City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. The Dayton City Commission meeting will now come to order. Would you all please rise for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. This evening's invocation will be given by Commissioner Fairchild.

Gracious one, breathe your spirit upon us. Ground us in your love and justice. Fill our deliberations with your wisdom and compassion so that our decisions create a community where all find respect, opportunity, and well-being. Amen.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

indivisible, but liberty and justice for all.

Ms. McClendon, may we please have a roll call this evening?

Mayor Turner-Sloss? Aye. Commissioners Joseph? Aye. Shaw? Aye. Fairchild?

Aye.

Beckham?

Aye.

May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the May 6, 2026 meeting?

So moved, Your Honor. Second the motion, Your Honor.

It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the May 6, 2026 meeting. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no. Ms. McClendon, are there any communications or petitions this evening?

There are none, Your Honor.

Thank you. And I believe we are going to change, adjust, so pivot a little bit, if you will, with the agenda this evening. There are a number of members of the council that have engagements, graduation. It is, in fact, graduation season. And so we will have a presentation this evening from Ms. Patil-Jones, I believe, Ms. Patil-Jones, for the appropriations.

That's correct, Your Honor. I'll ask Abby Patel-Jones, Director of Management and Budget, to come to the podium to discuss elements of the first revised appropriation before you tonight.

Good evening, ma'am. Good evening. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners, Clerk, City Manager. AS JOE MENTIONED, MY NAME IS ABBY PATEL JONES, DIRECTOR OF DEPARTMENT AND BUDGET, AND BEFORE YOU TODAY IS THE FIRST READING OF THE 2026 FIRST REVISED APPROPRIATION. WE HAVE A COUPLE OF SLIDES, AS USUAL, SHOWING THE DETAIL CHANGES IN THIS APPROPRIATION, WHICH I WILL WALK YOU THROUGH. THE PROPOSED FIRST REVISED APPROPRIATION totals approximately $1.59 billion, representing an increase of $83.1 million from the 2026 original appropriation. Majority of the changes that you're going to see today are related to grant funding and capital investment across multiple funds. Starting with the general fund, including special projects, as you can see here, the net increase is $1.3 million. The first adjustment on the screen is for $5,000 in the general fund for the fire department. This is following a 100 club grant award, recognizing a firefighter's heroic rescue of an unconscious victim from a burning home. The funds will be used for fire training supplies and equipment. Next we have $47,500 increase in the general fund for the Department of Planning, Neighborhoods and Development. This is for a second annual parking lease payment to Reckworth at 417 Webster Street near the day air ballpark as the 2025 payment was delayed and will be processed along with our 2026 commitments. There is also a $92,000 increase in the general fund for public works department. This is to cover the lease payment to RTA to establish a temporary central business district substation for the police department. and then we have um 360 000 increase for the general fund for property taxes utilities waste management maintenance and security costs associated with the city assuming responsibility of the 10 west second street building also known as the key bank tower And then lastly, we have a $30,000 increase for the commission office. This increase is to fund the professional services related to an audit of flock camera data logs. And as you can see here, there is a decrease of $529,500 in the non-departmental. This decrease is offsetting the increases that you see above. It's funding all of those increases above, except for that $5,000. IN THE SPECIAL PROJECTS FUND, WITHIN THE COMMUNITY GOLF FUND, THERE IS A COMBINED ADJUSTMENT OF $192,900, WHICH INCLUDES $32,900 FOR THE PURCHASE OF GOLF SIMULATOR TO ENHANCE THE EXPERIENCE AT THE GOLF COURSE. THERE IS ALSO $160,000 INCREASE. THIS IS FOR HIGHER THAN EXPECTED COST ASSOCIATED WITH THE RENOVATION OF THE GOLF MAINTENANCE BUILDING. AS YOU KNOW, THESE EXPENSES ARE SUPPORTED BY THE GOLF operations rep. THE SPECIAL PROJECTS FUND ALSO HAS ANOTHER INCREASE OF APPROXIMATELY $1.1 MILLION. THIS INCREASE IS ALLOWING US TO RE-ENCUMBER FUNDS FOR PRESCHOOL PROMISE BUDGET THAT WAS LIQUIDATED FROM UNSPENT 2025 ENCUMBRANCES. THIS ADJUSTMENT IS DONE ON AN ANNUAL BASIS TO ENSURE THAT THE CURRENT ENCUMBRANCES REFLECT BOTH THE ANNUAL ALLOCATION AS WELL AS ANY REMAINING FUND FROM THE PRIOR YEAR. The annual allocation, I do want to clarify, does not change for the Preschool Promise Program. It remains at $4.3 million.

Excuse me, Ms. Patel-Jones, could you please enlarge the screen? Please adjust. Thank you as much as you can. Thank you. Is that better? Yes, ma'am. And if you could put it in presentation mode. Thank you, ma'am.

All right, so this is all other funds. And starting with the special revenue category, the increase is $806,100. And these increases are for several operational adjustments, including $200,000 in the street maintenance fund for overtime related to snow removal and de-icing operation during the January snow emergency. $40,000 increase in the Highway Maintenance Fund. This increase provides funding for the delayed AES, IGS electricity invoices that were delayed last year. It also includes additional costs related to the rising electricity cost. Then we have $23,800 increase. This increase is providing funding for street light repair cost. And lastly, in the special revenue category, we have $542,300 increase for continuum of care funding. This funding aligns with the final HUD allocation that we recently received. Then you see the $192,900 increase in general capital. There is a budgeting nuance here because we have to transfer funds from golf to move them to the capital fund to actually expense for the capital expenditures at the capital fund. You saw the transfer coming out of the golf fund and now you're seeing the expenditure budget for the same amount in the general capital fund. AS FOR THE ENTERPRISE FUND, AVIATION OPERATING INCREASES BY 365,800. THIS IS COVERING VARIOUS OPERATIONAL AND MAINTENANCE COSTS, INCLUDING GARAGE REPAIR, TECHNOLOGY COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH AIRPORT PASSENGER PROCESSING SYSTEM. IT ALSO INCLUDES HIGHER CASUALLY INSURANCE COSTS AND MECHANICAL AND EQUIPMENT REPLACEMENT FOR COOLING UNITS, AS WELL AS PARKING GARAGE ELEVATOR REPAIRS. Aviation non-operating reflects an additional $78.8 million, and this is the majority of the increase that you're seeing in the first revised appropriation. This increase, as you know, is related to the All Ohio Future grant award and loan, which will support large-scale infrastructure improvement project at the Dayton International Airport. And just so you know, this was approved, the acceptance of this award was approved by the commission body in the May 6th meeting. The sewer operating fund increases by $925,000. This increase allows us to purchase generators and sewer cleaning unit after existing equipment was determined to be beyond repair. And finally, in the internal service funds, we have $205,000 increase in the healthcare self-insurance fund, as well as $553,000 increase in the workers' compensation fund. Both of these increases support new physical therapy. service that we're going to provide and the behavioral health care services as well as the addition of nurse manager to support those additional services at the Dayton off-site clinic as known as the doc and then lastly we have $30,000 increase in the workers compensation fund that's providing funding for the purchase of gym equipment at the police west patrol operation division at the new location And that's the extent of my remarks. I would be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Ms. Patel-Jones. Commissioners, Commissioner Beckham, do you have any questions, comments?

I don't, Your Honor.

Thank you. Commissioner Fairchild.

Yeah, a couple questions. On the $32,000 being used for a simulator, the golf fund is not an enterprise zone, right?

The golf fund is self-sustaining fund where the revenue that we generate from providing the golf service supports the expenditures for the golf.

Right, but it's not an enterprise fund.

It is not an enterprise fund.

And some of the revenue that's used can be used for other things in the general fund.

THE GOLF HAS TO MAINTAIN THE SERVICES AND THE COST TO PROVIDE THOSE SERVICES. AND SO THERE IS AN ANNUAL TRANSFER THAT'S BUILT INTO THE GOLF FUND FOR $50,000 THAT COMES TO THE GENERAL FUND TO DIVERT TOWARDS YOUTH PROGRAMMING. BUT THE REST OF THE FUNDING IN THE GOLF FUND IS SUPPORTING THE GOLF OPERATION.

AND THAT'S BY POLICY OR ORDINANCE?

That I will have to get back to you on that one.

Okay.

The golf fund used to be an enterprise fund, but then there was a change where when we did not have the three golf courses, when we went down to one golf course, that's when the change was made.

Well, I think it was prior to that because community was losing money and Madden was losing money, so they couldn't. We are subsidizing them, right? No. I mean, Kitty Hawk. Yeah, sorry.

Yeah, that's correct.

That's correct.

Kitty Hawk was basically flat operating but had substantial obligations capital-wise. Yeah. Madden never made money. Community continues to thrive. Right.

And when we had those conversations to close Madden and Kitty Hawk, we agreed that some of the revenue would become to the city, particularly for you, because we were closed, particularly in West Dayton, because we were closing max.

Yes, that's the $50,000 transfer that Abby mentioned.

Right. But I'm not sure the $50,000 is sufficient. And it doesn't have to be capped at $50,000. And when you see expenses going to a golf simulator, it makes me, I'm curious what the margin is out there at community and how we could support our young people. Exactly. Thank you. I'm also curious around the Key Bank building. Didn't we sell that building?

We were leasing that building.

Correct. Which is correct? We were leasing or we sold? We were leasing the building. All right. All right. I think those are all my questions for now. I'm good, Mayor.

Thank you. Commissioner Joseph.

Nothing here. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Patel-Jones. I do have a couple of follow-up questions, and it's probably more so geared to Mr. Parlett, being that you have the history of the Recreation and Youth Development Department. Could you just expound a little bit on the history of community golf, and by it being... self-sustaining and the revenue that is, in fact, generated from community golf and how those dollars are used to help with the maintenance, upkeep of the facility itself. Could you please?

I could give you a really long story.

Okay, a short version.

Okay. Community golf course, the property itself, rests in the heart of Kettering. It was donated to the city of Dayton by Charles Kettering. or John Patterson, sorry, a little over 100 years ago. And the deed specifies that it has to operate for a recreational purpose, otherwise the city of Dayton loses the property back to the Patterson estate. Recently we approved substantial renovations to the golf course, which are underway right now. So the history, I believe it was in the 80s when the golf operation became an enterprise fund so that I'm told, because I was barely alive in the 80s, that the intent at that time to make it an enterprise fund was to prevent revenue from going elsewhere. So it was intended to be reinvested in the operations. And of course, at that time, golf was a different market than it was in 2020. But we've seen a resurgence of golf and simulators as one. It's a revenue generating potential opportunity for winter months. So I think it's a pretty innovative idea that Mr. Isaac has come up with and any history beyond that. I'm happy to answer any questions, but I just try to keep it brief.

Yes, thank you. I appreciate that, Mr. Parlette. Do we have an idea of what that potential figure could be in terms of generating revenue for the golf course itself, community golf course?

I don't know that. I don't think it's a big number. Okay. But it's something that is available at many golf facilities for the purposes of the winter. Okay. And it helps increase the participation and the overall... Yeah, a lot of what we're doing, particularly in the on-course investments and including in the simulator, is really targeting women, young people entering into the game. So some of the investments we're making, in a lot of cases, can make a hole substantially easier. as compared, you know, because of the distance of the T's and things like that. So that's really where the focus was for the investment is on women seniors and juniors.

Thank you and then my last question is to tell Jones is in regards to the 360 the holding costs for the building and the former key bank building. And so with that that's only the projected a dollar amount for the the budget for 2027 so moving forward is that an incur cost that we are foreseeing ideally we want to lease up the space in the future, but again These dollars, this dollar rather amount is potentially the holding cost for just that period of that one year. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. Do we have any data to support? Is it in fact that much for the holding cost? Like what are some of the practices that are utilized for that dollar amount?

So the projections, the $360,000, those are based on the actual cost that was incurred by the lessor or lessee of that building. And so that amount just includes us paying for the property tax, us paying for the utilities, which includes the water, electric, the boilers, et cetera. And it also includes waste collection services, AND THE SECURITY COST ASSOCIATED WITH THAT BUILDING. SO THE COST IS WHAT YOU SEE IN FRONT OF YOU, THOSE NUMBERS ARE PRETTY ACCURATE, I WOULD SAY, BASED ON THE PAST TRENDS, SINCE THEY ARE BASED ON THE PAST TRENDS.

AND GIVEN THE RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT, THAT IS WHY WE'RE SEEING, ONE OF THE MANY REASONS WHY WE'RE SEEING THE REAPPROPRIATIONS, BECAUSE THAT COST IS NOW, AGAIN, BEING, WE'RE NOW INCURRING THAT COST DUE TO US LOSING OUR PRIOR LEASE.

CORRECT.

And so the hope is that our economic development team is working very aggressively to make sure that that space is, in fact, leased in the future.

Yes, we want to get rid of those costs as fast as we can.

All right, thank you. Those are the final questions I have this evening. Thank you.

Thank you, Abby.

Ms. McClendon, legislation please.

First reading emergency ordinance number 32185-26, approving a grant agreement and loan agreement from the state of Ohio Department of Development for combined funding in an amount not to exceed $78,750,000.00 on behalf of the city of Dayton and declaring an emergency.

Having been declared an emergency, I move for the immediate passage of ordinance number 32185-26. And I'll second that.

It has been properly moved and seconded to declare emergency ordinance number 32185-26 as an emergency. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no.

Mayor, I abstain from the vote.

Thank you.

Second reading emergency ordinance number 32185-26, approving a grant agreement and loan agreement from the state of Ohio Department of Development for combined funding in an amount not to exceed $78,750,000 in zero cents on behalf of the city of Dayton. Mayor Turner-Sloss. Aye. Commissioner Joseph.

I abstain.

Shaw.

Aye.

Fairchild. Aye. Beckham.

Aye.

Emergency ordinance number 32185-26 has passed with four votes in favor and one abstention. First reading emergency resolution number 6929-26, authorizing the city manager to accept a continuum of care grant award from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, for a total amount of $3,527,780.00. On behalf of the city of Dayton, I'm declaring an emergency.

Ordinance number 6929-62 being declared an emergency, I move for its immediate passage. That'd be, check the number again. Oh, sorry, 6929-26. Second the motion, Your Honor.

It has been properly moved and seconded to declare emergency resolution number 6929-26 as an emergency. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

Second reading emergency resolution number 6929-26, authorizing the city manager to accept a continuum of care grant award from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, for a total amount of $3,527,780.00 on behalf of the city of Dayton. Mayor Turner-Sloss. Aye. Commissioners Joseph. Aye. Shaw. Aye. Fairchild. Aye. Beckham.

Aye.

Emergency resolution number 6929-26 has been adopted with five votes in favor. First reading emergency resolution number 6930-26, approving the submission of a grant application for the fiscal year 2027 Ohio Airport Improvement Program infrastructure and capacity enhancement direct grant application for general aviation airports to the Ohio Department of Transportation Office of Aviation, authorizing the acceptance of a grant from the State of Ohio Department of Transportation Office of Aviation for $750,000.00 on behalf of the City of Dayton and declaring an emergency.

Being declared an emergency, I move for the immediate passage of Resolution 6930-26. Second the motion, Your Honor.

It has been properly moved and seconded to declare Emergency Resolution 6930-26 as an emergency. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no.

Second reading emergency resolution number 6930-26 approving the submission of a grant application for the fiscal year 2027 Ohio Airport Improvement Program infrastructure and capacity enhancement direct grant application for general aviation airports to the Ohio Department of Transportation Office of Aviation authorizing the acceptance of a grant from the State of Ohio Department of Transportation Office of Aviation for $750,000.00 on behalf of the City of Dayton. Mayor Ternus Loss? Aye. Commissioners Joseph? Aye. Shaw? Aye. Fairchild? Aye. Beckham?

Aye.

Emergency Resolution Number 6930-26 has been adopted with five votes in favor. First reading emergency resolution number 6931-26, approving the submission of a grant application for the fiscal year 2027 Ohio Airport Improvement Program direct grant application for general aviation airports to the Ohio Department of Transportation Office of Aviation. authorizing the acceptance of a grant from the State of Ohio Department of Transportation Office of Aviation for $750,000.00 on behalf of the City of Dayton and declaring an emergency.

Having been declared an emergency, I move for the immediate passage of resolution number 6931-26. Second, Your Honor.

It has been properly moved and seconded to approve emergency resolution number 6931-26. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no.

second reading emergency resolution number 6931-26 approving the submission of a grant application for the fiscal year 2027 ohio airport improvement program direct grant application for general aviation airports to the ohio department of transportation office of aviation authorizing the acceptance of a grant from the State of Ohio Department of Transportation Office of Aviation for $750,000.00 on behalf of the City of Dayton. Mayor Turner-Sloss? Aye. Commissioners Joseph? Aye. Shaw? Aye. Fairchild? Aye. Beckham?

Aye.

Emergency Resolution Number 6931-26 has been adopted with five votes in favor. First reading ordinance number 32189-26 amending the city's appropriations for the year 2026. First reading resolution number 6932-26 authorizing the city manager to accept federal fiscal years 2027 and 2028 federal aviation administration airport improvement project grants from the United States Department of Transportation for airport improvement projects at the James M. Cox International Airport and Dayton Wright Brothers Airport on behalf of the city of Dayton in an amount of $25 million and zero cents. FIRST READING RESOLUTION NUMBER 6933-26 ADOPTING THE CITY OF DAYTON STUDENT VISION MASTER PLAN AND ESTABLISHING THE CITY OF DAYTON'S CHILDREN'S CABINET. SECOND READING ORDINANCE NUMBER 32186-26 CONSENTING TO THE ROADWAY RESTORATION ALONG MAIN LINE OF STATE ROUTE 4 FROM MILE MARKER 17.11 TO 20.38 AND FROM MILE MARKER 21.98 TO 22.98 IN THE CITY OF DAYTON AND AGREEING TO COOPERATE IN MATTERS INCIDENTAL THERETO, INCLUDING THE EXECUTION OF AGREEMENT NECESSARY TO IMPLEMENT THIS ORDINANCE. Mayor Turner-Sloss? Aye. Commissioners Joseph? Aye. Shaw? Aye. Fairchild? Aye. Beckham?

Aye.

Ordinance number 32186-26 has passed with five votes in favor. Second reading ordinance number 32187-26, authorizing the grant of a non-exclusive easement to Vectron Energy Delivery Ohio, LLC, doing business as center point for a gas pipeline on land at the James M. Cox Dayton International Airport. Mayor Turner-Sloss? Aye. Commissioners Joseph?

I abstain.

Shaw?

Aye.

Fairchild?

Aye.

Beckham?

Aye.

Ordinance number 32187-26 has passed with four votes in favor and one abstention. Second reading ordinance number 32188-26, authorizing the grant of a non-exclusive roadway access easement to Air Corps SNC-2 LLC on land at the James M. Cox Dayton International Airport. Mayor Turner-Sloss. Aye. Commissioners Joseph.

I abstain.

Shaw. Aye. Fairchild. Aye. Beckham.

Aye.

Ordinance number 32188-26 has passed with four votes in favor and one abstention. And that concludes legislation.

Thank you, Ms. McClendon. Thank you, Mr. Parlette, Ms. Jackson. And thank you to all the members in the chambers for that adjustment. We will now resume to the regular calendar. And at this time, I would like to call Ms. Erica Fields with Learn to Earn to the podium, please. Good evening. Good evening, Ms. Fields. Give us one second. We want to make sure that you have everything that you need.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners, Deputy City Manager, Commission staff. My name, as you all know, is Erica Fields. I'm the Senior Director of Partnerships and Community Impact for Learn to Earn Dayton. And, you know, I have to tell you, I don't know if I presented more when I was here in the city or now we're Learn to Earn, so it's good to be back. But thank you for having us. So I'm here talking to you today about resolution number 6933-26, supporting the formal adoption of the student vision for Dayton, and key implementation opportunities to be able to move this forward through the Children's Cabinet. I do want to acknowledge before I get into the nuts and bolts of this, I do want to acknowledge the several members that we have here from Learn to Earn Dayton, and our CEO, Stacey Schweickart, and her leadership for allowing us to move this forward. So as you all know, in 2023, Learn to Earn partnered with you all, the city of Dayton, to launch their first ever Student Vision for Dayton, a real roadmap and master plan that identified core priorities specifically from youth across the city. And the idea was that this master plan would guide and shape the way that we do business as government organizations. as schools, as youth-serving organizations, and really think about how we can prioritize the evolving needs, wishes, and concerns, frankly, of young people. Especially as cities, or as a city, and as the district is shaping and creating policies and programs, we want to make sure that we're prioritizing the voice of young people. THROUGHOUT THIS PROCESS, AND YOU WILL SEE, WE SUBMITTED IN THE SUBMISSION OF THE PLAN THAT YOU HAVE, IT OUTLINES FOUR MAJOR PRIORITIES. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT THAT THE YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE IDENTIFIED, LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT, MENTAL HEALTH AND BULLYING, COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS, AND SAFE, SUPPORTIVE AND HEALTHY NEIGHBORHOODS. And in the plan that we've submitted to you for each of those priority areas, you will see a vision, goals, strategies, a theory of action, and enabling conditions that have to be true in order to make this a reality. Also included in that, I told you, I'm just talking and I'm not using this. Okay. Okay. The resource guide that's also included and then an implementation tracker that would ensure that we are making progress towards the stated goals. Okay. And one of the most important pieces of this resolution is really talking about how we move from planning to implementation. Commissioner Fairchild, you specifically asked me when I presented a little less than three years ago, what is implementation going to look like? We don't want to have young people across the city invest their time, their resources, their lived experience to have a master plan that essentially sits on a shelf somewhere. We want to make sure that we're making a real commitment and real investment to look at policies and procedures that uplift the wishes of young people. And so there's a true opportunity as we've been conceptualizing this and thinking about what implementation looks like. We recognize that there is a real critical need to build an infrastructure that supports the ecosystem of all systems throughout the city. A cross sector leadership body that looks at how we can align metrics, how we can align the strategic priorities, and how we ensure that we're operating in a coordinated manner instead of silos. And so in the resolution, you see key opportunities for implementation of a children's cabinet and key opportunities that I'm going to talk about as we go through the presentation that have been presented to the city of Dayton to move forward with implementation. SO ESSENTIALLY, A CHILDREN'S CABINET IS REALLY A NATIONAL BEST PRACTICE THAT IS OCCURRING AND BEING LAUNCHED ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY. THERE ARE SEVERAL MAYOR'S CABINETS THAT ARE HAPPENING AT A LOCAL LEVEL, AND THERE ARE ALSO CABINETS THAT ARE HAPPENING AT A STATEWIDE LEVEL UNDER THE GOVERNOR. AND SO WHAT YOU'LL SEE HERE IS REALLY HOW SOME OF THE CABINETS HAVE BEEN STRUCTURED. IT INCLUDES REPRESENTATION FROM ALL SYSTEMS WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT EDUCATION, WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT HEALTH CARE, WORKFORCE, Philanthropic organizations are also at the table and one of the most important and critical pieces is to ensure that we have the proximate voice and leadership of young people themselves that have a seat at the table and make sure that their vision is actually going to be a reality and that they can continue to monitor the success of the vision that they put forward. Okay, so with that being said, we have key opportunities that have been presented to us to think about what does implementation look like. To provide technical assistance, capacity, and external funding. And together these create a rear window for implementation for building the children's cabinet. The first is the City Accelerator. And the City Accelerator is really a community of practice that has been developed by Strive Together, Harvard Ed Redesign, and Results for America. And essentially, the program really helps local government think about how they build their capacity to create infrastructures that support opportunities for social and economic mobility for children and families. And for us specifically, the Dayton opportunity would be built around building the technical assistance and capacity for building a children's cabinet. And so the work would begin in July of 2026, and it would require a joint leadership with Learn to Earn, the city of Dayton, and I also wanna thank Dayton Public Schools for their commitment because they will be a part of that problem, be a part of the process making sure that there's true integration with the school system. The second is the FUSE Executive Fellowship. And if you've heard of FUSE, it's essentially what that is. FUSE merges together opportunities from community organizations and local government to think about, again, how we're building opportunities to increase mobility and outcomes for students and children across the country. And the FUSE executive fellow program essentially embeds an executive within local government to build the capacity of a specific project that local government is working on with community. And again, in our instance, that would be building the mayor's children's cabinet. And so the great opportunity here is that FUSE covers 90% of the cost of bringing an executive here to do this work. And so this is to start in the fall. The placement of the executive fellow will be in fall of 2026. And so with all of these opportunities, we really just want to thank the city for its commitment into really thinking about how we can invest in young people, making this a reality, making the vision a reality. I want to really honor the work of the young people they had committed a lot of time, their lived experience, their expertise into this project, and it's really important that we see this through. So thank you for your support of the resolution, and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Ms. Fields.

Commissioners, Commissioner Beckham, do you have any comments or questions?

None except thank you, Ms. Fields, Stacey, and the Learn to Earn team. This is very important work to me. I had the pleasure of helping facilitate the groundwork to bring this forward under our former mayor, so there's been a lot of work put in. I want to thank the young people who participated, and just looking forward to the cabinet. I am very confident that the So decisions that need to be made for the benefit of our young people will be made by this cabinet. So I'm very excited. Thank you, Lerner. Thank you, Erica.

Thank you. Commissioner Fairchild.

I want to thank you for the hard work in getting us to this place. We all know we need to do better by our young people. This is a big step in getting us to that place where we can do that. The implementation is going to be crucial. I want to thank you guys for bringing additional resources alongside this work. That's... really beneficial and speeds up the work so thank you for doing that and congratulations for getting us to this place.

Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Shaw?

Likewise. Congratulations on this. I'm really excited for this process to begin. It's already beginning, but to be fully implemented. And then also, you know, opportunities that might arise from this on the other side of it. But a lot of work. I've seen you do this work, and you do it very well. Thank you. And I look forward to these outcomes.

Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Joseph?

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Fields. I'll just say that it really strikes me that for everything we do up here, the success of the future of the city really rides on you and us getting this right, reaching out to young people, giving them opportunities. So you know how important this is. I know, and you've been dedicated to it. You've been dedicated to it for a long time. So we're glad to support you. I'm excited to see where this goes. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Ms. Fields, thank you very much. And if I may, please learn to earn staff. Please stand up. Thank you for all of your commitment, your time, your work, and your leadership. This has in fact been a long time coming. I know this is something that is very dear to you. So thank you for your leadership and your commitment. And I think it really does speak to what Commissioner Fairchild raised earlier when we start to look at the reappropriations for 2026 and making sure that we have the programming services. FOR OUR YOUTH, AND WE DO HAVE, AGAIN, A NUMBER OF VARIOUS DIFFERENT THINGS THAT ARE TAKING SHAPE AND FORM. I ALSO WANT TO UPLIFT THE WORK OF OUR RECREATION AND YOUTH SERVICES DEPARTMENT FOR ALL OF THE GREAT PROGRAMMING THAT THEY'RE DOING, AND SO IF YOU COULD, I JUST WANT YOU TO REALLY HIGHLIGHT AND UPLIFT ALL OF THE YOUTH THAT WERE INVOLVED IN THIS PROCESS, THE AMOUNT OF TIME, ENERGY, THEIR INPUT, And if you have a number of those who have been involved, whether it was 50 to 100, whatever that number may be. I know there was a great deal, but the conversations.

100.

100? Is that what you? Roughly around that. Well, when you add the number of students that we met with to do the community engagement process, but then also students that we identified, that identified the survey, priorities through the survey. But we can get you a definite number. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Again, if those who would like to learn more about this initiative, there is in fact a work session that individuals can view online at our YouTube channel. And again, we'll be happy to answer any additional questions. This presentation, I will take it, will be on the city's website as well. I also want to uplift the work of the staff, my colleagues, our partners. We have the Summer of Peace, which we will be LAUNCHING, WHICH IS, IN FACT, A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH OF ALL OF THE VARIOUS DIFFERENT SERVICES, PROGRAMMING THROUGHOUT THE CITY OF DAYTON AND THE COUNTY. AND I'M VERY EXCITED ABOUT THAT WORK, SO MORE TO COME ON THAT. AND WE'LL BE SHARING THAT PUBLICLY WITH EVERYONE THROUGH ALL THE VARIOUS DIFFERENT SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLETS. And again, it just really speaks to the alignment of the work that is being done with Learn to Earn, Preschool Promise, as well as with this initiative itself, the Children's Cabinet. So great work as well. And I cannot negate the work of our Recreation and Youth Services as well. So thank you, Ms. Fields. Thank you for all of your work and your leadership. All right, Ms. McClendon, are there any additions, deletions, or comments to the calendar this evening?

Your Honor, I would like to request the addition of legislation pertaining to the public hearing at the desire of the commission. That is all.

All right, thank you. Mr. Parlette, are there any additions, deletions, or comments to the calendar?

Your Honor, I have no additions or deletions, but I do have now one comment. I was going to comment on the $80 million grant. That's kind of worth commenting about, but it's kind of moot at this point. So I understand that there were some logical questions about the Peterson construction contract. and why it wasn't structured within the PLA structure that we've passed as a body. The funding source, you've heard us talk about DFA and water projects, and that is the Division of Environmental and Financial Assistance with the Ohio EPA. They're providing low interest to no interest principle forgiveness loans for really large projects that the Water Department has been endeavoring. This is another one of those. And the structure within, and I'll ask Keisha Kenney, Director of Water, to come up and fill in any gaps that I missed, but... The funding source and the project concept dates back to 2024. So under the construction manager at risk structure, the contractor provides a maximum guaranteed price. So we know what it's going to cost and it's not going to go anywhere beyond that. All of those things, and the project was bid and intended to be kind of iterations, but we knew early in 2025 that that's how this was going to be handled. So part of that is allowing Peterson Construction to bid things out and AND HANDLE THE GUARANTEED MAXIMUM PRICE AND MANAGE THAT SO THAT THEY'RE ABLE TO DELIVER THAT GUARANTEED PROJECT AND ITS COMPLETION AS SPECIFIED FROM START TO FINISH. Additionally, I've been told that Peterson is actually a union shop, but I haven't been able to confirm that just yet. But further, city managers spoke with trades labor representatives last week. They understand and they've expressed no concerns.

Thank you for that. I appreciate that. I know we all work very diligently on, as well as the administration, on making sure that the PLA was, in fact, in place. And we understand that the timing. So moving forward, we will make sure that that is fully executed and following agreements.

Yeah, we do currently have at least one PLA that's active with East Pod North.

Yes.

It's about $5 million, if I'm not mistaken.

Thank you for the additional context. Thank you.

I have nothing further, Your Honor.

Thank you. Ms. McClendon, are there any citizens that are registered to speak on calendar items this evening?

Your Honor, there are two citizens registered to speak on calendar items. I would like to state there is a three minute time limit. As you address the commission, we ask that you state your name and address for the record. At that time, I will turn on the green light. When the green light comes on, you will have three minutes to speak. After you have spoken two and a half minutes, a yellow light will come on and you will have 30 seconds remaining to speak. When the red light comes on, you will be asked to cease your comments and to take your seat. To the audience in attendance, please be mindful this is a business meeting, and we kindly request that during this portion of the meeting, you refrain from any hand clapping, finger snapping, and conversation that would prevent the city commission from hearing the speaker's comments. I call to the podium Zakiya Sankara-Jabbar.

Good evening. Good evening. Zakia Sankar, Jabara 2426, Jerome Dayton. Let's see here. The agenda item that I want to speak to, well first, it's good to see my friend Erica. It's been a while and I sure wish she was still working at HRC because she was great in that position and I want to tell her that I publicly that I'm still thinking about her and praying for her and her beautiful son after the loss of her partner. I want to speak to number seven under other. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, $3,500. So is this other fund here, is this like a slush fund for the city manager to just kind of support the people that support her, cuz that's what it seems like to me. The NAACP came out and undermined the community, undermined the Mayor and Commissioner Fairchild on the process of the hiring of this new police chief. And not even a month later, they get $3,500. The corruption and the disrespect of the community is absolutely outrageous in this city. And what is the sister city foundation? What, $15,000 and Fairview Recreation Center and Water Park is closed? What's going on down here? This is ridiculous. I DO HAVE A FEW COMMENTS TOO ON THE LEARN TO EARN PRESENTATION. I DIDN'T HEAR ANY BREAKDOWN ON THE CHILDREN DEMOGRAPHICS. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE CHILDREN THAT ARE GOING TO BE SERVED, ESPECIALLY IF THE CITY OF DAYTON IS PAYING THEM ANY KIND OF MONEY FROM THE TAXPAYERS. But this is clearly, in my opinion, bribery on behalf of, since the city manager runs the city. She made this recommendation, I'm assuming. This didn't come from the commission. $3,500 to the NAACP, not even a month after they set up and had an hour-long press conference to support the city manager undermining the mayor and commissioner Fairchild. I'M GOING TO KEEP SAYING THAT BECAUSE I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING DOWN HERE. $15,000 FOR DAYTON, SISTER CITY, AND THEN A SIMULATOR FOR GOLF AND KETTERING? WHAT'S THE DEMOGRAPHICS? WHO GOING OUT THERE TO PLAY? WHAT YOUTH ARE EXPERIENCING THAT? I'M SERIOUS. I WANT TO KNOW THAT. WHAT'S THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE YOUTH THAT'S GOING FROM DAYTON, PARTICULARLY WEST DAYTON, ALL THE WAY OUT THERE? I'LL BE BACK.

Thank you, Ms. Akira Jabbar. I call to the podium Talis Gage.

Talis Gage, 1921 Gettysburg, 454, I think it's 17? All right. So what's going on, Ms. Fairchild? What's going on there?

Good evening.

The rest of y'all. So I want to speak on the same thing that the NAACP, that 3,500, they say to assist the organizations with continued support in the areas of education, health, and criminal justice. I ain't never seen where they're doing this at. I just want to know where they're doing it at. what organizations they're working with, what people they're working with. That's all I want to know. I ain't going to take up that much time, but if it could just be cleared up for me, somebody covering, let me know what they're doing with this money or who they're working with. Because if they boost on the ground or something like that, I ain't never seen them. I just stopped there.

Thank you, Mr. Gage.

That concludes speakers on calendar items.

Thank you, Ms. McClendon. Commissioners, are there any comments on the City Manager's recommendations this evening? Commissioner Beckham?

I have none, Your Honor.

Commissioner Fairchild?

No, I don't have any comments. But I would like to say to the community, I'm going to have to leave here about 7.15. I get to be the keynote speaker at Belmont High School, my alma mater. They asked me months ago to be there. I did not know that it would fall on this night. So my apologies for those who have come to speak and know that I will go back and watch on YouTube your comments.

Commissioner Shaw?

I'm good.

Okay, thank you. Commissioner Joseph?

Nothing here, Mayor.

Thanks. Thank you. I do have a couple of comments. I, too, would need to be excused, and I apologize. I have a graduation as well this evening, but note that I will be making sure that I'm in conversation. My senior policy advisor is here. Many staff members are here, so we will make sure that we hear any concerns that you have so that we can address those concerns. I would like to address the comments in regards to Calendar item number seven, the NAACP. Just note that those are questions that we pose as well. Understand that this is an annual allocation that has been identified from the commission office to support the NAACP in the annual banquet. So that is the dollar amount. And actually, it is a reduced amount from prior years. So again, just making note in that clarification. AND THEN THE SISTER CITY FOUNDATION, THAT IS A COMMITMENT THAT HAS BEEN MADE FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS IN PARTNERSHIP. COMMISSIONER JOSEPH LEADS THAT INITIATIVE WITH A NUMBER OF OTHER ORGANIZATIONS, AND I BELIEVE THE DOLLARS AMOUNT, THAT IS A SMALL FRACTION OF WHAT THE CITY CONTRIBUTES OUTSIDE OF WHAT THE PHILANTHROPISTS AND OTHER SUPPORTERS PROVIDE FOR THIS INITIATIVE AS WELL. AND THOSE ARE ALL THE COMMENTS THAT I HAVE IN REGARDS TO THE CALENDAR. May I have a motion to approve the city manager's recommendations?

Your Honor, I move to approve the city manager's recommendations. I second the motion.

It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the city manager's recommendations. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. And I believe this evening we have board appointments.

We do. Your Honor, I move to appoint Andrea Hertel, Walt Hibner, and Michael Lautenslager to the Environmental Advisory Board for a term ending November 27, 2028. I second the motion.

It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the appointment of Andrea Hurdle, Walt Hobner, and Michael Lozenslager to the Environmental Advisory Board for a term ending November 27, 2028. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

Mayor, I move to appoint Stephanie Luckey to the Human Relations Council Board for a term ending January 31, 2029. I second the motion.

It has been properly moved and seconded to appoint Ms. Stephanie Luckey to the Human Relations Council Board for a term ending January 31, 2029. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

Abstain.

Thank you, Commissioner.

I move to reappoint Burgess Gow, Alice Heckman, Charles Johnson, and Aaron McNichol to the Landmark Commission for a term ending June 30, 2029.

Second the motion, Your Honor.

It has been properly moved and seconded to reappoint Burgess Gow, Alex Heckman, Charles Johnson, and Aaron McNowell to the landmark commission for term ending June 30, 2029. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

We have four now? Yeah. I move to reappoint Timothy Bement, Joseph Craig, and Christopher Lewis to the Board of Zoning Appeals for term ending June 30, 2028. I second the motion, Your Honor.

Thank you. It has been properly moved and seconded to reappoint Timothy Bement, Joseph Craig, and Christopher Lewis to the Board of Zoning Appeals for a term ending June 30, 2028. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no.

Your Honor, I move to appoint Mayor Shanice Turner-Sloss to the Joint Office of Citizen Complaints Ombudsman's Office, replacing Jeffrey J. Mims for an indefinite term effective May 20, 2026. I second the motion.

It has been properly moved and seconded to appoint Mayor Turner-Sloss to the Joint Office of Citizens' Complaint Ombudsman's Office, replacing Mayor Jeffrey J. Mims for an indefinite term effective May 20, 2026. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no. And that completes the board appointments this evening. I believe now we're moving into the public hearing.

I'd like to call forward Jeff Green from our Planning Neighborhoods and Development Department to give you details about this zoning change. Hang on a second.

One second, please. Thank you. The public hearing is now open. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Parlette.

Go ahead. Good evening. As we wait for the screens to heat up, oh, there they are. This is a rezoning and a planned development request. Specifically, the zoning map amendment portion is to rezone the property from MR5, which is our mature single-family zoning district, to MMF, a mature multifamily, and also establish a planned development overlay for potential new housing development at the southeast intersection of Edwin C. Moses and West 3rd Street, which is Zion Baptist Church site. The applicant is Magnus Capital Partners. The current zoning, again, is MR5, which is that mature single-family. Proposed zoning is both a planned development overlay to be established and mature multifamily. This is in the Wright-Dunbar zoning district, and this is in the West Land Use area. This is an aerial, just showing what currently exists. Again, this is the southeast intersection. The property outlined in blue, particularly. It hosts the Zion Baptist Church, as well as the Arte Cultural Center. This is zoomed out, but showing the zoning map. The yellow, including this property, that's where MR5 is. Notably, the majority of the MR5 here is across Edwin C. Moses Boulevard in terms of those single-family houses. To the south, you have campus institutional. That is land owned by Sinclair. To the east, you've got the rivers. That's open space. And to the north, you've got a little bit of open space and a little bit of MNC, which is mature neighborhood commercial, as that is along West 3rd Street and is obviously a commercial corridor there. A little bit more zoomed in zoning map. That hatched area, that shaded area that I boxed in in red, that is the Wright Dunbar Historic District. And the reason that is important here is this site is both strategically in terms of its location, but also historically and culturally significant given what has occurred there in the Zion Baptist Church site. The historic district, the Wright Dunbar Historic District essentially does is any form of exterior change to property, including demolition, would need to go through the Landmark Commission. So in other words, this district makes it difficult for one to demolish historic structures again, which would include the Zion Baptist Church site. Here is the proposed site plan. One thing I really quickly want to note is this is just for preliminary approval only. This will have to come back before plan board for final plan approval. What that means is we are simply looking at the rezoning of the property and establish the general development regulations for the site. So this would be approximately 100 to 120 units. over two buildings, each four to five stories in height. Again, nothing's been finalized. This is just a general concept to say, hey, this is what we're looking to put here. Again, preservation of the historic Zion Baptist Church. That's a fairly big deal and something that we in planning really pushed on. Magnus Capital Partners want to reuse the site, as you can see in the site plan itself. So that is proposed to be some form of adaptive reuse. Final use would come later on, but it would remain. This would have approximately 155 parking spaces shown, so that is more than one for every unit being sold there, plus whatever's left over for commercial use. And speaking of that possible additional commercial building, that is where the RTA Cultural Center is, along with Design Baths. So we're talking about, again, larger adaptive reuse for this site. This will have to come back before final plan approval. That would include elevations, final landscaping, really where the buildings are going to be located exactly, what they're going to look like, all of that. So just a few site photos. This is a photo looking north towards West Third Street. It's the Zion Baptist Church. This is looking south along Edwin C. Moses. This is just showing the church along with the RTA Cultural Center. This is looking east towards the river. As you can see, it has views of downtown. One thing I do want to know, you've got the embankment there, which is fairly high up, probably about 10, 20 feet in height. So any building, that's one of the rationale for the taller buildings there. So you'd be able to see over those embankments so you could see the river in downtown. And this is on top of that embankment looking towards Edwin C. Moses Boulevard. This is a site plan, and the purpose of this plan is just showing the little pink dots. That is where the bus lines are. So one of the things we wanted to note with this is it is a multimodal site. And what that means is you don't just need a car to get there. You can use a bus. It is highly walkable being on the intersection of Edwin C. Moses and West 3rd Street. And it's also connected to the recreational trails along the river. This plan on the left was what was originally submitted, and after some community feedback and staff feedback, the plan on the right is eventually what it came to. And this plan, in staff's opinion, is a little bit more appropriate. It sets the development contours along West Third Street. So right when you pass the bridge and go in west along West Third Street, you'll see the building instead of just trees. So trees are proposed to be preserved as to a great extent possible, but Having that development and building profile kind of set the tone for what's possible along West Third Street is important here. Each of these photos is just, if one were to look on the ground, height. It's just judging heights. So one of the big things here is we wanted to make sure that these buildings would not overshadow the church. So these buildings are set back an appropriate distance. And the first thing one would see along with those street trees is the Zion Baptist Church. So that was incredibly important from a staff perspective and The applicant, Magnus Capital Partners, has been excellent in doing what they can to keep those views and maintain the church as one of the centerpieces for this site. Went over a lot of this already, so I don't want to keep rehashing the same thing, but the big things here are this is a rezoning from mature single-family to mature multi-family, along with the planned development overlay. And with that planned development overlay, it would set the max building height of 65 feet. It would set the vehicle parking spaces of one per unit, along with all necessary bicycle parking. Any mature street trees would be preserved, and if needed to be removed, would be removed. a new tree would be planted later on the site. The historic designation, again, remains in effect. That is, I think, key here that would protect the church building specifically. And no off-premise advertising. And that's just us saying, hey, we don't want any billboards on this site. So that would restrict any billboards on the site. Public process-wise, February 4th, the applicant and staff met with the neighborhood to get initial feedback. And that's kind of how that plan evolved from the initial one first presented at this meeting to what you see now. March 10th, this applicant went before plan board for just for a work session. A work session is just getting general feedback on, hey, is this a good idea? What would you suggest any changes? So that's what that was. Correspondence and support from Wright Dunbar Inc. That is that letter that you see up there. The West Priority Land Use Board met on March 26th and voted unanimously to recommend approval of the zoning map amendment and the development as it's currently situated. City plan board at April 14th, so a little more than a month ago, voted unanimously to recommend approval as submitted. Planning staff recommends approval. And one thing I always like to say to commission is we followed our normal mailing list here. So anyone within 250 feet was notified of this. Again, that includes neighborhood presidents. And we included the neighborhood presidents for Wright-Dunbar and Wolf Creek as well, since Wolf Creek is right across the way there. We wanted the folks to know what's coming and get their feedback early on. And that was, again, that February 4th meeting. not all applicants do this this is something we always recommend and we always want to say kudos to those applicants that do is go to the community first before you go to any of our boards and see what changes could be made and what is acceptable and what is not so i just want to take the time to say hey we should as staff and as a city recognize those individuals and these entities that go to the community first before having to come forward to a board and get that official feedback In terms of commission alternatives, you have the ability to approve, remain back to plan board, or deny. I am here to answer any questions, and if there are none for me, I would invite Vishal from Magnus Capital Partners to come on up and say things that I might have left out and generally give a few words.

Thank you, Mr. Green. Commissioner Beckham, any comments or questions?

Just a few. First of all, thank you for the presentation. So I understand this is coming back to us for final approval, but I know Magnus is doing... Another development, right, in the Five Oaks area, if I'm correct, and that is designated as workforce housing. Is there an intention for the 100 to 120 units of this particular development to be any workforce or affordable?

I believe that's the case, but I would have that question go to Vishal. He's probably more appropriate to handle that than I.

And then, is there any intention on what the adaptive reuse of the church will be? Obviously, it's being maintained as a historic preservation, but what is the future use going to look like of that property?

so the the pd would allow for it to be a form of commercial so that could be whether it be a restaurant some form of assembly use something those sorts of uses what is in the pd now and we wanted to really restrict it that was one of the reasons we didn't want to open the zoning up to a commercial use or something a little bit more high intensity because i mean you don't you don't want to overwhelm the site and overwhelm the area so The uses we were currently saying are good are those that are a little bit more restrictive to respect the site and the surrounding area. Okay. Those are all my questions.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Fairchild. Yeah, thank you for those questions. I'm good. Commissioner?

Yeah, just quickly. So has there been conversation with Sinclair? I know at one point they were looking at doing some student housing on those parcels next door.

To that, I'm not entirely sure. I can certainly look into that and get back to you. I would appreciate that.

Yeah, it kind of goes to it. I know Magnus, and I guess I can ask the representatives, would there be daycare provided like they are doing with the Five Oaks project? Is there anything like that?

Again, that would be for Vishal, but I would note that especially with the development you're all talking about along Forest and Five Oaks, there was a number of amenities government signed. That seems to be what Magnus is really good at, is not just providing good housing, but a lot of amenities. Yeah.

Thank you, Commissioner. Actually, if you could go back to the slide that showed that you could only partially see downtown from that side. I don't know if that's a... There you go. East of town, around Tech Town, we've been talking for a long time about a plan to pull back the levees to make it easier to access the bike trails and the river and to sort of make that happen there. I'm wondering if it might be possible to do the same thing here since we're doing a lot of work, we're going to be moving dirt anyway, to be able to pull back the levee and make it easier for people who live there to access the river and maybe improve the view too. So it's not a, obviously it's not something you need to do right now, but I'd like to hear if it's at least possible.

Yeah, and I know PlanBoard at their meeting was also questioning, okay, how do the connections work to this site and to the wider community and to those bike trails? So I know it is actively being considered and talked about. And I would imagine once final plan approval comes forward to PlanBoard that there would be a more firm answer. But, yes, that is actively being considered.

Great. I can imagine Fire Rivers would be amenable to talking about a conservancy district, too. All right, well, that's all I have. Thank you. Let's see. Well, I guess we'll go to Vishal next. Thank you.

Good evening. Thank you for having me and I'm happy to offer a couple of opening remarks, mindful of time. As you mentioned, there was a graduation or two happening. Thanks for having us. Magnus is, as you've already noted, actively developing a 260-unit affordable project in the Five Oaks neighborhood. that is designed to be a workforce housing development along with a child care facility. This site is also intended to be a workforce housing project serving households between 40 and 80 percent of AMI. At least the majority will be focused on that. We do not currently anticipate a child care facility being here given the site constraints and this only being a couple miles away from the Five Oaks neighborhood. I just want to thank and react to what Jeff said about reaching out to the community. For us, that's non-negotiable. This is a starting point, not a thing to avoid as a community-based developer. So we are grateful, as odd as that might sound, to receive community feedback. And as you hopefully saw from the first version of the site plan to the version in front of you on screen today, it helped. That community feedback actually helped. And then the last thing I'd like to note is the site is uniquely positioned to reflect history as well as the future. And we love that dynamism in the site. You're at the forefront, the gateway of Wright-Dunbar here. You have the Zion Baptist Church, which has a long history, of course, to it as well. But then we also have this contemporary, persistent need for good housing. And so we love the fact that we can bring all of that together in a respectful fashion to create a compelling project for the city. I will stop speaking, or I could go on for a few hours. So I'll turn it over to you guys for any questions you may have. Thank you. Commissioner?

No, you've answered all my questions. Thank you for your continued development and interest in bringing more housing to the city of Dayton, specifically workforce housing. So I appreciate it. Good to see you. Thank you. Commissioner?

Thank you. Thank you for this work. Thank you for your ongoing commitment. Thank you. Thank you.

Likewise, you answered my question. I would like to have staff, Luke, if you could get his contact information. There's a connection I would like to make with you in my Valley Child Development Centers. So if we could do that before you leave. Of course. Thank you. All right.

Well, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Back to Mr. Green, I think.

I've just come up to return this.

Great, thank you.

If there's no further questions for me, I'll...

I think we're good. Then it goes to Mr. Clinton. Are there any citizens registered to speak on the public hearing?

Your Honor, there are no citizens registered to speak on the public hearing.

All right, commissioners, any further comments on the public hearing? Let's move forward. All right, I will now close the public hearing. What's the pleasure of the commission here? I'd like to move forward. All right, well, let's move forward. Legislation, Ms. McClendon.

First, reading ordinance number 32190-26, amending the official zoning map to establish plan development 195 and to change the underlying zoning from mature single-family residential, MR5, to mature multifamily, MMF, at 40 South Edwin C. Moses Boulevard, 3.74 acres, and declaring an emergency.

Having been declared an emergency, I move for the immediate passage of ordinance number 32190-26. Second.

So it's properly moved and seconded for the passage of ordinance number 32190-26. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no.

Second reading. Okay. Second reading, ordinance number 32190-26, amending the official zoning map to establish plan development 195 and to change the underlying zoning from mature single family residential MR5 to mature multifamily MMF at 40 South Edwin C. Moses Boulevard, 3.74 acres. That concludes legislation.

Thank you, Ms. McClendon. All right, Ms. McClendon, are there any citizens that are registered to speak this evening?

Your Honor, there are 26 citizens registered to speak. I would like to remind everyone of the three-minute time limit. As you address the commission, we ask that you state your name and address for the record. At that time, I will turn on the green light. When the green light comes on, you will have three minutes to speak. After you have spoken two and a half minutes, a yellow light will come on. You will have 30 seconds remaining to speak. When the red light comes on, you will be asked to cease your comments and to take your seat. To the audience in attendance, please be mindful this is a business meeting, and we kindly request that during this portion of the meeting, you refrain from any hand clapping, finger snapping, and conversation that will prevent the city commission from hearing the speaker's comments. I call to the podium Brenda Brown.

Okay.

Brenda Brown, 3816 Netco Avenue, Dayton, Ohio. This is my first time here. I don't know what I'm doing. But it's good I wasn't here yesterday because I was really highly pissed off. I am pissed off at the Dayton police because I feel like... Because I live in the black neighborhood. They will not do their job because we're black. And I'm sick and I'm tired. I live on that carpet. My house paid for. You can take my house and put it in Centerville. Ever since that Dago store on Gettysburg burnt down, those people came to our street across the street from another store that's on the corner of my house. Last year, there was hundreds of people up there setting up tables, four or five tables in the middle of the sidewalk playing chess. They ain't doing nothing but gambling. Selling reefer. Selling barbecue. Selling lawnmowers. Big U-Haul trucks having flea markets. I found the manager, the owner of it is Dayton Metropolitan. This year, the mayor told us at her ordination to pick up trash. I did better. I went down to Dayton Metropolitan. I had them trespass them from their lot Then they came back and put up big old barricades. These people still coming back, getting on the sidewalk, setting up their tables and their chairs, playing chess. They're not wanted there. I done called the police personally myself about 50 times since it's been warned. One sergeant called me back and told me he contacted Dayton Metropolitan. Dayton Metropolitan told him his name is D-I-L-L-I-E-Y. Dayton Metropolitan told him that nobody's supposed to be on that sidewalk. Then he told me lie and said he's going to put it in the notes if they Go up there, they going to jail. Okay? They still up there every daggone single day and I'm sick of it. Everybody on my street call the police. They don't do nothing. Okay? I talked to another officer, got his name too. officer Lachiski, L-U-C-K-O-K-I. He went up there one day. They had all the tips and everything. He called me and he told me he made them pack up their stuff. He told them if they come back, he's taking everybody to jail. They've been coming back every day. I'm calling them every single day. Now Dane Metropolitan And the police playing games with me. Yesterday, they're going to say, the police are going to say, she went up there and... Your time is up, thank you. Okay, but I'm tired of this. Thank you, Ms. Brown. The corner of NETCO and Gatesburg got to be cleared out before somebody gets killed up there.

We'll have somebody look into it. You're right.

Tired of that. Don't have to live like that. Sure, just because you're black.

A call to the podium, Lacey Fishley.

Ms. Brown.

Lacey Fishley, 341 Signal Fire Drive, Dayton, Ohio.

Good evening, commissioners. I come today as a representative from Immaculate Conception Parish here in Dayton. We are blessed to have a wonderfully diverse community that includes people who came to the United States as refugees and as immigrants. We have speakers of various languages, with the most popular being Kinyarwanda and Spanish, besides English. As a member of the Social Justice Ministry for the parish, I know firsthand how impactful and harmful immigration enforcement has been on my community. Several families have been ripped apart because of ICE enforcement. People who are valued and contributing members of our community stolen away, while others are fearful just to come to church. In addition to being a member of the parish, I'm also a community organizer at ABLE for the agricultural workers and immigrants rights practice. Because of my work and my connections in the church, I've received numerous calls from distressed family members and friends desperately seeking relief for their loved ones in detention. Watching the people that I see every Sunday suddenly vanish has been traumatizing and wounding. That is why I am asking you to officially remove the ALPR cameras and produce the audit logs. Please. Our community weeps.

Thank you.

I call to the podium Yousef Elzain.

Good evening. Yusuf El-Zayn, 4906 Amberwood Drive. I'm here on behalf of the Islamic Council of Dayton, as well as D-Flock Dayton, and thank you for the members that are present here today. Yusuf El-Zayn, 4906 Amberwood Drive, Dayton, Ohio. Mayor, Commissioner, Deputy City Manager, Chief Henderson. Tonight I come with grief, with anger, and with truths this body no longer should ignore. On Monday, May 18, 2026, two white teenagers walked up to the Islamic Center of San Diego, home to the al-Rashid Islamic School and Masjid, where parents and children as young as five gathered to pray and study Arabic and Quran, and opened fire. For Muslim Americans, this climate is not theoretical. It shapes our daily lives. Three heroes, three martyrs, Amin Abdullah, Mansoor Kaziha, and Nadir Awad, whose names we must not allow to become footnotes. They died for 140 children so that they can live. Two American teenagers do not wake up one morning and decide independently to murder Muslims at place of worship and their schools. Even though the blood is on their trigger fingers, the fingerprints are on every politician and pundit who built the road they walked on. They are taught, they are radicalized, they are handled handed a worldview by adults around them, by the politicians on their screens, by the algorithm that freed them. This came from my wife, by the way. The Muslim community had been raising alarms. They were not heard, and three people paid for the silence with their lives. And that's why I'm here tonight, because Muslims and American communities in Dayton have also been raising alarm about anti-Muslim rhetoric, about fear, and about the city's flock safety surveillance system that shared data with immigration agencies despite public assurances that safeguards existed. And after witnessing the massacre in San Diego, a city that, by the way, expanded its flock service in 2025, we must ask an uncomfortable question. What kind of public safety are these systems truly providing? Cities are told these cameras keep communities safe, and we heard it from the police department. Yet, hatred continues to escalate, vulnerable communities continue to be targeted, and innocent people continue to die. The cameras are still up. The contract remains active. The full audit log has not been released. This sworn public hearing has not happened.

I call to the podium Sharon Screech.

Hello, commissioners. My name is Sharon Screech, and I live at 515 West Grand Avenue, apartment 3L here in Dayton, Ohio, 45405. Thank you for allowing me to speak today about an issue that deeply affects many residents in our community, over policing and the damage it causes to public trust, especially within the African American community. I want to be very clear from the beginning, this is not a police bashing session. This is about making sure the voices of the people are heard, the community deserves to be listened to, and law enforcement deserves honest feedback from the people they serve every day. Overpolicing refers to excessive and aggressive law enforcement practices that disproportionately target certain neighborhoods and populations. It includes heavy patrol presence, frequent stops, surveillance, and harsh enforcement of minor offenses that might be overlooked in more affluent communities. These practices overwhelmingly affect low-income communities and communities of color. Many residents feel like they are constantly being watched, questioned, or treated as suspects instead of citizens. Over time, that fear turns into distrust. One example many residents are questioning is the police hub now sitting next to the RTA bus depot. People want to know who approved that spending and why the public was not fully informed. Mr. Parlett. We seem to have a budget for adding a police hub, but we cannot seem to find money in the budget to improve parks or create more recreational opportunities for the children of this city. The same concerns came up with the flock camera system. The community was told information from those cameras would not be shared with outside law enforcement agencies, and later we learned that was not true. When the public feels misled, trust is broken all over again. That is why transparency and oversight matter. And when trust disappears, cooperation disappears too. According to the 2026 police stop statistics from the Dayton Transparency Portal, black males accounted for more than 16,000 stops, approximately 45% of all stops in that demographic category. White males accounted for around 8,800 stops, or roughly 24%. Those numbers are alarming and raise serious concerns about profiling. When one demographic is being stopped at nearly double the rate of the other, families notice and mothers notice. I am the mother of three adult sons. Looking at these statistics honestly breaks my heart because it tells me that every time my sons leave the house, they may already be viewed as targets before they even speak a word. That is a painful reality for many black families in this city. It is also concerning how quickly routine stops can escalate. A simple traffic citation can suddenly involve two or three police vehicles, which is ridiculous. That overwhelmingly show of force can increase tension instead of creating calm. I have lived in Dayton my entire life, and I care deeply about this city. That is exactly why I'm speaking today. People want safety, but they also want dignity, fairness, and respect. and these conversations are becoming even more urgent after the shooting of Reginald Thomas here in downtown Dayton over something as minor as a missing bicycle light. Incidents like this leave lasting scars on the community. Your time is up. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Creech.

A call to the podium, Victor Pate, Sr.

It's been a long time. Victor Pate, I guess you would remember Victor Pate, 1017 Rossiter Drive, Dayton, Ohio. One main thing I want to bring up, and I know three minutes is not going to do the job, but I want to introduce this. There's a lot of talk about the problems with the city manager. I want to talk about the city management office and structure. It interferes with real democracy. It always has. We have a problem that we need to address, that we need to be honest about. We don't have real representation, even with you guys up here right now. It's not coming from individual sectors of this city. All people need to be represented and have their voice in the government. You are tasked with almost an impossible job. You have to take a vote of people and in your own mind do the arguments and debates between different communities instead of having those representatives here. I want to propose that one, the city management structure be questioned and the history of it, which was 1913 after the flood, incidentally, that we look at this whole structure of city government to become more of a council. I want the people that I don't get along with, the people I do get along with, to all be up here representing directly one group of people so that we can have an honest debate about how to do things in this city. I just saw a presentation about money being done and it sounded good but I think if those sectors of places were up here, one of the things they would ask was that money coming in to build something, someone is digging holes, someone's pounding nails, someone's pulling cables, how many of people in our sector will be hired in the place that's being built? So those are real important things. I'm not saying any individual is a problem up here, anyone. I'm saying we need to be honest about real democracy. We need to be honest about it. So three minutes, of course, isn't enough time. But I want to introduce this so that we can sit down. I don't care if I don't get along. With these people here, those people there, that gender there, this gender there, they should be represented equally so that we can have real democracy, so that we can find a way to run our city like our city. You guys are structured with a hard problem. And city management, incidentally, is something that is put, that you are trained to look at attrition, but with attrition not affecting business. And that's a problem. You know, most of this city isn't rich, you know, so we need to do that. So that's all I want to say, and thank you for your time, and yeah, I'll be back again, okay?

Thank you, Mr. Pate. Good to see you again. It's been a while.

I call to the podium Mary Sue Geminer.

Mary Sue Geminer, 1418 Arbor Avenue. Commissioners, tonight I'm calling for the firing of the city manager. There's been a lot of talk about accountability and transparency and rebuilding trust. I don't believe that will be possible until you remove Ms. Dickstein and begin a robust search for a new city manager. The automated license plate readers were the tipping point for me. To have known about this since October of 2025 and then not revealed it until after the November election, after the January flock contract renewal, after the March resignation of the police chief, it's just too convenient. The hospital is another example of loss of trust. Why did no one in the administration have a clue that Premier Health was about to destroy Good Sam? And why was there so little effort to stop it? Then, after the citizens spoke and voted for a public hospital, the legal department's report to the commission was a path to avoid that responsibility. The city manager inserted the public hospital into the citizens' assembly, overriding concerns about blight and youth. Under this city manager, with your approval, huge amounts of money have gone into downtown. And yet, a historic building one block from here, the Dayton Daily News building, remains abandoned, surrounded by vacant lots and a chain link fence for over 12 years throughout the city manager's time in this position. A year ago, the city manager recommended a $1.4 million expenditure for a new police station downtown. Not only did it look like a bailout for an investment company that hasn't paid their taxes or kept up their property, it fed into the myth that more policing makes people safer. In reality, fighting the root causes of poverty is what makes people safer. Regarding ALPRs, you need to order them removed immediately because you cannot guarantee that they are not accessible to flock independently. You need to cancel the contract and demand the audit logs. Finally, I remind you that you said there would be transparency in the investigation of the killing of Reginald Thomas. If the report is not ready, say it's not ready, give an estimate of when it will be ready. That's transparency. And again, I ask the question, is the independent accountability auditor investigating this killing? I would also note that there are a lot of citizens here, many registered to speak, but many not registered to speak. We are united in our love for Dayton and our determination to make it a safe place for everyone. I invite all of those to stand. Thank you.

I call to the podium Alex Gonzalez.

Good evening. My name is Alex Gonzalez, and my family lives directly behind the Tasty Bird Market, the historic Tasty Bird Market that was burned down nearly three weeks ago. I'm grateful for...

Please state your address.

Oh, sorry. Alex Gonzalez, 23 Mountain Street. Thank you. Do I start over now? Yes. Okay. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Alex Gonzalez. My family lives directly behind the Tasty Bird Market that burned down nearly three weeks ago. I'm grateful for the firefighters and first responders for their efforts to put out that fire that morning. However, I'm here tonight because the residents of the Wright Dunbar Village neighborhood living around this site are frustrated. Concerned and tired of feeling ignored in this situation? First, the cleanup timeline is unacceptable. From our perspective, this dangerous site has largely been left sitting while nearby residents continue living with the consequences every day. We've not received clear answers about when the cleanup will happen, why it's taking this long, or what protections are being put in place for surrounding families. Second, communication has been extremely poor. Residents closest to this property, myself included, should not have to rely on rumors or guessing to understand what's happening. We deserve updates, transparency, and a clear plan moving forward. My biggest concern, however, is the health hazard this site now poses. There are potential risks from asbestos, lead, and rotting food still sitting at the property. The smell, I hope you guys can come by sometime, is nauseating. The flies are surging again, and there are scrappers that have been entering the site, disturbing the debris, potentially stirring up more contaminants into the air while nearby families are forced to live right next to it. To my knowledge, there has been no testing of the site itself or of nearby homes for the contamination. This is deeply concerning to the people who live there, especially to my family and my children. And I think many residents are asking the same difficult question. Would this situation still look like this if it were happening in the heart of downtown? Would it still look like this if it were sitting two miles south of us? I don't believe it would. We have seen this city move quickly when it wants to. We watched years of infrastructure projects get accelerated into months with major events. And outside attention are demanding it. So we know rapid action is possible when there is urgency and priority behind it. Overall, this is a bad look for the city. But more importantly, it's unfair to the people who live there. Yeah. I know that this commission can do better. We're asking for urgency, transparency, site testing, and immediate action to protect the health and safety of the surrounding community. Thank you for your time. Thanks, Mr. Gonzalez.

I call to the podium Kathleen Kirsch.

I made a promise.

All right.

Kathleen Kirsch, 6310 Harvest Meadows Drive. I think most of you know me by now. I'm an attorney with ABLE. I'm here on behalf of the Coalition on Public Protection and with the community members tonight. As you can see, we represent a very diverse group of concerned residents. about the ALPR cameras. When I spoke before you two weeks ago, I said now that you know Dayton Police Department has violated its promise not to share the ALPR data for immigration enforcement purposes. The next steps that you take will show your commitment to accountability for what has been an egregious violation of community trust. As far as I can tell, and correct me if I'm wrong, the flock cameras have still not been taken down as of today. The program is suspended, but I don't think anyone really knows what that means. Are the cameras still collecting data? Are they still collecting reads? And if so, who is receiving that data? If the Flock cameras are still receiving data, then we are all still very vulnerable. In December 2025, Flock changed its contract language to say that while customers retain their own data, customer data does not include the underlying raw footage captured by Flock hardware, which includes, quote, still images, video, audio, and other raw data captured by the Flock hardware or by customer hardware. That data goes to Flock. So if someone is driving by an ALPR right now, and that ALPR captures their license plate because the cameras are still up, we know that those license plate images are not being sent to national databases, or at least that's what we've been told, which, you know. But what we don't know is if they're going to Flock. Why is it a concern if the data is still going to Flock? Well, in 2025, Flock launched pilot programs with ICE Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol. The FBI is currently looking to partner with Flock to receive its data. Flock has repeatedly shown that it cannot be trusted to safeguard our data, and the only way for the commission to protect us is to have the cameras taken down and to cancel the contract. Accountability means the audit logs need to be produced now. We have heard that they are not public record. That's been one reason for denying their production. I reviewed the Ohio Revised Code today, and Section 149.43A1YY only accepts ALPR license plate reads themselves, those images from public record. They're public record. The audit logs are public record. nor should they be exempted as confidential law enforcement information i won't bore everyone here with the entire code but there is a section 149.43 a2a of the ohio revised code that specifically lays out when a public record can be withheld because it contains confidential enforcement investigatory investigatory records and none of those none of those exceptions reply here we're not sharing defendant data. The Dayton Police Department already acknowledged they shared this data with local law enforcement and national law enforcement, so we're not revealing anything they haven't already revealed. Furthermore, several other cities, including Tip City and Kettering, have disclosed their audit logs. Why is it so difficult for Dayton to do the same? You need to take down the cameras, you need to cancel the contract, and you need to give us a specific time frame with accountability for when those things will happen. Thank you.

Thanks, Ms. Kirsch.

I call to the podium Stephen Ware.

Stephen Ware, 3033 Beaver Avenue, Dayton, Ohio, 45429. Dayton, that's... Dayton has lots of events scheduled for this year and I want to tell you about some of my favorites. Out on 5th is an event that closes a section of 5th Street to motor vehicles, allowing people to walk around freely without having to worry about traffic. Everyone but cars are welcome to join the fun in the Oregon District on the first Friday weekends of each month from May through September. Dayton Pride is a great opportunity to go out and strut your stuff celebrating our city's vibrant LGBT plus community. All the Colors of the Rainbow will be flying throughout Dayton on Friday, June 5th and Saturday, June 6th. I'm a big fan of big bands, so I'm really excited for the big band performances at Riverscape Metro Park. Central Jazz Big Band performs on Friday, June 12th. The Kim Kelly Orchestra performs on Friday, July 10th. And the Dayton Jazz Orchestra finishes the trio performances on Friday, August 14th. Of course, Dayton isn't limited to excellence in just one genre of music. The Levitt Pavilion hosts all kinds of music this summer, including the Funk Fest on Saturday, May 30th, the For Dayton, By Dayton Festival on Saturday, June 6th, Blues Fest on Saturday, June 27th, Rock Fest on Saturday, August 1st, Reggae Fest on Saturday, September 15th, and last but not least, Jazz Fest on Saturday, September 19th. If you like folk music, you can check out the Dayton Celtic Festival to experience the sights, sounds, and tastes of Celtic culture. Riverscape Metro Park hosts the festival on the last weekend of July from the 24th to the 26th. In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Lights and Flights show will be a blast this year. The night sky above Kettering Field will be bright with fireworks on Friday, July 3rd. In autumn, you can partake in German culture at Oktoberfest, featuring live music, family activities, outstanding artisans, delicious food, including sauerkraut, and of course, far more beer than anyone could possibly drink. Dayton Art Institute hosts the event on Saturday, September 26th and Sunday, September 27th. If there's anything in Dayton that can make me feel like a kid again, it's seeing Courthouse Square come alive with holiday lights during the grand illumination for Christmas time. I hope to see you all there on Friday, November 27th for the lighting ceremony. Although I'm looking forward to all the wonderful events that Dayton has scheduled, there's one event that tops all the others in my mind. I, and many of my fellow Daytonians, cannot wait for the removal of flock cameras across the city of Dayton. Unfortunately, I can't tell you when it takes place because that event doesn't have a scheduled date. So I'm wondering, when are we going to remove those freaking cameras? Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Worker.

I CALL TO THE PODIUM ELI COX.

ELI COX, 1238 WALMART State in Ohio. I am eight years old and I and a black child. I deserve to live in a neighborhood that is safe, where police respect the law and do not speed up and down my street. I deserve to have parts that are safe and the water pads have great water pressure. And out clear swimming pools. I want to be able to grow up into a man so I can become a firefighter. I have dreams too. Invest in children, increase the money for youth. Mr. Beckham and Mr. Shaw, you were once black boys like me.

Thank you, Mr. Cox. Well done.

I call to the podium Talis Gage.

I got to say my name and address again? All right. Talis Gage, 1921 Gettysburg. 45417. All right. Ah, man. My time started, right? Yes, sir. Okay. Well, I ain't going to be too long. One thing I want to talk about is Dickstein. She got to go. Everybody knows she got to go. Everybody knows she got to go. And the way I feel, all three of y'all up there got to go, too. All three of y'all got to go. We're supposed to talk and we ain't spoke yet. That was like maybe a month ago. I ain't going to blow you up. You know, and then I thought you was going to be different, man. But you showing me that you just like them. You showing me that you compromise. I thought you were stronger than that. You showing me that you weak, man, that you compromise, that you was a sellout, bro. Damn. Oh, yeah. I don't know if I'm supposed to say it in fear. But yeah, man, you you're a disappointment, bro. You'll disappoint me. And I wanted to say that to you, to your face, in front of everybody. That's how I feel, man. Hopefully, you shut me up and you made me see something different. But right now, I mean, dag, bro. Dag. And he like, man, y'all just, I don't know what to say. But I wanted to say something about the kids, too, man. Rec centers, rec centers, rec centers, man. If all kids see on TV is people selling drugs, right? Or talking about it. And they go outside their house and that's all they see. It's like programming. It's programming. If we don't program ourselves, then the system will program us. And that's what they're trying to do with the music, with the TV, and everything else. So if our kids got some rec centers or something else to do, instead of coming outside and watching these... These so-called, I don't even like these cops, these cops or the people selling drugs, and what you think is going to happen to them? We're supposed to be cycle busters. We ain't breaking no cycles if we add more cops. We ain't breaking no cycles if we ain't got no rec centers or anything for the kids to go to. Hell, even the grown-ups could use a rec center. They'd be having water aerobics and tutoring and all this kind of stuff that grown-ups could do as well. So I would love it if y'all would. So can we take a bandeau and turn it into a rec center or like a spot where kids could play basketball at or something like that, a vacant building? Can we do something like that, y'all? Can we turn one of these buildings that's already standing? I mean, I know a bunch of handymen that can fix on some of that stuff. You know what I'm saying? If y'all could give $3,500 to the NAACP and they ain't doing nothing. I ain't seen nothing from them. Nothing. If y'all could give that to them, then y'all could give it to people that's going to actually work with these kids as boots on the ground and mentor kids that put their life into this because they're passionate. Not compromise. Not sellouts. Y'all suck, man. And if he's with her, then he could go too.

Thanks, Mr. Gage.

I call to the podium Kevin Keller.

Kevin Keller, 3922 East 3rd Street, Dayton, Ohio, 45403. Commissioners, office staff, city manager, assistant, and audience. I apologize for my wardrobe selection today. I was out putting a flat tool up for Memorial Day weekend. I have four items I'd like to share. First of all, we had this when I first moved here from San Diego. In the early 90s, community policing. I don't know what's happened to it. We used to have a policeman or a couple of them that would come into the community, establish friendships, have coffee and donuts and some things like that. They would establish a relationship. They were in and out of the town. It was great. They'd show up to our neighborhood meetings as a participant, not just an observer. We need to bring that back. Guns. I don't understand how this city okayed an ordinance that says you can fire your firearm, you can set off your firearm, you can shoot your firearm as long as it is in your property in the city of Dayton. That's crazy. How in the heck is law enforcement going to uphold the laws and keep the neighborhood safe when we have laws like that on the books. I mean, I've heard a couple weeks ago an AK or an AR-15, one of those, shot off 20 or 25 shots in about 10 seconds. I just think that's crazy. Nothing's done. Because, well, that's okay. How does the police department know when something's really happening? Because you don't know whether that's shooting somebody or just playing around. I think that's crazy. Speed cameras. I think speed cameras, if they're going to have them, they need play fair. Let people know, hey, there's a speed camera here. Cause people to slow down. It's just like a police car sitting on the side of the road. He's a warning. But if you blatantly go by him 20, 30 miles an hour over the speed limit, you deserve to get caught. For five, 10 minutes, five miles over or so, you know, I'm giving you a warning. I'm sitting here. I really think those things to have attention. I've lived here a long time. I've lived in a lot of cities being an aircraft mechanic in the Navy. And I've seen a lot of things go. I've seen a lot of things work. And I've thought a lot of things fall. And this separation between our commission and its citizens is not good. We need to start taking care of our citizens. But on the other hand, citizens need to start taking care of our commission and our city leaders. Congratulate them when they do well. Because usually when I make a statement up here, I try to end on positive. And my positive would be, Try sitting up at the podium or the desk one day and hear comments from the audience. It can be tough.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Keller.

I call to the podium Karen Goodall.

Karen Goodall, 7600. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for your time and attention on the urgent and distressing topic of the flock cameras. I know we've talked to several of you already about this. I appreciated the meeting that we had with you, Commissioner Joseph, since all of this was public. And I appreciate Mayor Turner-Sloss and Commissioner Fairchild have to leave, but I know that they had a phone call as well with some constituents to talk about that. And given the information you all have at this point from us about how disreputable Flock is as a company and a vendor, I would like to ask for an immediate removal of the cameras and for the contracts to be canceled as soon as possible with a date given to the community. As we talked about, it's disheartening to see them still recording as we drive by knowing that this has happened. As we've discussed with you, FLOC has illegally shared data with outside groups, including starting an undisclosed pilot program last year with Customs and Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security. They cannot be trusted with sensitive data, and there's no amount of safeguards to utilize with a company that is unwilling to conduct business lawfully. I'd also like to highlight the stress that's been brought to our community as a result of this. There's a sense of fear now that's causing people to stay home, and that's causing them to miss critical medical appointments. I've seen our clients miss veterinary appointments. I've had a client at our clinic get their paperwork ready to leave the country. I had to get a health certificate ready for their pet for them to move out of the city. We also have neighbors where they have to have groceries delivered to them because they are scared to leave their homes. And I have not personally experienced this myself, but seeing that happen to the people around us is very distressing. And that's been very upsetting to live with the last few months since we've known this and been trying to bring this to everyone's attention. It's also been very heavy and demoralizing to spend hours sharing concerns and not feeling heard. I do want to thank Commissioner Joseph because we received an apology during our meeting and that was very meaningful. It's not often that we hear apologies from officials when mistakes have been made and it went a long way to have that acknowledged and have that mistake at least said out loud. Obviously there needs to be actions paired with that apology but that's a start and I think you can't have any repair of trust without acknowledging that and without acknowledging what people have gone through with you. So I hope that we can see that trust and respect rebuilt and that there's a path forward for everyone to feel more secure and hopeful in our community. Thank you.

Thank you.

I call to the podium Ebony Hastings.

Ebony Hastings, 1238 Wabash Avenue, Dayton, Ohio 45405. So the last city commission meeting Commissioner Shaw pointed that he doesn't necessarily respond back to us because he considers this a business meeting. So I think that it would just be a best practice to kind of communicate that to us and then maybe follow up with email because you all do ask us to give our email or our phone numbers in regards to specific questions that are raised where we're asking for ANSWERS. SO I HAVE QUITE A FEW. I ATTENDED THE COUNTY COMMISSION MEETING ON YESTERDAY AND THERE WAS A LINE ITEM ON THERE WHERE THE CITY OF DAYTON REQUESTED $250,000 FOR THE CITY CENTER. TO SUPPORT THE REHABILITATION OF THAT. IT STATED THAT THE MEETING, THAT THE CITY CENTER BUILDING WOULD BE PLANNED FOR SENIORS AND LOW-INCOME HOUSING. I WANT TO KNOW IF THAT'S TRUE, AND I WANT TO KNOW WHY ISN'T MONTGOMERY COUNTY AND THE CITY OF DAYTON WORKING COLLABORATIVELY IN MORE THINGS BESIDES BUILDINGS THAT ARE DOWNTOWN? And then in regards to the Learn to Earn, I think it's important for me to know what demographic of students were involved in their work sessions and what demographic of students will benefit from this pilot program. And then I want to know... Why are we still leasing the KeyBank building? Last year, if I'm not mistaken, in 2025, there was one point some odd million dollars that was set aside and allocated in the budget for the roof. So why are we leasing? Why are we still leasing the building? Let's get rid of it. If it's not ours and nobody's occupying it to do city business, we need to get rid of it. I drove through East Dayton on my way to the city commission meeting this afternoon, and I noticed that there are not debris of demolished homes throughout the East Dayton community. So let's be a mirror and just reflect how we take care of our city from east to west. The speed cameras. I don't understand what's the delay in the removal if we have the burden of proof that they are causing harm to the residents and the citizens of Dayton, especially the immigrant community. And then, again, I echo what Mary Sue said in regards to Reginald Thomas. If the investigation is still pending, give us a status update of that. That is how you garner our trust in just communicating back and forth in regards to what our concerns are. You're asking for our email. We're providing it. We're following all of your rules. Respect us enough to do it in return.

I call to the podium Louis DeGruy.

Hello, I'm Louis DeGruy at 1601 East 5th Street. So thanks for having me here. Hello. There's been a lot of discussion about the hurt that federal law enforcement has done to our communities, and I don't need to rehash that. I just want to underscore the enabling effect that the flock safety technologies that the city has implemented throughout the city, that effect helps enable that effect. that trauma-causing events that federal law enforcement causes. Like others have said, I'm pretty disappointed by the amount of time from when we learned that this technology was being misused, put that in quotes, to now, and we are still unclear on how that, what the pause of that contract looks like, and I would just recommend and ask that the ALL OF THESE CAMERAS ARE REMOVED AND THAT THE CONTRACT HAS ENDED AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. I THINK WE HAVE SEEN ALREADY THAT THE TOOLS THAT COLLECT THIS DATA, DESPITE BEING CALLED AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE READERS, THEY COLLECT FAR MORE THAN JUST THE LICENSE PLATE. AND THESE TECHNOLOGIES CAN BE MISUSED PRETTY HEAVILY. I think this commission should also pass an ordinance that ensures this kind of technology can never be used in our community again. I understand that there is no expectation of privacy in public, but that's not what's happening here. This is like being followed by someone 24-7, having them record what you do and then sell that information to somebody else. I think that everybody in this room would be very uncomfortable if we were being followed around by just some dude 24-7. I'd just like to reiterate that I want those cameras gone as quickly as possible, contract to be ended, and that they never come back. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Gray.

Zakir Jabbar.

Zakiya Sankara-Jabbar, Lord have mercy, 2426 Jerome, I had to remember. So I'm back and I wanna talk about a number of different things. The energy in here for me just feels really heavy a lot because of the level of disrespect that comes from this podium consistently. I've been here consistently now for over a month. working with the community here. People have been calling for the firing of the city manager. As Ebony just so eloquently stated, there's no responses either from up here, except for the mayor and commissioner Fairchild. No emails, no outreach, just come back and just sit and look at people and never respond. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy where people feel unheard and so they do disengage. And maybe that's the training you all got, right? Just wait them out. This is a poor city. Most people are working poor, working class. So ain't nobody got time to keep coming down here telling y'all the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over again for y'all to just, like how you looking at me, Matt Joseph, right now, just look and don't say nothing. I even gave you an opportunity, specifically you, Matt Joseph, You, after the commission meeting two weeks ago, I asked you directly, why didn't you respond to the people who came up here and talked about the police brutality? Their own personal experiences. You don't care. I said, why don't you care? You literally looked at me and I had tears in my eyes. Because I could not believe that a black woman came up here, relived her trauma, and nobody addressed it. Other people came up here and told you about their experiences with the Dayton Police Department. You looked at me and walked straight away. You think that's acceptable? You think that's okay? That's not okay. To continue to ignore people and to ignore 38% of the population here, which are black. That's a pretty significant population. I know you feel like you Teflon Don because you've been here so long. But a part of the reason you've been here so long is because people are not engaged. And so here's my new announcement today. I am so excited to announce that I'm going to be working on whoever's campaign that's going to be run against Chris Shaw and Matt Joseph next time. I'm going to be working on it. And I got plenty of time to work with the community. Because see, y'all got plenty of money from the business community. You're going to outspend us. You got that. But you ain't going to outwork me, baby. I'm going to visit every church in West Dayton. Every community center in West Dayton, you are not tempted. See, you disrespected the wrong person because you gave me energy. You disrespected the wrong person. You disrespected the wrong community for you to sit up and walk away from me when I asked you a question. You had every opportunity to engage me. FIRE THE CITY MANAGER. AIN'T NOBODY GOING TO KEEP COMING DOWN HERE TELLING Y'ALL THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN WITHOUT DISRESPECTFUL SELF. AND HE LOOKED LIKE THE MAN, ONE OF THE MEN THAT WENT IN ROBBIE'S PLACE AND ROBBED HIM THE OTHER DAY. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COMMENTS.

THANK YOU, MR. KERJIBAR. UH-OH.

I CALL TO THE PODIUM PAUL KERRIGAN.

in this rotation. Hi, Paul Kerrigan. Good evening. 1525 Pershing Boulevard. I want to start by thanking you for sending me the note, telling me you appreciated me being involved. Thank you very much. Thank you. And hello to the rest of you gentlemen. I came here with a specific purpose, but after what I've heard here tonight, I think I'm going to stick to a little details. I hate to bring this up in this situation, given the circumstances I've heard here tonight. It seems trivial that I'm bringing this up. But you know what I'm here to talk about, about the speeders and the speeding on Pershing Boulevard. You know, shortly after months ago, I was here and presented you with the data which I have from the first black box. You guys all agreed that that was a serious problem. And whoever decided, the engineers, the police, put up those two speed indicator signs. One in each direction. Those were taken down after 60 days. That was two weeks ago today. So I'm on top of it. I told you I wasn't going to go anywhere. So I'm evidence of that now. It took me until 3 o'clock this afternoon to get the data because I didn't know that there were only three sets of those for the city and they're moved about every 30 days and we were given 60 days. So I was real happy. I knew it wasn't going to stay there. But I didn't know that it collected data the whole time it was there. Every car, speed, time of day, the whole nine yards. 60 more days of data from the first which we had. I'm here to tell you I have it with me now. I have a copy for you. I'm probably going to leave it at that and just leave you that copy and move on because I've been in touch with the lieutenant. I don't want to name names. Over at the engineers, I've been talking with them. They don't know what to do at this point, and they're trying to figure out what to do because it hasn't gotten better. Those signs didn't mean much once the police left after the first week and a half that they stayed there on the street with those signs. It's ridiculous. I want to make sure I cover everything I wanted to talk about today. I didn't know the South Dayton Airport was owned by the city of Dayton. I'm so happy to hear that. You know how much I hear people talking about how badly that property is wanted by developers? You guys have a golden bank account down there. I don't know how you feel about that in the future and the needs of this city. I have... Oh, this is important for me. This is only for me. Everybody else, it doesn't matter. came to my attention from the police, from the engineers that I'm only doing this because I had a failed petition and I'm taking it personal. That's the rule going around the city. Only thing I had to do with that petition was my signature when it came to my door. It was the result of living there 17 years and seeing this going unabated, undealt with for all that time, and losing a cat run over by a speeder and a dog hit by a speeder. They didn't even slow down. They didn't give a damn. They just kept on going. And it keeps happening there. Quads, the whole nine yards. It's such a pity little problem compared to what's going on here tonight. But you heard me. And I want to get this data to you. Because it's for you. I have my copy.

Your time is up. Thank you.

Yes, I see. There you go. Thank you, Mr. Gary. Thank you very much. I also have some photos of police and firemen, baseball leagues from back in the 30s, if anybody's interested. But I have a contact with the police and fire. I'll probably pursue that.

Thank you. I call to the podium Jennifer Evans. I call to the podium Jerry Bolling.

Good evening. Good evening. Jerry Bowling III, 522 Herbert Street. I'm here on behalf of the McCookfield Neighborhood Association to provide thanks to city staff, Tom Ritchie from Public Works, Jason Phillips from Housing, and Lily Hannibal from Citizen Engagement. We had a good meeting on Monday and their participation and discussion about Clare Ridge Park was appreciated. Also here on behalf of the Old North Dayton Neighborhood Association, MacCookville Neighborhood Association, Kaiser High School alumni, and our committee for our event on Sunday, June 14th. It's a flag day celebration at Point Park at the corner of Valley and Kiwi. And that's at 2 p.m. on that day. What we're gonna celebrate is the rededication of the North Dayton Patriots Memorial, the 80th anniversary of the awarding of the Medal of Honor to Corporal Tony Stein of the U.S. Marine Corps, the raising of the flag at a flagpole that had been barren for years, Also, the America 250 celebration. And something very interesting is going to be a time capsule reveal that was put at the memorial there in 1946. So we're interested to see what's going in there or what's coming out of there. And we also will put something in there as well. On this memorial... There's the names of 98 patriots from what was at the time called North Dayton who gave their lives during military service during wars, World War I, II, Korea, and Vietnam. So we're going to honor them as well. We have a Facebook page and an event, and it's North Dayton Patriots Memorial, so you can follow us on that. And we'll get you the flyer. We want to thank the city of Dayton for your support. Some of the monument being restored was with grant money that the two neighborhood associations used. Also the Kaiser High School Alumni Association. Citywide development as well. So there's a number of stakeholders and I think you've all received invitations to appear at the event and We'll make sure we get you the flyer and that invitation. So thank you so very much. Have a good night.

Thank you, Mr. Bowling. Thank you. I call to the podium Aaron Shipp.

Hi, Aaron Shipp, 3843 Alvin Avenue, Dayton, Ohio. Mayor, commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I want to raise a concern that affects not just my neighborhood, but many communities across our city, especially our black, brown, and lower income residents. Many of us recognize this is an ongoing challenge, yet despite widespread awareness, we've seen little meaningful action to address it. In the four years that I've been, that I've returned to this community, I have not heard, well, besides today, many public people talk about the noise pollution and its documented effects on our health. And in my neighborhood, noise pollution is extreme. Just a mile from my home, there is an outdoor police firing branch nearby. There's also a train crossing with no set schedule. I've heard it blasting its horn at 2, 3, 4, and 5 in the morning. And very quickly, to address the police thing, just yesterday, From 8 in the morning until about 3.30 in the afternoon, the police were firing at this range. They paused for lunch, but then started again. It was ridiculous. We have cars pounding music, motorcycles with modified exhausts revving down streets, and drivers speeding 50 or 60 miles per hour in zones posted for 25 or 30. Some neighbors hold late night block parties, though I've worked with those around me to reduce the frequency. We also contend with loud arguments, shouting gunfire and fireworks, not to mention the constant well of emergency vehicles. This isn't just a nuisance. Noise pollution has serious measurable effects on our bodies. including hearing loss, cardiovascular strain, sleep disruption, mental health effects, cognitive effects, and metabolic impact. And I didn't know I still had a little bit more time. So along with the hearing loss, we got prolonged exposure to sounds over 70 decibels can cause permanent damage. A gunshot from the range that I was just talking about a mile away can still reach 93 decibels. Federal rules require train horns to be between 96 and 110 decibels at 1,000 feet. This is ridiculous. And then you got the cardiovascular strain. And I respectfully ask this body to take these concerns seriously. Our communities deserve the same protections from environmental health hazards as any other part of the city. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Shipp. I call to the podium Maddie H. Maddie H. Christina Mendez.

Christina Mendez, 711 West Wenger. GOOD EVENING, MAYOR TURNER-SLOSS. GOOD EVENING. COMMISSIONERS, MY NAME IS CHRISTINA MENDEZ, AND I SERVE AS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR THE DAGEN HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, AS WELL AS THE BOARD CHAIR FOR THE BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY UNDER WELCOME DAGEN. AND I'M HERE TONIGHT SPEAKING ON BEHALF OF OUR MEMBERS AND THE BROADER IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY THAT IS THE BACKBONE OF THIS CITY'S ECONOMY. THE RECENT REVELATIONS ABOUT THE FLOCK LICENSE PLATE READER PROGRAM HAVE SHAKEN OUR COMMUNITY DEEPLY. More than 7,100 searches tied to immigration enforcement were conducted using Dayton driver data. Data collected from our streets, from our members' employees, from families going to work, to school, and to church. Our community participated in good faith because we believe that safeguards matter. And this happened while community groups and this commission were assured that safeguards would be in place. THE CITY MANAGER HAS ALREADY ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THIS COMMISSION WENT TO GREAT LENGTHS ALONGSIDE COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES TO CREATE THOUGHTFUL, INTENTIONAL POLICY GUARDRAILS AND THAT THE CITY FAILED TO EXECUTE IN THAT DIRECTION. WE DO APPRECIATE THE HONESTY, BUT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IS NOT ENOUGH. TRUST HAS BEEN BROKEN AND IT MUST BE REBUILT THROUGH IMMEDIATE ACTION. NOW, WE'VE HEARD THE NARRATIVE THAT THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY WANTS THESE CAMERAS TO STAY, AND I WANT TO BE VERY CLEAR, THAT NARRATIVE DOES NOT SERVE US ALL. The Dayton Hispanic Chamber of Commerce represents businesses that depend on immigrant workers. People who are now afraid to go to work, they're afraid to take their children to school, and they're afraid to simply exist in Dayton, Ohio. That fear, guys, has real economic consequences. When workers do not show up, businesses suffer. When families live in fear, communities suffer. The immigrant community is not a liability to Dayton, it is a real asset. Our members hire locally, they pay their taxes, and they invest in this city. They deserve to live and work without fear that a routine drive down the street is being logged and shared with federal immigration administration and authorities. So we urge this commission to take the following steps. One, permanently remove the flat cameras rather than simply suspending them. Get them gone. Number two, release the full audit logs. We want to know when the data was shared and when. and commit to a community-centered process before any surveillance technology is ever deployed again. Dayton can be a city where everyone, I mean everyone, regardless, regardless of immigration status, can live with dignity. Tonight, we ask you to choose trust over surveillance, and we ask you to choose community over fear. Thank you, and God bless you all.

Thank you, Ms. Mendez. God bless you. Thank you. I call to the podium Julie Lewis, Kelvin Hovatter.

My name is Kelvin Hovatter. I live at 1637 Beaver Ridge Drive down in Kettering. Zip code is 45429. So off the top, I did want to thank several Thank you. All right. I did want to thank several of the members of the commission, specifically Commissioner Fairchild, Commissioner Joseph for reaching out to the group, and also Mayor Turner-Sloss for doing the same. If either of you have, I'm not aware of it, but I would thank you also. And that's unfortunate because I'm going to have to immediately criticize the outreach that you've done so far. Basically, we are hearing a bunch of promises being delivered to lawyers at Able, other members of the group that met with you guys so far, and they are good promises and I'm glad that we're committing to them. But none of them have any kind of dates, none of them have any kind of estimates, like the process that needs to happen for any of them to go through, anything like that. If we do not have any of those guarantees or any assurances that things are in motion, things are moving through, then this issue could just be left in limbo forever. And I think I speak for everyone here in the room with the plot cameras that we do not want that to happen. So today, I have one specific ask, which is, I believe that given the harm that's already happened, we need to, at least temporarily, remove the cameras from the streets. I have a tech background, and there is no way that we can guarantee that the cameras are not recording unless they're either physically covered up or physically removed. They always have access to power, and they can be triggered remotely. There is no way we can guarantee they are not recording. I will, of course, be advocating for the permanent removal of them and for the contract. However, I think this temporary step would go a long way towards relieving people's anxieties in the short term. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, sir. I call to the podium Ree Molnar.

Hi. Good evening. Good evening. 361 West Dayton, Yellow Springs Road in Fairborn. So I wanted to share with you a little passage from this book that I'm hoping the title will give you some direction. It's called Right Thing, Right Now. It speaks for itself, but that's what we're asking you to do. It's simple, really. We just want you to do the right thing right now. So a passage from this says that it's not without cost to break your word, nor is your reputation usually the only one at stake, not only because we all represent other people, but because each time we deceive or break faith, we undermine the public trust. We make it hard for people to trust each other. But the converse is also true. Each time we keep our word, we make a deposit. We add a strand to the rope that binds the world together. And I think as public servants, what better to aspire to than to be the rope that binds the world together and keep your word? So from real violence of police and ICE brutality and kidnapping and family separation to the threat of violence from ALPR surveillance and excessive presence of police downtown, it's clear that people who live, work, and play here in Dayton want more than words from you. We all want action. You don't need to remind us what the problems are or the limitations that you're up against. We want to know what you're going to do about it and when. Thank you, Commissioner Joseph and Mayor Turner-Sloss, for making commitments to removing the ALPR cameras, canceling the contract with FLOC, and producing an audit log of who has access to the Dayton ALPR data and when. I will mention that this is just an Excel document, so it shouldn't cost you $30,000. We are still working on any commitments from the remaining commissioners, as well as a clear and transparent timeline. I also hear and uplift calls for accountability for this culture of impunity in regard to this level of violence that's being uplifted by community members calling for the city manager to be fired. Please tell us plainly, what are you doing and when to take action within your power in these matters? If some of you will continue to claim that the ALPR camera data are somehow able to be appropriate to put parameters on it to protect vulnerable Daytonians, I just want to share a brief list with you of the Counties that have 287G contracts, which make them essentially ICE themselves. These include Adams, Brown, Butler, Claremont, Delaware, Fairfield, Fayette, Gallagher, Green, and 17 others. Thank you.

I call to the podium Destiny Brown.

Good evening. Destiny Brown, 130 West 2nd Street, Dayton, Ohio, 45402. I'm here today because, unfortunately, many residents have watched for years as the spending priorities and values entrenched within the city manager's administration have shaped the direction of the city in ways that are impossible to ignore at this point. So while downtown continues to flourish with investment, development, attention, many of the neighborhoods are experiencing the exact opposite. Residents are watching infrastructure decline, community resources disappear, and essential services dwindle while being told there's not enough funding to address the conditions they live with. The imbalance is just not disappointing. It reflects a deeper issue within the culture of our local government. Equity means ensuring that every neighborhood, every family, and every resident receives the fair consideration and investment. Right now, too many people feel excluded from that vision. Commissioner Joseph and Commissioner Shaw have already demonstrated through their decisions and their alignment that they are willing to continue supporting practices and priorities advanced by the city manager's office. However, many people supported and elected Commissioner Beckham because they believed there was an opportunity for a shift, a chance to move toward a culture of government that is more community-centered, transparent, and willing to challenge systems that have produced inequitable outcomes for years. This is a defining moment. The public is paying attention, residents are asking for leadership that will listen and ask difficult questions. This issue is actually bigger than license plates readers or a flawed public input process. What residents are witnessing is a part of a larger culture under the city manager's administration that has normalized a lack of transparency, weak accountability, and decision making that often excludes meaningful community participation. We have seen major decisions move forward without adequate public visibility or oversight, including the execution of 223 contracts, totaling $3.5 million without commission approval, as well as the advancement of a $1.4 million property purchase without an appraisal, competitive bidding, or proper public notice. Residents have also watched repeated efforts to limit public engagement through practices like emergency budget designations and vague appointment processes. While at the same time, neighborhoods continue to experience deep inequities in investment and in quality of life. One in ten Dayton homes need major repairs. And a 2023 citywide survey found that one in three residents were dissatisfied with housing conditions in their neighborhood. There are so many unsafe structures that have been sitting for years, while downtown beautification tells the tale of two different realities in Dayton. Taken together, these are not isolated incidents. They reflect a governing culture that prioritizes centralized control, limited transparency, and unequal investment, while communities continue to ask to be heard, respected, and valued for the future of our city. Your voters and our community is watching. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Brown. That concludes speakers, Your Honor. Thank you.

Please, you all, thank you very much. I really appreciate everyone's patience this evening. Mr. Parlette, do you have any closing comments this evening?

I have none, Your Honor.

Thank you. Ms. McClendon, do you have any closing comments this evening?

Yes, Your Honor. City Hall will be closed on Monday, May 25th due to the Memorial Day holiday.

Thank you, Ms. McClendon. Commissioners, do you have any closing comments? Commissioner Beckham.

Thank you, Your Honor. I want to thank all of the residents and citizens that came out to speak this evening. I appreciate you sharing your concerns. I joined my colleagues in requesting that the flock cameras be taken down. I think we are working through how soon we can do that. I think in the interim, I think we are trying to figure out what steps can be taken to mitigate the vulnerability and concerns that there are still recordings being taken. And I would just ask Deputy City Manager Parlette, until we obviously address that concern. Can you define for the public what suspended actually means?

Not active. We had a meeting earlier today and DPD agreed to work with Public Works to put bags over the cameras.

Thank you. Do we have a timeline?

We do not. That was just an idea that was brought by DPD today. So we'll get to work on it.

It would be well appreciated for us to be able to communicate a timeline in which those bags will go over the cameras. So I would love to get that update as soon as we can. In addition to that, I have some questions about the Tasty Bird situation. Can we just get an update on what exactly is the current state of that circumstance?

Yeah, I'm not positioned as we sit here, but we'll follow up with you with the most up-to-date information.

Thank you. I believe those are all of my comments. Again, thank you to all the residents that continue to come out and voice your concerns.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Shaw.

Thank you, Commissioner, for your comments. I totally agree. I think we are all united in that effort that we need to remove these cameras as soon as possible. And I think that work is happening now. And I would appreciate as many updates as we can get as we go through this process. I think it will go a long way with residents. So I'm confident that that is going to happen and we will stay on top of it as a commission, I know. I know that we all agree on this and that's very good. I also appreciate the comments today. Everyone is very passionate about these and other issues and it's glad that they come down here and show their concern. These are business meetings so I do not respond directly. But I am available if anyone ever wants to reach out to me. I make it a point to always keep those appointments and keep the communication up as best as possible. Having said that, I would like you to join the Dayton Minority Business Assistance Center for a virtual workshop on May 26th from 10 to 11.30 a.m. Learn how state certification can help minority-owned, women-owned, and veteran-friendly businesses grow. You can call 937-226-8222 for more information. Also, in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Haven Behavioral Health will host a Mental Health Resource Fair on Thursday, May 21st from 9 to 11 a.m. at 1 Elizabeth Place. The event will bring together community organizations, vendors, and highlight mental health resources through the community. You can call 937-234-0102 to follow up with them. That's all I have.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Joseph.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to join my colleagues in thanking folks for coming out today. And I join my colleagues in asking for a firm timeline for when these things are going to happen. Second, I want to congratulate Megan Maloney, our own Megan Maloney, on being recognized as one of the Dayton Business Journal's 40 Under 40 Award recipients. She's been an award recipient. She's been a driving force behind our city of Dayton's sustainability and resilience initiatives, and she continues to help position Dayton as leader in renewable energy and environmental innovation. That's a leader not only in the region, not only in the state, not only in the country, but internationally. She's very good. Some of the accomplishments that have happened under her leadership of the department are she's helped Dayton residents save more than a million dollars through the city's partnership with SOPEC, and that's on electricity bills, since 2022. She's supported, built, and supported sustainability initiatives that generated approximately $29 million in savings and cost avoidance. She has directly participated in reducing 300,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions and engaging more than 70,000 residents through outreach and programs. She's also secured for the city more than $36 million in grant funding for climate, energy, and equity initiatives. And she has most recently advanced one of the largest community choice solar agreements within a city limit in the United States, projected to save our residents more than $42 million over the next 25 years. We're very grateful for Meg's leadership and dedication to building a stronger and more sustainable Dayton. Thank you, Meg Maloney. Thank you, Mary. Thank you.

Thank you. I would like to thank my colleagues for their comments. And thank you for recognizing Ms. Maloney. She has done a remarkable job in continuing on that path. So again, thank you. I really appreciate you acknowledging her work and the entire staff. So a couple comments this evening. Thank you all for extending the courtesy of... allowing me to step away from the meeting this evening due to graduation. And with that, I want to congratulate all of the graduates, near and far DPS graduates and many other neighboring communities. This is in fact a very exciting time of the year. As we start to lead into the summer months, as mentioned earlier, there are a number of things that we're working on collectively together. I'm very excited about the work behind the Summer of Peace. More details will come, and we'll be happy to share that information with the public. And I invite my colleagues. We've been in conversation. We've got more conversation to happen. But the work that has started with that initiative is, in fact, is very promising. And so my charge to everyone that is in the chambers this evening as well as those who are viewing online is that what we're dealing right now, we had some very unfortunate situations that took place over the last couple of months, to be honest. But most recently, an incident that took place during a graduation ceremony that was very disturbing. And it is very concerning on a number of fronts. What we're dealing with in our community right now, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, is there is a lot of trauma. There is a lot of angst. on top of the many challenges that we're dealing with throughout the country. And what we're seeing in our community, and it's not isolated to the city of Dayton, so let me be clear on that. We're seeing a lot of disruptive and illicit and very concerning behavior from our teenagers, from our youth. And so my ploy and my ask is that this is not a city issue. This is not a DPD issue. This is not a DPS issue. This is not an issue for more so where all of the responsibility lies on our churches, our organizations, or even for that matter, many of our other institutions, the home itself. So I'm asking that we all take ownership and responsibility and that we all roll up our sleeves and do the necessary work. We have to make sure that we are providing the opportunities, the resources and programming that are available to our youth. As mentioned, I am constantly uplifting the work of our recreation youth services. They do a phenomenal job with limited resources. You all have seen the budget. You know that we are operating with a very tight budget. And on top of the many constraints that we're dealing with, fuel cost is real. And so my ask is that we continue to uplift the work of our recreation youth services, our Boys and Girls Club, Preschool Promise, the work that they're doing, the work that is also rolling out with Learn to Earn, with the Children's Cabinet, and again, in our churches, there are a number of SUMMER BIBLE STUDIES OR BIBLE SUMMER BIBLE STUDIES OR BIBLE SUMMER BIBLE STUDIES OR BIBLE SCHOOLS THAT WILL BE TAKING SCHOOLS THAT WILL BE TAKING SCHOOLS THAT WILL BE TAKING PLACES AS WE ROLL INTO THE PLACES AS WE ROLL INTO THE PLACES AS WE ROLL INTO THE SUMMER MONTHS. SUMMER MONTHS. SUMMER MONTHS. WE KNOW SUMMER OFFICIALLY WE KNOW SUMMER OFFICIALLY WE KNOW SUMMER OFFICIALLY STARTS, WHAT IS IT, JUNE 21ST? STARTS, WHAT IS IT, JUNE 21ST? STARTS, WHAT IS IT, JUNE 21ST? SO THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SO THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SO THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR US TO MAKE SURE THAT WE ALL US TO MAKE SURE THAT WE ALL US TO We need people to speak up. We need to make sure that we are taking responsibility for our communities. Again, we cannot police our way through this. So that is a charge. I'm holding myself accountable, and I ask that we all be held accountable as we start to roll into the summer months. And we want to make sure that with that, There are a number of programming and services that are readily available. The staff put together a very comprehensive list. There are over 100 plus programming. So we are going to debunk the myth and the notion that there is nothing for our kids to do. That is farthest from the truth. There are plenty of things for our kids to do. The issue that we face is that how do we make sure that one, that our kids are aware of the various different programming. Two, transportation is in fact a factor. And so again, we're going to make sure that we're working very diligently and intentional about how we are having a productive and peaceful summer that will lead into the fall, into the winter, into the following seasons throughout the year. Again, that is my ploy, that is my charge. More information will come about the summer of peace. We're going to roll a lot of that information out. But I just wanted to speak to that because, again, it's very concerning as to what we've been seeing that is taking place across the country. And again, it's not isolated to the city of Dayton. Thank you all to the members of our community that came out this evening. Thank you for your heartfelt concerns and testimonies. Thank you for lending your time, for giving voice to the issues that are important to many of us. I'm glad that my colleagues, that we're all joining, we're all in uniform in terms of removing the flock cameras. And so, again, just would like more detail on the timeline. And so, Ms. Jackson, if you could work with Mr. Davis and make sure that we have that information so that we can, too, share that information with the public. I think it may even warrant for us to do, perhaps, to work with our public affairs department for a public announcement, whatever the case may be, so that we can have that statement available. So thank you, Ms. Jackson, for taking that lead. And thank you, Mr. Parlette, for acknowledging that the work is being done and that the concerns are not being, they're not falling on deaf ears. So thank you for your leadership on that. So thank you, Ms. Hastings, Mr. Gray, Ms. Sikar-Jabbar, Mr. Herring. I believe that we should move to a permanent solution, and I don't know what that... may look like. Perhaps this is an opportunity for us to revisit the petition for the speed bumps in your area because we are in fact limited on resources. Mr. Bowling, thank you for acknowledging the rededication. I look forward to that information across our desk so that we can make sure that, one, that we're in attendance and that we can share that as well with the rest of the community. Mr. Shipp, thank you for your concerns and the noise. pollution. It is, in fact, a deep concern. There is an ordinance in place, so it's an opportunity, I believe, for us to revisit, to identify the levels of enforcement. What are we doing for enforcement? What perhaps it is, in fact, at PSA to remind individuals, to remind the community, the NORS ordinance, especially as we start to move into the summer months. So thank you for bringing it to our attention. And I know that Commissioner Shaw works very closely with the Railroad Crossing Initiative, and so he, I'm sure, has some information with NLC and can provide some various different options and mechanisms that we can look into for furthering that addressing rather that concern. Ms. Mendez, thank you for your comments. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being an advocate for the community. I believe that the next steps in this process in which this body will have further conversation as to what some of the demands are and that is the release of the audit, the timeline around the release of the audit, knowing that it is in fact an Excel file, how do we make sure that that information is readily available, but also that that information is not We're not exposing or divulging any additional information to warrant any security privacy or an annuity concern. So we don't want to address an issue by creating another issue, so to speak. So there's more work to come. on that. Mr. Kerrman, I believe I have that right. Please forgive me if I mispronounce your name, but thank you very much for your concerns and your recommendation for the cover, as you heard from Mr. Parlett. They're already having the conversations working with our Public Works Department, and so along with the Dayton Police Department, so we will have more of a definitive answer as to when that will take place. Reid, thank you for your leadership, and thank you for being here as well. And I apologize that I missed the first 15 speakers, but rest assured, I know the staff will make sure that those comments will be shared with me, and then I will also have an opportunity to go back and revisit and review the meeting from this evening. A couple more comments and then I'll come into close to an end. Congratulations to Sugar Creek Packing and Montgomery County Land Bank for secure environmental justice grant with the state of Ohio. Land Bank received $166,000 to help redevelop Tech Town, which will create 30 new jobs in the city of Dayton. Sugar Creek received $173,000 to remediate 4.1 acre industrial site in West Dayton, which will allow them to expand their operations in West Dayton. So way to go. That is awesome news for Sugar Creek as well as with the land bank. So we like to see development taking place in the city of Dayton, in all parts in the city of Dayton. But Sugar Creek has, in fact, led the charge when their expansion and their leadership in the North Gettysburg corridor. So we're very excited to see. And we want to make sure that we are uplifting their work and we look forward to seeing the results. I also would like to bring to everyone's attention that this Saturday will be the celebration of the African Liberation Day at Liberation Park. That is 836-836 Superior Avenue. And the event starts at 10 a.m. Vendors will be available throughout the day. I'm not sure. I believe it probably will be dusk in terms of when the event will actually come to an end. But we're inviting all of those to come out, all community members to come out and enjoy the day and building community and neighbors with friends. And then lastly, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my colleague. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming out, Commissioner. I know we were in your neighborhood, but thank you very much. I know many of my colleagues had other obligations, so they will be at the next one, I'm sure. Weather permitted, right? And I know Commissioner Fairchild, he missed the tail end of it. But I want to thank all of those who came out yesterday evening. It was a beautiful evening. We actually were able to walk the area prior to the storm coming in. So it was a good use of time. So thank you to all of, again, the staff members from DPD, our Dayton Police Department, our Dayton Fire Department, Public Works, Housing Inspection, planning staff, community engagement, of course, the famous and the one and only, the commission staff that came out. So again, we thank Ms. Roberta, all of the leadership in the Forest Ridge and Quail Hollow neighborhood, A great neighborhood. And they, too, will be celebrating their 50th anniversary of existence. And all of the lots, from my understanding, are, in fact, they're filled and they're developed. So a thriving neighborhood. So it was good to go out. So that is all that I have. Again, I thank everyone for being here. And thank you for your patience and sitting through a very long but important meeting. So with no further business, this meeting will now come to end. It will now adjourn. Thank you.