City Council - Regular Meeting

compliance policy. Sounds pretty interesting. All right. And we are now live. Mr. Maym, thank you, sir. Uh, council, this was uh on your agenda and it was given on time, but we had a little uh editorial issue, so this is not in your packet, but you should have this in paper in front of you. 2026-44 and we've provided copies for the gallery I think as well. Um, mayor has a presentation on this. Uh, but it's a process on bond paying compliance. Sure.

Uh, if I may, Mr. Chair and councel, um, Zach, can you Yeah, thank you very much. Uh, I've got a a short presentation that uh if you'd like I can forward it to you, but it's it's pretty much summed up in in everything that you have in front of you uh with the the briefing sheet that I I sent out on Friday to you all. And essentially uh this is a postissuance compliance policy that we have been um encouraged to adopt u since we're looking at taking on some some debt here. And so uh let me go ahead and get into it. why this matters. Now, if you want to go ahead and move to the next slide there, Zach. Um, it protects our tax the the tax exempt status of the city bonds. Uh, it also ensures compliance with the federal tax and security laws is is another um major importance of why we we need to do this. And it's just also showing good style, good good financial stewardship, uh good form, if you will. And so what if we move on to the next one, what this policy actually does for us is that it establishes some formal procedures. It gets it in place a compliance procedures and it is through the the auditor's office. Uh and so it's something that um or the fiscal officer depending on what type of of of a city you have. Uh and it assigns oversight to the auditor for u these different reports. Um there's an annual financial disclosure or the electronic municipal marketing um access Emma. Uh in other words, that that is required for this. Uh this what this does, it tracks and reports any kind of material financial events that might have occurred over the past year. Um we it also makes sure that we're we're properly using the bond proceeds and the investments. Um and uh this this this is part of this this reporting that is going to be coming out of the auditor's office on an annual basis is

is is good. It's good. It strengthens our recordkeeping and it improves our transparency. So um as far as our benefits, if you want to move on to the next one there, Zach, thank you. Um reduces any financial and legal risk we by having a policy in place. uh it does give uh people who are issuing credit and and bonds uh to us gives them a lot more confidence because we have this policy approved by the legislative board of the uh the company of the city rather. Um and it aligns it's really a best practice if you will. It's something that is uh that is seen as as something very responsible for us to do to make sure that that we are uh since we are taking on debt or will take on debt that we've got our game together and we're we're going to be um um stepping up our reporting. And so uh this will also in effect uh support any future capital projects and financing so that once this policy is in place, it's in place forever. So we don't have to come back here and do it for the next time we need to borrow. um something uh more so uh and then the last slide that I have for this basically is it's no new cost to us. Um I'm sure that Dan and I were just talking a little bit in terms of where this where how we're going to uh where we're going to house this in the budget and so forth. So we'll be looking at that. I'm also working with Bradley Payne to develop a um an annual report checklist uh so that we build that into we bake that into our system uh so that we just set it on our calendar and forget it and it reminds us hey this report's due and so uh we'll be we'll be working with our outside council uh for that. But again, we want to u prevent any any kind of costly compliance failures and uh council we're recommending that uh we get this approved before it goes to the bond market. Having said that, this can go three readings uh provided that on the third reading that we do pass it with

the emergency clause in place because on or about June 1st, we want to be looking at the bond market. And so the second me or yeah the second meeting in May, the third reading of this will be at that time and uh uh bond issuers are going to want to make sure that this is in place. So

Mr. Bourne to add the emergency clause is going to be an amendment. Is that correct? Okay. Um, council, we're going to give this its first reading tonight. Uh, it will go three readings, but we will be amending to add the emergency clause. That way, the public can have plenty of opportunity to hear it, uh, respond to it if needed, but then we will get it in place before we need to go to bond market. Any questions? Excellent. Thank you, sir. Thank you. That concludes finance and budget when moving down the streets and public buildings. Mr. Mr. Se to discuss the property at 69 Second Road.

Yes, we're going to discuss this and I'm going to actually hand this over to Mr. Sers. Uh we have a little bit of a change in direction on this resolution. So, Mr. Sers,

thank you, Mr. Severs. Um there have been a multitude of discussions about this property. So, just so we're all clear on what exactly it is that we're talking about, uh because um after some further discussion at our department head meeting, we think maybe the um the resolution itself might be a little muddled. Um we are talking about the Nooko um Ashland uh actual physical asset, the modular unit on Psyker Road. So, this is where this is the site of the future police station. Uh initially the city had property. Um as we started looking at the topography, the soil sampling, um we realized that it would probably save the city a considerable amount of money. And you'll remember that we brought this before council if we uh did a purchase and a land swap deal with the other property owners there if we were able to shift that uh the construction of that facility a little bit further down the road. So in all of that uh and and council has approved all of those things in doing so that we we ended up not only getting the parcel of land but we also got everything that was on top of it including this modular unit. So, at first we started saying, well, we would do with this what we did with um a couple other of uh homes that we have purchased for, you know, instead of just demolishing it or something, you know, somebody could still find some use and we can do what other communities do and put it on gov deals and just require it be moved because the site does need to be cleared for the police station. And then we tooured it and we started thinking about, you know, it has been used. It's a usable facility. We have needs uh facilities needs. So we started exploring what we could potentially utilize this uh facility for. Um and we are still in discussions with uh Pizuti

Solutions, our owner's representative, and BKV, our design uh firm that has been working not only with the police station, but with the court facility. So we're going to explore the option of utilizing this facility for municipal needs. Um what those are yet, we do not know. We have not landed permanently on a home for this. However, we will say number one, it will need moved. And number two, the resolution that's in front of you tonight, so what what can you council do tonight? Uh you can probably go ahead and um send this resolution off into the ages because like we said, uh it's it's a little um mis misleading the way that it's worded. So, we would recommend that council suspend the rule tonight and go ahead and vote this legislation down if we uh would feel the need to bring it back and do the exact same thing because what this legislation was doing was basically just giving us the authority to put it on gov deals and require it be moved and sold for, you know, whatever dollar figure that that would procure. Um then we will bring back another piece of legislation that's a little bit better written, more clear and um present that to council at that time.

Mr. Surn, you have two options here. You can hope that everybody votes no and votes it down or you can make a motion to postpone this indefinitely. That way we vote yes and it's gone. Okay. So before we even suspending the rules, we would just I would move to well suspend. You could either a as m as the president suggested move to susp uh to t b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b basically table this, move it indefinitely. Um or you could uh vote to suspend the rules and then hope that everybody votes it down. Seems like it's easier just to suspend the rules indefinitely.

Yeah, to suspend the motion definitely. Yeah, postpone it indefinitely and that way it's done. You don't and you don't need to suspend the rules to do that. Okay. Okay. I think that's what I'll do. Council Mind by me. All right. Anything else on Mr. S for that one? If not, we'll move on to police, fire, and civil defense of Mr. Miller. Discuss the College Township fire contract. Yes. Um, this is a contract in enter. Well, I think I'm just going to let you explain it, Chief. I think you're a little bit more up to speed with it than I'm sure.

Yeah. Briefly, uh, so we've, uh, coordinated, the chief and I have discussed this. I know that he's discussed this with College Township and Kenyan College. Um, we worked with this with Mr. Boran. There were some um, pieces of this that um, I I think the chief will want to specifically go over. Um, and maybe we'll get into the the nitty-gritty with with council if they want to talk about those individual pieces. Do I got to pick up talk? Yes. Yeah. Pick that up. Y Hello. There we go.

Okay. I'll try not to sing. All right. First off, this looks very nice. Nice. Well done. This looks very nice. So, it's hard to believe five years is already up. This is our first renewal of the college uh township um contract. Um, and this uh contract is up May 31st. Um, so we would like to get this passed tonight. Um, so the trustees uh, College Township trustees, they usually have their meeting the first of the of the month there in May. So we can get that passed. Um, with that we met um, with the trustees oh she about probably about a year ago year and a half ago or so. It was in the summer there um, so about two years maybe. Um, we went over the contract with them. Everything was good. They're happy with our service. We're happy with them. Two-way sword. We're we're very happy to be partners um both ways with them. Um we did do some changing a little bit in the new contract. Um for instance, just because some things have changed. Um they've turned all their vehicles um emergency vehicles and um assets, equipment, um fire and EMS over and so that needed to come out of the contract. Uh there was some wording in there where that talks about personnel staffing which is uh which was one officer, one firefighter and one part-time uh employee. So we changed that to just one sworn officer because it could be a captain or a lieutenant and then one firefighter or then two more firefighter paramedics whether that's either full-time um or part-time. We didn't want to just handcuff herself and just say it needed to be a part-timer. So um so we changed that and then there was uh Mr. Mr. Borne did add in a section because they requested like I said they did review this and they and they have their and they vetted it. They do have their the blessing if if you guys give it to us uh tonight um just in case some property the property tax issue um comes about. There was a paragraph added in here to where obviously if there's uh no funds

um available if that happens to happens to happen um then the contract is so basically what we discussed uh with College Township. Now, and and mind you, this would this does include Kenyan College. Of course, they're not as concerned about the property tax issue, but uh College Township. What would happen in the event that um essentially that property taxes become um you know unconstitutional to collect in Ohio is that we would uh sit down with all parties on this and enter into good faith negotiations on how to move forward, which would be something that would happen across the entire state of Ohio at that point in time. Everybody would be renegotiating contracts like this and trying to figure out how to provide essential services. So, um, we made sure to include that because it it was our mutual goal. I think I would I can comfortably speak for the township and and for Kenyan College at this point that we would like to see this contract continue, but we would have to re-examine how that would how that would happen, especially when their, you know, means of revenue would have dried up at that point. So, we made sure to include that as basically a hey, it's not just dead in the water. we're going to have a good faith um approach to, you know, try to revive this assuming that that would happen. So, we wanted to just add that in there to say here's here's that emergency valve because we know it's kind of that uh dark cloud hanging over everybody's head.

Then, and within the contract that I believe you have in front of us, you got the same one that I have there is um number 12 there, it does say ISO level of four rating. Currently, we are a 33y. Um, and that is getting re-evaluated here on May 13th. So, there's a good chance that that might change or stay the same. And then, uh, u, you know, not only, as we mentioned, not only did we meet with the the township trustees, but we did meet with with Kenyon College also, um, to see make sure they're happy with our service, and they are very happy u with our service as well. And um they did change it and so the chief uh operating officer would like to have instead of the signature from the president um he wanted to have to say chief oper operating officer. So we'll have to make that changes in the in the u final document that when we get signatures for that. But pretty much that that's it. It's it's um they're very happy with our service. We're very happy to be partners with them. Um the money is right where it needs to be to be at at this time and uh hopefully with your blessings we're we're happy to do another fiveyear contract.

You had mentioned there's a meeting taking place the first of the month. What meeting is that? The township trustees. They hold their trustee meetings. I believe a lot of them are different but they're usually within the first week or the first two weeks. either a Monday or Tuesday within the first two weeks of each month. That's where they would like to. So, it's going to be a benefit for us to move to move on this a little quicker than normal. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. Because like I said, this contract basically just a continuence of an existence. Absolutely. Yep. Yep. For sure.

Um, so I have two questions. First, how has the call rate gone over the last five years? Are we seeing an increase? Is it pretty steady across the board? No, it's pretty steady across the board. Of course, you know, with what we do is is with with with the college, they get a little bit busier obviously when they're in session and when they're out of session, the call volume goes goes quite down. You know, if anything, you know, College Township is our third medic into the city. So, if we've seen any increase, we've seen it because of our own call volume within our city. Uh not necessarily not necessarily the township. So, um so it's it's stayed relatively relatively about the same if not tweaked or you know, it's upticked a little bit. That's pretty much because the city volume has increased

and their rate that they're sending the city has also stayed the same. Correct. Yes. Yep. It's a contract. It's 500,000. So actually for a small contract that's more than any of those other townships do play pay and they're the small question. So concerning the property taxes, so if they go away, you've written to that something that covers that, but what if they are just reduced? Is there language that kind of just talks about any change in the structure of property taxes

if they remain the same? If there's no if there's no change as far the only thing that this accounts for is if there is an abolition of property taxes otherwise this is as Mrs. Keener pointed out this is just a continuation and Mr. Miller. Well, this is just a continuation of the current contract that we've had for the last 5 years and we're content to let it ride. And we had these discussions honestly because you know our costs is we're not immune from anything else. Our costs have gone up considerably and we talked about you know we put that in their ear that you know our costs are going up and so is everybody else's but we're also not immune to uh you know the the political ramifications of everything else that's going on in the world around us. So we are uh listening and responding accordingly as as best as we can and I think that uh maintaining this and showing that uh you know we're a premier fire service and can respond to College Township and Kenyan College and uh as well as all of our obviously the city of Mount Vernon and all the other service areas that we respond to and and that's that's why people continue to trust us

in our Carl Township that station does help helps us into Pleasant Township that we currently have loan partners with is also um so I don't know if this is the appropriate time to ask this question but I'm gonna ask it um need to hear is your mic on sorry I just have a soft voice um if this was a five-year contract and it's going to be up in Min Bay and it's being asked to kind of look at this in in a hurry I'm just curious Why didn't it end up here earlier?

Yeah, I mean the contract we've we've gone back and forth with negotiations between, you know, internally and we've provided it to to council in um in due time. Could we have provided it earlier? Sure, we could have got it out a month ahead or or even longer, but um you know, we wanted to make sure that uh

I mean, everything's been going great. I mean, I constantly have conversations with the with the trustees there and uh and with Mr. Wakeakeman, who's the chief operating officer of Kenyon. So, you know, there, you know, everybody's been happy with us. There was nothing that needed to be really a change or brought to any just a continuation of the contract. So, everything's been going really good. If If anything would have been uh you know upsetting us, I'm sure that we would have back out.

I I would say like we still have the ability to put this off, but we want to be good partners and we are working around other, you know, governing entities schedules. And so I I think that, you know, negotiations sometimes don't go as smoothly as you would like them to. Um I'm in one at work that's taken like eight months, but I I think that it's basically the same contract with just a few tweaks here and there. So I think that this is again a good faith kind of effort here.

Yeah. And and I think to your point, if you would have saw substantive changes to this, you would have saw it, you know, we would have present, we would have brought this council much earlier than this uh to have, you know, as we have with other things. We have, if it's a significant change that people aren't ready for, you know, we bring it out much earlier and have public meetings. We've had listening tours in the past. We've had, you know, a lot more rigorous debate. um in that regard, but where this is just literally changing some dates and adding an amendment based on something that's wildly out of our control. Um that's really the there's no major substantive change to this. So,

but point taken this contract doesn't take this contract doesn't take effect till June the 1st. So, as far as the city and council and everything, yes. Um, we could we could take it out the third, but by moving this along and suspending, you know, the rules for the third reading and everything, basically all that does it benefits the the township trustees in order that they can adopt it and everything can fall into place so we can meet this June 1st deadline for when the contract actually takes effect. questions they have.

Yeah, I have one question, too. Um, we don't exactly um do this for for them as a public service. I mean, you know, this doesn't cost us money to do. We're not we're not uh being a charitable organization, so to speak, when we provide this service for them. Is that correct? I mean as far as as far as the numbers go and everything, we would be operating more in the black than we would be in the red to provide this service for them. Yeah. Yeah. We they are paying for the service that they are receiving. Very good. I just want to bring make that clear to everybody here. And not only we collect the EMS billing,

right? EMS billing is associated with this on top of the the service that they pay. Yeah. So this is this is not done out of the as much as we want to be uh partners with College Township and Kenyan College and we are especially through the the um the student program that we have with Kenyon. Um we're still operating a business. The citizens of Mount Vernon expect us to, you know, think of Mount Vernon first. So that's why we have a lot of these charges in here. Um but uh no, they certainly pay for their service and it and it's beneficial. It helps, you know, the city with our with our costs that are associated with running a fire and EMS service. And it helps um, you know, College Township and Kenya College have, like I said, a a premier fire service. It's not it's not the same as just being able to, you know, be the closest in town or, you know, have a a volunteer fire service is when you when we arrive, we're the best trained, we're the uh uh, you know, most credentialed, we have the best equipment. So they know that they're they're getting a premier fire service.

The point is, I guess, we hope that this had been done earlier so we didn't have to suspend the rules, but it's done what it is. But just in the future, make sure things are look look forward in the crystal ball a little bit so so we can not have to do that. Anything else, Mr. Miller? No, that's it. Thank you. Okay, we're adjourning the uh police, fire, and civil defense. We're going to move now to employee and community relations, Mr. Skinner, to discuss the uh services and resource coordinator position.

Thank you, Mr. President. Uh we're going to file this under significant change that people aren't ready for. Um so, I've heard from several members on council. I've talked to the safety service director. Um, uh, overall, this role was just not shaping up with the job description as it sits right now. It's just not shaping up to be exactly on the nose of where we want it to be. So, I am going to ask to postpone this indefinitely. Uh, we're going to kind of go back to the drawing board and maybe work out some job descriptions um that are a little bit more concise. um and a little bit more clear and thorough. Do you have anything else you want to add to that, Mr. Sers?

No, ma'am. Is this the one that that we're also in collaboration with United Way and all there was the possibility of additional funding for a role that would continue um this work um that that's not coming to the city if this role isn't created. to clarify. He does have one. Yeah, it was it was Yeah. To clarify, it was one Ohio funds and we put in a request that can be easily, you know, cancelled with the Knox County Foundation. So, not United Way. And so that's Are you saying those other funding sources evaporated?

No, I'm saying council killed the thing so we don't need them anymore. They're still very much there, Bruce. And there's still the possibility that some of the pieces within this would still be picked up at a future time. It's just going to be where they are housed. So, y any questions for Mr. Skinner? Okay, we're going to adjourn the employee community relations. Going to move now to finance and budget. Mr. Mayan uh to discuss the codified ordinance 183-013.

Council, this was uh just a meeting to in case anyone had some final questions. This uh this ordinance is going to its third reading. Um and uh we did have a committee meeting on it last week. So, this the purpose of this committee meeting is if anyone has any follow-up questions. Okay. Excellent. That's all I need. Mr. President, we're moving pretty quickly. Going to move now to Mr. Jacqueline with Land Use and Development to amend the vehicle storage ordinance.

Mr. Zimmerman, Mr. Marvin, would you like to provide some clarification on this? Sure. Yes, it should be.

Okay. Um, this I'm going to kind of turn this over to Mr. Marvin. He has had hands-on weekly and daily. We've had all kinds of meetings about this. We've met with Mr. Jacqueline about this as well. This is something that is in my opinion, we had some uh concerns that our ordinance was a little strong with the uh the recreational vehicles, the boats, the campers, and the utility trailers. We heard people, they came in and talked with us and this is what we came up with to make to ease up on this because I know myself at one time I did have a boat, I did have a camper and I did have a utility trailer. So, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Mark, he's been working.

Hi folks. Um, so I'll just go over all this. As as you guys probably recall, last year we amended the change 1309, 01, and O2, kind of combined them. Um, putting trailers and vehicles into one, and it was fairly restrictive. It's kind of what we wanted, we thought at the time. What transpired is I went out under the old ordinance before the new one had even hit the books yet um far as being published with American Legal and started kind of addressing campers, boats, and utility trailers. It was kind of a thing I hadn't really got on much since I started here. I was working on vehicles before and pretty quickly right after we started doing it, we started getting calls from the public who a lot of them had had their campers in their driveways for a very long time in violation of the previous ordinance. Um, but the gist of it was basically that they were kind of a myth that they couldn't have their campers and their boats in their driveway. We didn't get a whole lot of push back on utility trailers because they're kind of unattractive and you use a utility trailer not as frequently. But the general argument was, I use my camper, I use my boat all summer long. Why do I want to have to keep it stuck in my backyard or take it to storage and then bring it back out when I want it? So, we considered that. We got some input. We looked around some other ordinances and and what you see before you. That part of it is a lot of um input from the community, what they want. So, we did not want the community to have to look at ugly, tore up, nasty campers, which we have several around. So, we tried to find a nice balance where we could still remove and and address those that are falling apart, losing their wheels, um just not pretty to look at and not being used properly. um and but allow those who are maintaining their vehicles or using them who want to have camping trips, boating trips with their family to have that that privilege as well. Another aspect we problem we were having was people living in their campers. We've had several situations um over the last year

where we've had homeless people or whatever the scenario was moving into campers in people's property. Um some of them are parked in front yards, some in backyards and this inevitably every time has turned into a bad situation. We just had one on 404 East Pleasant which we had to have the city go in and physically remove because they were disassembling in the backyard after it got water logged. So in this ordinance you're going to see that we we did not ignore that aspect. We left the the authority for the city to intervene in those bad situations and and keep the city clean and safe for our community. Um utility trailers, there's a there's a little bit of an aspect in there. We we had a couple gentlemen who had um have you seen kind of a utility trailer people might haul a motorcycle in. They're enclosed. Um usually more attractive than an open bed, you know, junk hauler. A couple people brought that to our attention like, "Hey, I you know, I ride my Harley all summer around. I keep it in my trailer. I don't want to have to, you know, haul all that." So, that made sense. So, we've also included some language in there um to allow for um enclosed utility trailers that are wellmaintained. As long as they're not logoed and businessed and, you know, unattractive to the general public, as long as they're maintaining them, we have some allowances for those to be in. The the only thing that stay still stayed pretty restrictive are your open bed, you know, brush hauler, trash hauler types. We didn't want those sitting out in people's driveways or in out front yards or whatnot. So, we've still asked that those be maintained to the rear of the property, um, like they always have been in the previous ordinance. Some of what was already addressed, I think, in the previous rewrite of the trailer vehicle ordinance using an improved service, which was already voted on last year. Um, we have a lot of situations or people writing up front yards and whatnot with their trucks and their trailers and parking them in their front yards. So, it was decided to try to address that. Not saying you can't necessarily have some of these items that are approved in the new ordinance in your front yard, but you can no

longer just roll it off into your grass. We're asking that now with the trailers as well as you guys approved last year with the vehicles under the previous or this basically has already been voted on last time that we still continue to require that they put some kind of an improved service down um before they park their vehicle on their lawn or whatnot. So it would have to go through zoning, get an approval and and make an offshoot off a driveway or side parking just just so we don't have people parking in in their lawns and their, you know, sideyards and such. And that, like I said, that part was already approved under the previous ordinance last year. So that's really not a change. Um none of the penalties I don't believe law director can say better really changed I don't think other than we now have the authority to like we did with vehicles cars to remove unregistered and dilapitated vehicles when we don't get compliance from the owner now just so you know we're not going to sweeping we've actually extended the time period used to be five days we allowed for um responsiveness on this when we said to remove it it's 10 days if I'm not mistaken counselor it 10 days at this point I believe we've extended did that out regardless to give them a little more time because we felt like we were being too restrictive and not giving people sufficient time to react to what we're asking them to do. So, we've given them a longer amount of time. Um, just so you guys know, we're not over people call and say, "I need more time for whatever." We've always been cooperative allowing extensions, but at least we need some language on the books so we can react. So, I think that I got all the changes. I think

it like Mr. Marvin said,

we're not reinventing the wheel here. We actually are light lightening up what you can have and just so it's on an improved surface. Okay. Um the penalties have always been in there. They're on a lot of the ordinances. And um this really come to head our last time, our last gathering, we uh got together and there was a lady that was in the back that she didn't want to speak because she was, you know, she didn't like public speaking. Um, she lived beside 404 East Pleasant and there were videos and pictures and I'd be more than happy to share some of those with you all. I know it wasn't very pleasant and it just it took us too long to be able to go there and clean it up. So, this is why we're bringing this to you right now. We just we're tweaking it a little bit so we can, you know, watch out for the citizens

a little bit better. I have a couple questions. But are we not talking about in section three the addition of B, C, and D? Oh, I'm sorry. So, it says at the top that everything in bold is added. So, have those been on there? No. Yeah,

they were those are the same way we've dealt with other motor vehicles and we just what we did was we just ch we took the motor vehicle penalties and just moved so that we're only dealing with one set of penalties for all vehicles whether it's motor vehicles, RVs, boats or whatever. So we don't have these people, you know, oh, you know, it's a motor vehicle, it's a motorcycle, which which set of penalties. We just have one set of penalties for all of these types of vehicles. And I can say over the last year it's never come to this. But if you don't and that was in the old ordinance we passed in August as well.

I just wanted to clarify that those are additions for those this broader range that we're talking about and not just motor vehicles. I thought that's what that's what I thought he just said. I'm not sure I understand you. Are you the Everything is on there. When we used to haul vehicles, essentially this is the same policy. It's just been umbrelled to to that's why I said the broader things that we're talking about

and actually if anything has become more lenient. We like said we took away the 5day previously that I think last you guys voted on that and extended that out to 10 days. So everything that we're doing here essentially was what was applicable to motorized vehicles. We just had absolutely zero teeth to clean up broken down trailers. There was nothing we could do. This just encompass encompasses trailers under that same umbrella. If if that makes sense.

I have a couple questions. Um I understand you're hearing from people who have boats and trailers who want to leave them in their in their driveways or whatever. Are you hearing from neighbors who don't like boats and and trailers in in their driveway? Because I I'm not sure I want to have a boat next door to me.

Yeah. So, I get all of those calls and I I can tell you this. I have the only time I have ever got a call about a camper was when I've like cited someone down the street and he will say, "Why do I have to do it?" That guy down there has got one too. I do not recall a single incident of at least of a decent camper. I'm not saying like these junky ones. I haven't got calls about that. But a maintained camper in a driveway, I'm trying to think of a single time someone's called just arbitrarily just to let me know um that there was a camper out there. But, you know, and I and I I kind of understand what you're saying, too. But and there are some restrictions in there like we kind of tried to noodle this through and say what would bother people you know and so we put some kind of size restrictions with you in there and things to kind of keep it under control while also maintaining you know people's desire to have a camper and a boat out there. Um but I honestly have not had any complaints other than the few

yucky ones we've had to deal with people living and that sort of thing. This this is stemming from the type of camper and bolts that are beyond like repair that I I I call I say they're melting into the earth. Um they're up to their axles. Um and that's why we have language where if they're in good repair and they're not, you know, a a blight or a a black eye, I guess, on the on the area. No, we we haven't had I don't recall anyone saying, "Hey, you know, there's they got their camper sitting out here and I I don't like it." Now, we've had many many calls is they've got their camper in the front yard and they got electric hooked to it and I know someone's living in it. We had many many of those calls and then we didn't have any real recourse to deal with it. So, that's why we brought this up to you all.

The other question I have is how many HOAs prohibited We're not an HOA, so I couldn't tell you that. But aren't there HOAs that you can't put a camper in the in the driveway? I'm certain there are I don't I don't know the specific rules of any HOA even within our own area here, but I'm quite certain there are HOAs that say that. Um, but

so let me let me jump in because honestly, Mr. President, we get we get this accusation a lot is Mount Vernon's wanting to turn into an HOA. No. Uh, and and quite precisely is the reason that we we brought this up is, you know, we were able, and I say we, it's these two guys right here that took a lot of flack and I think they need a lot of kudos directed their way. Um, we were able to go through and take out a lot of uh junk and then inoperable vehicles. And I use the word junk because the Ohio Revised Code uses the word junk. uh they were junk and and inoperable vehicles and the same uh penalty process that applied to that is you know to Miss Keener's point that's the same penalty process that applies to RVs and trailers and the things that they're talking about right now but we have had people call in and say hey I've spent tens of thousands of dollars on I mean there are there are some of these RVs and boats that are nicer than homes that are in certain parts of the area and that's not to say anything about the homes that's to say how nice some of these RVs and boats And I don't know that anybody, that's to say, because we've heard some heard some whoppers in the time, but I don't know that anybody would call and complain and say, "I don't want to live next to this big beautiful RV or this big beautiful boat." Maybe, maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't. What our purpose is is making sure what happened on Pleasant Street doesn't happen and it becomes a an obvious nuisance. and a a public health emergency where we have to forget all of this process and slap a sign on the thing that says this has been declared a public health emergency. You got 48 hours to take care of this or the city of Mount Vernon has to do it and that's what we want to avoid and we want to give these guys the tools to do that job. So to the point like there are some

communities that are restrictive enough to where you can feel like am I in an HOA or am I just in a public community? That's not where what we're going for. That's not the intention of this whatsoever. We want you to, if you're in the city of Mount Vernon and you want to buy a boat, you want to buy an RV, good. As long as you got room and a place to put it, have at it. But we do want people to know that this is not a place for you to just let something that you bought on Facebook Marketplace because you had $11 in your pocket, let it rot in your parking lot and make it everybody else on your block's problem. Is there any consideration you're not going to use your boat in December,

right? Is there any consideration to length of time that can be there? You're not I mean I understand they might want to take the boat out in the summertime, but we're going to leave it there all winter.

Well, there was there was some discussion about that and we kind of noodled that one through and and here's here's kind of my thoughts on that. people are going to people that were speaking to us about this were willing to lay down additions to their driveway side pulloffs to their driveway and such if they're going to spend that kind of money doing that is my presumption that they're going to want to maintain it probably at their house if if feasible and I I understand what you're saying too because I wouldn't want to walk out of my Cape Cod when I had one and see a a fifth wheel twice the size of my house in my neighbor's driveway because his house is probably very much like mine but we've added language in to disallow that you know that they they'd have to be within reason on the property they're in. Um I I do believe that many of them will put them still in storage for the winter, but I think that there will be many as well that will probably want to have them stored on the on their improved surfaces um all year round and we kind of allowed for that. And I guess my thoughts on I if you know the the feedback we got from the public was all for this. No one was anti- this that I was that I got. I didn't get any negative calls about campers. Um, most of the campers that people were calling about were upset because their campers been in their driveway for the last 10 years and unfortunately no one had ever enforced the ordinance with them. So, I don't foresee there being an overwhelming a lot of amount of change with this. But the beauty of our system is if for some reason we start getting feedback from the public that this is, you know, a horrible horrible thing, we always revisit it and and figure it out and make the adjustments we need to make if if we foresee a problem down the road. But right now, based on what we were told, this is kind of where the general public was as far as the campers and the boats went.

Sometimes you see a camper out in the driveway, they throw a tarp over all winter. No. Yeah, we're not going to allow that. There's there is always going to be your 130501, which is your exterior maintenance clause in your ordinances, which say you cannot create a nuisance, blight, or anything in your neighborhood. So there, I always have that resource. If I drive by and see a gray tarp tied around a camper, I am most certainly going to address that and say that is unacceptable. 1301 0501 allows me to say you need to get proper cover for your camper or we're just going to have a problem.

Thank you, Mr. Marvin. Um I think we're almost out of time and this is going up for its second reading. So could I get uh it seems like kind of a topic that people are interested in. So could I get uh 10 minutes on the next gathering? Okay, I join the uh vehicle storage. Um could I also ask for an Is this the time for me to ask for an amendment to that or is that when it comes up? When it comes up. All right. Thank you.

Okay, we're going to adjourn that committee meeting. I'm going to move back to Mr. Jacqueline on land use development to discuss uh amending uh chapter 1102. Well, my understanding is this is just pulling everything together that had this one section had been missing. Yeah. So, okay,

I'll I'll start it off and you can you can back clean up there. So over the past uh year or so now, we have been um yeah, cleaning up uh legislation similar to this uh that uh takes some of the um uh fee schedules and and things like that out of uh general um council hands and puts it in the under the control of the controlling board. It's a pretty typical thing for for fee schedules. I'll speak to uh past experience. Uh when I became the county recorder, uh there was a uh long-standing fee for copies that had been created by a judge from multiple judges ago that was 5 cents. And nobody wanted to touch it and 5 cents wasn't paying for anything. And uh a lot of um uh attorneys from I will say out of town because certainly local attorneys would never abuse that, Rob. um uh they would just send large amounts of requests in and they knew that they no matter what amount of work that it would cause on a a local person um they didn't really care because um somebody had to go dig through microfilm and they just had to to pay a 5-cent bill per page. So, uh, we went in and looked at what the statutory requirement was and we got that changed and that, uh, ended those large requests for random random pages, I should say. But this is an example of when when fee schedules are buried into legislation and can only be changed by legislative bodies and they have to go through three public readings and listening tours and, you know, all sorts of public scrutiny. And nobody likes to be the bad guy that sets the fee schedule, right? Then they never get touched. And and when really fees can be a tool for development, they can be a tool for you know um something to

disincentivize development. And that's something that most communities whether you know it's the state of Ohio or even the community like Mount Vernon can handle with a controlling board. So and I'll turn it over to Mr. Brewer.

I would just say that I would just say that we've actually been doing it for the last two or three years. Um, we've uh we've done it in at least a half a dozen different pieces of legislation, sort of setting the fees and changing it this way. That gives us flexibility to change, you know, if there are changes with the macro economy, whe there are changes with the state government, the federal government, depending on, you know, what the fee or what the permit is at the time. So, obviously, it's not uh going to be exorbitant or we are going to hear about it directly. We're the people that have to issue the permits ourselves. So,

anything else? No. Okay, we're going to adjourn the committee meetings. We're now in recess until 7:30 p.m. and begin the legislative portion of the meeting.