City Council - Regular Meeting

I call to order and welcome you to the Middletown, Ohio City Council meeting for Tuesday, May 5th, 2026. Please join me for a moment of meditation followed by the pledge of the of allegiance to the American flag. You will hear three taps of the gavl when it is time to stand. Please join in a moment of meditation now. United States of America to the Republic.

Clerk of council, Mrs. Amy Skank, please call the attendance role. Mrs. Carter, Mr. West here. Mr. Mulligan here. Slamama here. Mr. Lai present.

Before we continue, I would like to note for the record that city manager Combmes will not be present at the meeting tonight and law director Alex Euing will be filling in her role for the evening. The first item on the agenda this evening is citizen comments. A professional presentation free of foul language is expected. Speakers are encouraged to prepare remarks in advance to stay within the set time limits. Citizen comments is not the time for debate, questions and answer or any back and forth conversation with council or staff. This is a time for you, our residents, to be able to present in front of council on record uninterrupted and have the floor. Please note, after the meeting, your comment cards will be given to the city manager and she will assign a member of staff to reply to you as appropriate. We have received 10 comment cards this evening. I will prompt each speaker for their next steps when they reach the podium. First, I would like to call Gilbert Lafayette to the podium. [snorts] Gilbert Lafayette. You may stand or sit according to your preference. Please adjust the microphone and speak directly into the microphone at all times. Before we begin, please state your full name and Middletown residence, work address, or interest in the city for the record. You will then have four minutes of uninterrupted speech. Please commence.

Okay. My name is Gil Lafayette. I live in Mayfield at 21108 Sheffield Street. I'm here because uh the great Miami River, it's not just a line on a map, but it's our drinking water, our history, and our artery connecting every community up and downstream. And we consider data centers. We have to be honest about the risks that they bring to our water supply. They can use up to 5 million gallons of water a day. Cooling systems use biosides, anti-corrosion agents, and if they're leaked or poorly managed, they can contaminate our groundwater and surface water. So, I suggest legislation that requires all industrial cooling water discharges to undergo on-site pre-treatment sufficient to meet Ohio's EPA discharge limits prior to release to the municipal system. That includes pH neutralization, decllorinization, oxidant removal, bioside neutralization, corrosion inhibitor removal, heavy metal filtration, sediment filtration. This works because Ohio EPA already requires these limits and we're simply requiring the facility to meet those limits before sending water to the city. It protects Middletown sewer system and the great Miami River. I suggest the idea that data centers use their own water supply. Data centers must maintain its own water supply and isolated retention pools never drawing from from except maybe to fill up or discharging into the public water system. A closed hydraulic loop. It works because data centers don't need potable water. They need cooling water. This includes large line retention lakes, on-site filtration and chemical treatment, closed loop cooling towers or chillers, evaporation makeup water for their own reservoir, zero discharge to the city river. This means no water withdrawal from the aquifer, no waste water entering the sewer, no chemical blowdown entering the river, no thermal pollution, no emergency overflow risk. I also want to help Middletown plan for the future as many are not ready. I want

people to think about the American dream again and want it. Maybe at the federal level, maybe on the home front, but there's always something that happens and takes our attention away from it. I believe that that's to own a home and maybe retire one day. Nearly 40% of people entering their 40s still don't own a home. The average person under 40 has less than 12,000 save for retirement. Assisted assisted living is over 50,000 a year. Nursing homes are up to 100,000. Millions have no savings and no plan. When older adults reach retirement age without savings, the burden doesn't disappear. It just shifts to the community. When nearly 40% of people in their 40s don't own a home and younger adults have barely a few thousand save for retirement and assisted living over 50,000 a year and no safety net, it's clear our community needs a solution. That's why the M fund matters. The M fund would be a tax of additional 5 cents on top of every tax dollar paid in city taxes. 3 cents goes to the taxpayers's M fund. Two cents is for managing the account and program. If a person works for 20 years, estimated about $60,000 a year, that makes $36,000 in 20 years. Each taxpayer has something to work for and a payout waiting for them after 20 years. If they want to continue working, that's fine. The M account will continue collecting again and their payout will be ready again in 20 years. If the person passes away, the funds would go to the next ofkin. If no negative kin is found or any account goes inactive for 5 years, the account goes into hold status. After 15 years, funds are forfeited. Forfeited funds would be used for building or rebuilding projects. The funds would also go to feeding the homeless or helping the widow as well as programs for seniors with periodic audits to ensure compliance. The M fund would be used to encourage civic participation. Taxes could be taken from the M fund, leaving the $25 fee if people forget to file. 100% participation. Businesses would want to come here. People would want to live here. It's not a replacement for retirement or social security. It's just your tax dollars working for you. And just all I'm asking for is just people

to put their two cents in for their future and for Middletown. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lafayette, for your comments. Next, I would like to call Lisa death. Whoops. Forgive me. Lisa, thank you. Oh, please please do stand or sit as you wish. Uh please adjust the microphone and speak into it at all times. And before we begin, please do list uh give us your full name and Middletown address or work address um so that we have that for the record and then you will have four minutes. Please commence.

Hello, I'm Lisa Detlas. I am owner of Iron Rose, also a DMI board member. Um but I am not speaking on myself uh tonight. Um, I am actually speaking for April Kirby. Uh, she is now the new owner of a new business opening in historical downtown Middletown called Growing in Business Education Company. We are a business education company focused on helping entrepreneurs build and grow real businesses. Along alongside that, we operate a nonprofit called Kids Growing in Business where we teach kids and teens entrepreneurship through hands-on learning.

Sorry to interrupt. Can we stop the clock for just a moment? Is she able to speak on behalf of somebody else or are you speaking on behalf of yourself? I was confused about that at the beginning. According to our policy, I I don't think she's speaking on behalf of something. Okay. That's what I heard. So that's why local business. That's okay. Thank you. I'm just speaking on a local business. Okay. Right. Got you. I think that's fine. That's fine. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Okay.

Um our daughter Charlie is actually one of those students. She owns Charlie's Dog Street dog treat stand, a real business she built through our curriculum. And to be completely honest, I didn't originally plan to put roots down here. From a business standpoint, I didn't see a lot of growth and I didn't see a lot of support from the city. But we chose this location for one reason, the business community. The support this community and the organizations like Downtown Middletown Incorporated have shown to Charlie has been incredible. I've been watching this area closely for over two years. As a mom, I look for safety and genuine in people. As a business owner, I look for growth, communication, and opportunity. And while the growth may not fully be here yet, I believe something important. If nothing changes, nothing changes. So, we're here to be part of that change. The business community here wants growth. It wants something more. And we're building something that brings that to life. Our education company focuses on teens and adult entrepreneurs. Our nonprofit focuses on kids and teens. Together, we are creating a space where entrepreneurs of all ages can come together, learn, build, and grow real businesses. But none of this happens alone. This community, this business community has already shown us what's possible. The support, the encouragement, and the way people show up for each other here, it matters. And I want to specifically thank Downtown Middletown Incorporated for the role they've played, not just in supporting Charlie, but in creating a space where small businesses feel seen, supported, and welcomed. That's why we're here. Because when a community shows up like that, you don't just walk away from it, you build with it. So, we're not just opening a business, we're planting roots, we're building alongside you, and we're committed to growing something meaningful together right here in Middletown.

Thank you. Thank you. Next, I would like to call Mary Johnson to the podium, please. And you may stand or sit according to your pre preference. Please do adjust the microphone and speak directly into it at all times. And please state your full name and Middletown residence, work address, or interest in the city for the record. You will then have four minutes of uninterrupted speech. Please commence.

Thank you. uh Mary Johnson, 6700 Locust Lane, long-term resident of Middletown and uh past chair of Downtown Middletown, Inc. and current co-chair of Middletown Pride. I just wanted to thank you all uh for your service as I always do because you know what, you really don't get paid much for what you do and I want to thank you for your support of downtown and the downtown community and in DMI in particular. So, you know, as I'm kind of leaving the board, I'll still be very active downtown, but it's a very exciting time now with the 555 project and the commitment for the Middletown Community Foundation, the city, and the county, you know, where we can really make a difference downtown. I think with, you know, DMI's role is to really maintain the vitality, you know, as we're trying to make these longer term, bigger changes to support the smaller businesses. Uh so I thank you for your past support and I thank you anticipation of your current of your future support for DMI. But also I wanted to say and I you know and of others have said too the importance of vacant property legislation to enabling that downtown revitalization especially with the 555 plan. [snorts] You can't have you know some new buildings or some revitalized buildings that are sitting in a vacuum of vacant buildings that are falling apart. and communities around us have shown when you have a strong vacant property legislation, it does have a positive impact. Uh we've seen recently in Lebanon where um criminal charges have been, you know, charged against a land a vacant vacant property landlord. So, you know, we really need that incentive, but we also need some um what's the word? You know, it's the carrot and the stick. You also have to have some monetary uh charges that really affect people who are wanting to just let these buildings sit

forever and you know be a tax writeoff. So we can't have a revitalized downtown with all that vacant property there. So again I as always I urge you guys to support and um as quickly as possible enable and then you know implement vacant property legislation. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Johnson. Next, I would like to call Steve Wayne to the podium. You may stand or sit according to your preference. Please adjust the microphone and speak directly into the microphone at all times. And please state your full name and address or work address for the record. You will then have four minutes of uninterrupted speech. Please commence.

Hello everyone. Steve Wayne. I work at Miami University. the address 4200 University Boulevard, Miami University Middletown, and I'm here on behalf of DMI. Um, I've been at Miami for about 6 and a half years, and I am a volunteer uh on the DMI board. Um, I help out with the women's wine and chocolate walk, Hocus Pocus, and a number of other events. And I'd just like to point out that DMI volunteers gave over 4,000 hours of their time last year, uh, which I'm very proud of. Um, one of the reasons I got involved in DMI, I wanted to learn more about the city of Middletown. I also joined the Middletown Rotary Club and I volunteer at the Soropper House. Um, I wanted to get involved in DMI and I just want to remind everyone of DMI's mission. Um, they have five points that I'd like to mention. One, build a vibrant community. Two, unify businesses and organizations in downtown. Three, improve the image and appearance of the downtown. Four, leverage historical preservation of downtown. And five, develop a strong economic base. I support all five of these points. And this is the main reason that I uh join the DMI board. And just to conclude, thank you for everything you do and I kindly ask for your support. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Wayne. Next, I would like to call Ron Talby to the podium, please. You may stand or sit according to your preference, and please adjust the microphone and speak directly into the microphone at all times. And before you begin, please state your full name and uh home or work address for the record. You will then have four minutes of uninterrupted speech. Please commence.

All right. My name is Ron Tolby. I reside at 6676 Hamilton Middletown Road, Middletown, otherwise known as Route 4. I'm here tonight on behalf of DMI. My wife and I own One Hope Farm on Route 4, uh, from which we operate a mobile agricultural experience, which we have labeled as Barnyard on the Go. This agricultural experience consists of a 30foot fully enclosed trailer that is completely handicap accessible. DMI has been an invaluable supporter of our endeavor as we've been privileged to be a part of at least six different events that they have sponsored or hosted in which we have been able to share our mobile uh agricultural experience with those who within the city may never be able to see anything that relates to agriculture. Inside the trailer, we have live animals and it's more than a petting zoo. We also have agricultural displays that indicate from whence our food sources come. It's because of DMI that we have had the success in the last 18 months that we've had. That's not a stretch because as a result of being a part of those events, we have been able to springboard our endeavor into other areas as a result of the people who experienced our presence here in the city of Middletown. We have been able to present our agricultural experience to the elderbury schools, Middletown City Schools, Middletown Christian Schools, several daycarees within the confines of Middletown City proper, as well as nursing homes and

other community events nearby. All of those came as a result of people who had participated within the events that DMI hosted and/or sponsored. DMI has played not only a large part in springboarding our success, but as I've noticed in the events that we have been a part of, many others as well have been very blessed and have experienced great growth as a result of their participation in those events as well. And as uh someone who comes into a new arena from my background in the past, um it's with a great deal of excitement to see that there are people who still care about their community. And my takeaway from DMI is that they are a group of people that care about their community, not just because of our participation, but because of what they do to try attract people back to the city of Middletown. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. I would like to next call Heather Gibson to the podium, please. You may stand or sit according to your preference. Please do adjust the microphone and speak directly into the microphone at all times. Before you begin, please do state your full name and uh home address or work address for the record and then you will have four minutes of uninterrupted speech. Please commence.

Hello, I'm Heather Gibson. Uh my home address is 3215 Morgan Street. Um, good evening, mayor, city council. Uh, thank you for your time tonight. I'm here as a business owner, as someone who is invested in, uh, downtown Middletown, and as someone who truly has always believed what in what the city can become. At Triple Moon, we just celebrated our 11th year anniversary. 11 years of early mornings, 11 years of long nights, challenges, growth, and choosing every single day to believe in this place. And we're not alone. There are many of us. We have all made the same commitment to this city, to our downtown. Um, and first, I do want to acknowledge the work that you have all done. You know, the commitments that we've seen that you've made in downtown. Um, and we do appreciate it and we know revitalization is not easy. You know, it's hard. It takes time. It takes vision and it takes resources. But I'm here to talk about what comes next and what's needed right now to keep the momentum that we've started going. And Downtown Middletown, Inc., they play a vital role in that momentum. Um, they create life downtown. They organize events. They're bringing people in. They're supporting the businesses. They're helping shape and and and identify what people want to be a part of in our city. And that that kind of impact requires consist consistent funding and and strong support. But funding alone isn't enough. And this is important. What we really need is a a very good working relationship. We need a working relationship with downtown Middletown, Inc., with the city of Middletown, and with the stakeholders, the business owners, you

know, the people who own the buildings, you know, everybody that's involved. Um, revitalization doesn't happen in pieces. It happens when everyone is aligned, communicating, and working towards the same goal, a stronger, thriving downtown. And while we talk about future projects, and those are important, we also have to focus on existing areas. Because in truth, many of us, we're already here. We've already invested. We've taken risks. And there are blocks of downtown right now that are in real need of improvement. Simple visual, meaningful improvement. Better lighting, beautifification, security cameras, even infrastructure like speakers that allow us to host music and events more effectively. These aren't extras. These are things that make people feel safe, welcome, and excited to be downtown. They help businesses survive and grow. And we don't continue improving areas that already exist, we risk losing the very momentum that we're working so hard to build. Now, I've seen what's possible when this is done right. 30 years ago, and I can't believe I'm saying this, 30 years ago, I sat on the board of revitalization of Miamiisburg. Um, what made that successful wasn't just funding. It was a partnership. A real partnership. the board, the city, the business owners. We work side by side with constant communication and a shared commitment to success. And if you look at Miamiisburg today, you see the result of that alignment. The same energy, that same pride, that same success can absolutely h happen here in Middletown. But it will not happen by accident. It will take commitment. It will take a collaboration. And it will take intentional investment in both the future and what already exists. We are here already. We are already invested. We are already doing the work. Now we need the city to meet us with the

same level of commitment which I think you have. Not just in vision but in action. Not just in plans but in a partnership not just in the future but right now in the streets and the blocks that need it the most because the opportunity is here. Miss Gibson, that is time. Okay. Well, thank you.

Thank you very much for your comments. There was um a card that was submitted but then also taken back. So I just wanted to acknowledge that that person doesn't want to speak right now. Um the next person I called is Barry Moore to the podium. You may stand or sit according to your preference. Please do adjust the microphone and speak directly into the microphone at all times. Before we begin, please state your full name and Middletown residence or work address uh for the record and then you will have four minutes of uninterrupted speech. Please commence.

All right. Uh my name is uh Barry Moore. I live at 11:05 Hugh Street. I've been a resident of Middletown since the early 80s. And hello, Paul, Miss Mayor, City Council. How are you guys today? Hope you're doing good. Um [clears throat] I'd like to read something to you. Um, I'm a little distraught with the way the city police have run their policing. Uh, it says, "My name is Barry Moore. I am a homeowner in the city of Middletown. My taxes help pay for the services of the city police department and the city. A part, not all of it. While I believe not all the police department is bad, there is still a big number of police that appear to not do their job. I have asked for help from the city police for over a year in regards to a family that have lived down the street from me on Hughes, harassing my children, my wife and I, and making death threats to my family on multi occasions. We made a police report yesterday. My daughter is 11 years old. She is developing. Women should understand this. A little boy, I don't know his age. I want to use my wife as an example. I want everybody to see this. Touched her here. The police said when they came, did he hit her, grab her? What? It doesn't matter. She doesn't have the ability to understand that anybody that touches in a no place is still a sexual assault. But the police did not arrest this kid, the parents, or anything. This kind of behavior has to stop because if I see it, I'm going to take action myself. I'll go to jail. That's fine. But I'm not going to let my daughter be molested by a little kid who don't know what the heck he's doing. That's not fair to her, to to to anybody. How would you guys feel if somebody touched you, just touched you

like this? Would you feel molested? Would you feel violated? I'm sure you would. My daughter was crying because she hit him after she after he did that because she was afraid that the police was going to come and arrest her. And I said, "They're not going to arrest you." I said, "You have a right to defend yourself, Jaden, no matter the age." [clears throat] I request police intervention. I am met with, "We can't do nothing for uh x amount of reasons." They want proof of video and audio. If a crime is committed, they have probable cause. If a police officer has probable cause that believe that they believe a crime is committed, that is the reasonable doubt that a crime is being committed, about to be committed, or has been committed. That is reasonable doubt. We had witnesses. They still did nothing. What is this city coming to? I was under the impression the police mission statement is to protect and serve, not uh what was it?

Survive. Surv survive and obey. That's what it seems like the police do. Survive and obey, not protect and serve. If I'm a taxpayer, why aren't they protecting my children? I'm We can own a gun, but what's a gun going to do me? If I kill a kid, then I'm going to go to jail. I don't want to kill him. I just want it to stop. If you kill an adult, you'll go to jail. What? If you kill an adult, you'll

Yeah. If I kill an adult, I'll go to jail. I I I don't want to hurt no one. I just want them to leave my family alone. I'm not asking for much. I truly just want less excuses and more action when met with the uh proper criteria to make an arrest based on an Ohio Revised Code. It is 2903.21. I have it right here. At at the at the minimum, this man should have been charged with something for his family. menacing because he's bothered us. We have a year's worth of police reports that I can bring in and give to anybody tomorrow and let you see all the police reports. A man came to my house, threatened me with a gun twice,

today the police couldn't do nothing because well, we need video proof and according to that code, you do not. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. All right. Next, I would like to call Scott Stevens to the podium. You may stand or sit according to your preference. Please adjust the microphone to speak directly into the microphone at all times. Before we begin, please state your full name and Middletown residence or work address for the record. You will then have four minutes of uninterrupted speech. Please commence.

Thank you. My name is Scott Stevens. I'm the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butler County. Uh our location's on Route 4, but as I tell people all the time, we're not a place, we're a relationship. We're the oldest mentoring program in the country, and we've been serving Butler County since the early 60s. Um there was some talk about infrastructure. I want to talk about a different type of infrastructure. Um the future is built on mentorship. It represents the most powerful form of social infrastructure. It's this human connection that so many people need. It creates a ripple effect that affects so many people, not only just the kids, but the mentors themselves. But it greatly impacts the kids. And we have measures. When kids have mentors, they have better emotional regulation. They are more likely to graduate high school. They're 20% more likely to go to college, 54% less likely to be arrested. They do better emotionally, socially. In in short, mentoring works not only for the kids, but the mentors. In fact, this morning I was leaving a coffee shop, a lady flagged me down because I have a big brother and sister's magnet on my car and she said I was a big sister back in the day and and I said, "Thank you for doing that." And I said, "Um, you know, did you do you still have contact with her?" She said, "No, but it changed her life, but it also changed mine." Right? So, this little interaction with somebody I didn't know today, talking about how mentorship not only impacted this girl, but this adult as she was a mentor. We have 27 kids in Middletown right now waiting for Big Brothers or Big Sisters. Some of these kids have waited over two years for a mentor. And so, I'm here today just to say, hey, we're still around. We've been serving the community. I want to serve more kids in the community. And I need mentors to do that. And so let's create some powerful relationships. If you're interested in being a mentor and giving a few hours of your time, reach out to us, you know, on our website. If you have a business where I can come in and speak, see, my time is up. If if there's

you have a business where I can come in and speak to employees about the opportunity to be mentors, let me know. You know, again, the future is built on mentorship. Let's make a change in these kids' lives. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time and thank you for your comments. Next, I would like to uh call Dan Laro to the podium. You may stand or sit according to your preference. Please do adjust the microphone and speak directly into the microphone at all times. Before we begin, please state your full name and uh residents address or uh work address for the record. You will then have four minutes of uninterrupted speech. Please commence.

Uh my name is Dan Laro. I'm the owner of Gravel Road Company at 916 1st Avenue, Middletown, Ohio, and I'm here today to address the city council on the uh impact of downtown Middletown DMI. Um, good evening members of the council, fellow citizens. Um, I'm the owner, as I said, of Graville Road Company, and I stand before you today not just as a business owner, but as a stakeholder uh in this city's future. I am here to address the indispensable role that downtown Middletown uh has played in our community through its partnership via the Main Street America program. Um Middletown is part of a powerful network of Main Street communities and DMI is attempting or doing their best to utilize that blueprint that has already transformed many of our neighbors. As example, Hamilton, we all know, which is just down the river, has seen a massive resurgence um by focusing on the same Main Street principles that DMI champions. Um strategic business recruitments, fostering a vibrant DORA district, of which Middletown had the first in the state. Their success in filling their historic uh storefronts proves that a good local government partnership with a dedicated downtown organization is key to changing um public perceptions of that downtown, but also revitalizing that area and becoming an economic driving center for the city. Uh Troy also is known for its exceptionally high foot traffic and small business retention. The city of Tro Troy has demonstrated how a main street program with good collaboration from the city city itself has become will become an economic engine uh for a small downtown and for an a city like this trying to recover uh from the past 20 years. Um in terms of small business, the city is about to invest a lot of money uh in the Manchester project that is a $15 million plus project. Um, but that project really will not succeed

without a good downtown of which you already have the bones. You have some great anchor businesses already in place. But a continuing turnover in these these small businesses will now help you. Imagine two years from now when you are ready to fill that place up with both retail and uh homeowners or apartment renters and this critical connective tissue of small businesses doesn't exist. is people are going to want to see places that they can walk to, that they can roam around freely. Um they want to see an environment that is friendly uh open and this is what we have right now. Um modern residential developments depend on this ecosystem. The residents moving into this project are going to choose Middletown because of the small breweries, the shops, the restaurants, the entertainment that we have in the form of the SORG and other events. Um, new commercial tenants at this site are also going to look for a hightraic area. And again, if the bones, the basics, the anchor stores that we have now are gone or continuously turning over, this isn't going to be an asset. This isn't going to be a place where they're going to want to come. Um, by supporting the small businesses that you have now, partnering with DMI, um, being a good collaborative partner, you're ensuring that when this project opens, it'll be integrated into a healthy, stable downtown economy. rather than standing as an isolated island of development in your downtown. Um, TMI recognizes that owner operated small businesses are the economic engine of our district and not only are they bringing small events, large events, and helping us, they provide tangible benefits. I myself have received over $3,000 in grants as a result of their help. And currently, they have helped me to find another grant that will improve the facade of my building that will be valued in excess of $8,000 if we get it. Um, so what I'm calling for the city for is continued partnership. Look at the

success stories of Hamilton and Troy. I urge this council to continue prioritizing this partnership with DMI as we prepare for the trans transformative future that this project will bring to this downtown. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

And the final comment this evening, I'd call Adam Hunter to the podium, please. You may stand or sit according to your preference. Please do adjust the microphone and speak directly into the microphone at all times. Before we begin, please state your full name and city residence or work residence or work address for the record. And then you will have four minutes of uninterrupted speech. Please commence.

Good evening, Madame Mayor. Chamber. Uh Adam Hunter, uh 5232 South Tixie here in Middletown. I run a nonprofit. I'm the chief executive operator there. Um, Old Glory Retirement Foundation retires American flags. Uh, it's a 100-year-old tradition that is fading away slowly. Uh, we're breathing new life into it. Um, we are currently going to be presenting the Middletown Memorial Day parade and the Fourth of July parade. So, we've coordinated with the parade committee to get that on board and get that taken care of. Um, the things that we're looking to do is mentor and teach our youth about flag etiquette. Okay? We've already gotten the Boy Scouts. We've already gotten the Girl Scouts. We start there. We start small. Paying respects to the United States flag. I'm a fifth generation Army. My family's has a long lineage of military history, so it runs deep in me. So with that said, we're also going to be attempting a Guinness World Book of Records here in Middletown. That's going to be happening on the 4th of July celebrating our 250th Independence Day. We're going to hold this at Horsepower Farm. Um, the reason why we're doing it at Horsepower Farm and not Voice of America is we was talking to Alicia Morland here in Middletown. And she said if we kept it in Middletown that she'd be able to get a few things moved around for us, but unfortunately I've lost contact with Alicia Morland. I believe she's no longer with the city of Middletown. So, we no longer have that contact with Cleveland Cliffs because they've already agreed to manufacture and donate the

fire ring that it's going to take to do 50,000 American flags for the record. So, I'd like to try and get with the event coordinator for Middletown. I believe it's Cali Fischer. I've I've called her office once, left voicemail, talked to her physically once, gave her my vo my uh email to give me the information for Cleveland Cliffs because right now we're kind of at a standstill. Um we've got over we're north of 19,000 flags currently collected. Um we're looking to see if we can drop drop boxes off. We currently collect from 10 American Legions, five VFWs, two Moosees, an Eagle, and an Amvets in just a 50 mile radius. We like to spread that because we've got quite a few more flags to go. But that is my time. That's all I had to address. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. Do we have his contact information? Yes. Uh the question was, do we have his contact information? We do. I can get with the close. Okay, fantastic. All right. Well, thank you. So, that concludes our uh citizen comments for the evening. Next, we have our council comments, and we will begin to my left with council member Lai, followed by Vice Mayor uh Carter, then to my right with Council Member West, followed by Council Member Mulligan, and I will speak last. Mr. Lai.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, just to begin with, um, shout out, didn't get to say it yesterday publicly, but, uh, to the Star Wars fans fans out there, may the fourth be with you. [clears throat] My friends were tired of hearing me say that yesterday. But, uh, to the bourbon and whiskey connoisseurs out there, may the fifth be with you for today. Thank God I can't think of anything for tomorrow. [laughter] Uh I'd also like to say happy birthday to our city manager son who turned four years old today. And that's why Ashley's not with us today because as we told her, it's very important for her to spend time with family on such an important day. And uh so happy birthday to Ashley's son. Um, the only other thing I have is I'm gonna I see that the flags are back up downtown honoring our military veterans and I think that's that's awesome. So, thanks to staff who was involved in getting them back up, Cali and whoever she got to help her uh public works. I they look awesome and uh thank you to all the military veterans out there and hopefully your family members or yours is up there. and I think it's a cool thing that uh we do. That's all I have this evening. Mayor,

thank you, Mr. Lillly. Vice Mayor Carter. Good evening. On April the 17th, I attended an affair, and I didn't even mention it um on our last council meeting, but it was honoring history makers, and they honored them by naming rooms at the event center. So, I want to shout out to the event center staff because they did an excellent job. Thank you very much, Mr. West.

Good evening. Uh, not too much tonight. I would second that, Jennifer, the event center staff. They're they're pretty amazing. Um, always appreciative of of everything that they do there. Uh, and then the only other thing I have is I'd like to wish all the uh the moms out there happy Mother's Day and uh thank you for everything that you do. Thank you, Mr. West, Mr. Mulligan.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, first, uh, thanks to the Keep Middletown beautiful organization and city staff for hosting the April 25th Middletown Earth Day and Arbor Day celebrations. Uh, more than 200 residents came together on that Saturday and uh, cleaned up area parks and public spaces, uh, planted trees. So, it it really was uh, a team effort. If if you weren't able to uh participate on the 25th, then you know, please consider doing something in the future or just cleaning up around your own neighborhood. Along with Mayor Slam, I attended the Care in the Air Gala on April 24th uh hosted at uh hosted in Vanelia at Dayton airport and that was a um a production by the Charitable Foundations of the Premier Health Hospitals. uh over um well about a thousand people ga gathered to celebrate the new Careflight helicopter that's being put into service. Uh we heard from residents in the Miami Valley who literally would not be here to tell their stories had it not been for Careflight. Uh Atri Medical Center Foundation President Mike Stoutberg offered his thanks again uh to the city of Middletown for participating in their fundraising efforts and Middletown's contribution was one of the lead uh municipalities and that has helped uh garner some support from other communities uh with financial support. On Sunday, I was pleased to represent city council at a court of honor ceremony to celebrate Boy Scout Troop 20 uh their newest Eagle Scout Ferris year out. He is a senior at Fenwick High School and his Eagle Scout project involved uh installation of improvements at the Butler County Warirds Museum in at Middletown Airport. So, Ferris joins his scout mate Luke Bray, also from Troop 20, uh who achieved the rank of Eagle Scout this spring. So, uh, that was a great ceremony, a good reminder of the, uh, the work that our young people

are doing in the community. So, great to be a part of that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mulligan. And, um, just following what Mr. Lai said and and beware the revenge of the fifth. Just saying. Just saying. Um, also, I thought that was very moving. Thank you for thanking the mothers. That's I would also like to do that as well. Thank you. Um, the community, I want to begin. There's a lot going on in in Middletown in now, starting with the warmer weather. So, a couple things from the city. The community and economic development department of the city of Middletown is making available the CDBG or the community development block grant draft annual action plan covering the period of May 2026 through April 2027 for public review and comment. Comments will be received via email or may be submitted in writing to the community and economic development department. The public review and comment period runs through this Friday, May 8th. For more information, please visit cityofmiddtown.org under news. I want to thank the Warren County Commissioners for their yes vote on the Renaissance pro project and for believing in Middletown. I also want to give my great thanks to our staff past and present for seeing this project through over the years to this point. This is an exciting project and I look forward to seeing how it unfolds. The Government Finance Officers Association or GFOA presented the award of financial reporting achievement to our city of Middletown Finance Department. This award is presented by GFOA to the department or individual designated as instrumental in the government unit attaining a certificate of achievement for excellence in finance reporting. This certificate is presented to those government units whose annual financial reports are judged to adhere to program standards and represents the highest award in government financial reporting. This is the 39th year Middletown has received this award. I want to recognize and thank our finance department led by finance director Samantha Zimmerman for their continued excellent work which allows all of us to have full confidence in their efforts. Congratulations. Beginning this Friday night, May 8th, and continuing for two weekends through Sunday, May 17th is your chance to see Camelot as performed by the students at the Performing Arts at uh Academy located at 4440 Lewis Street. For more information and showtimes and ticket prices, please visit the the Performing

Artsacademy.com. Also this Friday, May 8th, the Sorg Opera House located at 63 South Main Street presents Turn to Stone, a tribute to ELO, paying homage to the expansive catalog of Electric Light Orchestra. For more information, please visit sorgherhouse.org. This Saturday, May 9th, is the Dream League opening day parade at Goldman Park located at 1400 Highland Street presented by Dream League, formerly known as Dream Catchers. Line the streets and join to cheer on our players as they take the field. Concessions will be open and Kona Ice will be provided for free for players in uniform. For more information, please visit Dream League's page on Facebook. This Sunday, May 10th, is Mother's Day. Have a great day with mom at Moam, the Middletown Open Air Market from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Located across from Gravel Road Brewing Company at 916 First Avenue in downtown, Moam hosts a variety of themed market days throughout the summer. For more information, please visit Moam Ohio on Facebook. Tickets are now on sale for Middletown Rocks, the fourth annual benefit concert for CBI, our community building institute. This fund fundraiser will be held next Thursday, May 14th, beginning with a VIP event at the Windmir. The concert will take place at the Sork Opera House, starting at 7 p.m. Get ready for an evening to remember as you boogie and groove with eight featured Middletown community leader performers backed by the live band Live Your Dream. It is a fantastic night for a great cause. For more information, please visit cbimtown.info. info/middtownros. Friday, May 15th, join the Sorg Opera House and Rocking with the Rotary as they are proud to welcome back the Ultimate Doors, tribute to the Doors for an unforgettable night of music, energy, and classic rock. Join to celebrate while supporting a great cause alongside our friends from Rotary. For more information, please visit sorgor opera house.org. Ladies, the time has come to grab your friends for an afternoon filled with wine, chocolate, shopping, food, and entertainment in historic downtown Middletown. The annual Women's Wine and Chocolate Walk is an event just

for women aed 21 and over hosted by Downtown Middletown, Inc. Tickets are on sale now and make and make a great Mother's Day gift. Save the date of Saturday, May 16th, for this fun-filled day just for the ladies. For more information, including this year's theme of corks and cowgirls, please visit downtown middletown.org. Continue your evening next Saturday, May 16th, at 8:00 p.m. at the Sor Opera House with Lightning Express and Everly Brothers Tribute. For more information, please visit sorgherhouse.org. Monday, May 18th from 3 PM to 6 PM at Midpoint Library Middletown located at 125 South Broad Street. You can save a life and give blood on the Versity Blood Center of Ohio Mobile Coach. Appointments are encouraged. Visit donortime.com or call 937-461-3220 for an appointment. Youth sponsor ID number 1702. For more information, please visit midpointl.org under Middletown events. As a reminder, the city of Middletown accepts applications for awards and commissions throughout the year. So, if there's something that you have an interest in and you wish to give back to your city in this way, please do submit your application. To learn more, please visit the city's website at cityofmiddtown.org. Lastly, and as always, there are many ways to get involved with your community and give back. You can join a board or committee, run for office, apply for a job with the city, volunteer at the hospital, pick up trash in your neighborhood or park, plant a garden in your yard, smile at a neighbor, find joint satisfaction for a job well done in whatever work you do, or just have a positive and giving attitude. Find something that you can do regularly to give back. We are all connected and we are all in this together. The care of our city is an adventure in which we all get to share. That is it for me tonight. This concludes our council comments. The next agenda item is city manager reports. Law director Alex Euing, you have the floor. Uh

yes. The first uh report is from downtown Middletown Incorporated. Is your microphone on? Uh yes. Okay. Thank you. Uh Downtown Middletown Incorporated. Thank you.

Oh, great. Thank you. Good evening, your honor, members of the city council. Uh I'm Jeff Payne. I'm with Downtown Middletown, Inc. and I'm with uh board chair Kelsey Singer. Uh we will be presenting and giving you a brief update on uh Downtown Middletown, Inc. Forgive me, I don't know what's going on. I think it's a little bit of the season here. Okay. Uh a healthy downtown is key to a strong hometown community and that's uh not only important here in Middletown but in every community and uh we found that those communities that use the Main Street program you find we have those kinds of uh experiences. We're 501c3 incorporated in 2011. Um, we've been a part of the Main Street program since 2013 and we're actually going on uh 10 years of uh certified being a certified Main Street program. One of the things I wanted to point out is we're really led by a tremendous group of volunteers. We have a very small staff uh but yet there is a tremendous amount of support from our volunteers who are primarily citizens. Some are business owners. some just people who just love Middletown. Our primary focus is to revitalize downtown Middletown. So when people ask, "Well, what is downtown Middletown?" I basically tell them it's Central Avenue from the railroad to the river. Nice long corridor. and we use the 2017 uh downtown uh strategic plan that has established for us the framework for which many of the programs and projects that uh Kelsey will be talking to you about come from.

Uh, as has been stated earlier, build is the acronym for our mission and we believe that downtown is a place that is shared by everyone. Uh, that is one of the keys to vibrant, exciting communities uh all across the country and uh we are really working to increase the quality of life for all of Middletown residents. We do spend a lot of time engaging with the not only community but with businesses as as well. Uh I wanted to uh point out our board of directors. Uh I've been with Downtown Middletown Inc. since 2017. I would like to say that uh since then this is a totally new board and I would I would tell you that their enthusiasm is just as strong if not stronger than the uh the original board when I started here. And so uh what you have uh as is a very diverse board. you see the the board compet uh composition. Uh again, uh we are a reflection of the community that we we serve. And uh at this point, I'd like to introduce Kelsey Singer. She is our new board chair. And Kelsey, take it away.

Um as Jeff stated, I am Kelsey Singer. I am the new board chair. I've been in the position for about six weeks, so it is very new to me. Um while we still have the board of directors up, I do want to point out that per our bylaws, we have 15 board members. A change that we recently made in March, um per our future agreement hopefully with you all is um introducing two city members in. Um so one is a city employee appointed employee and then one will be a council representative. Uh so that will actually end up making 13 board members that we select and then the other two are made up from the city. Um going into our uh Main Street approach, as Jeff mentioned, we are part of accredit um accreditation with Main Street America. We are part of a nationwide movement. Um it breaks down uh per state. So our state organization is referred to as Heritage Ohio. Um and through their approach, we have uh four committees that we function among and each of our board members are asked to be a part of um a committee of their choice that they can bring um the most benefits to the downtown through. Um so a few focuses that we are looking at for the 2026 um calendar. Um through our economic fatality, we are introducing new business courses. This is something I'm actually very excited for. Um it's something that can help our downtown businesses just grow. Um and there will be a few things along the lines of social media, uh business 101 for some of our newest newer ones that are wanting to come in. What steps do you need to take before you even sign a lease um for a brick-andmortar? what's going to set you up for the most success so we don't continuously have that turnover rate that we have seen in the past. Uh for our design program, we are uh launching very soon um a new series of facade grants and I'll go into that a little more later um in our mural program. Our promotions committee um as Miss Sama said earlier, we are um just a few days away from our women wine chocolate walk event. I am happy to say

our ticket sales have already exceeded last year. Um so we are seeing improvement in that and a lot of excitement throughout the business for it. Um we focus a lot on some civic events that um we have heard from the community that we are looking for more family-friendly ones. So that is a main focus for us this year. And then for our organization committee um we are doing a soft launch this month of a fundraising program which I will touch more later on. Um but that will be launching later this month. So, obviously with some of our challenges in the downtown, anyone that drives to our downtown, you're going to see the vacancy rate. Um, as of 2024, we were looking at a 50% vacancy. And, um, as Mary had stated earlier when she came up for citizen comments, um, having that legislation is really going to help us f fix some of those vacancies. We actually took the matter into our hands a little bit. Um, this past winter, we introduced a program called Mary Market. We had great success with it. We took a uh vacant storefront that was ready to move in and we were able to place seven vendors in it. Out of those seven vendors, our goal was to have at least one sign a lease, preferably in the space they were in fill that vacancy. Thankfully, we had someone sign that lease and with her in her new storefront, she was also able to take two of the vendors in Mary Market and make them permanent vendors in her store. So, we had three people come out of that with a presence in downtown. We also recently just had another um storefront sign a lease from the Mary market. She had her ribbon cutting back in February. And then this month we had a third person from the Mary market sign a lease in the Pendleton Art Center. So we had three businesses come down sign leases going towards that vacancy rate. We are seeing success out of it and is something we are looking to incorporate again this year. Um, and then just a few other ways uh that we have been adding um to our downtown revitalization effort. So, this is just a look at our 2025 uh volunteers. Uh, we

actually ended up having more than 5,000. Unfortunately, we don't always get everybody reporting their volunteer hours. Um, we know how it is. You you go to an event and you forget to email and say, "Hey, you know what? I was there for eight hours." Um, I personally am guilty of it. Um but all of those volunteer hours when you look at what they um are represented if you were paying them hourly um right now it comes down to I believe right around $33 an hour. Um so it pours another what could have been $167,000 um if you were paying for all of them through uh Placer AI. Uh we had over 58,000 visitors downtown last year. Um and that brought in an economic impact of over a million dollars. Um through those events, we are looking at over 30 promotional events. A lot of them, as I said earlier, are civic events. So our civic events are completely free for the community to attend. Uh so you're looking at our first Fridays, Thunderfest, Dog Days, um Small Business Saturday, Pink Friday, things along those lines. Out of those events, uh June 1st Friday was our most successful. We had an incredible turnout for it. Um it was a chalk art zone, so people were able to come down. They were able to go on a scavenger hunt and find chalk um sketched along the downtown by by professional artists. And then they were also able to um participate with their own art. So we had Broad Street shut down. Families were down there drawing um just wonderful pictures, making games out of chalk. And our feedback from that was we want more family-friendly events. We love having things like this to come down to. Um so that has been a big focus for all of our events going forward. We have incorporated some way for it to be family friendly. Um for our promotion committee, uh we have a brand new social media uh coordinator. She has been uh great at uh launching our social media. Um our Facebook is actually higher than that now at this point from when the slide was made. So it is consistently

growing. her algorithm has been incredible. Um, and we can break down those reports for you if you're interested in them. And then just a few other um, celebrations we had last year. Um, we had around five ribbon cutings last year. Um, but we also were able to participate in other events that we don't put on but we collaborate with them such as the Santa Parade, Hops in the Hangar, and the Pride Festival. Um, so a big event that we participated in last year, which I fortunately was able to see quite a few of you at, was our celebration for the canal. Uh, so last year we celebrated 200 uh years of the groundbreaking of the Miami area canal right here in Middletown. And we broke that into multiple events. So we had the ribbon cutting for the actual um where the rock is planted over on the cliff's property of where the ground was originally broke. Um we had a festival in the downtown in a parade, but we also um launched this new um program with Miltown City School Districts which we actually doing again this Thursday and Friday where the third graders come down and they are able to tour. It's about five stops. Um so they stop at Solo Lock, uh the Canal uh museum, Shart House, uh Port Middletown, and um the original groundbreaking rock and they are learning about the canal. So, they're engaging in our history and it's something that has stuck with the kids. I have personally heard some of these kids come back with their families into my store and say, "Hey, I was able to see this and I hear them talking about they'll point out Port Middletown and say, "Did you know this is a replica of the canal? Most of your citizens don't know that, but your third graders know it." Um, so it's a wonderful thing that we've introduced and I'm really excited to see that it's continuing. So, we again we'll be doing that this Thursday and Friday. If you happen to be downtown town, look for all the kiddos doing the field trip. Tag along, learn something. It's very fun. Um, going back to what I was saying about our design committee, what we're launching this year is our facade grant and our mural program. So, for the mural program, we're looking at a mural on the White Dog building,

something that will be able to uh represent Middletown as a whole. And then, um, we've already started the fundraising on that. And then with our facade program, we've already raised $7,500, uh, to launch that. We're going to go ahead and launch it. Um, we only be able to represent a couple businesses to start, but once we get that momentum going with some facads, we would like to raise another 12,500 by the end of the year to hopefully benefit a few more businesses. Um, so last year in 2025, we were actually able to repurpose a Duke grant that we had had um was just over $24,000. We were able to transfer it over to the Sork Opera House, and they have done some incredible remodeling. Um, if you have not been recently, please go check it out. Their lobby, you wouldn't recognize it from six months ago. It is absolutely beautiful. And then we were also able to help secure a grant for um the third floor of 1054 Central Avenue. It is where Bove Stain Glass Studios is. On the third floor there, they were able to put in a luxury apartment. Um, it is very massive. It's over 2,000 square feet. and they were able to pour in a couple um 100,000 additional um but we were able to help secure that 95,000 grant to get the project started. Uh so just a little look at our impact of last year and this is just um impact of um inind volunteer hours and grants. So, not a physical monetary, but if you were to have to pay for this ourselves or if another organization were to have to come in, they would have invested over $400,000, but these were all brought in downtown through partnerships that we have. Um, so, as I mentioned before, we had um approximately 5,000 hours um at the value of 33.49 an hour. Um again those uh grants through the sort opera house, the um run project, the facade grants, and we also have an upper story revitalization grant of

$40,000 that we are looking to also launch this year. Um it will go specifically towards adding in more apartments on some of these second floors um in front of the storefronts. And then uh through our connections with our collaborations with local businesses and even um some of our bigger businesses out on the highway, we were able to bring in over $100,000 in in kind donations. Um as I mentioned with our organization committee, we are launching a new funding uh fundraising campaign this month. So it really breaks down into three pillars. If you're familiar with the Main Street um approach, we are supposed to be getting more of a one-ird one-third one-ird collaboration. Uh so we're trying to model our pillars for that one-third model. So for the first pillar, we're looking at having collaboration from the community. This is where we're going to go um oh, sorry, I hit the wrong button. This is where we are going to go actually campaign through our citizens but also with businesses um and just build up um our income from that way and we've actually already started it. We just built a new relationship with Ketaring Hospital. Um so even though it's technically launching this month, we have actively been using this plan. Um our second pillar is our events. So this is where our main focus is. Uh for example, I'm going to use women wine chocolate walk. We have an incredible partnership with the moose. uh they are our main uh focus uh for um our partnership there. They have um sorry I'm losing the words here. Um they are a our main sponsor. So they are our headliners. Um so that is just an example there with our pillar two where we are getting that partnership. And then our third uh pillar is our grant and government support. So for example, Miltown Community Foundation, the city partnership. And obviously you want to know where your money's going. So with our contribute uh contributions from the city, we are looking at pouring half of that directly into our events

and our promotions. So going towards um making these our our marketing, going towards our social media coordinator, things along those lines. And then the other half is going towards our operations. So our mandatory fees that we have through Main Street America, Heritage Ohio, um rent, utilities, the boring things that keep our lights on. So, uh, but I wanted to be upfront with where your contributions are going to go with this partnership and then just in general how to be involved with downtown. Um, obviously we greatly appreciate your monetary support is what we need to keep this alive. Um, it's just the realisticness of it. But for the community, we love to see you guys get out. um even our uh council or citizens in the com uh the gallery here. Come down to a ribbon cutting, support a brand new business. Um come be a part of a parade, join uh sponsor a car for Thunderfest, or even just come help set up a tent before an event. Um all of these great really help us keep our events going. Uh but keep our organization as a whole. Join a committee. Um like I said, we have the Ford design. If you have a passion about murals, find a way to come get involved with us. Help us uh make those plans, make those connections with architects, things along those lines. Uh there's so many more ways to be involved with DMI. Um before we get into questions, I do want to thank you guys. Um all five of you. I've seen all of your support over the years. Um so even though I've only been with Downtown Middletown for three years now, um started as a board member obviously now as the board chair, I was involved a lot longer than that. As soon as I came home from college, I had a job downtown as a server. Um, I started getting involved in committees just as a volunteer. Obviously, I have a huge passion in downtown. Uh, but I have seen all of you show up in one way or another, whether a former board member coming and sitting in my business because we were having issues with

unhouse and I had a front window to it, um, supporting our ribbon cutings and our parades or, um, even just giving feedback on how we can grow, um, DMI. I greatly appreciate all of your support over the years and I look forward to our future partnership. I have um a lot of hope for the growth of our future here. So, at this time, do you guys have any questions? Thank you, Miss Singer. Any questions or comments?

Oh, just a comment. Thank you, uh Kelsey, for presenting and uh the board members and friends that uh provided some comments as well. I mean, I'm happy to support um the legislation that will fund uh DMI for this uh two-year agreement. So again, give you some financial stability and and make you make sure that you're able to focus on strategic initiatives and and corral all marshall all these volunteer hours and really continue to uh make a difference. So I thank you for your efforts.

Yeah. And Kelsey, thank you so much. I mean, you and I have spent, you know, quite a bit of time together. Um and I appreciate uh you stepping up to becoming the new chair. I think uh you know especially now downtown is is really the focal point um for a lot of a lot of the initiatives with the city and I do like the fact that there's two additional board members on there. I think it's it's hard people are busy with work and you know you're volunteering for a board and sometimes you know you work in a silo for months and then you realize oh you know we just kind of lost some coordination with the city. So, I think I think that's a huge step uh in the right direction. And uh I'm glad to hear that Women's Wine and Chocolate the ticket sales are are going, you know, better than last year. Um I would volunteer again to to pour, but you guys lost a hell of a lot of money when I was pouring wine and I did it for like two years and, you know, it was like half a bottle of pour. So, you know, you guys probably lost money. I'm sorry. Any other comments or questions from council? Right. Well, thank you so much. I also would just like to say I've been a fan ever since I found out about DMI and um very grateful for what DMI does for our city for as a whole. As we know when you have a strong downtown, your city is strong um as being the heart of the city. So, it's a place where I'm always talking about just today I had somebody from out of town from Cincinnati asking, "What is there to do? Tell me." And I did. They're like, "Okay, I wish I could have recorded that." Like, and a lot of this was downtown Middletown. So, thank you so much for all of your all of your hard work.

Thank you. Hey, Mr. Ewing.

Yes. The next item uh under city manager reports is the YMCA Monsoon Bay Aquatic Center report. Well, we're we're very excited to get this bowl open. So, I just want to thank you guys very much for allowing us some time to speak. I kind of want to take you guys through a picture tour of what the uh park looks like currently uh ahead of opening. Um so, really just kind of kicking off. We do have a little bit of landscaping that's still going in over the course of the next seven to 10 days. um as well as our Keyark sign, but all the other signage is up. So, um one of the things is you're going to start off at the gate, come be welcomed uh to the outdoor water park, and then you're going to enter into the actual park. One of the things that we don't really have imaged really well here is over to our right is a massive area of grass grass area where we're hoping that a lot of community for youth, teens, families can actually spread out, play some games, different things like that. Um, also future expansion, whether it's playground, gaga pits, um, what have you, to be able to, you know, make this more of a a family-friendly park and more things for everyone to do. So, as you kind of progress forward, you kind of enter into the actual deck space in the pool area, um, with the sun shade to the right. Here's a couple images of our swim test policies, our rider policies, some of the kind of signage that's going to be around the pool area. Um, this is one of our shade structures. We're actually looking to potentially add another one of these as time goes on after we get like a summer underneath our belt to really show, hey, where exactly do patrons kind of like gather or is our chair selection in the right spots? We feel like it is, but you know, the members, the community will really be the ones that say, "Hey, what's what's really working for them?" So, very excited about the sun uh shade. We think that they they bring a lot to

the park. Here's the actual zero depth entry that you'd be walking into. Um this was taken sometime this past week. Um so as you can see the water's in there. Everything's fully operational. Chemicals are balanced, ready to go. Um this is the front view um towards the back of the park. Kind of coming around the pool there. This is kind of like a little bit of an aerial view uh that we have looking down into the park where there's actually quite quite a bit of seating there and loungers. Um, here's actually the diving well where actually they will come out of the slide area and come out of the pool and kind of wrap around the slide. Continuing around the slide, here's our concession stand. Um, we're very excited about this aspect of the of the park. Um, and really excited to, you know, try to keep things affordable, but also kind of make it where when you guys come, you guys can bring the family, get an inexpensive lunch, snacks, things like that. Um, to really enjoy an ice cream. So, and we're going to build that menu out over time. So, we're excited for that. Nachos, hot dogs, ice cream, candy, pop, all the unhealthy things. Mom and dad can go inside to work out. Kids can come out here and have a have a treat. And then this is at the back of the park coming out of like the restrooms. The restroom areas kind of facing in where you can rinse off. Um and then overall just the overall park. So, we're very excited. Um we're uh if everyone could mark their calendars, um May 18th at 10 a.m. is going to be our ribbon cutting. Uh we're having uh Rosa Parks Elementary School, who we're doing a safety around water program with right now, will actually be out there. We're hoping that they'll be the first youth in the pool. Um we should be getting our final permit from Department of Health with the state of Ohio um any day now. Um we have a couple revisions that we have to submit uh not really to the park, but actually to a door that enters into the park. So we're submitting that. We actually just submitted that today, that revision. Um, thank you to city staff um from Frank to

Carla and the uh from the fire um fire department and the uh health department. I mean the city staff have been great to work with as we went through this help work with us, the architect, the general contractor to make sure that you know everything's up to code and we stayed ahead of those codes. So just really thank the city staff for everyone who worked with us and thank thank you council for the support to make this project possible. And we're just really excited to serve the community. We we are over the moon about how beautiful this park turned out and now we're really excited to see everyone enjoy it. So, any questions from council? Thank you, Mr. Roberts. Any comments or questions?

As as far as the opening day for I mean I know the ribbon cutting, but what do you project for the Saturday of Memorial Day? Thank you. Saturday of Memorial Day will be our opening day um for that. My question was similar. I was wondering what the season actually is for this year. So, it's a Saturday before Memorial Day until when? So, until usually it's right after Labor Day. Um, we're going to try to for this first year try to extend it, you know, as long as the weather really allows us to. So, that's where we're going to really try to gauge it for our park. Um, being a little bit more north of our East Butler Park, you know, really what would our end date be? So, well, I would say past Labor Day. Wonderful. Well, thank you,

Tyler. You had a price for the children at one time. Do you you have that price now for Yeah. So we have we have an agreed upon an agreed upon price with the city for the next 20 years of $5 for youth for a day pass and $10 for an adult. Okay. My sevenyear-old says that she's coming to the pool on the six. Are they Have you talked to anyone about them coming on the six? Nope. Okay. Nope. Vice Mayor, I think that I think that's a safety around water program at downtown Middletown. Y that'll be the indoor pool.

Yeah. So they'll we'll be um at the downtown pool tomorrow for safety around water. It's okay. Okay. Because she says we're going to the new pool on the 6th. And I said, "Oh, okay." She's in the program that will be visiting that. So she just might be a little bit confused. So should actually be starting our indoor pool enjoying the program cuz right now it's it's far too cold even with our heaters um fired up the air temperatures in the morning and things like that. So they're actually enjoying the indoor pools right now and then kind of almost like their graduation will be at the outdoor water park. So we're excited about that. Fantastic. Well, thank you. Any other comments or questions? Nope. All right. Thank you, Mr. Roberts. Thank you. And does that conclude our city manager? Yes.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Yuing. Okay. Next on the agenda this evening is the consent agenda. While the consent agenda is generally for consensus items, do any council members wish to remove anything from the consent agenda this evening and move it to the motion agenda. All right. Seeing none, we will proceed. Uh Mrs. King, please present the consent agenda.

Your consideration this evening, we have the approval of the city council minutes from April the 21st, 2026 and to receive and file the following board and commission minutes. the airport commission from December 15th, 2025 and February 2nd, 2026. The Civil Service Commission meeting minutes from February 19th and March 19th, 2026. To confirm the appointment of Jason Lynch to the position of assistant public works superintendent in the Department of Public Works and Utilities. to confirm the conditional appointment of Kenna Wilson to the position of event host in the community and economic development division, I'm sorry, department, economic development department, and to receive and file an oath of office for Joshua Cornet.

Thank you, Miss Skink. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion. Is there a second? Second. It has been properly moved and seconded to accept the consent agenda. We will proceed to vote. Mrs. Skank, please call the role. Mr. Mr. West. Yes. Mr. Mulligan. Yes. Mayor Slama. Yes. Mr. Li. Yes. Mrs. Carter. I have a question. Can I ask a question or vote at this point? Mr. Ewing. I I I think since we were already voting the the discussion period's passed, but I

Well, we don't usually consent with the consent agenda. We don't usually have conversation. That's why I asked if you want to move something to motion. Um, so at this time, what's the call here? Well, is is there something you'd like to move out of? Well, I I want to know what a event host is. I don't I have not a clue what that is. They help out at the event center whenever they have events. So, they're they're um like a so because the it said in the economic in the community economic development department. So, yes, I thought that was a different separate No, that's where they're out of. Yeah, that that's

centers out of the community and economic that's their Okay, that's where they call in. All right, thank you. Okay, that works. Yes, we shall continue then. Thank you. So, Mrs. Carter, how did you Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. The yeses have it and the consent agenda is approved. The next agenda item is the motion agenda. We have two items this evening. Mrs. Gang, please present item A on the motion agenda to approve the purchase of five pickup trucks from Whitide of St. Claire'sville Incorporated of St. Clair, Ohio in the amount of $253,884 for the following division of fire, electronics, and water maintenance.

Thank you. Do uh Mr. Yuing, would you please um present the staff report?

Yes. The the fire, electronics, and water maintenance divisions required trucks for routine operations with all replacement trucks exceeding the city's 15 point criteria. The water maintenance division will also add two new trucks for the newly created positions. The fire division, vehicle number 2521, a 2006 Ford F250, is 132 months past its replacement date. The electronics division vehicle number 184430, a 2014 GMC van 2500, was sold on Government Gov deals on April 9th, 2026 due to extensive corrosion. In the maintenance division, vehicle number 81128, a 2011 Ford 2 F250 is 72 months past its replacement date. In the water maintenance division, two new trucks will be added. a 2026 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 for fire hydrant testing and the 2026 GMC Sierra 2500 HD for municipal water system testing. All five trucks are available through Sourcewell. Vehicles number 2521 and number 814430 will be sold on Gov deals. The alternative is to not purchase new trucks even though the maintenance costs continue to escalate and affect services within the fire and public works departments. Financial impact there there are sufficient funds available in the garage fund. Uh and this is on the motion agenda.

Thank you, Mr. Euing. Do I have a motion to approve item A to approve the purchase of five pickup trucks for the city fire electronics and water maintenance divisions in the amount of $253,884? Motion to approve. Thank you. Is there a second? Having been properly moved and seconded, is there any discussion? Okay. Hearing none, we will proceed to vote. Mrs. Skank, please call the role. Mr. Mulligan, yes. Mr. Slam, yes. Mr. Li, yes. Mrs. Carter, yes. Mr. West, yes. Yeses have it. And the motion passes. Mrs. Skank, please present item B on the motion agenda

to authorize the city manager to enter into a two-year agreement with Downtown Middletown, Inc. to continue their programming and services in the amount of $50,000 per year. Thank you. Uh Mr. Yu, the staff report.

Yes. Um so the purpose is to authorize the city manager to enter into a professional services agreement with downtown Middletown, Inc. for the improvement and revitalization of downtown Middletown, including the designated outdoor refreshment area. The agreement is for $50,000 per year for two years contingent upon DMI meeting specific commitments. DMI is a nonprofit organization focused on enhancing the economic fatality of downtown Middletown. It has been a city partner for many years and seeks funding to continue its programming and services which support community events and small businesses. DMI requests $50,000 annually along with agreed upon soft support costs to sustain revitalization efforts. This investment aims to increase sales tax revenue and promote small business growth. DMI DMI must support must submit quarterly financial reports and include a city council representative on its board. The alternatives is to modify or reject the agreement. Financial impact. The the proposal involves $50,000 per year spent over two years with $35,000 from account481.990 52480 and $15,000 from an account 911.52480. And this is on the motion agenda.

Thank you, Mr. Ewing. Do you have a motion to approve item B to authorize the city manager to consent to enter into a two-year agreement with Downtown Middletown, Inc., also known as DMI to continue their programming and services in the amount of $50,000 per year. So move for adoption. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Having been properly moved and seconded, is there any discussion?

Yes. I got just a couple things. First of all, I want to say um I appreciate everything uh DMI has done with us over the last several years. You're a great partner with the city. You do wonderful things down downtown. you really help the downtown flourish. The only thing I'm uncomfortable with here is a two-year agreement. Um and and the reason for that is purely financial. If you see later in our agenda, we have to hit the general fund reserve for $500,000 for the roof down for a roof downtown to North Main. Uh, additionally, we're already $4.7 million into the general fund reserve this year for our 2026 budget, mostly because of of uh personal services expenditures. We also have a lot of other things going downtown with the three group agreement, the $15 million, and we I'm sure that's not going to be the total cost. And then the other thing is groups come to us every year with requests for annual assistance and we do that on a yearly basis. I really don't want to set a precedent and getting into a 2-year agreement or we're going to start seeing this from other groups. I'd rather address this on a on an annual basis going forward. That's my only issue with this. I'm not comfortable with the two years and I I I suggest we modify the agreement to one year.

Would you like to make a motion? I'll make a motion we modify this to one year. Is there a second? I'm sorry. There's a motion on the floor. Do we have to vote on the first motion? That's true. I can amend it. I think that because it's an amendment uh before we vote on the substantive uh motion, we should vote on the amendment. Motion to amend. Um, is there a second? I'll second it. Yeah, it's been properly moved and seconded to amend. Um, is there any discussion? Well, I um under the terms of the agreement, what what are the uh cancellation terms? We can get out of it at some point with notice.

Uh, yes. I mean, we can build those terms into into the agreement. Um uh as far as like the specifics, I don't have those in front of me, but I believe it's a 30-day written notice. I believe that's correct. Well, I that sounds correct.

Although this is not a nonprofit, again, we can go back to the down uh history of of DMI. It was set up as a product of the city. I mean, the city birthed this out of a 2000 year 2000 uh comprehensive plan uh to set up a nonprofit that would reinvigorate downtown. The funding component was supposed to have come from a SID, a special improvement district that was never implemented so that there was never a steady stream of of income that DMI or that type of organization would use on a regular basis to fund its operations and support. So um I mean the two years gives I think the organization uh you know solid 24 months to plan and do things and we don't have to do this annual dance. Um I mean I do think they need to to prove their worth and they can do that but uh giving a little bit more runway um may may provide them some long-term strategic planning. So that's why I'm I' I'd like to keep it um you know with the two years. I did not see that in there that there was a we would have the right to exercise a cancellation. If that's the case and it's part of the uh agreement, then I'm I'm comfortable with that. I' I'd resend my request amendment.

Okay. So, so Mr. Lai has rescended his motion. Do we need to just go ahead and vote or can that fall to the floor? How does that work? I I think that that the that motion falls to the floor. Is is that part of the agreement? Um we we either Jacob Yeah, go ahead. Mr. Yuing has brought um Jacob Schulty up to the podium.

Uh Councilman Lai, to that point, Article 10, termination of the contract, either party may terminate this agreement at the convenience and without cause thereof given 30 days notice of the other party. Um, in addition to that, for the $50,000 contributions, we'll be meeting quarterly with DMI to review their budget on a quarterly basis, talk over the plans and events for the next quarter, um, and make sure that aligns with uh, city staff and council's derogatives moving forward. Okay. Thank you. And and I'm I'm fine with that. I just have a little bit of a issue with getting into two-year agreements with these organizations that come and ask us for money and put us in a long term without their, but I didn't have I didn't see that in here. That's cool. I'm good with that then.

So, for the record, then the motion falls to the floor. Yes. The the motion to amend has been withdrawn and we already have a motion and a second on the the original motion. Is there any more conversation, question or comment on the original motion to approve? All right. Hearing none, we will proceed to vote. Mrs. Gang, please call the role. Mayor Slam, yes. Mr. Li, yes. Mrs. Carter, yes. Mr. West, yes. Mr. Mulligan. Yes. Yes. Have it. The motion passes. This concludes the motion agenda. The next item, actually, at this point, I would like to go ahead and take a 10-minut break. We're about 7 o'clock, so we'll take 10 minutes and we'll come reconvene by 7:09.

Is everybody ready? Okay, wonderful. The next item on the agenda is legislation. We have seven items of legislation this evening. Law director, Mr. Alex Ewing. Legislation, please. Item number one, ordinance number 02026-24. An ordinance establishing a procedure for and authorizing an amendment to a contract with Central Square Technologies LLC for software for the public safety department and declaring an emergency. Thank you, Mr. Euing. Do you have anything to add? Oh, nothing further to add. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the ordinance? Motion. Is there a second? Second. Has been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, we will proceed to vote. Mrs. Skank, please call the role. Mr. Li, yes. Mrs. Carter, yes. Mr. West, yes. Mr. Mulligan, yes. Mayor Slam, yes. Yeses have it. And the legislation passes. Mr. Yui, the next item, please. Item number two, ordinance number O2026-25. An ordinance authorizing the city manager to enter into memorandums of understanding with the city's bargaining units to add Junth as a holiday. Second reading. Thank you, Mr. Yuing. Do you have anything to add? Nothing further to add. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the ordinance? Motion. Is there a second? Second. Second. It has been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, we will proceed to vote. Mrs. G, please call the role. Mrs. Carter, yes. Mr. West. Yes. Mr. Mulligan. Yes. Mayor Slama. Yes. Mr. Li. Yes. The yeses have. And the legislation passes. Mr. Ewing. The next item, please. Item number three, resolution number R2026-12. A resolution authorizing the city manager to terminate the ground lease between the city and the Salvation Army for a portion of Damon Park and to purchase the Salvation Army's improvements there too. Second reading. Thank you. Do you have anything to add, Mr. Yuing? Nothing to add. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the ordinance? Motion. Is there a second? Second.

It has been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. We'll proceed to vote. Mrs. Skank, please call the role. Mr. West, yes. Mr. Mulligan, yes. Mayor Sama, yes. Mr. Li, yes. Mrs. Carter, yes. Yes. Have it. And the legislation passes. Mr. Ewing, the next item, please.

Item number four, resolution number R2026-13. a resolution declaring the intent of the city to pledge $12,500,000 as a credit enhancement for bond service payments for the Warren County Port Authorities's bond issuance in support of the construction of a multi-purpose event center at Renaissance Point subject to a future agreement with the Warren County Port Authority in Warren County and declaring an emergency.

Thank you, Mr. Ying. The staff report, please. Yes, the uh city of Middletown has partnered with the Warren County Port Authority for nearly five years to create an event center for h ice hockey concerts and trade shows. The center will feature three convertible ice rinks and a main arena with 3,500 seats, significantly increasing tourism and generating interest from the USHL for a minor league hockey franchise. The project represents an investment of approximately $126 million. A total of $25,500,000 in credit enhancements is needed equally shared by the city and Warren County. This pledge will be the last will be the last used for bond payments. On April 28th, 2026, the Warren County Commissioners approved their $12,500,000 contribution. This development is expected to create 660 jobs and draw over $425,000 visitors in the first year, generating approximately 61 million in economic impact. This ordinance allows the city to proceed with the necessary credit enhancements. Uh the alternatives are to adjust the credit enhancement pledge or withdraw the credit enhancement pledge. And for fiscal impact, the city will pledge half of a split second lean on the arena bonds at a 5% interest rate for 25 years. And this is a first reading emergency.

Thank you, Mr. Ewing. Uh this is a first emergency. So is there a motion to approve the or uh the resolution? Motion. Is there a second? Second.

It has been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Yeah, I just want to say this is actually a very very big thing for the city of Middletown and Warren County. This this project here is is a huge step for forward and making the arena part of the Renaissance Point project uh coming to fruition. Um this uh whole project was born out of a uh a meeting about five years ago in the back room of Triple Moon Cafe with some interested parties. and we've come to where we are tonight by hopefully uh going the same path that uh Warren County Commission has gone and I thank them. Uh and and essentially uh this this step forward is what will will differentiate the Middletown I75 exchange from all the other exits up and down the I75 corridor uh between Cincinnati and Dayton. Because with this exit, you know, it's not an exit where you just be getting off for shops, restaurants, uh uh residential. There there's actually going to be a a a very cool destination there in a an arena that has a hockey base to it that uh will uh have a a hockey league that essentially are like 19 and 20 year olds trying to break into division one college schools in the in the NHL which is what really differentiates this this interchange this exit from all the other exits up and down the indicate quarters. So once again, it's it's it's just a a big thing that Warren County Commissioners got behind us and helping us with this part of the financial picture.

Thank you, Mr. Lai. Are there any other questions or comments at this time?

Just to add, mayor, uh I'm also excited uh about the development. I know it's been five plus years in the making. uh provides not only uh tourism and sports tourism for for Middletown, but amenities and jobs for Middletown uh residents. So, I'm looking forward to seeing how the halo effect of having um additional dollars uh being spent in in Middletown and and as it develops across the highway into the town mall district. So, uh more to come on that, but but this is a big win for the city of Middletown. I'll add my thanks to the Warren County Board of Commissioners for their generous support and uh the Warren County Port Authority for for operating this and uh again looking forward to the groundbreaking and and getting started. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions at this time? Then again, I just want to reiterate my thanks as well Warren County uh commissioners, Warren County Port Authority, and also again to our staff who've been working on this past and present for about five years now. So, thank you so much for all the work that you've done to bring this through to this point. Again, if if there's no other comment, there are no other questions, then we can proceed to vote. Mrs. Skank, please call the role. Mr. Mulligan, yes. Mayor Slima, yes. Mr. Li, yes. Mrs. Carter, yes. Mr. West, yes. Yes. Have it. And the legislation passes. Mr. Yuing. The next item, please.

Item number five, ordinance number 02026-26, an ordinance authorizing a contract with E. Lee Construction Incorporated to repair and replace the roof at two and two North Main Street and declaring an emergency. Thank you, Mr. Ying. The staff report, please.

Yes. [clears throat] The the city of Middletown purchased the first National Bank building in 2012, intending to create jobs through its adapted reuse. Since then, the building has remained unoccupied and has not received proper maintenance, leading to significant roof deterioration and damage. In early 2026, structural engineers assessed the building and confirmed that the roof needs to be replaced. After a mandatory pre-bid meeting and formal bidding process, three bids were received. Elely Construction Incorporated submitted the lowest bid of $374,560. With a 10% contingency and a $4,500 bond, the total project cost is four 416516 thou $416,516, which is lower than the second bidder's amount. City staff recommend accepting the low bid and authorizing the city manager to execute the contract with Elely Construction Incorporated. Once completed, the city can seek tenants to utilize the building and create new jobs. Alternatives. The city council can choose another contractor or rebid the project. Finance. The project's total cost is $416,516 to be paid from the general fund requiring a supplemental appropriation uh for account of 100.91154401. Uh this is an emergency first reading a request to expedite the approval of the contract so the work on the roof replacement can begin. Thank you, Mr. Ewing. Is there a motion to approve the ordinance?

Motion. Motion. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Has been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. We will proceed to vote. Mrs. Skank, please call the role. Slamama? Yes. Mr. Li? Yes. Mrs. Carter? Yes. Mr. West? Yes. Mr. Mulligan? Yes.

Yes. Have. The legislation passes. Mr. Yuing. The next item, please. Item number six, ordinance number 02026-27, an ordinance authorizing additional funds for the contract with Bricks Incorporated for the fire station alerting system and declaring an emergency. No action requested until May 19th, 2026. Thank you. As this is a second reading emergency, um well actually could you go ahead and give us a staff report?

Yes, I do have a staff report. Uh the fire station alerting the fire station alerting system uses CAD software to notify fire departments with alerts and information, but the current system does not meet NFPA standards 1221 and 1710. In July 2023, the council approved a contract with Bricks Incorporated for the fire station alerting system installation, covering only the first year's fees, 2025. Fees for 2026 through 2028 require separate authorization. The annual service fee is $2,500 per station, totaling $10,000 each year. Financial impact funding is available in the 2026 fire station levy budget for a total of $30,000. Uh, second reading emergency is requested to facilitate timely payment and avoid service interruptions.

Thank you, Mr. Yuing. As this is a second reading emergency, there is no action to be taken at this time. However, is there any discussion from councel? Hearing none, we will proceed. Mr. Yuing, the next item, please. Item number seven is ordinance number 02026-28. An ordinance authorizing the submission of an application for federal assistance and action plan in a projected use of funds under title one of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 is amended for program year 2026. First reading. Thank you, Mr. Yuing. The staff report, please. Uh there's nothing further to add. Uh there was a presentation for the CDBG annual action plan in early April.

Thank you. As this is a first reading, there is no action to be taken at this time. However, is there any discussion from council? Right. Seeing none, this concludes the legislation for the evening. The next item on the agenda is unfinished business. Do any council members have anything they would like to present under unfinished business? The one thing that I um had asked for the last meeting was the presentation of what has been worked on for the citizen comments slide. Do we have that ready for tonight? That will That will be there. Okay. All right. Draft.

Perfect. So, we were going to um look at this tonight, discuss it, see if we want to amend it, any changes we might want to make, um if we like it, that kind of thing. It looks like while we're taking a look at that, um, the biggest changes being proposed are one to move from four minutes per speaker back down to three minutes per speaker. Uh, two to move to an aotted time of from 60 minutes for public comment down to 30 minutes or 10 people speaking. and three to require Middletown residency in order to speak on Middletown city business. Is there any discussion, comments, questions, amendments?

Right. And just to clarify the the residency requirement, if there were someone um interested in making a presentation to council that didn't maintain a business here um or have a residence here, then that person or entity could go through the city manager's office to get on the agenda. That's correct. That's correct. Reports, right?

Yeah. The only other thing I was thinking of and it's it's the fact that you can't you can't come up and speak for somebody else because she kind of did say that at the beginning tonight that she was here representing and she said another person's name. Um so I thought we had discussed not not to allow that. I think that's on here. It was on the old one that that that's correct. Uh um so if you look under the

the third the third uh bullet point the very last sentence this clarifies that no agent of a resident may speak on the resident's behalf the resident must be present to speak and that's something that is not clear in the current policy. Okay right right

there you go. Okay so that's also a change. So it was kind of inferred before but now it's part of the policy. Um and then uh like Mr. Mulligan was saying because we do have businesses and organizations like DMI or like the Middletown Community Foundation who have leadership who live outside the city then therefore they could always request for a city manager report presentation if they wanted to respond in front of or speak in front of council but of course um legal has said they could always email and phone calls and meet as well. Yes, that's correct. So number three, are we saying that before you speak you have to show you you have to show ID? It looks like

Yeah. Yes. to some sort of documentation. It could be a you know utility bill or some something to demonstrate uh residency. But why? Because you have to be a resident of Middletown. So someone's going to come up here and say I'm from Middletown and not be from Middletown. They they do. Um, we've had people from other cities like a few meetings ago we had somebody from Cincinnati come up and that happens sometimes. So with this it looks I've heard people come up and say I am from Cincinnati and speak. This would change that.

I don't like the idea of them having to produce license or or utility bill. That is that's too I think that's that's deep. I don't like that.

So, okay. So, that would be the residency component. We could move I guess we could amend it to take that out. We could get some consensus from council to have that discussion right now. Um, if we want to keep it resident requirement and it says here, um, the cards will be collected 15 minutes prior to the start of the meeting. So, that'd be 5:15 along with proof of residence. So people could come with their driver's license or some kind of state ID, current utility bill. I do want to discuss if we want to

and I think one um removing the the ID portion, you could just say that they have to represent that they're you know in their in the card, note their address. Uh you know, at least they're making some sort of uh representation regarding their u residency. But on a practical level, it's going to be difficult to confirm residency. You know, you're just essentially relying on their cards. So, I think that's that was the reason for putting it into the policy. Is there any other discussion from council about this particular part of the amendments to the or the update to the policy?

When they step up there and say, "Hi, I'm so and so and so and so. I live at 312 Curtis Street." They're saying that they're a resident of Middletown. So this would just change that if they live outside the city, they would no longer be able to speak during citizen comments. So we could change it if that behooves council to just keep Are you saying to like you'd like to keep it as residents, but instead of requiring any proof, just ask them to state their address as they already do? Right. Okay. So what do the other council members think?

Just to continue. Yeah, practically speaking, I'm not sure that the photo ID and current utility bill is I I just don't know if if if that process can take place in a council meeting and verification and Xerox copies and I mean if if they're putting on their card where their address is and it's a Middletown address, I they should have the opportunity to speak. But they have to be a resident. What about a business owner? We we had that's what Mr. Mullgan asked, right? And I also because I had the same question about like leadership in organizations even. They often live outside. So have to be a resident.

When they come up, they have to say, "My name is Joe Smith. I live at 311 Curtis." If they don't, they can't say, "My name is Joe Smith. I own a business at 210 Smith Street." Correct. Sorry, you can't talk. They can't talk in front of us or citizen comments, but they could still request um a presentation in front of city manager reports if they wish. As long as it's I mean I I' I mean that's that's crazy. I I just see

majority of the people who work for the city don't even live in the city and we're going to require people not give them a chance to I think that's just too much. That's too much. I think you should be a resident. Yeah, that's fine. So are you saying that you it's you agree that for citizen comments people should be residents and you're saying that you'd prefer they don't have to show proof of residency at that time. Right. So you're still saying that you like this that they should be residents. They say their address where they reside but we take out the part about the photo ID and proof.

It does dilute it a little bit. I understand I think this came up from our uh council retreat, but if it is a city if it's a city resident, I I I wouldn't mind incorporating an organization or a business owner that was operating within the city. I mean, they they are a stakeholder. So, as long as they provide a Middletown address for where their office or business is, um I think we'd like to hear from them. Progressive council thoughts. I I mean I would think we would include business owners. Um I'm okay.

Yeah. I mean that's because I you know sometimes it's just something quick they wanted to run you know run through and you know the other thing is if if you start adding those sort of avenues where they have to go through the city manager then city manager report turns into three hours long and that's where I was going with that. Yeah. Right. And she doesn't have enough to do. So we're going to add this to her plate. Let's pal it on her. Well I don't know. She's not here tonight. We can file whatever we want.

Well, again, there's just just to caut caution everyone's expectations here and and you know, watching and and residents at home. I mean, and I think we discussed this at our council retreat is like the the way to get things done in city government is to go through the channels. Yes, you could happy to speak to council members individually or collectively, but the work gets done in the offices upstairs by staff and and if we can connect residents to staff to solve problems like we heard tonight, then that's that's the function of local government. So while while citizens comments are are revered part of our city council sessions and and and people like people enjoy having that opportunity to speak up really to to to make effective change and and to change policy or strategy you know the work gets done outside of these council meetings. So I don't want to I don't I don't want us to overstate the the importance of of citizen comments. So with that being said then would it be because we also have executive directors. They're not business owners but they're nonprofit for example DMI like I said in the Middletown Community Foundation who live outside the city. So could we modify that then to say business owners executive directors and then of of middle town organizations and businesses but then also would building owners would that work for building owners because we have people who live outside the city who own buildings.

No. What does the rest of council think? We're going to what if this to death if we get into that? But it's a good it's a well if if I think if they're a business owner, they must have a Middletown address somewhere, but they would probably qualify under if they own a business. I mean building I was talking about building owners. People who own buildings can be out of town. So um do we extend that to building owners even if there's no like a vacant building for? I don't think you need to say that. I just think the mere fact that you say a city or city resident or b city business owner I mean if they own the building that's a that should suffice.

Okay. Is that consensus? Okay. So, just uh to to read back the the feedback, um we will not require proof of residence, but to speak, you must be a resident uh an owner of the of a business within the city or a director of a nonprofit organization or other association within the city. Does that work or representative? I don't know if director or representative I might be the assistant director but yeah so representative of nonprofit or association or business right does that ever be like that I'm sorry what are you saying it again

yeah uh so u no proof of residency but to speak uh you must be a resident you must own a business within the city or you must be a director or representative of a nonprofit organization ation or other association within the city. That sounds that sounds good. Does everybody agree? And again, we can always change this again if we have to. If we find out that this isn't working and we need to add something, we can always amend it later. Um, but that sounds good tonight. Well, I I can modify this and bring this back for the next meeting. Does that sound okay?

Yes, I think we should go ahead and modify it and take another look. And then I I actually wanted to propose something. when we used to do three minutes and I believe the reason why city council changed that was because they felt it wasn't enough time. That's why they went to four minutes. That was my understanding. I'm just wondering why could we do like three and a half minutes and then we just have 10 speakers. So instead of 30 minutes it would be 35 minutes total because it was said to bring it down from 60 to to 30 minutes. So if three minutes wasn't felt like it wasn't enough, four minutes is maybe too much. How do you guys feel about moving it to three and a half and having total of 10 speakers total? Three minutes and 20 seconds. Okay. I I that's fine.

I'm fine with three. Three and a half seems like a fine compromise. Compromise. How does everybody else feel? Three and a half. 10 speakers. Can we word that? So, it is like 30 minutes and or 10 speakers because So, so you're saying only 10 people can speak. Well, that's what it was proposed here. That's what it says here. It says three minutes and a total of 30 minutes total. So that's 10 speakers basically. So kind of I get it. So you're saying if if 10 people speak for one minute there be 30 that said not to throw another wrench in it. Are you saying let's say there's a very hot topic

and you got 30 20 people here 10 want to speak for it 10 want to speak against it. But the way they sign the cards it's all 10 who spoke against it. Well that's that's how it happens now. I think the um I think that the way we've handled that in the past is council can wave that time limit and if we want to allocate additional time, we can do that. We can make a motion.

There'll be a motion and a second and a vote to extend time for public comment. I think what the current policy is right now is we have a time limit at the beginning of the meeting, then we go ahead and have the business meeting and then additional citizen comments would be heard at the end of the meeting. That's what our [laughter] Well, that's what our current policy. I get to the end of the meeting, I'm leaving running out the door. That's what our current policy. So, would that also have to be amended then? Because then what we could do is just like Mr. Mulligan had said we could make a motion if we have 20 people here and it's a big issue and we want to allow that we could move to do that. Does that work for everybody? That works for me.

So by by motion a majority vote. Okay. To to extend the time so that people can be heard. I got that. Um okay. So it sounds like everybody's okay with three and a half minutes total of 10 people. Total of 35 minutes. Uh yeah 35 minutes or 10. Is it 35 minutes for in 10 speakers or 10 speakers? I think so. For three and a half minutes. Does that sound right? Okay. Yeah. All right. Math right. It was four. It we made it four. Well, no, we didn't. The previous council made it four, but before that it was three, and they said it wasn't enough time. So, I'm thinking, why don't we split it? So, we take it uh Okay. I I'll make these revisions and um you know, circulate them uh for the next meeting.

Okay. Thank you very much. Any Are there any other amendments or changes or anything else that any council member see? I I just don't want us to dictate the citizens on what they can do and say this is they belong to we belong to them and so to take away their right to come in and speak I don't want us to get into that control. Sure that's fair. Mr. you and can you speak to that about public comment during uh council meetings?

Yeah. So, so uh I I think that's a you know this is really the prerogative of the council. So there's there's uh you know nothing in Ohio law or the the constitution uh that requires us to have a public comment. However, you know, the council has had a tradition of having a robust public comment session. So I don't think there's any intent to uh prohibit anyone from speaking. Um but the the intent is to give some more clear guidelines. So as um uh as the the I think I believe the last time the policy was adopted was in 2020 and uh you know it's been about six years and there's you know additional case law. There are additional things that have you know kind of happen as sort of the the the law evolves. It's always a good idea and a best practice to revisit just to make sure that you know the the parameters of of what we establish here are acceptable to everyone. So that the things like you know residency because we you know uh I mean it's up to council if council wants to allow anyone that's fine but if you know meetings are getting long and we're having people coming from out of town that may not be conducive to council's business. So, these are I I I think all these uh restrictions, they they give some structure to our public comment. Um but I don't think they're going to prohibit residents or citizens from from having their voices heard in public.

Any other comments or questions at this time? All right. Well, thank you, Mr. Ying. It sounds like we'll have something. Will we you think we'll have something for the next meeting? Uh yes. Yeah, I'll I'll I'll make revisions and send them to Ashley.

Okay. Thank you very much. And if there's nothing else, then that concludes our unfinished business. The next item on the agenda is new business. Do any council members have any new business they would like to uh present this evening? All right. Hearing none, that concludes new business. The next item on the agenda is executive session. Do I hear a motion to move to executive session under the authority of OC121.22G8 22G8 to consider confidential information related to the marketing plan, specific business strategy, production techniques, trade secrets, or personal financial statements of an applicant for economic development assistance or to negotiations with other political subdivisions respecting requests for economic development assistance, provided that both of the following conditions apply. One, the information is directly related to a request for economic development assistance that is to be provided for administered or administered under any provision of chapter 715 725 1724 or 1728 or section 701.07 3735.67 to 3735.70 5709.40 to 5709.43 5709.61 to 5709.69 69 5709.73 to 5709.75 or 5709.77 to 5709.81 of the revised code or that involves public infrastructure improvements or the extension of utility services that are directly related to an economic development project. And two, a [snorts] unanimous quorum of the public body determines by a roll call vote that the executive session is necessary to protect the interests of the applicant or the possible investment or expenditure of public funds to be made in connection with the economic development project. Is there a motion?

Motion. Is there a second? Second. It's been properly moved and seconded to move to executive session. We will proceed to vote. Mrs. Skank, please call the role. Mrs. Carter, yes. Mr. West, yes. Mr. Mulligan, yes. Mayor Slam, yes. Mr. Lawling, yes. The mo the yeses have it. The motion passes. Council will now move to executive session.