City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the 26th of January meeting of the Sanduski City Commission. An invocation we offered by Commissioner Crrael and it'll be followed by the pledge of allegiance. Lord, we come to you humbly this evening asking for your mercy, your grace, and your wisdom that we might do the very best job that we can for the citizens of this fine community. Amen. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Nowhere. [clears throat] You did great. Oh, man. Good evening, Miss Myers. Would you call the role, please? Yes, Madame President. Mr. Crabel, here. Mr. Po, here. Mr. Tucker here. Miss Vargo here. Mr. Wington here. Miss Wilson here. Mr. Coons motion. And you want a motion? Yeah, please. Motion to excuse. I motion to excuse Mr. K. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, commissioners, you've received a draft of the January 12th meeting minutes. What's your call a vote? I'm sorry. Already messing up.

Doesn't have to be roll call. You're fine. Okay. Mr. Crarabel. Hi. Mr. Pujo. Yes. Mr. Tucker. Yes. Miss Fargo? Yes. Mr. Wington? Yes. Miss Wilson? Yes. And that motion's approved. Um, commissioners, you've received a draft of the January 12th meeting minutes. What is your pleasure? Madam Chair? Yes. I move that we accept the minutes as of the January 12th meeting as presented. Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing no objection, that motion is approved.

Um, tonight we have a presentation by the Greater Suski Partnership to give us their 2025 performance report. Mr. Whoopser, welcome.

Thank you, uh, Commission President Vargo. Congratulations as well to you, uh, Commission Vice President Pujo and all the new faces on the commission. It's exciting to see you as well as, you know, old friends and familiar faces. Uh just to put in context for those of you who are new, uh we're in the midst of having completed the second year of a three-year contract that was passed by the city commission, I believe, at the end of 2023. Uh and we want to thank you for that support and really putting up with what we're in some ways growing pains of our own as we created an organization in 2024. But I think that you'll see for 2025 that we've made incredible progress and we look forward to continued partnership in the final year of the contract in 2026. Uh, I'm going to yield to McKenzie and then Matt. She's going to talk about the destination Seduski component of the contract and Matt will get into economic development. Thank you. And I I'll come back to close and answer any questions as well.

Thank you.

Hello commissioners. Welcome to the new commissioners. I'm McKenzie Spriggs. I oversee the destination suski component of our program. Um, so on the left hand side you'll notice that these are objectives related to our city contract and I'm going to go through those quickly. Um, and I guess just for a little backstory, but destination Sanduski involves programming and placemaking, marketing the downtown district and merchant services. So that's kind of the core of what we do. First up, programming. And let's start with the money because I know that's something you especially care about. Uh but we leveraged the city's $150,000 commitment [clears throat] towards destination Sanduski tound or $265,000 that was spent on activities in Sanduski centered around the course that was direct spending and staff time is not included in that cost. Um we we produced or supported 107 events in the downtown. produced means uh that we that we did it and supported means that we served on a committee, we contributed financially or we assisted in some substantial way outside of just sharing it on social media. Um we promote a lot of events and those are not factored into that 107 um activations. Some programming highlights from this year included launching the the Sundeski sunset celebration on Wednesday nights. We did that with the help of the city's public arts and culture commission. Uh we brought strongman into our downtown assisted witches walk with their two Guinness World Records [snorts] and demonstrated that we had a strong shoulder season which is helps make businesses more viable and that shoulder season is really kind of the out outside of the Memorial [clears throat] Day to

Labor Day um window. Acknowledging that Party at the Pier uh is where we spend most of the city's funds. Um, I wanted to share that it continues to have a strong attendance and following. We had 16,000 people at this year's concert and people really like to know do our residents go to that and we're really proud to say that 57% of the audience this year was local. Um, that means within 10 miles, but I also love that we have people that are coming and depositing and into our community and seeing what we have to offer. that long distance range at 20% is uh in excess of 50 miles. So nice.

I wanted to quickly deep dive into the farmers market because I think it has a pretty interesting story. Um this if so we took over the operations in 2024 with 2023 being a transition year. uh in 2023 the financials were held by the Sunduski State Theater and we managed it and when it came to us to to take it over uh 2022 was the most rough year on record. Um it was in tough financial shape many weeks there were a dozen vendors or less and they actually lost uh over five grand that year and ended with a negative balance. So we uh inserted some really strong things like strong marketing um efficient operations. We hired a new manager and made a lot of changes. Um in just this year alone we added two main things. Uh the SNAP benefits program, SNAP and Senior Benefits, [snorts] which was a longtime goal, years in the making. Uh and incorporated a brand. Um, we also saw over 150 unique vendors last year and it continues to be something that drives people into our town uh on Saturday mornings. And then I think the the last thing I want to note with this chart is that we actually had three less markets in 2025 than we did in 24, meaning that the markets per week were more profitable and more efficiently run over time. So, we're going to continue to see this grow and have some really big ideas coming in 2026. Getting into the branding and marketing piece. Um, the goal of our destination Syneski social media is multifocused. We want to highlight what's going on, talk about our businesses and the downtown being an epicenter of activity and

showcase the lifestyle of Sundeski, inviting people to move home, take pride in living here, or choose to move here. Um, in 2025, we had 8.5 million views on Facebook alone, added 6,000 uh, new followers. [snorts] And an interesting thing um, about that that I hope to share with you in this graph is that we started in in 2023 with about 8,000 followers and ended last year with over 21,000 followers. This all happened organically, so we didn't pay any meta advertising at all. and the organic nature of that is really unlike a lot of things that I've seen. Uh just showing that there's a real appetite for how we're talking about our community and and that people are excited about it. So um getting into the other metrics, we talk about uh activity related to um news and media and we all know that Tommy Boyfest was really a big hit. That's where we saw our most national attention last year. Uh that was really led uh and was the brainchild of the city staff, but we were happy to help with things like running the social media account and activating the downtown. Um we have an objective related to foot traffic in this category and foot traffic was actually down last year in the downtown. Uh but this falls in line with national trends that we're seeing everywhere and we outpaced many of our comparable cities. Um another thing to note is that Columbus Avenue was actually up from Memorial Day to Labor Day in 2025 over 2024. So just showing how the investments that you all choose to make uh deliver and we will keep monitoring the foot traffic in the downtown. And then lastly, this merchant services

uh and small business support line. We hosted four merchant meetings last year. Um in these we bring people together. We talk about highlevel priorities. What are the things we can work on? Uh we'll bring in special speakers like we had Justin Kajowski of the Point Sports Center come in and talk about how we leverage that in the wintertime last year and it's a really great opportunity to connect and build the camaraderie in downtown. um last year we also saw 14 new businesses and expansions um or expansions and that ranges from uh Lena Brow to Sora and Oak to expansions like Toast at the Sundeski Wine Merchant. Um so uh we did want to note that one of the objectives around here or in this category is working on first floor uh and filling vacant spaces. and that's going to be a huge priority that you'll see come alive in 2026. All right, Matt, moving on to you. Good evening, commissioners. Uh Matt Lasco, chief development officer uh for GSP. Uh in my role, I oversee all of our economic and housing development initiatives, including uh GSP's management of the Erie County Port Authority on behalf of the Erie County Commissioners. I also do that in collaboration with Brad Michael uh who is here uh recent hire uh at GSP overseeing uh some economic development initiatives as well uh to my work. Uh starting off uh is housing and we've got this on two slides. Uh the first slide relates to inventory and advocacy. Uh at the very top we did put four bullets uh as to what the objectives were uh for GSP as relates to the contract with the city. Uh the first one that I want to mention is a work in progress uh and will be completed by the end of 2026 is the idea of the creation of a housing inventory. This is something that we traditionally do for economic development projects whether it's

industrial commercial uh some of you may be familiar heard the term zoom prospector which is a site uh inventory for economic development uh investments. We want to do the same thing with residential buildings and plots of land. Uh this would include everything from ownership information, sales price if it's listed, acreage. In a perfect world, we'd have utility uh data related to those sites. So, we'll continue to build that out through 2026. There was also an objective uh to have five new developers that are looking and potentially investing within the region. Uh I'm happy to report uh at GSP's side that we are actively working with 12 uh developers. Uh some that are very recent to the market and most that are new to the market. Uh so of those 12 developers that are actively looking for projects within the region, six of those are new over the last 12 months. Looking at advocacy, uh there's a few things that I wanted to point out. Uh we're currently working with Erie Regional Planning and the Erie County Commissioners to try to get uh qualified for a uh residential economic development district. Uh this is a new incentive that was included in last budget bill uh that basically allows for major investments in workforce housing. There's $25 million set aside in 2026 and 2027. But the key is you've got to be in proximity within 20 miles of a mega project. That's a project that is worth $700 million of investment or will create 700 new jobs. Unfortunately, uh the state of Ohio has not selected our region as qualifying, but we actually do believe through our metal packaging and align data centers that we're actually qualified. So, we're working with uh the county and ODOD to try to get the majority of Erie County qualified for a residential economic development district. Uh secondly, I wanted to note uh and just uh mentioned as part of last budget bill as well, there's a residential development revolving loan fund. This is a $100 million fund targeting counties with

$75,000 people 75,000 people or less. Uh so this would impact Erie County, Sundowski, and the rest of our jurisdictions. But this basically allows jurisdictions to fund uh construction and infrastructure to build housing within the county and it's very flexible terms uh loans up to 15 to 30 years in length and there's no repayment for the first 24 months. So this is something that uh we're happy to to be able to bring uh in through our advocacy efforts at the state level uh to Erie County. Uh thirdly, I wanted to highlight the opportunity zones. Uh some of you are familiar with opportunity zones. These provide incentives to investors uh through tax deferment to invest in economic development projects in distressed areas. Uh through opportunity zone 1.0 uh there are two census tracks in Erie County uh that were eligible. There's one in Hiron and one in Sunduski. As part of opportunity zone 2.0 uh we're going to see a reduction in the amount of census tracks that are selected throughout the state due to population uh changes and demographic changes. But what I really want to highlight is there are eight eligible tracks in the city of Sunduski that can be designated as opportunity zones under this next round. Uh the selection process will happen in 2026. And what's really important as well is once these are selected, they're going to be in place for 10 years. Uh so this it's really really critical uh for us to be able to ensure that Sunduski is well represented throughout the state and getting one or two opportunity zones moving forward. And the attachment to housing is that 60% of the opportunity zone investments through the first seven years had a residential component. That is where investors are putting their money as we saw in opportunity zone 1.0. Uh housing projects in the pipeline. These are projects that uh GSP has been involved with on some level. Uh this is not exhaustive. Uh there are projects that have occurred uh whether it's the

Deronimo project in Vermillion Township and some other scattered site housing such as the welcome home Ohio program uh in which we're not including in these numbers. Uh but right now we're currently involved in six projects uh predominantly through the port authority uh involvement uh two in Sunduski uh Sunduski Senior Loss in Battery Park. Um, we're actually approving a capital lease for Battery Park on Wednesday, uh, hopefully through the Port Authority, uh, if they choose to approve, uh, that first phase out related to the brownfield work. We're also involved in two projects in Hiron, uh, Mudbrook right in front of, um, Thunderbird uh, golf uh, course and then the Kagra site and then two more in Vermillion. These six projects alone represent 830 units and $7 million in capital lease savings to those projects through the port authority. [snorts] Uh regional economic development, we had a really successful year in 2025. Uh this is a combination of port authority incentives but also uh those incentives that are provided through team neo and jobs Ohio. So in 2025, uh there was $238 million in capital investment through qualifying projects, 540 new jobs, uh $1,750 retained jobs, and $3.9 million in savings uh through the port authority. Of those projects, two were in Sunduski, resulting in $12 million of investment, 45 new jobs, and 160 186 retained jobs uh predominantly through Lucco and TOSS. Uh and we did I won't go through the whole uh summary, but we do have a really really robust first quarter in 2026 with two of those projects being in the city of Sunduski. Uh and then finally, this is related to small business support uh predominantly through our RISE program. Uh 52 one-on-one business advising sessions through RISE. 43 unique entrepreneurs were assisted and provided services. Of those appointments, 20 were in the city

of Sunduski. Uh and 16 unique based entrepreneurs uh were provided services through the RISE program. Uh and then finally, two businesses in the city of Sunduski were provided just under $1,300 and startup scholarships through the MBED program. Uh and those two businesses are highlighted uh at the bottom of the slide. Uh and then I will turn things back over to Eric. Uh just closing out with policy and advocacy which is also part of our contract with the city. Really just a big focus here on some of the larger initiatives that GSP has undertaken that overlap with city priorities. The first being the Sunduski State Theater. Uh everybody knows you know well aware of the story of the theater and the troubles it's had. Uh, one of the things that we did was matchmade the theater this past year with a retiring executive from Playhouse Square and actually funded him to uh, do a complete process to understand uh, what their need was, a biddable document of of rebuilding the theater from there going forward that they're actually using now and in far along conversations with the bond council and we really hope to see some positive news there soon. Uh, a route six study is something that we've been talking about for years dating back to even the time that I was working at the city. Uh the city has made incredible investments along the route 6 corridor uh including the raise grant that it shares with the county from Ry Beach Road to Cedar Point Drive. The partnership to rebuild uh the Cedar Point the Cedar Point causeway will be another key connection to that. The amazing Sesi Bay Pathway investments the county's investment in the sports center and Landing Park. Uh we also have seen greatly that traffic counts along Route 6 have gone up significantly partially due to cell phones and partially due to these great investments. There's about another 100 million plan investment with the causeway in that route six. We want to make sure that we're ready to get the right type of development on that corridor. So, that being said, the Port Authority at its last meeting passed a $75,000 matching grant for a study that

will look at putting together a development plan for that Route 6 corridor that we will help implement in. We briefed Colleen and the city on this with the county. We're not trying to we're trying to coordinate the various public stakeholders because you have four local governments that are along that just that few miles. So that's a good example of something that we're trying to get ahead of so that we see appropriate development uh that is triggered by really the great leadership of yourselves and the county on that issue. Uh finally the Suski Bay pathway. The city's been incredible leader in planning for and implementing the phases of the pathway. The vision for that has always been not to stop at the city limits but to expand. And when you look at where these are driving the most investment, uh it is worth pathways are 30 or 40 miles or longer. And so uh and and in planning the pathway was always critical that the ground zero or mile zero was right in the heart of downtown Sunduski. So as we expand that pathway to the east and west, that should continue to be hubbed out of downtown Sunduski in the city limits. So with that being said, uh we wrote a grant that was one of 14 grants funded last year federally to plan from the city's current terminus at uh is that Fremont? I can't remember the name uh all the way to Okar. So there'll be a conceptual study that will help similar to the initial uh project the conceptual plan for the Sunduski pathway in Sunduski will help tee up funding for that to be phased. We've also supported the city of Hiron and uh receiving state funding to make a connection from the Ry Beach terminus of the RAS grant to their existing pathway. So those are some examples of things that we want to coordinate and help with uh from an advocacy perspective. So with that, I'll I'll stop there. We're happy to answer any questions. Uh we are very grateful for the city's leadership and partnership and really just want to be a supportive partner to that through the work that we do in contract with the city. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Eric. Um anyone from the commission comments or questions? Yes. I I guess this could have been for McKenzie. Um you guys can come up. The phones the way we do the numbers to determine how many people are at these concerts. I know I read in the paper a couple of them that I went to it said like nearly a thousand. I thought there was 200, you [laughter] know, but [clears throat] I And then you had mentioned a while back they use telephone pings off your phones.

Yeah. Yeah. So, and I think the most attended concert this year was the menus at about 2800 people. That was also connected to the Tommy Boyfest weekend uh and the kickoff to that. But that was the most attended concert this year. Um and we do use that through cell phone data. Uh, one of the the metrics we use to track is that people are uh in downtown a certain amount of time. So, we basically measure people that are downtown for 30 minutes or more, meaning that they're not just hopping on a ferry and and going somewhere else. Just real quick,

that's through a contract with a product called Placer AI that allows us to use that cell phone data. It also allows us to track not only when they're here, but where they were before they came and where they go after they came. So you can see the economic impact even more deeply as to the restaurants and food and beverage and retail that benefits from that too. Madam chair. Yes. Um just a quick question. And I noticed on one of the earlier slides we we invest basically the uh 150,000 in in yeah

destination Suski and 150,000 in economic development. Uh on the destination Sanduski side um I noticed that you indicated that you had spent not on personnel but on actual out of pockets $265,000. How are you funding the difference? So, uh, as part of our contract with the city, we raise private revenue. So, part of the model for the greater SESKI partnership is that we want to make sure there is public investment in the economic development system, but the public sector isn't exclusively responsible for that. So, we've grown actually over the last two years our budget from about 900,000 a year combined econ. But the great news in that is that about 800,000 of that are for contracts from public entities and the other 2.2 2 million is being raised either through fees that we're able to charge through development services, through membership or sponsorship. And so predominantly for the investment we put back into destination Sunduski, it is revenue that we earn from some of the events like the farmers market, but it's largely sponsorship. So if you see you start to see more sponsored events, when we get a sponsorship from a lucco or any of those entities, that goes right back into that program. We don't put that in our pocket. We put that into the community. Madam Chair, um so in a sense you could say that the public dollars that we put in are helping to leverage some of those private funds.

Yeah. Uh in in I'm not sure maybe both ways. In the case of destination Sunduski nearly 2:1 in the case of U GSP it's 3:1. So Madam Chair. Yes. Another question. Uh I've been around for a long time Eric. So, uh, the state theater we're going to be crawling in a couple months, year six, and I've been real patient, you know, and supportive about still do hope it, you know, happens. But, uh, uh, do you have any quick thoughts as far, you know, is it going to happen, do you think, or is it

So, to Commissioner Wington, I think the state theater needs to happen. When we look at the traffic numbers in downtown, because we can go back to 2017, it's really amazing because for years, the State Theater was the largest attraction in downtown, and we haven't noticed as much what it means to be gone because there've been so much other progress downtown that the city's been a part of with the Pier and Shoreline Drive and great new businesses [clears throat] opening. But we believe when the State Theater opens, Mackenzie talked early about the shoulder seasons, the State Theater is a shoulder season business. Its busiest time is between Labor Day and Memorial Day. It will be that missing piece and it will be should be bigger and better than ever. We are impatient. We know everyone's grown impatient. Uh it was a really tangled mess that we found and and part of that consult report that Tom Einhouse did for them really demonstrated how that happened. We know they are very actively in conversations to hopefully settle that bond council and we'll have a really understanding civically of what that gap is and our hope is to sit down with the city and the county and shores and islands and the foundations and say what can we do to get this under construction ASAP and go from worried about building it to filling it with great programs and shows. I guess my uh final concern was the litigation could go on and you know I'm not an attorney or not but I talked to a lot of people

through commission w it's not actually litigation it's it's a process to uh the performance bond that's what they're hope that's where they're in the they're in the midst of deep conversations now that we're hopeful resolve themselves very soon. Okay. So Mr. Roer I was what I would say too is um something like the an entity in the state theater that helps us be the destination. Absolutely. You know, one of the things we've been fighting for so many years is we're like the stop to get to people's destinations and I know McKenzie is working very hard on that. So something like that is going to be just really critical for us to start becoming the destination.

I couldn't agree more, Commission President. When you look at those numbers for the pier, 50% local, 20% regional, 25% out of town. I think the theater mirrors those numbers, it's it's a it supports local programming, but it brings in a regional audience into the city, and it's a really special and needed entity. Any other questions or comments for GSP tonight? Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Appreciate you. Thanks.

Okay, we have audience participation at this time. If you have any comments on the agenda, anyone out there to come forward and leave your name and address. Any concerns or comments on the agenda tonight? Everybody run at once. Everybody's home staying warm. All right, so we will move on. Um, commissioners, you have several communications from staff recommending legislation. Can I get a motion to accept the communication? So moved. Second

there. There's been a motion in a second. Is there any discussion? All right. Hearing no objection, that motion is approved. Does any commissioner wish to move any consent items to the regular agenda this evening? Miss Meyers, will you please present the consent agenda?

Item A, approval of final cost for PDS, which is the professional design services agreement for West Monroe Street Rehabilitation Project with OM. Item B, approval of final costs for inspection services on West Monroe Street resurfacing project with OM. Item C, approval of sludge hauling for calendar year 2026 at Erie County Landfill. Item D, permission to execute two purchase and sale contracts for Welcome Home Ohio. Item E, approval of software contract amendment with Govwell. Item F, permission to dispose of unneeded items for fire. Item G, permission to dispose of unneeded items for fleet maintenance. Thank you, commissioners. Having heard these ordinances, what is your pleasure?

Madam Chairman, I move to accept the consent agenda A through G with the ordinances as presented with section 14 of city charter. Okay. Second. Thank you. Second. Is there any discussion? Miss Myers, will you call the role on the motion? Mr. Crrael? I. Mr. Kau. Yes. Mr. Tucker? Yes. Miss Spargo? Yes. Mr. Wington? Miss Wilson? Yes. And now, will you call the role on the ordinances? Mr. Crabel, hi. Mr. PJO, yes. Mr. Tucker, yes. Miss Fargo, yes. Mr. Wington, Miss Wilson, yes.

Okay, moving on to our regular agenda this evening. Miss Myers, will you present item number, excuse me, present item number one on our regular agenda? It is requested an ordinance be passed making general appropriations for the fiscal year 2026 and declaring this ordinance shall take immediate effect in accordance with section 14 of the city charter. This is a second reading to be passed under an emergency. Commissioners, having heard this ordinance, what is your pleasure? Madam Chair. Yes, Mr. Wington. I move for the adoption of this ordinance passed at second reading in full accordance with section 14 of city charter. Second. Thank you. Is there any discussion?

Miss Myers, will you call the role in the motion? Mr. Crabel, I. Mr. Vjo, yes. Mr. Tucker, yes. Miss Fargo, yes. Mr. Wington, yes. Miss Wilson, yes. And now we call the role on the ordinance, please. Mr. Crrael. Hi. Mr. Bou, yes. Mr. Tucker, yes. Miss Fargo. Yes. Mr. Wington. Miss Wilson? Yes.

M [clears throat] And that has that um ordinance has passed. Thank you. Um Miss Myers, we present item number two on the regular agenda. It is requested an ordinance be passed amending ordinance number 25-268 passed on November 10th, 2025 authorizing and directing the city manager to enter into an agreement for professional services with K McCartney and Associates Incorporated of Mansfield, Ohio for inspection services for the Cleveland Road Safety Improvement Project and declaring this ordinance shall take immediate effect in accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Commissioners, having heard this ordinance, what is your pleasure, Madame Chair? Yes.

I would move to approve um item two as presented in accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Is there any discussion? Miss Mars, will you call the role on the motion? Mr. Crrael? I. Mr. Poou, yes. Mr. Tucker, yes. Miss Fargo, yes. Mr. Wington, Miss Wilson, yes. Miss Mars, will you call the role on the ordinance? Mr. Crabel, hi. Mr. Bou, yes. Mr. Tucker, yes. Miss Fargo, yes. Mr. Wington, yes. Miss Wilson, yes.

Miss Mars, we present item number three on the regular agenda. It is requested a resolution be passed declaring the necessity for the city to proceed with the proposed 2026 local street resurfacing project approving the specifications and engineers estimate of costs thereof and directing the city manager to advertise for and receive bids in relation thereto and declaring this resolution shall take immediate effect in accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Commissioners, having heard this resolution, what is your pleasure? Madame Chair. Yes, Commissioner Wington. Go ahead. That's okay.

I make a motion for the adoption of this resolution under um suspension of the rules in full accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Second. Is there any discussion? Miss Myers, will you call the role on that motion? Mr. Crabel. I. Mr. Bou? Yes. Mr. Tucker? Yes. Miss Fargo? Yes. Mr. Wington? Yes. Miss Wilson? Yes. That item has passed. Um, Miss Myers, will you present item number four on the regular agenda? I'll have to call on the resolution. Yes. Mr. Crrael. Hi. Mr. Poou, yes. Mr. Tucker, yes. Miss Fargo. Yes.

Mr. Wington. Miss Wilson. Yes. Sorry about that. Miss Myers, will you um present item number four on the regular agenda? It is requested an ordinance be passed approving and authorizing the execution of an employment agreement between the city of Sunduski and John T. Orzac Jr. and declaring this ordinance shall take immediate effect in accordance with section 14 of the city charter. Commissioners, having heard this ordinance, what is your pleasure? Madame President, yes, Commissioner Craig, I would move approval of uh the ordinance under item four in full accordance with section 14 of city charter. Second. Is there any discussion?

I would just like to say um John, we're just so thankful that you're willing to stick this out with us and your leadership. Um it's always been since I've been here and and before that being a resident of the community, it's always been stellar. Um recently just coming in, all of us knew we've had some uh interesting things occur with the weather, the water, you name it. Um and your leadership um with our staff has been just second to none. So, um I look forward to the next two years with you at least and then we'll maybe talk later. But, um I'm really [laughter] I'm really excited about the future. So, I I concur with with Commissioner Fargo. Yes.

I'm probably up here at this table and stuck with I shouldn't say stuck with John, but with with John. [laughter] And one thing I do like about him, uh, the first time we sat down and met, he goes, "Sometimes, uh, I'm gonna give you bad news." And I appreciate that. You know, like if something's, uh, going to Ray, I I do appreciate that. I think your, uh, honesty is top shelf. So, you know how I feel about you. Thank you. Miss Myers, will you call the role in the motion? Mr. CrarAl, I. Mr. Bou, yes. Mr. Tucker, yes. Yes. Miss Fargo. Yes. Mr. Wington. Yes. Miss Wilson. Yes. And now with roll on the ordinance, please. Mr. Crabel. Hi. Mr. Vjo. Yes. Mr. Tucker.

Yes. Miss Fargo. Yes. Mr. Wington. Yes. Miss Wilson. Yes. That ordinance is approved. Okay. Thanks, John. All right. We are to Mr. Orzac's manager's report for the evening.

Uh thanks uh for that your trust and support. it uh really means a lot to me and uh being able to continue to work with this uh dedicated staff that we have is uh um easy. They uh have really uh step forward as you all know. Um first I have a donation from the Sunduski Parks and Recre would like to thank Toughman Equipment uh for the use of an aerial lift to take down the Christmas trees in the garland. This rental would have uh cost $1650. Get a motion to accept that donation. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Hearing no objection, that motion is approved.

Um second, I haven't I had an emergency purchase of materials and rental equipment um that was brought in last week during the water plant water intake issue. Um I authorized uh them to uh contract with Allied Technical Services for uh $72,181.50 50 cents for a 28-day period to uh rent uh necessary equipment in case we had uh more issues. Um formal legislation will be brought to the commission at a future meeting. Uh request a motion to authorize emergency purchase. So move second.

Any discussion? Hearing no objection. That motion's approved. The building division is now accepting permit applications and contractor registrations through the new permitting software system, Govwell. Contractors and individuals seeking building permits are encouraged to create an account with Govwell and enter their applications and payments online. Existing open records that were previously submitted in BSNA will be processed with BSNA, but otherwise all new records will be created in Govwell. Paper applications and inperson payments will still be accepted. Links to Govwell can be found on the city's website on the permit application page under building. The 20 26 city hall gallery exhibition entitled Journey is on display in the first floor hallway at city hall. An exhibition opening event will be held on Thursday, February 5th from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. to invite the artist and community to view the exhibit and discuss public art in the city. Residents have until Friday, January 30th to fill out the housing survey as part of our housing development accelerator. Visit www.c cityofski.com/housing accelerator to complete the survey. Uh finance uh department, they uh have a deadline to file 2025 municipal income tax returns by April 15, 2026. All individuals and businesses can utilize the regional income tax agency's website at www.reda.com to file their taxes. Um, for code enforcement, I have a little lengthy one. Um, we uh just for the new commissioners, we uh have to post a couple different things in the uh local media and an ad and uh that's part of our process in our ordinance. So the annual notification has been published in the Sunduski register to comply with section 53108 of the codified ordinances of Sunduski. The ordinance requires the

owner or occupants having the care or any lot or land within the city to cut down and remove all noxious weeds and grass of a height of 8 in or more. Properties found in violation ordinance section 531.08 8 will be served with a one-time written notice pursuant to section 53109 advising them of the violation. This notice will further advise that all weeds grass of a height of 8 in or higher must be cut down and removed. Fair to comply with this notice within 5 days from receipt um will result in the city causing such weeds and grass to be cut and removed. Such cutting and removing shall be at the owner's expense. Voluntary cooperation by all property owners is appreciated. And second, the annual notification has been also published in the city in the Sunduski register to comply with section 955.15 of the codified oranges of Sunduski. Containers within which solid waste, garbage refuge, and or other discarded materials or recyclables have been deposited may be placed upon a curb for curbside collection no earlier than 6:00 p.m. from April 1st through September 30th and no earlier than 400 p.m. from October 1st through March 31st on evening prior to the scheduled collection of said materials. and any such materials or containers which remain after said collection shall be removed from the curb no later than 800 PM on the date of said collection. Properties found in violation of ordinance 955.15 which is found to have any garbage, trash, debris, or other refugees in or on the boulevard or public rightway shall be declared a nuisance and may be immediately abated so long as an annual notice is published in a newspaper of general circulation for the city of Sunduski. Concludes that report. Um, I do have some comments um, quickly. Um, as you all know, our staff responded very quickly and worked several days around the clock to manage a very unusual

situation for our water plant. Um, I want to thank our water plant staff, the Sunduski Fire Department, public works crews, administration team, and other city employees from various departments for their dedication and resolve during extremely challenging situation. Watching the team effort and working toward a common goal was something that sticks out during the crisis. Uh the employees of the city work together for several days to achieve success. As an update, the water plant has been on a combination of lake and bay water uh intake since last Tuesday um without any interruption. Also want to thank Erie County for their cooperation and support in getting emergency approval from the Ohio EPA to use Sheldon's Marsh intake as an emergency source of water. The Erie County Commissioners and John Rofo and his team were in constant communication with city staff over the course of several days. Uh the intake is not currently permitted for regular regular use, but it is being used on a temporary basis to provide an additional source of raw water during the event. Um also uh thank city of hearing leadership and team also work collaboratively with uh us during the event sharing information and challenges that they were also facing. Um local business tough man operated by Mark and Mike Spear uh went above and beyond. Um they sent two trucks down to Lime Ohio to obtain a pump and um uh water uh uh intake pipes for us uh during that challenging time. and uh they're great their efforts were greatly appreciated. Um, additionally, I'd like to thank our residents and business owners um who reduce water when asked. That cooperation played an important role in helping protect the system. Um, we made uh about 12 or 15 phone calls to high-end users of water from businesses. Um, they were all very supportive and understanding. Um, also, uh, uh, what stood out with Cedar Point, um, they,

uh, saved us a million gallons of water by, uh, lowering their water, uh, tower down for 24-hour period. So, um, all those businesses, businesses, leaders, and, uh, organizations that helped out, we greatly appreciate it. Um, another incident that I wanted to note uh to the public uh that got some press, but um there was an apartment complex on Milan A that um experienced uh their uh um suppression system in the attic uh had burst and um they had flooding in that um apartment complex. Um the fire department police and police officers waited through water and uh assisted um elderly folks from getting out of there. Sunduski Transit um responded and um took those residents to um a local hotel um at the expense of the property owner. But um the efforts of the uh police department and fire part department personnel during that time was um uh greatly appreciated and uh they did an outstanding job. And then lastly, um the street department crew there. Uh there's a whole slew of uh staff over the last two weeks that have been working uh 12-hour shifts and uh rotating in and out. And um I would say that our streets are comparable to uh any in the area. Um our our staff has done a tremendous job um with that. Um and I want to uh recognize any of those employees that were out and about uh doing that over the last weekend then especially over uh the last 24 48 hours. So uh that concludes my report. I'm not happy to take any questions that you might have.

Commissioners, any comments or or questions for Mr. Orzac, Madam President? Yes, sir.

Um, I'd just like to piggyback on what Mr. Orzac just said and thank a lot of people from water services and public works. I I know Bill Burch um who's the superintendent of water services uh spent a lot of time battling the ice and the water. I know he missed at least one of his son's basketball games um with all the hours he put in in addition to a lot of other family time. Other folks who were really important and um spent a lot of time helping with this issue were Scott Cromer, Matt Wilson, Brian Klene, Don Bennett, Joe Ritzener, Megan Stookie, Chief Demo, uh his Sunduski Fire Department divers. I I know that's not everybody, so I I apologize for the names I'm missing, but I wanted to at least thank those folks because I know they all went above and beyond for our city and to keep our water running.

Thank you, President. Thank you. I concur. I I was just uh enthralled uh by the the way everybody jumped in on this. Uh not that it would I I'm not surprised. I It's just very very heartening to see it happen. Um it just a job so well done by so many people. Thank you very very much to staff. Anybody else? Agree with all that said. Thank you Commissioner Ditto.

Thank you Commissioner Wilson. [laughter] The collaboration was incredible. I mean from everyone even outside of our our city proper which is pretty amazing for for for once finally. And then the communication. I [clears throat] heard so many people come up to me and say the communication was spot on. So Tom Horseman back there in the back taking directions hopefully up here from everybody. You did a great job um with communications coming from what needed to be said. So um I think the community felt um pretty good. There's always a couple naysayers, but we just deal with that. So um for the majority of people were happy. So that was was really amazing. So hopefully we get a little break all of this cold weather. As a reminder, the warming center is is available um through Thursday. Um if you know anyone um in the public out there that needs to have a place to go um please take a look at our website and you'll get information about that. So that's really important as well right now with this this cold temperature. Again, no school tomorrow. So,

all right, Madam President, if I if I could, I I completely forgot uh to mention one group that I think is um it was just uh really great to see. [clears throat] Pardon, pardon my voice, please. Um and that is we had tremendous cooperation with the county um county personnel, county, elected officials um and and we're very very grateful for that support as well.

Okay, thank you. All right, moving on. Does any commissioner have any old business? [snorts] Any new business? I do have some new business. Um, first I need uh we have a couple new appointments tonight to um our our tree commission. Um I need a a motion to appoint the following vacant seats. Michael Hensley and Christopher McKenzie to the tree commission. So move second. Any discussion? [snorts] Miss uh Myers, will you call the role on that, please? Mr. Crrael, hi. Mr. Poe, yes. Mr. Tucker, yes. Miss Fargo, yes. Mr. Wington, Miss Wilson, yes.

And then I need a motion. Um, I sent all the commissioners the reappoints of the members of the boards and commissions. I need a motion uh for that this evening. So moved. Second. Any discussion? M, will you call the role on that too as well, please? Mr. Crabel, I. Mr. PJO, yes. Mr. Tucker, yes. Miss Fargo, yes. Mr. Wington, Miss Wilson. Yes.

And then the last thing I just wanted to bring up, and I I'm not going to go into detail about it tonight because I really wanted um Commissioner Coun to be here and we did receive a text and he is unwell, but he will be hopefully better and we send him um well wishes, so he feels better um soon. [clears throat] but he has a lot to offer as well around just our transparency around boards and committees for the future and things we're going to make sure we're doing to make sure everyone in the community understands our process for vacancies um for our commissions and boards. But I'm not going to go into that because he has um some great comments and some things he's going to do. So, I'm going to wait till the next meeting till he returns um to talk about that. Um any other new business? All right. Is there anybody out there tonight? audience participation, open discussion on anything. Come forward, state your name and your address and let us hear your comments.

Just before I check out,

my name is Timothy P. Work, 18/19 West Jefferson Street here in Sunduski. Uh, and my comments tonight are I want to first thank you all for serving on this commissioner on the commission and listening to my concerns and I think I believe I feel like you're all very clear, professional and honest and for that I'm very grateful in the admin administration of city business. I'm a citizen taxpayer of the cities and dusky state of Ohio and the United States. Today I feel like I'm in a state of shock, semi-shock, as I'm sure many others are after viewing the horrific images and events leading to the killing of innocent US citizens by federally armed forces in Minnesota and elsewhere. What is occurring is my deepest fear coming true. 1930s Germany. As a lifelong resident of Sunduski, I am deeply disturbed and fearful for my own life, for my family members, some of who have brown skin, and for all my brothers and sisters safety when exercising our constitutional rights and duty when protesting. We're now even filming. So I am looking for some direction assurance of document documentation of our city's law enforcement policy when Sunduski citizens may find themselves interacting with ICE agents, border agents or whoever shows up with some type of tactical gear. My question is at the bottom line, I suppose, who is who will the Suski Police Department defend the supposed federal agents in unmarked vehicles with no warrant, with no ID, masked, armed, untrained, no regard for the law, thugs, or me and my

family and friends. With all due respect, a lot there. I know this is a totally unprecedented situation, but I feel it needs to be united as community that we need to be community. We need to be united as a community to prevent more tragedies and I feel personally I would have done the same thing as Alex Pretty and he's dead. And rest in peace Alex and Nicole. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I think I will ask for a motion to adjurnn. So moved.