City Council - Regular Meeting

I'm going to call the land use and development committee together. Mr. Jacqueline to discuss the Arista Vista development and financial incentives. Mr. Jack.

There we go. All right. Well, we got a lot to cover, so I'm going to be very, very quick about introducing things on, uh, let's see, was that two weeks ago, Saturday. We had a meeting in which a fair amount of the public represented some of their concerns of which this NCA was considered a subsidy that Mount Vernon didn't necessarily need housing or need this level of housing. And the third thing that was considered HIGHLIGHTED BOTH IN THAT MEETING AND THROUGH E-MAILS WAS THAT that this money would be somehow, this development would somehow become a burden on the taxpayer through the NCA and the TIF. So what I am going to do is we have collected those concerns and we're going to try to get some answers to those. So if, let's see, Mr. Filkins, if you would like to come up and discuss the nature of an NCA.

Good evening. Do I need to give a statement or anything about one of these green ones?

Nope.

OK. Thank you. All right, I'm gonna take a few minutes. Darby's obviously the expert, the legal expert on the nuts and bolts of an NCA, but I wanna take a few minutes to take a step back to talk about housing and NCAs and TIFs in general. I'm gonna separate this from this particular development because I think that it's important to talk about NCAs and TIFs as tools. So I think there's a lot of misinformation and confusion about what these tools actually do. And it's understandable, they're complex. There are really three things I wanna talk about today. One, our need for housing, how we pay for the infrastructure in that housing, and how these tools do not put costs on existing Mount Vernon taxpayers. First, the need for housing. We have employers that need people. Yes, I need employers for new businesses, and that's definitely something that I struggle with in my job, but we also need people for retirements. We have looming in our, just in healthcare and manufacturing, which are our largest employment bases in Knox County, we have 3,550 retirements looming in the next six years. We have an aging workforce, and we need to fill those thousands of jobs with people who need to find a place to live. If we want businesses to grow, we need people. And if we want people to live here, we need places for them. But I also want to address something that I've heard a lot, which is, quote, we don't want people from out of town moving here. The reality is that people move to Mount Vernon for all kinds of reasons. Some move here for jobs, some move here because they want to raise a family, some move here to be closer to parents or grandchildren, some for just our quality of life. But if we're being honest, almost everyone in this room has a migration story. If everyone who grew up here moved away at some point and eventually came back, then they were a migrant back to Knox County. So my own family is a good example. I'm not from Knox County, which I guess I could get tarred and feathered for, but my parents aren't from Mount Vernon either. When we had our two boys, my parents wanted to live closer to their grandkids. Luckily for us, there was a place and a housing option available for them in Mount Vernon. That's not a problem that they moved here. That's how communities should work. My kids are gonna live a better life because they get to see their grandparents every day. And I believe that my parents' lives are gonna be extended because they get to be around their grandkids. That's important to me. So people move here, families grow, people leave, go to college, go get a first job, find that first love, and come back. Parents move closer to their children, children move closer to their parents, and people retire. But some people just simply want a place to live. We need housing. If we want Mount Vernon to be a community where people can live and work and raise families, we need the housing for all those folks. Now, this is not an argument that every housing development is good or that every development should be approved, but it is an argument that housing is something that our community needs. The second issue is infrastructure. When a new development is built, somebody has to pay for the roads, water, sewer, stormwater, and other infrastructure that goes into that development. Historically, there are two ways to do that. First, the developer pays for all the infrastructure up front and passes the cost along to the people who buy the property, typically making it less affordable. The second is to use financing tools like the NCA and TIF. Instead of the developer having to absorb all of that infrastructure cost up front, the infrastructure is financed and repaid through the new development. The NCA charges are paid by people who choose to buy property in that development. and the TIF uses new property value created by the development to generate the revenue to pay for infrastructure. Now that's important because no existing property tax revenue is being taken from existing homes to use for this infrastructure. The tax revenue being used is generated by the new value that would not exist if the development did not exist. So when you hear that the city is, quote, subsidizing development, I think it's important to understand what that actually means. The city is not taking money from an existing taxpayer to give it to a developer. Infrastructure still has to get paid for, though. The question is whether that cost is paid up front by the developer and ultimately passed down along to the buyer, or whether the development uses these financing tools to spread out that infrastructure cost over time and pay it back through the development itself. UNDER THE PROPOSED STRUCTURE, THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING THAT INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCE ARE THE DEVELOPER AND THE PEOPLE WHO CHOOSE TO PURCHASE PROPERTY WITHIN THAT DEVELOPMENT. IF YOU DON'T BUY PROPERTY IN DEVELOPMENT, YOU DON'T TAKE ON THAT OBLIGATION. IT'S NOT ON YOUR PROPERTY TAX BILL. IT'S NOT A NEW CHARGE ON EXISTING MOUNT VERNON HOMEOWNERS. IT ISN'T THE CITY TAKING MONEY FROM YOUR TAXES TO PAY FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S HOUSE. THAT DISTINCTION IS IMPORTANT. Finally, I think we need to be consistent on how we look at these tools. If we're going to use the NCA and TIF as tools to help finance infrastructure and support appropriate growth, then we should have objective standards for when and why they're appropriate. We should look at the project, the infrastructure, and the public benefit in the financial structure. We should not make a decision based on whether or not we like the developer, where the developer is from, or if we personally prefer development in one location over another. People are absolutely entitled to oppose a particular development, but if a property is zoned for a purpose and used for that purpose and it meets the development standards, that is a different question than whether or not these financing tools should exist. I support these tools because I believe Mount Vernon needs housing because that housing requires infrastructure and because these tools provide a way for that infrastructure to be paid for so that the development pays for it. The bottom of the mayor's email and the slogan for the city is build here, grow here. If we really want that, we have to be willing to build the housing and infrastructure that allows people to actually live and grow here. Thank you.

Thank you. I do want to ask this, and I apologize if some of these questions come out very pointedly.

Yeah.

Is Mount Vernon levying any debt?

No.

Thank you. Yeah.

I have a question. The question I get is the money to build the infrastructure isn't there because the taxes haven't been assessed yet. So where does the money come from up front to do the infrastructure? So it's... Since they're paying additional property tax, is there a loan against that? Where is that money coming from?

Yeah. And Darby would know a lot more about this, and he'll correct me if I'm wrong, but I'll use it in the language that makes sense to me. Yes, so the developer will have to get a bond. A bond is a loan that will be based on what the estimated future revenues are of the TIF and the NCA. So that's similar to a small business getting a loan. You don't have any income at the time. How in the world would you pay for the cupcake machine to be able to make cupcakes? You're saying that we're going to make this much money, and that will pay back the loan. But at the end of the day, the developer is still signing and taking all the risk. So if they don't build, and the property value does not go up, they have to make up that payment themselves.

That's a question I get. I just want to make sure that was clear to people.

Yeah. No, that's a good question.

Can I ask? Sure. So we have this developer that is in this little area. And without this tool, this developer has to pay $100,000 on Monday to build all the infrastructure. But with this tool, they can spread out that $100,000 for the next 30 years to pay for the infrastructure. Is that really?

Yeah. It's whether or not they're giving the capital out of their pocket up front or they're getting a loan for the capital.

But still, it's only paid for out of the folks that live here in this area.

Correct. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. The other thing is the developer could continue to build this without this. So this is not necessarily a discussion about whether or not we like the development or we don't. It's whether or not that particular tool and mechanism should be allowed. So the developer is free to use the traditional method, which is pass on the cost directly to the homeowners. Traditionally, if you do that method, that homeowner then has to get a higher mortgage and then pay interest on that mortgage, and at the end will pay more than if they paid their NCA and TIF charges. Any other questions for me? I know you have a tight schedule, so I want to be mindful.

Thank you, Mr. Hopkins.

Thank you.

I'd like to turn it over to the administration.

OK. THANK YOU, MR. CHAIR AND COUNSEL. ZACH, CAN YOU GO AHEAD AND PULL UP THE SLIDE HERE? THAT WOULD BE GREAT. SAM SAID THIS IS COMPLICATED. THIS IS VERY HARD TO UNPACK AND INTERPRET. SO MOVING FROM THE HIGH LEVEL ARGUMENTS THAT WE'VE HEARD, I THOUGHT I WOULD TAKE A MOMENT TO BE ABLE TO PUT SOME NUMBERS TO WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT TO KIND OF GIVE YOU A LITTLE BIT OF AN IDEA IN TERMS OF WHERE THE HOW THE FORMULA WORKS WHEN YOU CONSIDER THESE INVESTMENT INCENTIVES FOR NEW DEVELOPMENTS. BY THE WAY, THESE ARE USED BY DOZENS AND DOZENS OF OTHER GROWING COMMUNITIES AROUND OHIO WITH MUCH SUCCESS. SO JUST FOR THE SAKE OF THIS PRESENTATION AND MAKING SOME ASSUMPTIONS FOR THIS PARTICULAR ANALYSIS, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE 100 HOMES. I KNOW THAT THEY SAID 350,000. I THINK BY THE TIME IT'S DONE IT'S GOING TO BE 360. SO I JUST PUT THAT AS A PLACE MARKER. LET'S JUST ASSUME FOR THIS PRESENTATION IT'S 360,000. THE INFRASTRUCTURE ESTIMATE THAT HAS COME BACK TO US AT THE PLANNING LEVEL IS ABOUT 7.5 MILLION. AND THE NCA CHARGE PER HOME WOULD THEN TRANSLATE TO $1,260 PER YEAR. SO IF WE LOOK AT IT AGAIN AND AGAIN, THIS IS A PLANNING TOOL FOR COUNCIL, AND SO IT'S IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE NCA AND THE TIFS DO DIFFERENT JOBS, AND WE'VE HEARD FROM SAM A LITTLE BIT, BUT OBVIOUSLY THE NCA, THE BIG THING IS THAT IT CREATES A COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CHARGE ON HOMES IN THAT DISTRICT. THIS IS DIRECTLY ADDED TO THE HOMEOWNER'S COST. And then the non-school TIF, or where schools get their cut of the property taxes, what's left over goes into the TIF fund that is a redirection of taxes. And this is not our first TIF district either. And if I may defer to my colleague, Mr. Brinkman, to talk a little bit about the success of our current TIFs, that would be great. And then I'll pick it back up.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So the TIF that I have the most experience with, which is our largest TIF for the city right now, is the Coshocton Avenue TIF, which up until a couple years ago brought in about, say, right around $1.5 million a year. The TIF was reconstituted in 2024, got another 30-year lease on life, but With that, the nature of the TIFs changed. You took out the school revenue, which the Ohio revised code was changed to become Taylor. So you're no longer taking any money from the schools. It's just redirecting tax dollars that might go elsewhere in the county and bringing it back home for purposes here. So just a list of some of the things we've done. regular road improvements. In the last year, they've added new radar for better traffic flow on Coshocton. or Chestnut and Cushockton kind of meet there. I myself have noticed much better traffic flow there. There was an upper Gilchrist Road, Ohio Public Works loan that's been since paid off, Eastmore Drive water main improvements, Venture Drive and improvements by Danbury, Dogger Road improvements. We had a battery backup system for street lights on Cushockton. We've done mapping and underground videography of all the utility lines and sewer lines out there, street resurfacing and sidewalk on Coshocton. I think you all saw some of that in the spring. New pedestrian crossings to be ADA-compliant on Coshocton were added fairly recently, as well as new water meters within the TIF, cattle dam work and remedial measures, which kind of feeds into the Coshocton area TIF, so it's allowed within the scope of the TIF. Curb and ramp work, stormwater work, as well as some design work for upcoming projects in Coshocton and surrounding areas.

Thank you. And so we've seemed to have been able to get a lot of infrastructure paid for out of this TIF fund. Zach, could you go back one slide just for a second here? I just want to make sure to highlight what the, again, this is before any adjustments, but that TIF itself is close to $6.6 million in revenues over the 30-year period. The NCA is close to $3.8 million. Okay. Let's go to the next slide then. And this is...

In your model, you mentioned 100 homes. And let's say there's more than that. So instead of $1,260 a year, will my costs go down if there's more homes?

Will your costs go down if there are more?

But I think it's said to be 100 homes.

If you're a homeowner.

Yeah, let's say there's 300 homes instead of 100.

Oh, yes.

Well, with that $1260 for a year, if there's more people paying into the pot, will that go down?

It most absolutely will. That most absolutely will go down. That's the beautiful part about density is it shares the cost more. So, and you don't have to, the more people that you have paying into the tax revenues, the less of a burden it is on the rest of the citizenry. And then also, within that district, you get to share that. And we see that with Liberty Crossing. They have their model. I mean, there's going to be 470 units, 470 doorways there. And so, they're able to spread the cost among everyone there. So, yeah, definitely. Okay. Let's look at each home, the formula we're using, a $360,000 home. Let's say it's an appraised value then at 360. This is how you get your millage. It's a 10 mil NCA charge equals $10 for every $1,000 of assessed value. That results in $1,260 annual charge, or what boils down to be about $105 a month. Of that, The two mills equals approximately $252 per year for the city's portion, and eight mills equals approximately 1,008 for the NCA portion to help pay for the infrastructure and the maintenance. TIF line is different. It doesn't add any new charge, so that's why that's zero. And then... The estimated 2197 per year is, and again, this is illustrative, gross non-school increment redirect before any of the adjustments. And again, like I said, we're only using planning numbers right now. So once it gets designed and everybody signs on the dotted line, these numbers will likely change. But the math, the trends in the math will not. Okay, the key point with that is, future buyers will need to understand clearly what the NCA is and when they're, when they're signing on. So, okay. So what does it cost to provide services to what would it, what it costs based on a snapshot moment in time today to provide city services to this district, this, this housing development. And so, um, this model includes, I, I, SPARED YOU ALL FROM PUTTING A LONG SPREADSHEET DETAILED SPREADSHEET ON THERE AND JUST GROUPED THESE FOR YOU ALL SO PUBLIC SAFETY POLICE AND FIRE EMS IS 750 DOLLARS PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR DOING STREETS PAVING SNOW AND LIGHTING 674 PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR UTILITIES REPAIR REPLACEMENT WATER WASTEWATER STORM DRAINAGE AND PONDS AND THE STORMWATER ONLY INCLUDE THE STORMWATER FEES THAT WE ONLY INCLUDED HERE ARE THE MINIMUM ERUS SO THAT'S ALL WE WERE TALKING ABOUT NOW. SO THOSE ARE OTHER CHARGES THAT WILL BE OUTSIDE OF THIS. IT'S 729. AND THEN JUST DO OTHER ADMINISTRATION, ENGINEERING, CODE ENFORCEMENT. those things, $150 per household per home. So that's the total of what it costs per household per year to run the city, to provide services. And I think police and fire, when I did the formula, it was like .4 police officers or .5 or .6 firefighters just to provide services for this particular development. And if you look at the... ANNUAL COSTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT. THAT'S $230,000. SO THAT'S AN IMPORTANT NUMBER TO REMEMBER WHEN WE GO ON TO THE NEXT SLIDE WHEN WE TALK ABOUT INCOME TAX REVENUES. AND OVER THE 30-YEAR PERIOD, YOU'RE LOOKING AT JUST UNDER $7 MILLION TO PROVIDE CITY SERVICES TO THIS 100 HOME DEVELOPMENT. OKAY. SPEAKING OF INCOME TAX, What kind of tax revenue system are we going to be able to expect here? Again, doing the formula based on market trends, a $360,000 home THE MINIMUM HOUSEHOLD INCOME TO BE ABLE TO AFFORD ONE OF THESE HOMES IS GOING TO BE BETWEEN AT LEAST $115,000 OF HOUSEHOLD INCOME EVERY YEAR. THAT WILL ALLOW THE FUTURE HOMEOWNER TO PUT DOWN 20% AND AFFORD THE MORTGAGE FOR HOWEVER LONG THEY DECIDE TO DO THAT. Using that, I want to turn it over to Mr. Stoller, our treasurer, to talk about the implications and what this means from a tax revenue standpoint.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. And by the way, I did not grow up in Mount Vernon. I grew up in Coshocton, Ohio and moved here to take a job and have been living here for 40 years now. And I consider it my home, even though I'm an outsider. and met my wife, raised kids, and it's been a great town. So I, as the elected official and as treasurer, I have the income tax department, and so that's under my purview. And when I put out this schedule and I sent it to you guys, AND I'VE SAID BEFORE, THE IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER WHEN YOU'RE IN COUNCIL MAKING DECISIONS IS THAT THE INCOME TAX THAT COMES IN IS really important and we need to guard this the yellow part and the green part on this schedule which is withholding and people ask who are going to buy these homes well they're people that are working and we like working people because they contribute to the yellow and the withholding is the lifeblood of our tax system and what we get to do at Mount Vernon and how we live. So making decisions and protecting that is very important. So how it affects this particular development is if you have 100 homes and say the average is 115,000, and that's pretty conservative. If you have a dual-income home, it's easy to get above 115,000. But let's just stick with 115,000, 100 homes. You're going to bring in $172,000. $172,500 into the green and the yellow area. So that's what it means for the income tax portion. And how do we get to 1.5% when the rate is 2%? If you work in Mount Vernon and you live in Mount Vernon, you're going to pay 2%. If you live in Mount Vernon and you work outside of Mount Vernon, we're going to give you a 1% credit. So you actually pay 1% to Mount Vernon. So the way this breaks down is let's just say 50% of the people work and live in Mount Vernon and 50% work and live uh live in mount vernon and work outside of mount vernon that comes down to one and a half percent breed that's how we're that's how we're getting to this number but that's that's what we need to do to protect the lifeblood of mount vernon we need to attract workers that live here and work and pay this withholding tax

I am cognizant of time, Mr. President and Mr. Chair. So, Zach, let's go ahead and move on to the next slide here. And this is where we see, you know, we can't just rely on those income taxes to be able to pay for the infrastructure and the things that are happening. And so this provides the four different scenarios of scenario number one where you do not see a blue line there. That is the old way of doing things. THAT IS WHERE THE DEVELOPER COMES IN, THEY ASSUME EVERYTHING, THEY PASS THE COST ONTO THE HOMEOWNER, AND THEY ASSUME EVERYTHING, AND THEN THEY LEAVE. NOW, THE NEXT COLUMN SHOWS 3.78 MILLION THAT IS NEW REVENUE GENERATED BY THE NCA. Column three is what the TIF funds are bringing. They're bringing in over six and a half million is what we said. And so combined, using these economic development incentive tools, we are generating over $10 million IN NEW REVENUE FROM THIS DEVELOPMENT ALONE THAT WILL HELP US PAY FOR CITY SERVICES. NOW LET'S MOVE ON TO NUMBER 7. THE NEXT ONE PUTS IT INTO AN ANNUAL FORM. SO THE OLD WAY, THE ANNUAL REVENUE IS $304,000. THE ANNUAL COST, YOU SEE WE HAVE A NET, WE'RE IN THE HOLE EVERY YEAR, $175,000. WHEREAS IF WE HAVE THESE TOOLS IN PLACE, WE'RE GENERATING A SURPLUS OF $194,000. AND AGAIN, WHAT THAT MEANS FROM A 30-YEAR STANDPOINT, IF WE CAN MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ONE JUST TO KEEP THINGS MOVING. TO THE LEFT, OVER THE 30-YEAR PERIOD, THAT IS THE OLD WAY OF DOING THINGS. TO THE RIGHT, We would create, the city would create a surplus of $5.83 million to be able to keep up with the growth. This is when we say growth pays for growth. This is what it means. That's an $11.09 million gap council. If we have no incentives, if we have no investments here, you surely will be subsidizing this development. Next one. THE INFRASTRUCTURE COST DOES NOT DISAPPEAR. WE'RE NOT PRETENDING THAT THAT'S POSSIBLE. AND SO LIKELY THIS IS GOING TO BE WHAT THE LOTS ARE GOING TO COST, 74, 857. AND IF WE DO HAVE THE NCA, JUST LOOKING AT THE NCA ITSELF, THE 30-YEAR STREAM WOULD COVER ABOUT HALF OF THAT, THAT TOTAL PLANNING LEVEL INFRASTRUCTURE COST. AND IF WE CAN JUST KEEP MOVING. ONE OF THE QUESTIONS THAT WAS WAS WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO THE EVERYDAY TAXPAYER, EVERYDAY CITIZEN IN MOUNT VERNON? WHAT DO THESE MEAN? AND SO IF WE DO NOT HAVE THE INCENTIVES, THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS PER CITIZEN BASED ON THE HOUSEHOLDS. THAT INFRASTRUCTURE COST ESTIMATE PUT INTO THE NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS, 7,100 HOUSEHOLDS, TRANSLATES TO BE ABOUT $35 A YEAR OR OVER THE 30-YEAR PERIOD, A LITTLE OVER $1,000. AND THEN IF WE DO HAVE THESE INCENTIVES, THAT GOES AWAY. THEY'RE NOT BURDENED BY THAT. THE COST EXISTS EITHER WAY. AND LET'S KEEP MOVING HERE AGAIN. I JUST WANT TO KEEP US ON SCHEDULE FOR THE PUBLIC HEARING AS WELL. THESE ARE THE CONSIDERATIONS AND THE COMMUNITY CONCERNS THAT WE HEARD, AND WE WANT TO JUST REASSURE. THERE'S NO CITY DEBT EXPOSURE HERE. The final documents will state no general fund pledge, no moral obligation, bond guarantee, or any shortage backstop. That's not part of this deal. CLEAR BUYER DISCLOSURE. I HAVE BENT DARBY'S EAR OVER AND OVER. EVERY HOMEOWNER NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT THEY'RE BUYING WHEN THEY GET INTO THIS. WE DON'T WANT ANY SURPRISES. WE WANT TO ALSO PROTECT THE CITY TWO MILLS. THIS WILL COME AS A COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT LATER ON AND IT WILL OUTLINE WHAT THE CITY INTENDS TO USE THEM FOR AND WHAT THE DEVELOPER INTENDS TO USE THEM FOR. THERE'S NO DOUBLE REIMBURSEMENT. IT'S ONLY GOING TO BE DONE ON PAID INVOICES, REQUISITIONS, CAPS, LEGAL REVIEW, FRAUD PROTECTIONS, AND GOVERN REIMBURSEMENT. AND THEN THE TIF REVIEW IS SEPARATE, AND SO WE'RE NOT TOUCHING THE SCHOOLS. THEY'RE GOING TO BE MADE WHOLE, AND THE TAXING DISTRICT'S IMPACT SHOULD BE CLEAR. LAST THING THAT I WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT I POINTED OUT, AND YOU GUYS CAN, I'LL TURN IT BACK OVER TO YOU, MR. CHAIR. I KNOW WE'RE RUNNING TIGHT ON TIME. WE'RE NOT PRETENDING THAT THE INFRASTRUCTURE IS FREE. We hire contractors every year to put in public infrastructure. The question is, how is it paid for? And I think we've been able to show you in how the math trends, how the arithmetic works in the city's favor with these investment incentives. If we do the old way, we will surely be paying for costs in that development. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

That concludes that committee meeting. By law, we need to start the, because it's been posted, we need to start the public hearing on time, about 6.30. I'm going to go back to Land Use Development, Mr. Jackman, for the public hearing on risk to village, proposed tax, and commit financing. Mr. Jackman.

I have one request to speak, and it is Mr. Don Carr. Oh, we can, I was just starting with him because he, he, uh, so we are starting with Mr. Don Carr.

Mr. Jackman, will there be a time limit for the, uh, yes, four minutes.

I have a handout, I think it made it out so it makes your reading a little bit easier. I hope you understood exactly what you saw here tonight prior to me stepping up here. That's a lot of numbers, a lot of bureaucracy I think that was described. I'd like to first thank Mr. Jacklin and Ms. Hager who made the arrangements for the public coffee on Saturday, August 1st to discuss the tips being considered tonight. We shared opinions and heard from the mayor. I believe the so-called elephant in the room is really the conflict BETWEEN THE PHILOSOPHY OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT DECISIONS. THE CITY ADMINISTRATION CONTINUES TO PROMOTE A POPULATION INCREASE THAT HOPE SHOWS UP IN THE NEXT CENSUS, BUT THE MAJORITY OF COMMENTS I SEE ON SOCIAL MEDIA ARE CITIZENS WHO LOVE MOUNT VERNON. Love it the way it is today, a wholesome quality of hometown. The two hour meeting was well attended, considering the fact that it was 9 AM in the morning. And those who attended came to an agreement by a show of hands. that quote unquote no TIF funds should be used inside the four boundaries of a private owned parcel of undeveloped land. It seems Mount Vernon residents agree with many other communities all over Ohio. I won't go into the reasons to vote down this legislation tonight. You've seen it from the public. You've seen it from me. The general consensus I see when considering the use of TIFs is that this is a tool that's helpful when developing commercial land. There are very few examples of TIF, Ohio TIF funds being used to build roads inside a proposed housing development. As a matter of fact, just for information, I saw it coming in, you know how many NCA organizations there are in the state of Ohio? 55. This is not a massive movement by states, counties, municipalities to go to. Cleveland established the North Coast waterfront. I'm going to skip that because I know I'm running out of time. Homeowners can discover shortly before closing the 30-year NCA charge that's being imposed on them. Residential buyers may perceive these additional property fees as hidden costs that are passed on to them. These fees can negatively impact the real estate marketability. There is very, there is very, there is very, maybe little, I'm sorry, evidence that a NCA TIF to finance infrastructure inside a private residential development protects existing taxpayers and homeowners, but rather shifts the developer's infrastructure costs onto people who buy the new homes. The NCA TIF is being used to finance a street that primarily serves the subdivision itself. You and I may find the NCA TIF charges affordable. but our grandsons and daughters, granddaughters may find this an added housing expense, a heavy burden toward their buying power that they have to deal with and deal with it for 30 years. This 1% 10 mil assessment stays within property, not the original owner.

That is your time.

May I continue?

We'll leave four minutes at first. If we have time, we'll come back and give you another four. Thank you.

Is there anybody who would like to speak in favor of the NCA? Anybody who would like to speak against?

Yeah, I will after this.

Yes, Mr. Hillier, because I know who you are by name. Please come up.

Just because Taylor was my Cub Scout when he was eight years old, I do know he's one of these that have born and raised in Mount Vernon. I am Mike Hillier, for those that might be watching didn't know me. I was on city council, retired. I was part of the council that voted for the NCA. I heard a couple of things that I take away from this is, If you live in Mount Vernon, you don't want anybody moved to it. Well, I don't think that's the way I was raised or my wife and her family. I mean, we've always said, welcome to Mount Vernon. So I don't think that's what we're asking. The other thing is, I do ask that when we're going to bring all these people to Mount Vernon, let's not be a Pickerington or some of these other places, Johnstown, how about that one? We can't get through it. That's what TIF money's for. It's not for developing a road for a developer. I asked you to keep the TIF. I mean, we talked Saturday, and I asked you to amend it. And I'll skip right to that. I asked the legislation for the TIF and the NCA. I want those. I voted for those because that takes care of... What's outside the development? When we have to upgrade our water and sewer, upgrade our storm sewer, the money that we get from that TIF for that NCA, I know from the NCA, because that's why we talked about the NCA, was to do some of this development we need to do. Upgrade Vernon View Drive. I mean, sit there now on Beach Street, try to take a left turn. It's about impossible. But we're going to have to upgrade it sometime. Don't take it out of my tax dollars. Take it out of the tax dollars we want to stick in this development. I ask that you do vote for the TIF and the NCA, but amend it to read. And I'm going to, English is not a class I spend a lot of time in, so you can write however you want. No city money, TIF, NCA, or other tax dollar to be used for the development of 0 Vernon View Drive, Arista Villas. Arista Villas is on the record that I could see on the county auditor's page. ROUGHLY 2023. I THINK THIS IS THE THIRD IF NOT FOURTH ATTEMPT. I'M NOT AGAINST DEVELOPMENT. I WANT RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT. THIS GUY, IF YOU, AND I'M NOT SAYING HE'S GOING TO COME TO MALVER AND DO WHAT HE'S DONE A COUPLE PREVIOUS SPOTS BEFORE, AND I KNOW WE'RE NOT TALKING THE ORIGINAL GUY THAT ORIGINALLY TALKED TO US, BUT YET IT'S STILL ARISTAVILLAS. SO DON'T GET CONFUSED ON THAT. Jerry Baker's, I can't think of your development.

Compass Point.

Compass Point. Did the city put tax dollars in those? I don't think so. Jerry Baker, I remember one time, come to Mount Vernon, Mayor Mavis had set up at the Eastern Star home, called all the neighbors he could. Jerry Baker wanted the city to bring a road across from New Gamer Road to 229. And it's pretty nice. That would have been a pretty nice road. But Jerry Baker was going to benefit from building on both sides of that road. Didn't have a dime in the road. Do you remember that, Bruce? Mayor May was to this day, and I wasn't on council yet, will bring up my name because I ask questions about why should Jerry Baker benefit from Mount Vernon building the road. So if you haven't done your homework, start asking tonight. There's a pretty good group of people there who may have some answers. How many times have we thrown tax dollars into development, whether it's NCA, TIF, or out of my pocket? I think that's a good question to ask. So vote for it, but amend it. I want those NCA dollars, but I want them to work for us so you don't have to pay to upgrade storm sewers, upgrade sewer, upgrade water. You know, it's going to happen. You can't keep bringing more and more people into Mount Vernon. And now I have to do upgrades and that I am done. I do want to show you one thing, Jay. I still write all over my notes.

So can I ask, um, not, I'm sorry, not, I mean, administration, um, is there a space in the city where we have utilized this tool in the past for an NCA?

Is there a, could you repeat that again, please?

So have we utilized an NCA for this tool in the past?

Oh yeah, Liberty Crossing.

Yes, so how long ago was that?

Oh gosh.

Last year.

Last year? Last year, maybe negotiations started a couple years ago.

So there's a precedent already of using NCA funds within the NCA?

Yes.

Already, okay. So this is something that council has already done in the city?

Yes. Now I have a question. My apologies. There is money going to be used inside the NCA as it's written. But is there no money available to be used outside the development from this NCA or from this TIF? Or is all the money going to be used inside the borders as written? Could you clarify that, please?

Councilman, yes, the NCA gives you a little more flexibility. And I might lean on Darby to help answer this question a little bit more. But all those services that on that one slide that says what does it cost to, we can decide where those NCA monies are going to go. And that, I believe, does that not come from the cooperative agreement later on, Darby?

You got to use the microphone. Thank you, sir. And just you might want to stay there a minute.

Yeah, I'll try to be to the point, though, because I know that some other residents might still want to speak. So the new community authority creates a charge that can be used for facilities outside of the development. It is more flexible. And as far as how much is being retained for this particular development, Arista Villas, two mills is going to be retained by the NCA and then allowed for city use. And then the current plan is eight mills would be pledged the repayment of the bonds that would be issued to finance the public infrastructure and the development.

The TIF funds, the way the TIF statute is written... Mr. Dooley, before you go on about the TIF, can you explain who will be the bond holder?

The bond holder would, so the bond issuer, no worries. The bond issuer would not be the city. So when we talk about there being this loan for the public infrastructure, it's a loan of public debt, the city isn't issuing that bond. It is most likely going to be a port authority. In Ohio, that's typically who issues bonds. When we talk about bondholders, that's who buys the bonds. If you ever have an investment portfolio, you probably have some bonds in there. Those are just people out in the market who buy the bonds and take on the risk that those bonds may or may not be paid. As far as the TIF statute, I did want to touch on something that was mentioned. The TIF statute does allow flexibility for funds to be used that benefit the parcel, and that language is very important. So yes, that allows some flexibility to use money outside of the TIF area, but only if you can tie it back to benefiting the parcel that the TIF revenue comes from. So that's still some flexibility, but a little less flexibility. TIF statutes were designed in order to finance public infrastructure that is closely tied or located on the parcel that is generating the TIF revenue. The idea being that the growth of that tax base pays for the support of where the revenue comes from.

In our past, we have harnessed Using the formula, using the math of the businesses along the Shockton Avenue corridor, if you will, been able to take a portion of those TIF funds and apply it to a project at the water treatment plant, for example.

I would like to open this back up to the public and probably have one more question.

I was going to just say, the question I think originally was, will all the NTA charge be used within development? The answer is no, it will not. Getting back to the original question that he asked.

And the TIF as well. So there's money to be used through the NCA elsewhere in the city and in the TIF, roads leading into the development, other things. I know the TIF is tied much more closely to the development.

As he said, it's anything that benefits the TIF, whether it's roads adjacent to it, coming into it, infrastructure that supports it that isn't actually located within the TIF area, all of those are subject to TIF funding.

Mr. Burren, Mr. Dooley, council, let's use Mr. Hillier's example because I think it's worth exploring and I think that for the benefit of the public this is a good use of how TIFs operate versus NCA's. If there is 100 homes built, using this example, if there are 100 homes built on this Vernon View parcel and that creates an additional amount of, obviously it will create additional traffic flow on Vernon View and could potentially back up onto Beach Street, that is flow just outside of the TIF district and would be as a result of population increase in the TIF district, you could easily justify using TIF dollars to advance a public project outside of the TIF district for benefit of the TIF.

That's exactly right. And you can even look as far as if there's a certain water facility or wastewater facility that you know traces back to the development. It's that kind of reasoning. So it is flexible. We do expect that once we get projections back on the TIF revenue that there would be an excess above what would be given to the developer. So we expect there to be a city portion there. We have all sorts of allocations. within our standard template for the contracts that govern this that would make sure that other costs of the city are covered that are particularly important.

I think it's important that Mr. Filkins noted that the development may continue with or without these incentives. We have had developments continue without incentives. In this case, if the development continued and these incentives did not exist and the issue of traffic on Beach Street or traffic on Vernon View moved forward without these incentives, the cost would be then borne by who? That was not rhetorical. That would be the current tax base of the city of Mount Vernon.

We do need to open the floor back up.

It is worth noting.

Could you please address Mr. Carr's concern that I share over disclosure for new homeowners inside this development?

Can we do that when we get to the portion of where, like, when this comes up for a vote. Because I'm concerned that there might be some people out there and we're running out of time.

Mr. Carr asked that question. This is an opportunity to answer it.

Sure, I'll answer that question and we can open it back up to residents.

So disclosure happens through the title review process when you buy a home.

There will be recorded documents related to these incentives that will disclose to home buyers the additional charges. that'll be part of their consideration I think most homebuyers look pretty closely at the tax burden of their property and so this would call attention to that and they would be able to take that into account as they consider their overall costs of ownership thank you thank you very much thank you I I would like to open the floor to anyone who would like to speak on behalf or against

My name's Gary Kester. I live on Eastgate Drive. And I came here 20 years ago to work with Rolls-Royce and Siemens as an engineer. And after being here 20 years, I decided to stay. Why? Because why? The same reason you all are here. It's a great place. Has a tremendous heritage and history. And good people. And it's a warm place to be in. But I see a serious transition going on right now. We've got this disease that we have to grow. We have to have housing. And I've worked as a professional engineer for the last 45 years all over the country, and I've seen this disease everywhere. And I don't mean to characterize it in a particularly negative way, but we have a special place here. We already have several housing developments already underway. We have Rockford. We have Liberty Crossing. We have Foundation Grove, Founders Grove. We have the Eastern Star. We have the Mazza Project. The city tells us once the police station goes in, there's going to be a housing development north of it. And if you just do some round numbers, you're talking about a 20% increase in population here in the next two to three, five, four years. Can we even handle that current growth that's already been authorized and to go forward? I have serious concerns about it, having seen this. phenomena occur everywhere I have ever lived, including Columbus. I would ask you to really consider about the bigger picture of where we're headed. And I've often heard this place, Mount Vernon, characterized as a wonderful place to live. I really didn't come here to live here, because I could have lived in Westerville. I could have moved back to California or New York, where I have worked before. I chose to stay here because there's a certain culture that I think is worth preserving in this huge transition in the economy and the culture of our country that's currently going forward. Further, I'd like to say with regard to this legislation, I am not in favor of this money being used to help the developer. I worked on too many projects as a project engineer to know that when something is as complicated as the mayor has characterized this, it's going to be a problem in the future. Thank you.

Is there anybody who would like to speak? We have seven minutes.

Yeah, there we go.

So I guess for full disclosure, I'm Jeff and my family moved here in 1797.

We go back the eight generations, Grandma Phillips is gonna go right back to Mike Hillier's wife's family. If you knew that or not, Mike, we go back that far. Okay, I think the premise that we need more houses is eluding. I just looked, there's 109 houses for sale in Mount Vernon. You guys know that? There's 109 for sale. How many's sold down at Liberty Crossing? I mean, I looked on the website and it looks like there's two sold and looks like there's about 30 or 40 built. I mean, I don't know that there's that great of a need for housing here. A lot of that was based on Intel coming in down to Johnstown and everyone move up here and live and then drive down there. That was the other, that was the one thought. The new owners are gonna pay for this one way or the other. Right, we've decided that. Whether it's in TIF or through a raised price of their lots. I vote for the raised price of their lots. I like the TIF if it's used for our infrastructure outside the development. The original plan back in 2023 was they were going to build all the infrastructure, build it to our specs, and then we would take it over upon completion. Something's changed between now and then. And I think the people came in and they looked at that land because the proposal, did anyone read that 467 pages? Any of you? There's the proposal that we're voting on. They're going to move. They're proposing 100,000 cubic yards of dirt is going to be moved. It's in that proposal. That's 1,000 cubic yards per house. Now, that's just a number, right? You guys know them big earth movers that come in? They hold 25. So they're going to need 40 of those per house. That's how much dirt is going to be moved up there. How are we going to decide who pays? OK, say we pay for the road. At what point do we pay? Do we have like a dollar amount? Because it's going to be more than the $3,000 that we get. Do we have a limit on what we're going to spend inside? What we're going to give them? Do we just give them a check? Or do we bid? Is the road going to the projects that we pay for through the TIF, are they going to be bid? How does that money come from the government subsidy or the government pile? How does it get to pay for that infrastructure? For me, I see it's a commingling of funds. And I don't understand that, how we can pay. Are they going to pay for the earth movement and we're going to come in and put the rock down in the blacktop? I don't know. How do we figure out how much money we're giving them? I guess that's all I got. Thank you.

So to my understanding, and Mr. Dooley, please correct me if I'm wrong, we aren't giving them any money. Is that correct? Yes, please. The developer is not receiving any money from Mount Vernon.

um to the question uh to the questions that were raised um as far as is there a cap on how much um of the infrastructure will be financed by these incentives which to your point this incentives are generating revenue that is separate from the from the general fund of the city So the money that's going to finance the public infrastructure that we're talking about is being generated solely by the redirected tax revenue of the TIF and the additional charge of the NCA. In no way is the general fund of the city exposed. There would be a maximum reimbursement, and we are in the process of determining what that amount should be. So that's going to fall onto our law firm, Bricker Graydon. We have a financial analyst who works for our team. And he is currently looking at the projections that were provided by the developer. And so one of the reasons we're not giving that number today is we're performing due diligence on the developer's number because the city should have that verified. After we verify that, there are a number of parameters that we look at to determine what that maximum financeable amount should be. Typically, we look at the estimated total costs, but we often suggest lower based off of what we think a bond issuer that we've talked about, a port authority, would be willing to give. And then there are other considerations like what the city wants to retain for itself. So that is an analysis that we're still working through. It's one that we've gone through with other deals, and the city has taken a pretty strong negotiation position on those. For example, Founders Grove is an example where we set a strong cap. So that answers the cap question. The last question there was, well, how do we make sure that the money that we're talking about is properly used and gets towards the payment of the public infrastructure? That happens through a formal submission of a certification. That's a legal document where you basically sign your name and you say, I've certified that this is true and I opened myself up to allegations of fraud and I opened myself up to liability if I'm lying to the city. The developer submits that certification to the city. It has invoices attached. It has all sorts of other information that supports it. And provided that the developer is in compliance with the agreement with the city, provided the developer has provided its signature and put its reputation behind it, then the city reviews that. And then the city would release funds, assuming that everything is above board.

Thank you.

The public hearing is over. It ends at 7, so we need to move on with our agenda.

I'm sure there will be time during the legislative portion of the meeting to get into more detail if we need to.

We're now in finance and budget with Mr. Mahan to discuss Orders 2026-28, renaming 407 funds, creating a 409 fund to reallocate municipal income tax distribution. Mr. Mahan.

Council, you will recall that I announced this last week and asked you to review. This legislation is on page, let's see, 2026, 68 is on page, well, I've lost it. It's past page 101 on your agenda tonight. Essentially, you'll recall a month ago we had a significant amendment in a piece of legislation regarding the moving funds in order to pay specifically for these capital projects. This is, it wasn't quite ready for prime time, so we amended and took it out, and now we are bringing it back. Mr. Brinkman has it. explanation of this, I believe. But before I turn it over to him, I'd like to remind you that I did say I was going to ask this to be passed this evening. It will. It received its first reading. Tonight it's the second. We're having a committee meeting. I will be asking you to pass it this evening. Mr. Brinkman, can you help us out with this, please?

Of course. Thank you, Mr. Mahan. So what we're trying to do here is really a number of things, starting with... kind of creating a vehicle to spend the money for the duration of the police station bond, the police station project. So we had originally thought about a month, a few weeks ago, that we were going to use a fund, I believe it was the 227 or it was a error relief fund i don't exactly remember the number because it's defunct so we're trying to find a defunct fund that no money has been spent out of because that's kind of the ideal way to do these things for a few reasons we decided maybe that wasn't the best way to go about it so we kind of We expense adjusted out any expenses that had happened in the 407 that were not police station related to kind of create the vehicle for the PD bond within the 407 that council had created, I believe, early 2005, right after we got this money. Actually, the original $2 million one-time strategic fund that we got. Working through by the sections of this, we've got seven sections, so we'll try to keep rolling here. The first section just renames the fund, kind of like we were talking about. Second section, we create one additional line within the fund for fees and incidentals. We just kind of tried to logic out, well, are we covering all our bases with this? Is there anything that we're leaving out for building a police station? So to our best knowledge, this should hopefully cover the cover our bases with anything else that might come up. Section three, we kind of look ahead a little bit, create the 409 fund. So the even-numbered 400 series funds are all, they tend to be TIFs, so like the 402 is the Coshocton, and we have the industrial TIF, What's the other one? The Sandusky TIF. Sandusky Street. And then there's another TIF or two that are going to start getting revenue here soon. And then the even-numbered 400 series funds are capital improvement funds. So we've got 401, 405, 407. So we're thinking of creating the 409 for the upcoming Justice Center project. to kind of keep the internal logic of our even and odd numbering scheme. So section four, we basically just mirror all the lines that exist in the 407 and repeat them in the 409 since it's another building project. section five this is probably one of the more meatier sections of this ordinance here what we're doing is council will remember a few months ago we changed the income tax allocation So with this, since we are changing the purpose of the 407, we thought it appropriate to take that bucket of the income tax dollars, which is 11%, and move it more directly toward the purpose that council originally intended for it, which was to pay down debt anyway. So instead of parking it in the 407, where we had intended to use it for debt repayment, Now we're hoping to park it in 301 where it will have to be used for bond repayment because that's the name of the bond, the bond repayment fund. So really the intent is the same in that, but we're just kind of changing the address where we're paying it from. Section 6 allows my office to make any necessary accounting work contemplated by the ordinance, and Section 7 just kind of sets an enactment date. Does Council have any questions?

Anything else, Mr. Mahan?

Well, sir, thank you, sir.

Any concern with suspending the rules?

I intend to, yes, I intend to ask council to suspend the rules this evening. Thank you.

Okay. We're going to adjourn the finance and budget committee. We're going to move now to police, fire and civil defense with Mr. Miller. Discuss resolution 2026-81 donating surplus supplies.

Yes, thank you, Mr. President. At this time, I'm going to ask Chief Morgan to come up and explain exactly what this ordinance.

Good evening. So this ordinance covers some old radio equipment that we have. Council, remember last year we bought new radios for our police cars. Part of what the old equipment was we took out were what's called a repeater. And what that does is it amplifies an officer's portable radio through the car and back to the tower to give us extra range. Well, with the new radios, we did some tests around town. We have towers in town, and we realized we didn't need the repeaters in the new cars. So as part of our new purchase of the new radios, we did not purchase new repeaters. So these have just been in storage since then. I was contacted by the Knox County Sheriff, Sheriff Wekester, here a while back, and he said they have identified some areas of the county that they're having trouble with getting signal, and wanted to know if we had any old repeaters that we might be able to donate gifts to them for their vehicles. These repeaters we have do not work with our new system. They will work with the sheriff's system. So instead of sitting in a box, they have a trade-in value. I contacted our local radio vendor. They have a trade-in value of approximately zero at this point. So I think the best purpose is it still serves a public purpose. It still serves a purpose within Knox County. and we can help them out a little bit. Thank you, Chief.

Ask if there's any questions.

Are there any questions? Thank you, Council. Thank you. Okay, we're going to... As I... Some of you probably already know I'm not a big proponent for suspension of the rules, nor the emergency clause for that matter so much. But in a case like this, this is something that's simply sitting on the shelf. It's something that our Sheriff's Department could definitely need. And I consider the fact that we have deputies out there that may be on a traffic stop. and their radio isn't working, and they're not being able to transmit. I think this is definitely for the public good, and because of that reason, I will ask to suspend the rules tonight and take this to its third and final reading. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you. We're going to adjourn the Police, Fire, and Civil Defense Committee. We're going to be in recess now until 7.30 p.m. We begin the legislative portion of the meeting. South 7 30 PM. We're going to call the legislative portion of the August 10th meeting of Mount Vernon city council to order. Please call the roll.

Mrs. Hager here. Mr. Miller here. Mr. Severance here. Mr. Jacqueline here. Mr. Rucker here. Miss Keener here. Mr. Mahan here.

We are in session. The invocation this evening, and I haven't seen Michael Hunter. Is Michael Hunter here? That being said, we're going to call on Mr. Severance to have the invocation. Please rise to the invocation. The committee is standing for the pledge.

Let us pray. Father, we do thank you for this time. We can be here together in the city of Mount Vernon. We do ask for wisdom and guidance in all that we do here as a city administration and a city council. Thank you for the residents who have come to voice concerns and express what they believe is a good thing for Mount Vernon. We do appreciate it. So I pray, Lord God, that you'll give us wisdom tonight as we look over these legislation pieces, that you will help us to make the best decision for the future of Mount Vernon, Ohio. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Count on your packets are the minutes from the July 27th meeting. Are there any additions or corrections?

Um, there is a tiny correction. Um, we have listed on page 14 of the minutes that hold on, let me find it. Sorry. Um, that someone called Jay Serino made a comment, um, asked the mayor basically who was paying for roads and it's Dave Serino. Cause I know him personally. Okay.

We make that correction. With that correction, are there any other additions or changes? That being said, a call for approval.

So moved.

Second. Moved and seconded to be approved without change. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. They are approved. Any petitions or communications? No. And your packet for the committee reports from two committee meetings for your review. I see no liquor control licenses or proclamations. We do have several people wanting to speak on matters of public concern. We're going to ask that you limit your comments to four minutes. We have one person that's asked for five and a half when we get to that. while city council if they will approve a little addition. She has two topics she wants to discuss. So when you call your name, please come to the podium and state your name and address and limit your comments to four minutes. Jennifer? Shaman? Shaman? Okay, I can't read the writing. On tax incentives.

Can you hear me?

You can pull it down.

Yeah, when I did that last time, I fell off, and it took me a long time to go to person. Sorry.

It's a different stand now.

Oh.

Yes, sir.

So Jennifer Showman, 200 North Edgewood Road. So I just wanted to start off that I understand why the developer wants the tax incentives. I understand why the city wants the tax incentives. But what I'm asking you guys is as representatives of the people, why are you voting? Like, how are you going to vote on this that represents the people? What do you see as the reasons for this as someone representing the people? So earlier someone made three points. We have a need for housing, an aging workforce. But I'm asking you, does this development, are people actually gonna be able to afford it with the jobs that they're getting in this town? Is it something that is filling the need? And then they said that there's two ways to pay for infrastructure. The developer pays for it up front, or you have these incentives. And I'm going to ask, as a homeowner, I want to see those costs up front. I want to see if I'm shopping for a home, I want to see that the price tag I'm looking at, the houses are in my price range, and then I can afford it. I want to see it up front. I don't want to see it in my closing costs as something that's added bills of an extra month's rent, I think is how it was worded earlier, that's being added to my cost for housing and my loans. I think the third point was TIFs redirect money, and I understand that. It's not taking money from people, it's only the developmental, people in the development are paying for it, but it's still redirecting. Where is that money coming for? You've got pools of money and you're still saying, okay, we're gonna add 100 homes, we're gonna add 100 people that are using our infrastructure, that are using our services, but instead of having their tax revenue go to what's typically going toward, we're pulling that away and it's only going to this development. And it's paying for infrastructure that I believe the developer should have already paid for. I think I have one more point, sorry. Oh, and I also, as you're looking at these tax incentives, I know that the developer comes and asks for it, but if we're going to ask our people to pay more, it seems a little skewed to be like, oh, you get two mils and you get eight mils. Again, I just want to make sure that we're representing the people who are in this town, the people that are coming to this town, and making sure that we're filling the needs and that they're able to enjoy growing here and being here like the rest of us. Thank you.

Thank you. we're going to skip on the agenda now to our, our quarterly report from Zach Green. So he didn't have to stay through, through everything. He might, might get to a baseball game or something. I don't know.

Good evening council president. Thank you. I appreciate your time. Uh, In addition to the month or the quarterly statistic reports I gave you, I do want to give you a quick update reference to life. I know it's something I always provide quarterly. What you'll see here is 88 cases year to date at the end of second quarter. As of this morning, we have 138 confirmed cases. So going from July till today, this is the increase, which is not uncommon and knowing the fact that that vector is going to be more active throughout the summer months. However, year to date in 2025, we were 147. So yes, a few cases behind, but I would argue we're maintaining kind of that situation of cases within Lyme and then our community are going to be ongoing. Two interesting dynamics in addition to black-legged deer ticks. Anaplasmosis, we had five additional cases this year. Typically, we don't see more than two on an annual basis. In addition to Rocky Mountain spotted fever, we have six cases. And the epidemiological curve on that is not to break a threshold of one for Knox County. We already are at six. As we continue to watch these vectors, it's important that we continue the education in our communities because Lyme disease is something that can be chronic, can be lifelong if it's not addressed in a timely manner. The best way to do this is prevention through education. So we just need to continue to educate our community members and our primary care providers. Last week, we celebrated National Health Center Week thanks to Mayor Starr and providing a proclamation down at our 202 West Vine Street location. Matt, thank you for making that an effort to come out and congratulate our team. And it continues to provide medical primary care services along with dentistry and behavioral health within our communities. Our environmental health team are wrapping up another busy season between all the fairs and festivals and mobile units within our communities. I do want to give a shout out to Kathy Miller. Kathy's been with the agency 42 years next month, and she is set to retire at the end of September. So if you know Kathy, give her a shout out. I tried to get 10 more years out of her, but she politely declined. All right. Cyclosporus, which I'm sure you're familiar with Taylor Farms. We did have seven confirmed cases within our jurisdiction related to that national line outbreak. I will note that salmonella with jalapenos is now under investigation with the same company. So please be mindful of that. It's kind of a fallout of what we're seeing between CDC and FDA workers across our country and that shortage of staffing. And without that oversight, outbreaks of such nature will continue to be problematic. The last thing I have, and don't worry, Cheryl, I'll get you a news release tomorrow, but we do have a confirmed case of measles within Knox County. And that was confirmed over the weekend. So we will start that investigation. I cannot stress enough the importance of back-to-school immunizations. We do have a very effective MMR vaccine that is readily accessible to our community members. But the last thing I want to see, and I think you guys probably all share this, is the last thing I want to see is measles making its way into an early child care facility or our K-12 population. What questions do you guys have for me?

The jalapenos, is that just fresh jalapenos or canned jalapenos included?

I would argue that either at this point, yeah, depending on where they're manufactured from.

As an avid jalapeno eater, is there a way to protect myself? I'm not eating habaneros.

Don't even suggest that. You do have a very lovely farmer's market that occurs here in Mount Vernon. I would recommend going that route. Thank you.

I know that we've taken off the birth certificates versus death certificates on here because the the death certificates often have duplicates. But since you track disease, would you be able to kind of suss out how many births versus how many deaths we're having per quarter in Knox County and kind of bring that back to us next time you you you come in to talk to council?

Yeah, absolutely. I'll do my best to drill it down to the best of our ability. January, the state of Ohio did switch platforms. So I'll talk with my vital registrar and make sure that the information we're bringing forward is vetted. The last thing I want to do is say, well, there was 96 deaths certificates and 68 that's just how many certifications were actually issued not necessarily how many deaths occurred but let me take that back to the team and try to get some additional information i think that would be really valuable information for tracking disease so thank you so much absolutely

Thank you. Appreciate the time. As far as everyone out there is aware, my phone keeps beeping. There is a bad thunderstorm warning out there, so just so you're aware of that. Next is Janet White, and I'll talk about where are the flock cameras located.

And at white three Oh five, Kimberly drive Mount Vernon. I just have the question, where are the flock cameras located?

Nope. Can we answer that? That information is available online.

Okay.

Okay, flock cameras have become a hot issue, not only locally but statewide and nationally now. It's all across the news with flock cameras. Next is Carol Cunninger to talk about the football field.

Hi, Carol Cunninger, 14415 Sycamore Road, Mount Vernon. And I'm here with my friend Robin, who will be speaking next. She was the victim of the five dog attack a couple of weeks ago. And since then, the gates to the football field have been closed. And I'm here to ask why.

Just so we're clear, we're talking about the football field in the west. The old football field.

The one that was there when I went to school.

So the public is aware.

Yes. And who made the decision to close it? My friend will be speaking, I said, next, which she's wanting it open to. I take my dog there. Friends of mine take their dogs there. There's a group of ladies that go there every day and sit, bring their lawn chairs, take their dogs. Kids go play soccer. Just a lot of people enjoy the football field. So we would like to see about getting the gate open again, so people can enjoy it, so leaving it sit empty. i'm hoping that would be something that could happen, I don't know does anyone know who made the decision to close it is that. Something comes from our mayor.

I made that decision as the safety service director. Just so everyone's clear, traditionally we don't do a back and forth and even something as simple as where are the flock cameras. We don't do a back and forth because this is the public's time. So you get up, you can ask your questions. We can take those questions to council. The administration can answer you independently either after this or via email, phone call, whatever. This is a time for you all to speak and for us to take another time to answer your questions.

I've never done this before. I'd also like to say something about Foundation Park, which I love going to. My dog and I go there almost every day. And they do a great job keeping it mowed, taking good care of it, other than emptying the trash cans. Especially the one on the west side parking lot is always overflowing. And the one when you come down the main entrance, to the left where that little shelter is. So then people just throw their stuff around it. I've picked up a lot of trash in my time and like to see if that could be something to take care of. And if there could be another trash can also put on the wood side on the southwest corner. There are a lot of people fish over there and there's picnic tables. And so people seem to like to eat lunch there and stuff. So there's nowhere to throw any trash. So, that's it. Thank you. Thank you.

Next we have Robin Stevenson, also talking about unlocking the gates of the old football field on Gambier Street.

Hi, I'm Robin Stevenson, 1102 West Gambier Street. My dog Zeus and I were attacked at the old football field on July 15th.

Since that time, I've been working with

deputy Tyler Moore on charges for that dog owner and it went to court Friday and they were deemed vicious dogs. She should have never been there with five dogs in a public place. That gate on West Gambier Street has been open for 40 years. I've lived there 45 years. And we enjoy watching the activity over there. It's a beautiful, beautiful green space that the parks guys take care of. They do a great job. I've also... talk to deputy Moore about he feels there should be cameras saying who's coming who's going if there's a problem over there they have it on tape which is fine and I'm willing to donate two thousand dollars to put up cameras so that that area to be on tape because the dog warden when he was looking for tape on what happened to me there was none on the buildings which are right across the street is the park department buildings and so he did find a tape from the motorcycle club that's next door to me at the old glass garden greenhouse but he wasn't able to see up the right side of the fence where we were attacked so That's all I wanted to bring up, and I hope you make the consideration to open up that gate again. Thank you.

Thank you for your time. Next is Don Carr to talk about the TIF.

Don Carr up on Terrace, Mount Vernon. We, you don't know how much really we appreciate you all for giving us this time to speak, whether it's in a formal public hearing or whether it's just speaking our piece during the public speaking portion. We really do appreciate this and we hope that you are listening. I want to finish my presentation that I started earlier. The ordinances you are voting on tonight state that you, city council, declare that improvements to the project site are a public purpose. Other than those two home residents of Arista Villas and Founders Grove, streets that have a one way in and out do not feel public. The general public gains little value in driving into a development with a street that goes nowhere. We the public just deal with more traffic, decaying roads, infrastructure, demands on medical and health services, cost of more fire and police services, a higher demand on water and sewer, and the maintenance to keeping plants running. Not to mention, which we've kind of avoided what's going on in Granville and Heath, the burden that 100 homes, well actually there's 600 living units that have been approved by city council that are gonna be a burden on the schools. I respectfully ask the City Council vote to vote no on the ordinance that allow TIF funds to be used inside private property lines and remove the emergency clause in the same pieces of legislation. I WAS GOING TO PASS OUT A HANDOUT, BUT I WANT TO TAKE THE TIME TO SHOW THE IMPORTANCE OF TIFS AND HOW THEY'RE USED AND NOT USED ELSEWHERE IN OHIO. THIS LITTLE BACKGROUND IS A VIDEO THAT'S COMING FROM LONDON, OHIO, WHICH IS 40 MILES SOUTHWEST OF COLUMBUS. IT'S ABOUT A DEVELOPER WHO'S TAKING UPON HIM HIS OWN POCKET TO MAKE A COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT. BEAR WITH ME. I HOPE WE CAN GET THIS TO WORK.

Hi, my name is Paul Brooks. My partner Tom Coughlin and I are developing the site across from Walmart. There's been a lot of talk about town as to what is it going to be. First, let me start by telling you what it isn't. It isn't going to be any housing. not going to be a data center. This is zoned retail and commercial. And we are spending the money to put the infrastructure into this site so that we can attract new and nice businesses, not only for job creation, but to provide the people of London with extra features and benefits in our town. To make this successful, we're extending Braxton and Eagleton. At our sole expense, not a city dollar goes toward that. We are also working with ODOT, the City of London, on the resurfacing project of Lafayette Street. So Highway 42 from Betty Wilson Road all the way over to Elm Street is going to be resurfaced. Tom and I will be funding turn lanes and extra traffic control devices to make living in this community even nicer than what it is today.

Thank you. Thank you.

I HOPE THAT MAKES THE POINT THAT COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT CAN HAPPEN WITHOUT THE CITY HELP. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. YOU FILED OUT A FORM EARLIER. YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO TALK. DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY?

YES, I DO.

THANK YOU FOR HAVING ME BACK UP. I'LL BE QUICK. I wanted to clarify two things. I went over one of them with Amber. When I said there was never any city dollars for development, that was prior to this administration. When you brought up the development by name on Newark Road, what is it?

Liberty Crossing.

Liberty Crossing, Newark Road. Yes, there's TIF dollars there. But if you go back and you can even Google on Knox Pages, the people that developed that, after I pushed and pushed and pushed, And Mr Gaki was part of that, and I think there's a couple of council members sitting here that are part of that. And I said, why should we pay for the turn ins to this development and let you make all the money? Do you remember that? Amber, I know you did. The developer finally said, we'll pay for the turn ins. We'll take it all off our side of the road. We'll pay for that. But the city decided to take money to pay for that. That's not the developer paying for that. Right. He's not paying that TIF money. So prior to this administration, we never used tax money in developments. The second thing I want to talk to Amber about real quick. I understand right now we're talking we have this pot. It's kind of like when you did the budget. We got this big, think of it as a big pot of money. I remember when you said it, Tanner, I think I'll always remember that. We're going to put it all in this big pot. I'd like to see that big pot of money stay out of the development. Don't divide it. Use it on my side. Use it to where you got to hook into our storm sewers, where you got to hook into our sewers. You got to upgrade our water. There's going to be times down the road it's going to come up and say, oh, we didn't figure enough money for this, but we're putting money in that development too. I'm not saying vote down the tip. I'm not saying vote down the NCA. What I'm saying is keep it out of the development, put it on our side of the road, and use it for us, not for them. Thank you. I hope that helped.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hoyer.

The next person I want to speak, our last person, is Vicki Adams. She has two topics, and she's asked for five and a half minutes versus four. Is Council okay with that?

Yes.

And she wants to talk about e-bikes and also a resolution 2026, stage 24.

My name is Vicki Adams, 1105 Martinsburg Road, Mount Vernon. Thank you for allowing me to speak. My reason for being here is the e-bike issue. This is a problem with kids and adults riding on sidewalks and not stopping or looking while crossing side streets. They have been disruptive to traffic in the streets. This also applies to the stand-up e-scooters, some of which can, in high gear, go 35 miles an hour. I had a Vespa scooter, which went about 35 on level ground. I had to get a motorcycle permit, go through a beginner riding course, which I did with Motorcycle Ohio, which is a division of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, then pass a motorcycle skills test to get my motorcycle license and get insurance to be able to legally ride it. My point for saying this is I have had education to be safe on the road, both myself and other motorists. Now we're allowing a young person or adult to get on their e-bike and ride on the sidewalks along with regular bikes and stand-up scooters, oftentimes with little regard for pedestrians. Some of them also ride on the city streets. These people operate an e-bike with no required education, registration, and insurance that I am aware of. Also, these e-bikes should not be allowed to be operated on city streets because they cannot keep up with and disrupt the flow of traffic. If you decide to allow them on streets, then they need to follow all traffic laws and should be required to stay on the side of the road or we need to incorporate bike lanes where feasible. If we allow them on sidewalks, they need to follow rules for use, obey all traffic lights laws, stop at side streets, stop lights properly, obey yield signs, and watch for pedestrians. Traffic signals are not a suggestion, they are the law. Class 1 e-bikes pedal assist only and top out at 20 mile an hour. Class 2 e-bikes have a throttle and top out at 20. Many cities I have researched require helmets if they are under 18 years of age. Class 3 e-bikes are pedal assist and max out at 28 miles an hour. You must be 16 years of age. Helmet is required. Some cities say under 18 you should wear a helmet. The Class 1 and 2 in most cities can be ridden on sidewalks, bike paths, and shared use paths so long as they don't have the motor engaged. Class 3 are prohibited on sidewalks, bike paths, and shared use paths, but they should not be allowed on 35 mile an hour streets. Ohio requires manufacturers and distributors to place a permanent label on each e-bike showing the class the top assisted speed and the motor wattage. The law also requires the electric motor to disengage correctly. Class 1 and 3 assistants must stop when the rider stops pedaling, and Class 2 assistants must stop when the rider brakes or activates the cutoff control. A Class 3 e-bike also must have a speedometer. The problem law enforcement has is they cannot tell by looking at them which class they are dealing with. Maybe they should be required to register them and have three different colored license plates to help them. I feel for safety, they should all have a speedometer, rear view mirrors, headlight, and taillight with turn signals. Some type of education for the riders need implemented, and licensing of the rider needs to be an option to track them. If no lights or reflectors, they should not be allowed to be ridden after dusk. These options may be a good idea for parents to place on their child's regular bikes. The state has many rules set in place, and you have the option to be stricter than the state, but the safety needs to be first and foremost in your decision making. AND I'VE INCLUDED SOME REFERENCES THAT I'VE GOT. I ALSO WANT TO ASK COUNCIL TO AMEND ORDINANCE 202624 BY ADDING THE LANGUAGE, NO CITY FUNDS FROM THE NEW COMMUNITY AUTHORITY COLLECTION SHALL BE USED ANYWHERE INSIDE THE VERNON VIEW DEVELOPMENT PARCEL NUMBER 66-07961.000. I agree that developers, not taxpayers, and not future homeowners should pay for the infrastructure that directly serves their own development and sets precedents for a future that I'm not sure is a good thing. Public policy should protect the taxpayers of Mount Vernon, not create new financial advantages for private development. I would also like to ask you to think about the amount of traffic and burden on existing roads, water departments, storm sewer, and sewage treatment plant before you welcome more developments in an area where we already have issues. Thank you.

Thank you. You did that in four and a half minutes.

I talked really fast.

Council on your packet are the legislation for this evening. Are there any additions or corrections to the legislation? I assume it's approved by consensus. And we move now to resolutions for third reading. First resolution is resolution number 2026, day 78. Mr. Chairman.

A resolution authorizing the safety service director to dispose of property not needed for public use by the city of Mount Vernon and declaring an emergency.

Mr. Jacklin.

I would like to move to adopt resolution number 20 26 70 78. Second.

And move to second for the adoption of this resolution. Any discussion Mr. Jacklin.

This was presented in a pretty straightforward manner. Does anybody have any questions.

Any questions?

Mr. Sherman. Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Ms. Keener. Yes. Mr. Mahan.

Yes. Resolution is adopted. We now move to resolutions for second reading. The first one is resolution number 2026-81. Mr. Sherman.

a resolution to donate surplus Mount Vernon Police Department property to another public entity and declaring an emergency.

Mr. Miller. Thank you, Mr. President. I move to suspend the rules for three separate readings and take this resolution number 2026-81 to its third and final reading.

Second.

I move and second for the suspension of the rules. Any discussion on the suspension? Mr. Sherman.

Mrs. Hager? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Mr. Severance? Yes. Mr. Jacklin? Yes. Mr. Ruckman? Yes. Ms. Keener? Yes. Mr. Mahan?

Yes. The roll is suspended. Mr. Miller? Thank you, Mr. President. As we spoke earlier in our previous committee meeting.

We need to get it on the floor, Mr. Miller. I'm sorry? We need to get it on the floor.

Oh, okay. I would move to adopt resolution number 2026-81.

Second.

And move to second for the adoption of this resolution. Any discussion? Mr. Miller.

Thank you. Once again, Mr. President, this was brought up at an earlier committee meeting, and this has to do with the repeaters that the police department no longer uses and is being donated to the sheriff's department, which they have an absolute need for.

Any other discussion?

Mr. Sherman. Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Mr. Jacklin. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Ms. Keener. Yes. Mr. Mahan.

Yes. Resolution is adopted. Next resolution is for first reading. That's resolution number 2026-83. Mr. Sherman.

A resolution confirming the mayor's reappointments of Katie Delosier and Steve Jefferson to the Board of Property Maintenance Appeals and Todd Hawkins to the Library Board of Trustees.

Mrs. Keener.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings and take Resolution 2026-83 to its third and final reading.

Second. I move to second for the suspension of the rules. Any discussion on the suspension? Mr. Sherman.

Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Mr. Jacklin. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Ms. Keener. Yes. Mr. Mahan.

Yes. They're all suspended. Ms. Skinner.

Thank you, Mr. President. I move to adopt resolution 2026 dash 83.

Second.

I move to second for the adoption of this resolution. Any discussion? Ms. Skinner.

Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, mayor star, this is just the reappointment of a few individuals. Do you want to go through that?

That is correct. Katie Delosier has been serving on the Board of Property Maintenance Appeals as a regular voting member. And Steve Jefferson has been serving here for a number of years as well. And they both would like to continue their role. Steve is the alternate in case they're having difficulty finding a quorum. Todd Hawkins is also wanting to continue his role with the LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES. THERE'S A LOT OF FINANCIAL MATTERS THAT ARE CONCERNING A CONSISTENT SIGNATURE, AND HE SAID, YEAH, HE WOULD JUST BE VERY HAPPY TO DO THAT. SO WE'RE VERY HAPPY WITH THESE VOLUNTEERS, AND THEY DO A VERY GOOD JOB SERVING THE COMMUNITY.

THANK YOU. ANY OTHER DISCUSSION?

Mr. Sherman. Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Ms. Keener. Yes. Mr. Mayhem.

Yes. Resolution is adopted. Next resolution is resolution number 2026-84. Mr. Sherman.

A resolution authorizing and directing the auditor of the city of Mount Vernon to pay bills pursuant to section 5705.41d then and now certification. Mr. Mayhem. Yes.

Thank you, sir. I move to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings. Take Resolution 2026-84 to its third and final reading.

Second. I move and second for the suspension of the rules. Any discussion on the suspension?

Council, these are, again, invoices that we need to pay. So as is my custom, I have requested that you suspend the rules.

Mr. Sherman?

Mrs. Hager? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Mr. Severance? Yes. Mr. Jacklin? Yes. Mr. Ruckman? Yes. Ms. Keener? Yes. Mr. Mahan? Yes.

The roll is suspended. Mr. Mahan?

Thank you, sir. I move to adopt Resolution 2026-84.

Second. I move and second for the adoption of this resolution. Any discussion?

Council, we've got pool concessions. You can see there that we owe to Pepsi America, and then we've got MKC Architects who are working on, I believe that's for this building. Is that correct? That is correct. Further questions? Turn your mic on.

Mic up.

The MKC one, actually, the result of their work on that then and now was to reduce a lot of the cost for the renovations being done at this building. I don't really have anything to defend on the Pepsi one. I guess there just wasn't a purchase order in place there.

Any other discussion?

Mr. Sherman.

Mrs. Hager.

Yes.

Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Ms. Keener. Yes. Mr. Mayhem. Yes.

Resolution is adopted. Next resolution is number 20, 26, 85. Mr. Sherman.

A resolution authorizing and directing the auditor of the city of Mount Vernon to make supplemental appropriations.

Mr. Mayhem.

Thank you, sir. I moved to suspend the rule requiring two separate readings. Take resolution 2026 dash 85 to its third and final reading.

Second and move to second for the suspension of the rules and discussion on the suspension council.

This is a part of the police station, uh, funding, excuse me, paying, moving money to pay bills for the new police station.

Mr. Sherman. Mrs. Hager? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Mr. Severance? Yes. Mr. Jacklin? Yes. Mr. Ruckman? Yes. Ms. Keener? Yes. Mr. Mahan? Yes.

The roll was suspended. Mr. Mahan?

I move to adopt resolution 2026-85. Second.

I move to second for the adoption of this resolution. Any discussion? Mr. Mahan?

Counsel, you've heard in committee what the 407 is being called, new police station capital. We're moving to that account bond receipts in order to begin to pay bills. And most of us were out at the groundbreaking. We know that Earth is being moved. And so we need to get some of these bills paid.

Any other discussion? Mr. Sherman?

Mrs. Hager? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Mr. Severance? Yes. Mr. Jacklin? Yes. Mr. Ruckman? Yes. Ms. Keener? Yes. Mr. Mahan? Yes.

Resolution is adopted. Next resolution is resolution number 2026-86. Mr. Sherman?

A resolution authorizing and directing the auditor of the City of Mount Vernon to transfer funds.

Mr. Mahan? Yes. Yes, sir. I moved to suspend the rule requiring three separate meetings and move resolution number 2026 dash 86 to its third and final reading.

Second. And moved and second for the suspension of the rules. Any discussion around the suspension?

Uh, council, this I believe is in relation to some storm damage, which makes it somewhat immediate. Mr. Sawyers, could you help me there?

Thank you, Mr. Mahan. And this was following a meeting with Councilwoman Hager and our engineering department and also Chairman Jim Brown of our shade tree and beautification committee. Not only do we have significant storm damage after two significant wind storms, but also there are a lot of trees in the city that are reaching the natural maturation of their life and they need to be removed before they become a liability not only for the city, but property owners. These are trees that are in the right way of the tree lawn that we would like to remove. So our engineering team, urban forestry, urban forester has gone out and identified several of those trees and They are not cheap, as you can see here. So what we are doing is just simply moving appropriations from one line that they were already for tree planting, simply over to tree removal. And you'll see that slash sidewalk, because sometimes, especially if you're in the north end, we'll speak from experience, those big, beautiful trees like to take a little bit of the sidewalk with them.

So the reason for the urgency is some of these trees are hazards.

Yeah, we would like to have the money there. Some of them are already pegged for removal. We also have to keep in mind the Indiana bat. Okay. Yep. Sorry. Sorry, Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Sherman.

Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Mr. Jacklin. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Ms. Keener. Yes. Mr. Mahan. Yes.

Roll is suspended. Mr. Mahan.

I move to adopt resolution 2026-86. Second.

I move to second the adoption of this resolution. Any discussion? Mr. Mahan.

Further questions, counsel? In explaining the urgency, safety service director snuck in the reason for the whole thing.

Mr. Sherman.

Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Mr. Jacklin. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Ms. Keener. Yes. Mr. Mahan. Yes.

Resolution is adopted. Next resolution is resolution number 2026-87. Mr. Sherman.

A resolution renaming Shelmar Park in honor of John Francis.

Mrs. Hager.

Um, I am going to give this its first reading and I have never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Francis. Does anybody need a committee meeting to tell me how great he is that we should name our park for him?

Well, it's across, it's across the street from where he lived and he was very active in doing that. And, uh, he was there when we first opened the park and that's been a real passion of his.

So do we need a committee meeting or are we all good? No, no committee meeting. Okay. It's got its first reading. Thank you, Mr. President.

Okay. That resolution receives its first reading. Next resolution is resolution number 2026-88. Mr. Sherman.

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. MAYHEM. THANK YOU, SIR. I MOVE TO SUSPEND THE RULE REQUIRING FEW SEPARATE READINGS. MOVE RESOLUTION 2026-88 TO ITS THIRD AND FINAL READING.

SECOND. MOVED AND SECOND FOR THE SUSPENSION OF THE RULES. ANY DISCUSSION ON THE SUSPENSION? Mr. Mr. Mr. Sherman, Mrs. Hager.

Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Miss Keener. Yes. Mr. Mayhem.

Yes. The rule is suspended.

Mr. Mr. Mr. Um, man moved to adopt resolution 20 26 dash 88.

Second. And moved to second for the adoption of this resolution.

Any discussion, Mr. Mayhem council, we have a, a mower, a, uh, asphalt patcher and a leaf vac truck. that are on the shelf as we've heard this evening um this is the mr sawyer's these are these these are not our what we're using first line these are equipment that's really not being used these are the backup to the backup right back up to the back and if anyone wants to uh really clean up their yard fast then a leaf vac truck is the way to do it so i encourage you to go to go deals and get that done

Any other discussion? Mr. Sherman?

Mrs. Hager? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Mr. Severance? Yes. Mr. Jacklin? Yes. Mr. Ruckman? Yes. Ms. Keener? Yes. Mr. Mahan? Yes.

Resolution is adopted and that concludes the resolutions for this evening. We now move to ordinances. We have several for third reading. The first one is ordinance number 2026, stage 23. Mr. Sherman?

An ordinance consenting to and approving the execution of a TIF agreement between the City of Mount Vernon and residences at Founders Grove LLC for the benefit of a development located at 12050 Upper Gilchrist Road.

Sorry. I didn't have this one on my, I must've downloaded a old copy. Yeah.

Oh, I get on the floor. Yeah. Yeah.

I would like to move to adopt, uh, ordinance number 20, 26 dash 23.

Second.

I moved a second for your job to this order. Is there any discussion? Mr. Jack.

Is there anything that the administration would like to comment on this? Are there any questions from council?

Mr. Sherman?

Mrs. Hager? Yes. Mr. Miller? No. Mr. Severance? Yes. Mr. Jacklin? Yes. Mr. Rookman? Yes. Ms. Keener? Yes. Mr. Mahan?

Yes. The ordinance is adopted. Next ordinance is Ordinance Number 2026, Stage 24. Mr. Sherman?

An ordinance approving the application to add certain real property to the Mount Vernon New Community Authority District and to amend the petition for establishment of the Mount Vernon New Community Authority as a new community authority under Chapter 349 of the Ohio Revised Code and declaring an emergency.

Mrs. Jaclyn.

Um, I would like to move to amend this, uh, packet or this ordinance, uh, as written, uh, there've been some changes to the, to the dates on it. And, uh, I would also like to move to, uh, remove the, in that amendment move to remove the emergency clause.

Second.

They moved a second to amend this ordinance. You need to clarify the dates or the.

Um, the dates were printed. Is that correct? Mr. Sherman, they were made available.

Yes, I will. I'll pull up. So we have, it would be these highlighted portions.

Yeah. The, the highlighted portions. So.

Okay. The amendment changes the dates and also removes the, uh, emergency clause. Any discussion on the amendment? Mr. Sherman.

Mrs. Hager?

Yes.

Mr. Miller? Yes. Mr. Severance? No. Mr. Jacqueline?

Yes.

Mr. Ruckman? No. Ms. Keener? No. Mr. Mahan? No.

By a score of four to three, the amendment was defeated. Back to Mr. Jacqueline. Wait a minute.

I guess I should have submitted those as two.

It takes two-thirds to approve the... This is a straight amendment.

This is a straight amendment of language. It's up or down by majority rules.

Now I guess I'll do it this way. I would like to amend this for the dates. So we'll do that one first.

Second. Seconded to amend the dates. Any discussion on the amendment of the dates?

Because I think we have to do that.

Mr. Sherman?

Mrs. Hager? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Mr. Severance? Yes. Mr. Jacklin? Yes. Mr. Ruckman? Yes. Ms. Keener? Yes. Mr. Mahan? Yes.

Amendment is adopted. Mr. Jacklin?

Well, I guess I'm going to assume what drew the no's. So I'm not going to reintroduce removing the emergency clause. I would, Mr. Dooley, in the, oh, I'm sorry. I would, I'd like, is it my bad? Yeah, got ahead of myself. I'd like to move to adopt ordinance 2026-24. As amended.

Second.

I'll get there. It's the first time amending, guys.

And then move to second that this ordinance be adopted as amended in any discussion. Mr. Jacqueline.

Now, Mr. Dooley, you said a member of the public had a question during our recess, and that you had some clarification. Could you provide that both the question that was asked of you and your clarifying statement, please?

Yes, thank you, Councilman. So a resident came up and asked me to clarify a point. We were asked if any of city dollars would go towards financing public infrastructure within the area of the development for the Arista Villas, for the Arista Villas development that is being considered as part of this NCA application. So I went on an explanation of some mechanics with the TIF and NCA that I think were a bit confusing. I got too into the weeds. The simple answer to the question is yes, because the TIF fund contains dollars that would otherwise be for the city's benefit. And even though the NCA is a separate entity, the idea is that as what we would call city-driven NCA, that money would be available for community facilities within the city. So my answer focused on the fact that the general fund of the city would not be exposed to this deal in any way. And so it would be limited to the revenue of the TIF and the NCA. So I got a little bit into that complexity before I answered the first part of the question. So I asked to clarify that. I also wanted to mention just really quickly the dates and that legislation, the date of the public hearing and the date of the original ordinance of sufficiency when it was adopted. will remain the same so in our legislative record the public hearing did occur on that july date and the date where the city determined the sufficiency of the application also still remains that original date i'm also happy to answer any other questions the council may have i do i do have one more question for you i'm looking for the exact language right now um

You said it during your public comment, but it's been emailed to me several times. And it was a request for an amendment. It was about not spending money, TIF money, within the development. And that question was brought to me. to be very transparent. That question was brought during the Saturday coffee and I brought it to you and you told me that that really it would nullify the purpose of the TIF so could you please I know I just said it but could you say it better?

Point of order are we talking about a TIF because I believe we're voting on 2026-24 which is an NCA.

Oh my bad I'm sorry I'll save that one for the next one.

I do think that the amendment that was requested pertained to NCA revenue as well. And we are considering both pieces of legislation. So for the NCA piece, the way that the deal works, we are talking about public infrastructure that will be largely located in the development area. And so that's really the key policy question at the heart of this all is, are we going to reimburse public infrastructure costs that are eligible but incurred by the developer? And so if we are not willing to reimburse the developer from TIF and NCA revenue, that kills the deal. That is the end of the story. We're basically telling the developer a hard no. So when I explained that to you, I was just trying to characterize that that would be the practical effect. That is the policy judgment that the city is making, whether the incentives are going to be used for this development or not.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

Excuse me. I was under the impression that regardless of the NCA and TIF that the developer would still have the priority to move ahead with the project.

When I say it's a deal killer, I mean that the sharing of TIF and NCAA revenue, if we're going to incentivize the development by reimbursing the developer for eligible expenses, then the public infrastructure is located within the development. So the developer would be able to choose to proceed if the finances still make sense for them based off of the zoning. I'm not talking about anything else. I'm not talking about zoning. I'm not talking about plan approvals. I'm only talking about this deal, whether we're going to do a bond financing that's secured by TIF and NCA revenue. If we cannot reimburse expenses that were incurred for infrastructure within the development, it kills the bond financing. It's not going to happen. Any other questions?

Mr. Sherman?

Mrs. Hager?

Yes.

Mr. Miller? No. Mr. Severance? Yes. Mr. Jacklin? No. Mr. Ruckman? Yes. Ms. Keener? Yes. Mr. Mahan?

Yes.

most of the state received five votes, which is two thirds, correct? Yes. So, so the, the, uh, emergency clause and the ordinance is adopted. Next we move to ordinance number 2026, stage 26. Mr. Sherman.

An ordinance establishing two incentive districts and declaring improvements to certain real property within the incentive districts to be a public purpose and exempt from real property taxation identifying certain public infrastructure improvements made to be made or in the process of being made. that will benefit or serve the parcels and the incentive districts requiring the owners of those parcels to make service payments in lieu of real property taxes establishing a municipal public improvement tax increment equivalent fund for the deposit of such service payments in lieu of real property taxes approving and authorizing the execution and delivery of a tax increment financing agreement with Arista Villas Mount Vernon LLC and other agreements and approving related matters and declaring an emergency.

I would like to move to amend ordinance 2026-26 and remove the emergency clause.

Second.

I move to second to remove the emergency clause. Any discussion?

I guess I would just like to say that whether or not you think that this is a good idea up here, taking away the emergency clause prevents the public from being able to engage in this meaningfully. Or keeping it, rather. Sorry.

Mr. Sherman.

Mrs. Hager.

Yes.

Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. No. Mr. Jacqueline. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. No. Ms. Keener. Yes. Mr. Mahan. No.

I vote of four to three, four to three. The, uh, amendment is defeated. Mr. Jack.

What the amendment was approved.

Yeah.

Four to three.

I'm sorry. It was approved by four to three.

Yes. That's my account.

Mr. Jacqueline.

Uh, I'm let's see.

Well, you need to know. Yeah. I moved. I moved to adopt as amended. Thank you.

ordinance number 2026 dash 26.

Mr. Dooley I believe that you answered the question about whether or not we could use TIF fund prevent the use of TIF funds with that Can you please, come on, I'm gonna stumble over this.

No worries, it's very complicated stuff. So I wanted to actually clarify first that this should not be adopted tonight because the TIF statute, section 5709.40, the Ohio revised code requires a waiting period from the date of the public hearing to the date of adoption and the public hearing tonight was for the TIF and so we actually need to wait on the adoption.

Can we go backwards? I've never played this part of the game.

Well, you haven't voted yet, and so we should be fine to pause according to your procedures. But actually, the final adoption would be on September 14th. That would be the date, the soonest possible date following the holding period. Thank you.

Are you moving to postpone this?

I would move to postpone this to September 14th.

Question, did we not, we had a public meeting two weeks ago, a public hearing.

That was for the NCA.

That was for the NCA.

That was specifically for the NCA and not also the TIF. Yes.

Any other discussion? Wait, okay, was there a second to that? We had a motion to continue to a date certain. Is there a second to that? I second it.

We move to second that this be moved to the September date. Any other discussion? I'm confused.

So my understanding is, so we had the NCA public hearing two weeks ago. So now we, tonight, we had the TIF, is that correct? Yes.

The two incentives operate under two different statutes. The NCA is under Chapter 349 of the Ohio Revised Code. The TIF is under 5709.40. Both statutes require a public hearing. Both statutes have different notice requirements for the public hearing. Because of that, it's very hard to get the public hearings to fall on the same date. So we were not able to have one public hearing for both incentives based off of the notices we had to send, the waiting periods following the notices, and when the public hearing could happen, and when final adoption could happen. The timelines are not in perfect alignment. So we have a public hearing from the NCA that's already happened. We had the public hearing for the TIF that happened tonight. And now we have a holding period before the final adoption of the TIF. The whole purpose of all this is to give the public

Did we know this before we brought this up? Like, because from some shaking heads, I feel like we didn't really know this.

Well, I'm sorry if it wasn't communicated clearly enough. It was something that has been on the tentative legislative schedule that has been relied upon in developing this documentation. I think it's just been a little bit confusing because we had the opportunity to have three readings in this time. And so I think just the momentum, it felt like we should adopt it right now. But even though we've had three readings, the statute has an additional requirement that we need to comply with.

So just to clarify, this is a Did you make a motion to postpone this to September 14? Yes. Yes. That's the current motion. That's what we're voting with. Yes.

Miller seconded it.

We really don't have a choice. Yeah. Okay.

Here's where I get confused. We have an amendment taking away the emergency clause. Yeah. That that's on the floor.

No. Well, that passed the, the motion to pass the, uh, to remove the emergency clause passed on a vote to four to three. They then moved to amend it. They have subsequently moved to continue that hearing to a date certain, which is September 14th. That has been seconded. That is the current motion on the floor.

So the amendment stays, the amendment stays. Thank you.

Mr. Sherman on the motion to postpone to September 14th. Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance.

Yes.

Mr. Jacqueline. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Ms. Keener.

Yes.

Mr. Mahan. Yes.

The motion to postpone this to September 14th has been approved. Next ordinance is ordinance number 2026 stage 27. Mr. Sherman.

An ordinance authorizing the establishment of a cremation scattering garden within Mound View Cemetery authorizing the final disposition of certain indigent cremated remains therein and establishing procedures for the care and disposition of such remains.

Mrs. Hager.

I move to pass ordinance, or pass ordinance, what?

Adopt.

Sorry, yeah. I move to adopt ordinance number 2026-27. This is an easy one, why am I stumbling?

Second.

Second.

I move to second for the adoption of this ordinance. Any discussion? 17. Mrs. Hager.

Any discussion? Anyone have any questions? Do you feel anything you want to share?

Well, you received an updated version of this more detailed map. We did take into advisement. scattering remains that could go to Dan Emmett Elementary School. I don't believe that will be an issue if you look more at the detailed map here, but we'll make sure that that, I believe this was provided to the media as well, but we'll get them an electronic copy if necessary. Is this the second?

Yes. Point of clarification, is this the second reading or the third reading? According to my agenda here, it says it's the second reading. I think it's the first. Is that a misprint or a misunderstanding on my part?

It should be the third reading.

Yeah, because it went on the 13th as the first reading, and then the 27th was the second, and this is the third reading. So it's just a headache.

I have third reading on my agenda.

No, no, no, that's fine. I just wanted to point a clarification there because according to my agenda, it says ordinance with a second reading, ordinance number 26-27. I'm quite positive.

This is the third reading of this piece of legislation.

On the current agenda, it's the third reading. I don't know. Mr. Sherman.

Mrs. Hager? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Mr. Severance? Yes. Mr. Jacklin? Yes. Mr. Ruckman? Yes. Ms. Keener? Yes. Mr. Mahan? Yes.

The orders is adopted now and move to ordinances for second reading its orders number 2026 days 28. Mr. Sherman.

An ordinance amending certain municipal funds and appropriation lines related to the city's public safety capital improvement program renaming fund 407 creating fund 409 reallocating municipal income tax distributions and authorizing certain transfers.

Mr. Mahan. I move to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings and take ordinance number 2026-28 to its third and final reading.

Second.

I move to second for the suspension of the rules. Any discussion on the suspension? Mr. Sherman.

Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Mr. Jacklin. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Ms. Keener. Yes. Mr. Mahan.

Yes.

Roll is suspended. Mr. Mahan.

I move to adopt ordination ordinance number 20, 26 dash 28.

Second.

Moved and second for the adoption of this resolution. Any discussion, Mr. Mahan.

Council. We had a committee meeting on this tonight explained, uh, we're setting up funds to pay for capital projects. Any further questions?

Mr. Severance. I'm I'm sorry. Mr. Sherman.

Mrs. Hager. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline. Yes. Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Ms. Keener. Yes. Mr. Mayhem. Yes.

The ordinance is adopted. Next ordinance is for first reading. It's ordinance number 2026, stage 29. Mr. Sherman.

An ordinance fixing the number of hourly employees in the city of Mount Vernon in the fire department and declaring an emergency.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to give this ordinance its first reading, and can we have a 10-minute committee meeting at our next meeting?

This ordinance receives its first reading. Final ordinance for this evening is Ordinance Number 2026, Stage 30. Mr. Sherman.

An ordinance authorizing the Safety Service Director to execute a contract with Enterprise Fleet Management for the leasing of city vehicles.

Mr. Mann. Thank you, sir. I'm going to give this its first reading. Um, need a committee meeting at our next gathering that you 10 minutes, Mr. Sawyer's 10 minutes, please.

That's the artist who says his first reading that concludes the legislative portion of the meeting. We now moved remarks from the administration, mayor star.

THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT AND COUNSEL. JUST TO GIVE YOU A LITTLE BIT OF SOME OF THE UPDATES THAT HAVE BEEN GOING ON, I HOPE I DON'T STEAL ANY OF YOUR THUNDER IF YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT THOSE THINGS UP THERE, BUT FIRST FRIDAY WAS ANOTHER SUCCESS. WE HONORED THREE VERY DISTINCT VOLUNTEERS, MARCY REINHART, JERRY SCOTT, AND RANDY CRONK FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY. YOU CAN SEE A WONDERFUL ARTICLE THAT CHERYL WROTE ABOUT THAT. uh anyway we are congratulating them for all of the work that they do in addition to all the other volunteers who help with who help make the city work um SPEAKING OF AWARDS, WE ALSO HAD OUR ANNUAL WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AWARDS LUNCHEON A COUPLE WEEKS AGO, AND WE PASSED OUT A GREAT DEAL OF RECOGNITION TO LONG-TERM EMPLOYEES, PEOPLE WHO MET FIVE-YEAR INCREMENTAL ANNIVERSARIES, AND IT WAS A VERY NICE TIME, AND WE JUST CONGRATULATED ALL THOSE. WE ALSO RECOGNIZED JOHNNY MAY ON HIS RETIREMENT FOR 31 YEARS WITH THE CITY. Demo work is underway on South Sandusky Street. As you can see, Dr. Bozzoli's old office is down, as is the building that was to the south. I suspect they're going to continue to move south and do everything possible to keep lanes open, but there will be times when demo equipment will need to be on the southbound lane for public safety. um want to also congratulate oh um want to congratulate the police department captain or i'm sorry chief kit morgan i just demoted you there chief sorry uh chief it was supposed to be captain burns who was going to be uh honored but uh i'm sorry assistant chief assistant chief prince boy geez i am just losing it here tonight ASSISTANT CHIEF BURNS WAS THE ROUTE WE PLAYED TO GET KIT TO THE COMMUNITIES COMING TOGETHER CONFERENCE LAST WEEK. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT KIT WAS was awarded with, has earned, is that the entire Mount Vernon Police Department has crisis intervention training. That's pretty remarkable for a community our size, and that has been very intentional, and I am truly proud of our police force and the leadership that KITT is providing. So, congratulations. THE MOUNTAIN BURNER MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL IS HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND ALSO. THE PD GROUNDBREAKING. IT'S BEEN A BUSY WEEK. IT'S BEEN A BUSY COUPLE WEEKS HERE. WE ALSO CUT THE RIBBON FOR THE BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CARE PARTNERS TREATMENT CENTER ON BLACK JACK ROAD. ANOTHER WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY. AND JUST WANTED TO LET YOU ALL KNOW THAT THE OHIO MUNICIPAL LEAGUE ANNUAL CONFERENCE WILL BE COMING UP SEPTEMBER 30TH THROUGH OCTOBER THE SECOND AND IF YOU'RE INTERESTED PLEASE REACH OUT TO I THINK YOU GET THE NEWSLETTER BUT YOU CAN REACH OUT THROUGH ZACK IN TERMS OF GETTING REGISTERED FOR THAT SO THAT IS ALL MR. PRESIDENT THANK YOU

Thank you, Mr. President. So we did do, we closed our, today we closed our e-bike survey. We had 430, 430 responses in our community survey. I believe the data is incredibly valuable. We're going to share this information with OML Morpsey and Rep. Eric Sinenberg's office. That's House District 21. He's considering legislation with the Ohio General Assembly on e-bikes. I will also, of course, share it with local media and on social media so folks know what their Mount Vernon neighbors are thinking when it comes to e-bikes. And, Ms. Adams, if you'd like my copy before you leave, you can have that. Okay. Some questions that were asked tonight, reasons for the West Gambier property or the old football field closure. This is not popular, but these are the facts. It is not a park. It is a city property, but it's not a park. It has been used for a multitude of recreational activities. Dog walking is chief among them. But if it were being used for a true dog park, and there have been council proponents of that in the past, one of them, Councilman Tanner Salyers. So if anybody knows about the history of trying to turn that into a dog park, it would be myself. But If it were truly a dog park and it were prepared for the type of activity that it was it was having we would have dual entry gates. We would have certain enclosures for you know maybe more. I don't want to say aggressive dogs but dogs that maybe can't handle the stimulation of the other dogs there. There are ways to design a dog park. Truly as it sits, it's just a large fenced in area. I think maybe the two women that were here didn't hear the part at the last meeting about how you can still reserve it for activity, but what we can't do, and this was at the recommendation of the dog warden after the incident that occurred was just kind of leave it wide open and encourage activity without any sort of controls in place. So while While we look toward the future to see what to do with that property, you know, we have to take in careful consideration of how we're managing it. So We will look to council to say what should be done with this property. And we encourage everybody to, one, make sure your dog is on a leash. Number two, utilize the other parks in the community. We have plenty, Mount Vernon has plenty of parks, Aerial Foundation Park and Riverside Park are adjacent to this area. uh and additionally as we and of course there is wolf run which is not a city park but it is a dog park especially for this kind of activity so i know that's not the popular answer but it is the most legally secure answer for the city as as that instance moves its way through court We will let that do its thing and we will work collectively as the administration and council and and take the considerations of the public in view as we plan for that the next steps for that area. Additionally I would be remiss if we didn't get a given update on flock. So our PD leadership team met along with the city admin team and Councilman Miller. We also met. to kind of talk about our reviews of policies and changes that will be reflected in the city's policy that can be found on the transparency portal, the flock transparency portal. So we keep referring to Everything has FLOC, but it is an ALPR policy, so FLOC is, of course, just a brand. Our ALPR policy is on that FLOC transparency portal. We will be restricting blanket federal agency access and agencies who do not share in the data network. So additionally we've reviewed right of way compliance and we'll be reviewing additional internal audit measures while there are you know as we've explained extensive internal guardrails already in place. It was made clear that we need to do more to maintain the public trust If we were to continue to operate these tools or any other tools for public safety, uh, we will continue to use best practices in modern policing while recognizing that insisting, uh, and insisting that law enforcement technology, however helpful, uh, must conform to constitutional parameters and not the other way around. So that is all council.

Mr. Stoller.

Nothing tonight. Mr. President, Mr. Brinkman.

Mr. President, I just wanted to note the benefit I noticed today toward our own budget from some of these TIFs. We had a check that was cashed earlier today for a little over $700,000 for a number of different road projects, primarily though centering around work done in the spring on Coshocton. And that portion was a little over $544,000. So it just kind of goes to note that if we didn't take advantage of this TIF legislation some 30 years ago and some of you just a few years ago, such improvements would have taken many months of our income tax revenue to make up that shortfall that we just were able to use some of those TIF dollars for really just earlier today. So I just wanted to share that. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Braun.

Thank you, Mr. President. Ms. Adams was talking about e-bikes on sidewalks. First of all, no bicycles, whether electronic or normally pedaled, are allowed on the sidewalks in the Central Business District. pedaled bicycles are allowed on sidewalks in every other part of the city. No bike that is being used electronically or electrically without the pedals being used is allowed to be on a sidewalk. We've discussed this with the police department. I know at several times recently that they have gone out looking for people doing that. So we are taking into account what people are telling us and we are using the tools currently here that we have to enforce the law. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. Yes, I would first like to reemphasize the importance of coming up with some very sensible legislation in regards to these e-bikes and everything before they end up taking us over. I look forward to having those conversations in the future. um once again i'd like to thank everybody for being here tonight it's it's always great to see a great crowd and you know the citizens out here supporting the efforts of the city and everything and finally i'd like to give a personal thank you to mr jacklin for the amount of work and effort that he's put into all this i mean being a newbie like myself i can only look back and and thank my lucky stars that when these last two committees came out we had my choice between police and fire and this land development And I'm so glad that I chose the police and fire division after everything has gone in the last couple of weeks.

Nothing controversial.

Other than that, I did want to thank Mr. Jacklin. He has put in an unprecedented amount of work toward this and everything to make sure that he's listened to all the public concern and everything, comment that's gone on to this. And I support him with his struggles as a couple of freshmen that we are, that we struggle through the procedural parts of this and everything and kind of learn on the fly. That's all I have. Thank you.

Mrs. Keener. Nothing tonight.

Mr. Severance. I didn't have anything until Mr. Brinkman spoke up and thank you for that information. If you noted council, if we had not passed something like 20 or 30 years ago, we would not have had the $700,000 to pay this bill on Coshocton Avenue. So please note that in this legislation that we're going to be pushing back to September 14th. Thank you, Mr. Brinkman. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Jackman.

So first, I'd like to acknowledge that bringing forward ordinance 2026-2026 was my fault. I found the email where I was asked to postpone it. So I want to take responsibility for that. My anxiety got the best of me, and I just rolled forward. The other thing, I didn't really plan on saying anything about this, but I do think the e-bike, it's a balance, right? It is a cost-effective way to get around the city, and there's a lot of people that can't afford cars now, but they can afford an $800 bike that can get them someplace at 25 miles an hour. That being said, I don't want to see a kid who has never taken a... driver's license test, going 35 on the road and hang a left in front of a car and get killed. I don't want that to be the impetus to make changes to our laws. What I would like to do is to take into consideration how changing these things could affect people who are struggling financially. And that's it.

Um, I agree. Uh, I've, I've witnessed people commuting back and forth on e-bikes. And so I, I do think, uh, that continued study in lieu of both the recreational and the, um, transportation option of an e-bike. And I think that's also a good example, uh, of things that are complicated and things that have pros and cons. We've had a lot of discussion this evening and I think we're approaching clarity that where it's a difference of opinion mostly on whether to incentivize a development or not. Certainly it's more nuanced than that but the discussion has brought us to clarity and I hope that it's something that reasonable people are gonna disagree on and we can disagree reasonably and amably. Um, I respect the work the administration has done. Um, and Mike, I do remember you writing all over your notes and I've, I've followed your lead and I've written all over my notes and I appreciate your homework and, and the work that others have done, um, brought us to this place. So, um, I've made my vote, so I've made my position clear. Um, but, uh, You know, we have listened and these are complicated issues. So I do appreciate the discussion. Thank you.

Mr. Rockman.

Nothing this evening, Mr. President.

Mrs. Hager.

Thanks, Mr. President. Kind of piggybacking on Mr. Mahan. I just want to thank everyone for being here. This is not easy being up here. We hear you and we want to make you happy. We can't always make you happy.

It's hard work up here. We're I'm so proud of everybody and all that we're doing. And I'm so proud of all of you being here and telling us how you feel and being so passionate and sending emails. It's hard. And I thank everyone for democracy and the city that we live in and the wholesomeness, the beauty of Mount Vernon. It's a beautiful place to live. Thank you guys. All of you, everyone, everyone in this room. Thank you. Thanks Mr. President.

Thank you. I can mention that this Saturday from 1 to 4 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church Parish House, there's a repair cafe. And that happens four times a year. We need two things. We need people who have things that are broken that need to be fixed. And we need people who fix things. And last time we had 50-some items to repair and only four of us were fixing things. So we need volunteers that come and help from 1 to 4 on Saturday. The purpose is to keep things out of the junkyards and to fix things and to make them viable again and I specialize pretty much in electricity. I fix a lot of lamps and a lot of other things with electric. But other people fix computers, they fix bikes, they do sewing. Different people have different specialties. Any specialty you have, bring it on down and help us out to repair things. That's one to four. It's 100 East High Street. It's the lower level of the parish house there at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. I'd like to thank the media for being here this evening and thank all of you for being here. That being said, I call for adjournment. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. We adjourn. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed nay. We are adjourned.