City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we will call committee of the whole to order. Um, without objection, I'm going to excuse the absence of Councilwoman Hamilton Steiner. Um, since, as you all know, um, she served on Charter Review Commission. She has recused herself from the conversation about the charter amendments. And since that is the bulk of tonight's conversation, um, she has opted out of abundance of caution not to attend. Um, and then next, I will move to approve the minutes of the May 11th committee of the whole without the necessity of a reading.

So moved.

Uh, motion's made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Okay. So, as indicated my preamble tonight, we're talking charter amendments. Um, potential charter amendments. We have already voted two out of committee back favorably back to full counsel. Um, most of the ones remaining tonight have some tie in to rank choice voting save for redistricting. Um so it really makes sense to start off with talking about rank choice voting uh because our decision there may affect how we want to move forward with or not with the others. So as I'm sure you've all read my lengthy communication and in detail about how these are all interconnected. Um but so starting with the rank choice voting one we have um when charter review commissions the final report recommended uh asked us to put an uh an amendment on the ballot potentially that would um give council the option to adopt if adopted by the voters would give council the option to adopt rank choice v uh voting through via ordinance or resolution. Uh we had conversation about that in previous committee of the whole uh when we talked with the law department and looked at the um the opinion from the legislative services center about uh whether or not that option while I believe the charter review commission intended that to be give council the mo actually it said to give council the most flexibility um that was before SB63 passed and uh that legislative opinion would suggest that should council adopt by ordinance or

resolution that it would in fact uh trigger SP63 which could threaten local funding. So that is why so but that language as essentially recommended by the charter review commission um just so that we could compare apples to apples is put forward in ordinance 272026. And then because we had that opinion about um that it would potentially be less risky if council wanted to move forward to have it uh rank choice voting directly adopted by voters via charter amendment from the directly by the voters with um so ordinance 212026 presents it that way uh with um and includes a severability clause that would make it null and void should um essentially the language of SB63 as well as um or if they it would be found non-constitutional. So those are two potential um ways to move forward. There are others. Um so one that is not drafted currently would be to um essentially uh again go directly to the voters via charter amendment but uh that it would not go into effect until SB63 is repealed. So that would be kind of an option three. So instead of saying it's severability, it would just not go into effect. And then option four would be to wait um until after uh maybe the November election, which would allow us to see shifts in the legislative and legal landscape, more time for public dialogue and engagement prior to a charter vote. So those are four options as I see them about this this moment. And I'll pause there and

allow council members um to chime in. Councilman B. Thanks, Madam Chair. So, first, thanks for putting so much work into all of these um and for being clear and organized. Um before talking about rank choice voting, are do do you anticipate tonight that we're going to have time for some of the others on the agenda or is tonight mostly about first topic?

I think that depends how quickly um we determine. If we if this body has no interest in moving forward with anything at this time, then we can start working on the other ones or we know how we would we we know what we need to do with the other ones. If it's we want to contemplate one of um what I'm going to call option one or two um or three, then um we'll probably need to spend more time on that because we won't know the other ones. For instance, the one about the um elected position salaries has timing related to primary or not. So the language of that would be affected. This is all laid out in that extremely long communication, but um several of the other ones. So what the specific language of those are would be affected by whether or not there's a primary. So that would potentially have implications on what we decide with rank choice voting. That answers your question. the um the redistricting one is not necessarily connected. So we we if we have time to talk about that, we could move on to that as well.

So and and while while I've got you. So the four options are uh I would say option one, ordinance 212026. That's the one that was um where it would be adopted directly by the voters into the charter with a severability clause. Option two would be ordinance 27206 for charter to allow council to adopt an ordinance resolution in the future if we wanted to

which is what the charter review commission recommended. Um but they again they recommended that before SB63 and then after we had the committee of the whole where we thought that may um essentially automatically trigger SB63 and then three would be it's not drafted but the idea being that it's adopted directly by charter should SB63 be repealed. So it only goes into effect if that's repealed or option four is wait and um look at this in the future. And how are how are one and three different?

Uh one is it goes into effects but the severability clause and actually I might turn to the law department this but how I what I would understand as a severability clause like it goes into effects but the severability clause would negate it whereas uh trigger law one would be it would not go into effect until SP3 was repealed. So if voters said yes we want to do this. So if you think about this with some of the um like some states have the abortion laws where if yeah that trigger laws. So it it's it can't be in effect because it's in violation of you know um

okay so so one and three are similar but with important differences similar concepts but but a little mechanical differences that are worth talking about. Okay. other council members. Vice President Baker.

Yeah. F I, you know, I want to say thank you, President Couple, for spending a tremendous amount of time on on the charter review things. Um, it's very important as, as we've talked about before. You know, it's essentially our city constitution. It's the one thing that goes before all the voters. And so, we have to think about, you know, what we want to make so it can't be changed very easily. Um, so I appreciate the thought of care that's gone into it. As I've kind of gone down this journey of rank choice voting, it's appealing to me for a lot of reasons. Um, the one which I think is most persuasive to folks I talk to in the community is that a primary in September is very um the community typically doesn't know about it. uh it's it's typically extremely low v voter turnout and it requires um a lot of paperwork at a time when people are just get back to school other things are going on. So in in in a lot of ways I saw rank choice voting I think it has a lot of positives beyond this but I think it creates some simplicity in municipal elections. Um where you basically have an instant runoff and you have no need for a primary election. Um, that said, and and I like that Lakewood is is progressive and that we're uh living our values. I I do not want to use our budget that could go to paving roads and, you know, making new parks into defending litigation about rank choice voting, nor do I think any of these options are going to put us down that road. Uh but I just you know so which is why we're taking such care with the different versions we have and the potential ones we can go with um w with in in light of what the state's doing and I I don't know um that it will change and I guess the and so I'm I'm legitimately weighing all these and I don't know what to do. Uh I think about what the charter commission originally proposed which was before we have a lot of facts that we have does leave it to

council essentially it's a council action um whereas our election process previously were charter driven uh that does potentially put us in a spot of a future council deciding that they want to take on that litigation risk. Um so we need to think about that. Uh I would certainly fight veheimmently against us taking on that litigation risk as a council person today. This charter will live with future councils. So it just won't be us. Um the trigger one uh is is appealing although that does set up some practicalities of like when exactly it's repealed and then its effective date and then when it's so I I could see some problems just like on the ground and logistical about that. Um, but it just makes me so darn mad that the state won't let us govern our own affairs. Um, you know, as as to how we elect our leaders. Uh, so I'm I'm open to what my colleagues have to say about it. I'm kind of leaning towards what the charter review I'm leaning towards what the charter review recommended or nothing. uh as I think where I'm at um as I consider all these things and I I feel bad saying that President Couple because I know you spent a lot of time drafting a lot of different versions of this uh it's important it's it's very important um but I think that's where I'm at um because I don't want to put us in a situation where you know the charter requires something that the state repeals and then we're kind of racing against time filing deadlines could have come and passed who who knows what would have happened uh Okay. And I I come back to the, you know, I I trust the voters of the city and I trust who they put in these seats. U so I trust that the future councils among us will act appropriately. Uh or at least act with the with the wishes that the public has of them. Uh which I think is a better way to put it. Um so that's where I'm in between doing nothing and and doing what Charter

Review Commission initially recommended. But can be persuaded on this issue and and all minds can disagree as well. Thank you. Yeah. And I, you know, I'll just add that um, you know, I think the charter review commission put a lot of I know they did put a lot of time and thought into um, making this recommendation um, but not knowing exactly how the sands would shift under our feet uh, with that. So, I just want to be clear about that in that I would tend to agree with a lot of the points raised by them about how rank choice voting as a tool um you know can lead to more uh civic dialogue rather than uh candidates attacking each other. We saw that New York uh with the mayoral race there. Um it can lead to by reducing not having the primary. It can um it can reduce cost both the municipality and to candidates which can allow for um more diverse group of candidates to run. Um it gives people the opportunity to obviously rank their choices so that you know you don't have to think oh am I throwing my vote away on this candidate that might be a long shot because you still got your choices. So there's I as a concept am a big supporter of rank choice voting. Um but and uh Vice President Baker, don't feel bad about I I put these all together because I find it easier when we're talking about these things if you say, "Do you support this? It's what is this?" Um is this rank choice voting as a concept? Is it this specific um legislative strategy? Is it what is it? So um that's why I spent the time out of mostly respect for all the time the charter review commission put in um to make sure that we really have thoughtful dialogue about this. Um and because it does potentially uh our decision affects not only the other charter amendments um but it also you

know as you mentioned the potential for litigation other council members. Uh Councilman Evans.

Uh thank you chair. Um I agree with so much stuff that's been said from my colleagues up here um to this point. I'm probably I'm leaning slightly different than uh Councilman Baker and more to the amending the charter um putting it to the voters um because you're right. I I I do trust our voters. This is an important moment in time and I understand there's any number of risks on the table, but this is one of those moments where I completely agree. I it's just it's so aggravating that we're home rule states and and not allowed to like municipalities are not allowed to act in that way. And um this is I I feel that this just kind of putting a foot down moment for me. Um and I'm happy to have this dialogue. Um but um excited to see where this goes and interested to hear all my my colleagues opinions.

Thank you. Council members, council member Stri.

Sure. Thank you. Um, yes, I'm I'm absolutely in agreement with rank choice voting and I don't know that frustration captures how I feel about um um this legislation that that's coming out of the state. Think of a couple other words that I'll be happy to share with you at another time. Um, I think they've tied our hands again and I I can't see us moving forward with anything that could risk any of the financial aspects of this city. Um, having said that, I I appreciate the efforts and the consideration President Couple of of putting um processes in place so that if that was ever changed that we could then act on that. But I think that this council could always then act on that. And I think that if we were to go forward with putting anything in place, they would just come after us again and without the support of other cities or other organizations. And I'm hoping that there's going to be some national pressure uh somewhere from from national organizations, but to go after this on our own, I don't know that that that's wise. Thank you, President Keull, and thank you for all your leg work you did with this. Um, you know, I too want to concur that that I I do see um the value of rank choice voting. And I I think one of my favorite parts about it is it it has the opportunity to increase voter engagement, voter turnout from multiple angles. Um, one being by eliminating the

need for multiple elections, you're therefore encouraging better turnout at your primary election or at your general election. and two being that um um as some others have said that because your um your vote will feel like it matters more and there's less um of this mindset that you're you're wasting a vote um that that too should incentivize people to vote. So I I like how there it has multiple layers of um encouraging higher voter turnout. Um and and to your point, President Keell, I also see real value in that it encourages more civil campaigning and and that's um that that's been borne out in a in um in other places where it's it's already in place where um you know because you know if if if second is is a viable outcome then there's less of this inclination from politicians to you know um go scorch to earth and um on an opponent. And so, you know, I I see value all around for rank choice voting. Um I I don't know what the right solution is. I I I see um the the options that I see appeal in in a variety of options. Um but I do also at the end of the day, I realize that um are, you know, assessment of risk is is certainly a a strong consideration here as well. So, um I guess what I'm trying to say is I I'm I'm a supporter of rank choice voting. Um, but I' I'd be lying if I said I knew what was the right option here right now.

Thank you. Um, so Councilman Bulock,

thanks. Thanks, Madam Chair. Um, couple thoughts. The, um, so, um, there's kind of the substance of of rank choice voting and the process um, that we're we're kind of stuck in right now. Um, and I I'm trying to like make a little chart for myself to organize my thoughts. So, first of all, I want to um thank and respect some members of the public who spent a lot of time with me afterwards such that we turn off the lights ourselves. Uh, and that's um Chris Bindle, Barb, I think it's Michelle, and then Dean, my friend, whom I also appointed to the charter commission, uh, is a big believer and a very thoughtful discussant. Um, so I respect um, your views and the time you're putting in to educate me. I also, it sounds like some some of my colleagues feel very passionately about this. I want to respect that. I guess I'd like to just share my thoughts without emotion or politics. Just straight up. Here's kind of where my my thinking is. first um of the arguments in favor of rank choice voting the two that that seem strongest to me would be u increase civility and if it's if it bears out increased voter turnout I could see how that could be the case I part of me wonders is that for sure the known like will those sales pitches uh actually bear out I would be hopeful but I guess I'd like to study that a little bit more um I'm uh also So a little cons little c conservative or cautious about charter changes in the in the sense that what we're proposing is to introduce a process reform as part of the charter that could have side effects or unknown effects. And I remember uh term limits and similar pro uh similar process changes like bianial budgeting or

zerobased budgeting the line item veto. These were 1980s 1990s process reforms. Some are voting, some are not. That were hoped to be silver bullets to fix problems with our entrenched political system. Worthy efforts, but I'm not sure that any one of them alone, you know, has really worked and in in term limits are notorious in kind of adding problems as many as you removed. Um, so now I think that's a subjective argument that I'm putting forward. Others would argue right in the verse. So part of me wonders is would we be introducing an unknown with good intentions that could then basically change the game theory of voting and have a sideways effect that we don't anticipate. And because we're talking about the charter, which is the highest table stakes or the highest ante possible, you know, I I advocate all the time for sustainability or or different issues like safe walking to school. So, for sure, I fight for the values that I um uh uh believe in and also I hear from my residents. So, it's very legitimate for us to put forward, you know, concepts and proposals that we believe in and we think would do good. The highest scrutiny though is the charter change, right? So, part of what I'd like to see is is more extensive support in the community about this pretty arcane process change. I know that there are respectful, thoughtful, um, well- readad member, you know, group of leaders in our community put this forward, but I I I don't think that it's an issue that's come up when I'm talking to voters at the park or a block party or doornocking or something like that. They're they're worried about other things, not this

one. Okay? Now, that doesn't mean they couldn't, but I feel a little cautious about me recommending to all Lakewood voters that we should for sure change the charter. It would be a lower bar for me if it was an ordinance or resolution, which as others have pointed out is precisely the avenue that the state has handcuffed us on. So I like Councilman Bickstein, I don't have a a solution there, but um so you know I I also agree that we shouldn't be risking our budget. I think the severability I think on paper would fix that. I'm cautious though about antagonizing or dancing on the line. I'm remembering my days as a minor league baseball clubhouse manager and the batting coaches when the they'd get in a spat with the umpire. The umpire would say, "Stay on that side of the line." And they would, but they'd put their toe over the line and they would never put the foot down, but they would have fun with the umpire a little bit. Are we doing that as a city if we're, you know, if we're engaging in this direct conflict? Now, the state should not be doing this. Let's be clear. And also, I think the state is getting into a partisan battle because of an Alaska outcome. This is a nonpartisan change, but it's become a partisan um fight and and the the the political parties, in fairness, both political parties love to get into food fights and this has now enveloped this issue as well. So, there's that. Um, so I'm also meandering a little bit. I I guess there's a board of elections official here. I get one question would be if we were to move into this territory, how might we be prepared with our county board of elections to be successful

now or in the future is one question. Um to to me the biggest thing to get me to a strong yes would be if if we have a little bit more community dialogue in a broader concentric circle than we've had the opportunity to do to date. So, um, with respect to my colleagues and the citizens, I hope that's been a transparent and clear, um, if long- winded statement. Thanks.

Thank you. Yeah. Um, so touching on that, um, in terms of the community dialogue, I think is a a key component here. So just thinking through um you know a lot of what I end up doing is keeping trains running and making sure we're so as we keep communicating that the deadline for these um any of the amendments that we do want to put to voters for the November election is September 5th. So we and as we discussed the last council meeting, we're planning to go in recess in August, which means we would need to have any of these amendments completed um the actual language done and passed by twothirds of this body by the last meeting in July or call a special meeting. Um so which um may be challenging to do with everybody's schedules. So, working backwards from that, we really don't have very many more meetings um because we would the next time we could have community the whole um most likely would be wouldn't be till June 15th. Um and then we'd only have a few weeks uh to work on this. So, um, so just thinking backwards from that, the other thing is, uh, process-wise, so, uh, to Councilman Bulock's point about what would need to happen. So, whatever amendments we put forward, I would expect that we would want certainly want to work to make sure the public understands what those amendments do. Um, but with this one, we have the extra level of potentially needed to explain what rank choice voting is. So, um, to Councilman Bulock's point, um, you know, we may not have broad members of the public clamoring for rank choice voting at this time, but they tell us about it in other ways, right? It's like they don't necessarily um, a lot of members of the public don't realize that um, I'm sure there's still plenty of people, the members of the public don't realize that the Supreme Court has gutted the Voting

Rights Act, but they are sure going to care when their communities are affected, right? and that they won't necessarily know what the Voting Rights Act did or would do before it was passed. Um but uh we're certainly affected by that and um you know their their voice is being heard. So there I don't think you know I wouldn't say that rank choice voting is the silver bullet solution that will solve all of our problems but doesn't mean that we don't try to make things better. Um but we do but it is a lift that we folks a lot of folks don't know really what it is how it works. you know, we've gone through how many meetings for this body to become more educated on it. Um, and then there would be explaining the specific charter amendment. The other concern I have is with options one, two, or three. Um, well, particularly if we go what the charter review commission recommended, um, which was a sleek solution to try to work around. Um, but if we were to put that on the ballot and then the voters adopt it and then it's it's being their their will to have rank choice voting is being blocked by this body rather than by the state house which is really the entity that is blocking their um their choice. So that could cause both confusion and frustration um and put us just right back where we would have to choose between listening to the will of the voters um and threatening local funding um or threatening local funding. So it is a very unfortunate and extremely frustrating and uh whatever word Councilwoman Strebig was thinking of more than frustrating um situation that the state house has put us in. Um, so with that, I know we do have some members of the public that wanted to speak on this, so I want to make sure we

have time to hear from them. Um, did any other council members want to comment on any more on this at this time? Madam President? Yes, um, I just uh would like to uh ask if uh Director Pearlott of the board of elections uh could come up and talk a little bit. I think the information that he has is uh I think would be very helpful for the public for council members to understand what sort of implementation would look like from the board of elections. So he's with us here today. Sure. Um Dr. Pott is entitled to his five minutes. So come on up. You push the button so it turns green and we can hear from

How's that? Great. Uh hello, I am uh Tony Perlott, director of the Ka County Board of Elections and good evening and I just want to make a few comments about rank choice voting. Um the board of elections, Ka County Board of Elections is not for or against rank choice voting. We will try to conduct uh what is required of us. But I do want everyone to understand that um Kyhoga County as well as the other 87 counties don't conduct rank choice elections now. We're not familiar with them and our equipment currently as is can't conduct that election. So um we need to get software updates and uh our voting systems are certified systems. So the tabulation system, the scanners you use at the poll places, the ADA machines, what we use to lay out the ballot, tabulate the ballot, that's your election management system. That's certified equipment that needs to go through and be certified by Secretary of State's office. Now in Kyhoga, we use a product called Clear Ballot, and they do conduct rank choice elections in other states. um they just did recently go for a certification and it looks like there may be the ability with this equipment that we could in the future implement. However, it would come with a cost because it's not something that's included and we don't know what that cost is. So, that would have to be purchased um through the vendor which that cost may be passed on to the municipality as it would be the only one using that. Um there are a lot of unknowns with rank choice voting um with current law and secretary of state directives that would have to be answered and those would have to be answered either through the legislature or through the secretary of state's office such as on election night we post

the unofficial results. Those don't include provisional ballots or valid post-election absentee ballots that were able to count. those get certified in the official certification which is 21 days later. So my assumption is um when we certified 21 days later what we would be certifying in a ring choice is the first round results not ultimately who had won because at that point we would have all the ballots potentially that would be in play the provisionals the post elections. then we would have to engage on the process of um eliminating and adding and going through that process. The state would need to answer for us too at what point do um recounts come into that. Is it after we certify the first round or is it anywhere later on? Things that we don't know that we can't answer. So, we would have to get those things answered. The other thing that we would hope to have is a long runway to implement. So a little bit of chatter that we've heard from other communities is that you need a few years to get people educated up. So for example, in a multiple vote for which Lakewood currently has for at large. Now you just pick the three individuals you want. In rank choice, you actually have to pick who you want first, who you want second, who you want third. Our understanding is if you put all three as your first choice, that's an over vote. And so if you go to the polls on election day, your ballot will get kicked back and you can remake that. But if you vote that way and you send it in by mail, that contest won't count. So that person doesn't get another chance to do that. With extensive training, hopefully you get voters up to speed so they understand that. The other thing we would have to consider too is layout of the ballot. Rank choice is a grid. We currently don't do that. We're required to put the instructions on the ballot for how you vote. So with a rank choice ballot and if there was other items and

I go back I think to last year's Lakewood ballot you'd have one ballot sheet that would handle the rank choice contest that you would have because it have those instructions. Then I think we have to go to a new sheet a new side and relist instructions on how to vote for example on the issue because it has different rules and so you need to be clear to the voters in that regard. the bigger the thing is, you could potentially push to a multi-page ballot more than we do. And there is a cost associated with that that gets passed on to the uh to Lakewood. And so we want to make sure that some of those things are known. I think that there is this ability um to do things differently, but we don't know how to do these things at this point. We can't answer all those things because we need either legislative action or secretary of state directive to help us get that clarity. And I think at the start it causes more confusion than not, but eventually they get it. And that's where that long runway of education on Lakewood educating their voters how this works and how they'll be voting in two different ways depending on whether it's a rank choice or not. That needs to happen. So, thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate it and appreciate you being here. Madam Chair, if I um could ask a couple questions um of director Prolott, um can you talk a little bit about the software and what would be needed to get the software cost associated?

Yes. So for our software, we would have to reach out to Clear Ballot, our vendor, get pricing on what would it take to get the software to put on the main management system to be able to lay out the ballot, tagulate the ballot. Then also what if any firmware changes would have to happen to the individual scanners because the scanners have another piece of software that goes on to be able to read um those ballot markings. um because it would be laid out a little bit differently from your traditional um pattern that we have now. So, those were costs that the vendor they haven't given us those costs. we would have to work with them to see what they are as well as if there's anything that we would have to do uh results reporting wise to be able to report um I I guess we could do who got the most votes and and those types of things but I don't you know how what other would have to happen I don't know how you do that because you are reporting I think different items and I don't know how that would work so we would have to get their clarity Um they've like I said they do one or two jurisdictions but not a lot.

And who would be responsible for paying those costs? I believe we would pass those costs on to the municipality. And then can you talk a little bit about um uh how the ballot would be laid out? Um you know school board is my understanding would be uh is dictated through state law. So that would be separate from any sort of council, mayor, judge. Can you talk a little bit about how that would work?

Sure. So for your and that's kind of where I tried to hit on a little bit about the layout of the ballot. So the um the state the secretary of state tells us the order in which the contests appear on the ballot and that's how we have to present them. So and it rotates um through different years and how we do things um through the secretary of state's office. So you have to have the instructions for how you vote to the contest. So for a school board, it would have how it reads. Now you have that first column where it gives you your instructions and how you vote that ballot and then you have your contest that would apply to that. So then if you came across a rank choice, which is a grid, we would um start then on a new page have a new set of instructions that would be laid out for how you mark your ballot in the rank choice environment. So we would then have that page and you'd have that um contest and then let's say that you go back then to an issue you then may need to revert back another page have the instructions again and then um have that contest there. So that was where again we would need clarity from the secretary of state's office but that I think the intent is you have the instructions then this is how you vote on it and when that changes you need to put new instructions and then that and then if it goes back again because if you go from candidate to a different type of candidate selection method and then to issues you need to clarify that and I think that would happen on a fresh side of a sheet each time to not have confusion. I think that's the only way you could do it as the instructions do take not the entirety but most of the first column on the ballot. So that then can push say from we call it a ballot sheet ballot pages aside. So one sheet is two pages.

It could go then from um for example from a one sheet two page to a two sheet three-page ballot. Um so then that extra sheet then again there's cost with that. we use a third party vendor to print and then we get charged for each ballot sheet that we use. Um so we would need to have that to have less confusion for the voters by making sure that all the appropriate instructions are there to correspond with those contests that follow after it.

Then my my final question is what happens to the ballots that someone doesn't fill out correctly with uh with your example they don't rank or they forget to rank? What happens with those ballots?

Um, it depends on if the voting is completed on election day or early in person versus voting by mail. When you use a ballot scanner early in person or at the polls on election day, you have what the oper you have what a second chance voting is. And so this is where if you overvote currently if you were to overvote a contest you put that in the machine will say you overvoted and it will tell you what the contest is and then it asks you the question do you want to um accept the ballot as marked or do you want it to be returned to which then you can go soil your ballot and get a new ballot. So at the polls and early in person, you have that opportunity on the over vote. An undervote that just gets taken into the machine. It doesn't give the voter the opportunity to do that. In a vote by mail environment, there is no machine that the voter uses. It's our central count system down at the board. And so when we have a overvote um that happens that gets noted and that then just gets removed from consideration in the tabulation. So if you have five things on the ballot, one thing is overvoted the one item is not counted the other four do get tabulated and that's what we report. So, in a rank choice environment, um I think if you don't mark everything, that would probably I'm assuming be an undervote, which would go through. But I think as soon as you put two marks in the same column, whether you want two people as your first choice, second choice, that now becomes an overvote. Uh because you can only have one indication in that column. So then that would not get counted. And I think what would take voters the longest is the vote for more than one where now you don't have to rank um who you want on that vote for more than one. If I like three of you

equally then I mark all of you. In that situation you can't do that anymore. I like who do I like the best? Who do I like second? Third. Like in Lakewood it's a vote for three. You have to do that. If they put happen to put two people in that first column or second column that's an overvote. That wouldn't count. So, it's a matter of education, getting people to understand that. Um, and there's nothing you can do because once that ballot comes, um, we get it, we take it out of the identification envelope, we remove the stub, it's neutral, we don't know whose it is anymore, and then it goes in the scanner, and then at that point, we know. So, um, again, that's where the long runway, if you're going to do something like that, is to help educate people since, especially since they may be flip-flopping between, um, different contests that are laid out on the ballot.

Thank you. Um, any other questions from council members for director Pott?

Yep. So, thanks thanks Director Prolotti for being here and for um the the detail. It's it's helpful to think this through. Um sounds like there's a fair bit of complexity. Um, I expect you're going to say say no to the following, but if if the county changed it countywide, would that uh make it more efficient and cheaper by the dozen, so to speak, or the county would not be able to affect all of the local elections? I think you're going to tell me. So uh so you just for clarity a Kyoga County charter if that charter were to adopt rank choice voting then that cost I think would be borne across the jurisdictions that utilize it and the county being countywide and they would that that would apply to which pro that the challenge is is probably only going to apply to county offices but not local school districts, local courts and municipal governments. You know, cuz KY like Lakewood, Kyoga County, the executive, the council, that's a charter government.

Okay. So, where everyone the commissioners are statutory, they're charter.

Would it be a little less confusing that in Lakewood's example if the at large, which are pick three, pick your top three, which is a good point you've raised that I didn't think about. Um, we're not pick three in one pool, but three separate seats that you'd vote for in a siloed manner. A little bit like for courts of common please judges you're voting for not a pool but this seat this seat this seat and then you have a a zero sum game for each of those different seats. That would then at least make the ballot complexity and the game theory of the voters's choice a little less involved. Right. What I think in that scenario those now become three separate contests in which candidates would have to submit petitions for a particular office. So where common please judges they are going with a lot of those have a one day off com uh commencement date. It would be the same thing. So let's say you had the three at large. If those are three contests you are now um submitting petition paperwork. We'll just say for at large A.

Mhm. And then people who want to run against that are doing that they would not be able to run for at large B. That would be another separate filing with a different person and maybe different candidates want to go. So it wouldn't be you would have three distinct sets. It would be three different offices. It would be just as if you were voting for the wards even though they're elected at they would be elected at large amongst the whole city but each one would be an independent contest that would have independent candidates and a candidate wouldn't be able to apply for more than one of those offices. What's interesting and that doesn't exist today, but that your your discussion prompted that thought, you know, and as far as the I mean, one of the merits in favor of rank choice voting is the potential to increase voter turnout. It sounds though that there's a risk that the complexity would be a barrier for some um until there would was a pretty significant investment and of acclamation period of several years so that the overvote problem and the confusion doesn't become a barrier. I'm sure other jurisdictions have done it but um so but but these are things to think about. Um, and you know, as just one more observation, I think the traditional notion that voters sit elections out because they're disaffected because all elected officials and all government um is a negative thing. Why would I bother? I'm not sure that that's a factor for local municipal elections. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but that's typically for governor and higher office um levels. The challenge for us to get voter turnout for the city is just hey pay attention in in general. I don't know that people are typically failing to vote in their municipal election because of disaection. So I I mean it's a good it's a good

sentiment, but I don't know. It it seems as if we we'd be adding complexity that we'd need to responsibly position ourselves to overcome if we were to have um a new way of voting here, you know. So anyway, I appreciate the the detail. Um I'm learning as we go here. I'm thinking out loud. That's probably a dangerous habit. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, I'm not sure the data actually bears out about the over votes. Um but that's neither here nor there um at this moment since we haven't decided we're doing this. But um I did want to ask uh Director Polardi in terms of actual data rather than um the what is the cost of adding a sheet to a ballot? What is what does each sheet cost? I would have to get back to you with that that actual cost. And um how much does a primary election cost?

Um so the way that we bill elections is on a precinct basis. And so it's uh $3,000 a precinct is what the general cost is. Um that then gets impacted by the participation rate in vote by mail. Um whereas we print a set amount of ballots for the polls, the vote by mail is printed on an ongoing uh as requested basis. So we that impacts as well as our goal is to hire four pole workers per precinct. Uh depending on what the election is and how excited people are, um it can either be difficult or easy to get that. And so, um, for example, this past May, I think we were only able to get it 3.3 workers per precinct on average. So, that brought down cost a little bit. Um, so it all depends, but then in a better uh like a this November, we'll probably be able to hit that mark. So, there's some things like that that impact the cost. Um, but on general we we the formula that we go through a secretary of state's worksheet, it bears out to be uh like $3,000 per precinct.

And I should know this, but how many precincts are in liquid? Um, if I could have known the answer to that. Um, my our longest serving council member just said 37, so I'm going to take him at his word for that. Um, okay. And um, so thank you. I don't have any other questions at this time. Do any other council members have questions for Director Polardi before we get to um hearing from residents? Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, and I will just I'll just add too in terms of the conversation around runway. Um, I just pulled up uh I think they're slightly different just because they were drafted at different times, but ordinance 212026, which is the one uh with the um where it's adopted directly by charter would not go into effect until the January 2029 election. So there there's would be significant time. All right. So, um, on this topic, let me, uh, I don't have my sheet, but I can see people, so I'm assuming Chris Bindle would like to speak on this. Is that an accurate assumption? Come on up.

Oh, push your push your button so you're on.

All right. Turned off. Uh, thank you for making the point about the primary because that was uh, top of mind to me. So, 37 uh, precincts around 3,000 each. we're looking north of $100,000 for a primary, unless I did my math wrong. Um, so I I I somehow don't think that's going to uh overtake how much it is to print an extra page per ballot. I I think we're pretty good on that. Uh likewise talking about uh the added costs to upgrade the system and things like that. It'll be a big maybe uh upfront cost, but again if we're saving $100,000 from a primary every year or two, I think that'll help eat out that cost pretty quickly. Um, as for uh not being familiar with rank choice voting, um I don't think uh that's a great excuse for us to not move forward and make progress. Like let's educate ourselves and learn how to do these things uh if we think it's going to make things better. Um also there are other communities that have uh their other places that do this. So, we have plenty of people that we can ask how they run their elections. Let's not just say it's too difficult, we can't do it. Let's get the information. Um, as far as uh errored ballots, there are errored ballots in every single election. That's that's not something that you're ever going to get rid of. Um yeah, it might be slightly more confusing for people who are starting with these new ballots, but uh as far as having different instructions on one ballot, um most of us have taken surveys and on surveys there's more than one way you have to answer a question. Uh each each page or whatever question gives you the explanation of how you're supposed to answer that question. People can do that. Is there going to be confusion? Maybe there will be, but there's confusion now. So I I you're not going

to ever eliminate it. Again, it's not an excuse to avoid progress. Um as far as the certification goes, uh like the 21 days later, I don't think that's first round because once again, we have places all over the country and the world who are doing this who give same night results like we do all other elections. So now just like now the elections we have, those are unofficial. So with rank choice voting, you're still giving unofficial uh uh numbers that day, but they usually like today are still pretty accurate as once you add in all the other uh provisional ballots and things like that. So I I don't think that's a good argument. Um, stepping back from that and going back to your conversation at the start. Um, sorry, I have to look back on my notes because I was distracted by the other points. Um, I I I appreciate you adding the um the options three and four as well. Those are good things to also consider. Um, going back to option one, I think there was a little confusion in a conversation up there that like option one and three are not exactly the same because option one, if passed, we have rank choice voting. It's not until the state amends the current law that we no longer have rank choice voting. Now, as conversations have been had, that is a high probability to happen. That being said, we have the severability clause to uh protect us, but also that will bring a lot of discussion. I think I if that were to happen, I think that would be a statewide discussion of like the state is specifically attacking this city because they want to have rank choice voting. And I think that is a reasonable thing to do. We'll still be protected by the severability clause, but I think

it's also important to show that we're standing up for what we believe in. Um that being said uh I think if we have to if we are really uh scared about how that will play out. I think option four maybe giving us some more time seeing how things play out in November. Uh we can uh have further discussions do the education piece a lot more thoroughly. Um, right now we we've done some at like community events, but we do need to have some good forums uh to educate the public on what rank choice voting is and what the impact will be in Lakewood. Um, I think that is important um and could really help us. Um, as for option two, personally not a big fan. uh not just because uh it will not work with uh SB63, but also because it will could confuse people. And no offense, I don't want this decision in the hand of council. It's supposed to be in the hand of the people. That's the whole point of having a charter review and having the people vote on this. It's not for you to make decisions how how we vote. It's for the people to decide. So, I'd prefer that we do one of those that actually puts it into our chart. Going back to option one, if it does happen uh that they change the uh the law after we uh pass it on the books uh and for some reason there is litigation whether we want to pursue it or whatever. We do have national partners that are exist to help in those situations and they are looking for those situations. Um I'm not saying we should be seeking to get into a legal fight. I I don't want that. But I don't

think that should be the only reason to avoid this. Um at I can't at one point somebody said something about um you know who asked for this um and you brought up a bunch of people from the community into a charter review committee and asked them what should we do? What should we change about the city? and they said that this was something that they were interested in. So you did ask someone and they prevented and they presented this idea.

I think that covers pretty much what I had. So thank you for your time. Thank you. Um appreciate that. All right. Uh Dean Jackson, you want to come up? I'm I'm assuming you I don't have the signup sheet, but I'm assuming that uh knowing

I'm as surprised to be here as anyone. Um thank you so much members of council. Um members of the administration, Director Potti, uh first I'd like to congratulate the state of Ohio on yet another victory against home rule. Um uh I'm as frustrated as you are with uh the legislature in Columbus. Um I want to speak um for myself as a member of the charter review commission uh and say that when we made this recommendation we were operating in the strategic context of SP very much being debated um very much uh part of the conversation not yet political fact uh but the reason we made the recommendation to give this power to council through a charter amend amendment was because of this possibility of losing local funds. That was our uh our tactic to try and circumvent that. Um I think if you went back and asked my uh colleagues and I I can't speak for them, but I'd encourage you to have you know your own private conversations with those of them you can contact. Um many of them would say they're agnostic to the mechanism and I certainly am agnostic to the mechanism by which um we pursue this or at least create a doorway through which we could pursue this in the future. Uh the concern is um having a path to see whether this is something the community wants um while also not losing local funds. And if it makes sense to uh wait for a better strategic environment, you know, we have um by the grace of God a competitive election in the state of Ohio this year and perhaps a well, we will have a new secretary of state one way or the other. Um things maybe look different in 2027. Likewise, if we wanted to pass something um with a sort of escape hatch clause built in, to Councilman Baker's point, I think it would be really reasonable to build a something like a two-year runway, right?

Like if uh if this law is repealed, then Lakewood shall have the like rank shall institute rank choice voting in uh you know, the next presidential election uh unless that's within one year and then the next presidential election after that. you know, you could you could with elegant language and a little bit more time than I have right now come up with a way to do that. Um there's a ways to delay this tactically. I think um nothing I heard from the um from director Potti was a no, right? There's an upfront investment um in a software upgrade. There are some questions about ballot language, ballot format, some things about certification that need to get worked out with the secretary of state. We can learn from other states that of course don't have the same laws or election official manuals as we do, but there are ways they handle this. We're not operating in a total vacuum. It's certainly possible to certify your results in a timely manner since other municipalities and states in the country managed to do it. Um, these are these seem to me to be surmountable hurdles and I'd um certainly ask public officials and administrators not to make mountains out of moholes molehills when they think about pursuing this if it is something that we pursue. Um, I just want to close real quickly with a um I'm going to quote uh our state senator Nikki Antonio who was initially um of course quite skeptical of rank choice voting but seems to have come around to it. She said that while she initially believes that our state wasn't ready for rank choice voting, she's listened to her constituents who have made clear that this is the best option for them, uh, and she's changing her previous vote, um, in favor of SB62 to stand with those who support rank choice voting in her district and her state. Um, and so, uh, what I ask is that we continue this conversation. um keep our options open, not be uh too stuck in the way we do things now to make investments um to doing things better in the future. Um and that we uh

just continue to evaluate the political context as makes sense. Um but thank you so much for taking these conversations seriously and hearing out all the perspectives today. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you. All right. Uh Michelle, Michelle Jackson,

thank you. Thank you, President Kemp Council. I'm thrilled to see Tony I got to say that's to paraphrase Jay-Z songs. We got 99 problems in the county, but the board of elections ain't one. So, you guys do a heroic job in safeguarding our election. So, thank you. Um, I'm thrilled to be having this conversation because I actually did not know what was going to be talked about, but I felt that this was a time to be talking about the mechanics. And so, I have a binder for you, President Keell, and I wanted to just kind of address a couple things that Director Potti brought up. Um, as you all already know, every 80 all 88 counties in in uh Ohio have machines that are RCB ready. As Director Potti said, we have clear ballot and we are waiting for certification. There's something called the election assistance commission which is a federal agency that came out of a voting act that certifies any sort of software machines all that before they even get out to the states. So our our the I'm sorry, Michelle, can you speak more into the microphone?

I can. Thank you.

The the the upgrade, the software upgrade was um actually certified by the EAS, the Election Assistance Commission at the federal level on 111925. So, that's gone through that hurdle. That's what we need in Kyhoga County. We need that upgrade software. The county occasionally has to upgrade anyway, so that's not something new, but there is a huge education piece with it. So that's done on January of 2026 something called the Board of Voting Systems Examiners in state of Ohio had on their agenda to start reviewing the clear ballot upgrade. Now whether or not they got to it, we don't know because that's a closed meeting, but it is was on their agenda in January of this year because that is the next step and of course it has to go through the state, but but it has to go through this board first. As far as some costs go, I pulled from a recent election in Portland. Um, they had their first RCV election in 2025, but again, I think rank Oh, for those of you who don't know, I'm with rank Ohio and we were invited into this process through the charter review commission. We did not come here to promote or advance it. We came to educate and to make friends. Um, so Portland it I I've we've always maintained in Ranked Ohio that it is a multi-year process that if it was passed yesterday, you're looking at three, four years down the road to have this happen. So no matter when when it gets passed, there's going to be this this lead time that has to happen. It's just built in. So, um, President Keell, I bought brought you like the budget impact for Portland in their first RCV election and they started implica imple implementation in 2023 for 2024. For 2025 and just to give you an example for their additional ballot sheet in 2024, there was no cost. In 2025, it was $313,000. The cost of their upgrade, a one-time cost, was $225,000.

So, some of the costs in this budget you'll see, were one time, and some would be ongoing. Some go up, some go down, but compare that to the cost of a primary. And our primaries, if I'm not mistaken, are countywide. Unless you and then my understanding, and director Prolatti, please correct me. My understanding was that the county was is responsible for the cost of all elections except for special elections and that cost falls to the municipality. So, this would be to my understanding all costs would be covered by the county. Um, we have tons of examples, tons tons, we have 52 municipalities who are using RCV, so we don't have to, we can, you know, look at what they're doing. I know that our that our election boards are not allowed to collaborate with others, but they certainly can do research and have conversations. Um, and so I think this will be helpful to you to just kind of see the cost in in Portland. And also, which I really found one of the biggest things I keep hearing about rank choice voting, it takes forever to get results. Well, in Portland, the election day was 11:5. They had certified results 122 December 2nd. That's by law. They had to have certified results. So, it is possible to do that. And yes, there are all these contingencies that we currently have now on our ballots. Um, but it is it's a matter of education. There's a substantial amount in this budget for education, but again, it's it's heavy towards up through your first election and then it kind of waines off after that. Um, and finally, I just wanted to kind of I'm going to leave you guys with I like this piece from Clear Ballot. That's the manufacturer of our of our voting machines. And I like it because it's really simple. It's written for voters and for election officials. So, it doesn't have all the oh, it helps with this, it helps with that. It just says this is how it works. And I think that even for me as someone who's dealing with this every day, I like the layout, the explanation. In the case of Lakewood, you were talking about potentially a form of RCV that is proportional or multi- multi- winner

multimemember districts, which would be your atlarge. For your wards, it would be a different system. Um, one other thing I'd like to say is that our machines currently um and I I highlighted this clear ballot machines after the software upgrade can produce a ballot with both RCV and nonRCV races. So, that is important. And when you talk about cost, but it really should not cost a municipality. We don't pay for the for primaries unless you have a special election and but I could be wrong on that. Director Potty, I know will correct me at some point. Thank you. Thank you. Did we have anyone else who wish to speak on the um rank choice voting? Nope. Okay. All right. Um All right. We have just a few minutes left in committee of the whole. Um any council members um further comments on this specific topic before we look at some of the others? So um thank you to everyone for your thoughtful comments and um information. Um so as we said at the beginning of this committee meeting uh we do have other uh charter amendments that are still before us in committee that are connected to our decision regarding rank choice voting. Um the ordinance 162026 which is the salaries of elected officials. um currently that one uh or the way it is currently written in um the chart of I'm going to pull up my communication because I laid this all out, but so if if that if we were to eliminate the primary, we would want to adjust the dates in there. Um I think the way it's drafted, it says from the filing deadline. So it would actually you could you could leave that filing deadline would shift if there isn't a primary. And then we also have the

council appointment process. That's ordinance 172026. So that one was the one where the charter view commission um looked at how council vacancies are filled uh and recommended codifying our what we've essentially been doing the entire time since I've been on council, which is when we have a council vacancy that we put out a public um call for applicants. uh some sometimes we narrow down that applicant pool and then do public uh interviews uh before that appointment. So they suggest that we codify that in the charter because currently the charter says council shall appoint but there is no process laid out um just to get some of those norms in place. as we've seen at the federal level in particular, but also in the states um that some things that we've thought could live on forever as norms have been uh taken advantage of. So codifying them can protect our democratic processes. And then we also have the ward redistricting which is ordinance 192026. Um, since we only have about 15 minutes, I thought maybe we could talk a little bit more about ward redistricting since we talked about that previously in committee of the whole. And I think we reached um a fair amount of consensus on the how we wanted to address that. We just need to kind of tweak the language. Does that sound like a good plan?

Council B. Madam President, um so I'm going to my list of uh ordinance numbers here. So on the I'd be happy to support a motion tonight or soon on the process the the proposed charter amendment recommending that the council appointment process be codified in the manner that you described. That to me seems straightforward, non-controversial. So happy to support that. whenever a votes called um on the redistricting proposal. I al I think that's a good and responsible spirit and letter to the law. I I do hear some of my colleagues who are concerned about district lines changing in a manner that then zones them out of their current seat. I don't have a solution for that and didn't attempt to craft one in between meetings. I I did share language uh by email the last time that I feel pretty strongly about which would be that you'd require any ward boundary to include the northern and the southern end of the city rather than rather than you could do four quadrants and then that would change the socioeconomics mix. Um, so instead what we'd be talking about is if the language I'm suggesting were to be included would be keeping more or less the same shape of the four wards, but you'd have the ability to update the eastern and western boundaries to then adjust for population, which I think was the spirit of the um charter review commission recommendation. So, and then I think you madam chair also had another mechanism for how that might be implemented which might be something along the lines of um

they shall take effect unless council acts in x number of days. I'm very receptive to that. That might be fine or even better than what we have. Um so I remain supportive of of that. But I guess I' I'd welcome any comments from colleagues about whether you see it as important or not um to keep the northern and southern reaches of the community included in a given ward for socioeconomic risk. Council member Steven.

Thank you. Um so it is my understanding that these three that are linked depend on if we are going to move forward with rank choice voting. um all all of them except the redistricting.

Except for the redistricting. So I don't know if I'm I'm prepared today to talk about um the salary or the vacancy filling if we don't cross that bridge first. However, the redistricting I am I'm ready to to discuss today. I have read through this thoroughly. I think it's excellent. I think the the idea that city council shall adopt the enacted divisions proposed by the planning commission does it for me. Um I don't know that I would appreciate the planning commission coming in and telling the voters that we are changing who you have chosen to represent you. But to allow the city council then to to review their recommendations and um decide on that. I think that that I'm ready to move forward with that one tonight. Thank you,

Vice President Baker.

Yes, I took the liberty of of putting together what may be an amendment that would maybe affect and and I Councilman Bulock, I understand your point about we had discussion about the north south kind of we like it. Uh but but putting in the charter I think is maybe a little bit um you know that's where I I think and I didn't see your proposed language so I apologize. Um, but I think one way we could be able to affect uh the discussion is is and I can send this to the clerk's office as well and to my colleagues. I kind of did like a strike through and a and a old addition language um which is to say to to strike through in section one city so delete city council shall adopt and enact divisions proposed by the planning commission unless council specifically finds that such redivisions are not contiguous or compact or bounded by natural boundaries of street lines or do not provide for equal population distribution and add city council shall place those divisions on the next docket at the regularly scheduled council meeting. the city council takes no actions or fails to decline to follow the suggestions within 90 days, the recommendations shall take effect as the city council had adopted them by ordinance approved by the mayor. So I think that borrows the language from uh the civil service and salary recommendation uh provisions. So it's familiar with our charter um and it would I think keep some of those issues we talked about at our last meeting front of mind. So, I'll make that motion to amend uh that ordinance 17.

Uh second that's in section uh two, right? So, it maintains in section one. So, this is the redistricting that the planning commission shall review and make if necessary appropriate redivisions. uh as nearly equal in population as possible. Each were to be composed of contiguous and compact territory bounded by natural boundaries or street lines. And then uh oh actually that's in section one. It's in section one of section two.

Okay. Section one of section two. Yes. Thank you. Um and then can you read that language again? That gladly. Um, city council shall place those divisions on the next docket at the regularly scheduled council meeting. If city council takes no action or fails to decline to follow the suggestions within 90 days, the recommendations shall take effect as if city council had adopted them by ordinance approved by the mayor.

Um, so we have a motion to second on that amendment. Any further discussion? So, uh, as we discussed at the last committee, the whole meeting, uh, we wanted to set in place a process for redistricting. Right now, the, um, charter says there shall be forwards, but it doesn't say how they're drawn. Um, and as we've seen again, norms be eroded. Uh we thought it was important to set an example of um having a process that is driven by these best practices uh in terms of redistricting and but that the ultimate responsibility does come to the elected body um as there's more accountability there. All right. Any further discussion on that proposed amendment hearing? None. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. And then I'll go ahead and move to refer. Madam Chair, I've got a motion council, the

same one. So, I did send it to not all of council, but I just did send it all council. I also included the law director

and others. Um, and so I have a motion. I just got to get the screen up uh to make sure I'm referring. So, the language that would address the issue that I talked about would be insert in in uh new proposed 7.212 or 7.2 I2. um after nearly as equal in population as possible the following language you'd insert shall include as part of his boundaries Lake Erie and the southern boundary of the city. I've got to find that on my own screen. I don't know if somebody's got the ability to project the right wording on on on this but um because I know we're doing it in this manner. So okay so the language the proposal would be in new 7.2. So if you scroll down a little bit

it's 7.21 correct and then two below this which is which is on screen. So you see the two is the first full paragraph on this page. after the language it says as nearly equal in population as possible right in the middle of the paragraph there um you say comma shall each include as part of of its boundaries Lake Erie and the southern boundary of the city and then the language would continue as it's written there meaning each word would be composed of contiguous and compact bounded by natural boundaries of street lines

I think it is. Yeah.

Yeah. Section one is stricken and section two is now section one and section three is now section two. Yes. Yep. Okay. So does that mean the motion that I'm making needs to just refer to this paragraph two on screen rather than this paragraph two is no paragraph. So that's the motion. Um, and it would address the socioeconomic balance. Um, I think the clerk has another

Thank you. So, the correct version is in PDF but not in Granicus. It's it's in what was docketed but not in what we have in our software that we use up here. But what was docketed to the public is the correct version. But the version we have here, um maybe given that and that potential confusion and that we have five minutes left, um we're going to have to have another committee of the whole yet to um finish out our charter review commission or charter amendments. Um so I might suggest that we just pause here and come back to it when we're all looking at the same uh version and avoid any confusion. I I that's agreeable. I I guess I would say this is important enough to me that I' I'd condition my vote on it. And I know that uh there's a desire not to be too prescriptive in the charter except that's exactly what we're doing with a lot of these proposals. So, um, I' I'd not like the to leave the possibility of you having affluent districts in the north and and and then you've got a city council that doesn't think of balance on the issues in the same way that we do today. So, that's my view. Thanks. So I guess to to the qu So you have proposed two. Are you saying you want both of them or you think they both would serve the same function? No. One or the other.

I'm willing to consider it when we meet. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Um so let's I'll consider that. Um and then when we come back uh probably in June to continue uh charter conversations um and uh please look over the other ones as well so that you're familiar with them and we can um get this uh clear to our constituents what things we're going to be asking them to vote on in November. All right. Uh so with that um we're about out of time. We have just a few minutes before full counsel. So without objection we committee of the whole is adjourned. Uh full council will begin in just three minutes hopefully.

Hello Mary. How's the pit? Anything new? Oh hi there. Yes very much. Oh that's so awesome. I'll know what it is. That's literally all I know.

She was gonna volunteer. Welcome to your

It's the way you feel afterwards. At least in my experience.

Yeah, it was like that. I saw there were tons of people being taken off the course yesterday.

I mean, we went to Playoff Square later in the evening and like we got in the car and it was 87 How are you? All right, we will um call the full meeting of council uh to order. If you're able, please rise for the pledge of allegiance.

Now pause for a moment of silence.

Madam clerk, please call the role. Vice President Baker here. Council member Bixenstein here. Council member Bullock here. Council member Evans here. President Keville here. Council member Hamilton Steiner here. Council member Stig here. Reading and disposal of the minutes of the regular meeting of council held May 4th, 2026. Move to approve without the necessity of a reading. Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Um without objection, I'd like to move items 11 and 12 to the top. All right. Item 11, communication from Mayor George regarding LGBTQIA plus Pride Month.

Uh, Mayor George. Okay. Good evening. Uh, I'm behind in getting my laptop up. So, I will just say I am proud to yet again this year uh to introduce a resolution in support of Pride Month for the month of June. uh and then also have the pride flag flown um right here at city hall. Um and again, I'm I this is something I've done for a number of years and I'm proud to continue that tradition.

Thank you. Um sorry, we're having a little There we go. technical difficulty there. Okay. Yeah, let's Oh, there we go. All right. Um, and I will first um move to receive and file that communication. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. And then um I will see if Councilwoman Strebig would like to make some remarks.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor George, for again bringing the Pride Resolution to Lakewood City Council. Your leadership when not many other mayors are brave enough to celebrate our diversity is encouraging and appreciated. At this time in history when the queer community is under attack and specifically transgender children are repeatedly and maliciously attacked. It's comforting to know that we have an ally in you. Thank you for showing our city residents and public employees that being an ally means taking action and not just uttering words. I'd like to talk a little bit about being an ally today. And I see we have members of P Flag here and probably some folks from Colors Plus and the LGBT center of greater Cleveland and generally good citizens. Being an ally means understanding that the fight for equality is not just a queer issue, but a human rights issue. Our entire community suffers when anyone is made to feel unsafe or unseen for who they are or who they love. Being an ally means standing up to those who would joke about us or smear us when we're not there. In the lunchroom, on the ball fields, and at family gatherings, we're depending on you to take the risk and challenge archaic thinking. Being an ally means using the right pronouns, showing up outside of pride events, and understanding that I have a wife and not a partner, making mistakes, humbly apologizing,

and committing to do better next time and doing better next time. Ultimately, allyship is about making sure that every person does not just feel included, but that they belong and accepting that their experiences and opinions are just as worthy as yours. Thank you. Thank you. Uh other comments from council members, council member Hamilton Steiner.

Thank you, President Kell, and thank you, Mayor George, for bringing this forward. And um thank you uh council person stream as always for your advocacy and your boy voice and speaking and standing in your truth. History isn't something you look back at and say it was inevitable. It happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment. But those moments are cumulative realities. This is a quote from Marcia P. Johnson. In a moment in time, history was made June 28th, 1969. A moment which sparked a movement and eventually birthing what we know annually in June as Pride Month. And for those that are not super familiar with that particular date that is known as the Stonewall riots. History is oftentimes marked by these moments. A simple act of defiance, a spark of hope, a resistance to oppression. This is what history sometimes is. And at this moment in time, in this current period we find ourselves in, we will need these types of moments, moments of courage. Someone somehow will have to just act and push back against the continued assault on us all because an attack on the LGBTQIA community is an attack on us all. How many years has it taken people to realize that we are all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race? Marsha P. Johnson.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Other council members, um, Vice President Baker. Yeah, I every year, um, I want to thank the mayor, um, and thank my colleagues. Um, I'm always so proud that we do this every year here in Lakewood. uh and and fly the the pl the pride flag in front of city hall because it's it's city speech. Uh it's our city saying and typically it's a 70 vote uh with the mayor supporting it that we um want to recognize the folks that live in our community and we want to let everyone know that that's what we stand for and these are our values. So uh happy to support it. Thank you for my colleagues in the mayor for bringing it up. Thank you. Uh Councilman Bullet.

Thanks Madam President. Uh, thanks, uh, Councilwoman Shig. Well said. And mayor, um, the, um, just to add a couple things. One is, um, my kids go to school in Lakewood public schools and they are very, um, don't blink an eye to all the diversity in our community in schools because they've grown up here, everyone's been welcome, and that's it. Um, so I think that's wonderful because the younger generation gets it is doing it well and um those of us who maybe this is for those of us who are a little bit older, right, that we have to remind ourselves and the kids are like, "Hey, let's just get on with uh sports on the playing field or coloring or doing a show in arts." Thank you to whoever brought the um uh rainbow uh bracelet. My daughter will love it. Thank you. Um, other council members, Council Member Bixenstein.

Thank you, President Keell. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, uh, colleagues. Um, I I concur with Council Person Bullock that, um, when you watch our our children, uh, that they certainly are already have instilled in them a culture of inclusivity and acceptance to all people. And something that many of us adults are are playing catch-up on. But I really grateful for um the emphasis on on pride each year here in Lakewood and you know among the the many important reasons to to celebrate this. I think just that that powerful reminder that um the fight against discrimination is is ongoing and it's something we have to remind about ourselves about from time to time. Thank you.

Right. the other um I'll just add we do have quite a few folks signed in to speak on this um in what has become quite a tradition uh you know and former council uh president Ali uh who was himself a member of the LGBT community would always comment when we would do this every year that um it wasn't always the case that it was a 70 vote or that um that it was assumed that Lakewood would proudly uh fly this flag. Um it was something that uh had to be fought for and um I'm sure when we have our he senator Antonio in the audience who started was council member Antonio at one point um will give us more of that history but this is it started as a gesture um and that and then we ended up with folks elected uh from the LGBT community uh which has also become an important tradition for Lakewood. So, it's not just about um it's important for us to express our values uh through our city speech through the flag uh but it goes beyond that of uh providing some hope and some encouragement that can lead to actual inclusion and change um in our government. So, always excited to see this. Thank you, Mayor George, for bringing it forward. Um it is important um that we see it from both the legislative and administrative side in our community. Um and I will just say another word about allyship as well. Um and I know Councilwoman Strebig wanted to emphasize that point this year that if no one knows you're an ally, you aren't. Um so it's important that we are all doing the work. Um not just saying that we uh what we believe when it's safe for us to say what we believe. we need to say it um all the time and show up and do the work um to protect our LGBTQI neighbors and celebrate them. Not

just protect but celebrate. It's uh pride started as a riot but is also uh a a time to celebrate. Okay, with that uh we do have quite a few folks signed in to speak. Um but first let me go ahead and finish off because we are on the communication not the not the uh resolution itself. So, we have a motion, a second to receive and file the communication. Um, so, uh, all those in favor? I. And that motion passes. And let's go ahead and move on to the resolution itself. Item 12, resolution 202630, a resolution recognizing June 2026 as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender. We questioning interex, asexual, plus pride month. Move to adopt.

Second. Motion's been made and seconded. And now I will turn to our public comment. um since most of us have already expressed our opinions up here. Um so we'll start with um let's start with Senator Antonio um and House and Minority Leader Antonio.

Thank you. Uh my name is Nikki Antonio. I live in Bell Avenue and um I am the state senator and minority leader for the Senate and proudly represent Lakewood in Senate District 23. I'm going to start by saying I'm really happy it's not full in here tonight. It's kind of full.

Um but you're absolutely right. the very first time that the mayor, Mayor Maline Kaine, um decided that um the city would fly the pride flag. This room was packed. There was standing room only. The majority of people were upset that Lakewood would take this move to do this. That was in somewhere between tw I think it was 2002. Um, I actually at the time was not a city council person. I was actually um the assistant to the mayor for community relations and um I spent a lot of time having folks in my office telling me why um it was such a problem that the city would do this. It was the very first time that the city of Lakewood received massive emails blasts um from across the country because it became a national story that the city of Lakewood was going to fly the pride flag during the month of June. Um you know we got through that we moved through it. We moved around it. Um, and over the years we have evolved to where we are today, which is a wonderful thing. We have members of the LGBTQ community represented on city council, also serving as your senator. Um, we have folks who are um taking the initiative to talk about what pride means to them. And we have a mayor that continues to take the stand that when we say the pledge of allegiance and we say liberty and justice for all in the city of Lakewood, it really means for all. But

just like it took a long time for us to get there. And I appreciate the fact that we're talking about allyship front and center because when any marginalized minority group strives to have equal rights, strives for civil rights, they can't do it alone. We can't do it alone. We have to work side by side with allies with the people who are not part of the community but understand how important it is that we are all community. And so I want to thank you all. I want to thank the mayor uh for doing you know for bringing this forward again this year every year that it seems like maybe it's just oh yeah that thing we do every year is a good year for that but it's also incredibly important especially in this time in the world where the LGBTQ community is under attack where people are desperately trying to find others to be able to be frightened of and it is even more important that we talk about how all of us make up a community uh every single person in it. No matter how you who or how you worship or don't worship at all, uh who you love, who you identifi, how you identify, um where you come from, all those things matter only when they separate us instead of we celebrate the richness that all of the diversity has. Emma Lazarus was the first one that said, "We are not all free until we are not free until all of us are free." Martin Luther King advanced

that saying and put it forward. So did Maya Angelou. But I think it's really important for us and Emily Lu Hammer was also one that quoted that. She was a civil rights activist. It's important for us to realize that it takes all of us working together to celebrate and celebrate Pride Month as well. So, thank you again very much. Um, I'm excited that some of the young people are here today. And honestly, that's what I always always think about. They are watching us. Councilman, you said, you know, for your children, it's like, you know, rainbow bracelets were, you know, Yeah. Everybody is different and we love it and we celebrate. Um that is a wonderful thing. Um we just got to get everybody there. So thank you again for doing this today. Um and thanks for the work every day.

Thank you, Senator. Um okay, next I'm going to take uh Chuck Johnson. Hello there. Thank you for having me. Um, council, mayor, senator. Uh, my name is Chuck Johnson. I'm on the advisory board for P Flag in Cleveland. Uh, P Flag Cleveland chapter is a local chapter of the national organization P Flag. And our organization is a nonprofit that strives to support um provide education and advocacy for the LGBT community specifically for family and friends. Um you know when parents have a child that comes out uh to them as being LGBTQ plus um we provide uh education and support for wherever they are in that process. Some people come out of very strict backgrounds that maybe don't um embrace the LGBT community, but we uh we help them find that because ultimately they seek us out because they are parents or family that are trying to support their loved ones. Um, and to speak about allyship, um, you know, as a cisgendered white man, um, who have who has a trans daughter, um, it's important for people, you know, that, you know, kind of boring people like me, uh, stand up and say the things that are are correct because, um, you are right. uh it is the advocacy of those not affected by the marginalization that help us move things forward. Um so I would like to thank you all for again showing your willingness to

support all of us in your in the community uh because it is not just you know specific members of the LGBT community. It is their families um their friends, their neighbors, the people you you work with. um we're all one one big family and we have to take care of each other. So um we are not free unless all of us are free. So thank you very much for uh for this proclamation. We appreciate it.

Thank you. All right. Um next and I apologize if I misread anyone's writing here. Uh correct me when you come up. Uh so Jess, thank you. Yep. Thank you, Council President, Council Mayor, uh, Senator Antonio for your great leadership and the and the history here in this moment is not lost on us. I'm Dr. Jess Sers. I'm a licensed psychologist. I re much all of my career was in uh promoting college student mental health. I was director of the uh counseling services at Case Western Reserve for 34 years. and uh and together with a social worker uh soon to be on our staff at Case Western Reserve in 1985, a woman who had the courage to say, "I have a gay son." And together um she and I uh decided that we needed to have a P Flag Cleveland chapter here in uh in in the in in the city. And uh it wasn't easy. Um, and we, if you think back to that time, it we had a president who wouldn't utter the word gay, let alone AIDS. We had uh advers ad adversaries against us. And it was really frightening for Jane Barof, our co-founder, to even go on uh channel 5, I think it was, to say, "I'm proud of my gay son." And so that that then started this movement of creating a chapter here exclusively all about volunteers uh where we don't have any paid members. And I'm going to say a few more things um about our support group and then our uh treasurer Art Thompson is going to tell you a bit more too. But our support group um we is

facilitated by professionals. I'm one of them and we do it pro bono because we care about not just the parents but our community and hoping to change the community and indeed I think flag has done that and we're really proud of this organization as it has grown. It's not unusual for us to have 40 sometimes close to 50 people in the room at Trinity Cathedral. Uh and we're now online as well. So people uh a transgender daughter in California can be in the room virtually with her mother who is you know had at one point struggled a little bit in acceptance. We work diligently to bring families together when they're in conflict or strife and will help move them from that to acceptance and maybe even to love and advocacy. I'm going to pause here. Uh, Art Thompson.

Thank you. Uh, Mayor George, city council members, Senator Antonio. Uh, my name is Art Thompson. Uh, I've been with P Flag Cleveland for 30 years, and I'm also the person who signed in Jess, making it difficult to read his name. So, sorry about that. Uh, I'll tell you a little bit more about P Flag. We're out in the community on a regular basis to provide education in corporate settings and community events. Since 2014, we have awarded 25 scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students. And each year, we present a community award to a deserving individual or organization. In 2025, we presented our community award to the Cleveland Public Library in uh appreciation of their partnership with P Flag. Uh that partnership u entailed placing LGBTQ affirming pamphlets and booklets in the main library at Cleveland Public Library and each of their 27 branches. And our goal in 2026 is to extend that collaboration to other northeast Ohio libraries including the Lakewood Public Library. Uh and finally, I just want to applaud the city of Lakewood for passage of this resolution. Um, I was born and raised in Lakewood on Nicholson Avenue and it really makes me feel proud that my hometown is at the forefront and taking a lead in support of uh the LGBTQ plus community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mark.

Thank you. And then um in terms of advocacy um the council got this button and this postcard and it's our effort to honor a couple from Lakewood, the Strowman's. Um some of you may know or recall Joyce and Bob Strowman, Reverend Strowman. They were advocates very early on for LG LGBTQ plus equality in our community and they um and they were also P flag members. But Joyce told the story to a P our P flag group one time that whenever she met a store clerk or someone in uh a restaurant serving her or an incidental kind of connection with individual particularly young folks, she would ask this question, are you registered to vote? You know your vote matters. And so in honor of them and in dedication to them and to a great Lakewood couple, um we decided to ask uh their adult children to write this statement on the back of the card. And P Flag members across uh Cleveland will be going out and asking random people just like Joyce did, are you registered to vote? And giving them this this postcard. It's as easy as pointing your camera to this QR code to get ready to vote in November. So, thank you u uh again to the council, to council president, the mayor. We really appreciate this uh recognition.

Thank you. Um All right. And see, I also have one more person signed in on this topic. Um, M. Zedo. Hello. My name is Mark Zbo from Rocky River, Ohio. So, just across the river. Um, I just wanted to come out and speak in support of this uh resolution. Um, I'm both a member of the military community and the LGBT plus community. And um, I get to see a bunch of memes all over Facebook, Twitter, all the other different type of social medias. Um, kind of pitting the military and veteran community against the LGBT community. Um, one of the main basis is that the military community only gets two days. LGBT community gets one full month. I find this to be an insult. as a veteran, not as a person. Well, kind of as LGBT member of the LGBT community, but as a veteran, I find it insulting because the military community, we get three months. April is the month of the military child. May is the month for uh uh for those currently serving and November is the month for uh veterans. Um so, I find it insulting. I find it it's a backhanded insult that these people don't know that and that they are basically insulting the veteran community. Um, but it also kind of erases a couple of folks um who are members of the LGBT community and who have sacrificed their everything. Um, Major Alan Rogers, Sergeant Donna Johnson, Corporal Andrew Wilhart, and Major Adriana Borderen. We will all honor those this coming Monday for Memorial Day. There are many folks who have sacrificed everything um in the LGBT community. We don't know all of them because many have served in

silence. This current administration is putting transgender folks back in the closet, kicking out everybody who has been open so that for a person who is transgender to serve, who is capable of serving, they have to do it in the closet. Thank you so much for um for uh this resolution. Our community needs it. Um not just the LGBT community, but all communities. Thank you.

Thank you. and thank you for your service. Um, do we have anyone else who wanted to speak on this topic? That's everyone. I think I have signed in, but if there's anyone else who would like to speak on this topic, you are welcome to do so. No. Okay. All right. Um, thank you all uh who spoke out and and uh participated tonight. Um, we have a motion in a second to adopt the resolution. Um, anticipating that it will pass. Uh, after it passes, we will do a photo down front. We invite anyone who would like to be in that picture to come up and join us for that picture and we'll have a ceremonial copy of the resolution to uh present to our uh partners at P Flag. Um and we appreciate you being here. I know personally um one of my well actually my best friend um that how important P Flag was in his journey um in college a couple years ago um when he came out. So, uh, so I I know firsthand how important, uh, that work is and I appreciate it. All right. Any further comments from council before we move on. All right. So, we have a motion in a second to adopt the resolution. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. And we'll do a photo down front. All are invited who wish to come up. Be an ally. Come on. Be an ally. Oh, wait.

How are you? Item number one, report from public works and sustainability committee meeting held May 11th, 2026. Council member Bullet.

Thank you, uh, Madam President. The, um, public works and sustainability committee met on May 11 to discuss ordinance 25-2026, which authorizes an agreement with the help foundation for operation of food concessions at Lakewood Park and Madison Park. Uh, chief program officer of help foundation, Allison Briskkey, was present along with director Mahoney to answer committee members questions. Topics discussed included the details about HELP's agreement with the city menu selection and healthy options and also uh help foundation's mission and operations and staffing. Miss Brriski confirmed that the operating concessions at city pools has been a positive experience for the individuals involved who are receiving paid training experience as part of help's vocational training services program. Committee members agreed that this collaboration between the city and the Help Foundation is a positive and mutually beneficial arrangement and voice support for sharing more of Help's story with the public. Committee members then requested copies of two proposals submitted to the city for the operating operating agreement so that we had the context of the details of the alternatives. The committee unanimously voted to favorably refer ordinance 25-2026 back to the full council for adoption. Um and uh that concludes this report. I'd like to I've got a written report that I like to um move that be included in the record of the meeting.

Great. Thank you. Um sure. Uh so we'll just move to receive and file the oral report as well as the written. Thank you. Uh second. Okay. Motion's been made and seconded. Uh any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Item number two, ordinance 25206, an ordinance to take effect immediately authorizing and directing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Help Foundation, Inc. for the operation of food concessions at Lakewood Park and Madison Park pursuant to section 1508 of the codified ordinances. Move to adopt. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes.

Item three, report from committee the whole regarding meeting held May 11th, 2026. Dear colleagues, Committee of the Hole met May 11th for a two-hour retreat style meeting where the committee set forth plans to identify and discuss its priorities ahead of the 2027 budget. The goal of the retreat was for council to identify priorities early so that the administration may consider them and incorporate them into the 2027 budget. A wide range of topics were brought forward for discussion and council members were able to identify areas of overlap and collaboration. Members were asked to work individually in small groups of no more than three council members and in collaboration with directors and community stakeholders to complete and submit a one-page worksheet for each priority by June 1st. Following the receipt of the worksheets, I intend to submit a communication to the June 15th docket and hold hearings for further discussion among council and the administration. Move to receive and file that report.

Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Item four, report from committee the whole regarding meeting held May 18, 2026.

Colleagues, committee of the whole met earlier this evening uh to consider the charter review commission uh the charter proposed charter amendments. uh we most of our conversation uh was around the options around rank choice voting. We talked about essentially four different options. Option one being ordinance 212026 which would uh put forth a amendment to adopt rank choice voting uh for for voters to uh vote directly on adopting rank choice voting into the charter. Uh option two, ordinance 272026, which is uh how the charter view commission originally recommended to put a charter amendment where if passed, council would have the option of adopting rank choice voting through ordinance or resolution. Um a potential third option of uh placing it on the charter that it would only go into effect if uh Senate Bill 63 was repealed. and option four, which would be to wait until after um the potentially the November 2026 election to allow to see any shifts in the legislative and legal landscape and add more time for public dialogue and engagement prior to charter vote. We had a uh robust discussion and we're joined by the Kyhoga Board of Elections Director Tony Potti. Uh council members had opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of each option. Um some of the details of implementation and we discussed the timeline and process uh that would be needed. Uh with the remain the remaining elements uh the remaining ordinances still in committee regarding salaries of elected officials. council appointment process um that are connected to the rank choice voting ones. Uh we didn't touch on as we didn't reach a decision on the rank choice voting. Uh but we did briefly discuss

the ward redistricting ordinance 19206. That one we amended to include uh language that would allow the recommendations of the planning commission to come back to council and if council were to take no action they would go into effect as though council had taken action. Uh this is language similar to what the languages around civil service commission uh recommendations around council salaries. Um, we all of those ordinances remain in committee and uh we will continue our conversation at a future date. I will move to receive and file that oral report. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion, Madam President?

Councilman Bullet. just really um so for the previous committee the whole uh report that you that you made uh a second ago but wanted to um say thank you for again for the systematic and organized work you're as you alluded keeping a lot of trains running that is going to increase the effectiveness and the throughput and the efficiency of council members in our various initiatives some of which are individual but many of of them have common ground And two, Director Mahoney, um, we're making good on your invitation dating back to the last budget process to begin the council budget priorities process much earlier in the process. I think kind of we heard you, it it clicked a little better and so now council members are working um in that vein and also putting together a systematic form that will provide the beginning of a nice foundational point. So we look forward to more discussions in partnership with the administration. Thanks.

Thank you. All right. Um any further discussion on the motion to receive and file the report? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Item five, ordinance 27206. An ordinance to take effect immediately submitting to the electors of the city of Lakewood an amendment to the third amended charter of the city of Lakewood in order to allow council the option of implementing rank choice voting. Move to defer. Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Um, just to clarify, this is on the docket because we have the of the four options I just discussed in the report. This is one of those options. This allows it to get onto um second reading. Um, so that once we conclude our work in committee of the whole, if either of these are referred out of committee of the whole for adoption, it will have already been on second reading like the others. So, this is sort of a procedural um vote at this time. All right. So, we have a motion and a second to defer. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes.

Item six, substitute ordinance 24, 20226, an ordinance to take effect immediately to approve the editing and inclusion of certain ordinances as parts of the various component codes, codified ordinances, and to provide for the publication of such new matter. So this is just our uh quarterly um regular ordinance to codify the things that have already been passed um essentially print them. So uh it's been on this is our third reading. So I'm going to move to adopt. Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Item seven, report from council member Stribbig regarding the April 26, 2026 meeting of Lakewood Youth Council. Council member Stig.

Thank you. Dear colleagues, before the meeting of the Lakewood Youth Youth Council was called, Dr. Kathleen Mcgory from the Lakewood chapter of the League of Women Voters spoke about the school levy, primary elections, and the importance of voting. The meeting was called to order by Mel Deeert, and the minute minutes were approved. The environmental committee is in contact with the tree advisory board to better understand more about trees on tree lawns. Mental health committee is working on surveys to better understand youth interest and interests in youth band performances. The public outreach committee is working on a survey about biking. We had a lengthy discussion about the difference between problem solving and identifying problems. One problem we began to discuss is the need for young people to be together to encourage and support each other and build confidence outside of school. The primary function of this youth advisory board is to inform the city council of young people's needs, not solve them. It is a learning process to identify needs rather than solve those needs as we are all naturally geared to do that. With continued focus and refocusing on advising, we will move in that direction. Thank you. Thank you. I'll move to receive and file that report.

Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Item eight, report from council member Stig regarding the April 21st, 2026 meeting of the community recreation education commission. Council member Stub.

Thank you. Dear colleagues, the Lakewood Community Recreation and Education Commission met on April 21st, 2026. Public comment was led by Caesar Vargas about the need for community handball courts. Coordinator Leslie Favor Crogman reported that the youth and adult basketball, volleyball, and swimming programs were finished and the spring and summer registrations were beginning. There are over 100 different things for residents to do in this new season. The purple and gold classic was successful again this year with teams from each elementary school participating. Field maintenance is underway and youth soccer teams are taking advantage of open fields in Cleveland. The commission voted on and approved a nomination for the baseball and softball association. Uh that was Mike Sambrook for treasure. Thank you.

Thank you. Move to receive and file that report. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. discussion. Just like to thank Councilwoman Shig for keeping us informed and always being prepared with those reports. Uh any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Item nine, communication from building commissioner Parmley regarding amendment to resolution 202571. Uh Commissioner Parmley.

Oh, make sure you hit the button there. Sorry. Thank you. Everybody's got me. Uh members of council, council president, uh error was brought to my attention regarding resolution 2025-71. It's a master fee schedule. Uh in our original fee schedule, we had the language. The base fee for each electrical permit shall be $30 to which the following should be added. Subsequent permit fee. This was omitted uh from the fee schedule. So, I'm asking to have the electrical permit language modified to include the mentioned language and add the $30 base fee back into the electrical. Easy peasy. Thank you.

Mhm. So, this was in there before. Yeah. And then it just got emitted when we were updating the others. Yeah. Like we all looked at it I don't know how many times. Sure. That happens. It's always one thing. Sure. Okay. Thank you. Um I'll move to receive and file that communication. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion. Vice President Baker. Uh, for what it's worth, I'm happy to support the ordinance that's pending or that we'll get to next. Um, just to keep Commissioner Parmley and his building inspectors doing the things they got to do. So,

thank you. Okay, so we're on the communication right now. Um, all those in favor I. And that motion passes. Item 10, resolution 202571A, a resolution to take effect immediately to amend resolution 202571, adopt it March 2nd, 2026 to include a base fee for electric permits. Move to adopt. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion. Madam President, Councilman Bullet, can u Mr. Pley, can you just repeat very clearly where on the chart the maybe on the second page there where where the proposal is to add back base fee.

Yeah, it' be right down on the bottom of the document screen. Yeah, just add the base fee back in. So, it's $30 no matter what. And then add the col the amounts in the center column. That's not an increase. That's just a restoration increase your normal customary practice. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion? All right. On the motion to adopt, all those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Thank you. Item 13, communication from public works director Gordon regarding 2026 community recycling awareness grant. Director Gordon.

Thank you, dear President Keell, members of city council. The city's division of refugees and recycling in partnership with the planning department was awarded $6,000 from the Kyhoga County solid waste districts 2026 community recycling awareness grant program. This grant will be used to support the design, installation, and advertising costs for recycling education billboards in Lakewood. A 24-week long billboard campaign spanning one full-size board and two junior posters will be created to encourage those traveling to learn about proper recycling practices. The one size, excuse me, the one full-size board will be located at Detroit east of West Clifton and the two junior posters will be located at 12506 Detroit west of Cove Avenue. The billboards will include information about which materials are and are not recyclable. The graphic information used will be similar to the recycling education stickers and magnets distributed in past years. The end goal being reduced contamination, continued education of current recycling best practices and use of several reminder strategies to encourage correct recycling management. Pursuant to Lakewood codified ordinance section 111.14b, this letter serves as notice of our intention to accept these funds. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Thank you. Move to receive and file the communication. Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Uh thank you, Director Gordon, for this update and for the money. We've talked um many times before about the importance of reducing contamination in our recycling. Um that I think a lot of us over the years have been guilty guilty of wish cycling where we just put it in there and hope that it's recyclable because we want it to be but um a lot of things are not anymore and that that actually makes it worse for our recycling stream. Um so it's important to have this education. We appreciate the effort. Uh any further discussion hearing? None. On the motion to receive and file the communication. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes.

Item 14, communication from principal planner Nocta regarding application to the state of Ohio through ODNR for the Nature Works Grant Program. Director Bington.

Thank you, dear President Keell and members of council. Attached to this letter was a resolution authorizing the planning department to apply for financial assistance from the state of Ohio through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for the Beex Poolled Renovation Project. ODNR provides funding for public outdoor recreation purposes through the Nature Works grant program. Nature Works can provide up to $150,000 in reimbursement for qualifying park improvements with a 25% match requirement. Beck's pool has been identified as a high priority item due to the overall age of the structure, increasing maintenance requirements, and growing obsolescence of components and features. The pool is heavily used and is a prized asset for both residents and visitors. The initial estimate for this project obtained during the RFP process and based on the previous pool renovation, which was foster pool, has a projected cost of between 4 to 6 million. As we begin planning, this resolution serves as a commitment to overall project funding that will improve our grant application scoring. Competing for this program will help defer a portion of the overall cost and realize the execution of this critical project. The departments of public works and planning have begun work with SixMo, the same consultant that executed the foster pool renovation project. Sixmo has been provided the Madison Park master plan and we intend to execute a similar public engagement process as used in the foster pool project for residents to participate in the Beex design process. The deadline to submit a resolution of support for this application is tenatively set for July 1st, 2026. I respectfully request approval of this resolution on first reading. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll move to receive and file the communication. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. discussion hearing. None. Oh. Oh, yep. Sorry. Councilman Bixenstein. Thank you, President Keell. Just wanted to say thank you for the continued emphasis um on on the park and on the improvements. Um I don't know if it was a coinc coincidence or not, but last week it just so happened that the same day that the um the public engagement launched digitally, the uh Beex pool also got filled. And I thought that was an impressive uh whether coincidence or not it was impressive display of uh collaborate cross department collaboration. So uh thank you very much. Sure. Totally planned. So well done. Absolutely.

Thank you Director Gordon. All right. Um any further comment on the communication? Hearing none on the motion to receive and file the communication. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Item 15, resolution 202631. resolution to take effect immediately authorizing the mayor, director of planning and development, director of public works, or city engineer to submit an application for the nature works grant through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to execute any and all agreements necessary to accept an award and to obligate funds required to complete the project to become eligible for reimbursement under the grant program. Move to adopt. Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. Item 16, liquor permit, Q AJ Enterprise LLC at 14,000 Detroit Avenue. Uh, Director Vargo, I don't Do we have I don't think we have this one, do we? That's correct. Council President, we'll need to defer. Sure. Thank you. Yep. All right. So, we will move to defer. Second.

Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion. Hearing none. All those in favor? I. And that motion passes. All right. So, we are at public comment. We do have quite a few e-comments on um a variety of different issues. Those e-comments will be included in the um in the public record. Uh and the all council members should have them in their email to um read them as well. Uh and then I'm going to go through the signin sheet. When I call your name, thank you. When I call your name, if you can please come up um to the microphone, push the button or if it should be green and when you speak. So, make sure it's green. Push the button if it isn't. Um, and then state your name, if you're comfortable, your address for the record, and you'll have up to five minutes. You address your comments to the chair. That's me. And, uh, avoid personalities. All right. So, with that, up clo up first is uh Jared Park. Push the button.

Thanks. Uh home rule is at risk in Lakewood. Um city council understands this well with uh immigration enforcement bills in Ohio State House and uh the growing consolidation of federal power over states and cities. Um it's a pressing issue more than ever. Um as a progressive city unburdened by the corporate interests that our larger neighbor struggles with, Lakewood stands in a unique position for taking meaningful action against these developments. City council saw the same way or saw it the same way when you passed resolutions protecting the freedom of gender expression and opposing ISIS spread into local policing. However, this model is incomplete. In just the last month, we've seen multiple cities and towns in Ohio come to the realization that their flock safety cameras were commandeered by outside departments for the sake of assisting federal immigration enforcement. Despite Dayton's explicit policy not to assist in ICE investigations, its Fox cameras were searched thousands of times by other departments in relation to immigration. Dayton's right to home rule was violated by Flock system. The same thing happened again in Shaker Heights and now possibly in Cleveland. It has probably already happened here and we just don't know it yet. Of course, Flock doesn't care. Despite offering a system to block incoming searches based on their reason, Flock no longer requires its clients to log a reason for their searches. Meaning, a search that violates local policy could come through and we would never even know. Flock's reasoning for not providing adequate safeguards um is that they don't police the police. The result is a race to the bottom. Lakewood's policy becomes only as good as the least trustworthy agency on Flock's network. The first step that we can take and the step that Dayton took um earlier this month to reclaiming its right to home rule is getting rid of Flock. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Um next up is Ryan Ree.

Hi Ryan Ree, 1409 Marlo Avenue, number four. Good evening, city council, Mayor George and the rest of the gang. As you know from my previous comments here, I'm strongly in favor of policies that protect Lakewood citizens and hold those who would break the law accountable. But sometimes in our effort to protect our city, we can go too far and ultimately end up with some bad bed fellows. One of those to be civific is to be specific is Flock safety. There are many reasons why we should question Flock's presence in our community, but I will focus on one tonight, and that is Flock's troubling record of its service being abused by both individuals and governmental agencies. With Flock, agencies are incentivized to share recordings and data. According to the ACLU Massachusetts, when an agency shares the data, Flock allows them to tap into a national network of data and recordings. This quid proquo is troubling because it allows other agencies to access our data and potentially to do so for nefarious reasons. A 2026 Institute of Justice article points out that the last few years there have been at least 16 cases of people abusing flock system to stalk loved ones, exes, or even strangers. Imagine how giddy former Rocky River police officer B of Michael Burnernhard, who was recently convicted of three counts of unauthorized use of Ohio law enforcement gateway, would be to have the highquality imaging and AI functions of Flock to further violate the rights of his victims, some of which were minors. I will read you another egregious example from a 2025 letter from the House of Representatives Kid on Oversight and Government Reform to Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock. Recently, local authorities in Texas reportedly used Flock's automatic license plate reader technology to conduct a nationwide search for a woman they claimed had a self-administer abortion in Texas. As part of this search, Texas law enforcement appears to have reviewed footage from over 83,000 automatic license plate reader cameras, including cameras in Washington and

Illinois, where abortion is lawfully protected and is a basic right. This is summarized as a gross misuse and abuse of surveillance technology. in regards to ICE and governmental overreach. Although Flock's policies prohibit federal agencies from using its data for immigration enforcement, in practice, no effective safeguards exist since the company repeatedly refuses to remove law enforcement agencies from Flock Network or cancel contracts in the event of violations. Furthermore, although the Department of Justice has historically allowed federal law enforcement agencies to utilize automatic license plate readers in investigations, DOJ has also expressed concern with the way such technology could be used to intrude on law-abiding citizens. For example, in 2017 during President Trump's first term, DOJ published guidance emphasizing that while while law enforcement and related justice enforcement entities increasingly rely on automatic license plate reader technology, individual privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties must also be vigorously protected. Using Flock data to track and surveil immigrants in violation of Flock's own policy is a clear failure to vigorously protect individual privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. With these reasons in mind, I would strongly urge the administration to break the contract with Flock and focus on a smarter and cheaper solution to keeping Lakewood safe. On a lighter note, I will use the remainder of my time to spread bike liquid propaganda and just say that uh coming up May 28th, I believe it's a Thursday is going to be another one of our social rides. I think around 6 or 7 o'clock, 5 to 10 miles, 12 mph average pace, a comfortable pace, and we'll stop at a local business. So, uh would love to see anybody who's listening, anyone here in audience, anyone in the administration or council there. So, thank you.

Thank you. Right. Um, we have next is Joey Arino. How we doing? Good evening. My name is Joey Artino. I live on Delaware Avenue. I'm a homeowner, a business owner, and a member of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce. I moved here from Cleveland, where I spent 20 years specifically to escape the quality of life problems I could never get away from there. Lakewood delivered on that promise mostly. For the last 5 years, one property has undone it. And I'm here tonight because every system I've been told to trust has failed me. 14227 Delaware Avenue is a two-unit Airbnb. Each unit sleeps six people. The owner lives in Seattle. He's not a neighbor. He's not a Lakewood resident. He's a remote investor running a motel business in a residentially zoned neighborhood. He's pricing it like one. Both units combined rent for less than a single room at the budget motel on Clifton Lake. Do the math. Who Who do those price points attract and why? The results have been exactly what you'd expect. Noise, parties, fights, suspected drug activity, suspected prostitution, grass that goes uncut for weeks, but that's little. We've watched the block deteriorate for 5 years because of this single property. 63 63 63. That's the number of police calls to this single address confirmed by a patrol officer. Excuse the pronunciation. Dwarski. Thank you, Dwarowski. 63 calls in a 5-year span. One residential property in Lakewood. This isn't a neighbor dispute.

This is a sustained documented drain on the city's public safety resources paid for by Lakewood taxpayers, myself included. Here's what 5 years of doing the right thing looks like. Police say keep calling. It'll become a nuisance property. We call. Nothing changes. The building department says call the police. Narcotics says call the building department. The owner ignores us. Airbnb ignores us. our past word councilman Jason Shackner. I'm sorry if I didn't pronounce that right. Um then Tom Bulock, Brian Evans. Uh forgive me, we haven't met in person, but uh we've met through email. Um this city has no framework to address any of this. I know it's underway, but we have no framework currently. Uh meanwhile, neighborhoods suffer. This is a serious problem, and we're dropping the ball. We've been sent in circles for 5 years. All the while, the owner keeps collecting revenue from Seattle. We live with the consequences on Delaware Avenue in Lakewood. My family's seriously considering leaving Lakewood. That's heartbreaking to say out loud because I love this city. I chose this city. I invested in it as a homeowner and as a business owner. But I can't ask my family to keep living like this indefinitely. It's happening to us. It's happening to others. The police have confirmed, city officials have confirmed. Lakewood cannot afford to lose invested, stable, community-minded residents like us. This is not a new or complicated problem. Cities across the country have solved it. San Francisco requires Airbnb hosts to live in their property. Full stop. Chicago allows short-term rentals only if the address is the owner's primary residence. Los Angeles has made second homes and investment properties non-renable via Airbnb for exactly this reason. What's stopping us? Who are we protecting? Here's the one thing that should matter

the most to this council. Shaker Heights, our east side counterpart, has already banned short-term rentals and properties the owner doesn't live in. This isn't a radical idea. This is what the city next door is already doing. They're not, you know what I mean? If we care about community, the time is now, yesterday, really. Cleveland just passed short-term rental legislation. It's kind of weak. Lakewood is behind. The question is how much longer we are willing to wait. Tonight, I'm asking for two things. First, 14227 Delaware needs to be a formally designated as a nuisance property right now. 63 calls is more than enough. The owner needs real consequences. It's been 5 years. Second, I know this council Excuse me, I didn't mean to yell. Second, I know this council began work on a short-term rental ordinance last year. I'm asking that you finish it. Require registration. Require owner occupancy. Set occupancy limits. Tie a license to the behavior. The model exists in a dozen cities, including Shaker Heights. What's it going to take to get this across the finish line? Whose interests are we protecting? Residential neighborhoods are for residents. I didn't sign up to live next door to a motel. I don't pay Lakewood taxes to live next door to a motel. Don't make us leave. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Madam President. Uh yes. If it's if it's all right. It sure we have some other folks on the same topic, but so I don't know if we want to allow them to speak, but if you want to

Well, okay. A couple quick responses. First, thank you for speaking, sir. I'm sorry to hear it. Please do not leave. It's our job to get it right so that you don't have to do that. So that's that's what we got to take on. Um um maybe Councilman Evans might want to talk a little later. We happened to talk uh with a number of people here just in the recent days about reintroducing that ordinance. You're correct. We have to put it back on the docket and be thoughtful. A member of the administration and I are going to talk tomorrow. Um, but mayor, maybe we could work or or law director, we could work together on the uh uh chronic nuisance ordinance that's in place and has been for years, which to me seems to apply um as the gentleman described. You know, we can partner a little bit on that. That's a matter of uh enforcement. So, not so there's two two layers. One is using the law that's already on the books, which you which would at least partially address what we're talking about, and then proposing a new and thoughtful framework um that is feasible to implement um to address the fundamental issue of how how how does our community address short-term rentals or not? So, thank you for um for coming to speak tonight on this important issue.

Thank you. Um yes, and I'll just also mention it. Thank you for um speaking um that when we had our council retreat talking about priorities, this was discussed as a priority for this year among several council members. Um, and I'll also just note, um, a year or two ago, we passed, it's been a little while, we passed an ordinance to require lenture for homes that were moving from private ownership into being rentals um that they needed uh inspection and I remember at the time asking if that would include short-term rentals and um that the law department thought that it should include that. So, it be I'd be curious to go and do some searching on um the sites to see which homes in Lakewood uh are listed on the short-term rental sites and which ones have had that inspection as well. Um so, that's just another thing that comes to mind. But, um but thank you for your comments and we do have someone else signed in to speak on this uh topic and we do have e comments on this topic as well. But, first I want to go to uh Caitlyn Tuhig. Good evening everybody. Thank you for listening. Um, my name is Caitlyn Tuig. I also live on Delaware. Um, I'm a clinical mental health counselor who works in crisis. I'm very close with a lot of the people in this room. Um, most importantly, I'm a mother. Um, but I have been a Lakewood resident for the last 13 years. The pride that Lakewood has earned it in itself um is being compromised by the greed of individuals. The last several years of this non-locally owned short-term rental across the street have caused havoc in my neighborhood that is no longer tolerable. My neighbors and I pride ourselves on the close-knit block we've invested in, some of us for over 30 years. I've been raising my family here

for about a dozen, and I'm shocked at how much chaos and crime the city has continued to allow this stranger to bring to our block. Our children have seen sex work, physical and verbal fights late into the night, drug use and drug deals, innumerable moments of reckless behavior, lack of parenting, obnoxious drinking, domestic squables, all from the comfort of their front porch or while they're on their way to school. While always prompt in their response, Lakewood PD has been limited in their legal options. As a licensed professional counselor who learn who works in a local police department, I'm aware of the limitations that the officers have in these moments. So preventing these individuals from continuing to make money at the expense of my family safety is the responsibility of this council. We need to stop unsafe conditions that these non-local short-term rentals create for the whole community. And this issue requires this council's immediate attention. As Saturday night, the police were called to the Airbnb across our street three separate times by multiple homes to address the substance use, partying in the streets, and fight on the front lawn at 3:00 a.m. Later in the morning, they were attempting to break back into the rental they had locked themselves out of. We are the only homes on the block with school children. We cannot lament about declining enrollment and school safety and then not address basic neighborhood safety of those children. We cannot proudly call ourselves a city of homes and then allow a property owner to use his Lakewood dwelling as a cash grab rather than as a home like my family and my neighbors do. Please amend the regulations that allows for out of town renters to continue to make money with no regard for the comfort or safety of our community. Thank you. Thank you. Um, that is everyone I have

signed in to speak. Did anyone else wish to speak on this topic or any other topic? No.

Okay. Um, I'll just add um in regards to the short-term rentals, uh, like I said, that is we do have uh, we we're limited that only three council members can be working on legislation at any given time u because of of sunshine laws. So, but we when we had our retreat that that was one of the topics that um many of us were um interested in working on because we do hear from other residents um I hear from residents too who are concerned about you know who see both sides of like uh when my parents come into town there's no room in my house and I so it's great to have an Airbnb local a quality Airbnb locally that they can use but also don't want parties on their street um late into the night we want proper um we want respectful uh usage of those properties if they exist. There's also a concern about affordable housing and that's something that this council has also identified as a extremely high priority for us to address and that the number of short-term rentals can reduce the number of rental units and housing on the market which um adds to the shortage and can add to rental pricing. So, uh, we are certainly very concerned about these issues and, um, want to be thoughtful about what we do with our legislation, but it is certainly on on mind. And I also do want to address, um, with regard to flock, same thing. Um, some of these concerns we've been, I know I've been following some of the, um, media uh, that's been covering some of the, um, stories about our neighbors with that use flock. Um, and it has certainly been of concern of this body as we've talked about with the issues with immigration. We talked tonight about u protecting our LGBT neighbors. Um, just so many reasons to be mindful of how surveillance is used in our community. I appreciate everyone's comments tonight recognizing that um, you know, that this isn't an issue of our Lakewood Police misusing it. Um it's an issue of how our data is

potentially shared and that is something that we uh do have a meeting coming up with the administration um again three of us on council um and to talk through some of these concerns because we share them uh and want to be thoughtful about this. All right. So with that um I don't have anyone else signed up to speak. Last chance public comment anyone? All right. And if not I'm gonna go to council members. Vice President Baker.

Yes. And on the and thank you for the comments on the short-term rental issue. I um you know I know my two colleagues uh Councilman Evans and Councilman Bulock are working on it. I'm happy to work on it as well. I know the building commissioner has expressed an interest to help craft something. Uh, and I did speak with uh, Shaker Heights uh, Kyle Crusen who they recently implemented their essentially ban of it unless you live on the property. And he raised a really good point that I hadn't considered, which is that not only are there 300 less roughly uh, housing units that could help inventory, which would bring down rents generally for people living, but it's also um they're they're not paying income taxes. they're not residents of Lakewood. Uh, you know, so you have to to to weigh those things. Uh, and in loss revenue, that's, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars, uh, that could go to hire a police officer, building inspector, or something like that. So, I think we have to be mindful of this approach, but I'm I'm committed to working with my colleagues to come up with some regulatory regime this year. Um, now it's probably not as fast as you'd like, uh, because the deliberative process only three of us can get together and talk about and work with administration then pump it out takes a little bit of time. But know that I think about this issue as if it was next to me and my family and what I would feel like if that was happening. Um, so I'm committed to working on it and um, also on the flock issue as council president said, uh, flock solves crimes uh, but but we need to be mindful of how we uh, share and handle our data. Um, so that's what we're going to meet and talk about.

Other council members, right? Other announcements from council members. Council member Stre Thank you. Uh, other announcements from council members and announcements from the administration. All right. With that, I have no further business to come before council. Without objection, we are adjourned.