Housing, Community Development & Public Health Committee - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

All right.

All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

I call to order the committee meeting of the housing community development and public health committee for Thursday. May 28, thank you 2026. Please call the roll. Jones. Here.

Gattis. Here. Cramer. Here. Martinez. McPherson. Melvin. Williams here for president. Okay.

So we are here to get an update on our lead safe ordinance. And I believe that we're talking about rental registry as well. Get an update of what that's going, how that's going in vacant properties. So we have Jim Monar and Monica Smith. Uh, also keep in mind, we have a five o'clock, so we want to take as much time, but just keep that deadline in mind. All right. And then I'll hand it over to you all.

Good afternoon, council. Thank you so much for having me this afternoon. I am Monica Smith, the lead safe coordinator, and I'm going to provide you with a lead safe ordinance update. So first I want to start with a program overview. The lead ordinance states that if you are a property owner of a residential rental unit, one to four units, built prior to 1978, you are required to obtain a lead safe certificate. That also applies to family child care homes. obtain your lead safe certificate, you first have to reach out to a local licensed lead inspector. They're listed on the Toledo Lead Safe website. Once you reach out to them, you would then have them complete what is referred to as a clearance exam. The clearance exam consists of a visual assessment as well as dust wipe clearances. That has to be done prior to a deadline date that is based off of the census tract that you live in. So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to provide you with an overview of phase one. it consists of 17 census tracts there are an estimated 4 800 rental properties in phase one the deadline date which recently passed was december 31st of 2025 for phase one there are currently 954 active certificates in phase one we sent out reminder letters approximately six months prior to that deadline date we sent out a total of 400 4,000, excuse me, 4,465 reminder letters. And then three months after that deadline date, we sent out 3,736 notice of violation letters for those owners who had not yet complied. Next, phase two overview. In phase two, there are 12 census tracts. That deadline date is approaching. It is June 30 of 2026. There are an estimated 2,800 rental units in phase two. We currently have 93 active certificates in that phase. We sent out 2,634 reminder letters to property owners for phase two. Next up, we have phase three. We're currently in phase three. There are 12 census tracts in phase three. The deadline date is December 31st of 2026. There are 133 active certificates in phase three. An estimated 3,058 rental units. We sent out 2,958 reminder letters. Those letters should actually be reaching their destination over the next couple days. And here I'm going to give you an overview of all of the phases. So in total, there are 120 census tracts. There's eight compliance deadlines, with the last compliance deadline being June 30 of 2029. The compliance deadlines are in six-month increments, so it's always going to be June 30 or December 31st. We sent out a total of 10,057 reminder letters, a total of 3,736 notice of violation letters, and currently we have 4,124 active lead safe certificates. We also have 69 active local inspectors who are actually in the community, providing property owners with information as well as completing the clearance exams. And so one of the things I want you to keep in mind is I know that some of the numbers may seem low, but there's a couple things you want to keep in mind with that. As far as the number, if I were to refer back to phase one, I think I mentioned that there were, forgive me, 957 active certificates while there are approximately 4,800 rental properties in that area. So the two things I want you to keep in mind is that over the past couple of months, approximately 1500, let's say certificates expire, meaning that those property owners had complied five years ago, but their expiration date had approached. And so now they need to reapply. That's the first thing to consider. Second thing I want you to consider is that we were in the courts over the course of two and a half, three years. And so I think what that did is it created some confusion amongst property owners as to whether or not the land ordinance is still in existence, whether or not they need to comply, when are those deadline dates, and how do they go about doing that. And so that's one of the things that we have been working diligently on is making sure that we are communicating with property owners, with tenants, with the inspectors regularly so that they have a better understanding of the program, of what the requirements are, and of their compliance date. That way they know that, okay, this is what I need to do by such and such date. Next, I'm going to talk to you a little about the importance of quality control and inspector oversight. So being that I mentioned the back and forth with the court and how for some people it caused some confusion, one of the things we want to do is make sure that we are maintaining integrity as well as credibility with this program. And so with that, every application that we receive the city undergoes quality assurance review to make sure that it meets the requirements as stated by the Ohio Department of Health, as well as the city of Toledo's ordinance. In addition to the documentation review, we're also conducting site visits to verify that the conditions that are reported on the clearance reports are accurate. Through the site visits, we've identified instances where there were inaccuracies in reporting. And so what that allowed us to do is it allowed us to go back in, review some of our internal processes so that we know, okay, these are the things that we need to speak to the inspectors about, these are the things that we need to educate property owners about, and these are some of the processes that we need to put in place to ensure that those standards are being met. We've also maintained ongoing communication with the inspectors just so that we can provide guidance, we can answer any questions and or concerns that they may have, And I think with that, it helps reinforce the program standards. Next up, we have enforcement activity. So this slide outlines what the city is currently doing in regards to enforcement and the steps that we take prior to referring anyone to housing court. So this design, this is designed to educate, to communicate, and to say that we want you to comply. We don't want this to be just where we're with a heavy fist saying, hey, this is what you have to do. We want to make sure that people have ample opportunity to comply. And so the first thing we do prior to referring to housing court is at least six months prior to the deadline date, we send out that reminder letter. That letter provides people with information so that they know where to go to hire an inspector, what are the steps you have to do to your property to prepare your property, what you have to do to apply for your application, how you apply for your application, the cost associated. It's full of information. It's the Toledo Lead Safe website. There's a lot of information there. The next thing we do is, Approximately a month after the deadline date, that is when we send a notice of violation letter if we know that that property owner still has not complied. And in sending that, by law, we have to provide that property owner with 45 days so they still have more time to comply, and then If we verify service, meaning that we've proved that, okay, this person received this notice of violation letter, then we would refer them to housing court. And so there's still ample time. And I'll give you an example. So currently we are in the enforcement stages of phase one, okay? So remember, the deadline date for phase one was December 31st of 2025, so last year. Those reminder letters went out. Those notice of violation letters went out. Right now, we're actually in the process of verifying who has complied. That was still on that non-compliant list, who has complied. We'll remove those individuals from the non-compliant list, put them on the compliant list. But then we'll take a look at the list of non-compliant property owners. And what we'll do is we will randomly select the first 200. We're going to start with 200, but we're going to refer all of them to housing court at some point. But one of the things we have to consider is the capacity of the court as well as our internal capacity. So we're going to be starting that process at the end of June, around June 18th. That's when we'll start referring individuals to housing court. Next, I want to share some information about technology improvements. So with this, this highlights some of the technology improvements that we have already implemented, as well as some that we are continuing to develop. One of the things we have on the Toledo Lead Safe website is an interactive map. This map allows residents, landlords, anyone interested and finding out if a property is lead safe certified, they can go visit this website. On the website, you simply punch in the address of the property in question, and it will then bring up information. So it'll let you know, yes, this property does have a lead safe certificate. They received it on January 1 of 2025. It is good through January 1 of 2030. If it doesn't have one, then nothing will pop up for that person. And so it's a good tool for property owners to use so they can determine whether or not their property is due to be certified because it will also give you that information. It's a good tool for individuals who are in the process of purchasing properties. If they want to find out, I wonder if they got this property, let's say certified, whether they are going to live in that property or even if they're going to use it as an investment property and rent that property. That's just one less thing that they would have to do. And then it's also good for tenants, people who are in the stage of looking for rental properties. they can double check to see is this property LeadSafe certified? Let me get on this website and find out. And so I think that's a really great tool. The other thing is we've updated the Toledo LeadSafe website with a lot of educational resources. We have FAQs on there. And so just about any question you can think, it's listed on there. The questions that we've received, one of the first things I do after I get a question that I have not gotten is I go to that website and update it. Because if one person has that question, five people probably have that same question. Lastly, the application process is also on the Toledo Lead Safe website. We have worked really hard on the application process. We want to make sure that it is super easy for people to use. And so we've really worked hard on that process. The other thing we're doing is we have some technology improvements underway. With the one that I'm really most excited about is going to be the lead safe portal implementation. And so what that will entail is There will be a dashboard that is outward facing. And so when you're applying for your lead safe certificate, you'll visit, it's City Works, but you'll visit the website and you will be able to apply via City Works. And so what that does is it gives us it makes things a lot smoother for us in the background as well as for that applicant, right? So the first thing you would do if you were to get on the website to apply for your Lead Safe certificate, you would create an account. And so anytime you need to apply for a Lead Safe certificate, you would go into that same account. That way applicants, they'll have an opportunity to download their certificate as many times as they want at no cost. They'll also be able to fill out their personal information one time and it'll always be there. And so like now you have to go on and every time you apply, you have to put your personal information in each time. We recognize that that's frustrating for people. And so this will make it a lot easier for them This will also automate our workflow. We use City Works currently to house the Lead Safe certificates. And so now that we are going to be in City Works, the certificates will continue to be housed there, but we won't have to do double work, right? So it's going to allow us to work much more efficiently and effectively. So we're really excited about that. Here, I want to share some information about outreach and training. So in 2024 and 2025, this is when we were still in the courts waiting on the Supreme Court justices to make a decision. And so one of the things we spent the majority of our time on was focusing on outreach and training. We knew that because we had been in the courts for such a long time, we didn't want to lose that momentum that we had built up. And so we offered trainings in 2024 and 2025. We were able to send 231 individuals through training. Those were all lead related trainings. We also led and participated in eight outreach events. With those events, we were able to reach 1,350 people. One of the things we did, and this was probably my favorite thing to do, is we were able to visit some Toledo public schools, elementary schools, and we got to talk to first graders. They were so energetic, of course, really, really interested and very, very smart. And so what we did is we talked to them about the importance of a healthy home and a lead safe home. We also provided them with some takeaways. So they got some board books and some pencils, some crayons, some coloring books. And that was probably the highlight since I've been working for the city. It was really, really fun. And then lastly, we launched a really robust marketing campaign for 2024 and 2025. That campaign included billboards throughout the city. We did radio ads. We did print ads. And then we also utilized social media. That allowed us to make sure that we were still putting information out there about the ordinance so that people still knew this is still a thing. You're going to have to comply. And we wanted to make sure that parents were having their children tested that they were having their homes tested and so um i think that that was a really really valuable piece over the course of those two years The good thing is, moving forward, we now have the Toledo-led Resource Center. And so moving forward, the Resource Center will take the lead as it relates to the outreach and the training for the Lead Safe program. And so what that does for me and my team is it gives us a chance to solely focus on the ordinance, which we're really, really excited about. Next up, I'm going to speak to some of the challenges. and some of the lessons we've learned. So one of the biggest challenges I think initially was public awareness and understanding. And I know I've said it a few times this afternoon, but that was something that for me I recognized really early on. And so it was something that I felt like we really needed to work on and increase. the public awareness as it relates to lead, the lead ordinance, lead poisoning, lead safety. So that required a significant investment in outreach and what that allowed us to do was it allowed us to reduce the confusion and improve participation. The other challenge is inspector capacity and consistency. As I stated, currently there are 69 local lead inspectors listed on the website, which I think is a really good number. Could the number be stronger? Sure. Do I think that 69 inspectors could handle what we have currently? I do. But again, we could always use more inspectors, so we're constantly working on that. The other thing is making sure that the inspectors are consistent in their inspections, in their documentation, in their reporting standards. We want to make sure that that they understand that they are required by law to follow what the Ohio Department of Health says, as well as the city of Toledo's ordinance. And so that's something we've been working on. We have a new person to our team, not new to the city, but new to our team. She is our rehabilitation projects officer. And so a lot of the work that she does is working with the inspectors to ensure that they are clear in regards to the expectations and in regards to what the city's lead ordinance says, as well as what Ohio Department of Health requires. Next, the data and the system limitations. Systems weren't designed for the lead program and the scale of the lead program. And so as I mentioned earlier with technology improvements, that's one of the things we're working on. Currently a lot of the work we do is manual. And so I think improving technology will be a huge, huge advantage for us moving forward. And then lastly, of course, funding and resource constraints. I don't even know if I need to expand on that. I think we all know how that goes. Finally, next steps. So first we want to continue strengthening program operations. So we want to make sure that we are maintaining high standards of quality control as well as inspector oversight to ensure that the program is compliant with the ordinance and with the Ohio Department of Health. We also want to continue to work towards enhancing our technology and our systems. uh... expand the outreach and education so although the toledo-led ordinance the i'm sorry the toledo-led resource center will take the lead on that we are still going to be partners in that work we will we still want to make sure that classes are being offered and trainings are being offered uh... and we want to make sure that we are continuing to educate to engage and to empower our community And then lastly, measure, evaluate, and report. We have to make sure that we're tracking this progress. We want to be able to say, this is where we are. These are the outcomes. And a lot of that will be based off of some of the work that the health department does, right? When you talk about tracking, I think being able to partner with the health department and and hear some of the stories as it relates to children and lead poisoning. Unfortunately, those are clear indicators of where we are in this work, right? We just don't want to continue to use our babies as indicators. We want to use the data that we collect and the systems that we're working on to track that information. And so before I close, I just want to remind you why this work really, really matters. So at the center of the ordinance is children. At the end of the day, it's about kids. I know that you have to hire an inspector, you have to comply, you have to get a lead-safe certificate, but that's not what it's about. It's about children. Children don't get to decide where they live. They don't get to decide that, oh, I'm going to live in this house and it's full of lead and nothing's going to be done about it. They don't get to make that choice. As the adults, we have to make that choice for them. That's our responsibility. Lead poisoning is 100% preventable. 100% preventable, right? But its effects last a lifetime. And so a lot of damage can be done that cannot be undone. And so I know that there's always the talk of, oh, the lead ordinance and Why do we have to do that? But at the end of the day, it is about the children. It's about the children. And so with that, I yield. And I will answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, first of all, very much. I do want to hold questions until the entire presentation, so we have some time. But we can jump into the next one. But yeah, we definitely do have questions. And thank you for that presentation. So we'll go to Commissioner Monar.

Yes, thank you, members of council. Jim Monar, Commissioner of Code Compliance. Did you say we were supposed to be done by 4 o'clock?

So yes, thank you members of council.

I'm here to give an update on our vacant property registration program phase one as well or So I just kind of give a little bit of background. You know, we back in December 2025 City Council helped us strengthen the ordinance that requires vacant property registration and rental registration in the city of Toledo. The idea being that we were trying to clarify some vagueness in the ordinance and try to design a program that can help provide stability with vacant properties in the city um and and mostly just to to relaunch the vacant property program which began in 2008 and really never had any any legs underneath it. It never really went anywhere and it wasn't as enforceable as it is now. Just a little bit of context on that and what was the reason for it? Obviously, we all know vacant properties negatively affect neighborhoods. We have these properties. The reason for the law is we need to have ways to contact these owners, have accountability of owners of these properties that are mostly... statistically also the properties that we're cutting the grass for, that we're boarding up, that we have people going into and bad things happening to people in these vacant properties and it helps us hopefully get people to be responsible for these properties and not just walking away. Now it also gives us an opportunity to be proactive in the best sense that we can where if we do have contact information in our Negative things happening in these properties now. We do have a phone number. We do have a Email address we do have somebody local that that would be responsible for managing these properties And then also we wanted it to be as consistent as possible since Just to be clear that a lot of people that we've had since the beginning of the launch are saying where did this law come from? I never had to do this before This is ridiculous and so we're just saying no, this law has been there forever and we are actually enforcing it now. It's not selective enforcement, it is proactive enforcement. And it was something that we could also do city wide with the current resources that we had for the most part. We, for the most part, we launched our new enforcement compliance efforts in February, February 17th, 2026. We did a press conference letting the public know that this law did exist, and if you had a vacant house, you were probably going to be contacted by the city. Since that time, over three months, we have sent 600 courtesy notices to properties that had been identified by our inspectors as being vacant, identified by the U.S. Post Office as being vacant, and also did not have active water service at their properties. Um, from there, uh, we did get some responses. We did get some people registered. Uh, we went from 55 vacant property registrations to 247 vacant property registrations over that time. So 349% increase. Um, very happy about that. Uh, however, uh, you see about 200 of those got registered, probably most likely either from the press conference or the letters that they received. Uh, there was 400 that didn't respond. So then the next step of that was to. We sent our courtesy notice the requested we request that you get a vacant property registration. The violation notices you are required to get the violet. The property vacant or the vacant property registration and of those, those are getting to the point where they. We've given them the curing period where they still haven't responded. We have so far issued the $250 fine that comes along with not having the property registered as a vacant property. We've gotten 25 of those done. And we are, in the next coming weeks, there are going to be probably another 100 or 200, so getting sent out as we go. And we also are going to be expanding our parameters that we are using to send notices, again, with the courtesy notice and then the required notice and then fines. So, you know, so here I want to talk about, you know, building a better system of what we've been able to do as well as not just looking at the numbers, Reiterating we clarified the requirements in the timelines. A lot of people that maybe even knew about this. Didn't think it was ever going to be enforced or they thought that. What if I'm renting a property or what if I'm trying to rent a property? What if I'm trying to renovate the property? I thought there was some kind of waiver, but and there is a waiver. that but you need to be actively be renovating this property you have to actively have it listed listed for for for sale uh... and in reality where the cost of the vacant property registration is a hundred dollars which we lowered from two hundred dollars uh... the waiver then cuts that cost to fifty dollars however The waiver is only good for 90 days. So a lot of people didn't understand that. They thought that you could just come in and, I guess, lack of a better word, make up that they're trying to sell this property and it'll give them half off. But the reality is it's only half off for 90 days. So you have to pay another $50 after another 90 days. So really you end up paying $200 every year if you're going to try to. try to play a game with us and and instead of where where the real goal is that we want to have people fix up their properties renovate their properties give them back into use and uh... so again we've had a lots of conversations last opportunities to explain this to folks We also, on the technology side, we were able to stand up workflow system and design where we're able to track these properties, track our notices, generate notices, put in additional tasks and everything. And I want to thank ICT for being able to do that in the short amount of time that they've had. And we've got that so that is fully functional and it pulls It ties into all our data that we're able to track with City Works and then tied into Ptolemy. We did stand up a public-facing web page with frequently asked questions. We were able to, still some things need to be tweaked out, but you are allowed to, or you are able to register your vacant property registration online and you're able to pay online now. Still can be a little bit better because right now you have to register and then we have to review and then you have to wait for an email back to make the payment. But ICT is working on making it so that's the only time that would need to happen is if you're asking for a waiver, which would make it even more convenient for property owners. Again, we've been able to integrate this data into Ptolemy where we can run our queries. We're able to pull data. We're able to track uh again what our next set of properties are versus which ones that we have already sent notices to versus which ones have that active uh have the active registrations and so that's all been been able to be be completed and and keep us moving forward and getting some traction on this how did we make this work with the same amount of resources the same amount of inspectors the same staff First of all, we did make it a policy before the legislation was even passed in December that our inspectors, while before they could capture occupancy observations on properties, we made it a policy that is required for inspectors to document to the best of their ability, whether it's occupied, whether it appears vacant, or if they just couldn't tell then we know but that way we have field inspections that are confirming that this property is vacant and then combined with the other data our administrative team our specialists and our clerks are able to use that data to identify what properties need to get the educational courtesy notice and then and then follow up through the timeline of going to the required, to going to the fines. And essentially, this is improved efficiency. It's increased owner education. It's scalable citywide. The process is clear. And again, it's... given us an opportunity to communicate with the owners, where I did forget, we do have our specialists and our clerks, where if we have a property that also has code compliance violations, now that we have that contact information, we put that into... We put that to work. Now we have the contacts, so our clerks and our specialists are calling these owners, trying to get them on the phone, emailing them, letting them know that they have these open orders that need to be complied with and get the rental. Well, if we had the contact and we had the rental. There were some that started the process, the registration, but they never paid. So we then had contact information. So there were some cases where We found, you know, we were able to have them get the property cleaned up. We were able to go out and comply so there are no code violations on these properties. And then we were also able to get them to actually pay their rental registration or their vacant property registration. So, so far I consider this, very big success and brings us into the next slide is where how is this going to impact our neighborhoods? It's stronger neighborhoods, safer streets, a better quality of life for all. It builds stronger neighborhoods. It gives us a way to be proactive as much as possible by having this info and having relationship is what i'm calling it with property owners they might not like us but at least we're able to communicate and tell them what what they need to do in fact they get these properties in compliance it does increase property values and investment in the city of toledo and improves quality of life for all the people that are around these vacant properties um It gives us the ability to be more responsive when there are complaints on properties and get a hold of these people. And then all at the same time, it is fair to the property owners that live around these properties. And it's also fair where we try to explain how it's fair to the people that own the vacant properties of how that does cause stress and risk in our neighborhoods. Just so kind of trying to this display this graphic here. I just wanted to show how rental registration lead safe and the vacant property registrations all complement each other trying to bring it all back together with Monica's. every time she talks about that i start getting what uh... what's the word we'd be here when i read it i think that this this is the last half is so important it is it is about children and and but that's where uh... idea i think it gets me off it is obviously just threw me off a little bit again but this is where i guess what i mean i see here with uh... let's the vacant property registration the let's say program in the rental registration they all complement each other at their companion programs Almost like the three sisters. Have you guys ever heard the three sisters where you have the corn and you have the beans and you have the squash? So the corn grows and that provides a spot for the beans to grow. They can grow up the corn stalk and then the squash grows and that provides shade basically so nothing else can grow so it doesn't have as many weeds that grow behind. And then the beans would pull in the phosphorus and they fertilize, they bring nutrients into the soil And they're called the three sisters. Yes. So the rental registration, vacant property registration, and lead safe program is the three sisters of our department. But the idea being that we have our vacant property registration We get people registered, we have responsibility and accountability. The idea is that we're encouraging people to not make them vacant anymore, or else you gotta pay this, you don't like paying the 100 bucks, repair and rehabilitate this property. Once you get it rehabilitated, then you need a rental registration. So we also have the contact info and you have the accountability. Then you also need to get your lead safe compliance. Therefore, now we have occupied safe housing. And again, we have neighborhood stability. uh... so that's a i don't know i i just like the whole concept of how that all plays itself out not to get too deep on rental registration because we are we are actively sending notices for these uh... but we at this point are we were focusing on the vacant property registration uh... but uh... but the rental registration also is going to be a very useful tool because we are allowed to where the rental registration as of now is required to be registered with the county auditor's office. The county auditor's office can issue fines for people not having the rental registration, but for some reason or another, there's only like 55 properties in the whole county that got charged a fee for not having the rental registration. Rental registration ordinance does has if you don't if you don't get the registration on file with the county auditor's office we can issue fines for that and hopefully that'll get more people to get the rental registration and and more everything that we said and then that can then be um help us complement where we have the the relationship the communication with the property with the the housing providers that have these rentals properties and and continue to convince them the importance of the of the lead safe toledo ordinances Again, the future is now. We're building stronger systems, building safer homes, better neighborhoods. And so if there is anybody listening out there that has a vacant property, please get it registered. We do have a QR code. Again, it's also on our website. You can pay it all online, and there's contact information if you have questions about it. And I was debating whether I should do this, but I'm... I did write a little poem. But I'm gonna go ahead, I'm gonna do it. So, if you own a home that's empty and it's sitting there unused, the city has a message and we hope it's clearly understood. Vacant homes affect neighborhoods from safety to repair, so Toledo has a law in place to make sure owners care. register it, secure it, keep it safe and sound, or make a plan to fix it up and bring it back around. And in the spirit of partnership, we've cut the registration fee in half, a good faith step to make safe neighborhoods our shared and common path. This isn't about punishment, it's about accountability, knowing who's responsible protects the whole community. We'll work with owners who engage, who show effort, plans, and care, but when properties are left unchecked, enforcement will be there. That means permits pulled, a plan in place, a path back into use, repair it, sell it, reoccupy, but ignoring it is no excuse. Today, Toledo has hundreds of homes. Neighbors feel the toll. Vacant houses left unchecked affect safety, health, and home. So here's the bottom line today. No confusion, no delay. If your property is vacant, register it or enforcement is on the way.

I feel that that should be a commercial or a TikTok. Chief Clements, you know, we might as well get this marketing together right now because we can do that.

Right, right, right.

And I love the story of three sisters, which brings companion planting and things like that. So that perfectly makes sense. And I appreciate both of you for just being here and giving us this update. It seems to be amazing progress and hoping that it is continuing as you're working through these phases. But I'm seeing that it seems to be on a good track right now. so we're going to take questions um anyone from the audience if you want to have a comment or have questions there is a sign up sheet but we will go with council member gaddis thanks chair and thank you for your presentations i i love that poem um we should do a video on my social media together jim

um i i'm so excited about the changes that you guys are bringing to our neighborhoods and it's happening as i'm out driving i'm seeing things as i'm talking to people they're excited too what you're doing is really changing lives and making people that have um felt forgotten feel heard and valued and i know that you put in a lot of work and you always hear the complaints, but I do hear that, you know, people are, they're excited for the changes. So please don't lose hope in those long days. My question for the lead is, in my district, you know, the deadline is this year, and so we are seeing people working on stuff or hiring staff. And I've heard that maybe they don't know what they're doing and the landlords or whomever have hired them don't know that they have to look for someone that's certified to make those changes as well. So a lot of mistakes are being made where maybe there's lead paint chips going into the ground, and we know that that could affect, if anyone started a garden, that would affect the food. What are we doing to combat that and to get that education out into those people that, hey, you really need to have someone that's certified, and hey, if you're a contractor, let's get you certified. How are we kind of breaching that

That's a great question. So one of the things we do is we do intentional outreach. We recognize that there are some people who aren't familiar with the process or aren't familiar with the fact that the person who's doing the work needs to be certified through the Ohio Department of Health or through the EPA. And so when we offer different oftentimes we'll do a landlord, last year we did a landlord education fair. And at that fair, that's when we really take the time to dig deep into, okay, these are the things you have to do. We're there to answer all of those questions. We have vendor tables there just in case people have questions of other agencies. The other thing we do is we work closely with the health department. And so if it is a situation, you spoke to chipped and peeling paint on the ground, right? Which causes a huge issue, not just for the soil, but also for the children. Because what happens is if there's bare soil around the drip line of a property, the chipped paint falls on that bare soil. And if kids are out there and they're playing, sometimes they'll see that paint and they'll pick it up. Even if they don't put the paint in their mouth, after they pick it up, they could then not wash their hands and put their fingers in their mouth, right? It's that simple to get lead poisoned. And so another thing we do is... We like to have sessions with tenants. So whether we are attending other agencies' outreach events to have a table and educate people, whether we are putting together our own outreach events to provide that education for people, We try to make sure that that information is getting out there. And I can say anything that is going on in your district area that you want us to be at, definitely reach out, let me know. We do, we want to make sure that we are getting this information out there. Hopefully this year we'll be able to do some radio and maybe some news spots so that we can share that information. I know we're definitely going to do some social media because we do. We want to make sure that that's out there. And then the other thing we have coming up is the homeownership fair. And so there will be the Toledo-led resource center will be there. They'll have a lot of literature there. uh the health department will be there same for them they'll have a lot of literature that way if people are interested in learning more about lead they'll be able to learn okay thank you so much thank you chair thank you next up is councilwoman kramer

Thank you so much, Chair, and thank you so much for this report. This is all new to me, so I really appreciate the comprehensive information that you both presented here. I also really like the palms. Very nice, and the lesson that we got about agriculture today is like a bonus. I see that you've already sent out, this question is for you Monica, 3,736 letters of violation. Are people able to get that information in any other way other than like a physical letter? I know we're probably limited by the information we have about folks, but is there any way we could text or email or anything like that to reach people in a different way?

Well, that's a good question. What I can say is, so that specific notice isn't posted on the Toledo Lead Safe website, but the information is on the Toledo Lead Safe website. We actually just met with communications today to see how we can kind of blast information out better. And so that's something that we're definitely working on. So currently the notice of violations strictly go to the property. Okay. And the reason being is in order to move further with an affidavit, a referral to housing court, we would have to show that we have completed service, that service is good, meaning that they received that letter and they've been notified. And so we have to have a letter go to that property.

Okay.

If that helps. Yes.

Yeah, that does help. Okay. So when we do send the letters, like, hey, you have to go to housing court, what's the percentage of folks that actually show up? Do we have any idea of that or like?

No, because we haven't gotten that far yet. Sure. Right. So remember, we sent those notice of violation letters. Now what we'll do is we will check to see if anyone else has complied prior to referring them to housing court. So once we hit, let's say, June 18th, right, we'll then run a report, see who is still not compliant, and then we'll randomly select the first 200 and we'll refer those individuals to housing court. If by chance we refer them to housing court and let's say Toledo Municipal Court sets a date for them, they go to court, If they did comply before that they can either reach out to us to let us know and we can see if we can remove them from the docket or they would just then let let the judge know that you know I've since done the work I've obtained my let's say certificate.

Okay and thank you so much for all you do. I like how you talked about that children don't choose where they live because that's so important you know and a lot of the work that we all do is to keep you know our residents safe and especially those most vulnerable safe so thank you to both of you.

You're welcome.

All right we have President Williams. Thank you for the presentation. I know we've been talking about it for a long time but I want to Definitely children don't enjoy living in poverty either. A question about Ptolemy. How long is our Ptolemy contract? Is it year to year?

We have just renewed for the third year. We have two more years after that.

Okay. And we have to renew it every year? Correct. Okay. And then after that, do we know what we're going to do? I'm thinking about the future because it's such a good tool that I don't want to slip on it.

so no i i don't know okay yeah i i hope i hope that the city decides to renew it for another five years okay okay that would that would if i if i have a vote which i don't but i i yeah i would say go ahead and renew it and not only that i would say expand it to their slate add-on which has a rental registration Which has a short term rental registration. Right. That is foreclosure prone. There's lots of other opportunities that we haven't even tapped into.

Yeah, and that was something that I was actually, that was leading into it. Because I know we have that situation where we had a Secretary of State where we gotta go on and find the LOC that sold it to the LOC, just sold it to the LOC. Do we know yet, does Tullamy have that option yet?

Right now it doesn't have a way to get into the Secretary of State websites. Okay. But it does have where it has an algorithm where it can tie the LLCs together based on the location of the mailing address and then- Statutory agent maybe?

Well, the statutory agent has the same address then. Right, right, right.

Yeah, okay. So yeah, if there's the clearing house in Akron that has 300 properties, it ties them all to that. that clearing house and we're able to basically come back and say yes you're connected most likely you're connected to all these properties still if we are going to try to legally enforce it and charge people with these things we have to do we do have to do our due diligence and those extra steps um but it also has come in very handy And I don't want to get too deep to this whole other topic, conversation topic, but let's say we do, because we also stood up a vetting, like if properties have open violations on them, it is illegal to sell a property that has open violations on them. And so we've been able to get a lot of traction with it. especially with our local title companies that are enforcing that and checking with us, and if property has open violations, the buyer can then submit a vetting application to us, where then we do show, the buyer has to show that they know what the violations are, that they have a timeline to bring the property into compliance, and they have the financial means to bring that property into compliance within that timeline. In addition to that, when that buyer comes, we're able to check, very quickly compared to times in the past you see that they own another 25 properties and oh my goodness they have five of them that have open code violations so we're able to tell that buyer that you need to bring your other properties into compliance before we're going to approve and provide a consent to transfer to for you to take more properties because you already And the logic is you already are struggling to take care of the properties that you own. Maybe it's not a good idea that you buy any more right now until you can get those other properties in compliance. And that has been very effective.

Right, right. And definitely I think that I wanted to talk about telling me because actually it was on our budget chopping block this year and we refused to chop it off. Don't put it back on there next year, because we need it. We need to actually keep with this enforcement. And we need to look at that expanding that option. We talked about this years ago. Is the auditor's office or the recorder's office, anybody in the county office that's dealing with our properties, are they working with you in regards to these property changes and with the co-opening? Because we have this option, because I don't think they have. You was telling me over there.

The treasurer's office has been able to use it, so we've been able to give them access, and they use it every day, they tell me. On our dime? What's that? On our dime?

Yes. Okay, yep, so then here we go.

Yep, now there is a conversation that, because they did ask, well, can we get it for the whole county? And that's where we suggested that they that they will need to become their own subscribers in order to expand it to the whole county. So there are conversations of creating a partnership and getting them on board. For sure. And I actually have a meeting with somebody from the auditor's office tomorrow to give them the overview and give them a demonstration of what kind of tools might be available to them. And so we're moving in a We're getting momentum and we're moving in the right direction to get them in as partners on this.

So tie this back to the lead, are the lead certificates on there? I mean, I know you have the code, open code violations up there. Is that one of them, the lead is one of them, or are we adding that on there?

As far as a consent to transfer?

Well, not that, just like if, say for instance, yeah, for sure, like if there's an open lead, like if they're in the middle of getting their certificate or they have a violation for the lead, is that in there?

Right now, what Tony shows is if they have a lead certificate and is it a rental. Okay. We don't have a line that says they are in violation of not having a lead certificate. It does have properties that have been identified by the health department, I believe. Okay. That have been identified as lead hazards. So that is there as well. Okay. Yes?

Well, I really just wanted to dig in and told me a little bit more just so that we can always keep highlighting how code compliance is actually using this tool and just how much Jim loved it. I don't know. I didn't know Jim was so. Where is Jim at? What is this?

Put it down here. I don't know what's going on with it.

Thank you. Thank you, both of you. And I just really wanted to talk about totally me for sure, because this is an important tool that we use and it can help with a whole gambit of things across the county and the city. Thank you.

you thank you I would add to that if they're thinking of getting told me why don't they just share the cost because basically they're gonna duplicate what we have and expand it across the county so we can just share that cost and they can add what they need to add so I know that you have a meeting soon but don't give away all the secrets we're going to councilwoman McPherson

Thank you. I just want to say thank you for your report on the lead safe ordinance update and keeping it up front because I think a lot of times we talk about things for a little while and then it kind of, and people think that, oh yeah now we don't have that anymore yes we still do and our children that are attending our schools are still dealing with the effects of lead so it is no way near far gone and we have to stay on top of that um mr jim for you um yeah let's let's take this show on the road with the poem Remember, you were just, when we did the first press conference, I said, you know, we told them we're going to come after you, so you just reiterated that in the poem. So if we could, by way of referral, get a copy of that poem. And then on another note, because, and I'm doing this on the record, because we were put on the news last night about Chase Street and the issues over there. And I want it to be known that we have received it, we have responded to it, and we are working on that issue. Correct, Mr. Jim?

I'd say correct. And we have been working on Chase Street extensively for several years. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I want to say we've had inspectors there over the last five years. I've had 174 times our inspectors have been there. Out of 38 properties, 38 have had code compliance cases on them. I want to say the number was 123 work orders have been performed on this block of Chase. And so it's not that this property is being neglected, This block is a continuous challenge. So we continue to try to use all the tools that we have to hold the bad actors that own those properties on that street accountable. Thank you. Yes.

I wanted that for the record to say because we do our inner actions and emails, but I wanted it publicly stated because it has been out there and it sometimes seems like we're not doing what we need to do, but we have been and it just didn't start. and this is one of the where we have owners that need to register and comply and we are coming after you chase owners let's say that for the record also because this is the prime example of a neighborhood that gets a bad rap because of owners who are not taking care of their property on a regular basis and the other owners within that neighborhood that try to help and assist and do a little bit of this. And you saw the man talking about he was cutting grass for a while, but you got owners that are just totally negligent. in these properties and it is a bad look for the whole community then it becomes a bad look for the city and it becomes a bad look for us like we're not doing what we supposed to do so that's why i am bringing to the forefront here that it just didn't start that it has been going on for a while we are doing what we need to do but homeowners over there on chase you know those houses that we're talking about Please help us help your neighbors and come out there and cut that grass and get that trash out of there. Thank you. Thank you, Jim, for what you do. I really appreciate you. You have the heart for the people and for the work, and that's what I really appreciate. Thank you.

Thank you, and yes, I would second the referral for the poem, please. Well, this was actually a question for both of you. As far as your metrics are concerned, were these the only metrics that you have currently, or this was like an abbreviated, in the presentation, or was this an abbreviated list, per se?

As far as the vacant property registration, yeah, this was definitely, I would say it's abbreviated, but I wasn't sure what council was interested in. How much information, okay.

I mean, I would be interested in seeing more. Is it the same for you, Monica?

I would say there's probably a little more. I would say it's abbreviated, but this is quite a bit of what we have so far.

Oh, yeah, I would be interested in seeing the other metrics. I'll put in a referral. But, yeah, this is definitely a lot, especially for the lead aspect of that. And then also some of the questions that I had were already answered, but I just wanted to, for clarification, when it came to... the technology you were talking about. So that is for landlords, property owners, potential homeowners, potential tenants, everybody can have access.

So what we are, what the LeadSafe portal is designed to do is take the applications for LeadSafe certificate, for the LeadSafe certificates. And so it would be primarily the property owners. So either the property owners as well as some of the local lead inspectors, oftentimes they will complete the application once they're hired. They'll complete the application for the homeowner, and so it would be primarily for those two.

Okay, the reason why I ask is that will be the follow-up of will realtors have access to this as they're selling the homes and things of that nature? Because I've heard a story where actually during our rental a town hall or tenant town hall that one of the the realtors she had sold a house and it was full of lead yeah and so with that aspect if this information is available for them i think that that will definitely be useful um also to ensure just the homeowner side yes I know a lot it has been focused on rental but you know definitely the homeowner side if that's where we're trying to go as a city to this will definitely help as far as the information is concerned and I'm sorry to that just really quickly one of the things that the Toledo lead poisoning prevention coalition is

has been working on they have been working with fair housing as well as the Health Department because one of my suggestions was to create well was to put in place something so that the if there is lead hazard orders on a property it is attached to the title of that property that way prior to it being sold that potential new owner would know that okay wait a minute there are issues here right and so one of the things I've had an opportunity to visit the realtors and to talk to several realtors and one of the things I always encourage them to do is visit the lead safe website because on that website we have a link to the Ohio Department of Health website, which lists all of the placard properties in Lucas County. That way they can see that, okay, wait a minute, there are issues here. That's also something that I... I share with people when I get phone calls or when people tell me, oh, I'm looking for a property, I always encourage them, make sure you do your due diligence prior to buying that property. But what I've learned since looking at that issue is that oftentimes it's a quick sale or a cash deal. And so instead of doing a title search on the property, people just purchase it because sometimes they just think, oh, it's a really good price. But the part that they don't understand is that they then inherit that placard because the placard stays with the property. It doesn't go with the owner. And so even if you buy that property and it's placard, you're still required to hire a lead abatement contractor. and have that work done and have that property cleared. And so just know that's definitely something that's on our radar. It's something that we have been working on for a really long time. Um, and we are hopeful that, uh, we will be able to partner with the health department and with the recorder's office so that, that the placard properties can be recorded.

Yeah, well that's definitely good to know. Like I said, because that's part of the priority is home ownership as well as just having safe affordable housing in general. I guess the next question would be more of the financial aspect of it. I know that we're in the process of sending people to court. um issuing the fines do you have like an idea of how much could possibly be collected because i know with lead it could depend on the extent of it but i know straightforward you're automatically like the 250 the 500 and things like that so do we have like an idea of

potential fines that could be collected with so in regards to fines all of that will be determined by the housing court judge right because now the Non-compliance of the lead ordinance carries a criminal penalty and so that's going to totally be up to the judge and I'm sure that there's some information in the Toledo Municipal Code that that says how much is a fine can be, but at the end of the day, that decision will be made by Judge Howe.

Okay. I'm just curious. Commissioner, do you have any idea? But you're a total estimation.

No, no, I don't know. I believe part of the reasoning that I think that was part of where we went back and forth so many times with the legislation in order to get it passed, we weren't able to write the civil fine into the ordinance. I know I wasn't here until the very end that it was passed, but that's my understanding that at that point, that's where The fine itself, are they misdemeanor ones?

It's a misdemeanor one.

So the misdemeanor one, the max fine that you can charge for a misdemeanor one is $1,000.

okay okay well maybe we can revisit that in a little bit um considering that we're talking about i know a housing trust fund and and all of that nature and just trying to see how what resources and revenue sources are potentially out there especially if we're talking about taking care of the housing well investing in the potential of housing could come from code violations and also just housing court costs and things of that nature so i was just curious but looking forward to the other update as well other than that i don't see any more questions from council we would have questions or comments from the audience okay well seeing none this committee meeting is adjourned thank you thank you

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, thank you. . . .

Thank you.