City Council - Regular Meeting

call the April 15th city council meeting to order. Jones, would you read roll, please? Selco here. Mr. Hook, here. Mr. Turner, Mr. Clapper, here. Miss Schaefer Bish Mr. Dreger here. Mr. Typton here. Miss Wesley here. Miss Wallak. Miss Wallak has asked to be excused. Motion to excuse Mr. Turner. Miss Wallak. Should we do Heidi? Oh, she's got to be here.

Motion to um I'll I'll restate. Motion to excuse Mr. Turner and Miss Wallak from today's meeting. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Okay. Opening remarks. Miss J.

To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Before we uh start public comment, I need to read something. Although public comment is not required by law, the council has long upheld the practice of inviting citizens to share their remarks. We value and appreciate the contributions of all residents who wish to address matters of public concern. Please be advised that the council will not engage in dialogue or debate during this portion of the meeting. As president of the council, I reserve the authority to suspend any comment that is disruptive, inappropriate, or otherwise inconsistent with the decorum of these proceedings. When approaching the podium, please clearly state your name and address for the record. Each speaker is allotted three minutes to present the remarks. Jones.

Yes. Uh Tatum warrants. Hi, my name is Tatum and I would just like to say that I'm very confused about the construction that's going on on Main Street. It is irritating to me. Like, I can't get anywhere in under 20 minutes. And I go to Cleveland a lot. I'm a LeBron James fan, so I go to Cleveland a lot. And I know that the traffic's bad there, but it's been like even worse here lately. And I just feel like it takes me so long to get places. And I don't understand like what the progress is because every time it seems like it's getting worse. So I would just like to say that. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. There are no other speakers. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um written communications.

Yes. On March 13, 2026, an email was received from Jeffrey Westerfield of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources advising of a workshop dealing with urban deer management. Email was shared with council. On March 31st, 2026, the April agenda and staff report for the April 7th, 2026 planning commission meeting were received. On March 31st, 2026, the March minutes and April agenda for the Standing Rock Cemeteries Trustees meeting was received. The agenda and excuse me, the agenda was later amended and reposted. That's all. Thank you.

Motion 1 through 14. I'll second. All those in favor? I opposed. Thank you. Consent agenda.

Approval of the March regular council meeting minutes. Approval of the April council committee minutes. Draft 20 26 29. An ordinance authorizing the finance director upon the issuance of a certificate of availability of funds to pay certain purchase orders made that exceed $3,000 and declaring an emergency. Craft 202630, an ordinance amending ordinance number 202511, the current appropriation ordinance passed December 17, 2025, so as to adjust appropriations, transfers, and advances from the various funds of the city of Kent to ini individual accounts for the current expenses of the city for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026. 6 and declaring an emergency. Draft 202632, an ordinance authorizing the Kent Fire Department to apply for a Joey D Foundation grant in the amount of $25,000 and to accept the grant if awarded with corresponding appropriations of funds which will provide funding to purchase personal bailout equipment to perfect to protect fire safety personnel and declaring an emergency. Draft 202633, an ordinance authorizing the City of Kent Service Department to apply for grant funds in the amount of $500,000 from the Ohio Department of Transportation, ODOT, for transportation improvement district, a TID grant for the North Manoway Street Project and declaring an emergency. Draft 202634, an ordinance authorizing the implementation of a new housing

acquisition assistance program to promote homeownership and facilitate the conversation, the conversion of single single family rental properties into owner occupied properties and declaring an emergency. Draft number 202635, an ordinance amending the community reinvestment area CRA agreement between the city of Kent, Ohio, KMPH Real Estate LLC and MC Automotive Inc. Doing business is Montros Mazda aed August 27th, 2020 to remove the annual fee requirement in section five of the agreement and declaring an emergency. Draft 202636, a resolution authorizing the city manager or his designate to accept the updated Portage County hazard mitigation plan, HMP, and declaring an emergency. Draft number 202637, a resolution authorizing the city of Kent to prepare and submit an application to participate in the Ohio Public Works Commission state capital improvement and/or local transportation improvement programs and to execute the contracts as required.

Uh, excuse me, but I think we missed draft 2026-31. wouldn't be surprised. Draft 2026-31, an ordinance imposing a temporary Yeah, that's important. Um, ordinance imposing a temporary moratorium not to see exceed one year on the granting issuing of any permits for IIA data centers within the corporate limits of the city of Kent and declaring an emergency. Thank you. Move suspension. Miss Jones, would you read roll? I am. I'm writing. Okay. Mr. Clampford.

Yes. Miss Schaefer Bish. Yes. Mr. Dreger. Yes. Mr. Typton. Yes. Miss Wesley. Yes. Mr. Hook. Yes. Miss Silka. Yes. Second. Roll. Mr. Dreger. Yes. Mr. Typton, yes. Miss Wesley, yes. Mr. Hook, yes. Miss Selco, yes. Miss Schaefer Bish, yes. Mr. Clapper, yes. The consent agenda passes.

Thank you. There are uh there's nothing from the committee of the whole, nothing from community development, nothing from finance committee, nothing from health and safety, nothing from land use, and nothing from streets and sidewalk. Is there any unfinished business? Is there any new business? Any council member comments? Suspic Yes, I do want to say that this past weekend uh uh Councilman Hook and I took uh 21 uh community members through our water treatment plant and then our water reclamation facility with a soup lunchon in between. And uh I just want to say thank you to the wonderful tour guides we had in TJ um and Ben. And a special big thanks to Melanie for accompanying us for the whole entire day. And she just went above and beyond. She even had games and prizes at our lunchon uh quizzes on what we had seen and what we had heard about. So that was really fascinating. It was a good thing. We had a quite a nice group of kind of geeky kind of people that really appreciated the tours and you know I I heard a lot of compliments along the way um and afterwards. So I just want to say thank you to everyone that participated in it. I've done this in the past um kind of the distant past at least twice and we never had a service director take come along with us that really made it special. Thank you.

Any further comments? I've just got a brief comment. So, I met a few of the students that are attending tonight um looking into Sunshine Law as shared. And so, I just wanted to explain that many of the draft ordinances that was read by hope um were discussed in our meeting two weeks ago. And so, we discussed these at length. And so, tonight we're just voting and finalizing them. So, just wanted to explain that to you all.

Thank you. This is probably the least exciting meeting you could attend. the uh third Wednesday, the first Wednesday of the month from seven starting at 7 o'clock we are in committee and that's where everything is discussed that we passed today. This is just the formality of passing what we discuss on uh the first of the month. um first Wednesday of the month, mayor's report. Um I don't have anything except the fact that I would hope that everybody they see Joan Sidell, wish her a hearty congratulations because she will be retiring as of April 24th as a health commissioner and uh we want to wish her all the best. She's done a phenomenal job. So we really appreciate her. Um I think we need to go into executive session.

Yep. I'll uh move an executive session to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion to motion, or compensation of a public employee or official.

Miss Jones, yes. Miss Selco, yes. Mr. Clapper, yes. Mr. Drager, yes. Mr. Hook, yes. Miss Schaefer Bish, yes. Miss Mr. Typton, yes. Miss Wesley. Yes. Okay. So, we'll go into executive session and we'll return with legislation. Is that clear? I think this is going to be session. Should we should we invite people to stay for the next part?

Is it Jim for the next part? Is this okay if people stay? We're going to be having a uh workshop following this meeting to discuss um some redevelopment options. So, please feel free to stay for that. So, but we'll be going to executive session and we'll be right back. Can I just add something?

The um workshop following is it's interactive workshop on as mayor was saying the redevelopment of downtown. Um it's going to be fun and engaging. It's really big vision. Um, so I really do encourage you to stay if you want to workshop some ideas. Um, there'll be there will be other opportunities as um, but this is a a good one to interact with city council as well. Not to put any pressure on you, Jim. Word fun, right? You said that.