City Council - Regular Meeting

Let us pray. Holy God, we thank and praise you for this beautiful day. We lift up our nation and our community as we remember the events of 9-11, those who sacrificed everything for the sake of others.

We thank you for the generosity of our neighbors as they gather to love one another with our Uplift North Canton Day of Service. In this time of divisions, fatigue, anger, fear, and frustration, help us to listen to one another with respect and dignity. Show us how to live in peace so that your will is done in our community, our county, our state, and our country. Bless all of our elected leaders with wisdom and understanding, patience and compassion as they work for all of the residents of our community. Guide the deliberations of this meeting so that all may be heard. We entrust all who call North Canton home into your tender mercy as we pray together. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, with liberty and justice for all.

Mr. Rott, will you please call the roll. Member Pierpont.

Here.

Member Orr. Here. Member Wyren.

Here.

Member Matheny. Here. Member McLeister. Here. Member Pratt.

Here.

Member Stockton. Here. Seven present. Excellent. I will make a motion to approve as presented the August 2026 financial reports. Can I get a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. At this time, Council invites Water Superintendent Ted Martinez and Water Operations Manager Steven Nutt to the floor for a special presentation on Water Treatment and Distribution Initiative.

Gentlemen. Thank you. I'm Ted Martinez. Most of you might know me, but I'm Superintendent of Water. A little bit more about me. I've worked for the City since 2002, as in distribution until 2011. I've been superintendent of water plants since last year, and then with the retirement of Brian Hill, and now I'm superintendent of water. And then when I got promoted to superintendent of water, Stephen Nutnatt was operation manager for the water plant. And then Jamie Martin, who's on vacation, is operation manager of water distribution. And we also have an operation manager of maintenance who does the traffic and maintenance in the plant throughout the city. So... I thought I'd talk about two things here. One is something you guys can probably see. It's a seasonal hydrant flushing that we do once a year. And the other is PFAS, something that you don't see because I'm sure people have heard about it, give you an overview of it. So I'll start with hydrant flushing. So in the city of North Canton, we have 1,600 hydrants. We have 160 miles of water line and 2,000 different valves we all maintain. So we do hydrogen flushing twice a year. We take two weeks to do it. You'll see a press release. We usually do it in October and late April. So basically why we do it is it improves the water quality back in the day when you'd have rusty water, stuff like that. The main reason why we do this is to get the velocity up to scour the mains so we clean the insides of pipes better. Raises chlorine residuals. Main thing we focus on is dead ends because static water is not good for water quality. So in the city over the last 20 years or so, we mainly eliminated dead ends in the system. We have a few left, but we focus on those. Fires, so when we flush these, we run them all the way wide open so we can tell basically if we have problems in the system, get where they're at. This is done from 11 to 5 a.m. You can go to the next slide. So in the spring, we basically would, just because everything's been sitting all winter, make sure that all the hydrants, because some of them might leak or something, they're made to drain, so we don't want any frozen hydrants. Then in the summer, we have a summer maintenance program. You might see them out and about. We have summer helpers that paint the hydrants and operate them, make sure they're flush and they work. So this year they did about 300. They lubricate them, make sure the caps come off, all that stuff. And if anyone has any, sees any hydrants that need maintained throughout the system, feel free to get ahold of me. We're always looking for ones to do. In the fall, basically make sure, same thing, that the hydrants are working right and that nothing's gonna be frozen with weed pools and stuff frozen. So when you operate a hydrant, basically, they're made to drain water so they don't freeze. So doing this flushing program too, another thing we do is make sure everything's draining enough and we don't have any problems with any, you know, fires, hydrants being frozen or anything. Next slide. So basically what we do is our plants locate on the western side of our system. So we work from west to east. So our plant's on freedom off of Portage and we don't go too much past Frank Road. So we divide it into four zones and work outward from the plant. So there's four different nights we do when we flush. We use about 8 million gallons whenever we do it for the two-week period. You can go to the next slide, Liam. One thing we do, too, is we can check and see. We have a valve turning program, and this really helps us tell if we have water flowing throughout the system. If we might have a potential closed valve or something, the guys, you know, they're pretty, they've been doing it for years, so they notice that there's less flow from what we normally have from valve 1 hydrants. So the main thing we do is get the velocity up higher. So the reason why we do it at night is we're blowing across the road full bore and with water quality issues, you don't want someone doing a load of laundry in the middle of the day and have, you know, some kind of water quality issue, ruin their clothes or something like that. So you get it up high enough to scour the pipe walls. You might see old pipe pictures that look like, you know, carotid arteries where they have to, we don't really have that anymore because we have all of our lines are cement lines, so we don't get too much sediment. Basically, they'll flush one wide open, turn it down, go to the next one, blow it wide open, so they're doing at least two hydrants at a time. So throughout the city, whenever they're flushing, they're doing at least eight at a time. They do that from 11 to 5 in the morning. You can go to the next slide. Basically, this is a big handle check, make sure all the hydrants are working properly. If any are broken, we fix them, put them on a list. We actually document to every hydrant in the city as labeled by a grid number and a number tag, so We know which ones have been flushed, when, how often, if they've ever been touched, stuff like that. Any kind of stuff. You can see a lot of stress tests in the system too. You can go to the next slide, Liam. So we can see basically if the plant, we will be flowing six, seven million gallons through the plant. So we can see if we have any issues with water flowing through the plant, any issues in the systems. We have pressure monitors all through the system. Also some identifying weak points, stuff when you work on. Stuff, they usually put this in the press release, but when you wake up in the morning, if you have rusty water or something like that, the main thing you want to do is always run your cold. If you run your hot, it gets in your hot water tank, you'll have rusty water for longer. So I always tell people to run their cold water for three to five minutes or so. You might experience a pressure drop if you're on an area in the system that is a dead end or something like that. Next slide, Liam. And then we'll go to anyone, any questions on hydrogen flushing? All right, so PFAS. Go ahead, next slide. So this is emerging contaminant is what they call it because it's constantly changing. So they're kind of more gathering information right now. This year, every water system is doing Depending on how many people you serve, like we have four. We have to do one every quarter testing for PFAS, and they're going to get something set up. Next slide, Liam. So there are forever chemicals. PFAS is a general term. So there's about 10,000, I think, PFAS, and you're finding different ones every day. So it builds up over time. Your body doesn't really get rid of PFAS. Next slide, Liam. So there's three different kinds. PFOS is the umbrella term where there's 10,000 of them. PFOA and PFOS are legacy ones that are made in the 40s that are everywhere. And basically, they take at least three to eight years, maybe even longer, to get out of your body. I'll show you what they're in after the next slide. But PFBS is what it's been replaced with. And PFBS doesn't stay in your body as long. They think maybe a month. So they're kind of lower, and lately they've lowered the regulations on PFPS from what they were before. Next slide, ma'am. So it can be in private wells, regular public water systems, or some on the river that had to be recovered, they had to do stuff for it. Industrial facilities, firefighting flow, food and packaging, I think they've got it out in most, it used to be in microwave popcorn bags, like with the grease, who knows how wrapper wouldn't be greasy. I think they've taken most of that stuff out. Your nonstick pans, Obviously, landfill, agriculture, it's on everything. Next slide. Some health risks, low birth weight, behavioral changes, irreversibility of fight infections, lower vaccine response, reproductive problems, no bioconservative or like high cholesterol, and it was one of them, cancer risk. Next slide, Liam. So the EPA has, they put about six limits that they're doing.

Initial monitoring is what we're doing now.

So all systems have to do these PFAS tests, and they're going to kind of get the baseline on what kind of testing you're going to do in the future. So everyone must comply. 2029 with treatment solutions. We luckily are probably not going to have any. Ohio EPA has been on the same as the U.S. EPA. So they've been working with the U.S. EPA to handle what kind of testing we need and everything. Next slide again. PFAS is tested for part per trillion. Most other stuff, chlorine, fluoride, we test for that part per million. So part per trillion is a billion, a thousand, is a billion, a thousand times that's a trillion. So it's a really, really, really small number. Give you an idea. One drop of water, 20 size Olympic pools, and one second, 32,000 years. So the EPA limit for PFAS and PFOS is four part per trillion. So in 2020, We participate in the initial testing of it. We didn't have any detections for PFOP, PFOS, PFPS, anything like that. Next slide. So in 24, they did a federal mandate when they did UCMR5 testing. It's a rule where they can make a test for whatever they want. So we had no PFOS, PFOS. We didn't have a detection of PSPS right at the limit, which 0.2 part per million is 2% of a part per trillion. Next slide. So in 2026, we did it in April. Again, we had nothing, no PFAS, no PFBS or anything. Next test we're doing is next month. So what we do is to prevent any of this in the future is we have source water protection program. So on the right, you can see our map. The dark blue is one year time of travels where something spills in one year time of travel. We basically have one year until we might see in our well field. Within the last 10 years, we had a dominion brine spill up at the strip that was by the dresser walls. And we did testing for it, never saw it, but that's the reason why we have this. The dark, lighter blue is five-year time of travel. So anything that spills in that area is five-year time of travel until we can possibly get our well fueled. This is being updated right now with the addition of well 11 at the golf course. So you'll kind of see the two lines in between kind of filling in with that. So what we do on that is any place like auto repair storage, even like Lowe's that has fertilizer, any kind of chemicals, we visit them once a year. get a contact, make sure the place is still in business, talk to them, see what they have on, what kind of stuff they have to help out if they have a spill, if something happens. Also, what helps us out is there is an ordinance in 2021, I believe, for source water protection where we can basically kind of somewhat control what goes in in some places. And what the open government really helps out, let us know what goes in places. We can put them on our list and we update them every year Good. Okay, next one. So everything that's in our WANDR goes in the Consumer Conference Report. So it goes out every year. You see it in your bill. It's a link for it, usually from anywhere from February to May or June. There's physical copies available at City Hall. I try to post them at the library, City Hall, Civic Center down here. Digital access, anytime you want to see it. Basically any detect we have. for anything we have to put in there. So most of it's normally chlorine disinfection byproducts, like fluoride we add to the water. There's already fluoride in our water we add to it, and we add to it to break out, because we have to. And anything else they make us test for, PFAS will be in there next year to make us put in there. I've already had the PFAS reports in there over the last three tests saying basically we don't really have to be in there. That's what we mean. And that's pretty much it. If anyone has any questions on PFOS or, yeah, go ahead.

Thanks, Matt. The water test that showed up there, were those from just like one certain water field or is that?

No, so all they care about is finished water. Okay. So it could have been, I mean, you're testing down to 0.2 percent. I mean. We did twice and showed up twice at the very low limit. I mean, it could have been a ladder. I don't think so, though. But we haven't had it since. And then the limit for BFBS now and SB2, they have a bunch of lists, but it's one part per trillion. So we're 2% of one part per trillion, basically. And then, like I said, PFOA, PFOS, all that, we don't have any. We haven't had any detection. So. 10 years ago, they gave me a private test for me. The test is very expensive. It's getting cheaper. But like I said, chlorine, we test part per million. VOCs, which would be like your solvents, like WD-40, you know, paint or anything like that. We test a part per billion for that. So, you know, this is a thousand times less, you know, part per billion. So it's pretty, it takes a lot. It would seem amazing if you could pick it up early.

Yeah. And I know we've got a lot of

would still apply to those areas. So our source water goes further outside the city. But with the open gov, we do do stuff outside the city. Now we still visit stuff outside the city. So with the ordinance, I believe you can find them if they do something that parts of our groundwater system. And our water is groundwater. So we have five well fields, soon to be six. We have ten wells, or nine wells, soon to be ten with the arrowhead well. So we have plenty of options. So like with the Bosnock fire, you know, you never know with the junkyard. So we pull off the water before it gets to Bosnock. So what we did was we arrested the well for a month, did some testing, and then everything came back clear, did another test too after that. So there's stuff we can do if there's ever a lot of our walls around the groups here, like Wall 7 is right over here. If anyone ever falls, says there's, you know, flew them in the group or something, we just shut the whole thing off. We got plenty of options.

Thanks. Any other questions?

I just wanted to call out, this story has been told up here before, but I'll tell it again. A little over a year ago, when the city offered our Civic Leadership Academy for the first time, Council Member Stocker and myself were on that. And during one of the first classes, we were asked to approach a council member in our ward and ask, what do you think is the most important asset in the city? I approached Mr. Matheny, and he's like, that's easy, that's water. And I was thinking, you know, I didn't really think of it the way that he did, but he explained it well, that, you know, basically every other service relies on water in the city. And then we had the pleasure of taking a tour of the treatment plant and seeing your folks there and what they do. It really made me aware of just how important it is, but not only that, how blessed we are to have our own water treatment plant in the city. And you guys are doing things above and beyond what's required at times by the EPA and others. It makes me feel really safe. And I've seen you guys in action when we have had incidents in the community where we have to consider the safety of our water. So just a big thank you to you and your crew for everything that you do. I know a lot of you don't get to go on vacations and things, and you work around the clock long hours, but it truly is one of the most important assets in the city. So thank you.

Well, thanks. We have a lot of good workers taking pride in the work. I think that pays it up. We did not have anybody sign up to speak for legislation on the agenda. So we will move right into this.

Mr. Ott, will you please read the title of Ordinance 16-2026.

An ordinance repealing Chapter 1139 Industrial District Regulations and amending various provisions of Chapter 1137 Business District Regulations are the codified ordinances of the City of North Canton to update, modify, and clarify the regulations governing the City's business districts.

This is our third reading, and a lot of discussion went through this. Changes were made. I think we're at a position where we're satisfied with where it's at and ready to move forward. Is there any questions, comments, or other concerns? Yes.

I have a quick procedural question. I'm aware there is an open request, a public records request with the citizen. It was placed back on August 16th, and we have not finished fulfilling that request yet. I've read the most recent response to that just before this meeting tonight, so forgive me for not bringing this up sooner. But the question was asked, how was this zoning change Initiated and it was pointed out that we do have an ordinance that indicates zoning changes can only be initiated 1 of 3 ways and it has to come either from the planning committee themselves. And that was not the case here. It can come from city council. And that was not the case here. And the third option is that it must have been put in writing by our mayor. Now, the response that was provided to the citizen was it came from the mayor. And I'm not going to presume we're referring to Mayor Stroya. It may have been the mayor prior to him. So I don't know if anyone wants to clarify that. But are we able to provide this resident with written evidence that that did occur?

So the zoning amendment application that was submitted It's done by me on behalf of the mayor, just as every other zoning amendment that we have put forward in the last several years has been done. Procedurally, the mayor comes to us to fill it out, and those are submitted on behalf, and that constitutes the written request, which has been provided to the resident.

Do we have legal counsel with us this evening?

He's not here tonight, but I have been in consultation with him in preparing that most recent response. He said there is nothing afoul about our procedure and that can constitute the mayor's.

Why is this all of a sudden coming up?

I think it's because the original form of the ordinance contained matters in it that we've since removed. And the questions came from multiple people, including council themselves. What was the origination of that? And so that person put a public records request in saying, can you provide some more background around that? So that's where that's coming from.

I understand where it's coming from.

Yes. And I would just add my interpretation, and I believe I'm correct that our law and Director's interpretation as well as if it's coming from the administration, it's coming from the mayor. We're working at the behest of the mayor. I mean, if it's a question of who literally... build out an email or a form or something like that. I would interpret anything that comes from our office as coming from the mayor.

I'm going to default and continue to listen to our law director as opposed to...

It's unfortunate he's not with us tonight. And this is the second meeting in a row that that has happened. I'm not sure why that would be, but that would give me more reassurance that we followed the correct procedure getting this legislation in the first place.

I think that it makes sense that one would think that it would be, you know, Liam acting on behalf of the mayor, but at the same point, does it technically happen to come from the mayor? I think we should, you know, it's just like with the minutes.

It's how it's written. So I believe that all members of council were made aware of this records request at the same time, unless people have had conversations with this resident prior to regarding this. So we're all on the same footing. My question is, do we have any idea if this resident is bringing up a question regarding the defeated or removed or table or whatever you want to call it portion of the legislation? Or is he referring to the legislation overall?

He's concerned about the procedure itself of how the zoning change was introduced to us. And so for clarification, I'm glad you asked about that. We have been made aware of the records request over time. This resident emailed his request and has continued to copy all of us on his responses back to the city. And that's great. It was only until I received, and we all received, a response late this afternoon, early evening, that allowed me to see the most recent response provided by the city indicated as a follow-up to him that indeed they were following chapter 1181, the third provision stating that the request was made in writing by the mayor. Since then, there has not been adequate time for the city to respond to the follow-up request from the resident, and that is, I'm still asking for a copy of that written request, the dated and signed request. Now, I've only been in this seat for nine months. I'm not at the liberty to translate ordinances to what I think they might mean I can only go by the actual language in the ordinance the language says a written request from the mayor I'm being very honest here I have zero problems with the content in this ordinance we are at a place where I fully support what's in it I fully support how we got to this point but we now have a new concern I have a new concern I won't speak for the rest of you that came up in the last two hours And I would like to see that we followed procedure. Otherwise, I don't want to be complicit in not properly carrying that through. That's where I'm at. So can we or can we not provide written requests from the mayor to this resident? I'm going to ask the question. I'm guessing the answer is no, based off the responses we've had here tonight. And that's concerning.

I didn't see the request. So I know who made it and I know his point of doing it. But that's when you look back and when we consulted directly with counsel to tell us the answer. Are you disputing that part that you don't agree with counsels with what our law director said?

With all due respect, recently I have been guided in another topic where I was told that legal guided us on something that had since then come out inaccurate.

Have you directly asked the law director this question?

No, because again, this came out two hours ago. Okay. After hours.

So I just question bringing it on the floor of council instead of asking the one director first. That's very confusing.

There's been zero opportunity and you're asking for a third vote this evening. So I have no other option but to do the right thing and ask the question here.

We would be assuming that we're right or we can know that we're right and have them on line and verify that.

It would also be helpful, I think, going forward when we receive, because we don't receive zoning requests often on council. It'd be great in the packet to include that request with it. We wouldn't have these questions then. So I don't really care about who the person was that requested it. It's a citizen. He has a right to ask for it. We've not been able to provide it. So at this time, I personally cannot say yes on reading number three. What the rest of you want to do is up to you.

Isn't the item cover page, when this is initially brought to council, state who it was originated from? Which is that administration?

Well, if it says administration, that would not be following the ordinance.

Does the legislation state then that if an item passes and is not legal, it doesn't go into effect?

I believe any ordinance that passes without proper procedure would then be deemed illegal.

Why would we risk doing that?

Right. I don't want to take that risk this evening. I'm not putting my yes vote behind something until I have a firm, I guess, conversation with our law director. I can do that tomorrow morning. So if you feel comfortable proceeding with it, I just wanted to put this out there. Otherwise, it might be better off to postpone the third reading. I don't know what you guys want to do, but I just want to... I will motion that we postpone the third reading until we receive this.

Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed?

Aye.

I think we need a roll call, but I didn't tell. Okay.

Would you please clarify what a yes and a no means?

So there is a motion to postpone consideration of Ordinance 16-2026. Member Pierpont? Yes. Member Orr? Yes. Member Weirich?

No.

Member Matheny? No. Member McLeister? Yes. Member Pratt?

Yes.

Member Stocker?

No.

With four in favor, three opposed, motion carries.

And let the record show I'm also formally requesting the same thing in writing be sent to me directly.

Okay.

Thank you.

Motion is closed. You're welcome. Next up, Item 8B, Ordinance 139-2026.

Mr. Ott, will you please read the title? Ordinance establishing Chapter 149, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board of the Codified Ordinances of the City of North Canton, thereby establishing the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board for the City of North Canton.

All right. This is the third reading. We are looking to establish a Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, as Liam just read to us. There would be three members appointed by the mayor, two appointed by council. This is something that our parks administrator has had in prior capacities in other communities. It's something that we used to have in this community. And now that we have a number of initiatives moving forward, We are looking to reestablish it here. Anything you'd like to add, Mr. Elkins?

No, I think you've covered it very well. I'm looking forward to getting the board, hopefully get our first meeting in before the end of the year.

Great. Any other questions?

Liam, do you want to share the link or tell people where it is to potentially apply to be an advisor or member?

So, yes. On the city's website, under the apply for permits and licenses, it'll be the board and commissions application under the administration column. You can also just type it into the search box for, again, the boards and commissions application. Throughout the course of filling that application, you'll get a drop-down menu for which boards you'd like to apply to. on it would be the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.

Okay.

How long are you taking applications? Until filled.

Now, point of clarification, this takes 30 days to become loss or are you not collecting applications or names until after 30 days?

People can start applying and then we can dole out the applications once that takes effect, just making it so that people can start applying if they're interested in serving.

So provided we pass this, they could start applying tomorrow?

Correct.

And then we'd start processing them after the 30 days. Gotcha.

When you say until filled, since we only are selecting two of the five on council, are you saying you're going to take the first two applicants, or will we have a pool that we can look at?

Yeah, you'll get a pool.

Okay.

It'll be split between administration and council, and then you guys can pick from that.

All right. Very good. Thank you.

All right.

Anything else? Okay. I will make a motion to adopt the third reading of Ordinance 39-2026. I second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to new business. Mr. Ox, will you please read the title of Ordinance 42-2026?

An Ordinance Amending Chapter 911, Street Names of the Codified Ordinances of the City of North Canton to Establish Criteria and Procedures for Instituting Honorary Street Names.

Mr. Orr, this falls on your streets and alley. Yes, it does. We talked at length in the committee, the whole meeting, two times ago and then we wanted some changes put in there and they came back and they made the changes. The big change was an unlimited amount of names for the first year. Then we would consider putting a number on that afterwards. The other thing was the We had talked about not having it on Main Street, but just a small section of each street being whatever, a couple hundred yards or something of that nature. A small plaque would be put on there, more to come on the size and stuff of that nature. Council seemed in favor of this as we talked during the Committee of the Whole. So is there anything I'm missing on this basically?

The other thing that we added was a application deadline of January 31st of each year. So presumably we'll open that on January 1st, close it at the end of the month, and then make considerations from those applications.

So we'll not put this on the web until January 1st?

Yeah, they'll be put up and taken down because using the OpenGov system, we can toggle those on and off to appear on the website. Some people aren't applying all throughout the year. We just open it during the application period.

30 days or whatever. Okay. That's very important. Anyone else have any questions or anything to add?

Yeah. Sorry. Question for clarity. So for our inaugural class, if we want to call it that, there was just mention about an unlimited number of people.

Correct.

Applications. Right. They'll go online. So have we figured out a maximum number for each year or...

So that was removed from the previous amendments at the last meeting to allow... We'll consider however many are brought up this coming year. And then from there, you guys can decide if that was way too many. We have a little bit of shell shock about that. You can amend that chapter to reduce it. Because we had originally set a cap of two. And then you guys voted to remove that.

So no difference between inaugural year and every other year after that.

Unless otherwise changed.

And then we have to, as a council,

Six members. A super majority, so six. Super majority.

And I wanted to add, I've talked with a number of residents about this and actually a couple of you guys and then even I think Liam and I had a conversation. Overwhelmingly, I'm getting very positive response from folks. I think it's a fantastic thing. The one thing that did come up in a conversation and kind of had me thinking a little bit is And again, I was not in the military myself, so I don't know the process of how you would even acquire this or if I, as say an applicant, could even acquire it. But it would be nice to get some sort of verification that they were an honorably discharged veteran. I don't know, was it a DD-214? I don't know if that's readily available for anybody to get or if that's more just for the vet himself. I think, were you in the military?

I was not.

Oh, I thought you were.

No, no, no. But you can't get a copy of a DD-214. There is a database, if you will.

Gotcha.

But most of them that are honorably discharged has it.

Perfect. Okay. I was also just thinking, too, if there's maybe somebody who's older, maybe it's been lost in time, it'd be nice if there was a database. Because I think the last thing we would want to do is hear a great polished up story and maybe in the street after somebody would find out that there were some skeletons in their closet. So that was the only critique that I got from a resident.

And that was only for 10 years, correct? It'll be up for 10 years.

We're still going to keep the color different than the actual street, right? I would be some noticeable difference.

I would venture to say yes. So in the ordinance, we do reserve the right to determine size, placement, text, so that we can make that decision to differentiate based on the street signs in the area.

I'm sure we'll do that. We just haven't determined exactly what it is. But yeah, I think that's a good practice that's pretty consistent with what most cities do.

I'd like to make a But ordinance of 40 to 2026. The first reading.

I think that all they were.

All right, Mr. We've raised the title of ordinance 432026.

An ordinance amending chapter 921 sewer code of the codified ordinances of the city of North Canton to establish criteria for the discharge of fats, oils and grease in order to protect the city sewer system.

Okay. Mr. Stocker, admin has requested that this item be postponed until the next council meeting. I think there's some things they're working on.

Yes. So as utilities chair, I would definitely make the motion that we postpone the discussion of 43-2026 until our next council meeting.

I will second that. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. All right. We do have a speaker lined up.

As soon as we can talk, will you please read the preamble? At this time, members of the public who have signed up to address City Council will be called to do so. Each speaker will be given five minutes. Speakers shall be called in the order they signed up. During this section, comments shall be limited to items reasonably under the City's authority. Rules for speaking and the speaker's time will appear on the screens. After you have finished speaking, please remain at the podium to answer questions from the officials at the desk.

Melanie Roll, the podium is yours.

Melanie J. Roll, please. As you all are aware, North Canton chose to adopt the chartered form of government in 1960. This is a home rule government with such rules for its operation. It provides a framework for making laws and policies different than statutory government, which must adhere to the Ohio Revised Code. I have two topics this evening. One, minutes, two, REPEALING CHAPTER 107 PUBLIC RECORDS PRESENTED AT THE AUGUST 31, 2026 COUNCIL IN THE WHOLE WITH NO DISCUSSION ABOUT THIS TOPIC AT THAT MEETING. VERBATIM MINUTES IS ADDRESSED IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE CODE LEGISLATIVE CHAPTER 111 COUNCIL SECTION 111.04 LEGISLATIVE B, all meetings of council and its committees shall be recorded and transcribed into verbatim minutes which shall additionally state all those city officials in attendance and seated at the desk. Ordinance 70-2020, effective 11-23-2020. This ordinance prohibits summary minutes for council meetings. If you have listened to council meetings on YouTube, you will find the audio lacks clarity. If one wants to research what a council member or an administrator expressed their thoughts on the subject, you go to the meeting for beta minutes for clarification. This function needs to stay in place for an open, transparent government. My second topic, The following is a mission statement from North Canton Public Records Policy. Openness leads to a better informed citizenry, which leads to better government and better public policy. Accordingly, it is the mission and intent of the City of North Canton to at all times fully comply with and abide by both the spirit and the letter of Ohio's Public Records Act. what is the reason for repealing chapter 107 public records the public records policy is part again of the administrative code title one general provisions and provides for the foundation of governance yes there is a form on the city's webpage to submit a request for a public record but the policy is part of the administrative and it should stay the administrative code. Are we a city of laws or not? Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Questions? All right, let's move on to the final reports.

Mayor Schwartz. All right, thank you, President McPhee. Okay, so we had some good events over the last few days, last week. We had M.J. Avocetti end up doing the Statue of Liberty presentation back on the 8th, and it was phenomenal. I don't know how many people were here. I know, Jeff, you were there. But if you have any interest in the Statue of Liberty, that man is the icon of anything to follow. He's incredible. That was a great hour, and people really enjoyed it. On the 11th, we did the first responders dinner over at Van Ostrand's. They had, I think this is their seventh year. Jason went with me over there. So they do a dinner for first responders. They did it at Dogwood Shelter. And I just want to thank them because they've been doing it for seven years now. I think when you do it before the football game, the turnout gets a little bit later. It's kind of like tailgating, but that was a lot of fun and appreciate their help with that. Well, let me, they did it all. We didn't do anything. We showed up and they were very kind. Yeah, they were great. Then on Saturday, we had Uplift. So who here from council was that uplift. Fantastic time. Neighbors helping neighbors community stuff that is we've been trying to put that I think in and off the ground for years. And the right group of people finally got together and were able to put that forward. And what an event. I mean, that's that's just love to see the community come together. And that's exactly what that was. So They even let me do manual labor, which I'm not good at, but I did. And then this coming, it would be September 26th, we've got the Main Street Festival. I'm going to wear a Flader hose. Jamie, are you in?

I'm doing what?

The Flader hose. The Flader hose, heck yeah. New Berlin. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, New Berlin.

You don't have to get anybody too excited. I read that wrong. Not this Saturday. It's in two weeks. 26, yes. Yes, I'll be there in my Flader.

I invite you all to wear Flader. That's all, yeah.

Mr. Zegeditz.

Okay, a couple items. First, just to build on what the mayor said, it was great to see Uplift happen. And a lot of you might have seen the Repository Road, really nice article on it. And it was great to see some positive news coming out of North Canton. There's a lot of other positive news, but it was nice to see that one get featured in the paper. Two main things to go through. One, I just wanted to build on a little bit of what we were talking about with Tad and Steve. So I wanted to just add that North Canton is fabulously blessed with a water system. I know a lot of you, you know, you see what happens in other cities and have some context, but it's not that common for a city our size to have its own water utility system. You know, we're blessed obviously with a great aquifer and abundant groundwater. Tad mentioned our 10 wells. We just drilled the new one at Arrowhead. Tad could speak a lot more knowledgeably and eloquently about the plant, but he mentioned the 1600 hydrants, just the amount of infrastructure. And you guys know our budget and our staffing levels, and we have relatively few people maintaining that entire system. And that was the other thing I wanted to really give them a shout out, both Tad and Steve and Jamie. and Todd and the rest of their team, we have a fantastic group of people because even the best water system in the world is fairly useless without the people with the know-how and the commitment to it. And I think you all know, but maybe some of the public doesn't realize the system is pretty extensive outside of the borders of North Canton, including provision of water to Belmond Village and to the Akron Canton Airport. So we have some really important facilities outside of our borders that we serve as well as many businesses and homes. The other item I had was I wanted to give you, I will try to strike a balance between brevity and giving you enough information and you could let me know whether I was successful. I wanted to report out on recent activity by Board of Control So I'll give you an overview. Ask me if you need more detail, but we have a couple months worth of activity that I wanted to report on. So in June, we had several items before the Board of Control. There was the revision to the city's existing legal services agreement. We have, and you'll hear police department and HVAC renovations at City Hall a lot for me in this report. We had five change orders for police department renovation and HVAC. Those were all within the project's contingency budget. Not uncommon with a project of that scope, over $2 million. A lot of these change orders are you get in there and you start seeing the situation with infrastructure in the building and so forth. We had two large change orders that did come before you in June for $257,000. You're familiar with that one that was approved by council on June 22nd. Another item that came before you from board of control in June was the backup radio console purchases for dispatch. That was $155,000 that you approved on June 15th. And then the new fire station, we had one change order for that as well. July, we just had one item come before board of control. That was again for police. renovation and HVAC replacement. There were four change orders. Those were all within the contingency budget for the project as well. Almost done here. And then in August, we had the water department sludge lagoon cleaning contract award that is under TAD's purview that contracts for a two-year term. And we bid that out on July 17th. And then finally, our friend, the PD renovation and HVAC City Hall, we had six more change orders. Those were all within the contingency budget. Since I talked about that project so much, and then I'll stop, and if you have any questions, let me know. It is going well. The change orders, like I said, aren't unusual. I've had varying estimates of when we'll be back in City Hall. I'm reluctant to hazard a guess. I think it will probably be in October sometime. It is going well. They're just into the ceilings, into the walls, especially with the HVAC part. Police is coming along great. I'll let Chief Kemp either now or after the meeting talk to you about what he's experienced, but we really appreciate everyone in dispatch and police putting up with disruptions. It's been hot over there, but I think the final product is going to be well worth it and I'm sure once it's all done, we'll have a tour for all of council to see the investment, but I think you'll be impressed with what's going on there. The rest of the building, it will be much more comfortable and energy efficient. Probably one of those things you won't necessarily see visible signs of what was done, but hopefully you'll feel it when you're at meetings over there. So with that, I will stop and see if you have any questions.

Thanks for sharing that. I know we made a fairly recent change to work with the Board of Control and thanks for sharing those minutes.

Absolutely. And I'd be happy for any feedback too. We wanted to have a couple meetings where we could report out on multiple things, but if you want them more frequently, we can do that as they happen, or we could do it more quarterly or monthly, whatever really your pleasure as you don't have to decide today. But if you find that it's too frequent or not frequent enough, we can adjust the frequency. Thank you.

Mr. Elkins.

I don't have a report for Parks and Recreation, but I do want to comment on what the mayor said about Uplift Broad Camp. So it was an opportunity for me to really get involved in the community and serve on the committee. And I was blessed to be part of a team that worked on a man's home who happened to be my daughter's teachers at Green High School. And he had to take an early retirement due to a disability. So to give back in that way to help this man who taught my daughters was pretty sweet. When you volunteer, you never know who you're going to meet and who you're going to help. So it truly was a blessing. And he's lived here pretty much since he was six years old, I think.

Yeah.

That's great.

Thank you for sharing. Mr. Ong. Oh, no report. All right. Council reports. Mr. Blaster, why don't you start us off tonight?

Sure. I'll start you off. I want to thank Melanie for coming on and speaking. I just want you to know that I agree with what you said. I think we owe it to the residents to do our very darndest to get verbatim minutes. So I also agree with the other points that you made. Beyond that, I had three things I wanted to touch on. First being 9-11. You know, I think in your opening prayer this morning, you touched on the fact it was a milestone year and a couple things that really I saw that just Well, first of all, I was 25 years old. I went to the football game, and it was exciting because my son, he was in middle school, he got to march with the high schoolers. That was cool, but I wasn't quite prepared for how cool and moving the beginning of the show, my gosh, the pre-show was, to see a unified, green, and North Canton Junior ROTC go out on the field and present a color guard and a flyover at a high school football game. How cool was that? So I just wanted to give a big shout out to all who were involved, whether they hear what I'm saying or not, or who watches me tonight. I just want them to know that was awesome. The people who flew the planes over and the schools that were involved with that color guard. I think that was very moving. Also, of course, we'd be remiss if it did not mention the wonderful flags and lights along Portage. We were able to drive by and see that after the game. And I just, I think that was just a fantastic and moving tribute. And I look forward to that every year. I mean, again, I guess it's like, you know, look forward to the solemn, the rules are behind it, but I think that it's a great way to remember those that were lost. So I wanted to touch on uplift and I think Mr. Elkins just used the word blessing. It was a true blessing to be able to give back to our neighbors, our fellow North Canton residents and I just want to thank the North Canton Ministerial Association and all those who are involved with Uplift for a truly wonderful Saturday morning. I couldn't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning. I think, dare I say, that everybody in this room is a lucky person and the ability to give back was truly a blessing. So I can't say it any better than what Mr. Elkins said. So lastly, I just want to remind everybody that tomorrow is a board one meeting that I think I've published, publicized a number of times. It will be here at the Civic Center, although next door in the ballroom. So this will be at six o'clock, so roughly six to seven. Just as a reminder, we've said it before, what is and what is not a ward meeting. A ward meeting is not a political stump speech. Heck, it's not even a speech at all. It's just simply a different venue for people to come in and share thoughts, concerns, ideas in a setting that's other than a city council meeting. So that will be at six o'clock, and I'm going to be joined by my colleague, Holly. So hope Ward 1 residents, it is geared towards Ward 1 residents, so hopefully Ward 1 residents will come and join us from six to seven. That's all I have. Mr. President.

Thanks, Steve. I wanted to start off by recognizing a former North Canton volunteer firefighter that passed away recently. Denny DeTeal. He was born October 21st of 1946, passed away September 1st of 2026.

He also taught graphic arts at Hoover High School for 30 years. That name sounds familiar for those reasons.

And just his dedication to the community and to the public safety services in town. So I appreciate his family sacrifice over his years serving, being away from home and responding to fires and whatnot. So I appreciate everything that he did and for his family sharing him with our city. I wanted to thank Melanie for showing up tonight. I was going to bring this up anyway. So as far as the verbatim minutes. I also share that concern. I think it's important that we keep everything word for word so that it's easier to go back in time and look things up, what was said or what was not said. I also recognize that the video, if we had good sound, I think video would be just fine. The problem is we lack good video and now we have sound. as I think she also expressed. So, you know, I'd like to see personally that we bring, you know, someone in that can provide verbatim minutes with this stenographer or if we could get the sound and video equipment that would, you know, be able to capture that so that the summary minutes, you know, you'd be able to maybe reference that so you could put the audio or the video in it. You know, figure it out from there. But it'd be nice to be able to have something that we could take with us to another room. Because let's say we have something big going on. We have a lot of people that want to come in. You know, I want to make sure we can take that. Let's say if we have to go to the bigger room in the Civic Center, opposed to just not having something over there. So I think I'm sure you guys can figure something out. I know that we've got some pretty smart tech folks As far as the HVAC and the police department renovations, I just want you to know that those are both desperately needed in this town. They're both long overdue. I think a lot of people have witnessed that over the years, at least the police department.

And I can vouch for the HVAC being messed up with City Hall.

So it makes it difficult to to function in those environments. And I think going into winter, hopefully those guys are set and hopefully they both finish soon. So that's pretty much all I have. But again, thanks Melanie for speaking and thanks Dave.

Mr. Stoddard. Thank you. First and always, thank you for everyone who's attended the meeting and especially to Melanie, our long speaker. I appreciate that you took the time to share all of that. Democracy is not a spectator sport, so I appreciate your participation. I also want to thank Mr. Martinez for his presentation on water treatment and the initiatives there. It was complicated, right? The PFAS and PFAB and all that and source water protection, very technical, very complicated, but I think that just shows the importance of having people of the quality Tad Martinez running our water system. As Member Pierpont mentioned, she and I together have taken two tours now of the facility and it is beyond impressive and their expertise is equally beyond impressive. So thank you to Tad for sharing that. I just want to mention briefly an update from the last Zoning Board of Appeals. At the last meeting, there was a vigorous discussion regarding a subject that on its face is probably not very riveting. It was a privacy offense. But the discussion ended up turning into, frankly, a public right-of-way, or I should say safety concern, traffic concern. The point of where I'm going with this is I'm impressed with the level of detail that all of the members of our volunteer boards give. the work that they do, and it is a volunteer basis. So I just appreciate the work that everybody does, especially those with the ZBOA and other commissions. Last, I want to talk about community. The mayor talked about community. I want to talk about community as well. Thank you to Uplift, everything. That was a great day. I was very proud to join a lot of residents council members and administration members. We had projects that ranged from basic yard work to clearing a roof of debris and installing a furnace cap and to even with our residents, Carpenter, Member McLeister, building a set of steps. It's impressive. As the mayor said, I literally wrote this down, neighbors helping neighbors. And I wanna give a special shout out to a long time parks employee, Matt Gerber, Matt was the unsung hero of the day because he was running both people, supplies, everything, everywhere, all the time, including taking people back to this location in the driving rainstorm on a gator. So, Matt, thank you. Appreciate everything. Also, in community, building community, yesterday in the repository, I read a very outstanding article regarding North Canton resident Betty Wilkins and her family. They donated the family home to Habitat for Humanity. This home is located over near Arrowhead Golf Course. Habitat then sold the home and they turned the proceeds into four new homes for serving families. So very inspiring and literally another way to build a community. And then lastly, I want to call attention to something that's happening this coming Saturday. I am hosting what's called Walk the Ward. This is a four-session series designed to connect with residents across all four wards. These meetups consist of an optional walk, but then also a meetup, a conversation. This Saturday, we're going to meet Ward 3. It's at East Woods Park, and that's from 10 to 12. The walk will happen. It's a one-mile walk. It's an easy walk. It's designed to be low-impact. It's optional, so if those that want to walk, they can. If they don't, they can just simply wait at the shelter at Eastwoods. But we're going to have a couple of special guests. So we're going to have Ward 3 Councilmember Weirich, our Assistant Police Chief, Major Matthew Buzzard, and also Mayor Matt Destroy. So one important note, and it's very similar to Mr. McLeister's, this meeting is not about politics. It's about residents connecting with residents. It's about building community. So more information on my council Facebook page where all people can follow me. A lot of people have RSVP. You don't have to. If you just want to show up on Saturday, that's fine too. So I apologize for the lengthy report, but that's all I got. Thank you. Ms. Weber.

All right. I'd like to also thank Tad and his team for all they do to keep our water safe. Before I took My first tour there, Liam took us on a tour, I don't know, a few years ago. I only drink filtered water and they told me that they drink their water unfiltered, the employees there. So I figured if they trust it, I trust it as well. So I drink straight from the tap now and I'm really grateful that we can do that here. Um, uplift. Yeah, it was amazing. And I just think what the ministerial association did with it, the way they organized it, it was, I mean, top notch. And I just want to call out a couple of our employees who were there. Kyra Baker, I know, has been involved. heavily. She was at every festival this summer, signing up volunteers and talking about Uplift. Mike Elkins took a lead role in, I don't know what you did, but I know that you took a lead role and you were there. And I just really appreciate the way that you jumped into that. Our director of administration was leaving the country that evening, but still showed up that day and was carrying limbs and doing the things, our mayor, and then some of my colleagues up here as well. It was just a really lovely day. I kind of wished that we could have gone back yesterday because we got rained out and everything got finished, but it was fantastic. I just, you know, along with thanking Tad, I guess I just want to thank all of our staff. We're really fortunate to have a lot of experts up here at this dais in all of our departments. And I know y'all administration are working from here and from wherever you can find a space to work and that is not easy. I know I had my first day without a home for the library today because we're in between two buildings and I know like it just kind of throws everything off. So I appreciate what you guys are doing. I know that PD and dispatch are, um, definitely struggling and the heat, I would, I don't even know how they're doing it, but really grateful that they're continuing on. And I just, I guess I just want to say like, we have a lot of experts up here. Um, who we are lucky to have working in this community. And I certainly recognize the areas that I'm not an expert in, and I'm grateful for those of you who are up here who do bring your expertise and share that with our community. And then the last thing is, I don't know if you all noticed this, you probably have, but We have so much construction and improvement happening on Main Street. We've got our fire department going up. We have the library making an over $5 million investment. We have City Hall being renovated. The Howling Birds, I don't know what they're doing with their facade, but something. The YMCA is making significant improvements. And I just, I mean, I think it's worth recognizing that there's all of this investment happening in our city center right now. And I'm just really excited, really excited to see it. And that is all that I have.

Mr. Ward. Okay. Melanie, thank you. for speaking. I agree with you. Another on Main Street, we had the veterinarian clinic put a brand new sign up. Boy, does that look nice. That was recently sold and there's a new veterinarian in town. I think it's called North Canton or something of that nature. It's really nice. Driving through my ward, which I drive through the room quite a bit. Ward four, there were a lot of tree limbs down and a lot of people are just shoving it out to the front of the yard. So hopefully they'll take care of it. The sewers and gutters, bad shape. We need to get the street sweeper out and ask for a schedule. of that. So Jason, if you can get me one or I'd appreciate it because really we've got about six to eight weeks until the snow hits and stuff of that nature. And we got to get these sewers cleaned up. We've got the equipment and I know they've been doing some resurfacing or a new, it looks nice too over here at the service center. They put a new ground up there. But we were able to, you know, we had a resident gave us a check for $500 to remove that thing, a fallen tree or something at Price Park. So our residents will come. But we've really got to do something with the sewers and gutters. And I've noticed so much green stuff. on the streets. We've got to take care of it now, or it's going to cost us more and more and more money. And I wish the street department, I can give you, I told you last time, it's every road. And it basically is. But I'll go with the street department and show them what I'm talking about. And I think it would just take a little bit of fertilizer, or not fertilizer, we don't want fertilizer, a little bit of... some weeding feed or something of that to take care of all that green stuff growing. Other than that, most of the residents I talk to, they're very happy. So we've got to keep up the good work. Thank you for the administration's hard work. Thank you for people coming out here on Monday. A lot of you here every week, and I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, John.

Ms. Pierpont.

Okay, real quick, I want to recognize we have two newly sworn in folks in our Safety Services Department since the last update here. Robert Paulino, Jr., who joined our Fire Department and EMS, and then Renee Heidley, who has joined Dispatch. So I want to welcome them both and... Thank them for serving our community. I'll kind of echo Jamie's comments about 9-11 at the football game. Off the topic, Jamie, myself, and Andy all had kids in either the high school or middle school band. It was kind of a unique experience to have three council members there with all these band kids. be caught up and talk to each other. But we did all witness this amazing opening pregame. You had so many different ways that our first responders and military were recognized. So I won't list them all. There was a unique flyover. There was just a lot of neat things. But that was really a great thing that I think I've never seen in a Hoover game before. So whoever put effort behind that, thank them. But the flags on Portage and Charlotte, too, I think is one of those traditions that makes our community so unique and that we do recognize a lot of patriotism here. So I want to thank the organizers of that, too. The Uplift event sounds like it was a great success despite the rain. I was not able to attend. I was out of town. I think those of you that represented council and those that were on the city's behalf and just applaud the efforts that took place that day. Melanie, I want to thank you for coming. As always, you always have great thoughts to share with us. I did have some of the same thoughts down from my report tonight, so I am going to share them. I have a lot of things written down, which if you know me, I don't read written statements, but I don't want to forget what I want to say tonight. So bear with me. The things I want to talk about all fall under the same umbrella, and that is just a reminder that we are the legislative branch. We are keepers and makers of the laws in the city and the ordinances. And so those things are very important to me. I echo your concerns about the meeting minutes. Unfortunately, we did lose a stenographer and that was something out of control at this point. And so I'm understanding that that may be a difficult thing to replace. So I know we're working on some thoughts about how we might be able to come around to still providing pretty solid minutes to our residents. Initially, we thought we would be okay in the interim providing summary minutes under the state's laws. And then through some research discovered that we do indeed have an ordinance that says we are to provide verbatim. So we are working on that. Um, Mr. McLeister, myself met with Mr. Matheny recently to kind of brainstorm some ideas. Um, It's kind of crazy to live in a world with technology where you think it would be extremely helpful, but there are a lot of obstacles too. So I think we'll come around to that. But I do value our verbatim minutes, and I don't want to let go of them if I don't have to. So I will fight for those as much as I can to that extent. And likewise, the public records policy, if that does come back to us, I'm hoping it'll come with a lot of information around why we would repeal such an ordinance. I'm not sure that I understand it yet. So we'll wait for that to come back. But that too is such a tool for transparency in government and extremely important to our residents and as well as your council members. And so those are two strong legislative pieces that I'm not anxious to change nor reveal. So I'm looking forward to discussion on those matters and I appreciate your remarks on those. Um, and then the 3rd thing I just want to highlight, and this is really off topic tonight, but it's been on my mind. I have discussed it a couple of times with administration and the mayor, and this also falls under our legislation. You know, we have a lot of residents. I don't know about the rest of you, but a lot come to me and they'll say, you know, I'm looking out my window and my neighbor's house has an issue going on with it that I'm concerned may not be up to property code. And they may not be comfortable opening that concern of themselves. And so I will assist with that. And we have a great process in place that, you know, it goes through the proper channels. Our enforcement team goes out and takes a look at it. They communicate with the property owner. And most times that works out in a very short period of time and gets handled the way as it should. I would like to see that we continue to treat our property code enforcement equally the same way with our large commercial properties. And namely, I'm going to talk about the Hoover West factory. And we do have some property code violations that are out there. They were initially highlighted in early May. Sometime in June, we issued a second notification about them. And then more recently in July, we had an administrative citation, I think is what we call it, that said, hey, here's where you're at, here's your violations, and you now have this grand total of fines that you owe, and it's a lot of money. And historically, in the past, under different administration and leadership, we did not necessarily always pursue collecting that money. And we wound up having to forgive some of that and seeking some other You know fees through other processes, I want to be assured that the residents know this is not something that's going ignored by Council. I understand that the city is working on a new corrective action plan to come up with measurable ways that they can actually correct the items on that long list of you know violations. And I don't know what that timetable looks like, but there are residents who asked me about this. I stay on top of it myself in my own curiosity. I just want to ensure that we continue to enforce our property code laws equally as much as we do for the residents that we do that over there as well. And then if we come up with a situation where we find that maybe we can't do that, you know, it's not lost on me. We do have A lot of development we'd like to see happen over there, and sometimes that has to be taken in consideration. If that were to happen, we just need to be having open conversation about it and then, if we need to as a Council revisit that ordinance to ensure that it remains there, we can make changes on either side of the table. But this has been something that I have been following and I have been talking to administration about. And I just wanted to share with the residents that that is something that is out there and not going unnoticed. So everything, those three topics really are big ones that I think matter to me and matter to residents. And they all fall under that umbrella of legislation and ensuring that the ordinances that we have enacted continue to be followed the way they are written. That is of importance to me. I hope it is to others as well.

That's my report. Do we have a total, how much is owed to us on fines? $91,800. Okay. And we're coming up with a new corrective?

Yeah, I can speak to that.

Because haven't we done that in the past too?

Yes.

This is about the fourth or fifth corrective action plan. Mm-hmm.

perhaps I can only speak to the two that I'm familiar with, but at least the second one, and there probably were one. So I appreciate everything that Holly mentioned there. It is true. It's a balance between enforcing our laws, which of course we want to do and providing some flexibility. And similarly with, with the homeowner too, we, we follow the same practice. We try to balance the, the letter of the law and our code with some flexibility for mitigating the circumstances. Now, each case is different. Each case, it would be easy to have slightly different opinions about how much flexibility is too much. And I share a lot of your frustrations. I think we, you know, we have the twin goals of wanting to enforce our codes as we should. and wanting to see that building redeveloped. And so to maybe to build on what Holly said, so yes, there are outstanding administrative action and fines on the property owner, the way that that's typically dealt with or cured, which we've done in the past, and we've done corrective action plans for other property owners too, is we'll enter into something called a corrective action plan where it takes all those fines and, and, uh, citations into account and says, this is how you cure this. And so we did draft up a new corrective action plan. Our law director, Brendan, took a look at it. The ball is over in the owner's court right now, looking at that. To be honest, they don't have, it's not really a negotiable item, but we do like to give people the chance to at least look at it and understand it. I know Catherine and I have been talking about our next steps I can tell you too, I won't pretend knowledge that I don't have, but I know they are getting offers to purchase that building. Whether they ultimately come to a consensus on price and sell it, I want to see that happen. Or as we've said all along, and I think I told the repository a couple months ago, I personally am agnostic about who renovates the building. I just want to see it. renovated. So yes, we're looking at the corrective action plan with them. Basically, we'll give them a set of actions that they need to perform with certain timelines and provide some relief from those fines if they go ahead and make some of these improvements. I can tell you a lot of the existing corrective action plan that we're working on really prioritizes basic securing the building and basic safety. I mean, we all want to see it be safe, of course, but I know some of you are aware of some of the more egregious issues, I think, with the building. So it's a work in progress. We can certainly update you as we have more information on it. I think the only other thing that I'll say is if a new owner were to purchase that, there's some provisions for where they can start over. with a clean slate. They don't necessarily inherit all of the penalties and so forth. But I totally agree. We want to treat people fairly and equally. One thing I will tell you I truly appreciate about North Canton and I saw previous parts of my career when you have multiple you know, buildings that are just in terrible condition. It's a hard thing for a community to recover some. So I'm thankful we have robust and, you know, heavily enforced code enforcement. I think that's a good thing.

We want to treat the commercial and residential, have them obey the rules, all right? Would we put up almost nearly 20 years for a residential? Do you want me to go ahead?

Yeah, I know that this is Holly's report, but I just want to add on for the record, I agree with her 110%. So I spoke here, I can't even keep track of the time, what was it, a year, two years ago? I think some people liked it, some people didn't like it, that doesn't matter. But it was context exactly the same as what she's saying here. And I think what I find frustrating is, is that a corrective action plan was put forth, and I don't even know if they completed 10% of it. And here we're back here, having the same discussion like we haven't given them the first shake. And I really think we have. So I applaud what you've said, Holly, because I think if a wall in my house was missing, I don't think I'd get more than two years to fix it. I think it's kind of ridiculous.

It's not an easy thing as a council member to tattle on somebody when a resident says, hey, my neighbor across the street, they've got a hole in their roof and it's been like that for six months. Who do I contact? I will help that resident. But then I'm tattling on that resident essentially for them, right? And so it's not easy to be in that position. You're serving a person well, but you're also knowing that you may be creating a hardship who can't afford to fix their roots. So being that that is something that we do as council people is not a thing that, it's not a task I take, lightly. That being said, it's a lot easier to mow long grass than it is to fix an elevator shaft. And that part's not lost on me as well. So I do know that it's not apples to apples here. We're different fruits. But I just want to make sure that people understand this is not going to be hopefully a repeat of what happened last time. I think we were able to collect money and that was great. It just wasn't what we thought it was going to be. And like I said, we have the capacity on council to change the laws. If it comes down to it, and for the sake of development, we can't be collecting fines the way we would like over there. I'm happy you put writing laws that pause the fines for residents. I don't want to go down that pathway, but I just want to be fair across the board. And so just want to be mindful of that going on. And it is a long process. So I appreciate all of that you just shared. And I appreciate that you guys are working on. a new corrective action plan. Because when I had that conversation with the mayor and he shared that, I was like, that's great. That's what I want to hear. And I will be able to convey that now. So I appreciate all of that.

I'd also like to thank Holly and just today with Liam, I turned in and inquired about a large commercial property I won't name. They had a permit for one thing because there is a massive amount of work going on, but not a permit for another, which was being really this large. And so You know, it's when things are so big and so obvious, it's like, how can you turn a blind eye? So it's just, you know, unfortunately, it's just all that we have for us. And we need to make sure that we're following those equally for everyone. There are no favorites because that's when you create issues.

Thank you. You might notice that we don't have finance represented here tonight. That is by design. They are in the midst of budget preparations and a lot of things are going on. I asked Gina to give me a kind of a breakdown. There was nothing on the agenda for finance for them to wait until now to give their report. I thought it was best to let them rest as they go through their budget process. But that process began August 3rd with finance calculating beginning balances, revenue projections, and personnel costs. Finance met with each department head to review their staffing and budget requests, and that took place between August 13th and the 19th. Finance has compiled all requests over the weeks through August 24th through September 4th. Finance has met with administration on September 9th to prioritize budget allocations and updates. They are now preparing a presentation to meet individually with council members and the members starting next week. During the final week of September, finance will be busy preparing the ordinances and finalizing the budget presentations for October 5th council committee meeting. So being as busy as they are, having nothing on the agenda tonight, I did say that it would be best for them to get some rest and get the books hard in the morning. That is all that I have. Final call for new business. Seeing none, meeting calendar September 21st will be a committee of the whole for September 28th, city council. I make a motion to adjourn. I give a second. Second. All in favor? Aye.