City Council - Regular Meeting

So we need to put the requisite

All right. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to round three I guess for this uh uh city of Akran's uh operating budget hearings. Um we have another full schedule today. Um again my reminder to the council members to when it comes to questions to keep it uh pertaining to the budget instead of you know more or less a program related uh question we can always entertain those at uh different committee meetings throughout the the month. So again full schedule and we are going to start off with the office of integrated development I believe. So Mr. Mike Wheeler you can take it from there and then do the introductions.

So thank you. Thank you. As we start our third and final day today, uh we have here with us uh the Office of Integrated Development, Economic Development, led by Susie Graham Moore and Shawn Vilman. For reference, the numbers that reference the budget begin on page 162 and in the goals and objectives document, it begins on page 32. I'll hand it off to them.

Good afternoon. Thank you, President Somerville, Chairman Lombardo, and Vice Chair Mobian, as well as members of committee and council. The Office of Economic Development complements planning department initiatives within the Office of Integrated Development, and the activities of economic development are largely peoplepowered and certainly a team effort across business retention, expansion, and attraction, development, engineering, development services, and downtown operations, which includes the operation and management of lock 3. Our focus is fostering economic growth and opportunity, retaining, expanding and attracting businesses and expanding our tax base, fostering entrepreneurship, strengthening neighborhood business districts, and improving the quality of life for Akran's residents. The economic development team supports the spectrum of business from micro entrepreneurship to mature businesses through a combination of city programming and capacity that is outsourced to a network of community partners who deliver programs and direct assistance to business owners. In 2026, we intend to connect individually with more than 250 businesses. The department is an active participate participant in elevate greater Akran which is a cross- sector collaboration between local regional and state organizations to drive prosperity in Akran and the greater Akran region through which we intend to reach over 200 of those 250 anticipated businesses. In the year of 2025, the Elevate Greater Akran Collaborative reached 288 businesses, 102 of which were with MBE and WBE businesses and closed 16 projects bringing 263 new jobs to the region with $50 million in capital investment and 200 I'm sorry and $29.8 million in new payroll. In 2025, the department strengthened our tracking

efforts with respect to site selection work, conducting 97 total site searches. We will continue to track and report on site search activity in 2026 as well. Our business retention, expansion, and attraction work also allows us to maximize staff and city resources to grow Akran's income tax base through the deployment of economic development grants and incentives to attract investment and grow jobs and opportunity in the city of Akran. These efforts are quantified through development agreements established in concert with council approval as they are created. In 2025, city resources contributed to leveraging approximately $4 million in investment and 250 jobs as well as $10 million in new payroll into the city of Akran alone. 2026 is off to an excellent start with the attraction of Buckingham back to Akran and the growth of Millennium Capital bringing an estimated 190 jobs into the city in our first three months of the year. We look forward to a strong year of BRE activity in the year ahead. Economic development shares city resources to maximize economic impacts across a series of partnerships with assistance business assistance organizations and in partnership with business leaders. In 2026, we've budgeted $495,000 of support through small businesses, through small business assistance providers like the Akran Urban League, Summit Madina Business Association, Bounce Innovation Hub, Greater Akran Chamber, and the Black Chamber of Summit County, among others. The city will also support the startup of the Highland Square Special Improvement District, multiplying city investment in concert with that of property owners to improve public safety and public space in Highland Square, as well as the second of three years of support to the Downtown Akran Development Corporation. In 2025, the Downtown Akran Development Corp. launched a matching grant program to encourage downtown building

improvements through a business development grant using part of a $1.5 million grant from Knight Foundation in 2026. That grant has already supported four downtown businesses leveraging $2.3 million in investment, and we look forward to a new year of additional grant programs in 2026. We appreciate council's support of the zoning change allowing for more dynamic signage in our downtown uh businesses and look forward to that grant supporting additional signage in downtown as well. In 2026, we will continue downtown development work, supporting stabilizing challenging downtown properties, combating commercial vacancy, and investing in residential reuse and hospitality to drive a thriving corridor that yields a significant portion of the city's income and bed tax within a three- street district. We're thrilled to continue working on residential development at 123 barges, the city center, and the Akran Beacon Journal developments as we work towards a goal of 5,000 residents by 2030 in downtown as well as continuing to work alongside the Quaker redevelopment group on the development of historic Quaker Square. 2026 economic development work also includes city support of the important renovation and main street reopening of the University of Akran's PSKI building with a 1 million total commitment divided over a 4-year period. I would be remiss if I did not mention ongoing committed city investment in the polymer industry cluster. The city of Akran's pledge to invest $750,000 over four years has attracted not only our designation as the United States sustainable polymers tech hub and the state polymer innovation hub, but also over 100 million in funding. In 2025, the launch of the synthesis accelerator at Bounce helped to usher in $1.9 million in research and development

grants awarded across 13 innovation projects to advance biodegradable packaging, biommanufacturing, recycling, and advanced materials, positioning the region for future growth across multiple industry sectors in polymers. In 2026, we look forward to an announcement on our competitive position in the pursuit of National Science Foundation NSF Engines funding for the region and the development of the $25 million polymer pilot facility on the campus of the University of Akran in 2026. We also look forward to continuing to grow our partnerships within the small business ecosystem and continuing investment in our neighborhood business districts through the great streets program. In 2025, we announced the ward of the award of $165,000 in microenterprise business improvement grants and $229,785 in matching building improvement grants to make improvements to 14 properties and assist 40 entrepreneurs. In 2026, we will deploy and manage those awards, and anticipating the award of additional CDBG funds, design another round of support for Great Streets businesses. 2026, CDBG support for this program is reflected in planning's budget. In 2025, the development services and engineering team supported the county application and receipt of $1.2 $2 million in brownfield remediation funds and will support the 2026 effort to both in inventory sites for re remediation and deploy those funds. In 2025, matching city funds supported the demolition of the Kenmore annex, the former Ranken and Goodrich school buildings. The 2026 budget reflects $500,000 of matching funds for anticipated demolition work, including the to be determined plans for 1200 Firestone. We are working with both

urban design and historic preservation committee, I'm sorry, commission as well as the state historic preservation office in tandem with the Summit County Land Bank and Ohio Department of Development to reach consensus on a path forward and will keep both council and the community apprised of those developments. The economic development budget also includes ongoing support of the early learning program led by Michelle Wardell, education and health strategist. Quality child care is a critical component in economic development as it supports the talented workforce who rely on it as well as supporting entrepreneurship within the provider network and supporting the readiness of our future workforce. Finally, in 2025, excuse me, uh, with input from more than 3,000 community members, we are excited to have expanded our musical programming range in LO 3 and raised $248,000 in philanthropic summer programming support, as well as hosting more than 200,000 visitors through the newly renovated LO 3. In 2026, the Lock 3 team looks forward to an ambitious year, inviting more than 250,000 annual visitors to downtown through 110 events at Lock 3, including 13 national acts. We're grateful for the trust of council allowing for sufficient budget in 2025 for us to test and learn from programming national acts. And based on that experience and learning, we feel confident in reducing our summer program budget by 34% through earned revenue sponsorships. We are also proud of our new entrepreneurial partnerships established with Elean Evelyn's Coffee and Bonme, the Breakfast Box, and Millionaire Express in Lock 3 and the municipal building, respectively. Those partnerships not only provide opportunities for small businesses through city-owned spaces, but also help us to reduce staffing costs at Lock 3 by about $39,000.

We've been thrilled with a positive response to the release of National Acts booked to date and look forward to more good news on April 15th with the release of the full schedule at Lock 3. I'd like to take a moment to thank the members of the economic development team for their efforts in 2025 and their op optimism and passion for improving service delivery initiatives and programs in 2026. We'll be happy to answer any questions that you have. Thank you very much. Um I have one question um regarding the uh you know you talked about great streets and uh the other grants for small businesses and the facade grants. So, uh, what page would I find that type of, you know, expense for last year and then what we're planning on for 2026?

Sure. Or or is that maybe I should wait for this for Sean?

No, that's that's that's great. Um if you look at page 168 um of the of the budget book the um the other under other expenses that is the grant funding that we do from JED um the CDB the great streets program has traditionally been um supported by CDBG so that is not in in this packet on our pages but that's part of planning's um allocation so Right. So, the great streets are going to be on page 74. So, uh there's one page page 74 basically includes all of the uh contractual type things funded by CDBG. Uh so there's a large it's a basically a $4.9 million number and the great streets are included in that number and the great street amount is 400,000 plus I believe there's another 100,000 or so down in

this is for 2026. Yeah. So it's 500,000 total that is on page 74 for 2026 and the uh facade grants or includes that's included in that includes okay um so I mean that's great what we're doing with great streets is there any other um opportunities for businesses that are you know I hear it all the time and I'm sure other council members do that we're just two doors down from the from the line, you know. So,

yes, absolutely. Uh so, Great Streets has allowed us to make investments where we feel like we can multiply that investment because of a few things. One, in a great streets district, you have proximity to an adjacent business, which is going to allow for potential stronger sustainability of the businesses. You're also improving walkability, safety, and socialability. So that's why we make like a if you want to think of it as a sort of a separate investment in the grade streets or a yes and investment in grade streets. However, the investment that I talked about with that 400 about $495,000 that goes into business support assistance providers, that's where we are supporting all uh smaller businesses throughout the city of Akran. And it's a way that we can u sort of multiply our capacity within economic development. We have a super team but we have like a a super it's a small and mighty team. Um and this helps us also tap into the expertise of some of those assistance provider organizations like the summit Madina Business Association, the Akran Urban League, um the Greater Akran Chamber and they also help to provide some um you know direct support that goes to small businesses throughout the city of Akran.

So what's our number? We have like about 500,000 for great streets. What's our number for the uh other business assistance providers? 495,000. So, we try and keep them all very similar. Okay. Um and then when it comes to uh you know, we helped a lot of Main Street businesses here with whether you're talking about COVID or, you know, the other construction going on, things like that. So, do we have any of that type of assistance for the other part of Main Street that's happening right now? Co assistance? No, not necessarily co that was just an example how we help businesses in downtown. I see.

But now that we have Main Street going on to the north of us, do we have any of uh anything budgeted for those businesses? We do not have a a direct budget created to support the businesses in the north the north main street project

and some of it is great streets. So correct. So there is some overlap there. Um but it's not specifically construction related. Um I do believe that without the impacts of CO it's not quite as similar. I mean it's a similar circumstance. Um and I certainly take very seriously the impact of construction on any business. Um and it's it's a slightly different circumstance. I believe that we did get some uh COVID support to be able to deploy those grants uh on Main Street as well. That was the cares the cares act I think. Is that the first one? There's ARPA. ARPA. What was before? ARPA.

CARES. I think that and that was when I was moving over from the law department at that time. But I think that those direct assistance u payments to the businesses on North Main were from the CARES funding. Okay. Thank you. I'm going here to Councilwoman Linda Moian. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, and thank you for your presentation. Um, talk to me about lock three because I I remember talking with you after I attended one concert. I felt I was in New York or some big city somewhere. It was just really nice to be there and just the atmosphere was fantastic. Talk to me about how that's reflected in the the numbers. Where would I find that? What are we

on what page?

How are we capturing what we'll do with that or log three? So, the the budget pages 170 for lock 3's budget. I don't uh for those of you who remember, we came to council last year and we asked for a an unusually high budget to allow us to um if it's fair to say experiment in bringing in some of those national acts and essentially test if we would be able to host audiences like that in lock 3. And I'm happy to say that with uh Chris Griffith's leadership, who's the downtown operations manager, we were able to successfully host some amazing events at Lock 3 last year. Um we also learned that we were able to do some fundraising to offset that and be able to test a revenue model and work with the Akran Civic Theater to line up a a new lineup of talent for 2026. Um we feel confident in being able to reduce that budget that we asked for last year significantly. Um, and we feel that we'll be able to manage similar experiences, although we are investing in line management. Uh, for those of you who attended some of those bigger shows, we're trying to figure out how we can uh get folks into the door in a smoother operation, a faster moving line, um, and more coordinated security efforts, but uh, to be able to execute similar experience with a a slightly reduced budget.

Can you tell me, Mr. Africa, what am I looking at in terms of revenue generated? So, what what has happened is that we don't really have as much revenue generation from the concerts itself. Uh because the civic uh is kind of putting those together. Uh and they've actually had as as uh Susie said, they've had some sponsorship money that has reduced our costs for those concerts. So, we still do get some revenues from like the skate rentals and uh some of that type of activity down for like the Winterfest. Uh but the concerts are really are they're managed by the Civic.

So, the 250 that you're anticipating for 2026 includes all the activities that are going on down there. 250 in terms of Oh, 250,000 people. Yeah, I said 256. Yeah. No, no, you you've got it. Absolutely. I wasn't sure if we were talking dollars or people. No. No. Yes, the people and you know the ticket amount and I know we want to keep it at a nominal rate so that we can bring in folks from all walks of life downtown. What are we charging like $10, 15, 20? How much is it? I'm going to let

So, it's a it is a it diff it differs depending on the act. So, our national acts for example, we're able to sell reserve seating as well as the lawn. And so in those efforts, hosting those very large acts, the ones that were just released, um the cost of doing that is significant. And so that is offset both by some of those sponsorships, but then also the ticketed cost as well, which can range, um I think reserved seating starts around 75 per ticket, uh can go to like about 40 in the lawn, and then for uh some of the other concerts, it's absolutely free. So, we're trying to provide a range of different experiences uh to meet the needs and desires of all of Akran.

So, we're hoping that it will break even in terms of we're not spending a whole lot of money on it. We're creating opportunities citizens come down, right? We're kind of paying the civic on a net basis. So, basically, right, so before some of the revenue was coming in directly to the city, uh and then the civic had a cost for whatever they were doing. Now, you know, they're collecting the revenue, but that kind of offsets what we have to pay them. Okay? You know, thank you. I had another question. I can't think of it now. Go ahead. Um, any other questions? Uh, you do, uh, Councilman Fesco.

Thank you. Um, excuse me. Back to page 170. I reckon the, uh, so, and perhaps you explain some of that, but what we're seeing is 2.2 2 was budgeted last year. 1.3 was spent under uh service contracts and I assume that's for the axe I'm guessing perhaps. But now we're coming in at 1.8. So I'm just curious a little bit more detail on that I guess.

Sure. As far as service contracts, so that is that is the contract with the civic that manages the talent. So the talent is part of that. So is uh our partnership with Rubber City Radio. So marketing is part of that. Security is part of that. our contract with Woodsies is also part of that. So, all of those things are built into that number. Um, and this, yes, we just feel like we can uh reduce the overall amount. We do want to make sure that there's enough in the budget for us to be able to host the shows every year. It's a there's a there's a we're asking for a little bit of wiggle room with that budget. Um, but we feel like we don't need quite as much wiggle room as we asked for last year.

Okay. Interesting. the um then and I have a slew of questions but I'll just ask one more on page 166 excuse me the debt service 2.1 on debt service um on page 166 y don't know what that's is that for all the improvements

so so that is uh the debt service on uh basically our HUD bonds uh and this year's is a little bit unusual in that there is a bond on the Bowery development that had a balloon payment that is coming due this year. Now, that is all paid by the developer, but that's why there's a large increase in that in that debt service amount. And so, that'll satisfy that, correct? Yep. Okay, cool. Good. Thank you, Councilman Stan Wilson. Thank you. Um, educate me. is are tax or tax abatements for corporations is that handled through your your department?

Uh so uh like a tax increment financing I think is oftentimes the way that we materialize a tax abatement. Um yes. So those are oftentimes negotiated through the development agreement that we would create with a uh either an existing business that might be doing a significant improvement to a property that they own or an incoming business that is doing the same. Okay. I think I'm interested in you know maybe this is outside of but I'm interested in knowing like the total amount abated for corporations in Akran. I don't know if that exists anywhere but I imagine that's convoluted but we don't have any numbers around that.

Yeah. And and I think the word abate is not 100% accurate. What it is, you know, and what we're referring to is the tiff. So, uh, the corporations are paying that property tax. It's just that in some of our agreements, uh, a portion of those proceeds is being returned back to them. I think that's what you're referring to. Thank you very much. Thank you, Susie. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm so sorry. Just one quick question. Thank you. See you. Go ahead, counsel. Who currently runs the Great Streets program?

It's an excellent question. So, we were able to bring in two new economic development specialists. Um Kirk Gardner is the first who just recently joined us about 45 days ago. And then Kandra Arnold just started on March 9th. And so, we have two new staff people in the Department of Economic Development. and they in tandem are working to reach out to the great streets and make connections with those businesses. I believe they're starting next week in Kenmore um because Kander has just come on and starting to make their way through the great streets businesses to introduce themselves and share their contact information and start start rebuilding relationships that have um struggled I think over the last year as we had some transitions in our staff positions.

Perfect. And it might be a good idea to have those two individuals come before council just so you know council has an opportunity to meet them and you know talk about their strategies moving forward. We would love to do that. Thank you. I didn't get the second name. I know Kurt. I didn't get the second person. Oh, Kendra Arnold. Candra Arnold. Okay. Thank you. Uh Councilwoman Tina Boyce. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um along the same lines, I noticed that there's a net increase of one employee in the department, but we currently haven't filled the development manager position and it is budgeted for. How are we looking on that

in the refilling and filling the development manager? So, we've not yet posted that position. Um, one of the things that we're doing across the office of integrated development is trying to figure out how do how are people's requests routed through both planning and economic development where they crisscross and then the appropriate places to have staffing in each. Um, so development service is probably the most shared department across both of those two, planning and economic development. So, we're really trying to map out where and when we need that management capacity and then waiting to determine where that should go. But we we believe that we need that position. We're just trying to understand where it should go.

I see. So, we're not sure if it will reside in your department or it will, but we're trying to figure out the cross functioning. It will. We're figuring out the cross functioning. One last question from Councilman Busco.

Yeah. Thanks. And I don't know if this is ne necessarily your answer um maybe more of a function of the finance but on page 33 what we're seeing is the number of tax returns filed in nacrine and it's been dipping a bit and curious about that. Um it went in 23 is 52,000 24 is 47,000 and in 25 it was 44,000. So, the number of tax returns filed is dipping. Um, just curious why that is. And is that a national trend or something? Ohio trend. I don't know. Just curious.

Just a page 33, Mr. Yeah. Uh, 33 is Yeah. So, so finance did not actually provide these numbers. So I would like to invest because does that mean I file an AANA tax return those filings that we're receiving? Yeah. And you know so there's individual tax returns and then there's corporate tax returns. Uh you know I'm assuming that is related to the corporate ones. Uh I don't believe that the number would be that residential. I don't know what Okay. I got you. Yeah, it's on 33. Just curious.

Um, okay. Thank you very much, Susie, for your department's work. Great job. Thanks so much. And now we have uh the office of integrated development for planning with Mr. Sean Bulman. No, no, no, that would that would not be Mr. Sean. We'll have Mr. Kyle Julian, I'm assuming. All right. You could stay though. planning.

So, as we transition, we welcome uh Kyle Julian, the director of planning. And the budget book numbers begin on page 67. And the goals and objectives, it begins on page 34. Good afternoon, President Somerville, Chair Lombardo, members of council. I am not Shawn Bulman, but I do thank you for the opportunity to discuss the work of the department of planning and urban development. The planning department comprises three divisions. Akran metropolitan area traffic study or AATS, the long range planning division and the zoning division. AATS is the metropolitan planning organization for Summit County and Portage County and a small piece of Wayne County and it's housed here at the city of Akran. Curtis Baker is the director there and Matt Stewart the transportation planning administrator is here with us today. Amats ensures that the Akran area has a continuing cooperative and comprehensive transportation planning process that is necessary to receive federal funds for transportation infrastructure projects in the region. The long range planning division headed by Helen Tomic is responsible for neighborhood and area planning processes, designing, budgeting, administering and monitoring programs funded through the department of housing and urban development and managing the capital investment program. And then the zoning division led by our brand new zoning manager Jim Hosbach uh administers the city zoning code and the subdivision of land within the city. and it also serves as the offices of the planning commission, the board of zoning appeals and the urban design and historic preservation commission. This year, Amats will continue to execute ple key planning initiatives and programs that enable the region to receive funding for transportation

infrastructure improvements. Uh will continue to develop its long range transportation plan for the region and update annual reports on crashes and traffic congestion, conditions of roadways, and other necessary studies. AMATS provides critical data and reports reports on traffic in the region including reports on traffic volume, signal inventories as well as other studies. AMATS will continue to manage a portfolio of projects receiving federal funds through the agency. This includes approximately 70 projects across the planning area, receiving $14 million in federal transportation funds and $6 million in state funds. Last year, the planning department worked on a number of key initiatives aimed at strengthening our city, making it more attractive for investment and enhancing the quality of life for residents. These include completion of the Interbelt master plan, a long-range plan for reconnecting westside neighborhoods to the city core, and creating opportunities for neighborhood revitalization, housing, and economic development, and he healing and repair. The plan will be presented to the planning commission at its April meeting before bringing it here to council for adoption. Um this year we will be working on several implementation strategies from the plan including updating the zoning for the areas around the interbell to align with the planning goals, beautifification of the decommission portion of the highway, facilitating infill housing development on vacant land in the area, and laying the groundwork for additional decommissioning. Planning engaged with a number of developers to advance key projects in the city, resulting in legislation that was recently passed here, supporting investments in adaptive reuse projects downtown at 123 West Barges Street and the Akran Beacon Journal Building on Exchange projects that will eliminate blight, provide both affordable and market rate housing downtown, and contribute to downtown's continued resurgence. The department in invested in wintergreen ledges which is nearing completion and will provide 120 units of

affordable housing on Vern and Odm Boulevard and with 20 of those uh units reserved for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Uh we worked with a local developer to support acquisition improvements to an underperforming midsize apartment building in Northwest Akran, facilitating reinvestment to address deferred maintenance and return, excuse me, retain affordable housing in that neighborhood. And from that experience, we're working with some other community partners to establish an ongoing program to support reinvestment in our existing housing stock. And there is an opportunity there to leverage our federal funding with outside sources to increase the impact in this area. And we're also working on programs to bring home ownership within reach of more people in the city. This work supporting neighborhood revitalization and affordable housing is funded through our annual allocation of funds through the uh federal department of housing and urban development. And we're awaiting notification of our allocation for 2026. on the edge of our seats really. Um and we should know in the next month where we sit. Um indications so far are that we should receive funding at a similar level to 2025. Uh once we receive that notification, final notification, uh we will then engage with community members and service providers to assess community needs and then update our annual action plan which defines how those HUD funds can be spent. And of course that update is is brought here for uh to council for approval. Last year, we collaborated with the Summit County Land Bank to issue an RFP for architectural services so that we could procure highquality plans for a variety of housing types that would be available for use in the city for free. An Akran firm, Grassroots Architecture, was selected for this project, and we're very excited about the evolving plans. And we're working now to engage with builders to identify changes that can reduce building costs, some savings that

we want to um introduce into the plan so that we can ensure that these support the building of starter homes in the city. The plans will be released for use in late spring and they're going to they will reduce costs and speed approvals for small builders, nonprofit organizations, and individuals looking to build homes on vacant lots throughout the city. The zoning division brought key updates to the zoning code to council for approval. Those include creating a licensing process and spacing requirements for smoke shops. To date, we've issued 19 licenses across the city. Five businesses were denied license licenses and 14 of not responded to notifications or completed the process and we're working through the enforcement processes on those. The signage regulations for downtown were also updated using the formbbased code which is simpler and more transparent to use and encourage encourages business signs that are more appropriate for a downtown environment. Planning staff devotes a considerable amount of its time with uh with developers and property owners reviewing proposals, helping them uh bring them bring those proposals into compliance with the zoning code and facilitating development that is functional and economical and that contributes to the city's built environment. Our work there isn't always evident, but I'll point to two prominent examples where planning worked hard with developers to improve site plans to ensure the best outcomes for the neighborhood. And those include the gas station at Eastland and Britain Road. Um as well as the Amazon distribution center on Manchester Road. Um and and that project uh they should have crews out there any day. Um so that's exciting. Um uh in 2026, planning will also begin a badly needed update to the land use and development guide plan, the document that establishes our land use priorities. You always hear us refer to the land use and development guide plan during our public hearings um as

the basis for our recommendations. It was last updated in 1987. Clearly, our needs and opportunities have changed in the last 40 years and how we approach land use needs to change as well. uh creating a new comprehensive plan and bringing the form-based code to more neighborhoods also align with legislation being worked on in Washington and in Columbus encouraging cities to address barriers to housing production. Um and we want to be ready. Uh finally, the mayor and council have both committed to the unify Akran civic dialogue around solutions to Akran's housing issues. The planning department has been providing support to that effort and will continue to do so as as that civic assembly works to identify solutions and we will be involved uh in translating recommended strategies into legislation, policies and programs as appropriate. Um we know that um the early um uh proposals being considered include changes to the zoning code as well as um uh financing mechanisms. So th those are things that we will be working on, right? Um so uh you know I hope I've I've given a picture of of the work that we do where we're trying to uh go in 2026. And I'll just close by saying that um I'm very proud of the staff that works with us on the fourth floor. And um you know they're hardworking folks and um you know we we hope that that you recognize that and and that we continue to provide good service for the city and for and for council. Thank you very much, Mr. Julian. Do we have any questions for Kyle? Um,

for sure. Councilman Wilson,

thank you for your presentation. Um, I am on the goals document on page 35. Um, just had two questions on that. Um, the first one is under the if it's okay to talk about the zoning. uh the number of violations investigated has hopped up significantly um from 2024 to 2025. Um and then my second question was around um the estimated for 2026 at the top table here under departmentwide federal and state grant reimbursements and then also the department expenditures. Those those two hop up significantly um since 2025 and 2024. I don't know if you could broadly give some overview on that.

So, uh the um the reimbursements and the expenditures um you know are a measure of mostly HUD dollars that we are kind of passing through um to our community partners um or um you know through community programs and things like that. Um and so there's an eb and the flow to that work um based on when um uh we're able to get projects um to the sort of the finish line of being able to issue a contract and and how long that project might be and when um draws we can anticipate draws, right? Um so we just brought legislation on two major projects for example, right? Um, and we anticipate that most of that money is going to come out in 2026. So, there's there's some eb and flow into in in how those uh funds get get distributed. We try and move them as quickly as we can, but you know, some of these big projects are complex and um you know, we're oftentimes waiting for other pieces of the capital stack to get finalized and so on.

And then, thank you. And then the zoning, we've seen a hop up in the zoning violations investigated. I don't know if you have any additional context about why that might be happening.

Um I uh am not sure of the nature of, you know, uh of the the uh violations that we're investigating that would, you know, drive that 70 more investigations. Um, and I think uh it it it could just be that we're able to react a little bit better and so we're getting out there and responding, you know, um, better. Um, I'm going to claim that response. Um, I'm just going to pause for a moment and ask Jim, where are you? Do you have any thoughts on why that number

po, you know, it could also be that we've just got more scoff laws in the city right now. I couldn't hear. I didn't hear that comment. It wasn't for us to hear. Okay. All right. Um, Councilman Fesco. Oh, do you have a question? No, I don't. Thank you. Okay.

Yeah, I I I can answer part of that. I think from last year whenever we were in these chambers doing what we're doing today, we asked for more enforcement. I'm glad to see that. appreciate it because I think that's that's something that we can improve on perhaps zoning enforcement and um my question is going to be not for an answer today but what were the outcomes of the 42 investigations you know how many were brought into compliance how many were and I know that may take some time to to figure out how many were fined how many went to court all that

actually we we have that it just didn't make it into this document so you know that uh that was collected um a few u last month so for last year so so we we can get that that would be great to see how many are still open and so on so forth but I am I'm happy to see that increase that's that's a good thing I also uh am curious about page 72 in the budget book um where we had spent like 622 and 25 this is oid long range planning CIP fund uh and we're budgeting 629 page 72 you're referring to. Yes sir. Yeah. Yeah. So that is service contracts.

That is the Sasaki planning grant that we had. So the majority that was spent last year and the 26,900 is what's remaining on that. What do we get for 662 or 622 that I'm going to Sasaki that that was the Interbelt master plan. Oh, okay. That's right. Okay. So most of that was the pass through of the federal dollars. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. So 662 went forward planning. Okay, that's cool. Um, one last question here. No, go ahead. Who's ever next? I

just got a quick question. You brought up the smoke shop. Can we get that information to council? Uh, those that have been approved, those that are pending, and those that have not applied. And I guess the one question I have, and it's not really a budget question, those that have not applied for it, how long do we get to how long do we have to wait for them, do we give them a one month, two month, three month time to to apply, or it's just open-ended because they'll be open forever? No. No, it's not open. Right. So, we have we have letters that are ready to go out with the fines for not registering. Um but um the um uh there was a uh the state initiated a ban on THC products.

Right. Right. And then there was a a ballot drive to try and challenge that that failed. Um and it just announced that it would failed yesterday. So with that, the ban will take effect uh this weekend. Um and we anticipate a lot of these are just going to fold up. Ah, and so good to know. Kind of want to just see what the fallout of that is over the next month before we It's locked up now. Right. So that's so that's the cratom, the THC. It's a lot of that stuff. Mhm. Yeah. So this it's it's going to it's going to change the business model quite a bit. Right. And so because I'm getting still getting my head bit off. People think I'm lying about the one in the valley that popped up when they weren't even when we had the moratorium, but it's

I can talk about that one after. We'll talk after. Councilman Garrett. Thank you, Chair. Um, on page 35, you mentioned the zoning enforcements uptake there. I know you said you're going to look into those reasons and I know um that getting folks engaged in terms of understanding why the violations are occurring. So, if we can perhaps consider maybe a breakdown of the wards uh whenever you do the breakdown to figure out the up uptick in those um and just so maybe we can look at doing some education in that area figuring out why that is. Thank you.

Sure. And I will say too that we don't start with a fine, right? We start with a you know we call it a soft letter. It's progressive. Right. So we and then if there's issues, you know, people maybe didn't understand they weren't supposed to put the fence up there or, you know, it could be a small thing or um maybe not a small thing, but at least we we always start with that effort to just engage like, hey, you did this thing and it's uh violates the zoning code. We need to talk. Very good. Well, thank you for your time this afternoon. Thank you everybody.

All right, Kyle. And next up, we're going to have uh I believe I believe human resources, correct?

Yes. So, up next, we have both human res. Okay. We have both human resources and labor relations. Uh Frank Williams, our uh director of labor relation relations will go first. Okay. Um, for his budget numbers, uh, they are included with HR's budget numbers on page four. So that's the staffing chart that also shows Mr. Williams. Um, and then for his, um, for his goals and objectives, there's a one pager that's actually right after HR, which begins on page 36. Labor relations is on page 30 38.

So much nicer. 38 38 is labor relations. Mr. Williams, welcome. I do that right. Good afternoon.

Uh madame president and cabinet members, thank you again for having me here. This is always uh pretty impressive all the information that uh you all get to listen through and digest. It's it's always impressive. Um uh the Department of Labor Relations continues to serve as a representative of the mayor's office in labor discussions. Labor Relations works closely with the department and division heads to ensure compliance both from the administrative side and the labor side. Labor relations conducts discipline disciplinary and grievance hearings. The department's main function is to issue disciplines, negotiate labor contracts, and resolve employee grievances. Labor Relations works closely with our HR department and our law department to assist with policym uh taking corrective actions and responses to responses to grievances and contract negotiation preparations. Uh in 2025 we negotiated and finally arrived with collective bargaining agreements with the police, fire, and CSPA unions. We're currently uh in contract negotiations with local 1360 and hope to have an agreement uh relatively soon. Along with contract negotiations, labor relations uh was in daily contact with all the unions and management addressing any issues that may have arisen. Labor relations has reached out to various other labor groups in our area to open up those lines of communication and to build better relationships. um with outside union uh labors outside the city. Labor relations uh worked with HR and law department to move our prehistoric filing system to a more modernized computer filing system where both uh we're all HR, the law department and

labor relations can share information easier and more efficiently. We're still in the final stages of completing that task, but hopefully should have that done here in the next few months. My goals for each year are to continue to strengthen labor negotiations and union relationships. I hope to streamline the disciplinary review process and strengthen policies for handling workplace discipline. I plan to work with the department heads to support and address labor challenges. It's important to continue to maintain that open dialogue and sharing of the information between all the unions and our administration. And I well short, sweet, and stand for any questions.

Thank you. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Williams? Look at that. Did such a fine. Said it all. Said it all. Said it all. Thank you. Have a good day. Time. All right. Okay. So, now we'll bring up uh director of human relations uh Montreala Jackson. Um again, the numbers begin on page four and the goals and objectives document page 36 and deputy director Loserita Fellows. Sorry.

Thank you. Good evening, Council President Somerville, Chair Lombardo, Vice Chair Mobian, and members of the budget and finance committee. I am Montrella Jackson, director of human resources for the city of Akran and I would like to introduce our HR team that's here with us today. So first of all to my left I have our deputy director Lasharita Fellows and um in the audience here we have um looks like Ryan Gladzki is here who is our leadership development and training administrator. We have Debbie Vespoint who is our benefits assistant director and Amy Mills is our leave and um our leave and workers comp supervisor and I think did I miss anyone?

Amanda Am where is Amanda? And Amanda is our executive assistant for the the human resources department. Um so um thank you for this opportunity to um present our 2026 budget proposal, our accomplishments and overall impact for 20 from 2025. Um I did want to ceue up we did have a video I don't know if we have time to share it to just start off like a huge accomplishment. We um partnered with work for America through the efforts of Mayor Malik and um we were one the first in Ohio and then one of three cities across the entire nation to work on the value proposition um for employees recruiting them here to the city. So, um this video that will show um some of you will recognize the team members that work here for the city, but it's about two to three minutes. That legacy lived. Akran is a city built by makers and doers rewriting what progress looks like today. That legacy lives on in the employees who keep the city moving. They show up with collaboration, heart, and a commitment to serving their neighbors, strengthening the diverse and tight-knit community they call home. In Akran, reinvention isn't just history. It's a mindset. And every job plays a part in shaping the city's future. We're in the rush below. We're a legacy industrial city. We were the rubber capital of the world. Now we are reinventing ourselves to become the sustainable polymer capital of the world. And it's so exciting to be in the forefront of where those discoveries are happening.

We've got more than 40 40 cultures in Akran, more than 40 or 50 languages spoken within our population. So the heart of our city, it is our people. Walking down the streets here, people are going to stop to say hi. They're going to say hello. They're going to want to tell you a joke. They may even want to share their bad day with you, but at the same time, you can turn around and make a comment to them and make their day possibly a little bit brighter.

This job is fulfilling for me because it gives me the opportunity to represent our department, but also to be a face that can connect with the community on difficult issues to be able to speak to people and encourage them uh to let them know that we're working towards uh creating a better act. We have to go out there, get up early, go and plow the street, salt the street so the people can get up and get to work, get the kids off to school, people catching the bus. I like the fact when we go to a street, it's messed up and then when we finish, it's beautiful.

One thing I love about this job is just the ability to meet people every day. We meet people at their best, we meet people at their worst. But the thing is just being able to have a positive impact on people in their darkest moments in times where they're going through something that they're going to reflect on and remember for the rest of their lives. I just like being able to play a part, a small role in making their day better. I get to work with amazing public servants who every day they wake up trying to make this city a better place. City government isn't always glamorous. It isn't always easy, but it can be incredibly fulfilling work. And so being able to better tell our story and better explain to folks what the benefit is of public service, especially public service at a city or municipal level, I think is really important in today's day and age.

Thank you. So this will become part of our recruitment tool. We'll add it to our website. We'll use it to recruit people to the city of Akran. But after watching that, who wouldn't want to work for Akran, right? So um so in terms of our additional accomplishments uh so we have been working on uh digital file structure for employee records for our 12,000 employee files. Um the plan I believe is for that to become effective this year in April. Um we also have expanded our communications with digital signage uh to improve um communications to the team for benefits and job postings, training and resources. So, as of now, that digital signage is housed here in the municipal building, but the plan is to expand it to our other buildings throughout the city. I believe public works is next out at triplet that they're adding signage, electronic signage. Um, also, we had our first um citywide employee recognition picnic with over 500 participants, including 150 honores, and many of you here today were volunteers. I recall seeing um Councilman Hannah and um Council Member Davis at that event. So it was um in September of last year. So um it was wellreceived. We've also expanded some of the other activities such as bring your child to work day and um other activities to increase employee morale and engagement across the city. In our employment and recruiting area, um we administered 203 civil service exams. We hired 366 new employees and we processed 5800 applications. Um also um we developed a new staff orientation in 2025 in person where um new hires as they come in we have more of a class concept where uh if say we have 10 to 20 new hires they're meeting at the same time they're building those connections and helping with engagement

of the new team. Uh uh we also participated it in 67 recruitment locations and then from the benefits um department or division we enrolled 1823 employees in our benefits package in 2025 we had 64 retire retirements and um I don't know if everyone knows the number of retirees we have across the city but we have 2700 um retirees that we administer ister services for through not only HR but the other support teams at the city and um in addition to that um that number increases to 5,000 when you look at their spouses and their um their other dependents. So um there were a couple other things we added a new um website page for the retirees. I know I worked with some of the council members you know getting um questions in from the retirees. So we have um expanded that and then also a benefits phone directory and um we have a wellness Wednesday newsletter. So the other part of the our accomplishments I'll ask our deputy director to share those with you.

Good afternoon. So from a employee relations standpoint, we um were able to establish probationary review check-ins um and this was to improve in retention as well as coaching opportunities for for our management and supervisors. We facilitated policy committee meetings that included management. Um that was in an effort to foster collaboration and it has earned some positive feedback. Um we have also um created a centralized email where management can send um their any issues or uh training related needs to HR and we can provide coaching and counseling from that perspective as well. Um from the training and workforce development, we delivered 16 instructor-led classes across 68 sessions um reaching 996 attendees. Um as well as completed delivery of all seven supervisory development series. Um, we also managed the Stark State College Partnership, resulting in 160 enrollments, 1,085 credit hours, 11 associate degrees, and 16 certifications earned.

Fantastic.

We were able to generate savings of $147,000 for the city by utilizing the Ohio Technology Credit Program courses. Um and we also um uh our training and workforce development team led the continuity of operations plan training um for 20 tier one city organizations. And then we also enhanced our employee employee orientation by adding an employee expectation section to that so that they can be aware of what's expected of them coming into their new roles. From a leave and compliance perspective, we had 65 employees that participated in paid parental leave. Um, we managed 161 workers comp claims and um expanded the light duty program that by adding an on-site physical therapy for police, fire, and public works, which reduces the loss of work days from safety compliance. Um we established a municipal building emergency preparedness team. Um as well as trained the floor coordinators. Um we drafted and successfully completed an emergency guide um that um will be distributed to those um floor coordinators to use for emergency um issues that arise. Um we also implemented and delivered a new safety training program with the distribution of PPE for leaf season and for seasonal employees. We conducted stop the bleeding training for public works and traffic engineering teams and distributed emergency kits to enhance readiness. And then we also upgraded and implemented the AED equipment program across city locations which includes community centers. Um and that way we ensure compliance with new legal mandates.

So at this point I will share our goals for 2026. um which align with our strategic priorities for our department and the city. Um there is likely a summary of those goals in your your packets. Um the first is um we're reviewing uh our recruitment and our civil service hiring process. Um I'm proud to share that um we have been given a preference as a spotlight city to apply for the work for America. uh they have a 8-week task force that they're putting together and um that will assist us with reviewing and streamlining our hiring uh civil service process. Uh the second goal would be um to to so we have HR policies and procedures but we'd like to have a comprehensive employee handbook which contains not only the policies and procedures but there are some other additional requirements and policies that are located in other places. So, our goal for this year is to create that centralized handbook and then um update any other policies and procedures. And this will help with training staff and documentation so that staff know the expectations and what they're accountable for and what they're going to be held to as employees. The third is um our third goal is to leverage technology for efficiency. And um so you heard a little bit about this earlier in the week. Um so the learning management system we've expanded and then also we're looking at merging our recruitment system into one system. And then finally um we will continue to work on electronic employee records. And then the fourth is um to continue employee engagement and um expand the wellness program. Um this of course will help with morale and retention and reduce health care cost. So this concludes our overview. Thank you for your time. might be happy to answer any questions from the group.

Thank you. Uh, Councilwoman Amobian. Well, I don't know what line item I'll find all those initiatives, but I mean, they sound great. I mean, if you're talking about retaining staff and and exposing people to new ways of learning, uh, the Stark Tech numbers are fantastic and you have people getting their degrees. Are there children going as well or just these are all employees? The numbers there are employee numbers. Excuse me. Can you come to a microphone? Those online won't be able to hear you. Thank you.

The numbers that were were given were employee numbers. Um but I can get council numbers that are for uh qualified dependents and and children as well. We we have quite a few uh um children of employees who are attending Stark State right now. That's a fantastic benefit. Thank you very Now where will we find are we spending any money on those those uh the class work? Is that free? So there is a there's a partnership where I believe there was an a contract where in exchange for you can explain the land and all the wonderful

so several years back uh we entered into a lease agreement as part of the construction and exchange um instead of receiving revenues we negotiated that uh we would be getting these classes effectively for free. Yeah, I remember that. But we we spent that's fantastic. Thank you. And I'm sure we'll hear more about it later because I want to hear more about that. Thanks. Very good. Well, thank you for your time this afternoon. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see Councilwoman Tina Boyce.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, just had a quick question. I noticed that there's an addition of one net employee in the department for 2026 over the 2025 budget. Um, that seems to be a recruitment and retention specialist. Can you tell me more about that? So, it's really not a new employee. It was actually an employee that previously was split between police and fire and has been just placed under HR, but it's really not a new employee. Got it. Thank you. Great. Thank you all very much. Thank you.

Okay, next up we'll have our law department. So up next, as you mentioned, is the Department of Law led by the director, Brian Angelone. In this case, and only this case, on both page, the page numbers for both books is 39. Wow, lucky 39.

Those are fancy. So cheap. Good afternoon, Mr. Angelone.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Uh, members of the committee, council leadership, members of council. Um, I appreciate the opportunity to be here uh this afternoon uh with respect to the law department's operating budget proposed for 2026. Um, I don't have to tell you all, but as you know, uh, council's role in overseeing, uh, spending is its primary charter, uh, duty and obligation, uh, and it's critically important, and I welcome the chance to address any questions or concerns that you all have today. Um, so as a starting point, um, I wanted to, uh, impart on you all three, uh, key values that drive, uh, the law department every day. Uh, one, it's risk management. two, uh it's protecting Akran taxpayers and three, it's responsible and ethical stewardship of public resources. Uh every day, uh in the city, uh a small band of 15 to 20 attorneys, uh service the legal needs of the entirety of this approximately 2,000 employee municipal corporation. Um that includes not only meeting daily operational needs uh but it's also driving strategic larger term projects um you know doing major litigation major uh projects um and uh literally and I mean this quite literally uh prosecuting tens of thousands of cases a year uh for municipal uh uh criminal actions. Um so to say what this department is able to accomplish with the resources it has is impressive um would be a drastic understatement. Um it really doesn't do it justice. What these folks do um annually daily uh it defies logic and I am uh grateful and humbled to be a part of that and to work alongside of the fine

people of the law department. So uh I appreciate that opportunity. Um, so undoubtedly every year, um, come budget season, uh, there are questions raised about, um, budget necessary for outside legal counsel spend. Um, so I figured that I would just go ahead and address that topic head on. Uh, give you guys a little heads up there. Um, thank you.

You are welcome. Anticipation, it's part of what we do. So, it's good. So, um, first, the law department's default approach is always to handle matters internally whenever we can. um whenever it's practical to do so. Our attorneys provide a wide uh variety of services every day. We advise city departments. We uh draft research uh review contracts. We do legislation. Uh handle labor and employment uh disciplinary matters. Um we defend the city in litigation. We do uh criminal appeals. You name it, we literally do it. Um it is uh wide variety and it's uh very uh quick-paced and uh exciting. Um but we work hard to manage those responsibilities uh efficiently with the staff and resources that we have. Um but inevitably from time to time uh we're involved in matters that require um either highly specialized uh expertise or we run into cases where there's just an unusual uh large commitment of resources, time, personnel, things like that or some combination of the two. Frequently it's both. Right? So in complex matters or litigation we find ourselves where it's not just the subject matter that's uh you know very very niche but also the the level of uh uh time that we would need to expend. We just don't physically have the bodies to do it. Uh and in that instance uh retaining outside counsel is not a matter of convenience. Uh it's a matter of responsible risk management back to those core values. Um really it wouldn't be fiscally responsible or even feasible for us to maintain sort of the subject matter experts that we would need on staff to be able to deal with the broad swath of different complexities that come at the city. Um so really um retaining outside counsel gives us the

ability to um have targeted temporary uh expertise and resources. Um and it really is the the responsible fiscal thing to do. Um otherwise we would uh have not only potentially adverse judgments and things like that, but um our daily activities and what we need to do to keep the city up and running would come to a screeching halt, which we can't do, right? So, it's also important, I guess, to keep in mind that um the cost of outside legal representation is often very visible. Um but it really is what is not seen um that is the most significant. Um and perhaps as we'll get into some more detail with um finance department um you'll see but for example in the last 3 years alone the law department has been able to reduce the dollar amounts claimed against the city by 92.5%. So I just want that to soak in for a second. So that means that 92.5% of all monetary claims made against the city in the last 3 years have resulted in zero recovery. So we have we have successfully defended the city um to the tune of 92 and a half% of of those claims. Um again goes back to those core values risk management protecting taxpayers fiscal and uh you know stewardship of public dollars. So um the cost of legal representation both internal with the law department and external with outside counsel visible in the budget obviously um but again the larger costs um that competent legal representation can help us avoid large judgments settlements adverse rulings uh those things are often invisible and it's really those

invisible things that I'd like to draw your attention to because they don't get talked about enough right so it's those those large uh adverse rulings that we don't have um that is just uh sort indicative of the level of service that the law department is providing to the city. Um and and it is our responsibility to prevent those outcomes wherever we can. Um so with that um I look forward to answering any of your questions. Um and uh uh look forward to continuing to work with you all to ensure the law department uh is uh budgeted and funded as appropriate.

Thank you, Mr. Angelone. Very impressive the 92% statistic resulting in uh you know we're defending the city. Very good. So Councilman if I may. So another just throwing out statistics. I mean we we track some of this obviously for our metrics but you know I mentioned we have between 15 and 20 attorneys. We currently have nine prosecutors.

Um and often we don't usually the law director is not is usually on the civil side of things. civil attorneys, not not criminal in nature. Um, but our prosecutors in 2025 alone. Um, they dealt with over 27,000 almost 28,000 cases. Um, and that includes misdemeanors, domestic violence, felony court arraignments, which get bound over into common police court. And then traffic courts, a lot of that as well. But even setting aside the high volume of traffic courts, if you actually look at those numbers, that's 3,19 plus cases per year per attorney, which if you break that down, that is at nine cases a day per attorney. That's an unbelievable statistic. And and you're not talking about this isn't suits. We don't gear up and get a case in day one and try it on day three. I mean, this is, you know, real life litigation. Um, you know, facts. you have to subpoena witnesses, talk to them, present evidence, uh, you know, research the law, understand it, brief it. Um, it's it's just unbelievably impressive. So, in any event, sorry, I I I digress, but incredibly proud of of the department.

I'm all about the numbers. Um, question. So when it comes to certain uh ordinances we have on the books and and the the fines that are associated with that and is that driven by that particular department like I'll pick on neighborhood uh assistance or you know the nuisance when there needs to be a fine does that travel through the law office first to make sure that we have our you know tees crossed and eyes dotted and all that. Sure. So if it is a a codified ordinance change it would flow through law. So we a change it's something that exists

someone should be fined for

right. Sure. But that typically gets codified in the ordinances so that somebody's on notice that hey if I do this that or the other then first fine is X next one's Y then it's Z. Usually progressive right. Um, so I'll say this, there's some leeway, uh, some discretion in setting those amounts, but there are certain amounts that are important. For example, um, if we do anything in excess of $1,000, typically that's associated with some type of felony under the state statutes. So, we would try and keep a uh misdemeanor case underneath that thousand threshold, right? But there are there is some discretion in the levels of of dollar amounts. Well, I guess what I'm asking is if someone should be fined for whatever trash on their lawn, does that uh authority come from that particular department like the nuisance or do they have to like check with your department first to send out the letter or whatever the case is,

right? How does that work? So how it works now is either there would be most likely there would be an ordinance on the books that would specify that right and so they would be vested that department would be vested with that standing authority to issue those typically we call them notices of violation. Uh so those would go out and they would outline the the fines. Okay. Um but those departments would operate sort of in a vacuum once it's on the books in the law. They would be within their right to go ahead and issue those. that wouldn't come from that answers the question. There you go. Thank you. Yeah, Councilwomanian.

Yeah. With regard Thank you, Mr. Chair. With regard to the specialized legal assistance you need, that would be under service contract, would that be included there? Yes. So when we look at the numbers over the last two, three years, I would imagine that this large chunk in 24 and that was budgeted in 25 had to do with some of these major lawsuits regarding, you know, Jaylen Walker case, something like that. Um, now some of that will roll over to the next year and it's what you spend that year on the case. That doesn't mean that the case is finalized.

That is correct. So you budgeted over a million25, but you only you've only spent so far 249,000. Okay, that's correct. Okay. So, and my question has to do more with Do we separate out not the lawsuits? Well, I guess everything could end up in a lawsuit. You separate out the civil from the criminal stuff?

Yeah. So, good question. Um, I would say this. So, the the outside spend that you see, uh, I would say none of that. I would be shocked to know that there was any contract that we would have that would deal with our criminal side. Our prosecutors are prosecuting on behalf of the state in this case the city of Akran. Um and they're handling those matters. This would be this is civil litigation. Most of this all of it. Oh, okay. Yes. Oh, okay. Okay.

But I see that you're projecting an increase in 26. Well, I guess you started out with a higher budget in 25 as well. So anyway, and my second question has to do and then this is for you to answer for me. I I I don't know if how we do the union negotiation and all that stuff if it's part of the charter or what because as legislators I know we're not involved in negotiating anything but because we have to have some input when it comes to paying for things. There is nothing within that that allows the law department to address it with counsel before it goes to like arbitration and all those things just to give us a heads up on what's on on the table. I've never quite understood the process of how we negotiate because we don't find out much of anything until the end and I know the administration is mostly involved in that and that's their realm but because we do have a role when it comes to the financial side. I've never understood why we don't.

Sure. No. And and I your point is well taken. I we agree that council has a very important oversight role in funding. Absolutely. That is its real purview, right? is is funding. Um, and we respect that and when we can, we certainly come to you all and apprise you of what we can and can't do. Now, the practical reality is that especially in civil litigation, uh, we need to be nimble and we need to be able to move quickly and do things like that. Um, so we do pre-plan for budgeting and and those types of items. Now, in the labor realm, we're limited in what we can and can't do because of state law. So, 4117 is the statute that that governs that. Um and basically it tells us that all collective bargaining activities are confidential. Um and you know obviously at some point we come to you all with that contract that we said we are either recommending that you approve or we recommend that you deny um you know in closed session and it's done in close session for that very reason that it it is confidential

and remains that we're excluded. But as far as arbitrations and things like that that would not be something that we would would bring to your attention. um it it wouldn't even rise to that level really. Okay. Thank you, M. Thank you, Mr. Fesco.

I just want to thank you and your predecessors and all that has worked in the law department. I know that I've spent sometimes weekends, sometimes evenings talking to lawyers about legislation, about resol whatever it is uh over the years and appreciate all the effort that does and it there is you guys are small but mighty. Um, but you know, previewing and looking over all this, nothing really seems to be out of line other than what one thing that is kind of startling to me is what I see on page 40. Um, in the domestic violence cases, this is disturbing. Um, in 23 there's 591. In 2024, there's 862. And then 2025 there's 98. It's not quite, but it it almost looks as if there there's a doubling. Obviously, not quite, but that's significant and and scary and startling. And what the hell's going on?

Yeah. No, it's it is it's a it's a startling trend. And you know, again, I I can only speak to it from a my vantage point and our prosecutors and the folks who work with them

um see a lot of, you know, again, not taking anything away from the victims, but also even our staff internally um they deal with a a lot of really hard situations and you see that, you know, emotionally, physically. I mean, it takes a toll on people. Um, so one of our prosecutors, Jess Connell, um, a wonderful prosecutor and she manages our DV case load by herself. It is incredible. Um, and so just an amazing job out of her. But again, the trend is, you're right, the uptick is, you know, 300 cases in two years. It's significant. But I just, it's something I don't know, just to look at, consider.

Okay. Yep. Councilman Garrett.

Thank you, Chair. I want to go back a little bit and just thank Miss Montrella for a phenomenal presentation. The uh video was really nice. I really like the uh portion about the on-site physical therapy. When I get stressed out down here a little bit, I could probably use that. Brian, I think what you guys are doing are is amazing. Thank you for taking the time to pick up the phone to answer a few of the calls. Um what you do is admirable. I appreciate you. I would like to talk a little bit about the um I know you mentioned 92 point something% the other 7% of those cases that could possibly affect our budget. Um if you could speak to that and what's the plan and pretty much the origin on how you plan to attack that to stop that from affecting our budget.

Yeah. So it's an interesting question. Um, so I will say this from civil litigation standpoint, um, there's only so many things that we can do to prevent, right? We can advise about policies that are in place that we believe could be improved or things of that nature. But in general, our realm is to deal with problems once they've been initiated, right? um we don't necessarily know every facet of every detail of every department that goes on on a daily basis. So a lot of it is reactive and when we get into that litigation we learn facts, we understand more deeply about things. We talk to witnesses, we talk to employees, we can understand those things. So at that point then we can help remedy the wrong if there is a a wrong to remedy if you will. Um that's not always the case. Uh the city gets sued many times um for various reasons that aren't really legitimate. A lot of the cases that get brought against us in my humble view are are are frivolous and so we will defend those and we will protect the general fund to the best of our ability on that. Um but again in terms of settlement we look at uh any number of factors in settling cases. Um obviously again I go back to those core values. um you know uh risk mitigation being number one and in any given case it really is fact specific um but we look at the issues potential exposure some cases are more um potentially costly than others um so for example your 42 USC 1983 actions right uh those carry with them the possibility that uh the city could get hit with attorney's fees at the for opposing council. So plaintiff council could at the end of the case if they win, even if they win a dollar in

damages, even if their claims only result in $1, they could have $500,000 in attorney's fees that the city has to pay out. So that's a factor that we're thinking about that we're, you know, considering when we're deciding our litigation strategy and how we settle and resolve cases. Um, so that is to say, very complicated, very specific, and very case specific as to how we resolve those cases. Okay, thank you. Um, in in those cases, um, so how do you maybe I missed the missed the answer, but in terms of like budgeting for something like that, budgeting for an adverse judgment or

correct the adverse judgment. So, one of the things that we were discussing was insurance for the city for when they have such, you know, lawsuits, uh, individuals passing away from gunshots of that nature. So, in terms of budgeting, how do you budget for that or have you considered budgeting for city insurance so that's not such a big hit for taxpayers or our bottom line? Well, I can tell you that the city as as far as my knowledge and certainly my tenure here, um the city has always been self-insured. Um we have over the last couple of years been uh engaged with some um we have an insurance consultant um who we've been talking to for a number of years about the possibility of being insured um through some other policies. that is very costly, especially when you're talking about sort of um the types of cases you're talking about. Um so I can't I don't have any definitive answers on that. But to the to the question about how do you budget for a catastrophic event? Um you you don't um we try and be you know prophylactic in our approach. We try and advise to the best of our ability. uh we stay ab breast of legal trends. We apprise uh various departments including our police and fire about changes in the law, things that they need to be aware of. Part of what our prosecutors do is they provide police legal advice to the police department and and a number of other uh various police departments. Think about all of our hospital systems, um our townships and things in the area. our prosecutors are providing legal advice to those law enforcement agencies as well as APD. Um but so the best I guess defense is you know staying ab breast of trends. I mean that's the best that I can tell you is we try and stay on top of changes to the law and best practices and advise accordingly.

Thank you. The the last question thank you chair. The last question um rise to that level. So one of the things you mentioned I think as my colleague Mr. Moby had mentioned was the contract and being able to participate or be a part of that understanding how important like a lot of folks in the community are interested in seeking something of that nature. How do we budget for that? I remember during our last contract negotiation conversation. We I guess we were trying to figure out who represented the city and and how that conversation was going. that I don't know if we budgeted for a top tier person to work in that space. I remember a conversation was that we needed to hire someone in that space. So, how does that whole process work?

Um, I guess I I apologize. Maybe um if I could have you just rephrase that slightly. I'm not entirely certain what your question is. During the contract negotiations, we had someone represent us during that contract negotiation. I'm my question is do we budget for is there a certain budget amount someone to engage in a conversation that like or an expert in that space? I think there was another conversation you and I had where an attorney was assigned and we discussed that law firm's specific nature.

I'm wondering as it relates to our contract, do we have a budget to put someone in that space to really have the city's best interest? Let's just say for instance, one of the questions came about with 15% raise for the fire and police is unsustainable. That's going to be too much. We can't do that. And then we did that. And so I guess having someone to negotiate for us that's a little bit more savvy who understands that process. Is there a budget for that? Does that make sense?

Yeah. Yeah. So, um I think what I can say is it it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the city could maintain and talking about that level of expertise, right? And how we staff. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that we could um have that level of expertise internally at the city. Um and over the last I'd say five or six years we have been investing um in an interesting way with a local firm that has expertise high expertise in that field um to uh help some of our internal folks um become more adept more have more expertise in that field. So specifically we're talking about labor and employment right and in that field. So, we we've invested um resources in training up internal people. The reality is though um it's hard to attract um it's hard to attract attorneys to the city to do this work. I mean, we at the base, we're public servants. Um and we're not paid like the private sector. Um I remember when I started with the city, um I took a big pay cut to come from private practice to the city. Um it's great pay cut. Ultimately, it's been just the most, you know, enjoyable and worthwhile and uh awesome, you know, 10 years of of my career. But, um, it's really hard to attract those people now. So, to answer the question, it's possible that we could um have that expertise in house. We would have to do it homegrown. We currently have at least one attorney. There's actually two that I would say are kind of more focused in the employment realm. One is more focused in the labor realm. Um and we are working to invest in that attorney uh to get them to a place where they have that expertise. We could do it in house. Uh but currently for our labor

negotiations, we have been utilizing an outside firm as sort of that frontline expert. We provide the support. So that was the structure for this last bargaining cycle. We utilize the services of uh an outside firm actually two separate ones. Um in the three union negotiations we as we were basically the supporting attorneys in those instances. Okay. In terms of your funding, one more question. Okay. In terms of the funding, so in business, did you get the result that you were looking for? And are we going to continue to use that firm or are we looking to get another firm? Is that something we could consider during a budget? And and you and I can have another conversation.

Sure. Sure. So I don't hold everybody up. That's my question, please. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you, Mr. Angelone. Thank you for your time. Thanks for everything that the law department does. Got a great team there. All right. Uh you know what? Uh it's been uh 90 minutes or so. How about a quick 5m minute break before we start the big show with the finance department? Okay.

We'll give everybody just a few minutes to come back. I'm sorry. Hi All right, welcome back. Welcome back uh for our uh final act of the budget hearing. Um and it's the finance department. So uh introduce yourselves. No. Um anyhow, Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Fricker. Um, looking forward to this presentation. So,

whenever you're ready. So, thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, uh, we're on

I'm going to kind of pick up where we actually just left off, uh, you know, from the law department presentation, uh, talking a little bit about the course of events last year. Uh and then after you know my remarks, m uh Mike is going to go through he's going to uh introduce our team, talk about a lot of our goals and accomplishments uh from last year. Uh but I kind of like to start off just, you know, with some thoughts about, you know, last year and the labor negotiations and what their impact on this budget is. So, uh, you know, I spent a good portion of the year last year focused on the labor negotiation. So, we kind of got done with budget in March and then, uh, you know, obviously we're negotiating with the three bargaining units, uh, which was a very, you know, lengthy process obviously with both police and fire. uh we had factf finding hearings uh and actually were scheduled uh to go to consiliation with police and I think the only reason that didn't happen is just kind of due to the timing of uh when the factf finding report from fire came out uh and the fact that that was uh you know there were similar uh you know outcomes from both of those reports and ultimately we settled uh you know with both police and fire and then obviously with CSPA as well. Uh but if you remember, you know, the discussions we had around those factf finding hearings, you know,

we kind of talked on what the impact on the city would be uh if those levels were, you know, were the levels that we ultimately had to implement in our contract and that there would be uh you know, repercussions from from what those amounts were. And I think that's what this budget does reflect that. But uh one thing I am proud of uh is you know given how late everything went in the year last year uh where we didn't really have signed agreements until well late into November and even December is that uh our accounting team uh Teresa Johnson and her payroll staff uh we were able to basically process all of the retro payments for all the unions in a base of you know really about five weeks uh which was a huge undertaking that we had to go through uh you know to get all those process some of it had to be kind of manually done uh but we were able to there were a few exceptions that we things that we had to correct but uh with over 2,000 employees to get all of that done uh in that quick aer time frame was really an impressive uh feat uh by our for our accounting staff and our payroll staff.

Are they here? Yep, they are here. I see Teresa is here. Uh if she could stand up. Thank you.

So, uh and that's kind of also uh continued into this year where we've had to set up uh you know there are some new items some some compensation items in this contract that we did not have before. So we now have differential pay uh both in our police department and our fire department. Uh so we had to set up uh those items in our in our payroll system. You know, one of the things that we didn't talk about with uh you know, some of the overtime discussions we've had uh is the fact that there are new compensation elements in these contracts uh particularly in fire that will cost probably about an extra million dollars a year. So, uh the medic differential that we put in place uh will cost the city approximately a million dollars. So, uh, you know, in in addition to the wage increases, uh, there are some items that are kind of offsetting some of the, uh, reductions we're seeking to do in overtime. Uh, I kind of want to echo, you know, some of the comments I made on Tuesday in that the the way we got to having such high overtime levels, particularly in the fire department, but also in the police department, uh, and and really in all departments, uh, you know, we kind of single on single in on those, but uh, you know, over time throughout the city has been higher and that is purely a function of having, you know, these this federal money that we've had over the past five years. Were it not for that money, you know, we would not have had overtime that quadrupled, you know, in fire and in some of the other areas, which, you know, didn't go up that much, but we

simply wouldn't have that level of overtime. We wouldn't have the staff that we have in place were it not for that federal funding. And now that it's gone, we have to make adjustments for that. Um, you know, as I talked about, the uh labor agreements that we have in place uh that were just put in place are going to add about $42 million of additional cost onto the city. Uh all at a time when, you know, we we did have negative tax growth last year. So, you know, let's talk a little bit about what that means. So, last year we were hoping to collect $117 million of tax on our general fund. We collected $112 million. So, that's a $5 million drop from what we budgeted. And then when you think about that negative tax growth, so this year, you know, if if we had gotten two and a half% growth both years, we'd be collecting $120 million. this year with my, you know, my estimate of two and a half percent growth, you know, we hope to collect about $17 million. So all in there's about a $10 million swing in the income tax that we hope to collect between last year and this year. So all of that, you know, obviously has an impact on, you know, what our budget is for this year. We've tried to do a number of things in order to uh preserve as much of the IT4 funding to, you know, cover the gap that we have in our general fund. So, we've, you know, we've moved a lot of the uh things that we traditionally fund out of IT4, you know, some of the uh police gear, fire gear, some of the like the taser

contracts, things like that. Things that we funded for years out of IT4 have been moved either to the police specialty funds or to our capital improvement fund. uh all in the all with a goal of freeing up as much IT4 as we can to pay the staffing numbers that we have. Uh even with doing all of that, we're still going to draw about $10 million of that IT4 this year. Uh so we're really hoping to spread that those IT4 dollars out over as long a period of time as we can. Uh so if we didn't have you know some of the cuts that we put in place we would be drawing through that IT4 fund even faster than what is included in this budget. So you know again I know that's these comments are similar to you know what I talked about on Tuesday. Uh but making these changes uh you know hopefully reducing the overtime you know some staff reductions but even with the staff reductions you know we are still hiring classes in police and fire. So we still are hiring two classes in police and one class in fire this year. Uh you know I I think if some of those overtime reductions weren't in there I don't know if we'd be able to do that. So, you know, we're trying to balance things out. Uh, and we're trying to spread these service levels over, you know, not just for this year, but for a longer period of time, uh, so that we have, you know, kind of a a gradual reduction in uh, you know, the amount of staff we have. And as we've talked about, we we think that, you know, we could still maintain these service levels just if we, you know, structure

things a little bit differently. So that is that is what we're seeking to do. Uh so what we want is is more of a gradual you know reduction in cost than than having to do a very abrupt reduction in cost you know next year or in 2028 because we've drawn through you know all of the all the reserves that we have in IT4 and then start drawing into reserves in the general fund. Now, I'll tell you that the general fund, you know, while we have this $30 million reserve, it's really only a 46 day reserve. And it I will tell you that it is smaller than what a lot of our larger peer cities have. Uh and and part of that is a function of our tax structure. uh we have a two and a half percent tax like most of the other large Ohio cities but a quarter of our quarter percent of our tax is dedicated towards the schools. So we're operating at a quarter% less than Cleveland and Columbus and Dayton and Toledo. Uh and for us that that's $20 million a year that you know would be going into either our capital or operating you know that was a decision that the voters of Akran made back in 2003 and you know some of the structure of our operating costs are based upon that. Uh the other thing I want to mention is the fact that you know the departments that presented today you know one of the things that I think some people will say as well there's other areas that you can cut uh and and certainly that's true and certainly I think there will be reductions you know across the board in the city as we go through the next year

or two uh what the departments have presented today so talking about uh HR, finance, law, planning, and economic development. You know, I pulled some numbers on, you know, really over the past 30 years on what these departments, what the staffing levels have been. Uh so in 1995, between all of those departments, we had a full-time staff of 296 people. This budget includes 172 people. So I gra that's 30 years ago. Uh that's a 42% reduction over those 30 years in what those departments have. So we have cut you know and a part of that is is obviously is you know technology and things and we've we've certainly you know utilized systems that that can impre can uh increase efficiency uh but that's still a drastic reduction you know. So HR uh a 16% reduction in their staff. They were actually as low as 15 people in 2015. Uh that was too much. And we've actually we've bumped them back up to about 21 people. Finance. Now I'm comparing divisions because there's been divisions that have moved in and out of finance, been added to or taken away. So I'm I'm including the divisions that were common you know in 1995 and in in today. uh 1995 finance had 115 people you know between the administration audit budget accounting purchasing IT treasury and tax between those divisions today we have 70 people so that's a 39% reduction in those uh in the finance department

law uh has gone down 11% in that time and then the big one uh is plann planning. In 1995, planning had 119 people between planning and what we now call economic development. Today, they have 48. It's 71 people less than what they had 30 years ago. Uh so just to provide a little bit of perspective on you know we've really tried to you know for the most part to keep the staffing you know in the the frontline departments and certainly services had huge reductions too. So service is down. Everyone's down. Even police and fire are are down from where they were. Uh just not at those large percentages, but uh you know there's there's a point where it's hard to really cut anymore. And I I just kind of want to make that point that uh a lot of the what we call the back office divisions, you know, the the internal service divisions have really seen large cuts over the over the past 30 years. With that said, uh I'd really like to uh you know, I want to thank the entire finance department uh and Mike is going to go through a lot of of what they accomplished. Uh but in particular, I'd like to to really thank uh Mike Wheeler uh for a lot of what he has taken on this year. So Mike has really uh spearheaded a lot of initiatives within the finance department. uh he is running, you know, we have a very complex uh meter replacement project that we've been working on for a number of years. Mike is is essentially leading that. Uh I can tell you just from listening. Uh for those that don't know, Mike and I actually share Diane Miller

Dawson's old office together. So that we're both in there. So obviously I'm privy to uh you know a lot of these phone calls and uh you know so Mike has been been single-handedly running that that AMI meter project uh which is a very complex project and uh I think they really have that in a good place right now. He's also been responsible for all of the ARPA management uh which is a huge endeavor uh we are coming to the end of that. Uh and then Chris mentioned yesterday, you know, a lot of reforms that we're doing. One of which is our our change order process. Uh you know, Mike has been instrumental in uh you know, working with that process. They they had a special uh thing where they went to Harvard and uh took part in a workshop to to help kind of flush out some of the items that we'll be looking at to change that process. Uh so we're very much looking forward to that process uh this year. And then I also want to thank uh Tina Vic. Tina please stand up. Uh so Tina has really taken on a new role. Yes. Everyone Tina's taken on a very new role in the finance department. Uh you know uh Tina is was our executive assistant for the finance department. uh but really you know through the implementation of workday uh took a huge role in the implementation of workday in the configuration of a lot of what we're doing in workday uh training our employees developing training aids and job aids to show people how to do things uh and uh you know basically uh we've created a role for her where she's going to continue doing that. So, she is now a finance

project coordinator and is really kind of the go-to person for workday. Uh, you know, all the employees that need to know how to do something, they go to her. Uh, and she's always, you know, always able to to get them, uh, trained and give them the information they need in order to do uh, what they need to do. So, uh, I just want to call out uh, you know, her tremendous work in that that area. So, uh, with that, I'm going to have Mike kind of go through the, uh, the goals and objectives of the finance department.

Uh, so, thank you. On a, um, bit of a housekeeping note, finance budget book numbers begin on page 10 and the goals and objectives on page 41 of that document.

Uh, first and foremost, uh, to echo what Steve was saying, um, this this doesn't happen without our team. all the day-to-day actions of the finance department. We are really we are a back office, but we're the backbone to core city services. So, I'd like to take a second and really introduce the wonderful staff that we have today at present in the pews. These people are what make our department work and the city work through thankless uh hours and all the different job types that they do. I'm going to kind of go just through alphabetical order of the department. Um, but please stand up when I mention you. Uh, our accounting division and payroll is led by Teresa Johnson. We'll skip audit and budget and come back in a second, but we'll we'll go through uh it and uh the information technology division which is head by Darren Rosenic. I'm sure everyone knows you. But with him today, he has Brandon Mickel, the applications manager, Bill Fatica, the help desk manager, and Fred Tilly, the communications supervisor. For our purchasing division, it is led by Kim Hansen, who is over here in the red. And then in the back, we have our income tax division, led by Leah Kemer, Kimmel as the tax commissioner, and Heather Mter is the tax deputy commissioner. On a somewhat different note, oh, not yet. For treasury, we have Tony White over here in the gray. He is our city treasurer. And on somewhat of a different note, our UBO office is in the middle of a transition. Our utilities office manager, Brian Reman, retired at the end of February. Today, we have some of the new leadership team and one employee who is also retiring at the end of this month. Our utilities office administrator, Brian Linder, will be

retiring March 31st. And I would like to take a second to thank him for his 30 years of service. We also have Veronica Hasslam, one of our utilities office supervisors, and Doug Douglas Hersenro, our utilities office accounting supervisor. And finally, I want to take a second to really take a step back and thank the audit and budget team once again. As mentioned previous times last week and again this week, a lot of what you're seeing here, the documents, the book, the goals and objectives, without a lot of them being able to heard the departments alongside Stephen, myself, this is not possible. These hearings that we have and with them leading this, Teresa Klein, the audit budget manager, and Lexi Hansen, the supervisor, we are really proud to present the presentation that we have this year. This is a team effort. This is not done in a silo and I really want to take a second to thank everyone for that. So some highlevel goals of the finance department as a whole this year uh include really taking a step back and embracing some of the modules that are being embraced in workday and being deployed. Our accounting division um for example will be looking to implement um a contract module and streamline the contract process that is in place between the city's department of law and us here in finance. We are also looking at streamlining some of the um payroll functionality and to reduce the number of manual entries that may be needed. Much like Steve said during uh negotiations that ended in December, our information technology division is scaling at an incredible rate. We are

now implementing modern artificial intelligent tools uh in Microsoft Teams through co-pilot chat and workday. the modules that I just mentioned for uh law and finance. This contracting module is somewhat powered by AI to design formatted contracts that can be deployed between the divisions quicker and hopefully just eradicating some of the manual work in the future. In addition to the work that it does, they also supervise the communications division. The communications division continues to reinforce the critical public safety infrastructure throughout the uh safety forces. This also includes the radio deployment that this council authorized the purchase of the radios earlier this year. On a more public-f facing note, over the past couple of years and really under the leadership of Kim Hansen, we are starting to transition our perching division from a legacy procurementbased uh enter gets issued to more of a strategic sourcing more RFPbased kind of role. We want to engage the vendors uh on a local basis more often and quickly, but we also want to look at how we can strategically use RFPs for nationwide initiatives such as the rental registration program that we've talked about the other day. And finally, I'm excited to announce that with our utilities business office, we will be launching SPRYCIS, the customer information system that we have talked about for a couple of years later this year. And this will improve productivity for the office, streamline operations for the CSRs and deliver a more efficient experience not only internally but for the water and sewer utility customers throughout the system. Um part of this will be a more modernfacing uh portal for the customers to log into and have accounts and we'll they will be able to eventually request their own uh

billing dates. So that way if something doesn't match up with how they might be structured on a limited payroll, they will be able to adjust it and more details will come on that in the future. I really want to take a second to talk about some of the metrics that we've had and we have a whole list of things and I talked that you know we are looking at how we present this information. Um on the second page of the goals and objectives we have a lot of activities that occur on a day-to-day basis. I don't think I'm going to go through most of these. These are really just for reference about the amount of activity that these people that they're what they are doing on a daily basis and how it reflects that. However, one thing I want to highlight is actually at the bottom uh of the information technology side. What we are really starting to track now and we want to share with council is the amount of data that's flowing through our network. And last year in 2025, 1.6 6 pabytes flowed through our storage systems. And the reason I want to bring that up is that amount of data, what we're talking about by 1.6 is the equivalent of 6,282 physical laptops. With the monthly traffic, the data that's going back and forth through the city, what people browsing the internet or downloading things is 177 terabytes in 2025, which is actually the equivalent of 250 houses using an average amount of that data. So that is a lot of data that we are monitoring and I think everyone knows with the current discussions that are out there, storage costs are increasing. So we are cognizant of that but we really want to show why what how much data we process on a regular basis. And with that I want to thank everyone here council president

chair Lombardo and you the members of council for your time and being engaged in this process.

Thank you very much. Um that's uh like I said being a numbers guy myself those numbers really um you know are interesting and uh tell a a big story that there is a lot of work going on around here and um well deserve the uh accolades and appreciation. Um, I'm going to ask a question or two, uh, myself. Um, in relates to, uh, Steve, you were talking about the negative tax growth, you know, from 117 million down to 112 um, that we collected and, you know, on and on about a $10 million swing, which, you know, would really, you know, boost our uh, budget. Uh, we could do more more things maybe. But I guess where I want to go with this is that what are we doing to enhance or uh improve our tax collections?

Go ahead.

Yeah. So that's at the forefront of our thoughts on a regular basis. So there's kind of a two-fold approach that we're taking. Uh last year we did enroll our tax and our tax deputy commissioner Leah and Heather into a program that allows them access into uh the attorneys general's office to directly file cases with them. So that is somewhat going to streamline the process when they become aware of a case that is delinquent to allow them to issue those kind of collection methods a little bit faster. The second approach is also in our income tax division and what we really want to do is hire a data analyst and that data analyst is going to be utilized first to clean up the existing that we have the existing data that we have but then really start to analyze if there's any patterns out there so we can enhance our own collection uh practices internally. Not only so we are better aware in advance so that way maybe we can see if there is potential trends but also to back to the attorney general point to really stay on top of that process holistically.

So the we're using the attorney general do do we have a contract with them? Um like how's that set up? So it seems like well I don't know how much money we have laying on the table. I just heard it's a lot but

so the process is actually we have to physically enroll people and we have to agree not necessarily on a contractual basis to access the system but it's more so like a formalized background check that these are two employees that work for the city and that they are allowed on the city's behalf to do the collections work. So, did the attorney general, you know, last year did they collect 5% more for us or 10% like how much money is left on the table that we could do we need more than the attorney general? Do we need you know other collection agencies? So tax is unique in this case because it is income tax that once we are able to discharge a case and we are sending it down there that's more so at the discretion of how it flows through that process and I cannot necessarily answer that. We do receive collections on a regular basis from the attorneys general's office as they close out uh cases and then that is then deposited back to us.

Okay, I'll let someone else ask a question. Go ahead. Just a quick question. You referenced I know that the over $20 million overtime that we have been experiencing in those two major depart I know that the 20 million plus amount of overtime that was mentioned for those I'm assuming that most of it was for fire and police and and I know it's not sustainable. you kind of referenced that it went up because we had the extra federal dollars unless I misinterpreted what you said.

That is correct. So, so basically, you know, the service levels that were provided by that, you know, were were only made possible because those dollars were there to supplement the general fund. Okay. So we allowed, you know, both of those departments to operate, you know, to utilize that overtime and operate at those higher service levels because we had, you know, we basically received over $70 million between CARES, ARPA, and the staffing grants. It was over $70 million over five years.

So prior to that, we were averaging about what in overtime in those departments. So in the, you know, in the fire department it was $2 million. Oh, you know, it went to $8 million in 2024. So when the when the fire chief talks to us about wanting to manage overtime better and has a plan of trying to do that, you know, to monitor and manage it, to do whatever to bring it within reason, it it sounds like it will be going back to what it was probably normally.

The the service levels will be going back to what they were prior to that $70 million coming into the city. That that's my best answer to that. So people, you know, you get the impression that folks want to start screaming that services won't be available and that kind of thing. And I know he's going to monitor all of that because he talked about it yesterday, the service levels and all of that, but it sounds like prior to getting all these extra dollars, we were already doing whatever we were doing, but we were meeting the needs of the citizens of Akran for the most part. Correct.

With less money. I mean, in the case of fire, you know, so as I said that the overtime was $2 million in 2019, you know, the budget before you now has $4 million. So it's double. Sure. You know, span of five years, that's double what we had 5 years ago. And I would never say that instead of quadruple don't deserve the extra money if they're working overtime because that has to weigh heavily on employees when you're working so much extra time.

Certainly. And I think when he talked about wellness and all the things he wants to take into consideration, it sounds like he's taken a really nice approach to trying to figure out how do we manage this and keep the level of service needs met. So I think we need to give him an opportunity to to do that so we can figure out what it what can we do because the levels we are at now are not sustainable.

Thank you. Um this is a uh it's an IT budget question. Uh this is on page 27. So as far as rentals and leases go um from 24 to 25 seemed like you know that between what the expenses were and what was budgeted that doubled. And then uh you know even though there was a budget you know 2 million we spent 2.5 this year we're going to budget 2.7. So what does that uh mean as far as rental

so that represents so so a little bit of that is just a changing in how things are coding. So one of the things you'll notice is that the the line right above that the service contract. So we we kind of have two two codes that we charge our software to. Uh something that was implemented a number of years ago is that soft what we call software as a service. So something that uh we don't buy the soft we don't own it but we you know we pay an annual fee to use it and that's the way most of our packages are these days. So like workday and service now and you know they're all uh what are called software services. So those are coded under rentals and leases. So you'll notice that you know so to some degree it is yes the stuff is more expensive than it was a couple years ago. Some of it is also just it has moved down from that service contracts line down to rentals and leases.

Okay.

Uh now one of the other things we mentioned we just had legislation here a couple weeks ago. Uh so we've added some things to workday uh which will save us in you know some of the other areas. So our our HR department software line will go down. We'll still have it for this year but we'll go down next year. So one of the things we're doing is consolidating our software uh you know into fewer packages and therefore uh ultimately we'll we'll save a little bit of money. uh you know it's not huge because obviously we're adding modules on you know to some of these but in in many cases that can be done in a kind of a cost-effective way that uh it's a little bit to add on to our main software package and gets rid of our larger costs that we had that was kind of an independent package

and those software leases or whatever they they include frequent updates well not frequent let's hope not they're not frequent so

they include updates I'm Yeah, I mean I'll kind of single out workday. So workday, you know, one of the, you know, so prior to us having workday, we had uh we had what was called banner, which was an oraclebased client server financial package. And then we had peopleoft, which was the same thing, client serverbased financial package. every I don't know three years, four years, uh those had to be upgraded uh often at significant cost. You know, hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade those. Uh and really you'd upgrade them and you know the new functionality really be pretty minimal. Uh but it was just that was kind of the the way things worked is you know that you had to upgrade these uh every few years they would you know discontinue support for the older version and so you know and you had to go through this whole process. So the way workday works uh and a lot of them now is that they are so workday updates uh semianually and that's all factored into your cost. So we never have to pay for an upgrade. That just happens. Yep.

Uh so that's one of the other things is you kind of have to look at like yes it's more expensive kind of on an annual basis but then you don't have these you know major investments every 3 years to do those upgrades. Gotcha. Yeah. Then on page 24 um ve equipment and vehicle replacement and I know we've replaced police and fire and all that. So can you explain the equipment uh on page 24 between you know all the columns there with what was happening. This is 25. Yeah. Versus uh what the budget is. What this represents is about I don't know how long it's been 2 years ago maybe.

We set up another fund. And the reason we did that, we set up a fund uh for equipment replacement. And the reason we did that is because we were ordering a lot of these uh you know the heavyduty vehicles like a lot of our big uh you know highway trucks

uh and really all kinds of equipment. And keep in mind this was two years ago and we were just kind of coming out of the the co era and a lot of these vehicles were taking you know I mean several months you know 18 months 24 months some of even you know 3 years uh and so you know you would order a truck in in one particular year you know obviously we don't pay for it you know we don't pay for it till it comes in

and then three years later here comes that truck and we don't know when it's going to come in. And so that became kind of a budgetary problem uh to have the funds set aside especially when you've got other uses you're looking to do with with with that money. Uh so what we did is we set up this fund and so basically when we want to order a truck we you know say sewer wants to order a truck we transfer the money from sewer into this fund uh and then this fund is sitting there with that money in it. So when that truck comes in the money is sitting there in order to pay for the truck. So we don't have to rebudget that thing in sewer you know not even knowing when it was going to come in. Okay.

So that's the idea behind this fund. Yeah. Any other questions? Uh, I have a couple more, but go ahead. I don't want to. Thank you. Yep. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, just to piggyback on something you asked earlier regarding the delinquent tax collection. Um, were we doing that in 25? Yeah. Yes. This is something we've always done. Okay. And do we know how much of the delinquent delinquencies were recovered as a result of this program? Yeah, I mean sure we have a report from the attorney general's on the the funds that are collected.

Yeah, that would be great just to for us to have an understanding because I don't think all of us were aware that that was happening. So it's a good education for us. Um second question uh was related to the contracts. Am I understanding correctly, and I may have misheard you, are some of the contracts that were in other cost centers moving into the finance cost center and that's why it's growing or just it's growing by nature of the contracts that are already there? Uh I'm not sure I'm following your question. Uh whi which cost center and finance is growing.

Well, you mentioned I believe the service contracts were growing, correct? Like they were larger this year. Oh yeah, because of um the service contract because of the are we talking adding modules and things like that? Oh, okay. You're talking about the IT contract moving human resources contracts to workday and that is moving into this. No. Yeah. So that that particular example so basically we have so in in the HR budget uh they have a package called NEOGV,

right? uh which basically handles all of our uh recruiting and some of the onboarding uh which we're going to have for one more year. We purchased additional functionality in our workday module that is going to basically take the place of having that. So that cost in HR next year should go away. Yeah. Got it. Thank you,

Councilman Fesa. I'll try to be super I'll try to be real real brief here. We are uh we're a function especially on we're complaint driven here in the city and I and I think that we have not been as aggressive as we could have been uh or should be in terms of addressing some of those and collecting on some of those um because it's complaints versus I think we used to be more active you know going out and looking for things. Um, and and I just want to preface everything with that that that's why I bring up the and and I don't know, it seems as though and I could be wrong, but the the complaints that are filed or or or calls that go in on the uh contractor uh registration program that we have. Have we focused on that at all? Uh because I think we're leaving money on the table there. What it is is this council passed a law some time ago ordinance that uh contractors uh the general has to file with the city and tell us all the subs that are below them.

Okay. To ensure and we we could go out at any time to ensure that we're getting paid our share of income tax because a lot of these projects that are out there, we don't know if we're getting it or not. And you know, you hear rumors and this and that, but I I don't know. Like I said, I I know we passed that and whenever I I would call uh the service director's office, whomever, I say, "Hey, there's a there's a job over the hair." Are we collected on that or not? I don't know if we're actually actively going out on it.

Right. So, what we're doing, and we passed this legislation earlier this year, is we are really in the process of revamping that because to your point, I think you don't always know what you don't know. And even though it is required in the construction contracts especially what you're referring to just because that may be might be and I don't want to say that it is because I do not know that for a fact one way or another. what we're doing is implementing this B2G software across the board, not only for um enrolling more businesses in the community and especially trying to attract local talent, but also so that way we can get a holistic picture of what that might look like when the contractors are supporting submitting their invoices because when they submit those invoices, it's they should be submitting that information as well. Mike, I appreciate that. But I think I think you're talking about public contracts. I'm talking about private.

That's I that does it taken private as well like like a hospital gets, you know, rebuilt or what have you or added on to or, you know, all these private projects. That's where I think we're if they right now if they're not only getting if they're going through the plans and permits process, which those I believe some of those should still be doing that, right? They I I hope so. So I think you know again that's kind of coming back. We're going to deploy the software and we're going to really just monitor that as a whole.

Yeah. Could be because we really I think I I've always believed that we're leaving a little bit on the table. So 46 day reserve. What's a day? What's the cost for a day? Uh I don't know. Divide 200. I can pull it up. to them by 46. Yeah, you guys, you're you're you're the finance folks, not me. No, I didn't mean to put you on the spot. So, that's $4.9 million. $4.9 million. Okay, cool.

Thank you. Um, and and so is there is there like a threshold that the bond market looks at because you'd mentioned our peer cities. 60 days is considered ideal. goal. Yeah. Okay.

Which we've always said is our goal. One thing I do want to uh and I forgot to talk about this during our remarks. So this is our this is our latest bond rating report. Uh so we got this last year. They did affirm our so we have an A+ rating which is you know there's AAA double A and then we're we're A+. So it's it's you know it's high kind of high middle I suppose. Uh do we have that? Did you give this that piece?

I can uh yes sir. certainly send this to everyone. But one of the things I want to kind of remark on is you know some of the comments that they made uh with our rating and you know they kind of mentioned and I they kind of say it two different ways but management will likely draw down on available reserves to plug the near-term budget hole and and our view in the near term is the city has sufficient flexibility to support operations while officials make the necessary budget adjustments. So that's part of what this budget is. We're making the necessary budget adjustments. However, should the city fail to achieve budgetary balance over the outlook period resulting in a draw down on reserves, we could take a negative rating action. Uh and then they they our outlook was stable. And so there's there's always like there's a grade and an outlook. And so you might have a certain rating, but they say the outlook is negative because they see things, you know, on the horizon. Ours was not. Ours was stable, but they say the stable outlook reflects our view that the city will make the necessary budgetary adjustments to achieve at least balance operations and avoid significant deterioration of reserves over the outlook period. So, you know, that's the rating agencies saying, you know, they expect us to, you know, make the budgetary adjustments to keep us from drawing on reserves. Can you that's what this budget reflects.

Thank you. C can can you give us like a snapshot of not necessarily 95 but like the last five years or can you just say off the top of your head how many days that we had?

So I I I will tell you that we reached our peak in recent years uh in 2020 and that was purely a result of uh the car's act funding. So now keep in mind our our fund balance was the same as it is effect was slightly less in 2020 but so was our general fund. So that you know that $29 million reserve in 2020 was on a you know just off the top of my head $190 million general fund budget. Our general fund budget is $226 million now. So that's the difference. you know, our operations have grown. We had 14% wage increases for most of our city employees over the past. So, all of all of all of our costs are going up. Uh, and that reserve is, you know, obviously less of a reserve based on the total expenditures that we have.

So, the goal to move the bond rating I'm sorry, go ahead. The goal to move the bond rating is what's the number of days? Would would that be you would think? Uh, I mean, if we if we got back to a 60-day reserve, my guess is we would have our bond rating go up. Thank you. Have Mr. Frager, have we ever dipped into the rainy day fund or the reserve fund? So, I will be clear. We do not have a rainy day fund. Well, city of Akran does not have a rainy day fund. No. Uh, we have had years where we have drawn on our general fund reserve. uh general fund

slightly. I will say you know one of the things that you know I think Mike has this graph up right now uh you know our general fund reserve was you know 10 years ago was $6 million uh you know we did uh we did a couple things. So for years we had a very low general fund reserve. We did that the cell tower lease sale. Uh I can't remember which year it was back in like 2017 I think something in in that era. Uh you know that brought in really just an additional $5 million. Uh what year did we raise it up to 10? What year is this? 17. Yeah. So um

well didn't the co money whatever of the federal money and then didn't we put 25 million into the general

so so the primary reason you'll see and see the peak of that graph that Mike is showing right now was 2020 so that was we got we did get to a 60-day reserve at that point. Now keep in mind what was happening at that point too. Now, you know, our, you know, that's when our overtime started really going up. Uh, was in like 2020, 2021. Uh, it really started increasing. So, our costs went up drastically, too. So, even though look at I mean, if you look at the green bars on that graph, our fund balances stayed relatively the same. We're at $30 million. We have been uh but our costs that that 30 million is a smaller percentage of our total expenditures. I just really want to emphasize that the driver of what makes up the day's cash on hand calculation is your average daily expenditures divided by your cash balance. So as those expenditures increase, it naturally forces the day's cash on hand down.

I gotcha. Okay. When will the quarter percent be returned to the city? When will we stop do when we stop setting aside that quarter percent for the schools and it'll go back to the city? Is that Yeah. So in 2033 so when we put the quarter% tax on for the schools uh all of the bonds that we issued for the schools uh so it sunseted in 2033. So all of the bonds that we issued for that uh had a final maturity of 2033. So that that quarter% will go away uh in 2033. So in six years the city will have more revenue. Okay. Thanks.

Uh last question on page 14, the service contracts um being what we spent in 2025, it's more than doubled. What would that uh mean? What would that encompass for the citywide administration budget service contract? So the citywide So in 2000 are you saying in in 2024 uh 2025 it was we spent 830,000 and then now we're budgeting 1.8 million. Yeah.

So in this number uh and it's kind of a wide variety some of it is is stuff that is regular uh to that. So we have we have our uh some legal costs that's about $60,000. We have our indigent burials that's h 100,000 that's always there. Uh the afterchool program $250,000 that's always there. Uh we have an insurance consultant uh for $100,000. We have our building security which is $220,000. So that's the Sarrento group that is downstairs. Uh the increases are from a couple things really. So we have uh the youth success summit is in for half a million dollars. Uh we have this is where we're paying the undue medical debt that we just talked about that it would just went out that uh they've retired about $20 million of debt. So that's $170,000 that's in there. And then uh project play $175,000. And then one thing I didn't mention the other day when we were having the discussion with the uh citizens police oversight board. So they mentioned that they included the software cost in their budget proposal that so there was a $100,000 in this budget which we put in last year

and then they ended up not buying the software and that 100,000 is also in this budget. So are they so those are those are the primary items that make up that number this year. Are they going to buy the software this year? Didn't they? That is my understanding. And we give them a data analyst or half a data analyst or whatever also. So correct. Yeah. But they didn't buy the software. They didn't buy the software. Okay. All right. Um, any other questions? We good. Sorry it took so much time. People charge it up. Pizza. All right. I think that's it. So, uh, thank you very much,

Mr. Fricker. Mr. Mr. Wheeler. Thanks everybody from the finance team. All right.

Sure. Yeah, it it is on our website. I mean, I will say that it's uh the the AI Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's an easy one.