Telecommunications Committee - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the committee meetings for Green City Council. Today is Tuesday, May 26, 2026. I'd like to call these meetings to order. First item on our agenda is the approval of minutes. We have TMP 5356, approval of the May 12, 2026 committee meeting minutes. Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mr. Neugebauer? Yes. Mr. Noble? Yes. Mr. Vandenberg?

Yes.

Mr. DeVitas? Yes. Mr. Spate?

Yes.

Mr. Humphrey?

Yes.

Mr. Maker?

Yes.

All right, motion carries.

Thank you, ma'am. And next is the meeting of our committees. The first committee to meet this evening is the Finance Committee, chaired by Mr. Humphrey.

Thank you, Mr. President. Finance will meet this evening. All members are present. We have one item on third reading. That's a third reading of 2026R23. This is a resolution authorizing the funds to enable the mayor to grant salary adjustments to City of Green non-bargaining employees. Again, this is a salary adjustment for non-bargaining employees. The ones that are dealt with via a collective bargaining agreement have already received their increases pursuant to their contract. This was budgeted at the budgeting process at the end of last year. The total amount of this piece of legislation is is $113,100. And I'm going to ask Director Goodrich, the percentage of increase for the employees is, I know it will vary, but on average it is what?

3.25%.

3.25%, all right. I trusted my memory and wrote down the wrong numbers, so I appreciate you letting me know. It's 3.25%. Anything else that you want to add about that?

I have nothing else to add.

Okay, I'll open it up to committee. Any questions or comments on this, Mr. Nijabaur?

Just a clarification. Some years we've done individual raises in addition to the, across the board. Is there anything other than just across the board, 3.25?

It's budgeted 3.25% across the board.

There's no additions beyond that?

No, I think, Mayor, do you want to speak to that?

There... In that amount, there is a little bit of discretion, frankly, because we have Mike Elkins listed. But in meeting with staff, frankly, they would like to use that small adjustment to address the fact that Mike's position will be spread out over other people. So there will be some minor adjustment. Those assessments have not been completed yet. Frankly, I am happy to share that information with counsel once those assessments are made.

No, I appreciate your answer. I think that's been done in the past. I just wanted to know if there was any additional ones this year. Okay, thank you.

Any additional questions or comments from anyone on council? Okay, so at the appropriate time, I'll make a motion on 2026R23. Any items of old or new business to come before finance? Then we will adjourn at 5.04.

Thank you, Mr. Humphrey. Our next committee to meet this evening is Environment and Parks, chaired by Mr. Neugebauer. Thank you, Mr. President.

All members are present this evening. However, we have no business, no legislation to come before committee. Director Carr, is there anything that you would like to bring to council's attention?

Not tonight?

Okay, thank you. Just briefly, your staff did a great job yesterday with the parade. I think it all went well, so kudos to everybody involved, including Mayor Yergin for your address, and Mike Elkins had a nice performance. Again, I know he loves to do those. the the gentleman that we we awarded this year was just had a fantastic um address to the uh to the um at the ceremony so really appreciate the effort everybody put into that including all the all the staff in your department and in the leadership of the city so good job uh councilman that was uh keith bucklew uh lieutenant yeah thanks for writing the name wasn't coming to me because i didn't write it down um but uh he Keith Bucklew is the current executive director of MAPS. So he's taken over that position. I think he also still flies, I guess, for FedEx or something. UPS, I think it is. But no, he had a tremendous address, and if anybody has a chance to go review that, that's worth a watch. Is there any old or new business to come before committee?

Okay, hearing none, we will adjourn at 5.06. Thank you, Mr. Neugebauer. Our next committee to meet this evening is Public Safety, chaired by Mr. DeVitas.

Thank you, Mr. President. Myself, Mr. Humphrey, and Mr. Neugebauer are all present today. Public Safety has no items of new or old business on the agenda. Is there anything to bring forward to the committee tonight? Okay, so hearing none, the Public Safety Committee will not meet.

Thank you, Mr. DeVitas. Next committee to meet is Planning, Community, and Economic Development, chaired by Mr. Noble.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. DeVitas, Mr. Humphrey, and I are all present today, and we do have a number of items of legislation, so we will meet. The first is on third reading. It is 2026-08, an ordinance changing the zoning classification of approximately 31 acres of land. located at the northeast corner of Greensburg Road and Winning Way from R1 single-family residential to PD plan development and accepting the amended conceptual site plan of the proposed Greensburg Meadow plan development. So with this ordinance here, we do have a public hearing scheduled this evening at 7 o'clock in these chambers here during a regular council meeting. And so We'll go forego any discussion right now on this since we'll have ample opportunity during the public hearing to get a report out from the developer and the administration and others. We have another item of legislation. It's on second reading. It is item 2026-09, an ordinance declaring a portion of improvements to a certain parcel of real property owned by SLW Development LLC, doing business as Dunkin' Donuts, be a public purpose, exempting 100% of the value of the improvements from real property taxation for 30 years. So this is a... This is a TIF ordinance associated with the new Dunkin' Donuts that's being constructed on Arlington Road, just north of 619. Mr. Weethy, you want to give us a little bit more background?

No, it's a pretty standard TIF. As council knows, we place a... tax increment financing on majority of the commercial properties to help pay for past and current improvements to the corridor. This happens to be on the Arlington Road corridor. It'll be plugged into the Arlington Road corridor. projects, whether again, whether it's past debt, current debt that we may be accumulating, or even future debt along that corridor. So it's not a large project, a little bit over $1.5 million investment. And once it's constructed and goes on a tax roll, it probably won't go in until, if it's completed this year, it'll go, first tax roll will be 27. We won't collect any money until 28.

OKAY. THANK YOU, MR. WETHE. AGAIN, AS HE INDICATED, IT'S APPROXIMATELY A $1.5 MILLION INVESTMENT THAT THEY'RE DOING OUT THERE AS PART OF THAT IMPROVEMENT, THAT CONSTRUCTION. SO DOES ANYBODY ON COMMITTEE HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ABOUT THIS? DOES ANYBODY ON COUNCIL AS A WHOLE HAVE ANY? OKAY. THIS IS ON SECOND READING. At the appropriate time during our regular council meeting, I will ask for time on 2026-09. Those were items of the legislation. Does anybody have any old or new business?

Okay, hearing none, we'll adjourn at 5.09. Thank you, Mr. Noble. Our next committee to meet is Rules and Personnel, which I chair. Myself, Mr. Mager, and Mr. Brandenburg are all present this evening. We do not have any legislation. Does anybody have a reason to meet? Hearing none, we will not meet. Moving on to the next committee, Transportation, Connectivity, and Stormwater, chaired by Mr. Mager.

Thank you, Mr. President. All members of the Transportation, Connectivity, and Stormwater Committee are present, myself, Mr. Brandenburg, and Mr. Noble. However, there are no items of legislation before us. Any items of older new business? Any Transportation, Connectivity updates, Mr. Pickett? No, just the activity on Arlington Road will be ongoing. Okay, so with that, we will not meet.

Thank you, Mr. Mager. Our next committee to meet this evening is Intergovernmental and Utilities, chaired by Mr. Brandenburg.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Noble, Mr. Mager, and I are all present. I have two items of legislation to discuss, so we will meet. The first item of legislation is 2026-R22, a resolution authorizing the Mayor to accept the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council 2026 Early Access New Member Grant Funds and declaring an emergency. This legislation is on third reading. It'll allow the mayor to accept a grant of $20,000 from NOPEC's grant fund, offers funding to member communities for energy-related projects, and it's as a result of our joining the electricity aggregation program earlier this year. So grants can be used for projects involving government facilities, for businesses such as energy-efficient lighting, HVAC upgrades or renewable energy installations. At our last meeting, Ms. Wachkar, Service Director, indicated it may be used for the renewal of our electric charging stations here at the CAB. We've received several of these grants in the past related to our natural gas aggregation program. And again, this is a new one for this year. So, Ms. Blackcar, are there any additional details you'd like to add or anything, any developments since last time?

No, we're just excited that we'll have this additional funding. Great.

Thank you. Okay. I don't have any additional questions this time. Mr. Noble, Mr. Mager, any questions? Nope. Anyone on council? This item is on third reading, so at our regular meeting I'll make motions to bring this item to a vote. The second item of legislation we have discussed this evening is on first reading, with a first reading passage request. It is 2026-R28, a resolution supporting Senate Bill 4505, that would assign a single unified zip code for certain communities, including the City of Green, and declaring an emergency. Mr. Mayor, I know you've put a lot of time into working on the unified zip code. Would you mind to give us some detail?

Yes, so just by way of quick review, everyone watching and serving on council and not watching has lived with multiple zip codes in the City of Green and all the confusion that that has created from tax collection issues to public services to just knowing where you're at in the city and promoting property for sale, letting people know that something belongs in the City of Greene. And so we had a major breakthrough in dealing with the Post Office. I think early last year they agreed to allow us to use Greene in our mailing address, and so we've been encouraging businesses and residents to do that going forward. In the meantime, in our dealings with the Post Office, we learned that there was Federal legislation that would assign a single unified zip code to cities like ours. So there are a number of cities across the United States that the thing they share in common is they've grown quickly since zip codes were assigned in 1960 and became sort of a larger city even though their zip codes treat them as belonging to other cities. So those cities have gotten together, formed a coalition. Council approved last year hiring a lobbyist, and that lobbyist firm has been taking the lead in dealing with Congress. We have passed the United States House of Representatives. There were two bills that actually came through the House that would award Greene and other cities a zip code, and then both of those bills proceeded to the Senate. Since that time, we have had two fly-ins where members of the Collaboration of Communities actually went to D.C. and met with senators. The last time we were there in March, we learned that there was a senator who was willing to take this on as the lead, and that is Joni Ernst of Iowa. What her plan was to do was to unify the two bills that came from the House into a single bill in the Senate. And so that has now been done. It is Senate Bill 4505. And what our lobbyist asked us to do was go back to City Council and ask for their support, basically using the same language that you approved before, but with the new bill number. so that that could be distributed to the key senators on the Homeland Security Committee. And it frankly gives us a reason to reach out and say, hey, just want you to know there's a new bill number. Want to remind you our city council's behind this and kind of beat the drum to the rhythm of the new bill. So that's all this is about, is asking for Council's support for the Unified Zip Code to allow us to continue to proceed through the United States Senate. If this is going to happen, it's likely going to need to happen this year because this is the second year of the Congress and it will retire come January 1. So there's going to be a real push to get this to see the light of day yet this year.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think you just about answered all of my questions. That was very informative, very helpful. So I think the only question I have, I wasn't on council last year when the original was approved, but assuming the legislation's adopted by the Senate and signed by the president, what's the next step for the city? What things will we have to do that we're supporting, if you will?

Yeah, so there will be a period where we need to educate the public along with the post office. We just need Congress to tell them to do it because the post office position has been it doesn't benefit the post office, so we're not going to implement a change. And, you know, for 20 years that's what they told us about using green as a last line. So what will happen is, if we can get this passed and the President signs it, we will be implementing that one-year time period, so we will be educating businesses and residents on what it looks like to make that change. Obviously, right now, we are focused on getting the bill passed.

Agreed. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don't have any other questions at the moment. Mr. Noble, Mr. Mager?

Thank you, Mr. Brandenburg. Thank you, Mayor and administration, for getting us to this point. I guess before we even get to the President's desk, is this unamended from the House version? It doesn't go back to the House, assuming the Senate passes?

Yeah, I think it probably will need to go back to the House because there were a couple of cities that were added. And so there is a, what's the word, a... Reconciliation. Thank you, Mr. Humphrey. There's a reconciliation process where the House would have to pick it back up and accept it. We feel confident that if the Senate pushes it through, the House will do that because they've already supported it by a wide margin. So the Senate's harder to get their attention, and you watch the news, there are a lot of international issues that concern our country and that the Senators are focused on. So causing them to turn their attention to what feels like a local matter is a little bit of a challenge. But the lobbyists have been very helpful. The fact that we have cities from coast to coast, from California to Florida, in this bill is helpful. It has got a lot of people's attention, and we are hoping for the best.

This might be premature as well, but with the new zip code, is there a shift then to the primary post office being the one in green? Is there any thoughts on that and maybe expanding that space? I know it's too small to handle now, but has that been considered as part of the process?

That is a great question. What I would tell you is I would love to engage the Post Office in that conversation. To date, they have not been willing to have that conversation. I think if this bill passes, there is a likelihood that conversation becomes more relevant. There could be a real issue there. Right now, it is academic because what we find is the Post Office Getting that big ship to turn is why we're in the United States Senate. I mean, I've said it before, but when Gerard was mayor, he would say, look, to change your zip code is going to take an act of Congress. Well, here we are. So if we can get Congress to get behind it, if we pass the Senate, we'll have those conversations. And my mind are very open, but to date, the post office simply hasn't been willing to come to the table.

No, no, I understand completely. I just thought that maybe the next steps after this, but I appreciate you giving us this point. So Mr. Chair, I'm good. Thank you.

Mr. Noble, any questions?

No, sir.

Anyone else?

Just wanted to comment. There's 75 communities apparently on this list. Colorado leads the pack with 15 communities, followed by Florida and California with a lot, but the only one from Ohio is Green, Ohio. So good job, Mayor. Yeah.

it's interesting in our meetings where we've flown together and met other mayors and city managers the one thing that they have in common is that in nineteen sixty when the zip codes were issued they were different cities they were smaller villages or made sense to belong to another city and since then all of them have had this renaissance or transformation or period of growth just like us where they've outgrown an old system and so there is this broader issue that congress I think understands there needs to be a process to allow zip codes to adjust over time. Right now they claim there is, but it doesn't work. And so what we are asking Congress to do is to please take care of the backlog first, and then we are certainly willing to be party to legislation that says let's fix the process. Thank you.

If I could Mr. Chairman, you know, the other issue is that, as Mr. Mager mentioned, you know, mail delivery is obviously the reason that the post office has resisted because they built a big facility in Uniontown that supports the biggest part of our area. But then delivery comes from all those post offices. We have one post office in Green, and they do no mail delivery, right? So that's what makes them unique. and so I think logistically it's an issue, but with technology it seems to me that they should be able to get the right envelope to the right post office box by the address that you've listed, and perhaps they're just being a little bit slow to to follow that technology that exists. So hopefully they can work it out logistically and you don't really need a new post office because if you build a new one here, then you're gonna have inefficiencies at the neighboring ones that lose a big part of their mail. So that's the reality of it and I think that's why we've had such pushback from the post office.

I think that makes sense.

When I became mayor, they wouldn't even deliver mail here to this building because we had a PO box and we had to encourage them that they can still deliver mail here when it's addressed here because they were just sending it back. Strangely, that's how they treated us as a customer.

Not good. This will definitely be a good change.

It's a good development. We'll see what happens. There's still a long way to go.

Understood. Okay, so any other questions on council? All right, so based on the discussion this evening, committee okay with first reading passage? Yes, sir. All right. So then at our council meeting this evening, I'll make the appropriate motion to adopt 126-R28. That concludes our legislative business. Any other items of old or new business this evening?

Hearing none, we are adjourned. Thank you, Mr. Brandenburg. Well, that wraps up our committee meetings for this evening. We will be back at 7 p.m. for our regular city council meetings. And we are adjourned.