across Ohio, we're in some of the highest that there is. And that's a problem because for me, my property tax on a little two-bedroom bungalow per year on a postage stamp in Lakewood, this is just a little hobble of a home, century home, is near $5,000 per year. And that's quite a bit for me. That's quite a bit for me. And that's quite a bit for a lot of other people. My neighbor, my next door neighbor, their property tax is $10,000 a year. They just paid it. I don't know, not too long

ago, right? Uh and that's going to be uh that's going to go up to probably 11,500 or thereabouts for them uh when this goes through, you know. And then the uh the interesting thing is is that people don't really understand when they vote for these levies what the outcome of it is. Now, in quick math, it's roughly $725 per year on a $300,000 home. So, you can kind of go either way with that depending on what your home is worth uh to figure out what it's going to cost you. That's a big hunk you're asking us to pay. That's quite a chunk. That's not a few cups of Starbucks a month. That's a huge chunk and that's a big ask. So, uh, you know, with, you know, in the last few years, there's only been one family that's moved on to my street, and I've got a kind of a long street. I live on Broccoli, uh, that has ch even has children. What's happening is we're not the affordability affordable community we once were. When I came here, it was extremely affordable. There was lots of kids and lots of people moving in with kids, and it was kind of the place to be. But, we're having a problem with that. We're getting people moving in that aren't having kids. We're And listen, our census is down. Our census is down such to the point that we that that that the schools wanted to close two schools. I get that. I understand that. That's a money a dollar and cents thing, right? Um so that said, why are we being asked to pony up more money across the across the uh county? There was, now this is just across the county, 32% additional in the re-evaluations in 2024, right? That's a 32% bonus that everybody got across the board. Regardless of what slice of pie you get, regardless of what

slice of that pie, you got a raise. What happened to that money? And you know, now we've got to come back in after our valuations doubling it. It was mine went up 51%. My valuation and after that now I got to pony up more money. And that's what we're asking. And and unfortunately, you know, especially seniors are getting priced out of their homes because if you've got an $1,100 or $1,500 social security check when you're in Lakewood, your tax money comes out of that. That's that equals sometimes $500, $600 a month in property tax and then you're left to have to live off the rest of that. Now, that might not mean much to some people, but a lot of the seniors are anchor homeowners. They're the people that hold the community together and hold down the community because I'm telling you, we don't have a lot of people moving in here anymore. It's it's become unaffordable. And so I would I would ask that the city council thinks about those things before they go all in on that and maybe give some consideration to some of that. And the fact that I don't want to spend more money doesn't mean that I don't support the schools because I've do support it and I've been supporting it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Um ne next is Mitch Zikum. Welcome back Mr. take them.

I misread your handwriting, so sorry about that.

So, as most of you know, I've been a landlord for 18 years, and I've had many tenants that have purchased homes. Yet, I've had not a single tenant, zero purchase in Lakewood. Why? It's too expensive. This only makes it worse. And I have tenants that have make easily double the average household income could well afford these taxes. They go elsewhere. Why wouldn't they? They can go somewhere where the schools are are cheaper or tropy taxes are cheaper and get a better quality education. All you're doing is you're creating a downward spiral where people are not going to want to be in in Lakewood. And not only do my tenants that are fortunately well off not stay, my tenants that came to Lakewood for because they Lakewood they're LGBTQ. Uh hopefully I got the term correctly. They leave. They can't afford it. I had one rent uh renewal last month and for the first time in 18 years, she told me, "I'm gonna have to think about that. I I don't know if I can afford that. Never has that happened before. I'm a graduate of public schools. I support the public schools. I resent your comments that uh if I don't vote for a levy, I'm somehow not supportive." That's just asinine. It it's just disgusting. Um, enough is enough. People can't afford it. For a city that complain claims to be progressive, why are you supporting property taxes that are among the most regressive forms of taxation? Are you Republicans now?

Why Why don't you switch parties? I I don't get it. Um there's a reason why the school population has has gone down. It's it's not affordable. And you know the schools have an opportunity under Ohio law to put an income tax levy on on the ballot which would be far more progressive. I I would gladly support that. But when people have to make a decision between affording groceries and being told they're not supportive of of their kids, what are they supposed to do? Are you going to take a collection up? I mean, many of you make far more than the um average household income, and I I don't think you belong here or have any clue.

All right. Um, next is Martha Warner.

Hi everyone. Um, I want to thank um, council um, and also Mayor George for their support of this levy. Um, I'm a parent of two small kids who will be entering the Lakewood City Schools soon. Um, and I am here to speak in support of this levy and thank you all for um, your comments this evening. Um, we all know that strong schools are a vital part of our community. They help attract and retain families. They're a source of important community bonds and they produce the leaders the talents with the talents, skills, and abilities that communities need to thrive. Um, the promise of public schools is a really great one that it will educate all kids regardless of their background or their ability. Um and um I see Lakewood schools more than so many others live into this really big promise. Um it's a true public good um that requires shared community investment responsibility and support. Um and I know it's not easy. My family too will feel the pinch of increased property taxes with this levy. And yet I know that it is really important for the strength of our community that we continue to support our schools through sustained funding. Um I have learned a lot um over the last few months about school finance. I thought I knew a lot to begin with and I have learned a lot more um including that you know even as our property taxes or our property assessments go up our levy money does not go up. Levies raise a fixed amount of money every year. And so, um, you know, it, you know, we all have felt sort of that increase scooch up or maybe skyrocket up depending on your case. Um, I feel like some years I've been scooch and some years I've been skyrocketed. Um, but those those those assessments are not keeping pace with inflation and the cost of doing business for our schools. Um, and so this levy will allow us to continue the

really fine tradition of educating our students, um, and really planning for the future. And your support this evening, um, and over the past few months as I've talked to many of you and many others in the community is a powerful testament to the strength of this community that I love so much. Um, and when I see so many leaders and average citizens, including the amazing campaign team and volunteers, um, who are working in support of the schools and our students um, and our community as a whole, it makes me feel really proud and really excited. Um, and so with that, I'll just say thank you again for your support. Um, and I really urge all residents to um to support this levy, to join our campaign um over the next I guess only like six weeks now um and to vote for the levy on May 5th. Thank you.

Thank you. Um that's the last person I have signed in on this list to speak on this topic. Did anyone else wish to speak on the topic of the levy? Okay. Um public comment. Oh, there is and there's also one e comment uh which will be submitted in the record of tonight's meeting. Okay. Uh so with that um any further discussion from council members? Not entertain a motion on this. I will make a motion to um adopt this resolution. Uh all those in favor uh say I. I. Um those abstaining

abstension. Abstain. Thank you. Item 17, resolution 201617, a resolution to declare March 31st, 2026 transgender day of visibility in the city of Lakewood, where we celebrate the lives and contributions of transgender people while also drawing attention to the difficulties facing this community.

So, this resolution was introduced by Council Member Stribbig. Um, before I turn it over to Council Member Stig, did you want the clerk to read the resolution? Yes, please. Okay. A resolution to declare March 31st, 2026 transgender day of visibility in the city of Lakewood, where we celebrate the lives and contributions of transgender people while also drawing attention to the difficulties facing this community. Whereas Transgender Day of Visibility was created in 2010 by trans advocate Rachel Crannle, who hoped to create a day where people could celebrate the lives of transgender people while still acknowledging that not every trans person can or wants to be visible due to fear of violence and discrimination. And whereas according to the American Civil Liberties Union, there were 616 anti-LGBTQIA plus bills introduced across state legislatores in the year 2025. And whereas at least two million Americans identify as transgender and have bravely overcome significant hardships to live their authentic lives despite facing numerous systemic and interpersonal obstacles. And whereas we celebrate the beauty and resilience of trans people who have made countless contributions to the betterment of our society, often working at the front lines of the social justice and human rights movements. And whereas we recognize and appreciate the work that's being done by trans advocacy groups within the Lakewood community and across the state of Ohio to continue the fight for dignity and equal rights for members of the trans community and provide a safe and healing space for all. And whereas in Lakewood we honor the inherent value of each and every resident of our city, including trans and gender non-conforming residents without exception. Now therefore, be it resolved by the city of Lakewood, Ohio, that this council and administration does hereby declare March 31st, 2026 as transgender day of visibility and urges the people of Lakewood to come together to celebrate the trans community.

Thank you. Um, and I'll just I'm going about to turn over to Council Member Schubik. Just want to note if you are here for any of these resolutions where we have a ceremonial copy, we are most the way through. So, just hang in there. We have one more after this for the um college club west and then we'll do our pictures um and then you are free to go about the rest of your evening or stay for the whole council meeting if you wish. All right. So, council member Stubic.

Thank you. Um colleagues, I'm happy to bring forward this legislation to recognize the transgender day of visibility on March 31st. This is a day to celebrate, appreciate, and lift our trans family members and neighbors. A day to recognize the beauty and diversity of life and be reminded that we're not created from an assembly line, but from human nature and all the complexities of our lived experiences, loves, values, and dreams. This is a day to celebrate individual gifts and our collective humanity. To coexist with one another and to live in peace and harmony is within our reach. We must continue to challenge the lazy minds of those who find union in the cults of hatred and premeditated ignorance. This resolution serves as a reminder to educate ourselves out of the darkness and willful and willful blindness that fuels uncomfortable feelings with anything different from ourselves. It's also a reminder for those of us in the queer community to find ways in these dark days to send the message that we are here to live and thrive, love and care for one another. I encourage you to use your gifts to write or sing a song or recite a poem or write a letter to the editor or draw a picture or paint a painting. and remind everyone that we are here and we are to be celebrated just like everyone else. Thank you.

Thank you. Um and thank you Council Member Stribbig for bringing this forward. Um as the resolution notes, there were 616 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in state legislatores last year alone. Currently, the state house is once again considering an anti-drag bill HB249. While performing drag is not the same as being transgender, the language of the bill is vague enough to potentially limit the ability of Ohioans to live with authentic gender expression without harassment. While the gender freedom policy that this body passed last year anticipated this type of overreach returning, all Ohioans should enjoy gender freedom. With so many using our transgender neighbors as scapegoats, it is important that we recognize and celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility and the beauty, value, and worth of our transgender community members. Neighbors, we see you, we celebrate you, and we're glad that you're here. Um, Council Member Hamilton Stein,

thank you, President Couple, and thank you, Council Person, for bringing this forward. Um, I'm not sure what happened in society that individuals are being denied their very existence and questioned, assumed, and labeled as being dangerous or having some sort of mental defect. I don't know how it is that we can deny and support continued denying of an individual's right to their existence. How their medical care can be denied. How we command and demand loyalty to cis heterero whiteness. how we demand binary forms of thinking, him, her, male, female, the heterosexual nuclear family and allegiance to the nuclear family as being the right way. When the first settlers in their in the first lands were colonized, there existed a multitude of identities that existed outside the norms. Before the indigenous and black Africans were conquered and their identities stolen, there were a number of identities indigenous and black African communities exhibited, including non-binary identities which were fluid. In some indigenous communities, personhood and identities were tied to their souls. Our transgender community members are essentially going back to our to our collective roots before colonization. They want liberation. I want liberation. I've personally witnessed and seen the change in an individual when they're able to live their authentic selves. It is like day and night. I will never deny that liberation from anyone. And none of us should. Transgender Day of Visibility is a way to affirm our transgender community members, friends, family members, neighbors, partners, our children, and let's make a commitment to ensure our transgender community members are able to be included and experience belonging.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh further discussion, council members. Councilman Bulock, pardon me. Um thanks, Madam President. Thanks to my colleague for bringing this together tonight. I see um Lakewood neighbors and family members and um friends who I care very greatly about and so I'm glad that this um honorary resolution is an opportunity to bring us together. So, thank you for that. Right. Um we do have a number of committee members signed in to speak on this. Um first up is uh and I apologize if I don't read your handwriting correctly, um Eugene Miller. All right. Good.

Good evening, U Council. Madame Mayor, I'm going to start off. Um, I got my speech organized, but I was in a meeting on Saturday and they asked me, uh, will you stand with us? And I said, "Yes, I'll stand with you." And so, Sunday, I was at church and it was the 60th anniversary of this church. And the pastor said, "Vulnerability. Vulnerability. You must be willing to be vulnerable to help people." And I'm sitting in church like, "What is he talking about?" So, it's this morning. I get up at 6:00. I'm a substitute teacher in one of my roles. So, I get in the classroom. I'm thinking it's going to be 15 kindergartens. It was 31 of them. And I'm sitting up there like, "Okay." So, I'm doing my thing. I I'm identified as a grandfather, identify as a a farmer, all these identities. nobody's going to bother me about. So I leave out and I'm looking at this one little boy. He said, "I don't know how to read." Now I know kids say all kind of things so they don't have to. I believed him and I looked up the air and I said, "That's what the pastor was talking about." Then I got an email from this group. They said, "Um, come out tonight at 7:30 to speak for this resolution." I said, "I'm supposed to be in a bed at 10:00 and I'm sitting up here. is 8:21 and I know what that the pastor was talking about vulnerability and so I'm here now to get to my speech and it'll be done real quick and it was saying that um you already know my name says I believe that every person deserves to live with dignity safety and respect in their communities. We all talk about visibility but we we need to recognize people exist they exist when they lies. This resolution is important because it helps people live their lives the way they want to live it. As someone who believes in building strong communities, we must let everyone live free with no discrimination or fear. I support this resolution and promote understanding,

respect for dignity of all people. Cuz don't nobody bother me when I say I'm a farmer. I'm a grandfather. I I just hold my head up and I keep on going. So I support this resolution that everybody needs to be treated fair. And um that's it. You all have a great night. Thank you. Thank you. Um All right. And then next up is our county council president, Dale Miller.

Good evening, Madame President, Madame Mayor, and uh members of council. I am pleased to join in strong support for resolution 2026-17 to declare a transgender day of visibility in Lakewood. This resolution is a crucial step to affirm that transgender people deserve to be loved, supported, and safe. We must stand strong against the rising tide of anti-trans violence and discrimination. The people who are stirring up anti-trans hatred for political purposes are damaging our country and the world in a profound way. I recently read Neil Degrassi Tyson's book Star Messenger Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization. The author discusses a number of topics with the wisdom and perspective of the universe. In one chapter, he states that many things that we commonly think of as binary actually exist along a continuum with the foremost example being gender. We are not born in two distinct very different groups, male and female. Rather, we exist along a series of gradations from one end to the other. All are normal. None are abnormal. But some provide a more difficult path. Being transgender includes social, emotional, and physical challenges under the best of circumstances. We must help transgender people successfully find their way in the world and not throw roadblocks in their way. The resiliency of the transgender

community is an inspiration to us all and deserves to be celebrated. This resolution sends a strong message of solidarity and helps build a more inclusive and just community where everyone can be authentic without fear. I urge your support for the resolution. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman. Um, and then next up is Sean Miller. Welcome back, Sean. Hello, excuse me. Hello, Madame Mayor. Hello, Madam President. And hello, council members. My name is Sean Miller. I'm a 17-year-old who's lived in Lakewood for about 11 years. Um, where I came from, it was not safe for me as a transgender person, and we looked for a very long time of where it would be a safe place for us to move. We end up ended up choosing Lakewood because we knew that I'd have a safe place for myself and for my family. I cannot express how deeply grateful I am to have grown up here for so many reasons. Uh resolutions like this are so important because it lets people like me, other um liquid residents who are trans, and all people in Ohio and in Lakewood that this is a safe space for all people. And it is so meaningful to me and all the other trans kids that you guys are willing to um pass forward this resolution and and see us and recognize us as people who are deserving. Um you grant us personhood in a time that a lot of people do not want to. I cannot um express my full gratitude for everything you guys do for me and our community, especially as a young trans person. So, thank you all so much. Thank you, Sean. Thank you for your advocacy. Um, and then last person I've signed in on this is Ben Vanlier. Hello. Just a short comment. Also, strongly in support of this resolution. Um, no prepared comments. I only heard about this resolution the other day and

uh I have to say it was pretty wonderful to see in a in a feed on the phone that my hometown local government is doing something positive to acknowledge and celebrate transgender people acknowledging the additional hardships that they face. um especially when a lot of that additional hardship at this time comes from state and federal government. So it was wonderful to see strongly support. Thank you.

Thank you. Um okay, that's the last person I've signed in to speak. Did anyone else want to speak on this resolution? Anyone being volunteered to speak on this resolution? You you need not. Okay. Oh, okay. All right. So, with that, um, I will go ahead and move to adopt resolution 202617. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes.

Item 18, resolution 202618, a resolution to recognize and celebrate the civic contributions of College Club West on the 100th anniversary of their founding. Thank you. And this is our last one and then we'll do our our pictures. All right. So, um this one, uh when Cheryl Bendick reached out to me regarding the College Club West's upcoming 100th anniversary, I was thrilled to be able to contribute to the celebration. Founded in 1926, the club, originally named Lakewood College Club, was created at a time when early pioneering college educated women were often forced from their careers if they elected to marry or have children, but they still yearned for lifelong learning. I have my own great-grandmother's trunk from this era that she took to and from college on the train. My mom says she would always tell her and her sister, "Girls, get your education. No one can ever take it from you." My great-grandmother and my grandmother were both involved in their local progress club, which like College Club West was founded to give female college graduates an opportunity for social, cultural, and intellectual outlets to continue to feed their minds and continue contribute to their communities. It's no surprise that college club west began in Lakewood where suffragettes successfully lobbyed ballot initiative u for ballot initiative of 1917 that won with 70% support granting women the right to vote in local elections two years before the 19th amendment was adopted in 1920. That same hustle was clearly present when the founders early founders of college club west which quickly swelled to 250 members within its first year. In the last 100 years, College Club West members have had the privilege of learning from an impressive roster of guest speakers, formed interest groups including foreign languages, culinary arts and literature, physical fitness, community service, and more. Beginning

in 1971, College Club West expanded its mission in an important way to help make a college education more accessible to individual women by launching a scholarship program that now regularly awards more than $10,000 to local women. Please join me in congratulating the College Club West on 100 years of continued enrichment and service. I will um move to adopt resolution 202618. Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Any further discussion? All right. None. And I don't think we have anyone signed in on this one to speak. Did anyone wish to speak on this? Okay. All right. Further discussion. All right. Hearing none. Um all those in favor. I. And that motion passes. All right. So we will now gather down front. We're going to take these uh photos in the order that we just adopted them. So first will be Shore Restaurant, then the school levy, then transgender day of visibility, and then um the college club west. Anyone who would like to be in any of these pictures, you're welcome to come forward. So, first is shore. You're welcome. Congratulations.

All right, I got everybody. Yes. Okay. All right. Now I got it. One, two, Perfect. All right.

One, two, three. I'm hoping that it was just that one.

Yeah.

Oh, it came up. That's how you do it.

Yeah. That's our celebration. Oh, got one. I got one. Thank you. Thank you. One of the members did sign up on

back to the top. Item one, report from public safety committee meeting held March 9th, 2026. Uh, this is council member Hamilton Steiner now.

All right. Thank you, President Couple. Dear colleagues, the public safety committee met on March 9th to discuss ordinance 03-2026, which would establish regulations for the trap, neuter, spay, and return of community cats with the city of Lakewood. The committee has been working on this ordinance alongside the Lakewood Animal Safety and Welfare Welfare Board, LAWAB, since it was first introduced back in May of 2025. At the beginning of the meeting, the committee approved an amendment to section 9B4 to insert language to clarify the intent of TNR which may result in the live trapping of a cat or kitten for greater than 24 hours due to the logistical timeline of the TNR process but would be allowable to the extent that the animal is properly cared for. The amendment was approved and the ordinance ultimately favorably referred to council to be voted on. The meeting concluded with law director Vargo discussing the administration's updated community cat trapneuter spay and return program policies and procedures document. This document ultimately serves as an internal document and guide which has been updated based on the revised ordinance 03-2026. Council members, the administration and the mayor lwab and members of clause and others that provided input ought to be commended for the work that was put into making this happen. Countless hours and thoughtful consideration were spent on this and it shows how effective we can be together. I move to receive and file this communication.

Second. Um motion's been made and seconded. Discussion. Council member Streig.

Thank you. Um and and thank you, Council Member Hamilton Steiner, for um finishing this long journey with um with all of our community support from all of the people from LWAB and from Claus and from the folks in the audience today. I see Nancy and Megan and Emily and anyone else that's that's involved with with that group that I don't recognize you right off the bat, but thank you. It's been a long process, but it's been a good process and one that um we we examined every detail twice or three times or maybe four times

and then and then, you know, had had um the law director Ernie and uh the assistant law director uh Swallow look at this again and again and again because we wanted to make sure that this was going to work for everyone, right? We wanted to make sure that um the initial concern for this wasn't going to put anybody practicing um you know saving these cats and kittens into any kind of harm's way. And we also wanted to make sure that it was going to work for um uh Mr. Crumbley or Officer Crumbley uh our animal uh control officer and make sure that that everything was right. So, it it took a minute or a year to to figure or two to get through it, but I wanted to say thank you to everyone. It was it was well worth it and um I'm looking forward to seeing what this group is going to work on next. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh further discussion. I'll just add um my thanks to everyone who worked on this. There was a lot of diligent process, good discussion. Um, and you know, we often say sometimes it's it's better to get it right than to get it fast. So, we're glad that we're actually have progress and see it over the finish line hopefully tonight. So, any further discussion? Okay. Hearing none on the motion to receive and file the report. All those in favor?

I. And that motion passes. Item two, substitute ordinance 32026, an ordinance to take effect immediately updating various sections of chapter 505, animals and fowl of the codified ordinances and creating regulations for trap neuters bay and return of community cats within the city. And Councilman member Hamilton Steiner, I believe you had an amendment.

Yes. Um so I am going to make a motion to amend um in section 4 C um the very last line and I'm going to add the number six after 955.1 so that it reads 955.6 and also strike the extra extra punctuation mark is wait what did I six

yes So that it reads 955.16. Okay. Sorry. Then striking the extraneous punctuation mark. Second. All right. So motion makes me repeat that. Motion's been made and seconded. Um just really basically a typo. So we're correcting. All right. Uh any discussion on that amendment? Hearing none. Uh all those in favor? I. And then I will move to adopt as amended. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Councilman Bullet.

Um I'll I'll add my thanks to everybody involved. Um and I'll comment a couple points. Um one is all of this work originally, and this predates me and and I'm the old guy up here, but it predates me by a long shot. The animal shelter was created to enhance the humane approach that we take in the community. So there's been a successful partnership over the years. Uh so that it's not just animal and person safety, but it's it's animal humaness and it's been the outpouring of expertise and support and dollars and time of many many Lakewood residents who've really lifted up uh more than one animal board. And I want to acknowledge one person, Kim McCarti, in the in the uh audience uh was involved early in an early stage version of trap new release and thank you for your vision and leadership to get this group uh doing a new version uh after um quite some time. So that's just perfect evidence. So thank punch line is thanks for to the administration for working through this. I know the city um under director Gordon has and and I think director Bindon's team also designed and built an expanded um facility we can be proud of for the animal shelter and and then this side is the operations and the whole thing um means that we're going to be doing a good job and a better job than we would otherwise without the efforts of all the citizens. So, thanks thanks to all of you for lifting ele and elevating what we do.

Thank you. Um, we do have a few folks signed in for public comment. So, first is Nancy Binder. Oh, there you are, Nancy.

Hi everyone. I'm Nancy Binder. I'm the chair of Law Swab. Uh, we started the process two plus years ago as a one-page document. Lakewood is a community that loves their animals. They love their people. They love their kids. And they especially love their little kitties, except the ones that are running around the neighborhood and laying on their porch furniture and eating their little treats in the yards and things like that. There are areas of Lakewood that does they they do have a problem with community cat population which is one of the reasons our board decided that we should address this. Um I do want to thank Mayor George for allowing us to have the two years of very arduous uh impassioned work on this and really supporting our work. I appreciate that along with you, Attorney Vargo. That was great. And I've heard nothing but positive things from every single council member. Our board really appreciates that because we heard some things from citizens that wanted us to get to it right away, wanted us to um just get rid of them, which I don't know how you just get rid of cats, but I have one that's accidental and been around for six years, so can't get rid of him either. Um, this this arduous journey did start about two years ago. Um it started as a one-page document that hey we really need to address a community gap problem that's in Lakewood. Um the ordinance before

council right now is the result of two years of work. It incorporates the best practices and humane um uh practices for animal trapping, neutering, and returning. A a lawyer, Dana Panella, uh who specializes in animal welfare as an attorney, uh has been involved the whole way through. The language has been adjusted. The goals have been adjusted. The language has been readjusted. This is a um best practices for a an ordinance for trap neutering return. I've tried to look at other cities. They have bits and pieces, but they don't have the whole package put together. We're hoping that this will be the case here and council will love it. Um, uh, Lasab recommends that you pass this as is. And as member of Lakewood and a citizen of Lakewood, I really, really recommend that you pass this as is tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, and next up we have uh Megan. Oh, I'm sorry. I can't read. Go Gla. Thank you.

Thank you, Chairperson Keell. Uh I'm Megan Galida and I'm a volunteer with the Citizens Committee for Lakewood's Animals and Shelter or Clause. We are delighted to be here today as you consider ordinance 03-2026. It took a community of people working together for more than two years to get to this point. We want to express our heartfelt appreciation to city council um especially the past and present members of the safety of the public safety committee, the Lakewood administration and mayor George and staff in Lakewood Animal Control and the law department. Special thanks to past and current members of the Lakewood Animal Safety and Welfare Advisory Board, Laswab, and past and present board members of Claus. Without everyone's support, we wouldn't be here today. With this ordinance, we can excuse me, I'm getting choked up. With this ordinance, we can work with the broader Lakewood community to address the free roaming community cat population in the city. Whether people want to help community cats or are frustrated by their presence, trap neuter return provides a humane solution. we can work together to address the community cat population and help individual cats. Uh if this ordinance passes, our work can begin. Thank you for considering this ordinance. I hope you will vote in favor

of it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Um all right. Uh that's everybody I've signed in to speak. Did anyone else wish to speak? Going once. Vice President Baker.

Yes. Thank you, uh, Council President, and thank you, uh, to the volunteers here. I'm just reminded that like, you know, on council, you know, we pass ordinances and change the code, but oftentimes, especially when you get into this level of detail, it's about changing processes, which we don't necessarily have control over. So, you need to work really closely with the administration to make sure our code aligns with our processes. And you know, we had a similar experience with with Complete Streets. Took a long time, very detail- oriented, but we're getting into kind of like people's roles and what they do and their processes. And this is similar. And it takes a, you know, an engaged group of folks uh and advocates. So, appreciate your advocacy and your volunteerism in that respect. And it takes an engaged uh members of council to push it through. And then a receptive and engaged administration, too. So, um public policy isn't always fun or fast. uh but uh you know this the slower and more deliberative you are the better I think the outcome is. So thank you for everyone's perseverance through this.

Thank you. Um definitely echo that and as a as a cat lady myself I really appreciate all the all the the hard work. So thank you um that for everyone that had a hand in this which was a lot. Um okay so we have a motion and a second to um adopt as amended. Any further discussion hearing? None on the motion to adopt. All those in favor? I I. And that motion passes.

Item three, report from housing planning and development committee held March 9th, 2026. Uh, Councilman Evans.

Thank you, President Kebell. Uh, dear colleagues, the Housing Planning and Development Committee met on March 9th to wrap up several months of work on ordinance 02-2026 regarding front yard plantings. topic was first introduced by building commissioner Parmley in May 2025 after a series of committee meetings and after receiving helpful feedback from gardeners across the city including keep lakewood beautiful. The scope of the ordinance was narrowed to strike a compromise between rights of property owners and public safety issues. Uh excuse me the ordinance is aiming to address namely sight lines. Uh to put it simply, this ordinate requires that any private property planting within two feet of the property line must be managed to prevent visual obstruction that could cause a public safety hazard. The committee moved to replace the previous version of the ordinance with a new version that includes diagrams to match the text descriptions. During close examination of the text and diagrams, it was agreed that additional updates were needed to improve clarity and consistency. Committee asked Commissioner Parmley to update figure two to reflect the committee's feedback. Uh, a motion will be made to amend ordinance 02-2026 by substituting with the version that includes Commissioner Parmaly's updates. Uh, just want to thank Commissioner Parmley once again and happy we got this done in under a year. So, good job everybody. And I'll make a motion to receive and file this communication.

Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion. Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Item four, substitute ordinance 2, 2026, an ordinance to take effect immediately to amend chapter 1775, weeds of the codified ordinance for the purpose of establishing regulations for front yard plantings. Right. And we're moving to substitute the substitute. Is that accurate? Yeah, we're substituting with the version uh this the version in granicus that's marked subbed out of housing plan development updated

updated diagrams. Okay. Uh, okay. So, we're moving to substitute with the version that says updated diagrams. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion. Hearing none on the motion to substitute. All those in favor? I I. And that motion passes. All right. And then we will move to adopt a substitute. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion. Um, just again want to thank everyone who had a hand in this. um you know we had a lot of good discussion about it and community input uh that I think ultimately made it stronger. So great further discussion hearing none on the motion to adopt a substitute. All those in favor I

and that motion passes. Item five report from public works and sustainability committee committee held March 9th 2026. Councilman Bullet

sorry thanks madam president. Uh dear colleagues, uh the public works and sustainability committee met on March 9th to discuss resolution 2026-3 which will appoint one member to the tree advisory and education board for the position vacated by council member Bixenstein upon his appointment to city council. Committee entered executive session to discuss the candidates. After discussion, the committee exited executive session and a motion was made to insert the name of Marco Oriela into the resolution. Committee members remarked upon the highly qualified pool of applicants and expressed their appreciation for the willingness of of everyone who applied to serve their community on this board. Lakewood is fortunate to have so many passionate and experienced tree advocates and look forward to making future appointments as vacancies become available. Thank Mr. Oriela for the his offering his his unique expertise and perspective in service of the tree advisory board and we look forward to working with him in that capacity. The committee unanimously voted to favorably refer resolution 2026-3 is amended back to the council full council for adoption sincerely.

Um thank you. I will move to receive and file that communication. Second or the report motion's been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Um thank you Councilman Bulock and the committee for taking that on. Um so we have a lot in committee to the whole so that was helpful. Any further discussion hearing? None. All those in favor. And that motion passes. Item six, substitute resolution 20263, a resolution to take effect immediately appointing Marco Oriela to the tree advisory and education board for the unexpired term, I should say, beginning immediately and ending December 31, 2026. Move to adopt. Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion. Uh we'll thank uh Mr. Oriela for his willingness to serve. Um, any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Item seven, report from committee the whole held today, March 16th, 2026.

We'll keep this brief. It's been a long night. So, um, earlier colleagues, earlier this evening, committee of the whole meltd um, and this we begin the evening with a report from, uh, planner Amanda Kramer regarding the public art master plan. uh this current status and timeline and the elements being considered as part of that public art master plan which will include a public meeting at a date in the future. And then we moved on to the ordinances regarding the charter amendments. Um two were voted favorably back to full counsel for future consideration. Um that was uh ordinance 182026 regarding the redlinining of uh legislation and ordinance 2020 2022 which is uh amending the language describing how the charter can be amended. Uh the remainder of the charter amendments uh will stay in committee for now for future discussion. Um I will move to uh receive and file that report.

Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Um, so I'm going to move to suspend the rules now to read items 8 through 13 together. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor.

And that motion passes. Item 8, ordinance 16, 2026, an ordinance to take effect immediately submitting to the electors of the city of Lakewood, an amendment to the third amended charter in order to change the frequency with which the civil service commission reviews elected official salaries. Item nine, ordinance 17, 2026, an ordinance to take effect immediately submitting to the electors of the city of Lakewood. An amendment to the third amended charter to the city of Lakewood in order to add additional requirements to the process by which council appoints new members to fill a vacancy. Item 10, ordinance 18, 2026, an ordinance to take effect immediately submitting to the electors of the city of Lakewood, an amendment to the third amended charter of the city of Lakewood in order to change the manner in which legislation is amended to remove the requirement that the entire ordinance and resolution be repealed than a new ordinance or resolution be enacted. Item 11, Ordinance 19, 2026, an ordinance to take effect immediately submitting to the electors of the city of Lakewood, an amendment to the third amended charter of the city of Lakewood in order to establish a process and requirement for ward redistricting in the city of Lakewood. Item 12, ordinance 20, 2026, an ordinance to take effect immediately submitting to the electors of the city of Lakewood an amendment to the third amended charter of the city of Lakewood in order to clarify the various paths in which the charter can be amended. Item 13, ordinance 2126, an ordinance to take effect immediately pro submitting to the electors of the city of Lakewood an amendment to the third amended charter in order to allow council the option of implementing ranked choice voting. Move to defer.

Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion hearing none. All those in favor. And that motion passes. Item 19. Report from council member Stribbig regarding February meeting of the community recreation education commission meeting. Council member Stig.

Thank you. Dear colleagues, the Lakewood Community Recreation and Education Commission met at the Taft Center for Innovation on Monday, February 17th at 6 PM. Coordinator Coordinator Leslie Favor shared that the winter programs were finishing and spring preparations were beginning. A second session of swimming lessons has started, basketball is at the midpoint of the season, and the swim team and wrestling are wrapping up. The basketball program saw a record number again with another increase in girls basketball participation. The TAP program is on spring break and end of the season parent and coaches surveys are in the plans to evaluate the programs and should be out soon. Equipment prep for field maintenance has begun and new treadmills and cable machines are planned for the fitness facility. The indoor track is being shared with community and indoor track team and it remains in good condition. The 2026 Purple and Gold Classic is scheduled for April 18th with an 8:30 a.m. tip off. A donation of personal hygiene products at the entry is requested. The spring program booklet goes out to the community on March 15th with residents only registration for the first week of April and non-resident registration beginning the second week. Camp registration begins in early March and some camps are not listed in the spring program booklet because they're already sold out. Seasonal hiring is beginning for 300 plus workers, including young people at least 14 years old. The Lakewood United Football Club held interviews for board positions and made recommendations and appointed individuals. Interviews to fill a board position on the Lakewood Community Baseball and Softball Association was also scheduled. Mark Walters and Leslie attended the Ohio Parks and Recreation

Association conference and learned about the use of AI, appropriate pricing, and attracting and retaining volunteer coaches. They were pleased to learn that they are on the right track with their initiatives and got a new idea of requesting participant feedback midseason instead of just at the end. Thank you. Thank you. Um move to receive and file that report. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Thank you Councilman Bubig for that detail and keeping us informed. Um any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor?

I. And that motion passes. Item 20, communication from building commissioner Parmaly regarding building safety month May 1st through May 31st. Building Commissioner Parmley, welcome.

Madam President, members of council. Uh, Division of Housing and Building would like to participate in ICC's building safety month 2026. This year's campaign raises awareness about critical building issues from structural to energy conservation. This year's campaign is built to last. Each week of the month in May is highlighted with essential topics. The model ICC codes are adopted by Ohio, altered to meet our specific region that enforced throughout all 88 counties. We're planning a nocost campaign with each week's topic featured on our housing and building page. Bless you, Chief. Housing and building page as well as social media. The ICC International Code Council is made up of 64,000 members, including the staff of the city of Lakewood Building Department. We all work together to provide the community with inspections and knowledge to ensure our structures are safe to work, live, and play. We have greatly appreciate your support in building safety month May 2026. Respectfully, myself, Christopher Park,

thank you. I will move to receive and file that communication. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Uh, thanks for coming to read it yourself, building commissioner firmly. I appreciate that. Um, suffering with through with everything. Um, any further discussion on the communication? Hearing none. All those in favor. And that motion passes. Thank you. Item 21, resolution 202619, a resolution declaring May 2026 building safety month within the city of Lakewood. Move to adopt. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes.

Item 22, February 2026, finance department vendor report submitted pursuant to Lakewood codified ordinance 1103. Move to receive and file. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion. Hearing none. All those in favor?

I. And that motion passes. That brings us to public comment. We have anyone else? Um, all right. So, first up, uh, Enson Hall. Welcome. Mic's on, so you can just address.

Thank you. Good evening, Madame President Keell, members of council. My name is Anson Hall and I live on Elmwood Avenue here in Lakewood. I'm extremely grateful to hear about council's endorsement of the upcoming levy and look forward to voting yes on the levy myself. I want to acknowledge the city and its ongoing efforts and dedication to making Lakewood a great place to live, visit, and do business. I've been a resident since 2013 and can't think of another place I'd rather raise a family. Tonight, I'm here to encourage the city to continue its efforts to work closely with the Lakewood City School District, particularly as it relates to traffic safety around our schools and the broader impacts of the Lincoln school repurposing transition. We all know there are several school crossing intersections that are dangerous, especially during arrival and dismissal times. I walk our first and third graders to Grant Elementary School every morning and appreciate the ongoing dialogue I've had with several council members about safety improvements to the Hillyard and Elwood Avenue intersection. And I'm also grateful for the newly formed case board as well as a safe routes to school uh group and the work that they continue to do to make our streets more pedestrian friendly and also um driver friendly because they're important as well. I suspect that the Lincoln repurposing transition will only increase these traffic issues if no additional safety measures are implemented and hope that both the case board and safe routes to school groups are consulted as part of this transition. These types of traffic challenges aren't just school issues or city issues, they're community issues. Pedestrians and drivers are all navigating the same streets and problem solving issues problem solving these issues works best when the city, the schools and residents are all at the table together. Strong collaboration between the city and the schools can help ensure that changes to school facilities don't unintentionally create new safety challenges and that infrastructure improvements are aligned with how our neighborhoods are actually being used. Just as importantly, collaboration helps residents feel

confident that their concerns are being heard across institutions and not passed back and forth. I recognize that collaboration between institutions is hard work and doesn't always move quickly, but it's also essential when we're dealing with student and resident safety, neighborhood impacts, and decisions that shape the future of Lakewood. My hope is that the city and Lakewood City School District continue to approach what's ahead as partners, turning complex challenges into shared solutions, and ensuring that Lakewood remains a safe, thoughtful, and welcoming place to work, to live, and to raise a family. Thank you for your time and for your continued service and dedication to Lakewood.

Thank you. Um, next is Chris Bendle.

Good evening. Chris Bendle, 1212 Hathway. Um, I'm here to talk about ranking choice voting as usual. I figured I'd rather speak to the full council meeting than at the committee meeting. But um uh I I listened to everything you had to say at the committee meeting. I really appreciate what you have to say. I want to be clear that like as much as I'm here in support of rank choice voting. I am a lifelong Lakewoodite. I've been attending council meetings for 20 years at this point. I so like I understand how a lot of this works. Um and I don't want anything to negatively impact our city in any way, shape, or form. Um, and that funding thing is a big, you know, 400 4,000 pound gorilla, whatever in the room. You know, we got to worry about that. Um, I don't necessarily think at this point it is a end- all beall. I think we have a lot of conversations to have and it sounds like you are all working on that, which I appreciate. Uh, I came here at the beginning of the year being like, we need to talk about this, we need to talk about this, we need to talk about this. I'm glad we're talking about it and so now I want to make sure that we are taking the time and thoughtfully thinking it through. We still have a deadline but we have a couple months before we get there. Um so just you know keep working through it. Let's get past you know we only have a few more days less than a week I think until the governor either has to sign the bill or it becomes law because he doesn't sign it. So let's get past that hurdle and then once we're past that we'll take a look at what our options are from there. Um I do still think that the loophole that is there is potential that we could work around. Um but there are some concerns that have to be uh discussed. Um we do have some you know potential allies in that realm. Uh Fair Vote uh which is a national organization. Um you know they've been working with people all over the country that have dealt with similar issues. So hopefully they can you know give us some ideas. I know

that's where the language at the end of our current uh ordinance came from. So, you know, just uh let's just keep thinking creatively and work through this. And uh I thank you for all your time and support for that. So, all right. Have a good night. Thank you. Um All right. And then last, uh oh, I think Asher left.

Yeah. Okay. Sorry. They were signed in on this one, not on the other one. So, all right. And then lastly, Kelly McCarthy. Hi everyone. Uh, thanks so much for having me. My name is Kelly McCarthy. I'm a relatively new Lakewood resident. This is actually my first city council meeting. Um, thank you again for having me. Um, I'm here today representing an organization called Clean Fuels Ohio. It's a statewide nonprofit part of the Department of Energy's Clean Cities and Communities Network. Um we through Cleanfields Ohio have been working on a national project called the empower project, the empower workplace charging project where we recognize um workplaces across the state of Ohio as leaders um by installing electric vehicle charging for their uh employees and residents or um patrons to utilize. And so, um, we have a certificate here today to present to the city of Lakewood just recognizing the city's leadership, um, having installed multiple public, uh, electric vehicle charging stations that are accessible to the public as well as to employees. Um, so yeah, just here to thank you guys and uh, present the certificate and recognize the city for your leadership in this space. So, thank you.

Thank you. Um, and Kelly, you are the last person that signed in to speak. So, if you can just hang on a minute when we finish off this meeting, we can come down and if you want to do a picture or anything like that, we can do it. Okay, sounds good. All right, Madam President.

I I I got a promise out of the public works director and planning director that they would also be in the in the photo, too. So, they do the work. They do a lot of work. In all seriousness, I I do want to acknowledge I think uh you know, Assistant Director Boss does a lot of planning work and analysis and rate setting and uh um Chris, I don't know if there's a unit manager who who's on the lead on that, but we've can proudly say the city's installed, if not the most in the state. It's got to be top ranked in the region or state for the number of public facing chargers. And then this is an additional category um of accessible to employees and patrons and so forth. So it's you know the city of Lakewood once again getting ready for the way we do business tomorrow and doing it in a way that's clean and friendly. I certainly applaud that and want to thank uh the whole team.

Thank you. Absolutely. And u we appreciate everyone. and we've worked with the planning department and public works and um appreciate the administration's efforts to um on on this front. So,

and and I'm sorry, Madam Chair, before we conclude, one one other point, there's a public comment uh from one member of the public about the there's a couple e ecoms. The the second one there is regarding parking um and and parking procedures so that safe routes to schools are functioning like we hope. Um, won't get into the details here, but it did bring to mind, I forgot to ask early in the meeting, do we envision a joint city council schoolboard meeting at some point in the reasonably near future? I'd defer to you on what reasonably should be defined as the next four weeks or six weeks or rather, you know, after early May. I certainly would welcome that dialogue. Thanks.

Um, yeah, we certainly um can look at that. Uh some some of the dialogue I've had with the new president of the school board was that the school board is looking at shifting their meeting schedules so that their full coun full schoolboard meetings no longer conflict with full council meetings. So just need to look at that scheduling. I believe that they are planning to have that change start over the summer. Um so be looking at that date. I think it I think it's a good practice for us to do. Yep. All right. Uh, with that, that's everybody had signed in for public comment. Anyone else? Public comment. No. Okay. Um, then announcements from council members. Council member Stig.

We have a full calendar of things that are coming up in the next two weeks before we meet again. Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, everyone. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Um, yeah. 3:20 is E doll feeder. 325 is equal payday. Ladies, we finally caught up to the gentlemen today with what they made last year. But white white women did, right? Correct. Correct. Dang it.

Equal payday. We women are still making 82 cents to the dollar. Um we talked about International Trans Day visibility coming up on the 31st. April 2nd is Autism Awareness Day as well as the full pink moon. Not because it's being um blocked, but because that's the name of the the full moon for April. Pink the pink moon. Yeah. Passover comes up April 2nd through the 9th and Easter is on the 5th. Thank you. Welcome.

All right. Other announcements from council members. Oh, that's it. That's it. We're done. All right. I was gonna take that as a hint unless anybody has an announcement. Okay. Announcements from the administration. Uh Chief Fairbanks. I just want to remind everyone that Wednesday is the statewide tornado drill at 9:50 a.m. So, please be practicing in your own home, your workplace, and we will be out at the schools. Thank you. Um, any further announcements hearing? None. All right. No fur council. We are adjourned.