City Commission - Regular Meeting

[music] The Dayton City Commission meeting will now come to order. Would you all please rise for invitation and remain standing for the pledge of allegiance this evening? The invocation will be given by Commissioner Fairchild.

Oh gracious one, in a world that feels out of control, remind us of your providence. Commit us to your will. Remind us the power of love is greater than the power of violence. Make us ambassadors of your love, instruments of your peace. Instill in us your compassion. Make us mindful of those who are fragile and those that are vulnerable. May they find in us generous friends. Guide us now. May we may we be wise in our decisions and tender in our actions so that we create a Dayton where everyone is seen. There are opportunities for all and our community is just and vibrant. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Miss Black Shar, may we please have a roll call? Mayor Turner Sloths. I, Commissioners Joseph. I Fairchild. I Beckham, I. May I have a motion to excuse the absence of Commissioner Shaw, please? So moved, your honor. Second the motion, your honor. It has been properly moved and seconded to excuse the absence of Commissioner Shaw. All in favor say I. I.

All oppose say no. Miss Black, excuse me. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the March 11, 2026 meeting, please? So moved, your honor. Second the motion. Your honor. It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes for the March 11th, 2026 meeting. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say no. Miss Blackshere, are there any communications or petitions this evening? There are none, your honor. And we have no presentations this evening. Miss Blackshere, are there any additions, deletions, or comments to the calendar? I have none, your honor. Thank you, Miss Blackshere. Miss Dixstein, are there any additions, deletions, or comments to the calendar this evening?

Your honor, I have no additions or deletions to this evening's calendar. And given its um light uh number of actions or recommendations, I also have no comments to the calendar. All right. Thank you, Miss Black. Miss Dixine, Miss Blackshere, are there any citizens who have registered to speak this evening?

Your honor, one citizen has registered. I would like to state that there is a threeminut 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'll 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 conversations that prevent the city commission from hearing the speaker's comments. I call to the podium Tasha Roundtree. Name and address for the record.

Tasha Roundtree, 4609 St. James. They begin.

I'm coming here tonight to speak with the city manager and with the new mayor. I wanted to give you all some time to get back into your newly acquired positions. Before I came in to have um this conversation, I have been asking for over a year about creating a cannabis coalition or a council. And here I find myself where as of tomorrow by 12 noon over 6,000 Ohioans are about to lose their job. And when they lose their jobs, they will not be eligible for unemployment. What is your plan for them? because I've been asking you to come up and be proactive instead of reactive. Wesley Community Center is without water, is without a a telephone, is without food in the food bank. How are we supposed to help these people? Okay, now the mic is off. Okay, I can do this without the mic on. Reclaiming my time. Reclaiming my time.

Tasha, it's still on. Please proceed.

It's on. I'm just livid because I've been asking what are we going to do with the money when the money comes in and no one has created a budget. No one has said this is what we plan to do with the money from all of the cannabis that we have sold in this city. We don't know what we're going to do with these unemployed people. The reason some of these people went to work in the hemp industry is because they couldn't work in the cannabis industry. And now we have to have an expungement clinic for all of these people. Some of these people now have to go into public housing because they're going to lose their housing because without notice they're going to lose their job on Thursday evening at midnight and we still don't have a plan which I've asked this council and some of you have still been on this council. What are we going to do? I've had to reach out to felons with a future so that we could have a plan of action to clear off some of these records so that they would be eligible for public housing because they are not going to be again eligible for unemployment because they're going their businesses are going to close. They can't go into the cannabis industry. The cannabis industry did not prepare to the influx of these people nor these products. This is a money grab. And yet I'm still asking when you see these other cities receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars. They already had a plan. And we still don't have a plan. I'm fighting for Wolf Creek to create Nerd Hubs for our youth for living with purpose for our senior citizens. And I'm still asking, what's our plan? And y'all still don't have a plan. Y'all still haven't created a council. What are y'all doing? I'm not going to keep asking and keep begging. I'mma run for office and take

somebody's job up here next. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Roundtree. If you wouldn't mind staying back so I can get some more information. As you mentioned, there has been transition, so allow us to get our footing together and then we can have a conversation so we can figure out what the plan is. Thank you. I appreciate it. Miss Dixine, if we can pile a follow-up conversation again, I want to get some understanding of the background and so we can work with our colleagues as well and what you're hearing. Sure. We'll work we'll work on getting you a an up all of you in a memo. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, Miss Roundtree. That concludes the speakers for calendar items. Thank you, Miss Blackshere. Commissioners, are there any comments to the city manager's recommendations this evening? I have none, your honor.

Thank you, Commissioner Fairchild. No, Commissioner. All right. I have none. All right. May I have a motion to approve the city manager's recommendations? Your honor, I move that we approve the city manager recommendations. Second motion. All right. It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the city manager's recommendations. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say no. Legislation, Miss Blackshere. Second reading resolution number 6922-26 authorizing the real properties located at eight addresses in the city of Dayton, Ohio for acceptance of electric vehicle EV chargers. Mayor Turner Sllo I. Commissioner Joseph I

Fairchild I Beckham I resolution 6922-26 has been adopted with in favor with four votes and that is all your honor. Thank you Miss Blackshair. Miss Blackshire are there any citizens who are register registered to speak for general comments? Three citizens have registered and I'd like to remind everyone of the threeminut time limit. I call to the podium Ysef Alzain. [snorts] Good evening. Yousef Zan, 4906 Amberwood Drive, Dayton, Ohio.

Good evening,

Mayor, Commissioner, City Manager. I'm standing in front of you to tonight while families in places like Lebanon, Palestine, and Iran continues to bury their children. Last week, I spoke about Dayton's unique place in history as the home of the Dayton Peace Accords, a moment when the city helped bring Warington nations together and showed the world that peace is possible. Today I return with deeper concern. We are living through a time of immense human suffering. Innocent civilians are losing their lives. Families are grieving. Children are being killed. The human cost of these uh conflicts is real, ongoing, and devastating. And we are not disconnected from these realities. Just recently, the Ohio Senate is currently considering a formal partnership with Israel focused on trade, investment, and research. And here in Dayton, if I may remind you, we have already welcomed an engineering and construction firm that you all proudly uh put in the newspaper from that part of the world to establish a manufacturing and research operation in in our city. These these decisions may be framed as e economic development but they also carry moral weight. The city has already acknowledged that responsibility. In 2020, this body adopted a resolution condemning genocide and affirming that Dayton should ensure that companies it does not it does business with avoid complicity and crimes against humanity.

[snorts] So the question is not whether Dayton has a moral voice. The question is whether Dayton will use it. How does Dayton wish to be remembered? I ask again. As a city connected to systems of sur of surrounding war or as a city whose name became synonymous with peace. If this commission believes that formal resolution have limited impact, then choose another path. Issue public communication, call for dialogue, invite peace. And today and as innocent lives are being lost across multiple conflicts, silence is also a choice. It I ask you to choose differently. Let Dayton once again be a city that calls the world toward peace. Thank you.

Thank you, Hillary Lurman. My name is Hillary Lurman. I live at 249 Wyoming Street, Dayton, Ohio. You may begin.

I taught history at Miami University. And understanding history, and I'm going to say some things that probably will offend people right now, but this reminds me of the start of World War II. If we remember the Nazis, they moved into the Rhineland. They move they took over Austria. They took over Czechoslovakia and the world basically didn't do anything. And that's the same thing with the roles reversed of what the United States and Israel are doing to the world. I don't know how we're going to resolve this, but again, Hitler genocide. What the world has been saying, what's going on in Gaza is genocide. We've got to stop this and hopefully the city commission will be a light for what's right and what's wrong. I thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Lairman. Tasha Roundtree.

Name your name.

Oh, Tasha Roundtree, 4609 St. James. I was here before about the cannabis industry. I'm here now as the president of Wolf Creek Neighborhood Association. I've been hearing lately on a lot of Facebook and on the social media how Wolf Creek is being gentrified. First off, let me say that is absolutely incorrect. What we are is actually the most compassionate neighborhood in the entire city of Dayton. When we had a homeless problem, we didn't just push those people off to be migratory. What we did was we worked with I worked with Miami Valley Housing Opportunities and we got those people in places like Woodford Mental Institution and Recovery, the 115 program before we allowed it to close down, which was an atrocity to our our local population. What we did was we showed those people compassion and not just them off. What we did was we worked with our renters to get them into a more structured, more com uh responsible land owners by working with the land bank, by working with Habitat for Humanity, by getting them better landlords than some of these slum lords that come in from out of town and don't fix up properties, don't take care of the property. What we did was we worked with some of the firsttime home buyers programs with uh Chase Bank because they had additional funding to reinvest in our neighborhoods and people who have been there for years, they are allowed to get their house fixed up through the uh home rebuild Dayton program. We are one of the most compassionate neighborhoods because we do have places for small businesses to put up their businesses like Philip Morgan, one of the eat down, sit down,

eat restaurants which has excellent food. We do have a cigar bar. We do have a bakery that's coming. We have beautiful amenities. And instead of going and spending $500,000 in Oakwood Centerville, if you get your [snorts] money up, you can get a $300,000 house in our neighborhood and put a pool in the backyard and put a nice privacy fence up in it and have a nice barbecue pit. You don't have to move out of the hood to have a nice house and then be in a nice area. Don't hate the game. Join us. But that's not gentrification because we choose to come up because we choose to do better. We chose to invest in our neighborhood and to come up. We worked hard for the come up because we were purposely disinvested in. And now that we're being invested in, don't hate on us. Join us, but don't try to stop us. That's it. We are the first to have scholar homes. We are the first to make sure that if you want to be a firefighter, a police officer, a teacher, if you want to work at as a mason, if you want to work as an electrician, as a plumber, you want to go to school to be something, we have specialized homes with the land bank to make sure that we can offer you housing. You don't have to be on public assistance to live well.

Brown, thank you for your comments. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Thank you for your lead leadership and your advocacy. you're exactly uh correct in terms of all of the number of great things that are taking place in the in the Wolf Creek neighborhood. So, thank you for recognizing the work in Wolf Creek. That concludes the speakers, your honor. Thank you, Miss Blackshair. Miss Dixine, do you have any closing comments this evening? I have none, your honor. Thank you. Miss Black Sher, do you have any closing comments this evening? I have none, your honor. Commissioners, do you have any closing comments? Commissioner Beckham?

Yes, your honor. I'll be uh very brief. I just want to thank the University of Dayton uh Balsa organization, which is the Black Law Students. Um they will be holding their annual Joseph Sinc banquet uh this Saturday, March 21st. Uh tickets are still available. Uh I have the honor of keynoting that event. So just wanted to highlight uh and thank them for the invitation and looking forward to it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for bringing that up. Appreciate it. Commissioner Fairchild.

Yeah, a couple comments. Thank you to the Japanese American Citizen League. They had me out to swear in their officers last weekend and uh it was a meaningful evening to be with them as they recommmit themselves to their their mission and to um standing up for what it means to be a citizen. So I thank them for that. Also, um want to thank the the leadership team of the city for the big hoopla and how um how hospitalitable we make the city is for basketball fans who come here every year for the first four games. And uh I was there last night and it was running really well and had great games and um it's a real asset for our community and uh kudos to those who uh do all the planning to make us a great host site and hopefully we continue to impress upon the NCAA what a great host we are. So kudos to them. um a opportunity for young people during spring break. There will be a spring break hub held at the Greater Dayton Recreation Center, which is over on Third Street. It's from March 30th through April 2nd, and it runs between 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. It's a free program and is open to youth ages 9 to 17. It'll offer a variety of engaging activities, including hands-on crafts, games, STEM programming, and extended open gym time. And if you'd like more information, you can call the city at 937333-4732. And then lastly, I just want to share that this is uh severe weather awareness week and uh with the high winds and the possibility of tornadoes and as we were reminded from the the tornadoes that came and water outages and you need to take steps for you to be prepared. And so I encourage you to look um online and look at what families need in terms of

having waters and radios, batteries, food so that you are able to support your family um for about 48 hours because we know in an emergency um our first responders are going to be occupied with a lot of uh a lot of um tasks to help people in trouble and uh and you need to be able to help support your family and then also be able to support support your neighbor. neighbors. So during this week, I encourage you to pay a little attention to your own family preparedness. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Joseph.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, Commissioner, I want to echo your thanks to everyone who has been working to make uh, Dayton the showpiece this week for the first four. uh everything we do uh to to show off that uh we're a great place to live and work and play uh just really pays off here when the the the eyes of the at least the country and maybe the world are on us here. So, I want to thank all of the the city employees and everyone in the community that's gone out of their way these last couple weeks to prepare.

Um second, I want to congratulate our Department of Water. They recently received the National Environmental Achievement Award from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies for the successful urban agriculture grant program. This program supports local growers by providing funding to transform vacant lots and productive gardens and all of us have seen these gardens around. Uh the gardens and the reason why water department is involved is because uh they promote storm water management, biodiversity and access to fresh food for our neighbors. Um, since its launch, the program has expanded to 41 garden locations across the city, helping strengthen neighborhoods and address food insecurity. You can find more information about the award and the programs on the city's website. I think both the regular city website and the water department website have mention of it. So, just Google City of Dayton and uh urban agriculture and it'll come up. We'd love to have more. Uh, this is something that we can expand. We love getting our neighbors fresh produce uh and highlighting things we can do to help like that. So, congratulations to water. Uh, city manager. Please extend our congratulations to the organization. We're proud of it. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you, commissioner. Thank you, commissioners. I just have a couple of comments. Would you all please uh and thank you, Miss Jackson, uh, as well as Miss Dixing for your work on that. Um, would you all please join me in a moment of silence and recognizing the fallen soldiers. I believe there has been a total of 11. Um, but most recently six airmen, three of which we know that were from the state of Ohio. So, would you all just please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you all. Would like to to recognize the Amea Dela Mosque. And I may have pronounced that incorrectly. Um but I want to thank them for hosting an IFAR event. Um myself and Representative Tims. They hosted us this past uh Saturday as well as uh thinking extending the thanks uh to the Arab uh social associ association um with keynote speaker Dr. James Zagby as well as the peace museum um this past weekend as well for the breaking of the fast and celebration of ifar for the community. So, I thank you for all of the the leaders. Um, Mr. Alain, thank you for your leadership in the extended invites. Would also like to recognize that last week um again, it's already mentioned. So, again, just want to thank the staff for all of their their commitment. Thank you, Miss Reed. All right, we're on the same wavelength. All right. Well, with no further business uh before the commission, this meeting is now adjourned.