City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Thank you. Uh Mr. Maym, chair of the Finance and Budget Committee has uh called a meeting to discuss ordinance 2026-04 on the bond notes. Mr. Maym.

Yes, sir. Uh Mr. President, before we uh getting ready to turn this over to uh Tanner and um our guest, but we will be amending this uh this evening. There are in your uh agenda you can see that there were several sections or section 15 was crossed out and then there's a new section 15 and several additional sections. So, uh we will be amending this this evening even though we're only giving it its second reading this evening. So, when we get to um next week in the third reading, it'll be clean. So, I just wanted counsel you to be aware and ready for that. And uh having said that, we're going to turn this over to Mr. Sawers and friends to talk about uh the police station itself this evening.

Thank you, Mr. Maym. Um yes, we will be discussing uh ordinance 2026-4, uh which is the bond ordinance uh for the um amount not to exceed $29 million. Um, as you're familiar, we passed um, previous council passed a reimbursement resolution of $25 million and our team with um, our owners representative Pazuti Solutions with our design firm uh, BKV and with our Seymar C um, construction manager that's Cornica Cozing or CK. And now I will apologize to council and to the public. There are so many acronyms in this process that it's borderline abuse. But nevertheless, you'll hear a lot. You'll hear even more tonight. Um but uh we have worked internally on um you know uh cost estimating and bringing down the scope of this this project into that that targeted um you know $25 million figure. And we're going to hear from uh tonight from our owner's representative representatives for our from our owner's representative Pazuti Solutions. Um someone with the what can only be described as the greatest name in human history. uh Cigarette Parks and and uh T or we call her Sig and um Tegan Layman uh an associate of hers with um with Pizuti and they're going to kind of walk us through um the process in which we got to that um you know that uh that design process and remember that 2 million of that came from um with the work of Senator Andrew Briner uh came from that um one time strategic fund from the state and that was essentially

leftover ARPA money um that the state reallocated through uh different means. But, uh, we've been working, uh, to hit that target. And I'm going to turn it over to Sig and Tegan and let them kind of explain that, um, design process from schematic design to design documents to conceptual design, construction documents, um, and let them explain how we got there and then open it up really to any questions. and just remind everybody that really the most important figure is that uh GMP or that guaranteed maximum price. I they're going to keep coming at you with these acronyms. Uh that guaranteed maximum price and the most important number will be the number that comes back on bid day. So I'll I'll let uh without stealing all of her thunder. Yes.

Thank you.

Hi everyone. Thanks for the opportunity to speak with you. Um as Tanner said, I'm Cigarette Parks. I'm a vice president with Pazuti Solutions Group. Solutions is the consulting branch of Pazuti. Um, and we focus majority of our efforts on publicly funded projects serving primarily in the capacity as owner's representative basically to make sure that the owner's team gets what they envisioned and paid for for their projects, right? As a as an expansion of our owner's staff. So, it's a true privilege to be associated with the Mount Vernon Police Department new facility, the police station. Um, and the team has been working beautifully together. Uh, Mount Vernon staff, highly collaborative. Uh, BKB, our design team, and CK, our construction manager at risk, who is um, as a part of their contract obligated to provide continuous estimating at um, DD and CD, which they have done. and then or CDs at least we're working towards CDs and then they will develop the bid packages and facilitate the process for bid and procurement which as Tanner indicated will culminate in a guaranteed maximum pricing that's the GMP um which essentially represents the cost of your project on bid day estimates are incredibly useful and valuable metrics that guide the design process and allow us to stay within in scope, expand scope, reduce scope if necessary, but ultimately the cost of your project is what it costs on bid day. And that's the point that we're trying to get to the project right now at we're most of the way through construction documents. Those are the documents that will get submitted for our building permit. Right

now, the facility is at around 36,858 square feet. Um programmatically it is inclusive of everything that would be required for a fully functional police station on day one. Um there is some capacity in there to shell out certain spaces that maybe wouldn't get activated um initially and we've also provided for some expansion capabilities in the event that we have to add on to the building in the future. So that's just good design and planning to futureproof your facility. Taking you back a little bit. Um the again we're we're at DDS or CDs. Uh the first part of our process was schematic design which we completed successfully worked our way through DD about that time we onboarded our construction manager again who was CK and they started their estimating. They gave us a snapshot at 50% DDS and a full estimate at 100% DDS. Um BKV was given written approval at that time to advance into construction drawings, construction documents because at DDS the program was trending within budget. Um so they were given written approval to do that. We advanced into CDs where we are now. As of the end of last week, we were right at about 75% on our construction documents. So, we expect 100% CDs within the next few weeks. At that time, uh the process that has been repeated previously, the owner's team will receive BKV's construction document submitt, which is the full set of drawings, full specifications, and we will begin our review of those drawings. Typically that takes about two weeks. At that same time, C CK will begin their

estimate. Um if there's any corrections or revisions or adjustments that need to be made to the drawings, those comments get returned to the design team so they can either respond to them or comply. They have the option to to respond. Um and then CK will submit their estimate. At that time, if we're still trending within budget, we would make the recommendation for Mount Vernon to accept those drawings and allow the project to go into permitting. If we are over budget or there are concerns about certain scope items that, you know, maybe because of different economic factors or material shortages, um, we want to address those, maybe scale them back. we would go through what's called a value management exercise and at that point we would talk about um various strategies for reducing that cost whether it is um deferring work to a future point shelling out a space that is to say giving a space what we what we refer to as a vanilla box so it's it's built there's just nothing in it reducing or eliminating scope entirely or changing materials and then having CK provide updates to those estimates to the point where Mount Vernon as the project owner feels comfortable accepting the design team deliverable, the construction manager deliverable, and we have a project. That's the point that we're trying to get to in the next couple of weeks. It's a very standard process. It makes no difference whether you're doing general contracting, CM agency, CM at risk. The process is all the same. And what it does is it safeguards um the owner to make sure that they don't have any big surprises at each phase of design. After that um CK will need a couple of weeks then to develop their bid and scope documents and then they will take this project to

the market and they'll bid it out competitively. Um, when I say competitively, what we're looking for is ideally at least three responses for each bid package or scope. And then the subcontractors will be selected based on best and most responsive. most responsive in terms of complete scope. Their their pricing is complete. Their staffing plan is complete. They've identified any long lead items. They can meet Mount Vernon's quality contracting requirements in terms of how qualified and trained their workforce is. They have the bonding capacity. Everything that's necessary to make sure that your project goes from vision to design to implementation to completion. And that's the point we're trying to get to right now. The um at 75% CDs. Um the project without any value management was estimated at just over 29 million. The project team worked for about almost three weeks to identify value management items that would materially reduce the cost of the project without reducing the scope or functional functionality of the building and has it down to just over 26 million at almost 100% CDs. So, um depending on what the CD estimate comes in at, we do have a few more tricks up our sleeves. um that you know we would as a project team develop a consolidated recommendation to give to Mount Vernon as the project owner in terms of what they would be willing to consider. Socialize it with the police department. Make sure that it addresses their operational requirements. Again, making sure that you have a fully functional facility on day one. And then we would either be given the go-ahhead to advance

to permitting or go back to the design table and see if we can further reduce scope or materials or sequencing um to get it back within budget. But for a project of this size and complexity um at CDs that were this close to the original stated budget represents an awful lot of hard work by the project team. And I think everybody should feel pretty good about where we are now. And it's a beautiful building. It it will really make a statement in terms of um a critical public service for the residents of Mount Vernon.

Excellent. Ma'am, um question. You said you the value management has it just has it just over 26 million. I understand that's an estimate at this point. Right. And you said that was a fully functional building. So that includes furnishings, finishing. I mean, open the door. 6 million and change. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Questions, council.

Okay. We're actually um again, this is the second reading. Uh we're going to amend it um as is in your uh your packet. U if not, I don't want to keep Okay. Thank you very much, ma'am. Thank you. I appreciate your time. Yes. Thank I'm excited about this council. We our officers have been waiting for this and um I think it's going to be a good thing. So, have you seen any I have I only saw very early joints. I'm sorry.

So, okay. We will now adjourn the finance and budget meeting and we now move to we're a little bit ahead of schedule. Miss Kir, chair of employee and community relations has a meeting to discuss ordinance five on person on a personnel position. Miss Ker,

thank you. Uh we've had a few pieces coming forward over the last few weeks kind of filling in some of the roles that we um had budgeted for um last year. and I had sat down with our safety service director at the beginning of this year and kind of mapped out um some of the directions that we'd be going and um this is one of the roles that he felt um it was time to kind of introduce and talk about and so I will let him talk about what this role is, where it's going to fall and know how we're going to fund it.

Thank you councel. So this um really the culmination of this uh position, this community development and public information officer position uh comes from a um a meeting that we attended um probably a little over a year ago where uh Jason Duff with Small Nation, maybe some of you are familiar with the work that uh has gone on in Bell Fountain, uh was talking directly to uh cities of comparable size. It was actually um a meeting geared towards cities about our size and he basically said if you do not have he mentioned two things um two communities our size. He says if you do not have a communication director and you do not have an economic development director, you're going to get left behind. Well, we don't have either one of those. Um, now, as to say, we do a lot of work with the Area Development Foundation and they do big bold things and we appreciate the work that they do. Um, and they go after what I would call big fish, Becker Mining, you know, things that people are moving to Mount Vernon to work in. Um, we have had the conversation of a uh communications director in the past. Um, but uh how that would work out and how that would flesh out and we kind of left that on the cutting room floor here. Um, so the mayor and I discussed how we could reintroduce both of those things and we looked at the skill sets that an

individual uh would have and we looked at the um partnerships that currently exist in the city and we thought there is a world in which this position um could be a combined position. So, allow me to explain where we're going with this. A community development director is not necessarily an economic development director. Hiring an economic development director. You're talking um you pay director level wages. I don't think one we necessarily have that need as the ADF um experience Mount Vernon and uh the chamber as they are looking for a new chamber director. Um I think they can fill that void. However, uh we often find that the city is um lacks somebody um shall I say appropriate at the table. Um this person would be that appropriate person at the table. Let me give you an example. We recently hired retail strategies to be uh the voice for the city. Um, this is a three-year contract with Retail Strategies. At the end of the three-year contract with Retail Strategies, Retail Strategies also provides what they call a retail academy. Other communities outside of Columbus are uh contracting with Retail Strategy simply for the retail academy piece. That way, um, their economic development team knows how to, um, you know, speak the retail language, right? Knows how to get in the boardroom and talk talk retail. Who at the city of Mount? This is more

rhetorical, but who at the city should know how to do that? Is it me, mayor, the law director, the city engineer? Is it somebody on council? I I would argue pros and cons for all of those things, but ultimately you could make the equal and opposite case that we have conflicts of interest. Unless you designate somebody specifically as a community development person whose job it is to seek out the development of our city as most cities do. The other piece of this um of community development is grant management. Large gifts and donor recognition and of course that economic development piece that is specific for as I say area development goes after the big fish goes after that small piece that we often hear people complain the most about is that quality of life stuff is we have too many you've heard the same stuff that I've heard you've heard have too many lube shops and car washes. Okay. Yeah, but who's supposed to go out and recruit, you know, the the retail, the restaurants, the homegoods stores? Who is that? Who's that supposed to be? Because if it's the mayor that does it, well, then he's getting kickbacks from Burger King. I've never still received any of those Burger King kickback checks. Yeah. Wouldn't you know it, it's the Starbrite car wash. Anyway, if it's somebody on council, it's the same problem. But if you have somebody who is trained to pursue those things, then you have somebody that can do this. And I I think that is something that the community has abundantly clear that

that's something that they're interested in seeing. Um then on the other side of this position, you have a public information officer. Uh different per se than a communications director in that there is a specific um tone that this person is is setting. This person should be telling the story of the city. This this person should also be trained in emergency uh in in telling the emergency emergent story of the city. Right? So if something uh bad happens, this person should know how to communicate with um emergency uh management agencies should know how to communicate with our public safety team should know how to um stay in their lane when it comes to public service deployment. Um so it's more than just simply you know writing press releases and and doing social media. However, that social media component is a critical piece of that too. And knowing how to reach audiences where they are today is a critical piece of uh delivering and Cheryl's going to roll her eyes when I say this effective services that are efficient and responsible and responsible. Did she do it?

No, but she's laughing. Okay. All right. Hard.

Yeah. Okay. But that's a critical piece to that. So there are people specially trained to be public information officers. What we are finding uh in best practices across the city is you know thankfully uh especially in communities our size you don't have crises every day. So in that uh in that gap of time when there's not a fire to put out um with crisis communication, we are you're seeing communities our size train individuals on community development and training them on economic development. That way they're doing that piece too and then when something when their you know crisis communication is needed they hit the brakes on that. you know, the grant applications can wait and then they tap into their other skills, their their primary skills and start telling the emergent story of the city. Allow me to channel former Congress congresswoman I I just promoted her former councilwoman Woods and how we would how will we pay for this? So right now you have a position that I believe is at a third reading and that is the executive administrator for public utilities and code enforcement. The benefit of shifting that into public utilities is that it can be paid for through utilities primarily. Uh that frees up a lot of funds from the general fund. defunding primarily. If you look at your budget sheet, defunding a large portion of the uh the administrative assistant safety service, you would refund

or fully fund, I should say, fully fund the safety service administrative assistant position with money that would be moved likely from a fund or a line account from the 600 line. And then part of this individual's job is to Good. You're making a face. I am making face.

Okay. You would then move money from the 3600 line to fully fund that position for the remainder of the year. Remember, it's March. By the time this is completed, you're looking at probably the end of April before this is even official. Um, and then you would evaluate this person by whether or not they can bring in that those funds. And all of those funds would be coming to, you know, the general fund.

So, I think you touched on one piece in here. Um, the charge gift management. Um we've had quite a few of those while I've been on council. Um like the the Statue of Liberty that's now out at the CANC. And I think that the work of coordinating around those types of gifts has been very challenging for council members and for administration. Um I I think that this is valuable for that. I don't see, you know, our large gifts just disappearing overnight. I I think they're going to keep coming in. And so that that's a really big piece of that I think can be helpful. Um I am only going to give this its second reading and um if council has any questions, I would ask you to email me, email um Mr. Sers and if you can email them so that we can have the answer at the next meeting so that we don't ask the question at the next meeting. Um it just gives more time to prepare because there's nuances for like where those dollar amounts are coming from. I think that that's important. Um but let's give time to find the answers.

And that's really all I have unless there's questions tonight I guess you know. So, I'm just always asking, do we really need this? And I hear your reasons, but I also think about so many other things we have to pay for.

And is there anybody within who could do some of this right now? And if the answer is no, then there isn't. But I mean, these are public's daughters, the public's dollars dollars, correct? And so, how are we making sure that we're using every dollar very wisely and prudently and all that? So, I don't know. I just have a couple questions. I'll just have I'll have to I'll get a hold of Miss Gainer about that. But um I I just want to make sure we don't have somebody that can already do this just to create another position, take money from other funds to fund this. I mean, that's always scares me because then if we run short in those lines at some point in the year down the road, then then we pulled money out of there. So I just I just got some general question marks in my head at the moment. I think the second reading is good. We talk this out a little bit more. Okay.

And if there's no other questions, we'll give us an early break. All right. We will now adjourn the employee and community relations committee meeting. This ends the committee meetings for this evening. Uh I would say if there are any residents who wish to speak on matters of city concern at the break, which we're going to have here in a minute, there are forms at the podium there to fill out and make sure that those get to Mr. Sherman. And uh other than that, we will recess until the legislative session begins at 7:30, which is about 20 minutes. Thank you.

It's 7:30 and it's now time to bring the legislative portion of the March 9th, 2026 city council meeting to order. Mr. Sherman, Miss Mrs. Hager here, Mr. Miller here. Miss Kener here. Mr. Maym here. Mr. Jacqu here. Mr. Rman here. Mr. Sevens here. Thank you. Everybody's here. Uh, we do not have to excuse Mr. Hawkins and he is happily enjoying Hawaii. I think he's actually going to watch this. So maybe he's doing it on the beach. Who knows? We'll wait and let him tell us about that later. So

tonight the invocation will be given by Pastor Andy Batty of the Central Christian Church. So we will rise for the invocation and then we will remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me.

Dear heavenly father Lord, we come before you this evening. Uh we recognize uh how powerful and mighty you are. Uh Lord, we also want to thank you for the beautiful sunshine and warmth that we had today. Uh Lord, I thank you for the city of Mount Vernon, for the the unique uh and uh diverse way that that you have made this city, for the people of Mount Vernon, uh for the opportunity that we have to to serve in this area. Uh Lord, I also thank you for the the freedoms that we have and those who uh protect and those who have uh fought to to protect those freedoms. Lord, I would uh lift up uh each and every one of these uh city council leaders and uh those who work and serve in the in the city and in various capacities. And I just ask that uh that you would grant them wisdom, that you would grant them patience. Uh please give them clarity and discernment. Uh please fill them with humility and and courage to stand up for what's right. Uh Lord, please uh grant them the ability to be united even if there is disagreement. I ask that you uh grant them uh that ability to be united through that. Uh Lord, please uh encourage and uh and support their ability to uh to live lives full of integrity both uh in the public eye and uh in their private lives. Uh Lord, we we ask for for blessing for this community, for the families that make up uh Mount Vernon and the surrounding areas with uh with young young kids and uh retired couples and uh and everything in between. Lord, we just we ask your blessing upon them and and the businesses and the schools and the churches and the first responders and the nonprofits that make up uh this beautiful city. Uh we ask for your blessing to be upon those who are

struggling whether it's financially or physically or emotionally or socially. Uh we just ask for your presence to be noticed uh both here in this room to be with these leaders uh but also just to be noticed in in this community as a whole. Uh Lord, I would pray uh for your presence tonight during this meeting uh that that it is uh that it is noted that with patience and fairness and uh truly just a genuine desire for the common good for this community. Lord, I pray that you continue to make Mount Vernon truly a place uh marked by love and peace and patience and justice and continue to make it uh an amazing place to live. Uh we ask this in the powerful name of your son Jesus. Amen.

To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you again, Pastor Council. Uh, you received all of us, actually I myself received their packet with the minutes from the February 23rd session. Are there any additions or corrections to the minutes? Hearing none. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? So moved. Second. Second. has been motion moved and seconded. All in favor say I. I.

Any oppose? Same side. They're passed. Mr. Sherman, are there any petitions or communications to read? No, there are none. Good. Council, we also got our committee reports. Uh, we received those from Mr. Sherman. Make sure you sign those and return those this evening as well. Are there any proclamations, Mr. Sherman? No.

Are not? All right. I see we don't have any liquor control licenses this evening and I did not receive any information about persons speaking on matters of city concern. So we will now move to the legislation uh before us. Are there any additions or corrections to the agenda that we have? Okay. Hearing none, I will assume that that is approved all by consensus. So, we'll move to the first resolution tonight, which is resolution 2026-17. Mr. Chairman, a resolution authorizing the safety service director to advertise for bids and award a qualification based selection for design services related to the south end pedestrian safety improvements project phase 1 KO122162 SRTS state route 586 P2411301. Thank you, Mr. Sherman. Actually, uh, this is mine, so I would move to amend resolution 2026-17.

Second. Thank you, Mr. Mayan. So, the amendment would be that we are restating this. Mr. uh Sherman, would you go ahead and read the correct version of this amendment? And we're just changing the title. The operative language in the res in the resolution doesn't change. We're just fixing uh the title.

Correct. Removing the section that says a qualification based selection for design services related to and replacing with the text construction contract for the total reading a resolution authorizing the safety service director to advertise for bids and award a construction contract for the south end pedestrian safety improvement project phase one22162 SRTS state route 586 P2411301. Okay, thank you. Um, any questions on the amendment council? Mr. Sherman, Mrs. Hager, yes. Mr. Miller, yes. Miss Keenan, yes. Mr. Maym, yes. Mr. Jacqueline, yes. Mr. Ruckman,

yes. Mr. SS, yes. The amendment passes. I now move uh to adopt the amended resolution 2026-17. Second. Any discussion? Council, this is this is a project that we're trying to really move quickly on the south end over by the schools. Uh I I think this we've seen a lot of progress already in the last year and I think this is going to be the next piece to to move this forward. So, anything else? Mr. Sherman. Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Miss Kener. Yes. Mr. Mr. May. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline. Yes. Mr. Ruckman.

Yes. Mr. Sevens. Yes. The adopt the adopted amend amended adop is is adopted. Excuse me. Get that out of there. All right. We al we don't have any for second reading tonight, but we do have five resolutions for first reading. The first resolution is 2026-24. Mr. Sherman. A resolution authorizing and directing the safety service director of the city of Mount Vernon, Ohio to acquire by any means authorized by RC 735.05 equipment for the public works department and declaring an emergency. Mr. Mayan.

Yes, sir. I move to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings, take resolution number 2026-24 to its third and final reading. Second. Are there any uh questions on suspension of the rules? Could you just state uh this is an equipment purchase for public works and um Tanner I'm assuming we want this piece of equipment before summer rolls around.

Yeah. So just to I mean we can do this now or we can do this you know keep talking about it if you'd like but uh this was part of the uh budgeted um equipment purchases. Um the only reason that uh you know we purchase equipment all the time but the reason that council is seeing this particular piece of legislation is because it is above uh the direct purchase threshold which right now is about 79,000 and some change. So that's why there's a certain threshold before I can just sign a contract. Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Sherman. Okay. Go ahead.

How fast can we get this piece of equipment like we pass it like how quickly do we get this? Do we know? Really depends on the kind of trouble are we waiting a really long time, right? And and this kind of comes back to the whole suspension of the rules and emergency clause. If we if we wait, you know, three readings and 30 days, then we're even that much further out. Whereas we could just do this now. It's not a very contentious thing. And get the piece of equipment. What is the piece of equipment? So it is to vote on the rules. Well, I mean, it's it's in there. Well, we just so we're clear, we are out of parliamentary procedure. Yeah, we're voting. Okay.

Okay. I'll ask that question. Yeah, you can ask it. 30 seconds, sir. Mr. Sherman. Mrs. Hager? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Miss Kener? Yes. Mr. Maym? Yes. Mr. Jacqueline? Yes. Mr. Rman? Yes. Mr. Sevens? Yes. The role suspended. Let me guess. You would like to know. Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Can I if you permit me to move to adopt resolution number 2026-24? Second. All right. It's been moved and seconded. And uh, Mr. Sawyers, I I would like to point out this is by any means um, authorized by law. Yes. Not authorized by law. Not by any means possible. Not any means necessary. Just want to make sure we

He's going to go steal it. I left my Batman suit at home. All right. Um, my my favorite one. Um, so to Mr. or Councilman Miller's point, u this is a Bobcat compact track loader. So, it will be used in various uh specifically being purchased by the public works department. It will mostly be used in the streets department. We've had a multitude of complaints uh about we had a particularly brutal winter and um you know there will be a lot of uses has different attachments uh that we'll be purchasing or or already have. So the streets department will get the most use out of this. However, this will be purchased 5050 uh 50% of the purchase price will come from uh already budgeted um equipment uh monies. The other 50% will come from storm water funds because you'll see a lot of storm water repairs uh be utilized with this piece of equipment. So curbon gutter and different storm water related work. So between public works and engineering, it'll be a shared piece of equipment. Any other discussion?

Mr. Sherman. Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Miss Keener. Yes. Mr. Mr. M. Yes. Mr. Jacqu. Yes. Mr. Rman. Yes. Mr. Seis. Yes. The uh resolution is adopted. We now move to resolution 2026-25. Sir, uh Mr. Res, a resolution authorizing the safety service director to dispose of vehicles in the public works department not needed for public use by the city of Mount Vernon and declaring an emergency. Mr. Maym. Thank you, sir. I move to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings. Take resolution 2026-25 to its third and final reading. Second.

Any questions on suspending the rule here? Mr. Sharon. Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Miss Kener. Yes. Mr. Maym. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Mr. Severs. Yes. The rule is suspended. Mr. Maym. I move to adopt resolution 2026-25. Second. It's move been moved and adopted. It's been moved and seconded. Are there any discussion on this? We have anything we need to know about this? M. This is one of our favorite things to do is sell old equipment. Um, anything special about not so fast.

So, typically uh when you see this this structure of legislation, we are uh selling um uh used vehicles from the impound lot from the police department. This is actually uh for the public works department, they'll be trading in um two um lawnmowers essentially. Um and because that tradein value is in excess of $1,000, that's why this is triggering this legislation. So, they have already evaluated these two pieces of equipment. They'll trade them in and get two more pieces of equipment. Do we know what the normal number of hours for these two particular is normal? Because I I have a little John Deere as well and I have a little meter that tells me how many hours that thing has ran.

Someone in that department does would tell you. Yeah. But as far as we know, these are kind of worn out and they need to be updated. I don't know that it's necessarily worn out, but uh not um not for the standards of care for for our team. So, yeah. So, they're going to trade the cemetery also. So, um they're going to they're going to trade these in and they they'll get new vehicles and or new uh new lawnmowers here and uh utilize those out there. Any other questions?

Yeah. What's the process for trading this in versus like when the city does other things like that? We'll take bids and we'll try to get our our our best price. I guess my concern is how do we know we're getting the best deal on this trade in?

So, you know, the tradein value on these compared to, you know, we're going to, you know, a vendor that we utilize routinely versus taking them to an older piece of equipment, putting it on gov deals. We traditionally get, you know, a fraction of the of the cost. But we most of the time if we have an older piece of equipment and we are putting it on gov deals, we're getting we anticipate we get a a very small we would get less than $1,000 per based on our history and at that point we have um shall we say gotten the use out of the piece of equipment. So,

and the the uh the company we're trading it in with is giving us more than $1,000 for each of them. I I can speak to this as someone who has lost business over the years. So, traditionally, like from a historic perspective, you would take old equipment, you would take it to an auctioneer, they would sell it off, but that was after the equipment was used up. A lot of government entities, townships, municipalities have moved to leasing so that they can trade it in and they can keep newer equipment and then typically there's care that goes along with that. So, it in the long run it typically saves them money because you're leasing, you have newer equipment and have less upkeep overall. All right. Mr. Sh, Mrs. Hager,

yes. Mr. Miller, yes. Miss Keener, yes. Mr. Maym, yes. Mr. Jaclyn, yes. Mr. Rman, yes. Mr. Sevens, yes. The resolution is adopted. Now we now move to resolution 2026-26. Mr. Sure. A resolution of the Mount Fernie Vernon City Council expressing its support and formally requesting consideration for community project funding in the fall 27 federal appropriations process in the amount of 5 million to support enhancements to the Mount Vernon wastewater treatment facility supporting regional infrastructure improvements, economic growth, and environmental protection. Mr. Rockman.

Yes. Thank you. I move to suspend the rules and take resolution number 2026-26 to its third and final reading. Second. We have a motion and a second to suspend the rules. Any questions? Mr. Sherman. Mrs. Hager? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Miss Keener? Yes. Mr. May? Yes. Mr. Jaclyn? Yes. Mr. Rman? Yes. Mr. S? Yes. The uh resolution is suspended. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Thank you. So, we're going to, I guess, go through. Well, we should probably move to adopt first, shouldn't we? Yes. Yes. All right. Let's move to adopt resolution number 2026-26. Second.

Have a motion and a second to adopt. Any questions on this or we need to hear about this? No, this is just we're under a timeline for this. So, we had gotten a couple of questions around this. This is not actually the first time we have blight for this. So, Mr. Do you have anything you would like to add as far as context is concerned with this?

Yes. So, um, last time we were actually in the pipeline to receive and I'm going to put him on the spot here, I guess. Uh, Representative Balderson has been very, um, uh, has worked very diligently on this with us and we appreciate uh, all the work that he's done. And I'll I'll even give a a pass to Senator Moreno's office who who said make sure to include us on the next round of this because they they are willing to help. And uh we're also trying to communicate with um uh Senator uh Senator Huad's office on this as well. So this is um community project funding. Um it's has some has had some other dirty names in the past such as earmarks or like that but um essentially the uh the city of Mount Vernon's uh wastewater uh or what we've called invate which is the Mount Vernon anorobic treatment uh enhancements. We always like to slap an acronym on things, right? Um, we were in the process uh or we were in the pipeline that we'd like to intend our puns around here. We were in the pipeline to receive uh $5 million in the one big beautiful bill. Uh but because of appropriations fights in DC, uh other community projects were backlogged and we were uh the first round out. So other people were in essentially, long story short, other people were in line before us. They got funded before us and we had to take a back seat, but we hopped back in and uh Congressman Balderson said make sure to resubmit and uh so we are going to resubmit with updated design documents because remember we a lot of times focus solely on the police station um you know the the court and the municipal center but Arcadus and uh Cosing Industrial has been working very uh diligently on designed the same

process. through Seymar uh with the wastewater treatment plant. So you're looking at about close to a $50 million project on on that side of things. Now that's an enterprise uh funded project. So that's not you know think uh rateayers not taxpayers when it comes to that. Um so it's a different uh set of uh financing. However, uh we are going to ask for these this community funded project in the same way that we ask the state for capital funding is essentially the same thing at the at the federal government. It's a little bit uh more more tedious, but uh unlike the local government and unlike the state government, they've got a printing press. So, um and a military to back it up, right? So, um hey, hey, we're going to ask for $5 million. What's the worst they can do? Tell us no. There he did. We'll do it again. Um we're we are particularly annoying. Am I right?

Hey, so we'll drive down Yeah. We'll we'll drive down and ask for it in person. Um so this will go this is essentially council. What this is is a resolution um in support of this request. This will go to Representative Balderson. His uh his request deadline is this week. Um, uh, Senator Husted's is tonight and tomorrow and Senator, uh, Moreno's is at the end of the month. Yeah. So, and different, um, departments. So, the the allocations are based on the department that you're making the request. We have a little bit of wiggle room because ours is within the EPA. So, um, but your support on this is basically just a green light that you support them giving us $5 million. You may say it's all tax dollars. Well, we'd like to bring some of those federal tax dollars back to Mount Vernon.

Sounds good to me. So, the suspension of rules bring allows us to get the suspension of the rules. So, there is no emergency clause on this. This is for So, you'll see the FY27. This is for fiscal year 2027. They're not even going to act on it in the next, you know, well beyond 30 days. So, as long as it passes tonight, you know, it can be it's it's a letter that's going to be attached to a submission. So, and just to reiterate because in case somebody looks at this and sees five million, this is five million grant money.

We are not spending Yeah, we you are not approving the spending of $5 million. We are asking for them as they are listing projects and you're talking about nationwide, right? Yeah. I just it's just we're passing it, you know, when you're doing out there with emergency. It has 5 million labeled in it. I think we'd like I just put it out there. Yep. This is a potential $5 million savings.

Now, here's a question that you might ask. Why not 10? Why not 50? Hey, because each district, same way with the state capital budget, each district is allocated maximum a maximum amount. Um, and each project is guaranteed or not guaranteed. Each project is basically capped out at a maximum amount. This is the maximum limit. So, we're going big or going home. They may send us a box of butter cookies and say, "Thank you for your submission." In which case, We'll let you know. Do we get to have the butter cookies?

So, Councilman Miller asked a legitimate question, not the butter cookie question. Um, which is, would it be possible that they give us less than 5 million? Absolutely. They may give us 1 million, 2 million, 500,000. In which case, we'll say thanks, we'll be back in two years, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Great. All right. Mr. Sherman, Mrs. Hager, yes. Mr. Miller, yes. Miss Kener. Yes. Mr. Maym, yes. Mr. Jack, yes. Mr. Rman, yes. Mr. Sevens, yes. The resolution is adopted. We now move to resolution 2026-27. Mr. Sherman,

a resolution authorizing and directing the auditor of the city of Mount Vernon to pay bills pursuant to section 5705.41D and now certification. Mr. Maym. Thank you, sir. I move to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings. Take resolution 2026-27 to its third and final reading. Second. Any questions on the suspension? Mr. Sherman. Mrs. Hicker. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Miss Kener. Yes. Mr. Maym. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Mr. Se. Yes. The rule is suspended. Mr. Maym.

Thank you, sir. I move to adopt resolution 202627. Second. Mr. Primman, we're going to pay some bills. Yes, sir. With this process. So, all right. We have a number of them here. Uh, first is to Terracon Consultants. This was the uh ground testing thing that the engineering had organized for I believe this property and um the Gay Street property, the Plaza building where they Were they tested through the ground? See what's what was in it. It's also at the police station. Yeah. Site at the police station.

And ordinarily these are carry forward purchase orders. So usually this wouldn't be then and now, but after talking to the auditor of state, they said those aren't really a thing. Um we've been operating under them for years. So now now they are. Um imagine that. Um so the the second one is the Civica. That's through my office. uh should add the purchase order in place, but it was budgeted for. Uh third one, you actually approved um last council meeting, but there was there was another bill under the bill that was also within now. So to to the same vendor, so there it is again. Um Target Solutions is an HR vendor. I believe this was a contract that was in place by the previous HR director um and kind of was from early last year. Um then the invoice was in I think from July of last year. Um then there's Vantelberg which is for the pool postcards for the high of water park. Um and then finally uh for the treasure of state for OP OPWC loans which is Ohio public works commission loans for a number of projects. Um so that any questions for Mr. Brinkman?

Yeah Mr. Springman, you said you mentioned a bill an HR from the target solutions that was from last year. I'm assuming we determined those services were delivered. Uh okay. So yeah, that the the current HR director had sent it along to us. So I Okay. Assume it's legitimate. Um and yeah. Excellent. Mr. Sherman. Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Miss Kener. Yes, Mr. May. Yes, Mr. Jack. Yes, Mr. Rman. Yes, Mr. Sevens. Yes. The resolution is adopted. We now move to resolution 2026-28. Mr. Maym.

Thank you, sir. I move to suspend the rule requiring two separate readings. Take resolution 2026 28 to its third and final reading. Second. The rules have been sus or they there's been a motion to suspend the rules. Any questions on the suspension of rules? Mr. Sherman. Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Miss Keener. Yes. Mr. Maym. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline. Yes. Mr. Ruffman. Yes. Mr. Se. Yes. The rule suspended. Mr. Maym. I move to adopt resolution 2026-28. Second. So, it's been moved and seconded to adopt Mr. Maym.

Okay. Mr. Rickman again. Um so this is uh I believe this is for the route 13 project. Yes. Is that correct? And um these are grants that have been approved approved but um the way ODOT does a lot of their stuff is we have to pay we have to pay it first and then we get the reimbursement. So it's creating space in this line. Yeah. To pay for that.

Yes. Exactly. So, and council, you know, this is on a permissary system and I won't over complicate this if you don't need to, but I had the engineer, you know, this is significant amount of money and this is not even the entirety of this project. This goes all the way back to resolution 2022-95. And I've got it all laid out to the sum total of about $6,485,000. You've got about what's it three track grants and o grants. I mean I have the information here available both right now and available to you know should you want to have it available is a significant amount of money that we talked about during the budget um budget season saying that you know we're going to in the 405 right now there's only about what $1.5 million appropriated. We knew that coming into it as this opened up that we would have to appropriate more, but we just wanted to do it on a tighter timeline if we only budgeted, you know, and this was the conversation that Mr. Maym and and Mr. Brinkman and I had. If we only budgeted uh for the supplemental appropriations as we typically do as the checks came in and not on a more permiss permissary system,

you would delay this project years. So I think the way that Mr. May for each ODOT reimbursement which takes a month could take longer than a month. Yeah. Could take multiple months per instance.

But the key thing is these are funds that have been promised to us. These are and and these are, you know, we have the signed contracts from ODOT. This is part of their master uh transportation plan. So, this is not it's not like something that we're that we've applied for and are just appropriating in the hopes that we get it right. Like this is this is already a designed project that we're ready to put the put the shovel in the ground to. We just need that that space to start spending and then it will be reimbursed as as it is expended. So the second part of this is we just need to show the expenditure happening and ODOT will take care of the second part. But I just want you to feel comfortable doing I mean this is a significant amount of money and I don't want you to feel like we're just walking in here being like yeah appropriate $3 million questions. We have we have the information here. We have the resolutions and we have the the breakout of all the the acquisition grants and whatnot that ODOT has provided. So,

we've already gotten about half a million of this back already. So, this that goes into this figure. The second I think um to the about $700,000. Yeah.

Yes. And then we have another um probably about another half a million that will uh we will ask you to then supplementally appropriate from HUD that will be a part of the demolition phase as well. So council but Councilman Severns has been in on multiple meetings with ODOT with the city engineer. So this this is a process going back years. I was reminded of something like this today when I drove over the vioaduct to go up Gay Street along with three semis that would not be going that way when this project is done. I actually thought about that because then they go they go up to Chest uh Chestnut Street and turn left and eventually they're not going to be doing that and I think that's going to be a good thing. So

I I would encourage anybody who doesn't think that this is a good idea to look at the accident data and like how much safer navig

yes Mr. Miller yes Miss Keener yes Mr. Min yes Mr. Jack yes Mr. Rman yes Mr. Yes, the resolution is adopted. We now move to ordinances. So, tonight we have uh one ordinance for third reading, two for second reading, and two for a first reading. Tonight, the first ordinance is for a third reading is ordinance 2026-03. Mr. Sherman, an ordinance establishing compensation, benefits, and terms of employment for the executive administrator for public utilities and code enforcement and declaring an emergency. Gainer.

Thank you, Mr. President. Prom name. I move to adopt ordinance 2026-3. Second. Okay, we have a motion to adopt and a second. Any discussion? Any questions? Miss Ger. So, this particular uh position was discussed during budget season. Um and I think it is one that we had planned to fill. Um Mr. Salers had talked about this at a previous committee meeting, but um would you mind just giving us a 60-second rundown?

Yep. This will be a um administrative position for both public utilities and code enforcement. It will uh lighten the load on the general fund. It will be primarily supported from the utility, the enterprise funds for both water and wastewater. A portion of the funding will still come from the general fund as will be required because it is also assisting code enforcement. How's my time? You did great. It was like will be housed down at 236. Yes. Yes.

So, this is this is a position that I think most of us have ridden around with uh Mr. Zimmerman and Brian and and just seen the work that they're doing. Um and it is one that was already budgeted. So, um I would just encourage a support of this Okay. Any other questions? I would also state too that it seems like as more and more gets um put on the code enforcement and everything, I think this position is going to become more and more necessary as time goes along. I think it's best to get it filled now. All right, Mr. Sherman. Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller, yes. Miss Kener, yes. Mr. Maym, yes. Mr. Jacquine, yes. Mr. Rman, yes. Mr. Se,

yes. The ordinance is adopted. We now move to ordinance 2026-04. Mr. Maym. Uh, thank you, sir. I'm going to move to amend ordinance 2026-04. I will second that.

Okay. Um, council, the uh in your packets, this ordinance has been already amended. Um but what we're doing is uh we're gonna if if at your pleasure if we approve these amendments then a clean version of this will come to its third reading. I I we will not be suspending the rules this evening. This will go we'll be giving it its second reading tonight. It will go to its third reading in two weeks. But the So what I'm doing now is um we're uh removing section 15 and then Um there's a new section 15 etc. So that is that is all we're doing this evening.

Our section Oh, never mind. I see what it is. Sorry. Yeah, there's an additional set of sections. And so I don't remember doing this on a second reading, but I mean we're okay to do this tonight, right? Amen. Okay. Yes. A piece of legislation may be amended at any time before it is passed. Good. Okay. Any questions council on the amendment? Basically, it looks like we have removed a full section. Yes. Okay. All right. Mr. Sherman, Mrs. Hager, yes. Mr. Miller, yes. Miss Kener, yes. Mr. May, yes. Mr. Jacqueline, yes. Mr. Ruckman, yes.

Mr. Simmons, yes. The ordinance is amended. We now move to ordinance 20. Are you now? Yeah. I'll now give this it second reading. Okay. As amended, it will go to its third reading in two weeks. Yep. Great. All right. We'll move that to the second reading. Um, now I move to ordinance 2026-05. Mr. Sure. An ordinance establishing compensation, benefits, and terms of employment for the community development/public information officer and declaring an emergency. Miss Ger,

thank you. I'm going to give ordinance number 2026-05 it second reading. And could I have a 10m minute committee meeting at the next meeting? Okay. Ordinance five receives its second reading. We now move to ordinances for first reading. The first one is Ordinance 2026-06. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. I'd like to give it its first reading, please. Okay. Ordinance 6 receives its first reading. We now move to Ordinance 2026-07. Miss Kener.

Thank you. I'm going to give ordinance 2026-7 its first reading. receives its first reading as well. That is the the end of the legislative portion of the meeting tonight. Could I ask for a committee meeting with that? I was going to say I didn't know if you need five. Five. Are you speaking? Is five ever enough? No, he's not. We'll be good with five. Really? Three? Maybe five minute meeting. Okay.

I pulled that one out. Sorry about that. All right, that that ends the legislative portion of the meeting. We now move to remarks from the administration. Mayor Star,

thank you, Mr. President. Prom, thank you very much for that. Council, um, I sent you a an update. I don't have anything new to add uh to that. And I just want to say it was nice to see so many people in the city representing represented at the the Chamber of Commerce event on Friday. Thank you all for coming out and honoring those wonderful businesses and individuals who really do help um make commerce happen and uh contribute to the lifeblood of this community. So congratulations to the nominees and the winners there and uh yeah well done everybody. Thank you. That's it. Thank you Mr. Sers. Nothing further Mr. President prom. All right Mr. Stler

further Mr. President Mr. Brinkman tonight Mr. President pro Mr. Boring, I have nothing. Thank you. All right. Did you you didn't finish it? Yeah. You broke broke the spell. Mr. Miller tonight. Nothing tonight. Mr. President, bro, Mr. Ruckman. Nothing this evening. Mr. Jack. Uh, nothing. All right. Miss Keen,

I would just like to say um thank you to administration and to Mr. for their work um in that school pedestrian safety area. That is is such good work. I I know that we've done a lot of work around the school up at Dan EMTT. Um, and this is another just pain point in the city and and walkability and and pedestrian safety is something that I have cared about since I got on council and I think that you guys have done a excellent job of keeping this kind of brunt of mind and actually getting it done. Uh, and it's good to see when government actually responds to citizens who bring forward issues and so I just congratulate you on that hard work. So, thank you for staying on this and that's all. Thanks, Miss K. Mr. Maym,

I want to add my thanks for the uh the sidewalk safety. Uh also to Quinton and engineering who had a significant uh role in that and uh congratulations, Mr. President Promp, it looks like we survived this meeting. Well done. We're just about done. Yes. All right. Thank you, Mr. May and Miss Hager. Nothing this evening, Mr. President Prom. I want to thank everybody for their patience with with me this evening. This was a fine gathering of people tonight. I knew Mr. Sers would enjoy that. Thank you to the media. Cheryl, it's always good to see you. I would call for adjournment. So moved. Second.

And this is what I've been wanting to do. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. We're ajourned. Thank you everybody. Don't you do it at the beginning of the meeting?